Chapter Five….
Harry entered the home of one Dr. Roy Helberg. He was here on a mission, it was the second of a sort fitting a goal. That goal was none other than generating massive incomes that surpasses the expenses of the British cell of the KGB.
He was already doing well regarding the issue. The first thing he did was rush the renovation of the shack into a three storey building. He pressured the construction workers to hurry up and did it so well that they finished in a week.
Before the opening of the club he'd met with different drug syndicates and had offered them his club for their use as a meeting place and also an underworld market. He had given them this offer and had only asked for thirty percent of what they make via his club. Many had rejected him but over twenty of them had accepted his offer.
Harry, however, hadn't been foolish enough to meet with these drug lords personally. After his ambush and the signing of the agreement which now had him entrenched in illegalities, the first thing he did was create an alter ego.
During an engineering workshop Harry met an old robotics expert who had droned on and on about a type of robotic clones called LMDs, Life Model Decoys. They allegedly are robotic lookalikes that can mimic the person they are made to look like down to their tics and micro expressions.
According the old man a mercenary had been hired to assassinate a secret elite government official but had instead ended up assassinating the man's LMD. Making a lemonade out of his situation, the merc took the robot and sold it to blackmarket scientists.
What Harry did was try to confirm if the old robotic engineer's tale was true. He had visited the man and with a couple of fresh pounds notes he'd managed to loosen the aged scientist's lips and the man had told him where to find the scientists who had bought the LMD.
Harry found it without stress and bought it from the scientists whom the merc had sold it to. It took him just two days to study the robot and create a blueprint of it. When he'd been studying it he'd discovered several trackers in it which he had first traced back their source before destroying them.
He later hacked into the satellite of a popular British media and had used it to locate the coordinates the trackers had been transmitting to. It was some sort of military base in New York. He had plans to investigate them later but for now he had more on his plate.
After figuring out all there is to the LMD Harry had then tried to create one for himself. The thing was just perfect for what he needed, an alter ego. But he'd soon discovered why the blackmarket scientists had been quick to sell it to him. The money needed to reverse engineer the clone robot was immense. Harry had willingly sacrificed it though, the robot after all was to save his reputation which was one of his biggest sources of income.
He created an LMD for himself but didn't use himself as a template. Instead he used three different unpopular sitcom actors. Even with these he added an extra cautionary measure to the LMD; it's to always wear a stuffed lion head similar to the one mascots wear.
This lion headed LMD had been who the drug lords had met with and it was actually the robot not Harry who was, as of the moment, entering the house of Dr. Helberg. All Harry's illegal dealings were going to be overseen by the LMD, who had already been dubbed Mister Puma by the underworld.
His club was going to deal in drugs but if it's ever discovered and an investigation is led then it'll will all be traced back to Mister Puma. All the income earned by Puma at the end of the day will be Harry's and he is going to forge fake financial records that will explain this generous external income and if the forgery is ever discovered then he already had evidence prepared that shows that Mister Puma had been blackmailing him to launder money.
The robot was a life saver. Now Harry can be assured that his reputation was not at risk of being jeopardized and he can also seize this opportunity that the Knights of Rodina had given him to quadruple his wealth. It was a win win situation for him. He will expand his power and when it's time he was going to make Silbern and his associates burn.
Mister Puma and his guards who had no link to Heracles, but had been recruited in the same with which the PSC had selected their bodyguard employees, walked into the living room of the surgeon.
Roy Helberg was a short and round man with a bald haired that was shaved so cleanly that it reflected the light coming from the bulbs on his ceiling. He was shocked to have strangers enter into his abode unannounced. He got up, his face fixed in a frown. "I don't know what you lot are doing here or how you got in but if you don't leave right now then I'm calling the police," he threatened.
Harry who was psychically controlling the LMD, turned to look at his guards. To be subtle he had made them carry just sidearms. He bet if they had been sporting big guns Helberg wouldn't have been so quick to issue that threat.
Mister Puma raised his hands in mock surrender. "No need to get all hostile, doc," he said, "I'm just here for business."
Helberg scowled at all of them then gesture toward his door. "Leave now," he said, "I don't do business with disreputable mascots."
