"The Chairman recognizes the senior Senator from Arizona at this classified briefing."

There is a brief rustle of papers that the live microphone picks up. "Thank you Mr. Chairman for granting me time to ask a few questions of our guest."

Next the Senator turns his attention to the man in the expensively tailored suit with the carefully groomed hair and patently false air of being comfortable who sits at the lower table that faces the committee. "Mr. Bevins can you please tell me about this project called Key Master?"

"That is Dr. Bevins."

The whole room goes silent as breaths are indrawn. Finally the man from Arizona speaks. "Excuse me?"

The well dressed man leans forward and clasps his hands as he looks directly at the Senator. "I am a doctor in neuroscience and bio-ethics so I prefer to be called Dr. Bevins."

"I see, then you can call me Senator. Just Senator." From somewhere someone is heard to snigger as the bold man blinks and his body language gets a bit more wary. "Now what is this project called Key Master?"

The man rallies and tries to put back on his air of confidence. "Well Senator," he drawls the word out and the Senator from Arizona lets his eyes narrow like those of a rattlesnake sizing up a mouse, "Key Master is an attempt co-developed by DHS, DOD, NSA, CIA, and DARPA to ensure any electronic security keys remain secure and unviolated."

"I have read your funding request. Now explain to me exactly what do you mean by keeping electronic security keys secure?"

The TV used cars salesman smile blossoms across Bevins' face as he launches into his spiel. "Well we faced a technological challenge because these keys are intended to be easy to use. Thus allowing quick access to secure locations. This also made them easily fungible."

"So how did you solve this problem then?"

Bevins' perks up even more and there is a gleam in his eyes. "Well Senator to prevent easy theft under Key Master, the electronic keys are surgically implanted into the skulls of those requiring such keys."

The Senator glances at the papers laid out before him as if studying them, but its all an act. He already knew what Bevin would say, he just wanted it on the record. "That would be a good way to secure the keys. What happens if say a belligerent chopped off someone's head who has such a key implanted?"

"We thought of that scenario and embedded in the key, which is actually the size of a walnut, countermeasures to prevent such from occurring."

"Countermeasures? What kind of countermeasures?"

Now Bevins leans forward again and yes there is a gleam in his eyes, the gleam of someone who had a brilliant idea and is treasuring springing it upon someone he thinks is his inferior. "The key monitors vital signs like blood pressure and heart beat plus others. And it has threshold levels. If any of these threshold levels are met, then the key detonates."

The silence is back in the room, a more shocked silence at what Bevins is pushing in the name of security. The man from Flagstaff is not one of those. "I see. That does sound very thorough and well thought out."

Bevins sits straighter in his chair and the Senator smiles a cold smile that never touches his face or eyes. "But I must ask, what happens if someone with such a key has to go to the dentist and is put under?"

"Well uh Senator we are still working out the bugs."

Now the Senator smiles, its a smile one might see on a lion who has just found a lame gazelle. If one was the gazelle. "I see we have learned nothing from Wildfire. Mr. Chairman I vote we do not give further funding to this project until Doctor," now he drawls out the honorific and he watches the man flinch, "Bevins sorts out his bugs. I do not want to see any of the fine men or women who valiantly serve this country have their brains explode due to shoddy work."