A palpable silence fell over the room as he entered, two pairs of eyes staring at him as he made his way inside. It took him completely off guard, the tension radiating off the pair thick enough to be sliced with a knife.
"What's wrong?" He asked, pausing in his steps.
"Who did you say you were again?" Willam asked in return, hardened eyes staring back at him demanding an answer.
"What do you mean?" Leonard was genuinely confused, eyes swapping between Willam and Anna, the latter's eyes not being as hard as her brothers, however they still frosted over as she levelled him with a frosty gaze. "My name is Leonard."
"Right," he could tell his answer did satisfy him in the slightest. "That was your name, but who were you again? How do you know us?"
"Ahh.." Leonard internally winced, even if he thought such a topic might come up eventually he was hoping that it wouldn't.
"Um.. I know it might seem strange," since the cat was already out of the bag there was no reason to try and continue playing dumb. "But I mean you no harm, truly. If I did I never would have gone through the trouble of rescuing you from the White Skulls and bringing you both here into my family's estate."
"I figured as much." Willam responded, and while his sister's eyes softened a fair amount, his still retained their apprehension. "But what do you want from us? You can't expect me to believe this is all out of the goodness of your heart."
"That is true, there is something that I was hoping you could help me with." Leonard began, considering his words carefully as to not scare him off. "I was looking for someone to help manage an organisation I'm intending to create, and your name came up."
"My name?" Willam's eyebrow raised. "I'm just a university student that hasn't even graduated yet. Surely there are professionals in the field with decades more experience than me."
"That's just what I heard," Leonard responded and he could tell the man wasn't satisfied with such an answer. However there was little he could do in that regard, unless he wanted to expose his soul's deepest secrets it would just have to do. "I intended to set up a mercenary group, and I want you to help with the managerial side of things."
Willam whistled. "Mercenaries huh? That's going to require a huge amount of capital to get it up and running."
"Don't worry about the money, if all goes as planned I should have a large amount by the end of the week."
"This is all just strange," Willam sighed. "Some random rich kid shows up out of nowhere, rescues me from my cell and then asks me to help him set up a mercenary company? You have to admit from my point of view this is all just crazy."
"I get that it would seem strange," Leonard agreed.
Willam nodded, appreciating that he could also see how abnormal their situation was. "But let's say I agree to this, what about my current company? What am I to do with that?"
"What's the nature of your company?" Leonard questioned, he hadn't known Willam had started his career already.
"We are an administrative outsourcing company."
"Hmm," Leonard nodded, thinking for a moment. "Couldn't we just merge that into the Mercenary group? We'd need an administrative side anyways."
"Possible," Willam agreed, although still thinking in a hypothetical sense, not yet being brought over to actually start the work. "But we are on Citadel. Our supposed Mercenary group wouldn't be able to get mechs here."
"Mech's can come later, for now I just plan to hire a team of ten men to assist me in my.. Outings." Willam raised an eyebrow to that, but Leonard didn't elaborate. "We would need starships if we were to expand beyond the planet, and that's not something we can afford right now."
"Starships huh? Do you plan to keep the mercenary group fleet or land based?"
"In the beginning we'd have to remain fleet based, but when we grow we can set up planetary bases. Although the admin side of things can be handled remotely if that's what you were worrying about."
Willam whistled. "Those are some big plans. Just how much do you want to expand this mercenary group?"
"That's true. How far do I want to go with this?" He thought to himself. His immediate goal was simply to set up a team to help him clean up Bastions capital planet, however more long term was to help ride the wave of war that would wash over the galaxy. To make any impact on the galactic stage a small local force would not be enough, it would be like an ant trying to hold back the sea. "Large," he measured his words. Answering Willam just as much as he was answering himself. "Very large."
Willam's business instinct kicked in, a small glow pulsating out from his eyes. However being a businessman he was shrewd, and not about to jump headlong into something without further proof.
"This is certainly an interesting proposal. However I will need to see that you have enough funding first."
"That's fair," Leonard could let go of his breath, the prevailing tension that filled the room now gone. "I don't have it right now, but by the end of the week."
"However you get the money I don't much care, but I will need to see it before I jump ship to your mercenary group."
"Are you both done now?" Anna finally spoke up. "Talking work is all well and good, but I don't know if you have forgotten but we don't have anywhere to stay."
"Ah right," Willam turned back to Leonard, sheepishly scratching his neck. "You see we can stay in this room forever, but if we go back outside there's a good chance we could be captured again."
"That's true," Leonard nodded. "I can see about getting you set up in one of our guest houses, but you will still have to stay here tonight, and the guest houses are only temporary."
"How long?" Anna asked.
"About a week, two if I can stretch it." While the sibling duo were glad for his help, it was only a temporary fix to their problem. "But how about this, if we can set up our mercenary group quickly enough you can stay in the office. The team I hire can act as security as well, you should be safe there."
"That could work," Willam nodded. "But would we have enough space for us alongside everything else?"
"I said I was going to make our mercenary group big, and while we are starting small it doesn't mean we have to get a tiny office. I'll see how much money I can scrounge together, but we should be able to buy a sizable warehouse at the very least."
"Well I guess you're leaving me no choice but to join your company," Willam smiled, and while his words could be interpreted that he was being forced, his smile said otherwise. "Let's just hope you can get this elusive money of yours."
Leonard hoped so too. It was all based on whether or not his private investigator, Peter, could find some worthwhile information or not. If he could get locations of other Bloodhound bases then Leonard had no reservations breaking in guns blazing and stripping the place bare.
"It seems I best pay attention during this meeting tonight. While it doesn't seem very important to the Bloodhounds themselves, more like a weekly formality, for me this is the starting point in my quest to bring them down."
His eyes briefly glowed red, the bloodlust only lingering in his eyes for a moment. However it was still enough to coat the back of Willam and Anna's necks in a cold sweat.