She’d carried him bodily the entire way, and one of her Others had been mortally wounded for him.
“How’s Eva, and where is she?” he asked, realizing that sitting around him were only those who had been part of the original group.
“In school, and she’s fine. She got your credit card on the way out for you, by the way. We’ve taken her shopping several times since then, and she has more clothes than any teenager could want.” Kit pulled out a single sheet of paper from her binder and slid it across the table to him.
Glancing at it, he realized it was a balance sheet.
He didn’t care. He pressed a finger to it and passed it back without looking at it a moment more.
“Thank you. I’m glad she’s in school. She like it?”
“So far. Everyone wants to know who her sponsor is. Apparently, getting into that school isn’t easy.” Kit didn’t say anything more.
It left the entire thing open to a question. One he’d have to ask Lily.
Felix had to wonder how Lily had managed to get her in, but didn’t feel like wasting his breath. If she wanted to be coy about it, she could. He didn’t need to press them on every secret.
“So… I suppose that brings us to the department head meeting we should have had. Felicia, how about you start us up?” Felix asked. He spread his hands to the dwarf and waited.
“Hah. Ass. Why do I always have to start?”
“Because you’re building our home. To me, that sounds like one of the single biggest, and most important, tasks to get updates on. First you go.”
“Hmph. It’s fine. Common spaces will need you to smooth them out, and the training areas are only about half done. I put them on hold since you were injured and haven’t gotten back to them. Been working on the medical ward and its machines. You’ll need to smooth that one out too.
“I’ve got everyone working with whatever best suits them. We got quite a few talented people out of that last purchase. We’re fabricating all sorts of great toys and things.”
Felix couldn’t help but admire her progress, all things considered. “Great work, Felicia. You’re a credit to your race.
“Ioana, let’s go with you since you’re next to her. We’ll go clockwise from there.”
“Security forces are being trained up. Miu is assisting me with the hand-to-hand combat. Andrea has taken up firearms. Everything else is under me.
“We’ll have our first security team ready for deployment in about a month. Class rollouts should be every couple of weeks after that as we stagger the classes. We’ll be drilling them one against the other for experience.”
“That’s far better than I’d been expecting. Good job, Ioana. I’d like to get some time in your classes once I get my energy back.”
“You’re already enrolled,” Lily said with a smirk.
“Good. Kit?”
“HR, which includes counterintelligence, since we’re all telepaths, is up and running. We’ve sorted everyone out by their abilities, tendencies, and desires. It’ll take time for everything to actually get off the ground, but with everyone ideally placed, it should be easier.
“We did mark a few people who seem like they’ll be problems. Only three seem intent to cause a problem.”
“Alright. Give them to Lily first and then put them in the sausa—”
“No. Not yet,” Kit interrupted hurriedly. “We’ll give them time to adjust, counsel them, and only failing all of that will I… give them to Lily and the machine. There are many opportunities to get them on board.”
“Whatever, attrition is your concern. And speaking of attrition, always looking for new hires. Did that auction happen?” he asked, looking between Kit and Lily.
Kit nodded her head and held up a hand towards him.
“It did. We picked up around two hundred unpowered normals. They didn’t even cost a fraction of what you paid for the supers. We now have: marketing, finance, legal, IT, facilities, kitchen, janitorial, motor pool, medical, and I’m sure I’m forgetting some. We’ll need to headhunt some key positions but by and large we did well.”
Two hundred more people? I won’t get as many points for them as I do a super, but points are points.
“We already expanded the housing project to accommodate them, and then doubled that for growth.
“Princess over there managed to get us a permit to dig as far down as we like,” Felicia said, gesturing at Lily.
“I see. So… we’re well beyond what a pawn shop could support. Did we pick up a few buildings in other areas to put in more shops?”
“That’s been taken care of. It’ll take a week or two to get them outfitted and staffed, but they’ll be up and running soon,” Kit said. “Our bottom line is alright, but it would be good if you could convert some bricks in the next couple days. We’ve had our newly created finance department running the numbers to figure out our taxes.”
Felix shook his head with a smile. “Good show. I assume that means you handled all the paperwork, Lily?”
“Sure did. Everything is settled. I felt fun when I drew up the company name,” she held up a hand. “Ahem, we are Legion. All of us in one. The new legal team is actually rather good, so we moved quickly.”
We are Legion.
“Right. Anything else from the HR department, then?”
“People are asking about bringing their families on board. I admit I expected it to eventually happen. We can either allow visitation, and risk all that entails, or simply deny it.”
“Can we buy their families?” Felix asked.
“What?” asked the telepath incredulously.
“Their families. Can we buy them? So far we’ve been picking up people based on if they went to auction. What if we made it an employee perk program?” Felix leaned back in his chair, feeling more at ease.
Solving problems of this nature always felt right to him. Corporate life never felt terribly difficult.
“If they put in good work and service, we can offer to purchase their family at a fair price. As they’re selling themselves willingly, we would amend the contract to indentured rather than slave. They’d get a few more rights, like the promise of never having to face combat duty, the sausage machine, or anything like that.”
Felix looked up to the ceiling as he thought.
“Heck, at that point we may want to consider buying the buildings around us and expanding our subsurface expansion to include family homes, schools, and stores.”
Felicia sat upright in her chair, her fingers pressed to the table. Apparently, the idea of expanding the fortress to an underground kingdom tickled her fancy.
Kit sighed and trailed her fingernails down the inside of her forearm.
“I mean, I’m all for being self-sufficient, and it would help encourage people to work hard. Though I wonder at what eventuality that leads to.
“Can people begin purchasing themselves out of slavery and into indentured servitude? Do children born of such a relationship get born into indentured service?
“Or do we purchase a semi-limited contract on them that expires at eighteen, and all services remaining that weren’t paid for become debt and they have to leave?
“In the end, it sounds a lot like building an empire,” Kit said slowly.
He could practically hear Felicia demanding he start this action now.
“Mmm. We’d be a target. Well, let’s start testing out this ‘family package’ plan with those who asked for now. See what happens. Maybe we’ll get some serious work out of them. No one wants to work endlessly without a carrot, right?
“Anything else?”
“No. That’s everything for me. I’ll take the family plan idea back to the team and see what we can do.”
“Great. Lily?”
“Legal, marketing, and planning are all fine. We’re drawing up plans for commercials and some branding for the new stores. Get people in the door.”