23rd October
08:30 -6
I smile at Ms Kimble as she enters the living room, escorted by a smiling Miss Amane. "Miss Kimble, thank you for joining us."
"Like I had a
choice." She glances back at her escort, who closes her eyes and smiles at her. "Am I getting out of here now?"
"Perhaps. Please." I gesture to the chair across from me with my right hand. "Be seated."
Bit quicker on the uptake than
some, this one; she does a quick scan of the room and then takes the seat I've offered her. Miss Amane takes up position a little way behind her, pole arm in hand.
"First, a quick update for you. The rest of Persuader's recruits have been taken into custody by the Department of Metahuman Affairs and their equipment confiscated. Their training area is being occupied and picked apart by forensic investigators and any interesting technology will be passed to their research teams. You have the thanks of a grateful nation. Even Kal-El asked me to thank you on his behalf."
"Great. So I can go now?"
My eyes narrow slightly. "Do you
really want to go home?"
"Beats being locked in a room
here." She smiles viciously. "Or are you going to make me an offer?"
I lean back slightly, and nod. "Something like that. As you can tell from Miss Amane's presence, I
do recruit people with useful skills. And in return for their work, I both pay them and.. help them in certain ways. In your case, locating your father was a simple matter and you're now old enough to request that you be transferred into his care regardless of your mother's wishes."
"
You found D-?!"
She bites down her wave of excitement, most likely realising how much it weakens her negotiating position. Stuart Kimble didn't exactly
impress me, but as far as I can tell he's just about the only person Miss Kimble actually cares about and I believe that it's best to steer clear of recruiting out
right sociopaths.
"To forestall your next question, when he and your mother separated she told him that if he attempted to gain custody of you she would go to the police and claim that he had been assaulting her for the duration of their marriage. And since I've had telepaths studying her mind for the past few days, I think I can write that one up as a believable threat. One which she will not have access to any longer. Your father has indicated that he is
very much interested in getting custody, so if you'll give it the nod we can get started on that."
She nods.
"Having looked over your school records-."
"Those are
private."
"I'm a Federal Agent investigating a supervillain. I can get access to all sorts of things." Legally, even. "Your grades range from C to D in every subject save P-." Ugh. "Save gym class. Not helped by the fact that you stabbed your maths teacher to death."
"
What the fuck!
No I d-!"
"Oh, don't
even. One stab through the neck with a serrated blade
which you kept. Though I was mildly amused by the fact that one of your classmates apparently
paid you for the hit." I slouch back in my seat. "To be honest, that surprised me more than the fact that you killed him."
"
I wanna talk to a la-."
"No you don't. You want this to go away. You want to have a tearful reunion with your father, change school and put the whole thing behind you." I raise my eyebrows. "Don't you? Because the rules concerning evidence gathering while investigating supervillains are fairly generous. If you insist on talking to a lawyer, I have to stop talking to you. But you
will be convicted of the vicious murder of a loving husband and father and spend the next forty years in prison. So: think carefully before insisting on exercising your legal rights."
She glares at me for a moment.
"What do you want?"
"Assuming that you remain at large… Where do you see yourself in a few years' time?" She doesn't reply. "Now, be honest. I already know you're a murderer, it's not going to make me think any less of you." Still nothing. "You see, one thing I noticed about his body was the lack of bruising. You didn't
assault him first, you just… Snuck up behind him and stabbed. The level of missing persons reports in your home town are fairly normal so I'm guessing that you haven't been practising… Did you plan to continue that sort of work? Because without some very particular connections it isn't
easy to get work as a freelance assassin. Did you plan to join the military?"
"I dunno. Yeah?"
"Not a
terrible choice, but I think you would have found being constantly shouted at by the drill instructors uncomfortable. And of course there's the chance that someone might have found out about the murder... Though… They're not exactly
thorough about background checking, you might have gotten away with it, and.. some people respond better to that sort of physical discipline than they do a classroom…"
"Are you actually going to make me an offer at some point?"
"I've employed people with..
shady pasts before. To flat out kill someone like that, at your age and without formal training, takes a very
particular mental state and I'm sure that I could find a use for you. My problem in
your case is the potential for blowback if anyone else works out that you killed your teacher. But, you brought my attention to the Persuader and I'm loath to simply hand you over to the police. So here's your choice. You can move in with your father and make the best life for yourself that you are able.
Or, you can enter my employ."
"Do I get my axe back?"
"If you work for me, yes."
She eyes me cautiously. "What does it pay?"
"During your apprenticeship, you get
expenses. You also get a telepathically implanted education to replace the one you didn't bother paying attention to at school, superior equipment, physical augmentations that will allow you to survive the rigors of super powered combat and training in how to use them. Once you are
ready, your pay will be proportionate to the tasks I set you."
She nods cautiously. "Is.. that it..?"
"That's it." There's a
boom as a tube opens to my right, and I gesture to it with my right hand. "You are free to go. I will be in touch in a week for your decision."
She
waits for a moment, presumably to see if there's another shoe coming down. I lean forward and wiggle my hand a little. "You can
go."
She gets up and
strides through the tube, which shuts down as she passes. Hm. I'd say there's a seventy percent chance of her accepting. Getting her out of a toxic environment
might lead to her reforming on her own… But I rather doubt it.
"Master?" Miss Amane pointedly glances at the door, then nods her head towards it.
Again? I get up and walk over to the door, kneeling down before I open it.
Ten year old Cassandra looks up at me, then down, then all around as she tries to make sense of my body language. I bring my hands up to where she can easily see them as her G-Gnome escort scampers up behind her.
"Hello, Quiet Girl." I sign as I speak, and since there isn't a sign for 'Cassandra' I settled on that as the name least likely to get confused with anyone else. "Were you looking for me?"
She doesn't actually understand sign language any more than she does spoken or written language, but the G-Gnomes think it should be easier for her to learn it. They can't implant language without completely messing up her existing neural pathways, and from what Jean was saying I got the impression that wouldn't just cost her her combat skills as it did in the comics. The less
violent way is to nudge her brain to increase its plasticity so that it becomes easier for her to learn languages the normal way, and that's what we're doing. She does have
concepts of things, just not concrete labels for them.
She raises her hands and signs 'Hello Gray hello Man hello'.
"Just one 'hello'. At the beginning."
She just blinks, then signs 'play now play now now'.
I nod. "Yes." I stand and step back into the living room. "Fast Girl, could you fetch the
Frustration board, please?"
