Chapter 24 – Argus: Business Relationships

The follow-up calls with Doctor Pietro Polendina over the next couple of weeks had been… well fruitful was underselling it. After some discussion, everyone agreed that electronic transmission of any code snippets and analysis was risky. So Rhodes was again acting as a courier, ferrying data modules both ways, with both teams agreeing to only use completely air-gapped systems for analysis.

That had been GNU's suggestion. "The more we dig into this, the more careful we have to be. We can't risk anyone or any scripts getting access to our analysis and realizing just how much we are learning."

And Polendina's two-person team had been suitably impressed with the analysis they had received in turn, to the point that he had been more explicit with his intentions to provide funding to The Lone Huntsmen's efforts.

"So, I've got two approved funds I can draw from for our purposes here. One is general discretionary, and I can pull some of that. And the second is specifically earmarked for Research and Development security improvements. I can safely divert most of that one to your team. Won't even impact my own research. Really, I barely touched it last year, and had to… creatively spend some of it at the end of the year so they didn't pull it out of the budget for us this year."

"That sounds stupid. So if you don't spend it, they take it away, so you just waste it?"

"Unfortunately, young man, that's how government funds often work."

"So," Pete was literally salivating, "how much are we talking about?"

"Oh, it's not going to be anything that will be noticed. Maybe two million lien."

Garek heard a strangled sound, and a quiet cursing from GNU.

"I… thanks Doc. That'll be extremely helpful."

"Now, I don't know how we'll get the funds to you. I expect you'll want to set up some sort of contracting company? I can't exactly send the money to you personally, Huntsman Grae. Just let me know when you get that all sorted out." He tapped his fingers on the desktop in front of him. "Oh, and part of that 'creative spending' I did last year was buying a bullhead, but really, I don't have time to use it. I was thinking of loaning that out to your team, too, since you say you'll need to travel a lot. We'll have to figure out how to handle that." He waggled his hands, as if to say it was another minor detail. "I'm no expert in these things. I'll leave it to you youngsters to figure out."

"Yeah… Yeah…" Garek coughed. "That's great Doc, that'll keep us running for a few years, easy."

Polendina's face pinched for a moment, then he laughed. "Ahhh. No Huntsman Grae, that's two million lien for the last three months of this year. If your team keeps showing results, I'll be able to repeat that next January, too since the budget's already set. Maybe even increase it the year after."

There was a sound of someone hitting the floor on the voice-only channel.

"I… I think that's great, Doc." Garek said in a small voice. "We'll… work out the details on our end and get back to you…" and he ended the call, but not before he saw Polendina's amused expression.

There was a very long silence. GNU enabled video on their end, and the basemenet of the Emporium came into view. Two of the Lone Huntsmen sat at the conference table, facing the camera. GNU was chewing her lip. BA didn't seem overly fazed, though he had a predatory look on his face. There was a gap in between GNU and BA until a pair of hands rose from beneath it, grasped the edge, and Pete levered himself back up off the floor. He looked like he was trying to remember how to breathe.

"I can't believe it. Two million Lien…" Pete made another choking sound. BA just shrugged, and Pete goggled at him. "Are you insane? That's more money than I've ever imagined!"

"Don't get overexcited, Pete. I mean the bullhead is going to be a game changer. But even if the bullhead and some other gear doesn't come out of that budget, it costs tens of thousands of lien per month to keep a bird like that in the air. And we'll probably need to hire a few staffers as this thing grows."

"And we'll have to show Dr. Polendina that we are actually doing something valuable with that money. It's not an endless slush fund."

"Yeah. But still. That's more money that any of us ever imagined having available."

Pete was gradually recovering. He frowned, his natural paranoia kicking in. "We need to figure out how to hide our funding. We can't make it obvious that we've got ties to Polendina…"

"Without breaking the law," GNU added. "Anybody know how to do that?"

BA and Garek shook their heads. "That's gonna be a no."

"Great."

Selene spoke up, and Garek rotated the scroll toward her. "We could request Helena's assistance. Her family is extremely well-positioned in Argus."

A quick call later, and Helena had expressed her willingness to help. "I don't know anything about that, but my father does a lot of business and I know he uses some high-powered attorneys for that. I can ask him."