"No," Mister Puma agreed with him, nodding his head, "only disreputable moms. Tell me doc was it love or lust that drove you to harvest a child's organs for Lina Dalton's daughter."
It was like the wind was taken out of his sails. All his arrogance and braggadocios ceased. His eyes looked like they were about to pop out of his head. "H… How do you know about that?" The doctor stammered in disbelief.
"That's for me to know, doctor, and for you to never find out," Mister Puma answered. "Now are you going to welcome us in properly?"
Helberg just stood there staring at the Lion headed man stupidly. Puma shook his head and straightened his golden suit then he sat down comfortably on the man's white settee. He raised his lion head and glared at the doctor who was still staring at him.
Puma brought out his pistol, cocked it and released a shot in the air. This snapped Dr. Roy out of his state of shock. It was a good thing that the man lived far from urban areas else Puma wouldn't have been able to pull that move.
The gunshot didn't only snap the doctor out of his dumbfounded state it startled him so much he yelped and fell back on his seat.
"Are we welcome now, Doctor?" Puma asked from where he was already seated.
The doctor did not answer the question directed at him, instead he joined his hands together as if to pray and started pleading for his life. "Please, why did you come here? I…don't kill me please, I have a wife and family that needs me. Please gentleman let's reason this out."
Puma regarded the pathetic man with contempt. "I wonder if your wife will take it well that you are using her to plead for your life after she finds out about your past relations with the lovely Mrs Dalton?" His sarcastic question caused the doctor to be overwhelmed in shock again. He was just staring ahead, mouth agape and speechless. Puma picked up a pillow beside him and threw it at the doctor's face. "Don't do that again, you useless man. I don't have all day so quit wasting my time."
The smack of the pillow jolted the doctor out of his relapse. He almost folded into himself and leaned back into the chair. "W…what do you want from me?"
Puma smiled, though none could see it through his stuffed lion head mask. "Now you are asking the right question, doc. As for what I want, well I'm in need of your your service indefinitely. You will be well compensated for it of course."
"You need a surgeon?" Helberg asked frowning.
"Don't play dumb with me, Doctor, don't," Puma warned, his tone gruffly conveying the threat. "The service I refer to is the same which you offered Lina Dalton."
The doctor started to shake his head from side to side so frantically that Puma feared it falling off and ending their chance of acquiring the one time organ harvester's services. "No…no, no, I can't do this. That was a special case. I can't do this. I won't do this."
Puma stood up immediately. "It's unfortunate that you are refusing to hear my offer before I can make a complete proposal," he said, shaking his head in mock sadness. "I guess your wife will need to know about your illicit activities and the authorities need to be informed about the heinous crime you willingly committed. Good day, Dr. Helberg. It was unpleasant meeting you."
Puma turned around and motioned for his guards to lead the way out. They hadn't even reached the door when they heard a frustrated and despaired call of "wait, please wait." The doctor called them back, just as Puma had known he would after he issued the threat.
Halting, Puma sighed and turned around. "Do you take pleasure in wasting my time, doctor?" He asked, tone laced with irritation.
"Please," Roy Helberg said, kneeling down. "I will do anything else you want…but please not this."
"First you waste my time and now you attempt to negotiate with me. Do I look like that sort of business man to you?" Puma drawled. "Horrible day to you, Mr. Helberg. I look forward to seeing you on the news."
As he made to turn away, the doctor got up and rushed over. "Alright, alright. Don't leave, please. I will do it. Whatever is it you are asking…I will do it."
Harry smiled through Puma. His skills at manipulation was improving by leaps and bounds, though he wasn't satisfied with how he had just gone about blackmailing the doctor. He had been going for a subtler effect, like in Jack's case, but the doctor had forced his hand. The idiot needed everything to be spelled out for him and wouldn't know subtlety even if it hits him in the face.
Puma instead of responding, opened his suit and brought out a document and a pen. He handed both over to the doctor. Understanding what was being demanded of him, Helberg took the document and pen. He glanced through the document briefly and though he became pale and was looking queazy, he signed it and returned it. Puma took both items back and returned them to where he had retrieved them from.
