Everyone fell silent. No one had any thoughts on it.
“Doesn’t fucking matter,” Felicia said on the other line. “And this doesn’t matter to me at all. Felix, I’m going back to work. I put in a request for some more people. I want to get our hardware upgraded for our security forces. I know we can bring their dumb asses back when they die, but a bit of preventative work could make that happen less.”
“Alright. I’ll see what I can do. I might be sending you some high school graduates who applied with mechanical aptitude,” Felix replied.
“Bah. Whatever. Hands are hands,” Felicia said. There was a pause.
“Bye, love,” Felicia said, much more softly and distantly. It was as if she hadn’t expected anyone to hear it.
“See you,” Ioana responded.
Clearing his throat, Felix leaned forward across the table. “Felicia’s right. It’s almost irrelevant. We have information now. Information that makes us targets and dangerous.”
Pausing, Felix couldn’t help but shake his head. “Though I can’t help but wonder if Skipper thought we had it to begin with. They’ve known for a while that Kit is in Legion. It also explains why the guild wanted Kit so bad as well. That they wanted you back so they could fight Skipper. Without her power… she’s probably much more easily handled.”
Lily blew out a breath, looking up at the ceiling. “We never did find anything on the guild’s network, drives, or files with anything. They lost all contact with the Skippercity guild when the city fell,” she said.
“Well, it’s kinda pointless, isn’t it?” Victoria asked. “The guild had crowns and rings in their upper echelon.”
Felix blinked, his heart lurching.
He’d forgotten about that.
Forgotten it entirely.
It changed the perception of the situation in a scary way.
“The reports we got from both the guild and the Skippercity faction indicate that while there was a shift in the leadership mentality, they all went along with it. In fact, the guild wrote up several endorsements for the steps they took,” Lily said, flipping through her papers, looking for something.
“That means Skipper wanted me in her custody, and Felix dead. It also means that while the guild wasn’t in charge of the Skippercity faction, they endorsed it. On top of that, doesn’t that mean that the government doesn’t care? The minders installed at the guild headquarters would have had to have signed off on the orders and endorsements for Felix to be killed,” Kit said.
There was no surprise from anyone. Everyone had been moving to the same thought that Kit voiced aloud.
I’m in a shadow war with Skipper, the guild of Heroes, and the government. Certainly explains why all of the attacks, and lack of investigation, seemed so odd.
They’re not working together, but they all want the same thing.
Felix harrumphed and looked up from the desk.
“Nothing actually changes, other than our viewpoint. We weren’t exactly on speaking terms with any of them anyways. We continue on, knowing what we do now. Is there anything that we need to change? Any type of change in our scope or position that we need?” Felix asked.
“I’m going to put in a req to have a change to your bodyguard detachment,” Victoria said. “I want several of them to have the ability to project an energy shield around you, like Lily’s, at all times. What this sounds like to me is the perfect opportunity for a vigilante.”
“Actually,” Ioana said, the phone coming to life, “I think that sniper attack was a vigilante. We never did track that one down. Not completely, at least. Vicky’s right. Best to put measures in place now before they’re needed. It’d only take a single sniper rifle to end you. I’d go further and get a few people who have Neutralizer’s power set as well. We already had it on the books to have several of them at each HQ, why not in your bodyguard section?”
Felix checked a sigh and nodded.
They were right of course. Even if it did end up restricting his movement further.
“I understand. Put the forms through and book the point calendar accordingly. What else?”
“I think we should begin considering an exit plan,” Miu said. “Perhaps we should reach across federal lines to our neighbors in the south. See if we can’t secure a government deal to begin expanding that way.”
With a turn of his head Felix looked to Andrea. “Send an email to their embassy. See if the glorious nation of Wal would like to enter into negotiations. It’d be good to have a third location out of reach for our enemies. Besides, last I heard, Wal was doing rather well for itself. They might be happy to have a company such as ours building a facility there.”
Around the room heads nodded in agreement.
“Anything else?” Felix asked. “No? Good. Let’s move to the next subject then. The governor run. How are things looking?”
Lily pressed her hands to her forehead and then closed the folder in front of her.
“That bad?” Felix asked.
“What? No. Sorry. I couldn’t find what I was looking for. Ah, the governor bid? It’s fine,” Lily said.
“Define fine. Looking for some details here so I can plan,” Felix said.
“I… sorry. You’re right,” Lily said.
“You alright?” Felix pressed, leaning forward over the table.
“Yeah. Tired. I think I need to promote Lauren higher and delegate some work off to her. I feel like I’m being run down,” said the ex-super villain.
“Defeated by paperwork. The fall of Mab. Definitely promote Lauren, and then go wade through the new high school recruits. I’m sure there are some that would fit,” Felix said. “Jeff comes to mind.”
“Jeff?” Lily asked, looking up at him.
“Rubik’s cube kid. Caught me in a verbal loophole. I liked him,” Felix said. “Anyways, the governor run?”
“Oh, yes. You’re not in the lead, but you’re in the lead when it comes to everyone on a similar platform. The problem is your voter base is being split a few too many times. Candidates who run on wishes and the belief that simply because they try, they could win and change the system,” Lily said. She pulled out a different folder and flipped it open. “The closest candidate to your platform is taking about fifteen percent of what could be your own vote. Or so we’re estimating according to polls and what we can estimate.”
“Right. That makes sense. It’s the same thing that’s happening to the other candidates that we’re sponsoring. They’re cluttering up the field and eating up votes that could be used elsewhere. The classic problem with a single vote system—it always comes down to two parties,” Felix said. Looking to his hands on the table he tapped the wood a few times.
“Do you want me to take care of those taking your votes?” Miu asked, her voice tinged with a desire to be set loose.
“No. Not yet, at least. And if I do send you out, that’d only be after we tried to blackmail them out, buy them out, or to get them to buy into our platform. I’d rather exhaust every other avenue first. Then I’ll send you out,” Felix said, making his choice. “When there’s about three weeks left, we’ll see about getting them all out of the race. That’ll give voters enough time to reconcile themselves to voting for me, and to their candidate no longer being in the running.”
Kit didn’t say anything, but Felix could feel the dislike of the situation coming from her.
“I’d like to stress again, that we’ll pursue every possible action that will cause the least amount of hardship first. Only when all those options fail will we turn to the more damaging possibilities,” Felix reasserted. He didn’t make eye contact with Kit, or look her way, but he hoped it would soothe her mind.
She might not be Augur anymore, but she’d always be a good and kind-hearted woman. Someone who wanted to do good.
“In fact, start reaching out to those individuals and feeling them out. It might make it easier down the road to get them on board if we begin now.”