"Mr. Grae? My name is Garrison Muenster, Accountancy Law. I was told you wished to consult with me."

"Ah, yessir. I was hoping you could provide some advice."

"A consultation is, unfortunately, not free. We've learned over the decades that a client not willing to pay for a consultation is very unlikely to wish to pay our rates."

"I can understand that."

"Our consultation rate is 500 lien per hour. You can make an appointment with our secretary."

Garek paled slightly, but then rallied. Two million lien. This was not coming out of his pocket. "That's… reasonable? I would like to meet outside your offices, if possible."

"Huntsman Grae, we do not provide consultancy for illegal activities."

"It's not. We're just overly cautious, and with good reason."

"I'm not sure-"

"I'll pay you 1000 per hour for the inconvenience. Just let me know when you are available."

"Huntsman Grae, I must confess, were the person who asked me to contact you not… very well known to me… I would not entertain your request. I will be having words with them if you are wasting my time."

"I appreciate that."

He sighed. "Are you available this evening, after business hours? You appear to be eager to obtain this… advice."

"I'll be available, since you are offering. Would you like me to meet you at your offices and walk or drive to a location from there?"

"This is… most irregular, Huntsman. But unless you hear otherwise from me, assume this to be acceptable."

He picked up the phone. "Ms. Nikos, I need to ask you a few more questions about this Huntsman."

Around 6:00 that evening, Garek pulled up to the law offices of Muenster and Browne in his rental car. The building façade was impressive and in an extremely wealthy area of town.

"Mr. Grae, I presume?"

He nodded. "Mr. Muenster."

"Please, allow me to drive."

"Of course."

Garek pulled to the curb and parked, walked back to the other vehicle and climbed into the passenger seat.

"Before we proceed, I should inform you that I called Ms. Nikos and asked her whether I was at risk of being ransomed, or worse. I am well aware of her family connections, as well as her career. She indicated that, despite the frankly suspect requests you were making, that I need have no fear for my safety. I've chosen to believe this."

"Sorry about that. I have reasons to be paranoid, and none of them are your fault."

"Tell me no details until we have had an opportunity to sign an NDA. Where would you like to discuss further?"

"How about the Parkview Hotel? Any concerns meeting in our suite?"

"Our? Are there others who might overhear?"

"My fiancé and I have a young ward, and a bodyguard. Selene will be there, but I've had the other two make separate arrangements for the evening." Cinder was, even now, introducing Crys to the arcade. He was unsure how that would work out.

"Very well."

At the hotel, they made their way to the upstairs suite to find Selene seated at the table. "And this must be your fiancé, Miss Selene. Charmed."

"Sir."

He looked around. "I must say, Huntsman, the accommodations do not fill me with confidence that you require, nor can you afford, our services. Likewise, we do not get many Huntsmen as clients. It's not usually worth the cost based on their financials. Likewise faunus, with rare exceptions."

"You're blunt, and I think you'll be surprised. Please, have a seat."

"I charge by the hour, I am required to be blunt, for the benefit of our clients. And I should disclose I am charging you for the travel time from my office to here and back to my home as well."

"Fair."

"Fine. Let us begin." He opened his briefcase and handed over a form. "This our standard binding non-disclosure agreement, designating you as my client on an as-needed hourly basis. Before we proceed, I will need you to sign this as an empowered representative of you or your organization."

"We don't yet have a formal organization defined."

"Then list it as an unregistered organization. We can revise the agreement as needed after we have discussed further." He paused. "This is for your protection, Mr. Grae. I would lose my reputation and career were I to disclose client information after signing this."

Garek skimmed through it. "One moment, if you would." He took out his scroll, took a photo of it, and sent it to the LH. The response was basically Uhhhh what the fuck do we know, looks good to us. Want to hire an attorney to review it?" Selene merely shrugged.

Gahhhh.

He signed it, and handed back to the advocate who countersigned. "I may ask for a revised agreement later."

"Acceptable, or we can wait for your attorney to review the language."

"Let's go with it for now."

"Very well. Begin. How may we be of assistance?"

