Chapter 327
Labels are hard. Once there are enough similarities for them to be assigned to you, it's usually too late. I didn't need a PR consult to know the Nursery had an optics issue. It was on my list of problems to fix—issue was, the list was itemized by importance, hence 'optics' on a part of my life no one out of the loop knew about was pretty far down the list.
And now it was too late.
Miles followed me up the walkway at a healthy distance, giving the perfectly manicured lawn a dubious look as he took care to keep off it. "This where you keep your landscapers?"
I walked backwards for a moment, about to make an off-handed comment, before actually taking it in. The grass really was pristine. It almost had to be system related. "Just taking a guess, but it's probably someone's pet project."
Miles' brows dove downward on a collision course. "Still not picking up on what you're putting down."
There was no point in delaying any further. "As you've probably put together, subjugation is my bugbear ability. Taken on its own, from a purely rational standpoint, it's insanely powerful. But..."
"The capacity for abuse is off the chain," Miles filled in. "And from what I gathered, it can potentially make anyone you happen to use it on a loose end, if they don't like what you forced them to do."
"That was my interpretation as well. Of course, as we both know, the system loves to leave things out." I fished the key for the deadbolt out of my inventory and paused at the door. "Good news is, the loose end thing isn't a problem. If I order someone to do something they abjectly hate, they don't do much other than go far out of their way to avoid me. From testing, it's more reflexive than intentional."
"Great," Miles said, in the sort of tone that implied he couldn't give less of a shit. "And the bad news?"