The Men in Gray's Board Decides to Exploit Momo's Friends

The Men in Gray's Board Decides to Exploit Momo's Friends is the meeting at which the board turns its fear of Momo into a plan to use her attachments against her. Rather than risk confronting her directly, the directors consider recruiting her, then settle on isolating her by drawing away the people she cares for.

Fear of a Direct Confrontation

The discussion begins in panic over the possibility that Professor Hora may prepare Momo to resist them. One director demands practical measures, arguing that vague calls for sacrifice and unlimited resources do not answer the central problem: the board does not know what danger Momo might pose. The room erupts in shouting and distressed gestures before a speaker restores order by urging a calm assessment.

That speaker points to the fate of their late employee, Agent No. BLW/553/c, as evidence that the directors are poorly equipped to fight Momo themselves. He proposes instead that they rely on human accomplices, allowing them to dispose of Momo and the threat she represents without intervening personally. The suggestion brings the assembled directors relief: indirect action promises to be safer as well as more economical.

From Elimination to Recruitment

A director near the head of the table reframes the question. The board's wish to get rid of Momo, he admits, comes from fear; rather than meet her as an enemy, they might persuade her to join them. The proposal wins approval from several voices, suggesting that the directors are willing to consider turning the unknown threat into an ally before settling on a more coercive approach.

The Plan to Isolate Momo

The decisive proposal treats Momo's devotion to other people as the point at which she can be pressured. A tenth speaker observes that she loves giving her time to her friends and asks what that time would mean if she had no one with whom to share it. If she will not cooperate willingly, he argues, the board should concentrate on her friends instead.

He produces a folder naming Beppo Roadsweeper and Guido Guide as principal people involved, alongside a list of children who regularly visit Momo. His proposed method is to lure them away so that she cannot reach them. In his calculation, her abundance of time would then become a burden and, eventually, a curse; once she could no longer bear her isolation, the board could impose its terms. His wager of a thousand years to a microsecond makes the plan's confidence sound almost playful, but its object is coercive: make Momo's care for her friends the leverage that compels her to help the Men in Gray.

The Board's Reversal

The suggestion changes the room's mood. The Men in Gray, downcast until then, lift their heads; their thin-lipped smiles and applause mark the plan's acceptance as a moment of renewed confidence. The applause carries through the building's long passages and corridors, giving the decision an echo beyond the boardroom. The meeting thus establishes the strategy that the Men in Gray will use against Momo: not a direct battle, but the calculated removal of the people who give her time its shared meaning.