Garek took a deep breath, and repeated the words the group had agreed on earlier. "We have a nonprofit unregistered enterprise that we have been operating out of pocket. We've managed to obtain significant external funding now, out of kingdom, but there are… individuals that if they learned of our funding sources… well at least it would be politically damaging, and at worst, it could result in physical harm to our members."

"That shows… remarkable candor."

"You charge by the hour."

"Touche'. Can you tell me more about this… nonprofit. What its purpose is, what type of expenditures, and source of funding that we are concerned about, taxation goals, etc."

"The nonprofit currently consists of a group of individuals who are researching an illegal network of out of Kingdom criminals, with an eye toward identifying threats. At some point in the future, we may be forced to directly intervene or notify the proper authorities."

The man blinked at Garek, looked to Selene for confirmation. She nodded. He turned back to Garek. "You are serious…"

"You are charging by the hour, why would I make that up?"

"Unusual. And your income sources?"

"Like I said, we've been basically paying out of pocket. So our income sources are from our other jobs, so far."

"A very poor business model, nonprofit or not. What type of research, if I might ask?"

"Mostly identifying malicious computer code, electronic and physical security exploits. Identifying compromised individuals as well. These are non-state actors, and we are learning that some of them are rather dangerous individuals."

"You… have been doing this… as a non-profit. Out of your own pocket. That seems rather dangerous for very little reward."

"We are rather skittish. And yeah we've been operating on a shoestring budget."

"I am finding this… rather difficult to believe, Huntsman Grae. And this is why you did not wish to meet in our offices?"

"We're concerned about electronic security, especially. Do you have an electronic security system in your offices? Microphones? Do you discuss clients by name over scroll call? These are things that would concern us."

"Huntsman-"

"We are willing to pay for your indulgence of our paranoia, Mr. Muenster."

"I still fail to see how you can afford our base rates, much less our… indulgence."

"Our work has come to the attention of a research division of the Atlas military." There was no sense keeping that a secret from this man. They'd agreed they had to tell him something. "They wish to provide certain funding, which will dramatically increase our capabilities, but we can't risk making it easy to tell that we have so much funding, nor where it's coming from."

The advocate sat back. "I… You are serious."

"Two million lien per year in funding 'serious', as a starting point."

The man coughed.

"Plus some… donated use of larger equipment."

"For… example…"

"A military-grade bullhead, I'm led to believe, state of the art. Possibly some other fun gadgets that are probably pretty pricey."

"Huntsman Grae… that is… I have never before been required to handle such an… unorthodox situation."

"Ah. So you aren't interested?"

"I am fascinated, Huntsman. Simply fascinated."

"I'd like to bring some other members of our team into the conversation, if you don't mind." Garek lifted his scroll. "Audio only."

"They would have to agree to be bound by your signature on the NDA, until we can make it more formal."

"Sure." He pulled them all into the call.

"Very well. Please, if you would be so kind, provide me additional detail regarding this funding, any other assets to be provided. Also, I would like to know the specific roles and services each of you provide. You do not have to provide anything that would place you at risk, but the more information I have, the more effectively I can represent you."

Garek started: "I am a Huntsman and… somewhat of a field resource."

"He's our negotiator and public contact as well," Pete spoke up on the scroll.

"Very well. That's important to know. And what is your citizenship? It's less important considering your Huntsman status, but-

"Mistralian."

"Very well. Miss Selene?"

"I am… unsure of my role?"

"Selene is our wonderkin." To her surprise, it was BA who spoke up. "Garek's told us of at least three times that her negotiation skills have gotten them out of a jam, though he's been cagey with some of the details."

"Another ambassador of sorts, then. Very well. And citizenship?"

"Valean," Selene offered. At least on paper.

BA spoke next. "I am head of physical security and weaponry / defense consultant. I've got Atlas military training."

"Ah... and Atlas citizenship?"

"Yes."

"That's very useful. Thank you."

GNU was next. "Head of network and communications security. Mistralian."

And finally, Pete. "Hmmm… I guess I'm the CEO? I provide workspace for everyone. I'm Mistralian too."

"Alright. So, each of you provides a discrete service, in some ways, but you coordinate together. And you may end up leasing various assets. And your activities, at least those of Huntsman Grae, cannot truly remain hidden, but the rest can, to some extent."

"That's correct enough."

"And these… criminals you are researching. Are they state actors? Organized crime?

