Like, sovereignty.
Taking her word for it, seeing that a section of the text was literally the words she spoke just a few moments ago, I went ahead and signed while adding the ‘contingent upon hire’ part again.
She smiled ever so slightly, bringing up the next subject.
“And now, for your request to have access to intelligence assets to investigate situations as desired. Request granted.”
My screen lit up again.
Shit! That easy?
“However,” Jackie continued, “Personnel hours will be billed to you directly, so please keep that in mind when submitting your requests.”
Of course, there was a catch. I scratched my chin briefly as I thought about that. “Okay, and the offered salary is ten million, correct?”
She nodded.
“Then how many hours can I expect from half of that?”
Her eyes nearly bugged out of her head. “T-That would be excessive,” she admitted. “We’d have to limit it to one million per year, or two-thousand hours, whichever is greater.”
Pennington finally chimed in, running his hand through his white hair. “Two-thousand hours is a little excessive,” he said sarcastically. “He’ll never use more than five-hundred hours in a year.”
I scoffed. “Then what’s the problem with it being two-thousand?” I asked seriously. “If you’re so confident I’ll never burn through five-hundred, then the exact limit shouldn’t matter.”
He glared at me, before focusing on Jackie. “Make it a thousand hours, with a rollover of an additional five-hundred hours, up to a total of fifteen-hundred in any given year. We don’t have the resource flexibility to dedicate so much discretionary time to a single super.”
Jackie nodded, making a few taps on her tablet. “That acceptable?” she asked me simply.
Honestly, the guy was probably right in suggesting that I might not even use five-hundred. I mean, at two-thousand hours that would be the equivalent of hiring a full-time personal investigator for a full year, and I doubted that would be even close to necessary for what I had in mind.
I picked up the stylus, glanced over the text, and then signed.
“And now, Political Sovereignty.” She took a deep breath and let it out slowly, before determination crossed her expression. “This subject has been discussed in-depth, and we have come to a resolute decision. We can offer you Absolute Immunity, but not Political Sovereignty. As part of CDS policy, the contract we are offering you cannot be granted to an individual not directly representing our own country’s interests.”
Shockingly, even before I could say anything, the woman to my left, sitting next to the General, spoke up for the first time. “Are you sure that’s a wise decision?” Mrs. Dolan asked seriously. “Is the CDS really going to risk a deterioration of negotiations on this point?”
Instantly, everyone glared at her, before the room exploded into an uproar, with everyone trying to voice their opinion at once. And surprisingly, it wasn’t all directed at this woman either. Apparently, this was a point that Connolly, the dark-skinned woman with pink eyes, was disapproving of too, though I couldn’t fathom why, when she seemed like she was so against me rejecting missions.
Her opinion was immediately challenged by Pennington, sitting right next to her, who pointed out the problems associated with me using their intelligence while being politically sovereign.
Needless to say, it turned into a shitstorm in one-second flat.
And I felt totally lost.
A lot of my preparations had gone toward trying to argue with them to give me access to my evaluation, even though it was supposedly off the table. I never expected this to be a major issue, or otherwise I would have researched it a lot more.
Granted, I had researched it, and there was virtually no information on the subject, but still.
I just never thought this would be a point that was flat out rejected.
Unexpectedly, my hand jerked from an invisible force, causing me to shove the stylus off the table. Before I could even react, Liz bent down to pick it up for me, only for the room to fall completely silent again, despite the raging shitstorm.
“Don’t react. Don’t respond to me. Once they shut up, mention Section 105 of the Grimoires Act. Do not admit that I told you, but also don’t deny it. Connolly is a human lie detector.”
All sound immediately returned to the world then as she stood up, dropping the stylus on the table.
I would have assumed that her actions would have gone unnoticed, but apparently everyone was well aware of who she was, because the room immediately fell silent, for real this time, all eyes on her.
She pretended not to notice for half a second, before scanning the room. “There a problem?” she asked seriously.
“What was that just now?” General Burnham demanded.
Her thin blonde eyebrows shot up like she was staring at an idiot. “I picked up his stylus. There a problem with that?”
“Don’t give me that shit!” he snapped, only to almost get cut off by Connolly.
“Did you say something to him?” she hissed, her pink eyes narrow, her dark brow furrowed.
Liz rolled her blue eyes. “Why even bother asking? Even if I tell you no, you’re just going to believe whatever you want, since your ability doesn’t work on me.”
“You little–” She abruptly stopped mid-sentence, focusing on me. “Did she say something to you?” she demanded.
Shit! I had to think fast. I couldn’t say no, because she’d know it was a lie.
Dammit!
I decided to play dumb.
“Okay, seriously. What in the world is going on right now? I accidentally knock the stupid thing off the table, and now you’re asking if she said something to me? How in the hell is she even supposed to say something when all of you are practically screaming at the top of your lungs?”
Would that kind of a question be seen as a lie? Obviously I knew how, but I wasn’t directly saying I didn’t know.
I quickly continued. “And while you’re all arguing, you didn’t even give me a chance to speak. I’m well aware I have options here.”
“You’re deflecting,” Connelly accused.
The
