What would you do?

[Joseph27]

Have you got what it takes to reach the top?

Scenerio
You came to power with the support of a lifelong friend and his influential father. However your friend is now objecting to some of the things that you do. He is undermining your authority, yet you know you cannot sanction him without incurring the wrath of his father.

Do you:

1) Have a heart to heart with him in the hope that you can work things out between you?

2) Visit the father and ask for his help in acheiving a reconciliation between you and your friend?

3) Accuse your friend of plotting against you and have him tortured, until he confesses, then killed. Meanwhile, dispatch a trusted friend of the fathers to deliver a sealed death warrant to him, to be acted upon whilst the two of them are joyously greeting each other?

[T2K]

If I ever "came to power" anywhere I would be too busy with Sultan of Brunei-style palaces and imported harems to worry about this Machiavellian shyte.

Which is why I will never "come to power".

[Old Mike]

Machiavelli advised either to make your enemy your friend, or destroy him totally.
Looks like the friend and his whole extended family get the chop

[rubicond]

I guess that if option 3 is an option for myself, it is also an option for my friend. So better I chose it before he choses it.

[Herald Sun]

Option 3 for sure, my friend J27.