"Not to our knowledge. They are international, operating across kingdom lines but not directly related to any of the criminal families or gangs that operate in the major cities. I'd call them closer to a terrorist group. Not related to these." Garek pointed to his ears.

"Also helpful. Let us say that… it would have made things more difficult if they had direct ties to Mistralian organized crime."

He pulled out a paper notepad, and begin sketching out a series of boxes. "It will take me some time to build a true proposal for you, but here is my thought process."

What the man sketched out over the next hour was… unfathomable. It consisted of a spiderweb of shell companies spread across three continents, and after a suggestion by Garek, Menagerie was added. Several of them were single-purpose, and would only have registered agents, attorneys that Mr. Muenster knew personally in those Kingdoms through work relationships. Others would be fronts or would provide legitimate services. A couple were actually only to be used one time, and then immediately shut down and all records disposed of, to facilitate the creation of other more permanent ones.

For example, BA aka Broken Arrow would be the owner and CEO of at least two companies providing private security services in Atlas and Mistral.

"By having your core business licensed in Atlas, with a sister company in Mistral, you can transfer sizeable funds between the two with fewer alarms triggered and fewer tax penalties. And a private security firm will not raise eyebrows for having access to military equipment, nor larger amounts of funding. This will be the core of your arrangement."

"That's… very convenient."

"Indeed. And this network of companies takes pains to keep each of your identities shielded, and each associated with leadership in only one business entity directly, though you can be contracted by each other, as long as it is discrete. Thus you will be associated with each other through indirect business relationships. Of course, behind the curtain of these paper entities, you will all be able to continue coordinating your activities. I would suggest all of you be aware of the overall network, but name one of your number to act as the coordinator to ensure the others do not make an error and jeopardize separateness.

"That would be Pete," BA said.

"Excellent. I would caution you against spending significant amounts of time in public together, of course, unless absolutely required, to maintain the façade that I am being paid a sizeable sum to create for you." He nodded to Selene and Garek. "There will of course be exceptions to that rule."

"You said a sizeable sum. Exactly how much…" Pete began.

"Sizeable, but not enough to impact your operations, I suspect. Now. I believe I have done all that I can here. I shall continue working on this over the next week and will contact you when it is complete."

"Mr. Muenster… how much of this can you do hardcopy only?"

The man blinked, then frowned. "You are that… concerned?"

"We have no information at all, at this time, regarding whether any Mistralian financial or legal institutions have been compromised, so don't consider this a warning of any kind. Just call us overly cautious."

"Very well. In that case, the timeline increases to three weeks. I will avoid using the computer resources of my offices, and will utilize couriers to coordinate with my counterparts in Vacuo and Vale, which will take time for round-trip transportation of hardcopy documents. Menagerie will have to wait, as we do not have such an agent there, but Huntsman Grae is an obvious choice to serve as an officer for that portion. This will add tens of thousands of lien to the costs." He looked at them carefully. "Do you have the funds, now, to provide the retainer required for this? It will be… significant, and I will need such prior to these entities being set up and the funding available from Atlas."

"How significant?"

"Fifty thousand lien for the retainer. That will cover about half of the setup costs. I also propose an ongoing retainer for handling taxation and inter-Kingdom tariffs in the amount of 5% of funds handled per year." Pete choked, and Muenster looked offended. "I think you will find that this is a customary fee, and we are providing a significant service."

"Ignore Pete, Mr. Muenster, he's used to us running on a pizza delivery budget. I have… just enough savings to cover that. But I will be wiped out afterward."

"Hmm… given the lucrative nature, I will accept half payment tomorrow, with the rest contingent on setting up the first two businesses of Mr. BA in order to begin transferring funds, then his Mistralian security firm can pay the other half of the first retainer and at some point, you can be reimbursed. Is this acceptable?"

"More than."

"On behalf of Muenster and Browne, I look forward to a long business relationship. Gentlemen and ladies. Mr. Grae, do you wish a ride back to your automobile?"

"Eh? Nah I'll pick it up later."

"Very well. I bid you goodbye."

There was a long silence as the video from the Lone Huntsment clicked on. Everyone looked at each other.

"So… uhhh… does anyone here actually understand what we just agreed to?"

