I sat back, watching the scene unfold from one of my bugs, and wondered what I could do to stop it. I had seen enough to know that whatever Ned was planning was not good for me or anyone in the future. I still had to figure out how to create a frequency generator that could be used to disrupt the magical frequencies and break the control that King Kaido had. Then there was the issue with the other Numerian champions; I had yet to locate them, and Ned was getting better at detecting my bugs.
I had already lost more than 6 of them to electrical overloads. Even though they were older models, they just weren't big enough to handle that much power without frying the circuits faster than the energy could be converted and released. What I needed was a way to be able to disarm the traps or start going through walls. I had considered that, but Ned was much smarter than I gave him credit for, and his walls had been coated in a magic shield. The only way to break them would be to use extreme force, and that would just give away what I was doing.
So far, any of my bugs that had been caught in traps had been recovered, so even if Ned was linked to them, he wouldn't know what caused them, but I was sure it wouldn't take much. I had been lucky that my bug on Orion was still working, but I was curious about that. Orion had touched the bug one time but seemed to ignore it, which I found strange. I hadn't dwelled on it when I noticed the interaction in the report that was sent to me, but now I was curious about what it meant.
There was a possibility that Orion could defect in the future, but I hoped that if he did, he would wait till after Ned was dead. It would be a lot easier to trust him that way, but I had ways to deal with him if I could get him sooner.
My internal clock told me that it was 7:58 Am, and I could see that my 6 pups were headed to the office, so I put thoughts of Ned and the Order of Salvation away. It was time to give everyone jobs for the day, so I could concentrate on the Mindless. Getting them figured out was at the top of my list because it would cut the legs out from Kaido so I could steamroll his family and get rid of him.
Boss Zaraki seemed like he was the type that could be worked with as long as he got to keep doing what he liked. I would just need to get him to take care of the Magic Item Industry and get that moving again, but I would have to get rid of Ned before that could happen. Removing Wendell's leader was the lynchpin for most of my plans, and it was going to make moving around and doing business a problem.
"Good morning, Caleb," Fawna yawned as she opened the door, and the rest of the Phoenix Four, Kyla, and Kilna, came in behind her. The rest of them looked to have gotten more rest.
I was about to ask Fawna why she was tired, but she shook her head as she sat down at her computer and then pointed to the screen. I pulled an image of it into view and typed: "Why are you so tired?"
[I was up late trying to push my ability, but I wasn't able to get past what I normally saw.] -Fawna.
[I will give you more time to practice, but do not interrupt your sleep. I need you to be fully away for each day.]
I closed the screen and then stood up, making everyone look at me. "Today, I am going to have Coron and Zarek Working with the construction crew. They are silver knights, and they can do all the fixing and renovations that people need, but they can't talk to the people to ask them if they need things done. This is where you both come in," I explained, looking at the two youngest boys.
"You think that people will take us seriously? We are just kids to most people," Coron said, and I nodded.
"That is true, but it will only take a few good jobs to have people begging for our work; this I can promise you. I am sure that you are used to working in the shadows, but today I need you both to clean up better than you are. I will provide you with new clothing, but this will be dangerous. Kilna will be working on surveillance for you with Fawna, but that doesn't make you completely safe. Someone could decide to turn you in because you have my tech when you, so you are going to have to be careful who you ask for work," I explained, and Coron nodded, but Zarek put his hand up, and I gestured for him to speak.
"What area of the city should we start in?" He asked, then added, "I think that most of the rich people would turn us in if we asked, and the poor people are... poor. They aren't going to be very likely to have money to pay."
I nodded, "Start in the middle and work your way out. With you two working together, I am sure that you can offer a good price for the work and then move on. I know that you are both good at what you do, and I know the silver knights will get any job done in no time. I also know that they won't leave a mess that people will complain about, so you should be good."
I turned to Kyla and pointed at Rax. "You are going to be working on creating a list with Rax of useful people that are in jail. I need it to be detailed with the exact reasons why they would be useful. I will also need to know everything about them. This includes family, job, and criminal history, if they have ratted on people if they were put in jail because of someone else, or their own mistakes. Anything that you can think of about them. Once that list is complete, you can call out to let me know you are done, and I will look it over. Once I have decided who I want, I will give you some gold, and you two and Miles will bribe the guards to have them released. It would be good to make a list of guards, and their families, and house addresses because money doesn't work."
Both of them nodded, giving each other sideways looks, and then got to work. I had noticed that they had been eyeing each other yesterday, so I decided that I would put them together today to see if they could work as a team. I had nothing against people forming relationships, but they needed to still be able to work, so this would be a test of sorts.
Now that I had everyone busy, it was time to go start working on the Mindless, so I headed to leave the room, but Kilna stood up.
"Do you think that I can talk to you for a minute in private?" She asked, and I nodded, motioning for the door.