Chapter 163

  Alexander crossed the street toward the lawyer’s office.

  The building sat wedged between a pawnshop and a liquor store, three stories of faded brick that looked like it was barely holding itself together.

  Red and gold characters decorated the awning over the ground floor entrance. Golden Dragon Restaurant. About as generic a name as you could find for a Chinese restaurant. The smell of cooking oil and spices drifted out through the door.

  A separate entrance led to a narrow stairwell. Alexander climbed worn wooden steps that creaked under his weight. Cooking sounds echoed up from below, mixed with distant conversation in Mandarin.

  The second-floor landing had a single door with frosted glass.

  Faded black lettering read: J. SHARP - ATTORNEY AT LAW.

  He knocked.

  “Come in,” a woman’s voice called from inside.

  Alexander opened the door and stopped, Technopathy sweeping across the room at the same time his eyes took it all in.

  The office was perhaps four hundred square feet, and most of that was books. Law volumes filled floor-to-ceiling shelves along one wall. More books sat stacked on the floor, the windowsill, even balanced on top of a filing cabinet that looked ready to collapse under the weight. Papers covered every surface. Printouts, highlighted documents, sticky notes in various colors.

  He had to wonder if Carmen knew the woman was also a paper fanatic, and if perhaps that was why she’d recommended her. If not, he was certain they would quickly become best friends.

  A desk occupied the far corner, also buried under paperwork. Behind it sat a woman in her thirties, phone pressed to her ear. It was an actual landline, cord and all. Alexander couldn’t remember the last time he’d seen one that wasn’t being salvaged for parts.

  She held up one finger, meeting his eyes. “I’m sorry, Mr. Galway, but a client just walked in. I’ll have to call you back this afternoon.” She paused, listening. “Yes, I promise. Thank you.”

  The woman rose from behind the desk, maybe five-eight, wearing a navy suit that had been carefully maintained despite its age. Her hair fell in defined curls past her shoulders, the twist-out creating natural volume and shape.

  Green eyes, piercing and intelligent, assessed him.

  “Please have a seat. I’m Jasmine Sharp. What can I help you with, Mr...?”

  “Rooke.” Alexander took the offered seat, crossing one leg over the other. “Alexander Rooke.”

  Jasmine settled into her chair.

  He waited a few heartbeats for any recognition and found none.

  “I’m also known as the Machine God,” Alexander added, keeping his tone gentle. “Leader of the supervillain guild, Grimnir.”

  Her expression shifted. Eyes widened a fraction, then narrowed as she reassessed him. Her posture didn’t change, but something in her demeanor sharpened.

  “What’s an infamous West Coast supervillain doing in my office?”

  “Grimnir is in the market for a lawyer.”

  She leaned back. “I don’t take superhuman criminal defense cases anymore, Mr. Rooke.”

  Alexander took her assumption in stride. “That’s not what we need. I’m actually here to offer you a full-time job.”

  “I already have a job.”

  “You have debt.” Alexander glanced around the office, then back at her. “And clients who can’t pay you, because you can’t stop looking out for the little people.”

  Her jaw tightened. She didn’t deny it.

  Alexander shook his head. “I don’t mean to belittle you or your situation. I genuinely admire your commitment.”

  She held his gaze for a long moment. The tightness in her jaw gradually relaxed. “Then what exactly do you want?”

  “We need legal counsel. Grimnir is expanding our operations,” Alexander said. “That means recruiting new members. Hiring contractors and other personnel across various services. We need a professional for contract review. Negotiations with other… organizations, both ongoing and in the future.”

  “You’re a supervillain, Mr. Rooke,” Jasmine said skeptically, crossing her arms. “I doubt health and safety regulations and small claims disagreements rank high on your list of concerns.”

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  Alexander laughed.

  She stared at him, confusion written on her face.

  “Sorry. You’re not wrong,” he said, waving a hand. “But that isn’t because I don’t care at all. It’s just that my list of concerns has been growing daily lately.” Alexander sighed. “We need someone to write and review contracts. Sit in on negotiations. Ensure we don’t get screwed by people who know the legal landscape better than we do.”

  Jasmine processed that quietly for a few moments, then uncrossed her arms and leaned forward. “What kind of contracts and negotiations are we talking about?”

  “A lot of it will be the usual organizational legal work, for which I’m sure you could just create boilerplate agreements. Membership contracts. Salaries. Bounty payouts. Service contracts. Non-disclosures.” Alexander considered how much to say. “Others will not be so straightforward. Alliance agreements. And some more complicated intellectual property situations.”

  Jasmine blinked at him a few times. “I’m sorry… Did you say ‘alliance agreements’?”

  Alexander nodded. “I can’t provide any further details unless you accept the offer, and of course work up an NDA for yourself. Which we’d have our smartest member review beforehand, naturally.”

