The Scumbag's Guide To Heroism novel Chapter 576

Chapter 576: 576 | His Bestie

The door closed behind Park, and the room stayed frozen for another three seconds before Theo exhaled loud enough to qualify as a weather event.

"That was the most stressful thing I’ve ever sat through," he said, "and I watched my mom explain to my dad why the garage door was melted."

Percy was already writing in his notebook, transcribing something from memory with the focus of a man documenting a war crime. "She knew about the verification gap. That should have been buried in administrative review. Someone on the inside fed her that timeline specifically to establish a paper trail discrepancy."

"Percy." Sloane’s voice carried from the far end of the table. "Breathe."

"I am breathing. I’m also noting that Director Park’s folio contained six pages when the standard incident review packet runs eleven to fourteen, which means she either condensed aggressively or she brought a curated selection designed to apply pressure to specific testimony points." He looked up. "Lukas. You were the specific testimony point."

"I noticed."

"You also improvised past the prepared narrative and introduced a secondary security concern that redirected her investigative priority."

"Also noticed that."

Percy’s pen stopped. His blue hair caught the conference room lights as he tilted his head, studying me with the expression of someone recalibrating a threat assessment they’d thought was already complete. "That was either very intelligent or catastrophically reckless."

"Why not both?" Felicity pushed off from her chair, stretching her arms above her head in a way that pulled her uniform blouse tight across her chest and made approximately three people in the room very aware of the movement. "Lukas does his best work when he’s being simultaneously smart and stupid. It’s kind of his whole vibe."

Camille snorted. "That tracks."

Diane stood, and the room’s attention reorganized around her the way it always did. She smoothed her blazer with fingers that had stopped trembling sometime in the last thirty seconds, the professional mask fully restored now that the threat had exited the building. "Individual statements. Park wants them before she leaves campus. Percy, you’re first, given that your documentation is apparently already halfway complete."

"Three-quarters," Percy said, and gathered his materials.

Theo followed him toward the door, clapping a hand on my shoulder as he passed. "Glad you’re not dead, man. Would’ve sucked to lose the only other person in this class who thinks training at five AM is a reasonable choice."

"It’s a deeply unreasonable choice. I just make it anyway."

"That’s the spirit." He grinned and vanished into the hallway with Percy, leaving the conference room feeling suddenly too large for the people still in it.

Petra rose with the grace of someone whose family name was on buildings, her planner tucked under her arm like a weapon she might need to deploy. Her emerald eyes found mine across the table, and what passed between us was too complicated for the audience. "Mr. Belmont. Try not to improvise any additional security breaches before the end of the day."

"No promises."

Her lips twitched. Just barely. "I’ll note your non-commitment in my records." She swept out, heels clicking against the polished floor with a rhythm that made Camille’s Precision Read track her all the way to the door.

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