He could understand why Puma looked like he'd just been neutered. That document was the underworld equivalent of an employee contract. In syndicates, to build trust, all involved would sign such documents to secure their rights of getting their cuts, but it also secured their chance of getting jail time if the organization was busted. The latter purpose went a long way in quelling betrayals.
"You will receive a call from a private number every Saturday at eight in the morning. Don't pick the call. Two minutes after the call, on the first Saturday, you will receive a message with an address on it. Delete the message but head over to the address. The message won't ever be sent again so memorize the address. Go to this address anytime we give you a call on Saturdays. It's where you will be doing the harvesting," Puma instructed and received a demure nod from the downtrodden man.
Not sparing the man another glance, Puma turned around and walked out of the house with his guards. What Puma hadn't informed the doctor was that there will be guards at the facility in that address that will check his phone to see if he delete the message next Saturday. The facility also have CCTVs that were not only for monitoring the doctor but also taking incriminating videos that Harry meant to use as blackmail to keep the doctor chained to him.
As for where he'd be getting the products the doctor would be working on. That has been the easiest part of this illegal ring Harry meant to start. He didn't plan on kidnapping children like other syndicates do. Why should he when there are people who die daily in London. Illegal slugfest pit fights, unfortunate homeless people who end up dying for different reasons from hunger to illnesses; the latter group will be more than enough even. He plan to create a spy network with the homeless. They will alert him to the death of their fellows and the deaths of those who participates in these illegal wrestlings then he will have his men move in and retrieve the bodies.
Harry had this already planned out. He will deliver to the Knights of Rodina and try his darndest to not lose all he'd achieved in the process of doing so. But this was only temporary. Explicit illegalities like this didn't appeal to him. He preferred being a powerful man not scared of doing what's necessary and having the resource to do it than being a criminal who couldn't even use his money in peace.
Plans were already in motion to see him free from Silbern and his ilk and when that's done he will quit, Mister Puma will disappear and never be heard from again and Harry will cut all blaring ties to underworld, but in the meantime he is going to make as much as he can from being Puma.
~Break~
Harry was in his office at Hesperus, the nightclub he'd opened, writing the outlines for his next month columns in the New Social when he got a knock on the door. The knock was three quick taps followed by a long pause and two slow taps. This coded rapping revealed to Harry who was at the door.
"Step on in," he replied, using their arranged signal that his associate had insisted on for Harry to confirm its really him and not someone who was out to get his associate.
The door swung open and a bald pale-skinned man wearing leather dress shoes, white dress shirt, and a waistcoat entered the office and quickly closed the door behind him, shutting off the flow of blaring music from downstairs.
"Mr. Potter," he said in greeting, his tone and expression as cold as his icy blue eyes.
"Mr. Preverus," Harry responded. This was none other than Montague 'Monty' Preverus, Harry's indomitable private investigator.
This was the only individual under Harry's employ that he had no solid control over and that didn't really sit well with him. He'd met Preverus via an advert placement on a newspaper. Harry was the man's first costumer since Preverus took on this profession. Every other person had been wary about the man because there was something oppressing about his presence. He possessed an aura of maliciousness that make even animals stay away from him. This Harry have witnessed a few times, he'd seen dogs bolt just at Preverus' mere presence.
The man has never had such effect on Harry and Harry had hired the man then because his service had been ridiculously cheap, what's with him having never had a single customer. Harry had frankly been expecting incompetence, or worse Montague's death, when he'd hired the man for the Wingate case but the man had surprised him. He'd surprised him very much.
"Please," Harry said, motioning for the man to take a seat.
With a steady grace and quickness that would make many a commando green with envy, Monty took his seat, facing Harry. "You have a nice club here, Mr. Potter," Monty said in a voice that was utterly devoid of emotion, hindering Harry from gauging him.
"Thank you."
"Do you know that drugs are being sold here?" Monty enquired, fixing Harry with a measuring look.
Harry didn't stop what he was doing. He kept on writing and straightening out his outlines. It helped him hone his multitasking skill. "I have been doing my best to stop it."
