As Jason talked, his aura ramped up until it was bearing down on the Network contingent like a weight. Only Gladys was able to truly hold up and even she felt oppressed. The normal-ranked government official panicked and ran out the doors, sprinting around the outside deck towards the dock. The incongruency of such a menace pouring off the barefoot man in a Hawaiian shirt and board shorts gave it a bizarre eeriness.
The pressure receded, leaving the iron-rank Asya and Anna taking deep breaths, as if they’d just breached the surface of the water. Keith didn’t look much better, while Gladys watched Jason warily.
Nigel stared at him with wide eyes. “Can you teach me to do that?”
“To a degree,” Jason said. “I can’t replicate all the conditions that led to the current condition of my aura and you don’t want me to. Some things aren’t worth the price.”
“And what is it that you want in return?” Gladys asked, taking over while the others were still recovering. “You haven’t told us yet.”
“Nothing onerous,” Jason said. “Mostly, I want monsters.”
“You want us to catch monsters alive?” Keith asked.
“No,” Jason said. “I want dibs on killing any category-three monsters in Australia. Further afield, if you can swing it. I want right of refusal on category twos as well.”
“You want in on fighting the dimensional entities?” Nigel clarified.
“Yes. I’m open to negotiation on dividing the loot, but I have no issue handing off most of the cores and spirit coins. I just need enough to meet my own needs. Aside from that, I have a few other requirements.”
Gladys turned and looked at the wall. “What is your shadow creature doing to Truffett?”
“He just mana-drained him until he passed out,” Jason said. “Can’t have him causing trouble. He’ll recover quickly on the houseboat.”
“Asya, go check on him,” Gladys said. “Upper deck.”
“There’s an elevator just through there,” Jason said, pointing to the inner door. “Show her, please, Shade.”
“How many of those shadow creatures do you have?” Gladys asked as Asya followed one of Shade’s bodies deeper into the houseboat.
“Just one.”
“I sensed another one outside,” Gladys said.
“Shade is an excellent multitasker.”
“What are your other requirements?” Keith asked, getting the negotiation back on topic.
“Small things,” Jason said. “I have some gold I’d like the Royal Mint to take off my hands without my getting audited or accused of arms smuggling.”
“Gold from the other world?” Anna asked.
“Yep,” Jason said.
“I don’t see that being a problem,” Keith said. “What else?”
“I’m going to get my family ready for when magic goes public,” Jason said. “The Network’s support isn’t strictly necessary, but it would be useful. You would also get to keep an eye on things, to head off any potential information breaches.”
“Again, not a deal-breaker,” Keith said. “It seems like what we need to hammer out are the specifics regarding your participation in our incursion response program.”
“How much are you allowed to decide now?” Jason asked.
“I’m empowered to make a preliminary agreement that I can put before the Steering Committee of our branch and the International Committee. We aren’t looking to monopolise everything or we’ll just get more branches following Lyon’s lead.”
“You know that all this is predicated on the other outworlder,” Jason said. “I need to see some movement on that or we don’t have any kind of deal at all.”
“I can make that plain to the committees in question,” Keith said. “For now, I’d like to get some specific terms down that I can take back with me.”
“Alright,” Jason said. “Let’s get down to it, then.”
As he and Keith moved to a table, Asya returned.
“How is he?” Gladys asked.
“Snoring,” Asya said. “Loudly.”
“You realise that he will be the one responsible for getting your gold organised,” Anna told Jason.
“What gold?” Asya asked.
39
SECTION
Sitting at a table in the bar lounge of his houseboat, Jason spent considerable time hammering out details with Keith and Anna. For loot distribution, Jason would keep a percentage for his own needs and trade the rest for more ordinary remuneration, such as money or use of the Network’s wide-ranging influence. Legally, it would all go through his status as a security crisis contractor to one of the Network’s front companies.
Other stipulations involved agreements on services and tertiary benefits Jason could access through the Network, as well as restriction on Jason’s behaviour regarding secrecy.
“We’ll need the family members you’ve informed already to agree to formal non-disclosure agreements,” Keith said. “We’ll do that through the government’s existing classified information frameworks.”
“I still have more people to tell,” Jason said. “My brother, my sister-in-law, and my mother.”
“We don’t love that you decided to tell so many people,” Anna said. “We can live with it, though, so long as that’s the end.”
Eventually, they came to a general accord.
“I’m comfortable taking what we have to the committees,” Keith said, slipping the computer tablet he was taking notes on back into his briefcase. “Fair warning, though, Mr Asano: The committees are committees. They’re going to want to change some details just to feel like they’re in control.”
“I think I’ve made my bottom line clear,” Jason said. “If your committees want to make themselves feel like they’re in control, I can probably accommodate a stipulation or two. If they want to make me feel that they’re in control, you’ll find me significantly less receptive.”
“I’ll do my best, Mr Asano,” Keith said, standing up. “To be clear, my goal isn’t to make them or you happy. It’s to fulfil the Network’s mandate of keeping people safe and maintaining secrecy.”
“I can respect that,” Jason said, standing to shake Keith’s hand. As he did, Keith, Anna, Gladys and Nigel all received notifications on their phones, the same alarm-like sound for each. They glanced at each other as they checked the messages.
“Is that about one of your incursion incidents?” Jason asked.
“It is,” Keith said. “We’ll have to skip the niceties and go, I’m afraid. Asya, I’ll have to leave Mr Truffett to you.”
“Of course,” Asya said.
“Can I tag along?” Jason asked. “I’d like to see one of these proto-astral spaces for myself.”
“I’m not sure that’s appropriate until we’ve finalised our arrangement, Mr Asano,” Keith said.
“Perhaps it’s fair if Mr Asano gets a look at what he’s agreeing to throw himself into,” Anna said.
“It might help if you can go to the committee with a sense of his true abilities,” Nigel added.
“Come on, Keith,” Jason said. “I’ll even give you all the loot. You want another big pile of spirit coins, right?”
“That’s certainly tempting, Mr Asano, but this wouldn’t be a sightseeing trip. It’s a category-three incursion.”
“Oh, nice,” Jason said.
Keith turned to Anna.
“You are head of operations, Anna,” he said. “If you’re okay with it, I’ll defer to you.”
“Alright,” Anna said. “Don’t make me regret this, Asano.”
“Looks like the location isn’t too far,” Nigel said, looking at his phone. “Accessibility might be an issue and they’re sending a helicopter.”
“Where are we heading?” Jason asked.