Chapter 25 – Argus: Living Arrangements and Travel Plans
It had been almost a month since they met with Muenster and he had set things in motion as promised. The Lone Huntsmen were gathered at HQ, with Cinder upstairs now that the gaming tournament was in full swing. Their newest addition, the former bandit Crystal, had been roped into nominal bouncer, though it wasn't really required, since they hadn't yet figured out what to do with her beyond turning her into an errand runner.
Pete slid a printout to the middle of the table as he spoke. "I'm pleased to report that we are in business, ladies and gentlemen."
On the paper were a list of several companies:
-Black Arrow Security Technologies (BAST) based out of Atlas
-Mistral-Argus Security Consultants (MASC) based out of Argus
-Gazelle Communications Services in Argus
-Broken Moon Staffing Services in Vale
-Back Office Services and Supplies (BOSS) in Argus
-Vacuo Express Transport in Vacuo
-TBD ? in Menagerie
And a smattering of others.
BA spoke up first. "BAST is up, running, and funded with 500k lien. The first transfer to Mistral-Argus Security Consultants is in process, and should be completed tomorrow, then MASC can contract that former bandit slash archer girl of yours, Crys, through Broken Moon that Selene set up based out of Vale. That gives both her and Selene a source of income. And the contracts with GNU's Gazelle Communications can be honored. That puts her in the loop too."
Pete grinned, "And all the paperwork and red tape gets managed by Back Office Services and Supplies, which is just a shell to pass the work on to actual accountants and hires staff through Selene."
"Seriously, Pete, you couldn't come up with a better name than that? We already know you're the boss."
"You just can't handle my creativity."
Garek laughed, and then threw in his two cents. "Once we get the Menagerie operations up and running, that will be some sort of non-profit dedicated to training Huntsmen, and then they can hire MASC."
"And," Pete continued, "the Bullhead will be leased from Vacuo Express Transport, which will be leasing it direct from Polendina for a song."
"It all sounds very incestuous," Selene observed with mock sadness. The others laughed, Pete the loudest.
"Don't get any ideas, Pete." GNU growled, then blinked as she paid closer attention to him. "Is that… a new shirt?" He was wearing an actual dress shirt, the first few buttons opened, and cuffs rolled up slightly.
"I figured since I'm going to be a successful businessman, I should clean up a little."
GNU blinked. "It's… clean." She looked at his hair, which was cut and combed, and smelled faintly of pine needles. "Is that cologne?"
"New soap. You like it?"
GNU blinked again. Considered the stranger before her. "Would you like to catch a movie?"
Selene smirked, as she should have. She'd spent a significant amount of time over the last three weeks advising Pete on what he was doing wrong, and GNU, Sophia actually, had finally noticed the changes. It turned out that his teasing about liking her had been more than just teasing.
"I thought you'd never ask," Pete grinned.
"What in the fifteen hells just happened here?" BA asked.
"Money changes people," Pete said, "sometimes for the better. Regardless, it looks like things are going to be a little easier to handle. Garek, reimbursement for the Muenster retainer should be hitting your account tomorrow from BOSS."
They spent the next couple of hours hammering out the details on how the money would be allocated. In the end, they discovered that they just couldn't reasonably distribute that much lien all at once. It was a heady feeling. Especially realizing they had another million in the pipeline being shuffled around through alternate means that would be hitting in a few weeks.
"Any new developments to report to Polendina?" Pete asked.
"Yeah," Sophia said, "I've got a couple new threads to pull. Some code snippets imbedded in Atlas military comms that Dr. Polendina asked me to look at have a similar signature to what we found in the CCT network. Also, I'm trying to get access to current gen spare boards and chips for the CCT towers. Terra is giving me a hand with that, now that she's started her internship at the Argus relay. It turns out some of the recent boards were DoA, or at least that's what she reported them as, and she got replacements ordered. She's funneling the 'dead' ones to us, and I'm putting together a mocked up model CCT to test them out and analyze them to see if there's anything funny going on, on the hardware side."
"Is that dangerous?" Garek asked.
