Felix watched her back as she easily slipped into her role of Myriad. He could vaguely hear responses from the Others, but nothing concrete.
Victoria was busy searching the room, looking for anything out of place that could be a problem. Even going so far as to open the desk drawers looking for weapons.
“Pancake receives, maintain overwatch on this position.”
Andrea turned around and looked to Victoria while folding her hands behind her back. “All is well and accounted for. Can you confirm the room is clear?”
Victoria popped open an electrical device she pulled out of her tactical vest. Thumbing the side of it, she looked down to what he assumed was a display.
“Listening devices, nothing outside expectations. Room is clear,” Victoria said, closing the device up. She walked to the door and took up a position there.
“Good work.” Andrea turned to Felix and gave him a grin. “Room clear, street is covered.”
Felix gave her a small smile and felt weird about the entire thing. He knew their precautions were necessary considering the number of attempts on his life, but they still made him feel strange.
He still felt like Felix, the fast food manager. Felix, the lonely man who barely made enough at his dead-end job.
Now I’m Felix, the one with twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week bodyguards who sweep and clear buildings that I’ll be entering.
“Thanks, Andrea. Hopefully we can get this taken care of and get moving. I’m looking forward to not fearing payroll every day.
“Costs keep rising, even if we can’t get a hold of our accounts. This whole thing is fucking ridiculous.”
Felix shifted, slouching into his chair.
“Agreed, but we do what we must.”
Felix opened his mouth to retort when the door opened behind them. An older man in a dark suit walked in. His eyes snapped to Victoria, whose hand was resting on the sword at her side, then to Andrea, whose hand had dipped into her jacket.
Felix wouldn’t have been surprised if Andrea had managed to slip a holdout pistol through security.
“I see. Mr. Campbell?” asked the older man, looking to Felix.
“That’d be me. I’ll cut to the chase,” Felix said, getting to his feet. “My accounts have been frozen for longer than the statute al—”
At that moment, his phone went off. Pausing long enough to rotate his wrist, he glanced at the linked screen.
Eva Adelpha.
“I’m sorry, this might be important,” Felix apologized. Tapping the screen, he fished his phone out of his suit pocket and held it up to his ear.
“Eva wha—”
“The school is under attack! We’r—”
As abruptly as she’d started talking, the phone went dead.
Feeling his heartbeat speed up, he dropped the phone to his waist. He quickly thumbed through the security screen and pulled up his contacts. Tapping Ioana’s line, he held the phone back up to his ear.
“Mr. Campbell, if you ca—”
“Hush,” Victoria commanded at the man, stepping between Mr. Chirk and Felix.
“Ioana,” came the strong voice of his War Maiden.
“Eva called me, said there was an attack on the school.”
“What? Give me a second.”
“Now see here. Mr. Campbell, if you can’t give me your attention this moment, you can leave.”
Felix’s eyes tracked back to Mr. Chirk. They’d kept him waiting for a long time.
Long enough that Felix had gotten angry. Long enough that the anger had turned into a cold, quiet rage. Long enough that he’d been tempted to send Wraith in and clear out the entire agency.
“I mean it. You can leave and we can schedule an appointment at another time. I believe my calendar is open in two weeks. Until then, nothing will change with you or your accounts.”
Felix blinked. That was quite a threat. It’d put them well outside the point that they’d more than likely become insolvent.
“We’ve got confirmation,” Ioana said in his ear. “There’s an attack going on alright. I’m sending multiple squads and all four Wardens. I’d appreciate it if you could suit up and join us. Having you there should cut through red tape since you own the school.”
“Well?” Mr. Chirk asked.
Felix blinked, his thoughts grinding to an immediate halt.
Because there was no need to debate the choice.
Guardian indeed.
“Apparently my weapon of choice is a pen. You’ll be hearing from my lawyers, Mr. Chirk. Mr. Smith tried to blackmail me and my people, then held our accounts hostage. I do have proof of it.
“I plan on taking this up with Skipper. I hope you’re ready to get your entire organization cracked open.”
Dismissing the man with a flick of his free hand, he turned his head to the side to focus on the call.
Victoria, taking his intention as something else, shoved the older man out of his own office, and shut the door.
“I’ll be there. Send me a Telemedic to pick us up. We’ll have the Others bring the cars back.”
Only minutes after having received the call, everyone was on site. The Telemedics had earned their keep several times over today.
Felix would need to increase their capacity and give them some combat training. That and increase the number of them.
All over the school, his people were swarming the grounds.
Squads were actively working to clear the entire school. Each squad was made up of twelve people. Each one of those squads were hand assembled to form their teams. They were filled with both mundanes carrying amped-up gear and supers to provide force multipliers.
On top of that very deadly force, the four Wardens were released. They were being utilized separately of each other. The long-range models were used to clear open areas that could be a killing field. The Shield versions were being sent into the close-quarters area to clear any combatants that could be hiding and waiting in ambush.
After their arrival, it was obvious the school was in lockdown. Students and teachers were huddling in their classrooms. The classrooms that would have had students from Legion, however, were conspicuously empty.
Ioana and her team moved as only trained professionals could.
Having been given a huge budget and open recruiting was clearly paying off.
Training rooms, equipment, extensive mental conditioning through HR, the best in medical care.
Ioana’s people had been showered in everything that could and would make them lethal, deadly, and balanced mentally.
Those soldiers, as if they could be called anything else, were clad in dark black tactical gear from head to toe. Armed with high-end weaponry, both prototypes from Felicia and White’s lab, and standard armory issue. Equipped with spell-powered gear built by Lily and her corps of magicians.
They were a force that could probably stand toe to toe with actual special forces, and win.
Even if they fell, providing they’d signed the appropriate form, they would rise again for the next battle. Wiser, having gained experience most paid for with their life and were unable to act on.
At least that mountain of money was worth it.
Felix tried to marshal his thoughts and mind back to the situation. He was standing there in his powered armor like a daydreaming fool.
Around him, his people worked.
And they really were his people. Someone had been building him a team to function around him in the field.
A command team.
Those people had assembled as soon as word had spread that he’d be taking the field. Bodyguards, techs, Telemedics, and supers who would be useful for communications.
They’d put together an instant communications hub and headquarters for him in two minutes of arrival.
He’d have to check in to see who had set this up for him. It was incredibly effective, and he felt like he was tied into the whole operation even without being there.
Kit, who wasn’t far away, was acting as if it was completely normal and expected. Making her the prime suspect.