MARVEL: BUYING GODHOOD

The four of us were still deciding what we should do next when the Research Assistant’s voice suddenly entered my mind. “Lord, the communication device assigned to Gideon Malick has received another message.”

That immediately caught my attention. Malick had contacted me earlier after learning that Hydra and S.H.I.E.L.D. were looking into me, and I’d told him to arrange a meeting with someone above him whenever the chance appeared naturally. If he was contacting me again already, something had probably happened.

I looked toward Gwen and said, “I need to take care of something.” She looked at me for a moment, and from the change in her expression, I could tell she understood that something important had happened. She didn’t ask about it in front of Sara and Emily. Instead, she nodded before looking toward them. “Come on. Let’s go to my room.”

Sara and Emily looked curious, but they followed her upstairs without asking me anything. Once they were gone, I took Malick’s communication device from my Storage Space and tried calling him. The call continued for several seconds, but he didn’t answer. Before I could try again, another message appeared.

Three hours. Someone above me is coming to Sterling Global to meet you.

I stared at it for a moment. He’s fast. I’d specifically told Malick not to push anyone into meeting me. Hydra was already interested in what I was doing, so I’d wanted him to wait until someone above him became curious enough to meet me on their own. Apparently, that had happened much sooner than I’d expected.

The first problem that came to mind was Sara and Emily. Gwen and I had planned to tell both of them everything this evening, but depending on how long this meeting lasted, I might have to change the timing. There was no point worrying about that yet. I could decide after the meeting was finished.

I returned the communicator to my Storage Space and headed upstairs. When I reached Gwen’s room, the three of them were already inside. Gwen looked toward me as soon as I appeared in the doorway.

“I’ll be busy for a while,” I told her. “An urgent meeting came up.” Gwen thought for a moment before asking, “Should I come? I’m supposed to be your secretary.” I shook my head. “Not this time. Have fun with them. Work can come later.”

She looked at me for another moment before nodding. “Okay.” I told Sara and Emily I’d probably be back later before leaving them and heading downstairs. I checked whether White was still in the house, but she had already left. Helen wasn’t there either. I considered calling one of them before deciding against it. They were probably dealing with their own work, and there was no reason to disturb them when I was already going to Sterling Global Headquarters.

I took the key to one of the Rolls-Royces and headed toward the garage. A few minutes later, I was on the road toward the company.

The trip took almost an hour and a half because of traffic. Most of that time was spent thinking about whoever Malick had arranged for me to meet. I doubted it would be anyone near the top of Hydra. I’d told him I wanted someone above him, not someone so important that meeting me would immediately attract attention from the entire organization.

Someone in the middle was better. Important enough to have useful information and connections, but not important enough that anything happening around them would create an immediate crisis.

Hydra still didn’t know what I actually was. As far as they were concerned, I was a seventeen-year-old billionaire who had taken control of Sterling Global, started buying large amounts of property and recently acquired the Arc Reactor designs from Stark Industries. That was enough to make them interested without giving them any real answers.

I also didn’t mind meeting whoever they sent at the company. Arthur’s accident had made people around Sterling Global much more careful with me even though nobody could prove I’d had anything to do with it. He had been one of the people openly standing against me, and then shortly before I took control of the company, he’d died in an accident brutal enough that there had barely been a body left.

Officially, it had only been an accident. No foul play had ever been found. That didn’t stop people from noticing the timing.

Anyone who knew Arthur had been opposing me naturally became more careful afterward. They didn’t need to believe I’d killed him. The possibility was enough, especially when the accident itself had been so brutal. People generally became much more polite when they weren’t completely certain whether the seventeen-year-old standing in front of them was capable of arranging something like that.

The board members had even more reason to be careful. They were the only ones who knew what had happened inside the meeting afterward. They’d seen what I could do to the titanium table and heard exactly what I’d said when someone tried to challenge me. None of that had left the room, and I intended to keep it that way.

Still, I didn’t need the entire company terrified of me. Caution was enough. By the time I reached Sterling Global Headquarters, there was still more than an hour before the meeting. I parked the Rolls-Royce and headed inside. The security staff recognized me immediately, and the people I passed greeted me politely. Some barely reacted beyond that, while others became noticeably more careful once they realized who was walking past them.

I was already used to it. I returned the greetings and continued toward the private elevator. Nobody said anything strange or openly acted afraid. They simply chose their words a little more carefully around me than they probably would around another seventeen-year-old.

When I reached the executive floor, I headed toward my office. I hadn’t spent much time physically working here since taking control of the company. There wasn’t much reason to. Most executive decisions could reach me wherever I was, Helen handled the legal side, and the people already running the different divisions could deal with the normal work themselves.

When I opened my office door, I found Helen sitting inside. Several documents were spread across the desk in front of her, along with a tablet.

I stopped near the entrance. “Why are you here? Shouldn’t you be in the legal department?” Helen looked up from the papers. “Who do you think is handling everything you need to sign while you’re out taking girls on dates?” Oh. Right. I hadn’t exactly been spending much time at the company recently. Instead of arguing about whether yesterday counted as a date, I asked, “Is White here too?”

Helen shook her head. “No. I gave her an assistant who knows your mother’s companies. She’s helping White become familiar with the employees, records and the way everything is handled. White is taking care of most of it herself now.”

I nodded. That was better. White was supposed to eventually handle Mother’s companies anyway, so there was no reason for Helen to keep dividing her time between helping White and dealing with my legal work.

“Okay.” I walked farther into the office and closed the door. “We’re going to have a guest soon.” Helen looked at me. “Who?” I didn’t answer immediately. She already knew mutants existed. She believed I was one and believed Diablo was one too. But that was still only a small part of what was hidden from normal people.

If she remained here during this meeting, she was going to learn a lot more. I looked at her for a moment before asking, “Do you want to know more about the world’s secrets, or are you happy with what you already know?” Helen stared at me. From her expression alone, I could tell she didn’t understand what I meant. “What are you talking about?”