A week later, Selene sat in the hotel, and held the scroll in her lap. She had decided to send her first note to her mother. Nothing of substance. Just a quick not that she had arrived back in Argus and things were well. She decided to omit her adventures and new bodyguard, for the moment, which they were still trying to decide how to handle themselves. She didn't really expect an answer, and intended to write a longer note to be delivered by Nevermore chick the following day.

She was shocked to receive a response in minutes.

Daughter,

I received notification of your message almost immediately, and I find myself pleased and confused. I now note that the scroll you provided displays an active connection even now. It appears that Watts has enabled his own communications channels from Evernight to the CCT networks. I was unaware of this, though I should perhaps not have been surprised, and I do not believe the Queen is aware either, though she would not disapprove if he were serving her purposes using this communications method. It likely explains much of his effectiveness.

I would ask that you ascertain, if you are able, from your companions whether this poses a risk. If so, I will turn off the device and only enable it periodically when I travel, though it pains me to give up now what I did not know I had available to me.

With love,
Salem

She called GNU immediately, telling her that it appeared Watts had his own CCT, essentially, and the concerns that raised.

Eyes larger through the lenses of her glasses. "He what?!" GNU brought her scroll back over to a desk. "One minute." Selene listened to the staccato sound of keyboard keys and input devices. "Son of a bitch. I've got a pathtrace. He's in the Grimmlands?!" She brought her face back to Selene's eyes staring. Her voice lowered, tone disbelieving. "You gave a scroll to someone in his camp."

Selene paled. She had not thought that this could be ascertained. I had not occurred to her. "I… she…"

"Selene, are you trying to get us all killed? We are just now getting ourselves organized, Selene!"

"I am sorry… Garek-"

"Wait… Garek knows about this?"

"Yes, I-"

"Okay hold on a minute. This needs to be discussed." She tapped some more. "I'm downloading some telemetry data to review. Tell your contact to turn off the Scroll for… 24 hours." And I will know if they don't, and that will tell me a lot. "To give us time to analyze the risk vector here. And get you and Garek's asses down here tonight to discuss. Clear?"

"Yes. I am sorry."

"Stop apologizing. I know I sound pissed off, but I'm just terrified."

Two hours later, everyone was gathered at TLH Headquarters. It was a very tense meeting.

"You said I could use my own judgment," Garek started.

"Didn't fucking think that meant plopping one down wherever the hell it turns out Watts is working out of…" BA said. "Didn't think that had to be specified!

"Which apparently is the gods-be-damned grimmlands." Pete finished, but there was a note of triumph in his voice.

"Fair criticism," Garek said. "I'll take responsibility for it. Selene came to me, and made the suggestion."

"Why!? Why not bring it to our attention?"

"Because it's more personal than it is involved in our efforts," Selene explained.

That caused everyone to pause. You could see the wheels in Pete's head turning. "You're from there. That's what you ran away from."

Garek sighed.

BA just goggled at them. "I'm not making any more bets against Pete. Never again. World is too insane."

Pete frowned. "Tell me you aren't Watts' daughter or something."

"What!? No. I would rather eviscerate myself." Selene objected, nearly standing up.

"But you do have someone there."

"I do. She is not directly involved in their efforts, and to involve her would be a grave risk." Selene raised pain-filled eyes to the others. "My departure left her isolated and fragile. For both personal reasons, and to avoid risk to ourselves, I felt it necessary to have a way of communicating with her about my well-being."

"That's it?"

"That is all. I had not intended to discuss anything of our efforts or plans with her."

There were exhales around the table.

"And we can't use her as an… asset?" Pete asked.

"It would be… catastrophically dangerous to use her to spy on their forces." Garek said. "There's probably going to be a moment, at some point, where we need her whole and stable and siding with us. If we try to drag her in before that, it could blow up in our faces. We need to keep this as a personal matter."

BA and Pete started to argue, but it was GNU who held up her hand. She had remained silent through the entire discussion.

"That's enough." She said firmly. She turned to Garek and Selene. "I am angry that you both took this risk without discussing with us, but we were stupid enough," she glared at the other two original members, "to give you blank check on that, so I'm probably being unfair. It's my opinion that Selene and Garek are telling us the truth, and that we shouldn't put this person at risk.