"Nope. We'll have a pair air-gapped, and I'm going to make sure they'll only transmit on a frequency nothing else uses. So they'll talk to each other but nothing else."
"Speaking of hardware," Garek said, "How long do you think before we can get access to that bullhead?"
"Actually, I've had a conversation with my friend in Atlas."
"Charlie?
BA Sighed. "Yeah. Charlie. His team's coming off a mission this month, and he's talking about Helena coming over for another leave and maybe having her ferry it over for us. Should be here in about a month."
"Sounds good."
"Eh, she's a crappy pilot."
Selene frowned across the table at BA. "I would prefer that you not disparage my friend."
"It was a joke, promise." No really she sucks as a pilot.
Garek sat in the hotel lobby across from Crystal. "So, in case you haven't noticed, we've been struggling a little figuring out what to do with you. You really want to be Selene's bodyguard?"
The young woman looked embarrassed. "Well to be fair, it was desperation more than anything. I would have offered to do anything to keep her from leaving me out there. Not sure how much actual good I'd be at that really, other than an extra pair of eyes, and a very temporary meat shield."
"Well, that's not going to help us much. Selene would be more likely to get herself hurt trying to protect you in that situation. So, what kind of fighting ability do you have?"
"I'm a good shot with a bow." Crys paused, then sighed. "I don't have a lot of fighting ability. I'm no huntress." She frowned. "If you want to kick me to the curb, I get it."
"No. No. We actually need people we can trust right now, and you're already in the loop on a few things." Like Blackfeather and the fact that Selene could control Grimm. "How do you feel about going to work in private security? I know a guy who just started up a company here in Mistral…"
A few days later, Garek caught up with BA. "So what do you think of Crys?"
"Well, she's damn good with a bow. If I needed someone quiet to hunt animals with or take out a single target real quiet-like, I'd take her no hesitation. She's got zero experience with firearms, but her hand-eye coordination is solid. She'll probably pick that up fast with some range practice. Thought about her aura? She's young enough to get some use out of it, unlike me. Is she too old to train on it?"
"I'd suggest training her up without it first so she doesn't rely on it more than she should. Maybe just enough for self-defense. I'll ask Selene how It's working out for her. She's got firsthand experience using it in self-defense now."
"Have you thought about what I said about hiring on your friend Rhodes?"
"Yeah, it seems like a good idea really. He's already playing courier, and it keeps him out of the field where he could get himself eaten by Grimm. I'll give him a call and suggest he accept."
"Wow," BA laughed. "Three hundred percent personnel growth in one week!"
Garek lay in bed in their hotel room as the morning sun filtered in. Everyone had been up late the night before. The adults had been working through all of the financials, which had taken much longer than expected. And Cinder, now formally inducted into the Grimmslayers, as the small gaggle of girls had dubbed themselves, had made a good showing in the online tournament.
Life was good.
Selene was snuggled up next to him, bone-white arm draped across his chest. He could feel one of her eyelashes flutter periodically against his shoulder, so he knew she was awake too, though neither had spoken yet.
It felt really nice.
"Lien for your thoughts?"
"I find myself feeling... a measure of guilt."
"Oh?"
She absently caressed his chest. "In my head, I understand that the Queen's plans are long in the making. She spends entire human generations moving pieces into place, and then she acts. This my mother has told me. Thus, we have years to understand her plans, and enact our own."
"Right…"
"But I am… becoming anxious with how slowly… no that is not right."
"You're bored." She lifted her head, scarlet eyes finding his golden ones. She nodded, and he sighed. "Well, I can't say that I blame you. Last month or two has mostly been a waiting game, except for your little adventure in Mistral that gained you a bodyguard."
"Do not remind me. I am still angry with myself for taking insufficient measures."
"Turned out okay. BA says Crys is going to be a decent fighter and he's starting intensive training this week with her. But that brings us back to the issue. We need something to do besides sparring and teaching Cinder. And frankly, I want to get out of this hotel."
"You also?"
