Super Sales on Super Heroes

Chapter 29 - Moral Compass -

The sun hadn’t even risen yet. The pre-dawn gloom was a grungy haze outside.

Felix stared into his terminal as he contemplated the call he was about to take with Wraith.

Smith hadn’t really left him any room at this point. They really did need access to their accounts.

Sure, they could function without for a long time, but at a cost.

“Thinking about it?” Lily asked from the couch.

Everyone else had been cleared from the room, and Andrea was still in bed.

“Yeah. Everyone up to this point had always felt… vindicated in some way. This one… less so,” Felix said, rubbing at his jaw with one hand.

“Then why do it? You have alternatives.”

“Because those alternatives don’t do me any favors for my own people. And I refuse to put my people over a table—literally, in this case—if I don’t have to.

“Smith can take his horny self to a bar.” Felix shook his head as he said it. He knew his reasons for doing it, but it didn’t make it any easier.

“For what it’s worth, I appreciate it. You’re not exactly a shining beacon of moral righteousness. Then again, you’re not the same person I first met anymore,” Lily said.

Felix scoffed at that, his mind going to Eva and her blasted pen. “Yeah, tell me about it. From resources to employees. Definitely a change in my own plans as well.”

“That and you keep putting those precious money-making points of yours back into your people.”

“They need it.”

“The person who can split into multiple people and is practically immortal needed regeneration?” Lily asked, her tone becoming mildly antagonistic.

“Well, no—”

“Or Felicia needed that makeover you gave her?”

“That was part of a deal—”

“Or even Kit, our beloved psychic, who is now a telepath, telekinetic, and a master of illusions. She clearly needed all of that?”

“We were escaping from Tanker. We needed—”

“No, you didn’t. I’ve talked to Kit and Andrea. They were both under the impression they could swerve around him. He’s strong, not fast.”

Felix thought on that. On all three, really.

In each case, he had had a clear reason for doing it, or so he’d believed at the time. They still felt justified.

Sort of.

“What do you want me to say, Lily?” Felix pressed his forehead to the desk. His call with Wraith was due any second now.

“Nothing. Only that you should realize that you aren’t doing things entirely for a ‘necessary’ purpose. Now, Wraith is going to call you in ten seconds. Get your game face on.”

“Ten seconds? How would you know that?” Felix asked curious. As he lifted his eyes from the desk, they went to the phone, then to Lily.

She was dressed in dark colors that hugged her frame but were modest and professional.

Much as she always was.

Instead of responding, she pointed to the phone.

As if by magic, the phone rang.

Controlling his response, and trying to do the same for his heart, Felix accepted the call.

“Wraith,” came the sibilant voice on the other end.

“Thank you for calling.” Felix took a breath and went with his chosen course of action. “Can you kill Smith and make it look accidental?”

“Yes.”

“Can you do it after forcing him to unfreeze us?”

“No.”

“Kill him. Return for debrief after you complete your duty.”

“Done.”

The line disconnected and went dead.

Felix pursed his lips and set the phone down.

“That was easier than it should have been…”

“Not really. You knew what you wanted to do a while ago. This was only the culmination of that. For what it’s worth, I’m glad you made the decision. Smith was a problem.”

“That he was. I’m not looking forward to telling Kit about this.” Felix turned back to the window, watching the first fingers of light reaching out above the buildings.

“She won’t be happy. She’s still a hero at heart. She’ll need some placating and maybe something to soothe her conscious. I’ll ask her privately later if she wants me to take over counterintelligence. The dirty side of the business.”

“Thanks. Not sure if she’ll take you up on it, but I appreciate you offering it to her all the same.”

“Anything for you,” Lily murmured from directly behind him. She’d snuck up on him.

Felix didn’t have it in him to react right now to her provocations. In fact, this was probably a good time to go on the attack.

“Andrea mentioned you were trying to get me, yourself, and herself into a three-way relationship.”

“I’m not surprised; it was only a matter of time before she mentioned it. She’s a good girl, but has about as much guile—”

“As a knife,” they said at the same time.

“Yeah, she really doesn’t have a cunning bone in her body. But what about you, Lily? You’re a beautiful woman who could have any man she wanted. I can’t imagine you willingly signing up to be a plaything.”

He could feel Lily standing behind him. Felix didn’t even need to look at her to know she was there. It was something he’d noticed about her a while ago.

She put out an energy, what he assumed was magical energy, and anyone nearby could feel the pressure of it.

Or so he assumed. He’d never actually asked anyone about it.

“You’re right. I’d never sign up to be a plaything. And you’d never treat me like one. You’re the type of idiot that, once he starts sleeping with a woman, happily shuts down that entire area of his life. To literally have eyes for no one else.”

Felix blustered for a moment at that. Then deflated. She wasn’t wrong.

His experience with women was almost entirely dependent on them taking the lead. He was a follower when it came to that.

Monogamy felt right and he didn’t look elsewhere.

It was also why the idea bothered him about having two women.

“Much as you told Andrea, we’ll see where this goes. No promises, but it’s a start. Besides, I can’t deny I’m interested in you. You’re fascinating in a strange way.

