"So, Mike, although we" Jane started before pointing to the other girls who nodded, before she continued "we wish we could tell you everything right away unfortunately we can't."
"May I ask why?" Michael asked.
"Well, you can ask but all we can say for now is that we are bound by oath and contract." Gracie replied.
Michael opened his mouth to reply but was cut off by Alexia "Mike, before you say something like contacts and oaths are broken all the time which is indeed true."
"The contracts and oaths the four of us are under hold 'deadly' consequences not just for us but for you if we tell you too much before you're able to know."
"Deadly?" Michael asked with a frown in a slightly frustrated tone.
"We know what you're thinking but Alexia is being serious watch." Sarah said before she raised her arm and made a strange hand signal before pointing at the jug of water on the glass table they brought from the kitchen.
Michael was wondering why Sarah did that but then several things happened in rapid successions.
First there were two sounds of glass breaking in such rapid succession that they were almost indistinguishable from each other.
Next the jug of water on the table shattered and water spread over the table onto the floor.
After that a crack started to spread from a small hole in the large window looking out over London.
Finally, a warning siren went off and Athena spoke.
"ALERT ALERT, CODE RED"
Red light started to flash along the edges of some of the walls and doorways and around the windows.
"EXTERNAL SECURITY BREACH DETECTED"
"INITIATING INTERNAL SECURITY LOCK-DOWN PROTOCOL"
Shutters rapidly dropped over the large window in the living room as well as all other external windows and doors of the penthouse securing the residents safely inside.
"DISCONNECTING PENTHOUSE FROM MAIN GRID AND ACTIVATING BACKUP POWER SAUCE"
"CLOSING ALL EXTERNAL VENTS AND ACTIVATING INTERNAL AIR FILTRATION AND PURIFICATION SYSTEM"
"INITIATING PROTOCOL RED"
"REMOTE CONTROL OF ALL OTHER AI's UNDER 'THE EMERALD LAKE' CORPORATIONS UMBRELLA ESTABLISHED"
"INITIATING RED ALERT FOR ALL OTHER AI's AND NOTIFYING ALL PERSONNEL WITH REQUIRED ACCESS LEVEL ABOUT THE SITUATION"
"CONTACTING PERSONAL SECURITY TEAMS."
"CONTACTING HOTEL SECURITY"
"CONTACTING LOCAL POLICE FORCE"
"Oh shit, shit, Athena cancel security lockdown and protocol red" Jane suddenly said in panic.
"Are you certain? Athena detected a foreign object piecing the living room window at high velocity."
"Athena has determined it was a high velocity projectile." Athena responded.
"Yes, cancel them, it's a false alarm," Jane said with a sigh as she turned to look at Sarah.
"Affirmative cancelling Lockdown"
"Canceling Code Red" Athena replied
After which all the shutters retracted, and the red lights stopped flashing.
"Really?" Jane said as Alexia and Jane also looked at Sarah all three with accusing eyes.
"What Mike needed a demonstration that we were serious, , and you must admit that worked better than we original thought, Athena even connected to the other AI's in order to notify people of the situation." Sarah said, defending herself.
"That I get and agree with, but you could off temporarily disable the security system first" Jane pointed out.
"He he my bad" Sarah said while doing an anime comical pose of bonking her own head with her tongue out.
As Jane was about to reply, the phones of all four girls started ringing and Athena spoke up once again.
"Alert Emergency contact requested from Sarah's assistant Emma."
"Oh god now you've done it, let's take 5 minuets to sort this mess out. Gracie moaned as she answered her phone.
All the other girls did the same while Sarah also accepted her assistant Emma's communication request via Athena, and they all calmly explained it was a false alarm caused by a security test they were performing.
Michael, who was so shocked his mouth hung open, only recovered when he heard the girls talking on their phones trying to calm those on the other end.
He noted that whoever was on the phone to the different girls seemed to care for them deeply.
"It seems your staff or whoever called you care for you very much." Michael commented before doing some breathing exercises to calm down.
"Well, we like to make sure our employees are paid well for their work and are well cared for both in work and outside. Gracie explained as she was the first to return.
"We are proud to claim that the employees under 'The Emerald Lake' Umbrella have some of the best benefits in the world." Jane Added as she returned.
"Was that a sniper?" Michael asked in a slightly shaky voice.
"Yes, of a sort." Jane answers before continuing, "We still can't tell you much yet, but I will say they are there to protect the four of us, while also making sure we don't say too much to you for now, otherwise…..."
Jane did not need to say more because Michael understood so he just nodded in agreement.
After a short time, Alexia and Sarah also returned, having calmed whoever called them and joined the group again.
"So now that Sarah has had her fun let's get back to the main topic, we will start with our backstory from when we were young and innocent and before any contracts and oaths and we will tell you what we can, if you want to know more after that there are things we will need to arrange and for you to agree with."
"But for now let us explain the history of 'The Four Queens' before they were even a thing, and we were just four young girls enjoying our childhood." Alexia said before talking a drink to quench her thirst before she started to tell the history of the worlds four most beautiful women.