80 Job Interview
"What do you want?" Leonard didn't bother fighting back and sat on his comfortable office chair. He didn't even mind the pain he just went through, he just looked on calmly at the two men in front of him.
"Let me introduce myself, I am Ben, a 3rd Associate. This is my partner, Bill, a 4th Associate. We're here to invite you to join the Association." Ben took out a small card from his inner breast pocket and held it out for Leonard to reach. The card was made out of a plastic of some sort, blue all over with the letters on it greyed out with precision.
[Benjamin Frank - 3rd Associate
For inquiries:
Contact Number: 3214-4412-3199]
"... You hand these out? I thought you guys are secretive about this knd of thing." Leonard looked at the strange business card and thought how absurd it was to see one coming from the man before him.
What kind of secret organization hands out business cards?
"Don't worry about us being exposed through those cards, they won't be able to see it." Ben cheekily raised his finger and exposed a little of his mana, creating a glow that couldn't be seen by those without affinity with mana.
Leonard looked back on the card and saw that it was as he saw it before, then he closed off his eyes and suppressed his mana flow. When he opened his eyes, he saw that the card before him had turned white, with new information written on it.
[Jenny Florence - Filian Flower Shop
For inquiries:
Address: 512 Bleaker Street Springfield, Kanada
Contact Number: 5519-1310-4124]
"Hmmm... I'm guessing that was some kind of test?" Leonard put the card down on his table and took his cup of coffee to take a sip. He wasn't even awake enough to care about what was happening, and he was getting pretty pissed off at the smile the two of them were giving him.
'You said invite but threatened me and my family? Fuckers.' Leonard, however, didn't let his face show his true emotions as he continued to play the fidgety, old man routine. Having been here for more than two decades now, he knew better than to let his face be a weakness.
Playing people means hiding your cards while showing them what they need to see.
"Hehe... More like assurance. While our sources have told us that you are well versed in the study of mana, we needed to be sure before putting more effort into getting you to join us. After all, the requests you can ask are directly connected with how much you can give us." Ben took off his jacket and placed it on the ground in front of him.
The inside of the jacket actually had a zipper on the corner that is stitched on the inside, with a few pockets on the sides that were quite small. Ben then unzipped the jacket to reveal a few pieces of paper and a phone, the latest one at that. Though Leonard didn't really know how advanced it was because he wasn't too updated on current commercial technologies such as phones. He was still under their 'protection' after all.
"We need to see your work, you should show us your work. The more confident we are of your abilities, the better your position would be when you join us." Billy chimed in when Ben was still preparing the paperwork, causing Ben to look at Billy with a helpless smile.
His action wasn't really beneficial to the organization in the least, but he knew more than anyone here that Billy was probably feeling guilty. Having to threaten a man with his wife probably struck him hard, that was because he could empathize with Leonard in that aspect.
"It's true, the more you show, the more you can ask. Wait for a while and I'll tell you all about it." Ben was right about finished with his preparation when a knock came from the door.
Ben quickly finished his work and wore his jacket while Billy went to his side. The two of them looked at Leonard and Ben gave him a nod while making a shushing gesture. "Shhh."
"Hmm?" Leonard didn't understand why the two weren't hiding themselves from the peripheral vision of someone looking from the doorway. But he got his answer from two questions that have been bothering him all this while.
How did these two get in, and more importantly, how were they planning on getting out?
'What the hell? There's an ability like that?' Leonard, with his eyes wide open, looked at the place where the two men were standing on before. The two figures, starting from their feet, turned invisible.
"Huh?" Leonard couldn't believe it, the two men vanished right in front of his eyes.
"Sir? Knock. Knock. The customer is on her way. I'm going up to retrieve her." As Pale had been Leonard's assistant for the greater part of the decade already, he knew that Leonard was probably working on something again. If he doesn't respond to him after all this while, that means that he's free to go.
"Go on! I'll be here." Leonard walked to where the two vanished as he shouted. He couldn't help but try to phase his hand through where they were and was even more astonished by what he came to see.
'Is this light refraction? Using Linton Energy?' Leonard looked on as his hand was cut from the wrist right in front of his eyes. He could still feel his hand, but his eyes aren't able to get a single glimpse of it. He tried to move his hands and could feel feedback from his movement, and when he tried to pull it out, it magically started forming from the wrist up to his fingers.