"Yeah. And that impacts Cinder too." Selene's brow furrowed at his statement. "When we were pushing Cinder to choose Argus without us, or travelling with us, it was because we thought we were going to be travelling by Nevermore or on foot. Weeks and months on the road at a time. But once we have access to that Bullhead, that'll change things. She can... we can all have the best of both worlds. We can get a place here in Argus, let Cinder go to Sanctum Combat School here, and when we need to make a quick trip…"
"She can go with us, or stay with Sophia." Selene leaned over and kissed him. "This makes me happy. I would like that as well. I have made friends here." He smiled at her. "These without benefits." She smirked. "Helena has said that she might ask for more frequent leave to visit her sister. And I would take advantage of this to spend time with her. And Pete requires continued relationship coaching."
Garek laughed at the idea of Pete getting relationship advice from a Grimmling. The world had gone stark raving mad.
But it worked.
"Let's go wake up Cinder and see what she thinks about that."
To say Cinder was overjoyed would be to undersell it. For the first time in her twelve years, Cinder squealed. "YES! YES YES YES! I can't wait to tell the Slayers!"
They spent an hour or so talking about what they wanted and what was in their budget to lease, and what area of the city they might look. The townhouses along Eastway Park were highly appealing, but one look at the prices had Garek cringing, and Selene's fear of crowds had faded into the background, so they opted for something closer to the bay, in an older more developed part of the city.
By the end of the week, they had signed a lease on a minimally furnished townhouse apartment. The first floor was a modest living, dining, and kitchen area with a guest bathroom. The second floor contained three small bedrooms and a common bathroom, with the idea that one would be a guest room and the other a home office of some sort. In the short term, they were letting Crys use the guest room until things settled out. And the top floor was a master suite for Garek and Selene, with a lock so she could shed her blue-eyed façade in the evenings.
All that was left was to wait for the Bullhead to arrive, and they could head to Mistral's capital. Garek had been casually pinging Headmaster Lionheart the past couple months, just to make sure he remembered his former student and expressing his desire to stop by for a visit if they were ever in town. The idea was to kill two nevermore with one rock. On the one hand, they would start to really feel Lionheart out, see if there really was something going on with him that might make him susceptible to being recruited by Salem, as had been hinted, and if so, whether they could instead pre-empt that and recruit him first. Garek had a half dozen plans swirling around in that faunus brain of his, and Lionheart could be central to executing at least three of them. That was a big deal.
The second reason was that while he knew they needed some forged documentation for Cinder before they could enroll her in Sanctum, none of the Lone Huntsmen knew how to go about that. It just wasn't their area. But Garek suspected that the Headmaster of Haven would know. He remembered when he had been a student that one of his professors had mentioned in class that from time to time, Haven had found very very limited-duration common cause with some of the more organized criminal elements in Mistral in fighting off Grimm incursions. After all, massive death and destruction were just as bad for business as they were for the population in general.
It was a long shot, but one worth pursuing.
So they spent their time slowly personalizing their new private living space, continuing physical training, and waiting for that blasted bullhead to be delivered. Several times, Garek considered saying to hell with it, and buying them all tickets on the Argus Limited and being done with it. But he kept putting it off.
[A/N] And another chapter, bit shorter again, mostly transition and set up for the next chapter which will be much more substantive and action-packed.
You will notice the names of The Lone Huntsmen transitioning or flip flopping back and forth between their code names and real names around this time. This is to reflect the fact that their relationships are evolving gradually from the original three-man group that was doing it mostly out of habit, to a group that are becoming intertwined as friends and colleagues with Garek and Selene who have always used their real names.
The first one you may have noticed here is that GNU's real name is Sophia Keene. Next chapter we will learn BA and Pete's actual names as well. You may find throwbacks from time to time.
As far as a summary, we find that their companies are starting to function, along with the resulting web of contracts. Garek and Selene discover they don't have to make a hard decision about stay or go, to Cinder's infinite joy, and finally get out of hotel living. And it looks like Crystal will continue to develop as a character as well.
Keep an eye out for Chapter 26. It's gonna be... intense.