"It's an interesting résumé." Ju-long said, he wasn't entirely sold on what he was reading from the file, but Gus did recommend him. "John Proudstar…"
"I served with him in the Marines and he was the best soldier in our unit." Gus assured him.
"Yes Gus." Ju-long dropped the heavy file on top of his desk. "There's five pages in there with all of his military attainments but I'm not looking to build up an army."
Gus knew that convincing his boss that it was time to bring in another man would be hard but he was convinced that John was the right man for the job. "You need someone trustworthy and I can promise you that John is the most loyal man I know. You will not regret hiring him, I give you my word."
"I'll be the judge of that." Ju-long closed his suit jacket as he had a small walk to the window. "You know how important security is in this house."
"I do." Gus solemnly replied. "And John will be discrete, he will also be someone that you can trust." He insisted on that detail knowing that it was vital, Ju-long was an important business man with political ties that went as far as Washington and his inner circle was carefully selected, especially in this house.
"How long have you worked for me Gus?"
"I've been your bodyguard for the last two years." Gus answered proudly, no matter the reputation or the stories surrounding Ju-long Fong he knew that what he was doing was important and he was happy to be a part of that.
"Send him inside." Ju-long asked without turning to look at Gus.
With a smile Gus sprinted out of the office to search for John, he found him on the huge lobby of the mansion staring at the painted ceiling. "I know what you're thinking, what a waste to have all that gold stuck to the ceiling." He pointed at the intricate imagery painted above them.
"Actually, I was thinking that I'm very underdressed for the interview." John half-smiled at his friend, he was having second thoughts about all of this, not just the informal Henley under a simple open shirt.
"Nah, you're great man." Gus smirked. "The old man doesn't like suits and the undersized shirt showcases the muscles, so all's good."
John narrowed his eyes. "Muscles over brain…" things were really going downhill when he had to rely on his inhuman strength to get a job.
"I know that it's not the most glamorous job but it does pay a lot of bills."
"I'll take it." John smiled. "Thanks for thinking of me." He stretched out his hand for a warm shake.
Gus responded with a bigger smile, they were close like brothers and even if they hadn't been in touch much for the last year that kind of link survived everything, he ignored the hand shake and moved straight into a brotherly tight hug. "Anything for you man."
John returned the gesture, he felt the exact same way.
Gus was taken by the moment but he had to be serious as he faced John with a small warning. "Just one thing… I kept the mutant aspect hidden from your file, the July thing made everyone nervous and since Ju-long didn't know about me before that I decided that it was best to keep it that way."
"I'm not sure I can hide who I am." John's doubts returned with a bang and he rubbed the back of his neck apprehensive.
"Look, he doesn't make personal questions and if he's not asking I'm not telling him that out there I'm Pulse and that his future chief of security is Thunderbird."
John lowered his head pensive, it's not like he had a bunch of other alternatives.
"Oorah?" Gus asked as an incentive.
"Oorah!" John answered back with a nod.
XxxxxX
Ju-long was sizing the property, it went farther than he could glimpse from the window but this house in Georgia was nothing compared to the one he had in L.A or the luxurious apartment in New York, and if it was entirely up to him that's where he would be.
His empire was a mirror of all his hard work and he did not enjoy the feeling that he was secluded to a tiny damp city just because the congress couldn't decide if they were going through with the mutant law, he had enough problems as it was without having to depend on the indecision of others.
The determined knock on the door pulled him away from his sad monologue. "Come in." he turned to face the door as the tall sturdy man walked inside, maybe he had to give in to Gus, the soldier looked trustworthy indeed.
"I'm John." He nodded at the other man, he looked as intimidating as he probably was.
Ju-long took another second to study the candidate, he appeared strong and focused which were traits that he admired. "Gus has spoken endlessly on your behalf."
"I'm grateful to have such a friend." John candidly said.
Two small steps took Ju-long closer to John and he was impressed that the soldier remained as he was, with his legs apart, his hands crossed behind his back and a stern military stance. "In my culture that sort of devotion usually means that there's a life debt involved."
"We will always have each other's back." John admitted quietly, he had no idea how much Gus had gone out of his way to make this interview happen. "But that won't interfere with what I have to do, Gus mentioned that this was a protection detail and I'm ready to focus only on that."
"I appreciate the honesty." Ju-long leaned against the edge of his desk, he crossed his arms ready to give John a chance. "I need someone to oversee the security around and inside of this house, up until now Gus was in charge of it but I'm currently occupied with negotiations for a new contract, which means that I will have to travel a great deal for the upcoming weeks and Gus will be by my side as my personal security."
John knew straight away that he needed someone to stay here and guard the gold on the ceilings so Gus was right, it wasn't the most glamorous job in the world but John would be doing something that he was good at. "When do I start?"
Ju-long smiled, he liked that driving force. "You came into the house as an unbiased visitor, so from what you've seen what would you change?"
"The camera by the gate was broken." He immediately said. "And I don't mean the one over the tree used as a decoy, I mean the hidden micro-camera on top of the left column." He added.
