They were both tall and had similar muscular physiques due to their enhancements, but their personalities couldn’t have been more different. While Gabriel had always been reserved, Harris was friendly and approachable. He had a loud, appealing laugh that had the ability to make people smile, and officers tended to feel comfortable around him. While he had no problem being the center of attention, his jovial nature often made people underestimate him. His canny eyes and sharp intellect had allowed Harris to move up in the ranks, but he lacked the ambition and the desire to go any higher.
“Glad I caught up with you,” Harris huffed out. “I’d just gotten home when I received Nina’s message. Man, today was a long one. I thought I had it rough covering the scheduled meetings today, but you look like serious shit.”
“Thanks.”
Harris chuckled. “Sorry. I just meant you look really tired. I should have cancelled the meetings and gone with you to help with the rollout.”
“That just means I would have twice as much crap to deal with tomorrow. I can’t believe the rollout plan was such a mess.”
For weeks, Gabriel and those under his command had offered to help with whatever was necessary to make the cure distribution go smoothly. Their offers had been rebuffed at every turn. While he gave Hart Pharmaceuticals credit for wanting to make sure everyone who needed the cure received the treatment regardless of their status, trying to launch such an important initiative without any Alliance assistance had just been foolish.
He had been proven right when a stupid decision made by the Hart Pharmaceuticals representative in charge of the cure distribution had caused a riot. The shady, selfish asshole had cared more about making sure his friends and important contacts received the cure before everyone else, so he had chosen to move them all to the front of the line.
When dozens of citizens and Alliance officers had shown up for their appointments to find that they had been canceled without notice, people had been pissed. The representative had tried to issue a half-assed apology claiming a simple mix-up, but that had just made the crowd even more angry. Thankfully, Gabriel had sent officers to monitor the situation, and they had kept the peace until he had arrived.
It had taken some time, but they had calmed the crowd down and restored order. The people had even cheered when Gabriel had given the idiot a well-deserved verbal ass kicking, but he hadn’t stopped there. He’d also contacted the acting head of the company, who had personally arrived to get everything back on track. After firing the representative who had screwed up, she’d made sure everyone who had originally made appointments received the cure.
“Too bad Luke is still on Xenthian,” Harris commented. “If he were back here running Hart Pharmaceuticals, none of this shit would have happened.”
Since Lucas Brighton, the owner of Hart Pharmaceuticals, had also been an Alliance commander, Gabriel was sure he would have accepted their offer to help with the rollout. However, Luke had recently mated the Xenon who had helped develop the infertility cure. Now, they were back on her home world doing whatever blissfully happy couples did instead of dealing with the day-to-day bullshit that came with running a corporation. He wasn’t sure if they ever planned on coming back to Earth.
“Luke would have also made sure to open more than one distribution center here in the Capital. Thankfully, the woman he left in charge agreed that they needed more sites to keep up with demand. I just finished helping her set up agreements with several Alliance medical centers. They will start taking appointments and administering the treatment tomorrow.”
“That’s good. People are hopeful, and you can feel a new energy in the city. That being said, there is talk about people holding protests outside the Hall of Regents starting next week.”
Gabriel shot him a look. “You didn’t mention this to me when we spoke earlier.”
“You were already having a shit day, and there is nothing to be done about it yet.” Harris paused as a couple walked by them, waiting until they were alone to speak again. “With the infertility problem eliminated, we knew people would start to question the need for martial law. Females will also want the freedom to choose their partners instead of simply being claimed by a pair of male elites.”
Gabriel and Harris were dedicated elites, but that didn’t mean they didn’t question some of the rules and regulations they lived by. Even so, the Alliance wasn’t just a simple construct. It was a multifaceted government institution…and altering that system wouldn’t be easy.
“Everything is going to change now, whether people want it to or not.”
Harris lowered his voice. “I know we’ve had some officers working on a proposal we can present to the regents, but we aren’t going to be able to keep quiet if people start protesting in the streets.”
Gabriel sighed. “Regent Marks contacted me a little while ago. He wants us to meet with the council tomorrow to explain what happened today.”
“Oh, fuck him. Why can’t they let us do our damn jobs and—”
“Relax. I spoke to Jax. He assured me he would get Marks and the others who were demanding answers to back off until we’re ready to meet with them.”
Harris huffed out an irritated breath. “I’m glad, but this micromanaging bullshit is getting really fucking annoying.”
Since his friend already knew how Gabriel felt about the council’s interference, he didn’t bother voicing his agreement. Instead, he muttered, “Let’s get this over with so we can go have a drink.”
“One drink, then you need to get some sleep. You really do look like shit.”
“Thanks, buddy.”
They fell silent as they made their
