What Was Said

He had done the presentation and asked if there were any questions, and he took a few and answered them perfectly. He knew his presentation had been close to perfect; he didn't know how not to aim for total perfection, but he knew others were not as conscientious in their work. He only had one way to do it.

Presentation over, and his talk was the last one, so the panel now had to evaluate and decide which one would be chosen to go forward.

He decided to go to the toilet to freshen up. He wondered why others, especially Americans, referred to it as a bathroom or restroom. There was never a bath and seldom a shower, and he never regarded it as a place to rest.

As he walked past the room where the panel were sitting around the table, he could see them through the round window in the door and could hear them, and he heard his name mentioned.

"The last was by far the best presentation, but we can't give him the contract, we said it was going to your mate, even though he can hardly string a sentence together. What we will do is take the last guy's material and put your mate's name on it, then take your mate's material and put the last guy's name on it. When we tell him he failed and he asks for feedback, we will tell him his presentation was ok, but there were several better than his, he will be ok with that, I am sure"

That was followed by agreements, laughter, and possibly a champagne bottle being uncorked.

This contract was worth a lot of money, because it was for a new nerve gas, which was like a tiny mace spray and could incapacitate the victims very quickly.

They were planning to screw him over so that one of their mates would get the contract. Of course, it would fail because he did not put everything into the material he shared with them, and he was not going to let them get away with this. There were others that he could take to, a little less trustworthy, but he had trusted this lot, and they had just shown that they could not be trusted.

He took one of the sprays from his pocket and sprayed it through the keyhole in the door until the spray was empty. He looked through the window and saw them all spasming, and bleeding from their ears, noses and mouths, and one guy's eyes were bleeding too.

The nerve gas was very powerful, and it was unlikely that they would survive, or if they did, they would have lost much of their cognitive abilities. They would not be taking anyone else for a ride, as they tried with him.

He wondered who their mate was, but the mate would not be getting that contract, because he put on his mask and walked into the room and put all the material into his carry case.

When he had the stuff he made his way to the rear of the building; he could not risk being seen to leave, but he had to get out before his attack on the panel was discovered.

He would have to assume another identity in order to sell his nerve gas invention once more. This had been the first attempt, but he hoped that the next one would be less violent and more successful.

After all, when you are selling destruction, it means that your market for your product was limited.

But he was confident that he would soon be making a sale.