"That's all?" Ju-long picked up a black folder from the desk.
"If you're paying for four eyes on the roof you're being ripped off because one of them was busy smoking and the other one was talking on the phone with his girlfriend while his gun was swinging from the ledge."
Ju-long lifted his eyes knowing that there was more to come, he could tell by John's tone.
"No one bothered to check my car or what I could've been hiding in there and all I had to do to get through the front door was say that Gus was my friend. And after that I was left completely alone in the lobby for 10 minutes." He could list all the things that he could accomplish in ten minutes but refrained.
"Gus was not exaggerating about your skills." He handed the folder over to John. "Change whatever you need, this house needs to be secure and I need to go away assured of exactly that."
"I will make sure of it." John reached out to accept his new job, inside of the folder he found every code and every access to the alarm system, the names of every employee and a list of every person with free access to the house, there was also a map of the house and a grid with the location of every surveillance camera. "I'd like to have a walk around the house so that I can get familiar with it."
Ju-long waved his hand to send him away, the interview was over and they both had tasks at hand.
XxxxxX
As expected John jumped right into action and asked Gus to give him a tour of the house, he wanted to memorize every room and corner as fast as he could but when they reached the east wing where the surveillance base was located he took his time with it.
John had a lot of questions and the security guy who spent his days controlling all the cameras wasn't happy with the flaws that his new supervisor was finding, he was picking on a lot of technical stuff that Mark was clueless about and it wasn't long before he offered to change the broken camera himself, just to get away from John's perfectionism.
"I think that you scared him." Gus joked as they were left alone.
"He should be, he's making a crappy job." John tapped one of the monitors that had the same frozen image for the past two minutes.
"I know, I know…" Gus sighed. "It's been hard to keep everything going smoothly around here, everyone is tired and I'm not an exception." He came clear with John.
"Is it true that they tried to kill Ju-long last month?" John asked him quietly.
Gus nodded. "And the month before and the one before that." He rested against the threshold as if he carried a hard burden that hopefully would be shared now. "I have to change his itinerary every single day that we go out and doing small stuff like having dinner in a restaurant or going out to have a beer is completely out of the question." He shrugged. "I can't even say for sure when was the last time he went to visit the grave of his wife."
"That bad…" John sat on the vacant chair, just so he could see upfront Mark's comedic efforts to change a simple camera.
"Ju-long is a wealthy man with a lot of enemies. Human and mutant."
John was listening but he was also fascinated by the idiot attempting to climb a 15 feet-tall iron gate. "Where did you find these guys?"
"Hey, not everyone was born a marine." Gus dropped in a playful scowl.
John laughed but on his way to face Gus he noticed another camera, by the location it should be the kitchen but the girl opening the fridge couldn't be one of the maids, there wasn't anyone on the servant list with purple hair. "Who's that?" John pointed at the monitor.
"Ignore her." Gus straightened up from his laidback posture.
"I don't see her in any list." John did a cross reading of everyone who actually lived on the premises.
"You won't find her anywhere."
John looked up as Gus covered the page with his hand.
"I mean it John, just ignore her."
He sounded serious but so was John. "If I'm going to do this, I need full disclosure."
Gus knew that and he also knew that John wasn't going to accept a vague explanation, with a quick motion he closed the door for privacy. "I need you to promise me that you won't repeat to anyone what I'm about to tell you."
John clasped his lips, it was a raw reaction because he was ready to walk away if Gus told him that Ju-long was keeping a clandestine girl here for his entertainment or some weird-ass thing like that.
"Her name is Clarice and she's Ju-long's daughter." Gus used a low voice for the revelation and he totally got the confused look on John's face right now. "A daughter that he kept a secret from the world because she's a mutant."
John leaned back on the chair baffled, the story was becoming contemptable by the second.
"For all accounts Clarice does not exist and I know that the security team in the house is a joke but they´re extremely loyal and they've been with Ju-long ever since Clarice was a baby and each and every one of them would die before admitting that she exists."
And just like that everything started making sense for John. "The Mutant Law."
Gus moved his head in a nod. "Ju-long has friends on both sides, he owns the biggest bank in the US and his vote can swing the economy in this country. If he publicly announces that he is against the law he loses his human allies and goes bankrupt which will set this country upside down but if he comes forward supporting the law instead, that will be enough to make the congress approve it and then mutants will be the ones to come after him in retaliation and that means that Clarice will be caught in the middle of it all."
"I get that." John stated. "I don't get why he would chose to sit out and wait for something to happen."
"He made a choice John, and he's going public with it."
"The contract." John remembered the conversation he had earlier with Ju-long.
Gus pointed at him. "And that's why I need you here, whatever comes out of this will be harsh on both sides and we need to be prepared for it."
"I hear you." John should be more nervous now but strangely he liked how soothed he felt when he had all the details of a mission, no matter how tricky and difficult it sounded on paper there was always a way around it, as long as he was able to plan ahead and study all the different scenarios.
