Aiden stepped into the room after his little lady and once again was blow away by the level of commitment she and her people had when it came to their base's design.
Similar to the training room he had gone in to, the space he was in now was massive. The walls were panels that held a pattern of thick glass and metal. There was a huge oval shaped table in the very center of it, surrounded by monitors and glass boards instead of chalk or white ones. All filled to the brim with numbers, information and names Aiden assumed belonged to different groups within Claire's network. And at the far end, was another set of doors to each corner as a composition of monitors was set up on the wall in between. Two masked people sat in front of them as they typed away on their keyboards.
The long metal table was already occupied by a number of people Aiden recognized, as well as a few new faces. Besides his brother, his assistant, Anna and Colton, most of those who had taken part in the previous meeting he attended were there. Including the tall and brooding masked man that had stared a hole through his head with his gaze as soon as he walked in. He found it comical at most.
Besides him, there were two more masked people which he could see consisted of another man and a woman. Both of whom were quick to scan him as he sat down next to Claire. Her seat was at the head of the table, while the two seats beside her were occupied by him and her brother. A set up that pleased him very much seeing as he could further irritate the masked man who couldn't seem to take his eyes off him. As if he were his pray. A thought that made him inwardly chuckle.
"You can begin." Claire commanded as she disregarded any other normal pleasantries a person would say when initiating a meeting. Her voice made Anna nod in her direction, before starting what would soon turn into a very tense gathering.
"After last night's attack, we had our intel gathering squadrons collect as much as they possibly could. Thanks to their findings, we can be sure of a few things. Two of which we will be be focusing this meeting on." She tapped on the tablet she had in her hands and made all of the monitors around them project the same images. Making it easy for anybody to see. Hundreds of surveillance pictures were shuffling through the screens. All with one single man as their main focus. "The first finding we'll be discussing is the man responsible for the unsuccessful raid."
The air inside the room became incredibly stuffy and heavy. It was obvious to Aiden, and the other two men who were seeing the perpetrators face for the first time, that the rest of those attending the meeting held much more than mere contempt for the man on the screens. That much could be understood without anybody having to explain it. The why however, would be an answer none of them would ever be completely ready for.
"Seeing as today we'll be accompanied by President Villan and two other members of his team, we'll be having a brief recap of who our target is to better help them understand." Anna finished saying as she gestured towards Tildy. By doing so, everybody's attention shifted towards the hell of a bomb shell looking blond sitting across from her. Everybody's, except the obviously fowled mooded man wearing head to toe black.
His attention was only focused on unsuccessfully intimidating Aiden, who hadn't the slightest interest in paying him a second thought.
"Although brief, I've summarized to the best of my abilities what you gentlemen should know." Tildy said as she looked over to their three guests. Seeing as they acknowledged her words with small nods, she began with her explanatory introduction.
"The person you see on the screens goes by the name of Calvin Kitsch."All eyes were now on the face of the man surrounding them on the monitors. "He was born and raised in the country, 5'11", 35 years old and the second born son to the current leader of the Phoenix Clan, Malcolm Kitsch."
As soon as Tildy said who he was, the Villan trio's mood shifted drastically. Something that only Colton and Claire seemed to notice.
"The nature of last night's kidnap attempt was a clear indicator to him being the prime suspect, but we confirmed it after we extracted the confession out of the surviving infiltrators." Tildy continued to say as she casually switched the word 'tortured' with 'extracted'. Detail nobody cared to pay thought to. "Our intel strongly indicates that he was also behind Master Colton's previous attack, which only fortifies our need to quickly gather the rest of the resources needed to deal with the pest as soon as possible." Tildy's voice was calm, but her eyes held strong emotions for the man projected around them. Something that was mimicked in the eyes of everybody else at the table.
"Speaking of resources." Colton asked. "Has the recruiter landed in the country already?" He did so while looking at Anna who was sitting next to him.
"Yes." She replied as she seemed to verify on her tablet." The flight landed two hours ago, which means we'll be seeing the recruiter in a few days time."
"On to the second topic of discussion." Claire's voice was heard. Her command was a simple one, but it also let the men to her side know that whatever else they wished to know about their new enemy would not be discussed. Or at least not during their current meeting.
Sensing as that was truly the case, Lucas and Jacob mentally listed all of their possible question for a later time.
Anna tapped on her tablet some more, which made the screen images of Calvin change into those of different diagrams. The names on them all belonging to different animals.
"As you all know, the Leopards team has been in charge of compiling and analyzing the Phoenix Clan's movements for the past three years now." Tildy continued. "That and the facts that we already know about their behavioral patterns, suggests that the possibility of them about to take a turn for the worse is much closer than it was six months ago. Meaning we'd have to strike before they do so."
It was obvious by their expressions that the Villan trio was confused as to what she meant. Colton noticed this and looked at Claire. Not to his surprise, she was already staring at him. Sharing a silent message between them, he turned back to look at Tildy who was about to continue speaking before he interrupted her.
"Our guests should be aware of what we mean when we say 'a turn for the worse'." He said in a serious voice. No playfulness was heard, and his usual silly grin was nowhere to be seen. "And seeing as I seriously doubt anybody is willing to verbally explain it to them, just show them."