There wasn't an immediately reply from the man which suggested to Harry that he may not have bought the lie. Montague was very very good at spotting lies. It was almost like he was a psychic or something. That might not be far from the truth if one consider all the mutants and supernaturals running around these days.
"Do you want me to investigate the issue?" Monty offered.
Harry didn't immediately shake his head as his quickness to reject the offer might give him away. What he did was continue his writing for a few minutes then he dropped the pen and leaned back in his chair to give the investigator all his attention. "Frankly, Monty, it'd be best if you don't. If you think I'm profiting from it then you are right. But I'd also like to see it gone yet the time for that has not come. When it does, why, you may be the first to know if you accept the offer that made me invite you here today."
Smartly Harry had taken the spotlight from his business in the club back to the reason for this meeting.
Monty narrowed his eyes in what Harry would have surmised as suspicion if the expression wasn't immediately cleared off the man's face as quick as it had appeared. "What's this special offer then?" Monty asked placing his hands on his knees and giving Harry his full attention.
Harry, instead of answering immediately, opened a drawer by his side of the desk and retrieved from it a ledger, which he then placed on the table and gently slid over to Preverus.
Monty, giving Harry one last scrutinizing look, picked up the ledger and cracked it open.
Harry went back to writing his outlines as the private investigator went through the ledger with a sort of patience a younger man would have lacked. There was a comfortable silence between employer and worker that was only interrupted by the scratch of pen on paper and the turning of pages.
Harry had written almost five hundred words and the minute hand on the clock in his office had moved thirty times when he heard a soft thud indicating that something had been dropped on the table. He ceased the movement of the pen and inclined his head upward. The ledger was back on top of the table and Monty was watching him.
Harry tried not to open his mouth in shock. It couldn't be that the man had read everything so quickly, could it? The ledger had three hundred and forty two pages after all.
"Are you done?" Harry asked, doing his best to keep the surprise from his tone. By the smile on Monty's face when he responded with a nod Harry failed. He knew only one person who could read that fast: himself. "You read everything?"
Monty nodded again, smile diminishing to just a smirk. "Every last word."
"Huh," Harry muttered. Must be photographic memory, he thought and shrugged. He decided to focus on the reason for this meeting rather than speculating about Monty's perusal oddness. "So what do you think?"
"First of all, I'd like you to answer me this—what inspired the name?"
Said name was the name of the project Harry was proposing to Monty, the ledger had contained all the details about this project; project Aegis of Vasaio.
"You understand that it means Shield of Potter right?" Harry asked. Monty nodded to confirm that he'd indeed done his translation. "I picked it because the project will be just as the name implies, my shield."
"Why make it just your shield. Won't it be more profiting and relatively more rewarding inasmuch as you may get some clandestine benefits if you offer the services of this shield to others, specifically the elite?" Monty suggested, looking from Harry to the ledger thoughtfully.
Harry did not find his suggestion smart.
"And I guess you have an idea where we can get quality and experienced staff of a great number capable of being equipollent with demand?" Harry asked, arched eyebrows expressing his dubious reception of the older man's suggestion.
Monty was not deterred by the look though and for that Harry decided to listen to the man's idea. "We could use the same method you and Wilde employed in gathering experienced workers for Heracles," Monty said.
This time Harry didn't bother holding back his sigh. The unintelligent advise from Monty, who he'd thought was a very intelligent man, deserved the slight disrespect. He dropped his pen and sat up fully on his chair, staring incredulously at the private investigator. "You know the purpose of this project right? You read the ledger cover to cover?"
Monty nodded a bit jerkily to convey his irritation at Harry's mocking tone. "The Soviets have placed you in a bind. There were no specifics there though."
"When I think you need to know the pertinent details then they'll be made known to you," Harry said, dismissively, wanting to get back to the main topic. "Since you read the purpose of Aegis of Vasaio then how can you suggest I fill it with vermins and riffraffs that could sell me to the Knights of Rodina instead of shielding me from them?"
Monty quirked his brows in astonishment. "Yet you trust these vermins and riffraffs to protect high profile customers."