Gus squinted at the monitor where they could see Mark now hanging from the gate and yelling. "I'm going out there before he falls down and breaks his neck."
John turned towards the wall of monitors but he was only fixated on a particular one, he was told to ignore her but he couldn't really do his duty of protecting her if he was ignoring her.
XxxxxX
The only noise inside of the kitchen was her lazy chewing of a dull brand of cornflakes, they weren't even her favorite but there wasn't much to choose from.
She scooped in another portion of honey circles into her spoon and lifted them from under the warm milk but as the mundane action happened something messed with her attention, something big, muscled and terribly attractive.
John walked in determined but clearly seeing her through a monitor was misleading and he absolutely missed just how beautiful she was.
Clarice stopped munching, there was a hot stranger in the kitchen with her.
"Hi." He tried to focus on getting his name out, it was a rather simple thing to do, if it wasn't for the fact that she was staring at him with big enigmatic green eyes.
"Hey." She dragged the greeting unsure of what was happening, he was either rapt or scared of her.
"I'm John, I'm the new head of security." He reacted back to his usual focused self.
Clarice felt her shoulders slump a bit. "Great, another G.I Joe to guard me in my golden prison."
"I feel like apologizing for something." He came near the table with a little dancing leer on his lips.
"Don't bother." she resumed eating. "I'm just being salty because I'm that kind of person."
He sat across her. "I have to admit that I would be a tad salty as well if I had to spend all day locked up inside of a house with weird ceilings." He glanced up noticing another odd pattern.
"Yeah, my father likes showing off." She said with a bitter taste.
"I started working for him literally fifteen minutes ago so I can't comment on that."
She looked at him just as she started laughing, it was nice that he did as well because it was a treat to see his smile. "You're the dude who was in the army with Gus, aren't you?"
"Depends on what he said about me." John lifted his eyebrows wary.
She started listing the adjectives with a finger at a time. "Strong, courageous, reliable, selfless, a leader and all around awesome." She smirked at him. "I think that he has a crush on you."
"Well, I am a catch."
"I'll try to keep that in mind during my very lonely days." The laughter was teasing and only went loose to hide that fleeting flirt in her eyes, she liked his warm dark eyes and how they stood out on a face with such defined lines, and how flowy and long his hair was.
John looked away to check out the rest of the space, or just to get away from her unique jade stare. "I should know about your days." He suddenly said. "It's important for me to know your routine so that I can tell if something's off."
She waited until he looked at her to answer. "I'm a mutant so everything is off."
He had a little squint and a catch of his breath. "I don't see why it has to be that way."
"Uh…" she mockingly prepared the dramatic comeback. "We've got ourselves a sympathizer." She left her chair headed to the sync. "What is it that you like? The way we look so different or the stuff that we can do?" she dropped the bowl into the sync uncaring if it shattered. "Or maybe you have a special kink for the weird." She widened her eyes as she made the right expression to go with that.
"I don't understand why we should see ourselves different from all the others."
It was her turn to squint and she turned away slowly.
"I grew up in a reservation and I know prejudice from others like no one, but I've never been ashamed of my origins or of what I am."
She came back to the table with a sneer. "I bet you never had to hide because your eyes were Halloween ish and your hair was purple like an eggplant."
"I thought that the hair was all style."
She tilted her head with a seriously expression on her face.
"Hey." He raised his hands defensively. "I think that it's a cool look."
"Are you flirting with me John?" she slouched back on the chair and curled up so that she could rest her sneakers on the edge of her seat. "Because if you are, Gus is going to be jealous."
"He ordered me to ignore you so maybe he's going to be jealous of you."
She laughed amused. "Gus hates me." She placed a lot of strength behind the word.
"That's not possible." He answered back with an easy smile and a long look at her delicate little face.
"He does…" she insisted. "Because he's terrified that I'm going to disappear one of these days. I even bet that's why he wanted my father to hire you so that I wouldn't go missing under his watch."
"Do you think often about taking off?"
"Every single day."
John thought about what she was saying, it couldn't be easy to be so guarded from the world but she wasn't fragile, he just met her but there wasn't a single word that came out of her with vulnerability. "What's stopping you?"
She was taken aback by the question, he was different from the others who avoided talking to her, he was terribly confident and that made him fearless. "It's… complicated."
"I'm going to be around for a while so if you ever want to talk about that, let me know." He stood up with a warmth in his eyes. "I still need to know how you usually spend your days."
"Part of my flawless salty charm comes from being mysterious."
"I'll ask Gus." He warned her with a look.
"He can tell you all about my endless plans to escape." She winked at him with a cheeky attitude. "And how much I drive the security staff insane."
"I'll adapt." He started to walk away with a chuckle. "I'm good at that."
"And if I do run away?" she asked just before he reached the door.
"I'll find you." He turned to face her. "I'm good at that as well."
"Ah." She parted her lips with a fake gasp. "That's your thing?"
"Guess you'll have to stick around to find out."
As he vanished from her sight Clarice started playing with a tiny purple sparkle that she created between her palms, suddenly things were starting to take an interesting twist.