To Restore Destroyed.

Marcus felt something clench inside him. Elena's words pressed hard on his chest. "It's out of the question. It's too dangerous," he snapped.

"We have an apocalypse coming. How much more dangerous can it be?" Daniel objected.

"The fact of the matter is that this is not a simple apocalypse. What you know from Nick's words is not completely correct information. You know about the consequences, but you do not know the reason."

Marcus took his phone out of his pocket and made a call, "Simon, are you at the base?... You have a laptop with access to satellites? Put it somewhere, I'll rent it for a while... Now... Got it. Are there no strangers around?... Ok, I'll return it when we're done."

The man hung up, closed his eyes, and made several passes with his hand in the air. A matte black laptop of an unknown company appeared on the table.

"Damn it! Hey, maybe you can do that too?" Daniel looked at his brother with enthusiasm, "I don't have to fly to London to pick up gifts for Sean. It's a nano delivery!"

David just rolled his eyes in response. Well, he'd rather not try it. Knowing their mother, if neither of her sons comes to visit at least once every three months, she herself will descend here for three months.

"Boy, it took me fifty years to train this skill," Marcus said casually as if he was talking about days, not years. "My son-in-law is a capable guy, but the troubles are not worth it."

"Don't call me that," David kept an eye on Marcus's movements. This little electronic thing in the hands of his 'father-in-law' was very attractive. He would not mind digging into it.

"Tsk, like father, like son," Marcus shook his head, making it clear that he had Andersons somewhere between babies and teenagers. He entered a password on the display that David had intelligently memorized. Marcus grinned.

Several graphs with points and curves were displayed on the monitor, their meaning was clear only to the owner of the laptop.

"This data shows the electromagnetic state of the Earth's upper troposphere over the last month," Marcus turned the laptop so that the screen was visible to everyone.

"This curve is far from positive," David focused on other indicators and indices, the names of which seemed familiar to him.

"What are these red dots?" Daniel practically touched the screen, but Marcus slapped his hand.

"Easy, boy! Or are you planning to give us a nuclear winter ahead of time?"

"What?" elder Anderson blinked in confusion.

"These are the access to nuclear charges, that's what it is," Marcus turned the window on the monitor to another page. It depicted the planet Earth in volumetric format, with markings across the entire surface.

Daniel narrowed his eyes to see the moving dots, and the next second his eyes widened, "Do you have access to nuclear weapons?!"

"Yeah."

"Of... Wh-which country?"

"Of all countries," Marcus brushed an invisible speck of dust off his shoulder.

"Elena," Daniel swallowed, "Your father is a frightening person."

Judging by the woman's reaction, she took these words as a compliment.

"Don't you think hijacking military satellites is too much?" David asked, but Marcus just shrugged.

"Too much is leaving such a weapon without adequate control in a critical situation," explained Taubert, "I don't know what exactly will happen. More precisely, I did not know. Judging by Nick's recollections, it will be hot in the worst case scenario."

David was skeptical about this position, "So you, then, will adequately control it?"

"I really hope I don't have to do this," Marcus said earnestly. "This is for insurance. By the way, all the access codes are in the documents that I gave you yesterday. If you bothered to look at them, you would be aware."

"I don't accept them, you can take your gift back," David refused.

"Come on, this is the most generous gift Santa can get," Marcus's wide smile was openly mocking.

Taubert noticed Daniel's silent question and added, "Congratulations. Since yesterday, your brother is the rightful owner of Marc Technologies."

This news widened the eyes not only of David but also of those who were sitting next to him. Nick and Armand stared blankly at Marcus. Is he serious?

"By the way, Daniel, you can ask your brother for access to the data of the lab where our chips are made. I'm sure you will find a lot of interesting things there," Marcus knew which strings to pull, and hit the bull's eye.

"What is this marathon of unheard-of generosity? Why all of a sudden to do so?" Daniel tried to keep calm, but inside the mad scientist rejoiced, before whom the doors of the scientific Eldorado were about to open.

Marc Technologies' inventions were at an exorbitant level, and everyone recognized it, regardless of their personal attitude towards Taubert.

