The Scumbag's Guide To Heroism novel Chapter 590

Chapter 590: 590 | It’s a Placement [CASTLE BONUS]

Isabelle’s head came around.

"I have read the Commission advisory," Radiant said, and the boom had left his voice now, which meant the performance layer had dropped away and they were hearing the man underneath.

The voice that remained was still enormous because everything about him was enormous, but it carried weight instead of volume. "Director Park flagged him for observation. Not restriction. There is a distinction the Commission takes seriously and I want to make sure we all understand which side of it we are currently standing on."

He shifted slightly in the chair, which was not built for someone of his proportions. "Which means if we place that young man at a major agency on a Tuesday afternoon, there will be an analyst in the room inside of two weeks. She will have a very good reason to be there that has nothing to do with coffee runs or orientation logistics, and she will be reading his output against a file I am told does not survive arithmetic. Someone is going to be watching him. The question is who that someone reports to and how much latitude they have to ask follow-up questions."

"His file is Charles Weber’s problem," Isabelle said. She had picked up her phone, turned it over once, set it back down. The gesture conveyed she had better places to be and was making time for this conversation as a courtesy rather than a requirement. "We do not run IHL compliance for other agencies and I don’t intend to start because a Year One has a pretty Aspect and good optics."

"His file is going to be this institution’s problem," Radiant said, and he did not raise his voice but the certainty in it filled the space the same way volume would have. "Sooner than any of us would prefer. Possibly sooner than some of us are prepared for."

Isabelle looked at him for three full seconds.

"Then let it be the problem, Arthur." She said the civilian name and nobody in the room reacted, which told Imara something about how many years these two had been having conversations in administrative offices and how much of the performance each of them dropped when the door was closed.

"The boy stood in gold light in front of a creature that put two A-ranks on the floor, and four million people watched him do it. There is no version of the next ten weeks where he is not looked at by someone.

That ship sailed the moment the first news helicopter got the shot and I don’t care how many times we say Unmarked in the press release, the optics do not support that file anymore.

So the only question actually on the table right now is whether he is looked at inside a structure we built, where we control the room he’s standing in and the supervisor signing off on his hours, or outside one we didn’t, where someone else decides what questions get asked and how loud the asking gets."

"She’s right," Cole said.

Imara turned. "You’ve got an opinion on Belmont?"

"I have eleven." He did not elaborate on the number. "He performed at approximately sixty percent of demonstrated capability for three weeks and I documented every instance, and then he stopped, because Steele was about to have her skull opened. That is the entire man. He will hold a line at cost and lie about the cost afterward."

Cole looked at Ashby. "Put him on a shift where the cost is paperwork and a supervisor who says no to him. He has never once in his life been told no by someone he couldn’t charm or outthink. I’d like to watch that happen in a building I don’t have to repair."

Grant laughed, one short bark. "That’s the most affectionate thing I’ve ever heard you say about a student."

"It wasn’t affection. It was a curriculum recommendation."

Ashby turned his cup a quarter turn on the saucer.

"Legal parameters," he said. "Sable."

"Provisional license is Year Two." Four words, and then she stopped, and then she went on because the room needed the rest of it.

"First-years have no field authorization. Any Aspect deployment off campus is a criminal offense under the Accord regardless of outcome or intent. So these placements are observational. Intake, dispatch shadowing, case file review, equipment logistics. They watch a long shift and they learn what nine hours of it does to a body."

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