Lily sighed and pulled out a checkbook. Filling out a check quickly and neatly, she set it down in front of Felix.
“Sign here.” She indicated the signature line.
Felix accepted the pen, signed his name and slid it back to Lily.
“Here is your payment. When will you have the five percent for the landlord available?” Lily asked. With a quick motion, she popped the check clear of the book and set it down on the desk.
“I… tomorrow. As per our regulations.” Miss Aston no longer seemed so sure of herself.
“Great. As this is a new quarter, we move to dismiss two people. We’ll also be filing a complaint that we find the recent hiring practices to be unsatisfactory.
“As to who’s dismissed…” Lily tapped her chin with a finger and then leaned back in her chair, looking to Felix. “Any thoughts? If nothing else, Miss Aston is pretty enough to keep around for fun. I mean, she’s not me, but… you can’t always stare at me. Even I’ll get self-conscious after a while.”
Miss Aston made a shocked noise, while the four who had raised their hands with her looked everywhere in the room except to them.
Felix smirked and shook his head, letting out a slow breath.
“I ever mention you’re fantastic, Lily?”
“Several times. Don’t stop.”
“I’ll leave it to you, Lily. I trust you.” Felix didn’t want any part in her power game right now. Instead, he pulled out his phone and updated Kit in a text message.
“Music to my ears. Great, you two are gone. Thanks.
“Now, Miss Aston, I do hope you’ll be working for our interests here in the future. I’d hate to see you lose your job over it.
“We’ll leave our bill with the receptionist, as well as our formal complaint. I made sure to have it notarized. Can’t have it go missing, now can we?” Lily stood up from her chair, closing her satchel.
Felix got up as well, pocketing his phone.
Nothing more was said as they left. Lily was as good as her word and left both the complaint and bill at the front desk.
Felix adjusted his pants as they left the building. For whatever reason, he could never get his dress pants to sit quite right.
Stopping just outside, he reached down and pulled at the sides of his pants. “I swear to God, maybe we should hire a tailor. Felicia’s great, but I think I’m abnormal and need a master tailor or something,” Felix muttered.
All around him, a sudden and blinding bright white light encircled him.
A group of Others plowed into him and hustled him forward before he had a chance to even contemplate it.
What the fuck?
He was forced head first into the car. He ended up being smashed up against Lily with Andrea just about clambering on top of him.
He caught a glimpse of Kit in the passenger seat before the convoy took off.
“That was a sniper. Had to be miles and miles out. Didn’t even hear the sound,” Andrea said, still pressing into him. In turn pressing him into Lily.
The sorceress looked at him, his head wedged into her shoulder and chest. She gave him a weak smile and averted her eyes.
“The force on the shield was significant. Whatever they shot, it was a very heavy round,” Lily said, adjusting her position without looking at Felix.
Andrea eased up off him as they blew through a red light and across into a section of street with taller buildings.
“Sorry, Lily,” Felix said as he sat up. He tried to do it without pawing the woman unnecessarily.
“Better to be manhandled by you, than you dying. Property, like slaves, goes into a limbo state if the owner dies. Your health is important,” Lily explained, her voice soft. She picked something off her skirt and then crossed her legs.
“Oh! Did that tire you out? Here, you can lean on me, dear,” Andrea said delightedly. Grabbing him around the shoulders, she pulled him into her side and chest, holding to him tightly.
Felix growled, putting his hands to her to push away. Only to have her pull his head to her chest, and then lightly comb her fingers through his hair. “There, there, dear. We’re all here for you. All you had to do was ask.”
Felix closed his eyes before he could see Kit or Lily gloating at him. They seemed to delight in the fact that Andrea did as Andrea pleased. Much to his eternal dismay.
“Whatever. Now they’re using snipers to take me out.”
“Yes. They were outside of my range,” Kit said from up front.
“I didn’t see the shot,” Andrea said, her fingernails grazing along his scalp.
“Nor I. It only confirms what we knew. They’re out there, and very determined. Nothing has changed, except that we now know some of those poor excuses for lawyers are involved,” Lily said with a click of her tongue.
“What?” Felix asked, cracking an eye open to look to Lily.
The soul-eating lawyer met his eyes and held up her hands in a gesture of futility.
“A sniper was prepared for your exit, with a perfect shot, and at an extreme distance. The whole thing was a setup.”
Oh. Shit.
Things had calmed down since the shooting.
Everything was finally back to normal.
Or at least as normal as it could be when you were the head of a corporation boasting some of the strongest supers the world had ever seen.
Felix was on antique duty today. There’d been a large number of scheduled private evaluations while he’d been incapacitated.
Since coming back into the store, he’d given the superpower of “Item Identification (by touch)” to several people.
Having it triggered by touch had kept the point cost much further down than by sight.
It also meant that the other stores, and the auto shop, would be outfitted to have someone always on hand to get things cataloged. Which left Felix at HQ doing his own part.
Sitting in what used to be the storefront in the warehouse, he awaited the next client.
They’d be searched, brought in, and dropped off here with their item.
Today had been a very good day. Several high-end acquisitions had been made that’d turn their fortunes around quickly.
After all the cash outlays recently, their bank account was looking rather skinny.
Broken antiques, purchased at a higher price, repaired, and then sold, made everyone happy.
Most especially the people who sold those broken antiques for more than the value of it.
A man entered the room. He spent some time looking around at the various items dispersed throughout the office as decoration.
“Good morning,” Felix said, standing up from behind his desk.
The man jumped and his head whipped around to lock on to Felix. “G-good morning.”
“What can I do for you today, Mr.…?” Felix held out his hand across the table good-naturedly.
The man took Felix’s hand in a firm shake and then took a seat.
“Mr. White. I’m, uh, here to sell this.” Mr. White pulled out a legal-sized sketchbook with drawstring ties.
“Oh?” Felix. “And what do you believe it is?”
He’d learned that asking this question was the best way to determine the intent.
“It’s a sketchbook. My father bought it from a collector. The man claimed it was worth a couple hundred dollars at the time. It’s filled with sketches from artists from the twenties and thirties, with a couple of knockoffs as well.”
Mr. White said it humbly and without any emotion behind it. It was a sale to be made to him, nothing more.
He needs money and doesn’t really care that much about the item at all.
Flipping open the sketchbook, Felix began to sort through them one by one.
They matched exactly what the man said. Sketch after sketch he flipped through and checked.
Fifty dollars here, a hundred there, ten for the next one.
Right up until Felix flipped it open onto a sketch that was very out of place. It had the look of something religious, yet drawn in an older style.
One that looked similar to the Renaissance era.