And that was the problem, wasn’t it? He always thought he knew best. The reality was that he didn’t, and the choices he made hurt others. It needed to stop. He needed to.
Cyrus flopped back onto the ground with another groan, and tried to see the lines, but just as with every other time recently, while they appeared, they led to nowhere.
He should have told his mother about that. But he supposed it wouldn’t have mattered if he had. He let out a bitter chuckle. “It likely would have just made her happy.”
Cyrus rubbed his face. His father…he needed to talk to his father. He was probably the only one who would know at least something about what was happening.
However, there was no point trying now. The only person the man answered incoming calls from, as far as Cyrus knew, wasthe person who had just hung up on him. Or maybe that was just wishful thinking on his part, that his father didn’t ignore him on purpose… Either way, Orion was likely talking to his mother now, since he hadn’t been with her.
Ender briefly tipped his hat at the others he passed before reaching his office in the middle of their Intelligence Command Center. Unlocking the door, he let it close and automatically lock behind him as he entered. The room was round, like the rest of the area, and it was all black, from the floors to the walls. Not that much of the walls were uncovered.
His brown wooden desk blocked the lower half of the wall, running almost all the way around the room, and the multiple seemingly seamless built-in screens took up the upper half. Leaving only a ten-inch black strip between the two that he used as a corkboard.
In the room, there was a single brown wingback executive office chair that no one was allowed to sit in but him. On hisdesk sat organizers with office supplies, and a bunch of random ass shit, from chicken figurines to a stack of tablets. There were a total of four holographic tactile keyboards scattered around, and a single old-fashioned mechanical keyboard at the center, which is what he mostly used. Beside it sat his wireless mouse. Also in the center, built into his desk, was a screen scroll touchpad.
Sighing as he sat his ass down in his hovering cushy office chair, Ender unlocked the top drawer and pulled out one of his many phones.
“Nope!” he snorted as he noted the missed calls from Severo’s parents.
Quickly tapping in the number for Severo’s secure line, he tossed it onto the desk after putting it on speaker, before rolling towards his keyboard and starting to type, trying to dig into Cyrus’ parents. He’d already dug up quite a bit on Killian, after the whole kidnapping shit, and he'd pretty much found what he assumed he would. But for some reason, he’d never really pushed too deep into Orion and Vivian Grimm. Which bothered him now.
Sure, they weren’t involved in the Bureau, but the position their son had, or used to have—if the two hadn’t been lying about quitting—should have made them a ‘need to know’ in terms of danger risk. And while he didn’t want to sound like a completely stereotypical paranoid delusional fuck, it made him once again think that it was possible that, at some point, someone had fucked with his brain.
He’d just pulled up a list of Orion’s business ties when Severo finally picked up.
“Hey, Ender, soo…” The Shadow Dweller trailed off sheepishly.
Ender snorted. “I figured you would know.”
“Soren had me give them your location.”
“Of course, he did.” Ender leaned back as his eyes scanned the list on his screen, looking for anything shady, as he asked, “Did they really quit?”
“Yes, they really up and quit,” Severo said with a tired-sounding laugh. “The office is a mess. Killian’s next in line is doing the opposite of great as his replacement. Oh, and the new boss is coming on Monday. Can’t say I’m looking forward to it. But then, why would I, when he’s been harassing my phone with endless blocked calls. The man managed to royally piss me the fuck off after calling and threatening Seri. I figure I’m in for a confrontation when the bastard gets here. Thanks for that, by the way.”
“Who is taking over?”
“What? Did your network fail you?”
Ender rolled his eyes. “You outed someone of mine recently, and I haven’t had time to check in with the new person, or rather check the latest reports. I’ve been busy, so sue me!” Busy, as in, possibly rampaging.
“Brom Grimm. Cyrus’ cousin, apparently. An older one, for that matter. Don’t ask me specifics on who he is related to and in what way, I gave up on trying to figure out how Cyrus is related to all of the other Grimms ages ago. There are too many of them.”
Brom Grimm…? Ender frowned. The name wasn’t ringing any bells. He knew it though, yet there was just a whole bunch of nothing, aside from being certain he was on the CEB Governing Council. Which just meant it was odd he didn’t know more about someone so high up, and that he now had one more person he needed to look into.
Ender pursed his lips. “So, about the two pests now in my compound… Are Killian and Cyrus really here to?—”
“Stop being paranoid.”
Ender chuckled. “Can’t help it.”
“I know, but there is no master plan against you. They aren’t there to trick you. And as I said, they really did quit their jobs. The freakouts in his family are very real. Brom wasn’t faking being pissed off, that’s for sure.”
“I thought you were ignoring his calls.”
“The bastard called and threatened Seri! Threatening him back was the least I could do at the time.”
“I’m surprised Seri answered an unknown number.”