Marcus glanced at his daughter, then at David, "Think of it as of my wedding gift. Well, or as Elena's dowry. Or you can come up with a reason for yourselves if you need it to calm your hearts."

"To calm conscience would be a better way to put it," David retorted, "I am not inspired by owning a company, which so easily turns people into puppets."

Marcus held on to Anderson's judgmental gaze and did not appear to be suffering from pangs of conscience. "This depends on which side to look at. According to Amelia's visions, people's emotions, thoughts, and actions form the planet's energetic protective dome. Which, to our regret, has practically disappeared.

The impact of the flash next week is just a consequence of the absence of this dome. If we combine the information that Elena told me and what Amelia told me, then the conclusion is as follows: our dear blue planet has set itself the goal of getting rid of the pests that inhabit it. And if this does not work out for it, then its owner will come and decide this issue himself.

So, Daniel, do you still want to ask the mighty god for help?"

Everyone stared at Marcus for additional ironic comment, but Taubert was silent and looked unusually serious.

"This is the first time I've heard of this." Not that Nick would not believe Marcus, judging by the ease with which the man folded all his cards, but this information greatly changed all the ideas that the guy had before.

"As you can see, Sean is not with us today either, so he won't hear about it." Taubert's answer was simple: if you did not hear, then you were simply not informed about it. Who would share this with a five year old?

"Then why do you need all this? Chips and everything else?" Nick began to compare what he knew with new data. And he didn't like it, as it was causing confusion in his soul. The goal that had been driving him all this time was gradually blurring under the wave of unexpected circumstances.

"Oh, in fact, everything is simple here," Marcus threw his hands behind his head and leaned back on the back of the sofa like a well-fed cat, "We will take from every person who has a chip, the required amount of energy, collect it and restore the dome. With this outcome, the flash will be harmless to us. Bam- that's all. They lived happily ever after."

"Is it possible?" Daniel could not even imagine how much energy was being spoken of, "If the dome is a consequence of human emotions, then a person must restore it."

Marcus smiled enigmatically, "Well, what am I for?"

"Yes, you're definitely completely out of your mind! Are you going to let the energy flow of seven billion people pass through you?!" Armand exploded. It was pure suicide! "Rick had three chips, and we all know how he is doing now! And that's seven fucking billions, Marcus!"

Taubert lazily stretched, ignoring Armand, blazing with anger, "Oh, come on, brother. Unlike Rick, I have one big advantage. I am immortal. And there should be some benefit from this nuisance."

"Benefit?! BENEFIT?!"

This was the first time Nick had seen Armand so pissed off.

"Ha, now everything is clear to me! So you planned to save the whole world at the cost of your own life?! Decided to become a national hero?!"

"You know what? That's quite a pleasant prospect," nodded Marcus, "We already have one like this in our family. True, not without my help, but these are just details." Taubert nodded to David, hinting at events six years ago when Greenline Inc. created a vaccine along with Lee Pharmaceuticals, for which they received every possible award at that time.

"You can die!"

"God, Armand, what's with so much drama?" Marcus donned a mask of indifference. That is why he did not want to let others into his plans, as he expected such a reaction. "We've all died once. Well ... except for Daniel... Ok, Nick's half dead. And, as you can see, we ended up quite all right. Why are you so fired up? For that matter, everyone in this room wanted to kill me at least once."

"This is completely different!" Armand was not happy with this outcome of the situation.

Marcus got up from the sofa, buttoned his jacket and straightened his back, "You seem to have forgotten, Armand, that my wife found you homeless on a bench in the park. Remember why you ended up there? So there is no need to judge my actions."

Marcus's words hit Armand's old scars hard. Eighty years of agony and loneliness, where the mind retained only the memories of the beloved woman, were like hell. This was not life. Just a mere existence.

"I'm tired," Marcus said dryly. The man slammed the laptop lid and took it in his hands, "The meeting is over. Merry Christmas."

His last words were hanging in the air for a few more seconds when Marcus himself had long since disappeared.

____

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