"Is Zayn going to be my manager?" Stella asked excitedly.
Kim nodded.
"Given how receptive you are to him, I think we can swing that in a pinch. Zayn seems like he’s got a good head on his shoulders, and quite frankly, we are swamped. We don’t have enough managers to go around as it is."
I paused in my steps for a moment, but Kim just ushered me on further, like she hadn’t caught my hesitation.
"In here." Kim pulled aside a flap.
On the other side was a bank of computers with people busily typing away.
"Sarah, can I get you to do an eval? This is Demon, or maybe we should start calling her Demoness?" Kim did a little side nod at Stella.
"Right away." A woman with glasses set in a thick black frame jumped to her feet and came up to us.
"Hi, I’m Sarah, but you probably already got that. I work for Kim and will just double check that you are clear for field work."
Sarah put her hand on Stella’s back and guided her away.
I watched after them until Kim got my attention.
"Walk with me. While Sarah gets Stella set up, I need to give you the rundown."
"Aren’t I just a temp?" I joked.
Kim’s jaw set firmly as she gave me an ’all business’ expression that made me shut my mouth.
For a petite woman, she had quite the presence.
"What we do is vital. Never forget that," Kim reminded me.
"Besides, I like you. You’ve worked for Candice for how long?"
I gave it a moment’s thought.
"Five years."
"And she hasn’t turned you into a brainwashed simp. I was paying attention during that meeting. And I’ve been working with her for far longer than you’ve been there. Her past lackeys didn’t have an ounce of self-thought after being exposed to her power for a single year."
"Wait, you know that she’s using her power on people?" I was actually a little angry that the BSH wasn’t doing anything about that.
Kim raised a brow, sensing the anger in my voice.
"We make sure to swoop in and quietly move people out of her sphere of influence before she does too much damage." She eyed me again.
"And I have to say, it takes quite a bit of willpower to shrug off her power."
I paused, ready to blow things up and bolt depending on her next words if she so much as suspected my abilities.
But she simply said, "It tells me that you are driven."
Relaxing, I continued on with her as she spoke.
"I’ve seen your intelligence firsthand, and you are data driven, not emotional. You are everything we look for in the BSH." Kim stepped into another area of the tent, where people were laying out plans on a large whiteboard.
It had a map of the city, with the city’s sewer system projected on top of it.
"Zayn, the bactimen pose a dragon-level threat. It’s the first in almost five years. But the worst part is that it isn’t a single entity that we can just throw supers at."
"Dragon-level?" I asked.
"Potential loss of a city," Kim clarified.
"It’s one of the terms we use here in the BSH to describe danger level and apply the correct heroes to take care of it."
I had been right.
The bactimen had become a much larger problem than the public knew.
"So what is this?"
"These are all hero managers. Rather than have the heroes sit in here and argue about what to do next, we offload that onto the managers to figure out. There’s less ego involved this way, too."
"Kim." A woman spotted her.
"We got the report from Echo. Look at this density. We need to send in a team now." She pointed urgently to a spot under Fifth and Corway.
"Have we sent in Overwatch to get a positive ID?" Kim asked sharply.
By the look on the woman’s face, they had not.
Kim glared at the woman, and it felt like the room had heated up several degrees as Kim grew angry.
"Even if this is an emergency, we ALWAYS double and triple check the situation before sending in a hero. We always follow protocol. Understood?"
The woman nodded, but Kim continued.
"That density could be some mad scientist’s secret weapons cache. You could light it up and end up blowing a city block to smithereens."
Making a dramatic pause, Kim looked around the room, making sure every single person present had heard her.
I made a mental note to double check before reporting anything to her.
"Yes, Director." The woman got quiet and turned to someone else in the room.
"Can we get Overwatch and Ratgirl to Fifth and Corway? We have an urgent reading that needs to be checked out."
Kim turned back to me, pulling my attention from the rest of the room.
"Sorry about that. I’m quite passionate that we do everything we can to support our heroes. The whole point of the BSH is to prevent accidents that used to happen in the superhero business."
"Like what?" I asked, wanting to hear her side.
Kim grimaced.
"All sorts of shit happened when I was a hero, and the military ran point. Let’s not go down that rabbit hole."
I shrugged, not wanting to hear those horror stories.
My opinion of heroes was already pretty piss poor.
"Here, this way. We’ll get you a tablet and everything."
"That feels permanent," I said slowly, trying to reinforce my temporary nature.
Kim looked at me over her shoulder.
"Maybe I’m trying to poach you from Candice."
I waited for the smile to crack or for her to laugh it off as a joke, but Kim just turned back and kept going.
I paused, but in the end, I followed her.