They was a statement more than a question yet Harry decided to answer it as he knew Monty was probing for an answer anyway. "Some are fanatically loyal to me seeing as I was the one to deliver them from prison, poverty and the likes. I use these fanatics to keep an eye on the ones that are not fanatics. It's ingenious if I do say so myself. Just about a week ago one of the fanatics contacted me about a gang reaching out to one of his fellow bodyguards to help them in abducting the client said bodyguard had been assigned to. The man due to poverty and greed accepted the offer as they were willing to pay him ten times what he earns at Heracles. I was able to put a stop to the plot and at the same time make an example out of the greedy bodyguard, an example that will go a long way to make the others think twice before crossing Heracles."
Harry wasn't just being frivolous with sharing his secrets. Monty won't be making it out of this club alive if he were to reject Harry's offer. The ledger he'd read contained Harry's only feasible plan for neutralizing Silbern and his people and he couldn't risk that plan getting back to the German bastard.
A silence was maintained between boy and man for a long while as Monty looked to be considering something and Harry was content with just watching him and gauging him. "I have a plan that will make using Heracles method of recruiting risk free of loyalty and trust issues."
"But," Harry probed, sensing the unmentioned implication of an attached condition.
"But," Monty continued slowly, "explaining the plan to you would reveal an important secret of mine so I must extract a promise from you if you are to hear this secret."
"You want me to swear to never share this secret right?" Harry asked then continued without waiting for an affirmative gesture from the man. "That's fine. I promise, whatever this secret is, I won't speak a word of it to anyone that is not you."
Monty smiled fondly and somewhat exasperatedly. "No, no, a promise to keep the secret is pretty much basic. What I'm trying to ask for will also determine if I will accept the offer you made in the ledger of heading this project. If I get a yes from you then you will definitely get a yes from me."
Harry narrowed his eyes and studied the man intensely. "This is sounding more like a request rather than a promise."
"Consider it both," Preverus said.
"Alright, let's hear it."
Monty gave him a suspicious look. He was probably wondering if Harry would seriously agree to his promise. Harry had no idea if he was going to agree to anything. Depending on the request his response was. If it end up being something he's against he might just agree to it but never fulfill his part of the deal.
"I have enemies, enemies who are not even aware that they are my enemies," Monty started.
"Threat ratio?" Harry asked curiously.
"Supernatural." Came the response eliciting a stiffness in posture from Harry.
"Magical or Mutant."
For the first time Harry managed to evoke a look of unfeigned surprise from Monty Preverus. "Wait, you know about the magical world? B… but all my sources said you haven't been in contact with that part of your life since Halloween 1981," Monty said, wondering out loud.
Harry himself was doing his own wondering, though within. Monty's words had unraveled a bit of the man's personality for Harry's perusal. That the man knew about the magical world meant that he was somehow connected to it. His expertise and impossible success in his field of work would suggest that said connection was him being a wizard. Harry wouldn't doubt it if Monty was only so good because of magic.
Is this the secret he was beating around the bush about? Harry wondered, but he wouldn't know without asking so he continued the conversation, preparing for the enquiry.
"Indeed I haven't had any interaction with that world since that fateful day," Harry confirmed, keeping a close watch on Monty who was gradually growing out of his surprised state.
"Then how do you know about magic?" Was the perplexed response he got from the bald man.
"I can remember everything I have perceived through any of the five senses and other sensory modes since my brain developed enough to make me actively aware," Harry's said, staring at the man searchingly, having persevered with his study of the man. "This means I can remember being born with another, a few bits of being in the womb, and most definitely I can recall living in a magical home with a twin."
Harry breathed a sigh. He didn't like that period of his memories, it always remind him of everything he lost and the thing he was supposed to have now but didn't anymore.
He decided to get the conversation back on track before he'd be quizzed by Monty. No, it was his turn to quiz the private investigator. "Are you magical."
"Kind of," Monty replied. At the question his lagging surprised immediately bled off and his face was overcome with a frown.
"Is the proper answer to that question connected to your, yet to be voiced, request?" Harry asked and got a small nod from the PI. "Alright. I want you to tell me everything. Spare no detail."
