novelraw Chapter 209 - The World Is Watching, Pt. 1
Chapter 209 - The World Is Watching, Pt. 1
Chapter 209
The World Is Watching, Pt. 1Marcus Thorne settled into the left sofa as the room sealed behind him. The heavy door locked with a pressurized hiss, and an indicator light above the doorway switched from amber to green, announcing his presence.
Guang stood behind the right-side sofa, arms folded, watching the curved glass wall with the focus of a man who treated every room as a potential battlefield. Hahn filled the doorway itself, hands clasped behind his back. Two hundred and twenty pounds of enhanced Golden Lotus muscle, blocking the only way in or out.
The glass wall wrapped around the front half of the room, tinted to allow them to see the full expanse of the hall while rendering the interior invisible from outside. Below it, a display strip scrolled text in real time, translating and transcribing whatever was being said on the floor.
The assembly hall itself was an engineering marvel that had always impressed him. At least until he took his seat at the Galactic Council, where he’d seen chambers that made this one look quaint.
The building was a vast circular space, open at the center, with hemispherical viewing chambers set into the inner walls all the way around. Nearly two hundred and fifty of them, arranged in three tiers stacked one above the other. Each viewing chamber jutted out from the wall like a glass dome, its curved front offering an unobstructed view of the entire assembly hall. Green indicator lights dotted the wall in a constellation of active representatives. Only a handful remained dark.
One hundred and ninety-one sovereign nations, joined by over thirty global organizations whose weight mattered enough to earn them a seat at humanity’s most important table.
A circular platform rose from the floor at the center, surrounded by concentric rings of holographic projectors. Most sessions used it to display geopolitical maps, trade route overlays, or three-dimensional replays of fleet engagements during military reviews.
Today, it served a simpler purpose. When a representative spoke, their holographic bust materialized above it, rotating so every room in the hall had a clear line of sight. The speaker’s name floated above the projection in clean white text, with their nation or affiliation listed beneath.
Marcus had missed the opening of the session. The indicator had barely activated before audio flooded the room, beginning mid-sentence.
“—and where even is the AEGIS Executor?” The holographic bust belonged to Representative Ji of Korea. Sharp-featured, gray at the temples, speaking flawless English clipped with anger. The text strip scrolled his words in parallel. “This body convened an emergency session to address allegations of extraordinary severity. The absence of the man directly responsible for the organization under scrutiny is not merely discourteous. It is contemptuous.”
A secondary feed appeared across the left side of the glass wall, a live close-up of Ji from inside his own chamber, high-resolution enough to catch the tension in his jaw as he spoke. Marcus had configured the panel to appear automatically whenever a representative took the floor.
Ji paused, letting the word echo.
“AEGIS operates under a mandate granted by this assembly. That mandate can be revoked. If Executor Jacobs cannot be bothered to answer for the actions of his organization, then perhaps he has answered for us.”
The bust faded. A beat of silence. Then the Chair’s voice, calm and measured, filled the room. “Representative Ji yields. The Chair recognizes the United States. Representative Hale, you have the floor.”
Ji’s projection dissolved, replaced by a woman with steel-gray hair pulled back from a hard face. Representative Hale. Marcus knew her reputation. Pragmatic to the point of ruthlessness.
“Thank you, Chair.” Hale’s voice carried the weight of someone who had already decided what needed to happen. “Executor Jacobs has declined all attempts to reach him. His office has not responded to formal summons. His personal communication channels are inactive. This is a deliberate refusal to engage with the governing body that grants him authority.”
She paused.
“I propose that Executor Jacobs be held in contempt of this assembly and formally relieved of his position as head of AEGIS, effective immediately, pending a full investigation into the allegations presented by the Grimnir-Throne coalition and the Emirates Superhuman Authority.”
The hall erupted.
Indicator lights flickered across the hall as dozens of representatives signaled their desire to speak, then spoke without being called anyway. Marcus watched the steady greens shift to pulsing across the curved wall above and below him, each one a raised hand demanding attention.
Guang glanced at him. “Popular opinion?”
Marcus leaned back, watching the cascade of blinking lights wrap around the hall. “Hard to say. Removing the head of AEGIS just before a looming crisis is either the smartest move or the most dangerous thing they could do right now.”
He kept the rest to himself. That Jacobs’s absence was unusual in a way that went beyond politics. The man had built AEGIS, shaped GOLD, created the infrastructure that governed superhuman affairs across the planet. He had never once hidden from confrontation in nine years.
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So why wasn’t he here?
“If you don’t mind my asking, Councilor, why did you even return for this?” Guang asked, still scanning for threats.
Marcus allowed himself a moment of amusement. The man was still scanning for threats in what was perhaps the most secure location on the planet. Based in Switzerland as one of only two truly neutral sovereign entities remaining, the Assembly Hall was guarded by hundreds of armed personnel, both inside and out, and other than his own guards, the only superhumans permitted within miles of the building were security enforcers retained by Switzerland’s government.
He pushed the amusement aside. He’d handpicked Guang for exactly this reason. The man was tireless in his duties. That, combined with an impressive set of powers, made him an easy choice.