Blinked.

"I've also analyzed the pathtracing and carrier data from the scroll. It appears that Watts is using a standard CCT data stream made up of garbage content, basically static, as a primary carrier so that he isn't detected by their standard security systems. There is additional data piggy-backed on that, similar to what we are doing, but different enough that the two side-channels don't conflict. If I had not been made aware of the location of the scroll, and Watts' presence, I would never have noticed, and the reverse should be true." She took a deep breath. "In fact, Selene may have done us a favor. I can't decrypt Watts communications this way, but I am going to start collecting the data with an eye toward that in the future. I don't have much hope, which is a good thing, because that should mean he can't do much with ours if he ever discovered it, either."

She turned a baleful eye on Selene, her glasses reflecting the light of the screens behind her. "I'm going to caution you against using high bandwidth in your communications with this person of yours. It's unlikely, but unlikely isn't zero, that video communications could saturate his connection, and cause him to investigate. Keep your communications to text, small images, or perhaps compressed video or audio messages. I will perform additional analysis, and give you some better parameters."

"Do you agree to abide by these restrictions, and to tell the other person? If they don't, I'll be forced to burn the scroll."

"Yes. Of course."

"Good. Anyone else have something to add?"

"You're the IT expert, GNU. We're going to defer to you on this one."

"Okay. Good. Let's get some rest. BA, can you hang back for a minute? I want to talk about the blue-level security protocols on the new bullhead we are getting.

Selene and Garek left up the stairs, followed by Pete.

Who returned thirty minutes later.

"They're gone. Headed to the hotel with Cinder. Man, Selene looked pretty beat up."

"Well, I was terrified. I shouldn't be the only one. That was stupid."

"GNU…"

"No, she's right," BA said. "Garek let his personal relationship with Selene cloud his judgment."

"Not you too."

"Since when did you become the trusting one, Pete."

"I'm the paranoid one, the fact that I trust them should tell you something."

"Point made. But you're the one who called a code blue, GNU. What didn't you want to say in front of them that couldn't wait?"

"It probably could, but…" she sighed. "I didn't tell Selene that we archive communications, and that I was, and will be, able to pull up the contents."

"Ah… yeah…"

"There's a reason I don't surf for porn on the secure scroll."

"Jackass, but thank you. There are things about your tastes in women that I do not need to know."

"I like them tall, thin, dark eyed-"

"You can halt that line of thinking right now." She peered at him over her glasses. "Unless you dramatically change your grooming habits."

"You're saying there's a chance."

"Or at least obtain some grooming habits."

"Damn, burnt… but back to what you were saying."

"Right." She took a breath. "Selene's contact… is her mother." She pulled up both messages to and from. "This is information that Selene didn't share with us, and I can understand why. It also explains why Garek and Selene are unwilling to risk her, and why I trust Selene to listen to me about being careful using the scroll." She let them read the contents. "And it's clear that the communications are, at least so far, purely personal. Selene told us the truth there as well."

"That's a relief."

"I intend to continue monitoring their communications, unless you tell me not to."

They both looked uncomfortable at that. "That feels… dirty."

"They scared me half out of my wits. I was seeing images of men storming the arcade and slaughtering us all. I think I'm entitled to a little caution, dirty or not."

BA sighed. "I'll allow it, for now. It looks like we're both holding back information, and that's not helpful. At some point, we need to resolve this."

"And they'll be disappointed when they find out."

"I'm disappointed already."

"Fine. We hold off for now. You've looked at Garek's too." It wasn't a question. "Anything of concern there?"

"No, he's been candid with us. I haven't found anything on the secure scroll that would indicate he's hiding anything."

"Alright. Keep an ear peeled, both sides."

They broke up. Feeling slightly sick. The easy camaraderie that had been building had been dealt a blow, and one that might worsen.

[A/N] And to make up for the last to chapters being small, this one was bit longer.!

So in part 1 of the chapter, TLH delve into the wonderful world of shell companies, registered agents, and offshore tax havens. Woohoo!

And part 2… Who watches the watchmen? Why they watch each other, of course. What could possibly go wrong?!

Oh wait, Salem signed her name onto the return message.

Everything can possibly go wrong.