Barging into Ukrit's office was becoming a frustrating habit. This time Martha waited for the door to slide shut before starting her tirade. She felt foolish as she stood by the door, even more so when she realised she was some distance from Ukrit, standing on the opposite side of the room. Her British ancestry came to the fore, meaning her anger dissipated, replaced instead with embarrassment. Never having known Britain existed, she put this down to some hereditary character flaw. After a few 'ums' and 'ahs', she settled on a weak, "you know why I'm here."

She cursed herself, realising she should have made her way to the desk whilst she spoke. Ukrit liked Martha, liked her spirit, that was what made mentoring her such a joy. But he had to admit, at that moment, he loved watching her squirm. A smile played across his lips, one that only annoyed Martha more. Now she took her opportunity, striding forward, anger in her voice, "you voted to kill them all." She had no evidence, the data from the vote was kept secret, they just had a final decision within an email. Usually it would be told to them in a board meeting, but Kendra had wisely wanted to avoid the uproar, and therefore was giving them a day or so to come to terms with the decision.

Martha was at the desk, she was about to slam her fists down but flashbacks of the previous encounter jumped through her mind and she saw the futility of it.

"We both know that isn't true," Ukrit commanded her to believe.

Now almost a whimper, Martha replied, "well explain it to me then."

"It's Kendra, she's fixed the vote."

"What? She wouldn't..."

"Wouldn't she?" Martha had annoyed herself by defending her boss, it was exactly the sort of thing Kendra would do. "You will have worked out that the silent partners will not vote for such change, they see slavery as vital to the progress of their empire. I know you will have voted to keep the slums, so that leaves Casper and me. I can't fully speak for Casper, although I am pretty sure, but I voted to redevelop the slums. Even without Casper that is more than half the vote. Either she has paid off Derik and Fatir or found some way to rig the data."

"If only we had known, we could have got to them first." Ukrit look sheepishly back. Martha burned with a bright flame, like a match had been struck and thrown into petrol. "You knew," she shouted.

"No," Ukrit was still calm, "but I very much expected."

"Then why didn't you stop it?!" Martha's hands were clenching, she felt the sudden urge to punch something. Pacing back and forth, she tried to distract herself, stop herself from doing something rash.

"Because I need to know how she did it."

"HOW," Martha screamed, "if it's wrong, it's wrong, you should just have stopped it."

Ukrit gave her a few moments to calm down before replying, "take a seat, let me tell you a story of my past." He stood up and ushered her to a seat at the side of the desk. As she sat there brooding, not wanting to listen but knowing Ukrit deserved that courtesy, he tapped his watch a few times. A machine sparked into life, it was a small cylinder with an opening to the front at the bottom, a belt moved and a mug spun into position from some secret hiding hole inside the machine. With a few beeps a hot, pungent, brown liquid squirted into the cup. Once the task was complete, a second mug appeared and filled with the same liquid. The smell permeated the room, giving an instant calming sensation, memories of long nights and early mornings only made bearable by its existence. Ukrit collected the mugs, gave one to Martha and sat down.

As she sipped the coffee, with the caffeine both calming her and giving her an energy boost, Ukrit started his story. "Did you ever hear of the Dunbas trial?"

"No," Martha snapped back.

"Didn't think so, it was so many years ago, so well hidden from the public."

The look on Martha's face was that of a sullen teenager, frustrated and easy to read. It told Ukrit she did not believe a word he said, that she just wanted to leave this room.

He ignored her thoughts and continued, "before you worked for this company, there was some civil unrest. A group calling themselves R4S, or Rights for Slums." Martha's eyebrows raised, "I know, it's not a good name. Anyway, they protested. Peacefully at first, but then, as Princips did not listen, they got more radical. You remember the Roger's power disaster?"

Martha shifted in her seat, that was ancient history from her childhood, something she only had a vague memory off. "Yeah, an explosion at a power plant just outside the city."

"How often do you think solar panels explode?"

"Well, not often."

"Precisely, strange as well that it happened when there was hardly anyone there, that no-one go injured."

"Well, the automated system probably went wrong, they didn't have an engineer to fix it."

"No, that was no accident, it was a bomb." Martha sat upright, spilling a little of her coffee. She ignored the singe of pain on her leg as Ukrit piqued her curiosity. He smiled back, now he had her, now he would win back her trust. "You see, there was a mole in the company. Someone that gave R4S information, someone Princips never found." Ukrit paused, not fully ready to divulge the details, he settled on a question, "do you want to know who it was?" Martha sat dumbstruck, like a child who had been told that Santa Claus is not real. As if she were little more than a gossip monger she nodded. "It was me."

"What?" she said in awe, as if this was a secret she had been yearning for. A few minutes ago she did not know the event was an attack, could barely remember it even.

"You see, when you were young there were many people who wanted to strip Princips bare, reveal what the company was really like. All were silenced. The most famous of these were the Dunbas brothers, the leaders and creators of R4S. They perpetrated many attacks, tried to provoke Princips into doing something that would show their true colours, something the people would be appalled at, and therefore revolt."

"Why did they start blowing things up?" Martha interjected, sounding offended.

"The same reasons as other radicals, peaceful protesting is all well and good, but it does not get results, it is easy to brush aside. Most of the populace thought it was just a bunch of silly hippies. Anyway, this is not the most important part." Ukrit paused again, not wanting to reveal his part in history. He breathed out heavily and, like struggling to move a ten tonne weight from his chest, said, "I was part of R4S until it collapsed, I was their inside man." He did not wait for Martha's reaction, he had opened up, no reason to stop now. "I am not proud of what they did, but I fed them information, gave them targets, made sure no-one was hurt. But no matter what we did, Princips found a way to spin the truth, or hide the acts from the people. We needed a way to get deeper inside, that is why I decided to become a director."

"You've been living a lie? But you could have stopped so much already, made a change, kept the resistance alive." Martha was getting angry again.

"If only it were that simple. You see, a little after the Roger's bombing the Dunbas brothers were caught. They were brought in, but," Ukrit paused again, Martha almost detected a tear in his eye, "there was no trial, they were deemed too dangerous. I was there, sitting in the room as they died. Princips made it a spectacle, a chance for employees to see what happened when you crossed the company. It was all the brainchild of the new CEO, the youngest CEO Princips had ever had. I think you know her well." As Ukrit's eyes dampened, Martha's feelings turned from anger to sorry. He had been there for her so many times, he had supported her, never had he given away the torment he felt inside. "They stared into my eyes as it happened, as the injections went in their arms. They, young men who had trusted me. I wanted to say something, to stop it happening, but that look, it told me to be still, to hold on, not to destroy what we had started. From that day I decided that I would not let innocent lives be lost, I would not watch my friends die again. I have worked for so many years for this, to bring down the system. Martha, we are so close, but we need to be careful, one false move and we lose everything, everything we have been fighting for."

The conversation stopped as the passion of the speech washed over them. Then, as if they were somehow connected mentally, the tension became too much, and both Martha and Ukrit burst into tears.