Before meeting with all of his advisors, Negan met Simon in the interrogation room where Gregory was being kept. Simon trusted what Gregory was saying, that the Hilltop's soldiers attacking the Saviors was a fluke that he had nothing to do with. When Negan spoke with him, he was more skeptical. He had begun to seriously doubt Gregory was still in control of his community, but Simon was intensely confident about their plan to kill anyone at the Hilltop who took up arms. Negan had to give them the benefit of the doubt; ideally this would be a war against two settlements rather than three.
After grilling Gregory, Negan and Simon met Eugene, Arat, and Gavin in the war room. There was a lot to discuss but Negan was having trouble worrying about anything but Aven, trying to speed the meeting along so he could take care of the rest of his responsibilities and then get back upstairs. But Simon wasn't making it easy.
They were discussing their upcoming attacks on the Kingdom and Alexandria. The Kingdom still had an ample arsenal while Alexandria was mostly unarmed, although they'd found out from Jadis that Rick had managed to scrape up a few guns, and Negan was sure Ezekiel would supply them with more. The attacks themselves would be easy; it was turning the survivors that would be the problem. Negan wanted to keep the communities running but he knew Aven was right when she said there would be stragglers who wouldn't cooperate no matter what. He didn't want to keep those stragglers alive long enough to let them hurt anyone else, but he didn't know how to do that without taking everyone out.
"Then let's just take 'em all out," Simon said as though it were an easy answer.
"Simon, what is my fucking answer to that fucking suggestion?" Negan asked with a hint of exasperation.
"People are resources," Simon grumbled. "But boss, there will always be more people."
"So we should level two whole towns and wait for two more fucking communities to come together," Negan said to illustrate the problem with Simon's perspective. "We fucking built something here and we need what those communities provide."
"Negan, we lost too many men the other day," Simon said, having not yet told Negan about the casualties since Negan hadn't given him the chance. "Fourteen gone, eight injured and at least temporarily out of commission. These people are picking away at us."
Negan and Simon went back and forth while Eugene, Arat, and Gavin looked on silently, until Negan finally lost his temper, swinging Lucille up from his side where he was sitting and slamming her against the table to shut Simon up.
"People are a resource," Negan hissed, slamming Lucille against the floor when Simon wouldn't let up, a hard frown forming on his face and his chest starting to heave with rage; it wasn't like Simon to be so insubordinate. "Money on the table." He slowly rose from his seat, rearing Lucille up again before slamming her down on the table and raising his voice with each of his words. "PEOPLE ARE THE FOUNDATION OF EVERYTHING WE ARE BUILDING HERE," he yelled before reeling himself back in and staring Simon down. No one could look at Negan, everyone's eyes staring forward, glued to the table in front of them.
"Who the hell do you think you're talking to? Are you confused about who we are?" he continued, lowering his voice almost to a whisper. "Are we backsliding, Simon?"
"No, sir," Simon muttered finally. The corner of Negan's lips twitched upwards into a grin.
"Good. So either you shut your fucking mouth and give me a real suggestion, or you can go waste the other communities yourself and take over here trying to keep shit together." Negan continued to stare down Simon, who still couldn't make eye contact and said nothing. "Choosing to shut your fucking mouth," Negan growled. "Good fucking call." Negan leaned back, taking a deep breath to calm down before turning to Eugene.
"Eugene, what do you think?" he asked, his grin becoming no less threatening. "Would leveling Alexandria be the right call?" Eugene stared straight at the long, metal table as he chose his words carefully before looking up at Negan.
"Rick Grimes will not back down," he said regretfully. "But I think you are correct to assume that plenty of the citizens would indeed be valuable assets should they join us."
"So...maybe I should kill Rick," Negan thought aloud, partially just testing Eugene's honesty. But before he could answer, they were interrupted by the crackle of Negan's radio.
"Negan," one of the Saviors began. "Dwight's back, wants to speak with you."
"Send him up to the conference room," Negan replied before placing the radio back on the table. Dwight had been sent out to watch the perimeters of Alexandria to make sure nothing was amiss but Negan hadn't expected him back at least until the evening. It was still only just after lunchtime.
Simon didn't say much more as Negan continued to talk strategy with Arat, Gavin, and Eugene, only piping up occasionally to answer questions about the preparations being made to attack. Negan was engaged in the conversation but every once in a while he found that he'd missed part of it, distracted by the worrying list of events Aven had been through and the worrying thoughts she'd been expressing now and again. He didn't like the thought that she was up in their room plagued by thoughts that he couldn't alleviate even if he were there.
"Boss, what do you think?" Gavin asked.
"Hmm?" Negan replied distractedly.
"Are we bringing handguns into the fight?"
"That would require production of a separate bullet design but it wouldn't be much extra work," Eugene added.
"Uhhhh no," Negan replied, trying to get his mind back on track "Yes." His advisors stared at him for a moment, unsure what his answer was. "Focus on the big guns first but make sure we have a decent supply for the smaller ones. Most are .50 cal anyway."
"That's what I just said," Simon grumbled, eyeing Negan suspiciously. He had never seen his boss so distracted from an important matter. Before the conversation could continue, there was a knock at the door.
"Come in," Negan barked, Dwight stepping through the door. He froze in the doorway, scanning the table of advisors that he was normally part of.
"Uhhh, sorry," Dwight began awkwardly. "Didn't realize we were meeting."
"That's because I didn't tell you," Negan said flatly. He was at least partially following Aven's advice and keeping the plans on a need-to-know basis. Dwight didnt need to know yet. Negan was having trouble with him in particular because so far, Aven had been right about everything, but it just didn't make sense to him that Dwight would risk his life to help a hopeless aggressor. The only reason Dwight had betrayed him the first time was because he thought it's what he needed to do to survive. "Update?" he asked. "You shouldn't have been back for hours."
"Bike broke down halfway there, had to walk back."
"So you came to tell me nothing," Negan confirmed, and Dwight nodded awkwardly. "Get out of my sight." Dwight went to leave but then turned back again.
"You don't need me in here?" he asked.
"Nope," Negan responded immediately. "Bye."
Dwight made his way out the door and downstairs to the main floor with a scowl on his face. He wanted to know what Negan was planning so he could relay it back to the other communities. The only reason Rick and Daryl hadn't killed him was because he was useful; he needed to stay useful. He knew he at least wasn't dead to them yet, at least not until after the attack.
Dwight radioed a nearby lookout post and got no response, and then did the same with another. Everything was going according to planned. He stood out in an empty section of the yard gazing off into the distance until he saw movement in the trees. All at once, the guards stationed above him near the gate dropped out of sight in their posts. Dwight took a second to be sure they weren't getting back up and then retreated inside.
Meanwhile, Negan dismissed the meeting and ushered everyone out of the room. Before going on to his next task, he needed to radio up to Aven and make sure she was okay.
"Av, you there?" he asked with the radio to his lips. "You okay?"
"Define 'okay,'" she groaned after a short silence.
"I don't know, keeping yourself busy?"
"Nope," she responded. "I'm bored and in pain and it fucking sucks." Negan frowned, wishing he could do something to make her recovery less tedious but before he could respond her voice came through again. "Negan, something's wrong," she said urgently. She was sitting by the window in the living room looking out over the yard and observed that as far as she could see, the guards were absent.
"Shit, are you okay? Do you need the doctor?" He waited a moment and she didn't respond. She was too focused on the scene outside, pressing her face to the glass to try to see more of the yard. Negan was about to panic and run upstairs to her, but something else caused him to panic first:
A long, loud burst of gunfire.