"Fantastic! Amazing! This, this!" Leonard's oldened eyes showed their true colors as he felt the need to test out the ability, even making his mana flow speed up to their normal flow for a second making his leg's skin smoothen for a second.
"Hmm? Oh, yeah. There's you two again." But as soon as he felt a hand gripping his arm, he came back to his senses and hurriedly slowed his mana flow down again. He almost lost his secret right there, thankfully the idiots got him to stop.
"Is it alright for you to shout like that?" Billy couldn't help but be concerned as he looked around, trying to see if someone else would come by placing his ears on the door. The old man had shouted so loudly and was so close to him that he could feel his ears ringing from how booming it was.
"This is my lab! I can shout whatever I want and all they can do is suck up to me!" Leonard proceeded to demonstrate to the two how much control he has inside his own domain.
He may be trapped here because of reasons he cannot control, but it didn't mean that those people could make him their slave. There were many clauses that they had to agree to before he came to a deal with them, he wasn't under arrest in his own place of work.
"Alright, alright! Calm down." Ben looked at Leonard's agitated expression and couldn't help but feel that this whole mission's going to be a headache.
A strong-headed personality like this isn't one that the Association desires, but his qualifications are strongly aligned with their interests. Looks like there would be a lot of work to get this man to join them, while trying to keep him down enough so the work won't be impeded.
"Here's the contract, you can check it out while we are here. I would tell you to get it checked at by your lawyer, but you can't really do that. To be honest, I think you could tell how fair we are with this con-" Ben handed the papers to Leonard who hurriedly took it and gave it a scan. Ben was going over the usual 'We are good guys, I promise' routine when he suddenly saw Leonard place down the contract and take out a piece of paper before writing down something.
"Are those your requests?" Ben felt weird watching on as the client completely centered his attention on writing, so he had to ask. He didn't get any reaction from Leonard, though, which made him feel more awkward as time passed. He looked at Billy who had a small smile as he read what Leonard was writing.
"These are my conditions. Accept them and I'll sign whatever this is. If you don't, I'll have to decline your offer and we go our separate ways." Leonard had a fierce expression on his face as he passed the paper to Ben. As soon as Ben took hold of the paper, Leonard went to a corner of the office and placed his hand on a small hole right beside a potted plant.
He carefully wiggled his finger through it until he reached the other side of the wall and dragged it up, revealing a secret compartment where a few USB's were hidden. He gave the five USB's a look and picked one up then threw it to Billy. He then took the rest and placed them inside his pockets before walking back to his chair and crossing his arms before his chest.
"I think the information inside should show you my worth. Try not to take too much time, I have to get out in a little while." Leonard took out his phone to see the time, he should have a few minutes left as Pale should still be coaxing up to the new customer.
The boy had a habit to suck up to higher ups and while it was normal for most people to do that, the boy was too good that Leonard felt some reprehension against him when he does it. That's why he'd rather stay out of the boy's way when he does his thing.
"Ben, look at these." Billy saw the comprehending look on Ben's face and quickly showed him what was inside the USB through the tablet on his hand. Files upon files regarding experiments that Leonard has dubbed 'Linton Diamonds' came to light, and the two men knew that it was extraordinary how much this man had learned about them.
"How did you make them stable?" These were mana crystals that the man was working on, not simple lead-acid batteries, but unstable nuclear-level batteries that could kill people from too much exposure alone. They contain a great amount of potential, they already knew that, but it wasn't until they've seen the files here that they could see the 'real' potential that mana crystal had.
"Yes or no?" Leonard crossed his legs while giving a provocative smile towards Ben. Ben didn't dare to take a risk and hurriedly contacted his superiors with his phone while Billy stood by and read more files.
The mere fact that he got them to not explode when being extracted was miraculous, he wondered what else this man had done. From the video he was watching, the man still had a head full of black hair when he got this done. The old man in front of him had grey streaks already, and that only meant that there was more work done during the time in between what he saw and today.
"Yes, sir. I understand, thank you." Ben just placed the phone back into his pockets when he saw Leonard's hand playing with a pen. The smile he was giving showed that he had complete control of the situation, and Ben couldn't help but sigh as he knew what was going to happen next.
"Welcome to the Association, Dr. Leonard Huertazuela."
