I get it; I thought back, and I’m glad you’re worried about lowering your ethical standards, but I think this is an okay exception. We’re talking about the possible destruction of Earth. That doesn’t come up too often.

I felt relief and then a stab of worry from Daniel, but he replied, In our lives, we’ll see more situations that we can justify exceptions than most people. Tell me if you think I’m being too cavalier with other people’s personalities. Because it does matter. It’s the right choice for now, but for all I know, that distrust I added might migrate to his thoughts about his father, and they might not ever reconcile or might attach to all his relationships, making him less connected to anybody. It shouldn’t be an easy choice.

From our connection, I knew that there were choices and consequences behind that statement, maybe not even his. With both his father’s and grandfather’s lives to include, there were years of experience to draw on and maybe even memories passed down that made the experience feel fresh, even to someone who hadn’t lived it.

Something like that, Daniel thought back, having caught the direction of my thoughts from his end, but didn’t explain it or need to. He’d talk about it when it mattered.

The conversation had already ended, so I was free to watch as the Futuremen Capital representative walked up to Sean and Dayton.

Sean stood up to his full height and put out a hand, saying, “Mr. Fossey. It’s good to have you here. I hope this doesn’t cause us any problems.”

Mr. Fossey took his hand and shook it, and then shook Dayton’s as well. “It’s not a problem. Our model assumes that superhero bases will be infiltrated at least once every five years. Most of the time it doesn’t even cause any damage. When it does, I admit, the damage can go into the millions, but it didn’t here. It’s mostly cosmetic. There’s nothing structural. The big expense will be the armored windows. That will be in the five-figure range—around 50K would be my bet. Don’t worry about it.”

Dayton blinked, “Wow. That’s better than I expected. Okay. Well, if that’s all you have to do, we’ve got to plan how we’re going to get Jody back. We’re going to leave with the Heroes’ League, but the staff will be here, and we’re only a comm call away.”

Mr. Fossey reached out to touch his shoulder, “We understand. You’re not the first team that’s had to rescue a team member. We’d like to help with that. As you’re aware, we’ve invested in many of the top teams and individual superheroes in the business. We can make them available to you. I’m sure some will be able to help.”

Sean and Dayton looked at each other and then at me. Alex shook his head.

I spoke up before anyone else.

“We’re keeping the rescue mission quiet for the moment. We don’t even know for sure where we’d be going, though we do have a suspicion. The problem is that they teleported him out. It makes it hard for us to know exactly where to rescue him from.”

Mr. Fossey said, “There’s no denying that it makes it difficult, but we have people who might be able to narrow it down. You said you had a suspicion. Where are you suspecting he is?”

Wishing I could retroactively rephrase what I’d said, I replied, “It’s less a where than a who. We’ve been in a fight with the Nine for most of October and November. Though I don’t have specific proof, I think the people who we fought most likely had to be with the Nine somehow, even if they were just mind-controlled assets. If you can narrow down where they took him, that would be great. We’re going to start by listing all the known Nine sites we have records of and narrow down our options.”

Mr. Fossey nodded, “That sounds difficult to impossible given their resources. We’ll see if any of our people have the ability to find him.”

“That sounds great,” I said, suspecting that wherever they told us to go would be a trap. If we were lucky, we’d be gone before they “found” the information.

Alex grinned and said, “Mr. Fossey—”

Hearing it, I groaned internally. Though I knew Alex wasn’t a complete fool, I knew he tended to challenge people when he thought they needed challenging. He’d done it to Sean when he didn’t like how Sean was treating me. To put it another way, I half-expected him to give Mr. Fossey the finger, and that was one of the more polite possibilities.

Fossey turned toward him, bald head shining in the sunlight of a hole that used to be a skylight.

“—you may not remember me,” Alex continued, “but I remember you. Your company invested in a team called ‘The New Defenders’, and you were their account executive. I know them and they’ve got all good things to say about you. It’s good to see you’re treating Justice Fist at least as well as you treated my friends.”

Mr. Fossey blinked, “You’re Paladin, son of Preserver. You and your father are shining lights among Los Angeles’ superheroes. I can’t possibly forget you. It’s good to hear such kind words from them. I have a few other things to look at, but thank you.”

He left, walking through the shattered door to the stairwell.

I walked over to Alex, keeping my voice low, “He’s a decent guy?”

Alex shook his head, “No. He’s a penny-pinching bastard who barely fulfilled the terms of the contract. If he’s being any different here, he’s got an angle, or whoever’s pulling his strings has one. Fuck that guy, but while you’re doing it, keep him off balance. When the hammer drops, it should be a surprise.”