Kavik is Dead

Chapter Two

At the heart of Energy City is a cluster of squat buildings filled with low budget offices. In one particular office a weary looking man is hunched over his desk. The man is named Harrison Verendix. His office is dimly lit and sparsely furnished. There is only a desk, two chairs and a few tall filing cabinets. These filing cabinets are over flowing, spilling paper onto the floor and desk.

He lets out a frustrated scream. "LAUREN! Goddammit where are you?"

Distantly there is the sound of a door banging open and shut and the loud footfalls of boots on decaying wood. Lauren enters the office a bit breathlessly clutching a manila folder.

"Have you made another appointment with her?" He asks, adjusting his glasses and trying to remain composed.

"With Hasa?"

"With Lotus. Yes with Hasa."

Lauren blushes, slightly embarrassed. "The appointment is next week. How's sorting the entries going?"

It had been roughly four months since Lauren's first meeting with Hasa Nabare. In that miniscule time frame Hasa had awarded her half a million dollars to buy a small office and begin the campaign for Crew leaders and members. Nahana had come up with the term 'Crew' to describe the vigilante groups and the others had rolled with it. Now Harrison, Lauren's superior, was shifting through the applicants as well as attempting to create a training school for the less experienced.

"Most of these people are children," he remarked, waving a few papers in the air. "I refuse to make children fight Lotus."

Lauren bit her lip. "But if they have powers..."

Harrison looked her dead in the eye. "Aren't we ending this war to give children a better childhood? A future? Wouldn't putting them out to fight be oxymoronic?"

"I feel you're slightly biased."

"Just because I have a son does not make me biased."

Lauren sees the dangerous look in his eyes. Harrison was a very intelligent and brave man, but he also had a very short temper and an even shorter one when one of his passions was being argued. Children were probably his biggest passion. He loved his son Foxglove like no other parent and spoiled him absolutely rotten.

"What do you say the minimum age is then?" Lauren asked cautiously.

He calmed almost instantly. "Eighteen officially, though we could take a few seventeen year olds here and there."

Lauren stared at him. That meant that half the applicants were already rejected.

"Has Hasa given any word on her picks for Sponsors?" Harrison continued, not noticing Lauren's expression.

Lauren fiddled with her folder, pulling out a sheet containing a few names. "Her top picks are Jimak Gasaja, Nahana Jabitz and Saelus Harmone."

He gave her a strange look at the last name. "Saelus doesn't sound very Kavikan."

"He isn't. He's a very influential peace maker from the Fae Republic. Apparently he has enough brains to believe people should at least defend themselves."

"Definitely star his name. It would be good to show that not just the Kavik States are supporting us."

"Will do, sir." She shuffles through the rest of the folder which is contact information. She sets it all on Harrison's desk. Without another word she leaves, sighing when she gets out into the hallway. She had respect for Harrison but she felt like he wasn't making the right choices. They should be enlisting everybody they could get, not just adults. They also shouldn't put their trust into some Fae scatter brain. This was all going to crash and burn because of him, she could feel it.