One by one, we press the rest of the activation buttons and each man around the table begins to act in a similar way.
A fierce joy ignites within me. "Here we go. It's starting."
The man's discomfort slowly morphs into panic. He tugs at his shirt, his breathing accelerating. The toy buzzes relentlessly, driving him mad from the inside out.
Across the room, his compatriots exhibit the same dismay. They clutch at themselves, faces contorting. One by one, Brick's genius plan unfolds.
I glance at Brick, my lips curving.His eyes glitter with that sadistic gleam I've come to adore. Tane's men have no idea what's about to hit them. But we do. And we're ready.
The men's confusion shifts to alarm as the vibrations intensify. Their muted discomfort transforms into outright panic under the harsh fluorescent lights.
"Something's wrong!" one exclaims, beads of sweat dotting his brow. "I'm...I'm vibrating!"
I lean forward, pulse racing. "They're realizing it's not just in their heads."
“Okay, now increase the intensity.”
I observe as he taps on the second button on one of the remotes, until it reaches its maximum. The corresponding henchman starts to writhe around in his chair, horror written on his face.
Tane looks on as we crank the remaining remotes and his top-ranking men all start dancing around.
“Wha-what in the world?” I ask.
“Good vibes only!” Brick yells, cackling with glee as the remaining men jump from their seats.
They’re clawing at themselves now.
“What’s that buzzing noise?” Tane yells. “Control yourselves, men!”
“These GPS chips you had us install, they’re buzzing! Mine’s buzzing inside me!”
Some of the men start clawing at their arms.
“GPS chips?” Tane asks, confusion painted on his face which is turning an infuriated shade of red. "What the hell are you talking about?"
“The ones you had us go get at the woo-woo shop,” the spokesperson pants as he grates his fingers over himself in a desperate attempt to remove the buzzing situation.
“Huh?” Tane doubles down on his confusion. “The 'woo-woo shop'? You're not making any sense.”
“Oh my god, did we really just… ". I stare at Brick.
“Abso-fucking-lutely that’s what we just did,” he grins. "I guess you could call this a bzzzzzz-ness meeting."
My eyes grow wide. "Oh my fucking god. This is insane…" I pause and glance at Brick. "Even for you!"
“Get mine out!” another man yells. One of them runs over to the table at the side of the room and grabs a knife intended to cut through an eye of beef after the meeting.
But instead, he digs it deep into his arm and then drops the knife as he uses his free hand to desperately dig around in his arm. He screams in pain and terror as he retrieves the small black item from deep inside his arm.
“This looks like something… familiar, but i can’t place it. It’s just not like any GPS chip I’ve ever seen before.”
“That’s because it’s not a GPS chip, you idiot!" Tane screams. "It’s one of those remote control vibrators you can get at the adult store. My wife has one just like it! Have you ever seen a GPS chip that huge, you fucking moron?!””
“What the hell? A vibrator?! What’s it doing in my arm?”
The revelation just makes the other men work themselves into even more of a frenzy, and two of them clash heads in their simultaneous effort to dive for the knife that clattered to the floor earlier.
The glow of the monitors lights up Brick's face, casting harsh shadows across his chiseled features. I study his expression, searching for any cracks in that impenetrable façade. As always, I find none.