The last member entered the boardroom and closed the door behind him gently, but the quiet of the room let the sound echo slightly, above the hum of the lights. He took a seat amongst the twelve other men and women at the square table, all dressed in black suits with white shirts. The ties however, if not black, were quite tacky and belying the situation. Placing his briefcase beside him, "Robert Markham" engraved on a plate under the handle. He crossed his fingers and placed his hands on the table, looking to the front three seats. His black hair grey at the sides and messy, although he managed a clean shave that morning. The white walls, bright fluorescent lights, and lack of windows created a suffocating nightmare of an atmosphere, and highlighted Robert's paleness and the violet flesh under his eyes.
A man's voice erupted over the silence, "There was a fourth attack on one of our warehouses. Same person". A female voice began simultaneously on the last word, "Our image to the public is becoming an issue as well. These attacks are directly under our jurisdiction to solve". Robert half-sighed and half-yawned, and it rang out louder than he expected. He stroked the bags under his eyes. "We could try exploiting gang violence as the main problem", an older man said. "Give our men better arms", said another.
"What about heroes for hire?" A woman asked. Robert finally spoke, "Marlene, we don't need a hero, we need a mercenary. I doubt you have any on call?". She laughed exasperatedly and cracked out, "You'd be surprised, Robert, but I do know someone. I worked with him once as a matter of fact." "You worked with Luke Cage?" a voice asked. "No… but if someone like Cage, or Iron Fist, were to solve our problem, it would draw the attention towards heroes again, and away from us" Marlene said, nervously adjusting her boy-short blonde hair. "But if we're… 'employing heroes', we get drawn into the world of heroes, and heroes ask questions. We don't need Iron Fist finding out whats going on here", Robert snapped back condescendingly. A silence almost grew, but then a look lit up Marlene's eyes. She leaned forward as another voice spoke, "We could get deadpo-", "Wait…" she interrupted.