And that was how Harry came to know the story of Montague Preverus who had a real name. His actual name was Manto Mopsus, a former blind Professor of Divination at Hogwarts who was bitten in Knockturn Alley two years after his retirement as punishment for delaying in paying the debt he'd owed the Taff Clan vampire coven. It wasn't like Monty hadn't paid, he did pay, but it was decided that some punishment was needed for him taking too long to pay.
"... becoming a vampire was tough but I managed to live through it and I'm still doing so. It had some unforeseen benefits though. It didn't only cure my blindness but it took me back several years on the bio clock," Monty was saying, looking surprised now that Harry was at the receiving end of the shock induced disclosure of secrets.
"Who could have guessed," Harry said, referring to the PI being a hemovore.
"Didn't it ever strike you as odd that I only meet with you at nightimes?" Monty asked looking interested in Harry's response to that.
"In your line of work nightime meetings are the norm," Harry said, shrugging. He was busy going over the names Montague Preverus and Monty Mopsus in his head. "I believe there is a connection between your both names."
Monty for a moment looked taken aback that Harry had been able to figure that out so quickly. "Monty is quite similar to Manto, and prever is forecast or foretell in Portuguese. That's the connection."
"Interesting," Harry replied. "I assume the Taff Clan is the enemy you spoke of?"
"Indeed. I require a lot of resources to make them pay for what they did to me and you are the only one who can help me speed up the obtainment of these resources. Alone my revenge is going to take more than a few decades to realize but with your help… with your help I will have satisfied my vengeance in a year."
That surprised Harry. He of course knew the aid Monty was requesting for: funding for whatever he has planned for the Taff Clan. "I will agree to aid you if you promise me one thing."
"What is it?" Monty leaned forward on his chair, he placed his left hand atop the table as he did so.
"You will bring some of the bloodsuckers to me for study."
A grin split Monty's face and Harry saw why he never give fulll teeth smiles. Sharp fangs ardoned the edges of the PI's mouth where cuspids were supposed to be and as Harry continued looking he caught the man's blue eyes flashed red for a second. "I will be most glad to fulfill that request," Monty agreed, grinning wickedly.
Harry nodded. He might need to increase his lab space. There was already the LMD that he was studying. If he was to add vampires to the list then he is going to need more space and perhaps assistants. "So tell me, what exactly, in details, is the request… this promise you need from me?"
Even though he was sure he'd already guessed it, he knew it was wise to ask so he wouldn't end up making an ass of himself by assuming without clarifying.
"Funding mostly and should this Aegis project work then also permission to use it to further my goal of revenge," Monty said.
"Fine by me," Harry said, "just make sure I have a report on my desk about what you will be using the Agency for before you go ahead with doing so."
"That's fair," Monty said, expressing his agreement to that clause in the deal.
"Now, you said this secret of yours will absolve the trust risks of recruiting from the streets, prisons etc. May I know how."
"Simple," Monty declared, his morbid grin still present on his face. "I bite them."
That was all that was needed to be said about that. Harry, giving the man a knowing look, thought about what he knew of vampires from mythologies. Their bite make whoever they bite an underling. These underlings are unlimitedly loyal that their loyalty might appear to some as mind control. It is beyond the loyalty of a pack to their werewolf alpha, almost like a drug enhanced mind control.
"Wonderful idea, but I will only be assured of their loyalty to you," Harry pointed out grimly. "What assurance do I have of your loyalty to me."
"Isn't our deal enough?" Monty asked jokingly and earned an unimpressed look for it. "I can always bite you and swear loyalty to you as the supreme vampire."
"Quit the jokes, Preverus," Harry said. He didn't think the loyalty oath was such a bad idea but he didn't want to become a vampire. He loved power but not the likes that limited him more than they benefited him. What importance is immorality if for eternity he is a slave to hunger, hunger for blood—a hunger thousands of times greater than man's hunger for sustenance.
"Oh, I'm sure you will find a way. Frankly, I believe you already have an assurance else you wouldn't have invited me here in first place, planning to trust me with a project such as this."