  “Naturally.” Jasmine settled back in her chair again. “And IP for what?”

  “I’ve acquired certain technologies. Not illegally,” he added. “It was given to me. But the original designs don’t belong to anyone on Earth. Or anyone from the colonies. They belong to galactic foreign interests.”

  Jasmine’s expression shifted. The wariness remained, but something else, perhaps curiosity, had entered her eyes. “You’re talking about extraterrestrial technology.”

  He nodded. “I’m going to reverse-engineer it. Create my own versions. Sell them. But the legal framework around ownership, licensing, and protection of the property is murky at best. I need someone who can navigate that.”

  “That’s not a small legal question, Mr. Rooke. The precedents barely exist. International law hasn’t caught up with alien IP rights.” The corner of her mouth twitched. “Further complicated by your being a supervillain.”

  Alexander smiled. “Trust me. What I have will be in such demand that the UEG and the Space Force will look the other way and thank me at the same time.”

  Her eyebrows rose. “That’s a bold claim.”

  “I know,” he said with a shrug. “But at least working for Grimnir won’t be boring.”

  Jasmine studied him for a long time.

  Alexander waited patiently. He was certain the woman seated across from him was interested, at least from a professional standpoint. The challenges he’d presented were new. Something few, if any, had done before.

  But he also knew the negotiation was still in the early stages. Jasmine Sharp was exactly as he’d expected. The disorganized room didn’t fool him. Every book, every legal tome, angled so she could see the spine from her place of power. Chaos moderated by sticky notes and colored tags. Case files carefully ordered and tucked away in the slightly open filing cabinet.

  And a pair of tablets inside her desk. One of which was hidden inside a secret compartment, according to his powered senses, and hacked so that it couldn’t receive wireless signals.

  The other, kept in the top drawer, was sending and receiving data even in power-saving mode. From the metadata, it was obviously professional work.

  AEGIS, if he had to guess.

  Alexander had realized it was illegally recording from the moment he had entered the room. At first, he’d wondered if Jasmine was aware, before quickly discarding the idea.

  It was obvious she knew she was being targeted.

  But a lawyer of her quality would never allow her clients to be recorded. Which meant she didn’t know.

  He didn’t stop it. The app wasn’t transmitting in real-time, instead set to upload the recordings at midnight.

  Time enough to consider his options.

  Jasmine’s voice disrupted his thoughts. “What exactly are you offering for this legal expertise?”

  Alexander focused. “Grimnir will clear your debt. All of it. We’ll employ you as permanent legal counsel with a salary that reflects the complexity of the work.”

  Her expression didn’t change, but Alexander caught the subtle tensing of her shoulders. “What’s the catch?”

  He weighed his words. “We’ll provide you with a new office space and any legal materials you require.”

  “Where?”

  “Astra Omnia.”

  She shook her head immediately. “No. I help people here, Mr. Rooke. Real people who have nowhere else to go. I can’t do that from orbit.”

  Alexander had anticipated that. “We’ll arrange a portal so that you can commute back here whenever you need. You can continue taking local cases, keep helping whoever needs it. As long as Grimnir’s matters come first.”

  He paused.

  “I’m willing to fund a legal assistant to help manage your workload,” Alexander added. “The only requirement besides priority is that you don’t represent interests against Grimnir. A standard conflict of interest clause.”

  “That’s it?”

  “That’s it.”

  Silence filled the room as Jasmine fell into thought.

  Outside, someone shouted something in Mandarin. A car horn blared.

  “Why me?” Jasmine gestured at the chaos surrounding them. “If you know my history, then you know I’m the last person you should hire.”

  “Why? Because you went up against AEGIS and lost?” Alexander smiled. “That’s a badge of honor as far as we’re concerned. Your willingness to do what you think is right, even as your world crumbles around you... is exactly why we want to hire you.”

  Jasmine studied him, chewing on her lip.

  “Please consider the offer. I’ll drop by in a couple of days to hear your answer.” Alexander stood. “I don’t mean to pressure you, but we have a time-sensitive contract to complete.”

  Jasmine stood and offered her hand. “I will think on it, Mr. Rooke.”

  He shook her hand. “That’s all we ask.”

  Alexander headed for the door, then paused with his hand on the handle.

  He turned back. “There’s one other thing we have to offer.”

  She glanced up at him.

  “Understanding. We know that you were just trying to do some good in the world. That AEGIS wronged you. That some assholes in their ivory towers buried you just because they could.”

  “We understand.” Alexander held her gaze, allowing a hint of the anger he felt toward Santiago Systems, AEGIS, and the UEG to bleed through. “I understand.”

  The moment stretched between them.

  “Because that’s how Grimnir started.”

  Alexander pulled the door open and stepped through, leaving Jasmine Sharp alone with her books and her debt and his offer.

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