“I’m not brave enough to jump into your bed as easily as Andie did, but we’ll see where it all goes. Like I said.”

Snorting, Felix shook his head. “Only you would ask a man to date her while saying that.”

“I know, and that’s why you’re taking me to dinner tonight.” Lily’s lips pressed to his cheek. “Doesn’t have to be fancy, but I do expect it to be just us.

“Well, other than Vicky. See you at the department meeting later. I’ve gotta run. Need to pick out a nice dress.”

Andrea’s fist landed cleanly on his jaw and sent him crashing to the ground. Felix felt like his head was spinning.

That and he heard this high-pitched whining noise. It was really freaking distracting.

“Get up! I’m coming for you,” Andrea called out to him as she closed in on him and struck him twice more. Once to the shoulder, the second to his midsection.

Stumbling to his feet, Felix managed to get his hands up in time to fend off a punch.

“Good! Faster next time, dear. Faster. Your opponent won’t wait for you to get up to your feet.” Andrea got in closer and sent a fist towards his stomach.

He sidestepped correctly, but wasn’t fast enough. She caught the side of his stomach and sent him to the mat again.

“Pah, he’s done,” Ioana said. The sound of her heavy footfalls departing were like the sound of accusations to him.

Too slow. Too weak. Too much thought. That was what they kept saying.

He’d asked for this, and he was getting better, but he was starting to regret this course of action.

Panting, Felix managed to at least keep himself up on one knee, rather than flopping into the mat.

“Better. Quicker, though. If you can’t be quicker, block it. Expecting to dodge attacks is honestly a good way to get hit.

“Silly dear. Don’t worry, I’ll make it all better tonight.” Andrea was leaning over the top of him, her hands patting his shoulders.

“Yeah. Thanks. Did Lily tell you about tonight?”

“She did! I look forward to hearing how it goes from her later.” Andrea’s tail was swishing back and forth happily as she said it.

She was genuinely happy for Lily.

“By the way, I know I say this every time, but I appreciate the training. I know it isn’t easy to teach someone with little to no aptitude.” Felix groaned and got to his feet.

“Aptitude is merely a way to measure how quickly one learns something. In this case, you just need more time.” Andrea gave him a bright smile and then wandered off.

Victoria replaced her, holding out a wooden sword to him.

Felix sighed and took the sword from her hand.

“Training while tired—”

“I know, I know. Training while tired is more difficult, but doesn’t hinder learning.” Felix grumped and then fell back into the neutral pose she’d beaten into him days previous.

Her training blade came up into the same pose, then darted forward.

She’d done that to him almost every time, forcing him to expect an attack immediately every time they started.

Managing to get his blade up in the appropriate deflection, he stepped in and struggled to bring his weapon across as quickly as he could.

Victoria was gone before he even finished the block, having stepped backward out of his range.

“Good. Now, let’s start,” Victoria said with a sickening amount of enthusiasm.

Victoria did much the same as Andrea had, beating him forwards and backwards across the mat. Giving him a number of bruises and welts with each pass.

Eventually, Victoria released him from his hell and sent him off to the medical room.

Bruises and welts were fine, but there was no sense in having them beyond the original lesson if you didn’t have to.

Felicia’s machines did a great job of getting a person back to normal for most anything.

Especially since he couldn’t do a damn thing to himself. It always ended up coming back to that.

The inability to modify his own parameters. To upgrade himself so easily as he did others.

After the medical fixup, and a quick snack, Felix was the first person to the department head meeting.

He normally was. It gave him some time to refine his agenda and get everything laid out how he wanted it.

Before he even had a chance to start, Kit came in.

“Good. I was hoping to catch you alone,” she said, dropping down into a chair directly in front of him.

Felix could only nod his head, not even bothering to open his terminal. Instead, he folded his hands in front of him and looked to the telepath. “What can I do for you?”

“Lily told me about Wraith and Smith. I’m not… really sure this was the right path.”

“Alright, what options were you considering instead?”

Kit blinked and then looked to the table. “Other options? I mean, we could have just waited, couldn’t we?”

“Could we have?”

“Well, er… yes. Yes, we could have.”

“Okay, what are our finances?”

“Our finances?”

“If you’re confident in our ability to wait, then clearly our finances are good. What are our finances?”

“They’re… no, they’re not good. Unless something changed, we’d barely have enough capital to pay our bills on time. Not including Dimitry’s loan is coming due.”

“Okay, if our finances aren’t good, and we’d be in trouble soon, what other options did we have available?”

“I… don’t know. But we didn’t have to kill Smith!”

“No, we didn’t. Yet as I’ve been directing your own mind to the problem, I could not myself find another answer.”

“Killing someone isn’t an answer!”

“It is when they’re not a good person, and are demanding that I prostitute you out to service them. That was another option, you remember. It seems unlikely, but would you have preferred that to killing him? He’d be back next month for the same thing, mind you.”

Kit chewed at her lip, her eyes scrunching up. “No,” she said finally.

“The choice isn’t on you, Kit. You had nothing to do with it. This is all on me, and it’s my burden to bear. Not yours.

“Now, is there anything else you wanted to talk about before the others came?”

