"Do you think they are going to accept?" Scott asked.
"Yes for the majority of them but I'm not sure for all seven. Some still had the patriotic fiber running deep inside of them. Ultimately, this is going to be a war between loyalty for the army or loyalty in the team."
"I can understand that." Scott said with a pensive expression. "Too bad they can't know that we are working for the government, that would have swayed them quite a lot in their decision making."
"We are not. We are working with the President, this is an important distinction to make Scott. It means that we don't take orders from them, the President is our client nothing more." Nathaniel explained.
"Yeah, I still have a hard time getting my head around that, it goes against everything I was taught in the army. I can't believe you manage to get a deal like that, there are a lot of defense private companies who spend millions of dollars each year lobbying to get that form the DOD. You should still have made a better speech than that to get them to sign with you."
"That wouldn't have worked, these guys are army veteran, they dislike nonsense like commercial speech even more than political talk. I would have lost their respect trying it." Nathaniel shook his head.
"You are right about that but I still believe you should have done more to convince them to join. So, where are we going next Boss?"
"San Antonio, Texas." Nathaniel answers, calling a taxi and hoping for it.
Inside the pub, there was silence around the table as everyone was thinking to themselves about the job offer.
"That kid is not normal." One of them said, shocking his friends out of their thoughts.
"Well, he's confident, I can at least give him that." Ethan said in amusement, triggering a few chuckles from his friend.
"There is more than that. Did you notice the fact that he didn't even have a reaction when Morgan shouted at him? He wasn't even startled and definitely not afraid considering the fact that Morgan is at least forty pound heavier and five inches taller than him." One of the others named Seth interject.
"He's just arrogant like any youth." Morgan said with a laugh, taking a gulp of his glass of whiskey. "How old is he by the way Keith?"
"I'm not an expert in young pop culture you know." Keith frowned at him.
"Yes but you are the only one here who knows him." Ethan steps in to avoid a confrontation between the two.
"I know him because my daughter always talks about him and I happen to remember a thing or two. I believe it is sixteen or seventeen, let me check on my phone. Yeah, he just turned seventeen a couple of weeks ago."
"Is his family involved in defense?" Ethan asked.
"What? I don't think so. They are just a label company, an impressive wealthy and influential one but no, they are not involved in defense. Why?"
"I'm just trying to know how he could be aware of the accident in Panama. Morgan was right, this is confidential information. Nobody should know about this and certainly not a kid still wet behind the ears. He also said that he knows everything about us and I'm inclined to believe him on that one."
"He's telling the truth." Keith said, looking at the album with a trouble expression on his face.
"What's going on Keith?" Ethan is curious about his squadmate expression.
"The message that he left on the back of his album, he put my daughter's first and middle name on it. He also knew that my daughter was a fan of his before coming in." He said letting that sink into the mind of everyone around the table.
"You are missing the obvious here. We saw him fight and I believe we all recognized the choke hold he used at the end. It was SEAL training, it was our training." Seth said.
"Maybe he saw it on TV or something?" One of them offers.
"No, you saw how fluid he was with his movement. No, I believe he was trained, intensely trained in fact." Seth rebuked.
"And who would have trained him? Not the military, his way too young for that. Especially considering that SEALs only took seasoned soldiers before training them." Ethan added.
"Maybe the CIA or another organisation in the government?"
"No, nobody is crazy enough to do something like that and even if they were, the kid does not qualify as a spy. We all know that the CIA prefers their agents without any family and coming from the working class. That Lyndon kid is the opposite to that."
"Who cares really? He just has a special trainer hired by his grandpa's money. This is not a big deal." Morgan says annoyed. "Let's talk about something much more important, how much does he want to pay us?"
Used to his legendary attitude, the whole squad laughed, one of them taking the files that Nathaniel had left behind. Looking at the number on it, he whistled appreciatively.
"That much?" Morgan said hopefully. "Give it to me, I want to see!"
Passing the papers to all of his squadmates, the man started to look at the other piece of papers on the table curiously. Taking hold of one of the contracts, it was Morgan's turn to whistle.
"I'm starting to like this arrogant and annoying kid."
"I did know that the private sector was paying quite well but this almost seems too much." One of the others said admiratingly.
"Guys, you should look at this. This is what would be expected of us if we accept the contract." He said, passing the other stack of papers around the table.
Taking one, all of them started to read through them. Once they were done, they were all exchanging confused and intrigued stare between them. It was not at all what they were expecting to do.
"That kid is not normal." The same man repeated.