Marcus gave a tired smile. “We had to give up a lot to ensure the Galactic Council didn’t dispatch an arbitration investigator to oversee this matter. We’ve only just been recognized as a council species, and already we’ve given them reason to look down on us.” He clicked his tongue. “Then I received reliable intelligence telling me the outcome of this assembly is going to be a bloodbath. Of course I had to be here. I have to stop them from messing it up further. Try, at least.”
Guang’s eyes narrowed. “A bloodbath, Councilor? Is it a credible threat?”
Marcus turned to the superhero in surprise. “What?” He paused. Then he laughed. “Oh. No, Guang. Not a literal bloodbath. You know how those diviner sorts are. They were being mysterious, or facetious, or both. A political bloodbath is what they meant.” He stretched his arms out to either side of the sofa. “This is all just grandstanding, though. The entrée, if you will. No, the real drama won’t begin until after we see what Alexander and Maximilian have prepared for the world.”
Guang did not relax. “I see.”
The Chair’s voice cut through the noise. “Order. Order! Representatives will signal and wait for recognition. Priority queue is now active.” Silence fell as the open microphones were disabled. “Representative Long of the People’s Republic. You have the floor.”
Marcus settled in. This was going to be a ‘long’ session.
On the display strip, the press conference countdown timer ticked down toward zero.
***
Frank Vitale stood at the floor-to-ceiling window with a pair of binoculars pressed to his eyes. The palace compound sprawled in the distance, its white walls and towers catching the late morning sun. Close enough to see the security checkpoints. Far enough that the details blurred without magnification.
Behind him, the penthouse suite was doing its best to contain Grimnir’s latest superhumans.
Yuki had claimed one end of the longest sofa, legs stretched out and ankles crossed on top of Davis’s head where he sat on the floor in front of her. He didn’t seem to mind, or had given up protesting. Petra and Vikram occupied armchairs on either side, both pretending to watch the broadcast while Petra quietly demolished Vikram at some game or another on her tablet between glances. Ryan leaned against the kitchenette counter with a coffee, observing everything and everyone. Doug was somewhere in the bathroom, doing whatever Doug did in bathrooms for thirty minutes at a time. Nobody asked anymore.
The holo filled the entire wall with a panel of four presenters seated behind a curved desk. Flashy graphics cycled behind them. ‘DUBAI PRESS CONFERENCE’ scrolled across the bottom in bold text, accompanied by a countdown timer. The presenters were doing what presenters do best. Filling time.
“My sources say this is going to be the biggest joint accusation against a government-backed organization in history,” one of them said, leaning forward with practiced intensity. “We’re talking evidence. Testimony. Footage. There are even rumors that a live precognitive prediction will take place.”
“But the real question,” another cut in, “is whether anyone actually does anything about it. AEGIS has survived scandals before. Global protests spiked almost seven hundred percent after the System invasions began, and nothing changed.”
“Let’s talk about the lineup. First up is the infamous supervillain, Alexander Rooke.”
“Alleged supervillain, John. There is no evidence supporting the claim, just testimony from one of the most notorious superhumans backed entirely by, drumroll, AEGIS.”
“No, Casey, he is definitely a supervillain. Everyone has seen the footage of the so-called Machine God flying over Manhattan in a stolen yacht.”
“Well, regardless, you can’t deny he has style.”
“No arguments there. And nobody would deny that his counterpart today is equal parts stylish. That’s right, I’m talking about Maximilian de Castillo. Did you know he’s ranked among the top ten most eligible bachelors for the past three years in a row? And talking about allegations, the man is… quite well-equipped according to a few sources, if you know what I mean, ladies.”
“Nobody needs to allege anything about Maximilian de Castillo. The man is a dragon, after all.”
A few of the crew chuckled. Yuki wiggled her toes on Davis’s head. He swatted at her ankle without looking up.
Helena appeared at Frank’s side. She touched his arm. “You’ve been standing there for twenty minutes.”
“Mhm.”
“What’s wrong?”
Frank lowered the binoculars. He frowned at the palace in the distance. “Alexander sent me a System message this morning. And now he won’t answer my calls.”
Carmen’s voice came from the armchair nearest the window, where she’d been reviewing something on her tablet. “What did it say?”
The quiet conversations around the room died. Heads turned. Even Davis looked up, dislodging Yuki’s feet.
Frank squinted and brought up the message. Read it once. Read it again. Then he read it aloud.
“Hey, Frank. I just wanted you and the others to know that totally if you felt like not doing the thing yesterday when it doesn’t matter because today nobody understands where everybody isn’t ready after when it happens, that’s fine by me. I trust you to look out for the team.”
Silence.
Carmen stared at him. “Read that again.”
Frank read it again.
More silence.
Yuki raised her hand. “Is he having a stroke?”
“It’s Alexander,” Petra said. “He doesn’t have strokes. He has plans.”
Davis frowned. “That’s not a plan. That’s a word salad.”
Ryan set his coffee down. “Read the last sentence again.”
Frank looked down. “I trust you to look out for the team.”
“That’s coherent,” Ryan said. “So is the beginning.”
Carmen frowned. “He’s right.” She glanced at Yuki. “Which means he’s not having a stroke. Probably. The message is intentionally confusing.”
Helena tilted her head. “He’s telling us something.”
Frank nodded slowly. “Yeah.” He glanced back out the window toward the palace. “Just wish I knew what.”