Kit shook her head, her eyes still glued to the table.

After a handful of heartbeats, her gaze moved up and met his own. “I’m not very good at this. In the beginning, I was bitter, jaded. It felt right. Now, though… now I feel as if I’m abusing my powers.”

“The powers I gave you,” Felix clarified.

Kit nodded her head once. “The powers you gave me.”

“Have I asked you to take a life that you felt wasn’t justified?”

“No.”

“Have I asked you to harm anyone who wasn’t attempting to hurt us?”

“No.”

“Have I asked you to do anything against your will?”

“Yes… well, no. You listened when I told you I didn’t want to use the sausage machine on our people.”

“Then what’s the problem, Kit? I don’t understand. Help me understand.”

Kit licked her lips and then made a vague gesture at him, then back at herself. She shook her head a fraction and then took a partial breath and held it. Then just as suddenly let it out.

“I don’t know.”

“Is it because you can’t read my mind? Never had the problem of not being able to verify a thought, concern, or problem without a proof positive?” Felix said it as gently as he could.

It was the only thing he could think of. Kit and he hadn’t ever really disagreed on many things, but small little things could have added up in her head. And without her ability to rifle through his thoughts, he imagined she had no way to verify her own judgments about situations.

“I… could that be it? It just sounds so selfish. So childlike.”

“How do you confirm what someone believes?”

“I do exactly what you said. I look into the mind of others to see how it was received or thought of and adjust.”

“Have you considered not doing that? Taking people at their face value?”

“Why would I?”

“For fun. See if you can hone in on what psychiatrists and psychologists have been doing for years. Up to you, though, merely a question.

“As to the problem at hand, I wouldn’t worry much about it. Nothing has changed since our last talk. You’re our conscience and our moral compass. I expect you to continue pointing due north and provide me with a counterbalance.”

The door to the conference room burst open and Felicia entered, followed closely by Ioana.

Before the door could close, Lily, Andrea, Victoria, and Miu trooped in, taking their seats.

Victoria took up a spot behind Felix’s right shoulder.

“Welcome, one and all. This department head meeting is more than likely a critical one, as I have one update that must be shared. I’m sure you have topics you want to cover as well, so I’ll be quick about it.

“If no one has any objections?”

Felix looked around the room to each member to confirm there were none.

“I’ve tasked Wraith to kill Agent Smith. He should be dead by tomorrow. At that point, I’ll be heading over to their office to demand to speak with our case worker. With any luck, we’ll get a new one that will take one look at the length of time our assets have been frozen and undo it.”

Everyone had different reactions. Ioana, Miu, and Felicia nodded their heads. Lily had no reaction, as she had already known. Andrea looked thoughtful, and Kit still seemed frustrated.

“Beyond that, everything is as you heard it last. Assets frozen, gold is no longer being purchased in the city, the two stores on each side of ours steal perhaps ninety percent of our customers, and the estate lawyers deliberately held on to a check so it’d bounce.

“We’re under attack. It’s just no longer a physical attack.”

Grim faces were turned to him around the conference table. Everyone knew what the score was, and no one could doubt what was happening.

“We’ll start with Felicia, as she had a brilliant idea on how to generate some cash flow. Felicia?”

All heads swung towards the diminutive woman.

“Exactly as planned. We’re overhauling all the cars we could get our hands on from the junkyards. By the end of next week, we’ll have them all ready for sale, providing you can carve out some time to get your ass in gear and magic us up some parts.”

“I can make that happen. Any initial estimations?”

Felicia wrinkled her nose and then shrugged. “Not really? Price of all the cars we bought in mint condition, with working parts, would probably be several million. Our investment wasn’t large, so that’d be good. Won’t know till we run an auction. We’re already distributing flyers about a car show and auction.”

“Great. Anything else?”

“No. Weapon work is going good. Tiny robots, too. Power source is coming along. Your personal Warden was started earlier. That’ll be up and running soon. Getting my people experienced with the cars first. Similar in some ways.”

“Great. Next, Lily?”

“Legally, we’re rock solid. Everything we’re doing is actually above board, so it makes our job relatively easy. Nothing really going on there. Though everyone and their mother is trying to get the paperwork together for dead relatives.”

Felix could only nod. That’d been a concern, and he wasn’t that worried about it. It’d only help bring up his numbers and his people. This financial crisis was a temporary problem.

“Finance would be next, I suppose. And that’s where the problem lies.” Lily sighed and pressed her fingertips to her brow, just above her glasses.

“We’ve got enough capital to go maybe two weeks. Three on the outside. It’s not going to go very well if they don’t unlock our accounts.”

“I see. Is there anything we can do to help shore up those numbers?”

“No. There isn’t. We’ll be declaring bankruptcy soon if that car auction doesn’t work out.

“That’s the reality, and there’s no changing it.”

He hadn’t thought it possible to feel worse than he had minutes ago. He was wrong.

“I’m going to make pancakes. Pancakes make everything better.”

Andrea stood up and held up an arm; several Others leapt out of her and held up an arm each.

“Pancakes!” they shouted in unison.

Unable to help himself, Felix lifted his arm with a smile. “Pancakes.”