| Bishop stared at Abbott with a slowly increasing sensation of dismay.
He'd had what he'd thought was a wonderful plan, truly inspired, for once
they'd acquired the Item. It had quickly become obvious to him that the
only possible application this device could have would be for spying on
Americans.
After all, Greg had told him that the Russian codes were based on an entirely
different system than the US ones. It would be useless on them. And it
was thus obvious to Bishop, at least, that this thing did
not belong
in the NSA's hands. No, it belonged in the hands of someone who would use
it for the right purposes. Someone like... Well, not too be too
modest about it, someone like Martin Bishop. Hence his plan (which he had
naturally not discussed with these strange interlopers): to obtain the
item, replace it with a non-working duplicate for the NSA and keep the
original for themselves.
Only things hadn't gone to plan, obviously. Now these weirdos had the
Item, there was no duplicate, and the NSA was here on his doorstep. Bishop
wasn't sure just how to deal with this, but the one thing he did
know was that the NSA could not be trusted with this thing.
So he squared his shoulders, looked straight at Abbott, and told him
so. "It doesn't belong to you," he said. "And not only that, it
doesn't belong in your hands. You and I both know, that the only thing
this box would really be good for is spying on Americans. And I'm not going
to let you have it." He felt faintly surprised at himself, even as he said
it.
Abbott gave him a rather frustrated look. "I told you, I'm not a member
of the cabal."
"The stress analyzer did back him up on that one, Bish," Carl chimed
in "helpfully."
"Shut up, Carl." He continued staring at Abbott. "It doesn't matter
if you're a member of the cabal or not. You can't be trusted with this,
and I'm not letting it into your hands."
"Oh?" said Abbott. "And whose hands does it belong in, then?
Yours?
You're a criminal, Martin Brice, and I have a duty to my country
to see that people like you don't have this kind of power, either!"
-
 Bishop
and Abbott stood there, glaring at each other. Unless the NSA folks wanted
to resort to violence, it looked like a standoff...
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