That was true, or had been true. The deal he just made with Monty however put paid to that assurance. Said assurance was Monty relying on him for earning a living, but him promising to fund the man now took away that advantage. Not quite, as the deal could be considered as the new assurance, but Harry didn't think the financial dependency was enough to keep Monty loyal anymore. This was simply because he's now aware that the man is a vampire. Morality might be holding the former Hogwarts Professor from really going down the dark path to become rich but Harry suspected that if push comes to shove the man would glide down the dark path without looking back.
No, it was pertinent that he find something more serious to chain Montague Preverus, or Manto Mopsus as he now know him to be, to himself.
"Hmmm. You are not entirely wrong," he said responding to the man's voiced suspicion. "Anyway, vampires can only operate at night so how will the agency manage daytime business?"
Monty waved off the concern and said, "We can easily solve that by transferring your most fanatical employers in Heracles to Aegis and then they will be trained by the night crew to manage diurnal affairs of the agency."
Monty stating that the recruits who will be turned will need to train the day crew to get them up to snuff suggested that he won't be turning anyone but the best in the business. When Harry asked he got a chuckle from the man.
"Of course I won't be filling the Agency with vermins and riffraffs as you called them," he said, giving Harry a look that showed how much he thought of Harry's intelligence because of the question. Harry guessed that the look was a bit if payback for Harry's mocking tone when he'd first proposed the idea of recruiting from the streets. "The people we will be taking will include expert martial combatant, ex convicted assassins, serial killers, and other dangerously skilled individual in similar line of business."
"Well, that's encouraging as I don't want the agency to be a knock off of Heracles but to be something that will make MI6 and CIA look look like kindergarten organizations next to it." He paused after receiving an understanding nod from the man. He was mulling over the idea Monty had proposed moments ago. It was a nice idea but also had a lot of risks. "You are also given the permission to make the services of the agency available to the elites. But only at outrageous prices and after they are done helping me with the Knights of Rodina."
"Understood. But in that case Aegis of Vasaio won't do as a name."
Harry furrowed his brows. "Why?"
"Because the agency won't only be the shield of a Vasaio," Preverus stated in a telling manner.
Harry shrugged. "Then we will leave it as just Aegis."
"Best not. Wouldn't want to step on a lion's tail now, would we? Or rather I should say 'an eagle's tail'."
Harry immediately understood what Monty was talking about. Using just Aegis would get them the attention of the world biggest intelligence agency in the world who went by the name SHIELD. It'd be like an ancient Greek naming their firstborn son Zeus. The wrath of the gods would be felt for that just as the scrutiny of SHIELD would be felt by Harry's agency if they were to just only go by Aegis.
SHIELD was so dangerous that not many even knew of them. Harry only knew about them through Wilde who'd had drunk chats about the organization with his elite friends in the past. Harry did wonder how Monty knew about SHIELD, but didn't really think it was important.
"Make it Ägis Von Kraft then. The German name would also make it not hard but certainly more difficult for people to trace it back to me. AK-07 for short."
"Seven?" Monty asked, confused about the numerical addition.
"A-Kay-o-seven," Harry corrected. "Seven because it's the number of power, the magical number of balance, rebirth, magic, and value."
"AK-07," Monty said, testing the name. "And here I was thinking you were going to go with something like Agency for Exclusive Grievous Illegality Subduement."
Harry stopped and gave him a bewildered look at the ridiculous name. Monty's lips twitched and both of them began to smile. Soon they burst out laughing unable to help it after what just came out of the PI's mouth. After the laughter ended, Monty went over to Harry's liquor cabinet which had only ever been frequented by Wilde.
"We should celebrate this unholy alliance," Preverus announced, mixing a nitrogen cocktail and pouring into two rocks glasses. He came over to Harry and placed one of them before him. "Guess I will have to be the responsible adult here… so, no more than a sip."
Harry chuckled and picked up the icy cold glass which was exuding vapor like smoke from a burning log. "Cheers to a successful endeavour," he said, clicking his glass against Monty's.
"And to the devouring of our respective enemies," Monty added and they both laughed, enjoying the kickoff of their alliance. But they both knew that this was just the inception. The journey was going to be critically dangerous, dangerous and very much bloody.