Tildy had an unreadable expression on her face when she looked over towards Claire. Immediately finding that the latter had no emotion in her eyes. Her face was as blank and unattached as it could. But even so, Claire nodded towards her. Giving her the green light. And seeing as it was now a direct order from not one, but two of her superiors, Tildy had no choice but to oblige. Regardless of her unwillingness to do so.
"Alright then." Tildy answered as she looked down at her tablet. Her voice somewhat softer than it was before. After find what she was looking for, she tapped on the screen a few times. Making the most horrific scenes a person could ever witness show up on the screens around them. Forcefully submerging them into the awfulness that now surrounded them.
It all turned deadly silent. Even the two people who had been constantly tapping on their keyboards in the background, stopped what they were doing to contemplate the harrowing pictures.
Horrid. Death. Inhuman. Red.
If any of the three men seeing the images for the first time were to describe them in one word, they weren't sure that the word encapsulating the level of evil found in those pictures even existed. It was beyond them. Beyond anything they had seen, done, or could even bring themselves to imagine. The Villan's had always had deep ties into the underworld. Not to mention a cruel way of dealing with certain people. But that? That which made their every thoughts go silent? It was on a class of it's own. Not once in their lives had they witnessed such soul staining images.
"What..."Jacob's tried to voice out a question, but couldn't. His eyes were drinking in the awful feelings that the blood stained photographs were transmitting. And even though he desperately wanted to look away, he couldn't.
Children. Men. And random body parts could hardly be told apart due to the mess they were looking at. And even when a person could begin to wonder exactly how much blood somebody could possibly carry inside their body's to even be able to splatter such a pattern on the floor, anything any one of the three shocked men could look at was the women. Or whatever was left of them to be precise. Even hell would've had a hard time conjuring up the sight so mortifying displayed on the screens.
Jacob felt his body involuntarily tremble, when his office style chair was softly turned. Now all he could see was Lucas' side profile. Who's hand was now firmly holding one of his knees. A gesture of an attempt to comfort. Although it would be impossible to pin point who the comforting was directed to.
Only a few moments had passed as the countless images changed on the monitors, when Claire's voice was heard. "That's enough."
She was calm and collected, but it was no secret that what was just presented was weighing heavy on her mind as well. Taking a quick survey, she understood they all needed a few moments to recover from what they had just seen. It didn't matter if they had just begun the meeting or not. They needed a break to deal with their unexpected mental turmoil. "We'll continue the meeting in exactly two hours." She glanced over at Anna, who was silently staring at a particular monitor in front of her. The silent tears rolling down her cheeks were enough to let Claire know, that just like in her case, the passing of time would never be enough to heal certain wounds.
---------------------------------------------------
After the meeting was dismissed for a break, Claire and the Villan trio made way to her sleeping quarters. As soon as they got there, she began to prepare some much needed soothing tea.
"Is Anna going to be okay?" Aiden asked her in a soft voice. He had seen her cry in the meeting room earlier and was genuinely concerned. The stoic and put together image he had constantly seen of her was no where to be found.
Claire had just finished pouring hot water into the last of the mugs, when she looked up at him. He had silently stood in the kitchen as he watched her fix the tea. It was heartwarming how he always worried for her. And that included the people she held dear.
"She'll be okay." She replied with a soft smile on her face. Looking over the islands counter top, towards the sitting area, she could see Lucas was stuck like glue to Jacob's side.
She had seen their silent exchange during the meeting. It made her understand that under the heavily guarded, mother hen persona Jacob constantly had on, there was a much more sensitive and complex personality. A side to which Lucas was apparently very over protective of. The evidence being he hadn't stopped touching him in a comforting way for a while now.
During the viewing of the images it was his knee, as they made their way to there, it was his arm over Jacob's shoulder, and now it was his hand gently patting his head. Everything making him look like a very doting older brother.
"How about Jacob?" Claire asked in an equally hushed tone. "Will he be okay?" He had been visibly shaken since the meeting. And for whatever reason, he hadn't stopped staring or rubbing the scars on his hands.
"He will." Aiden answered before giving the top of her head a kiss. He then took two of the mugs and made his way towards his brothers.
Claire saw as Aiden passed a mug to each of them. He then bent down and gave Jacob a kiss on top of the head, followed by Lucas ruffling his hair. The pair smiled at the now blushing Jacob who, although did nothing to create distance between them, began to bicker and call them overbearing. She couldn't help but smile at the scene. Toxic masculinity was definitely a myth if she based her judgment solely on how those three treated each other. It was touching to say the least.
After a few more minutes, she decided to join them. Taking the other two warm mugs, she made her way towards Aiden and handed him one. She then gestured for him to sit next to the guys as she sat in one of the lounge chairs herself. Aiden would have much rather preferred to be closer to her, but he complied nonetheless. They shared a rather comfortable silence between the four for a while, until Lucas spoke.
"I'm not going to ask you why you're their target." He said as he lifted the gaze from his mug to look her. "But I will ask you why you haven't done anything about it yet."
Hearing his more than reasonable question, Claire let out a large sigh before taking a sip of her tea. The taste of chamomile was much more to her liking than whatever taste her answer would leave in her mouth.