Our industry will secure our future

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Mir
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Our industry will secure our future

Post by Mir »

Fawcett City

From her office, Hannah Carpenter had a wonderful view of Fawcett City. The city was beautiful, resplendent in the morning. Unfortunately, her position as the chief financial officer of Sivana Industries kept her in Sivana Tower most of the time. When she wasn’t there, she was usually traveling on behalf of the company. Her work took her all around the world, but this was where she called home. Glancing over at her curved monitor, she saw her calendar was free for most of the morning, after a cancellation. A rarity, considering the normal number of meetings she was in. She wasn’t going to cry about a canceled meeting with some of the accounting department’s people.

Rising from behind her desk, she walked over to one of the windows of her corner office. Sivana Tower was over fifty stories up and she was on the forty-eighth floor. Her view was magnificent, she could see over the river without a problem.

Fawcett City had been a trade city in Minnesota during the early years. There had been a lot of commerce conducted on the rivers and industry had helped power Fawcett through the turn of the century. Now in the twenty-first century, the city was experiencing some headwinds.

Sivana Industries was poised to lead the city into the future and she was going to make sure of that. Just her way of paying back the city that had raised her. If she happened to make a buck along the way, she saw no harm in that.

What she did see some harm in, was an explosion on the river. She watched, in the distance as a barge suddenly exploded. Her eyes widened and she continued to watch, as a few other barges also exploded.

Four fireballs lifted up into the sky, smoke already spewing as the barges continued to float. The barges themselves hadn’t detonated, no, it was whatever they had been carrying. She could barely make out tiny specs jumping off of the barges, and realized they were people. The crew of the ships. Her hand shot up to her mouth.

Something was going on.

There was some kind of organized attack? It didn’t make sense. No, it had to be some kind of an accident with whatever the ships had been transporting. She reached into her pocket and pulled out her cell phone.

One benefit of being one of the most important people in the city was that she had relatively close access to the people in charge.

She sent the text out to the deputy mayor of Fawcett City.

Whatever you need, Sivana is here.

Her assistant came into the room, asking if she had seen what had happened.

The two watched, and then her assistant put on the news from the flatscreen television in Hannah’s office.

There were already news choppers on the scene and they were cutting in from the local daytime show. Hannah walked over and slumped into her chair as she watched. EMS and Fawcett City Police and Fire were swarming the river banks and there would be boats in the water soon. They had to get the fires extinguished before they reached the fuel tanks of the barges. With four different barges, this was going to be a problem.

The barges themselves were huge.

They were close to an hour and were only halfway through the firefighting and recovery efforts when a fifth explosion took place.

If the river had been to Hannah’s right, this was to her left.

The financial district, relatively close to Sivana Tower.

The Federal Reserve Bank of Fawcett City

This was a coordinated attack.

It was too convenient.

But that thought went out of her head when she remembered where Jeffery Kine was. The CEO of Sivana sat on the Board of Directors for the branch. She was frantically dialing now.

“Please be alright.” She repeated over and over.

She got no answer.
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Mir
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Re: Our industry will secure our future

Post by Mir »

In the days following the attack on the river and the reserve bank, Hannah had been in a state of flux. Which, that was putting it lightly. She had been trying to do her best to keep Sivana Industries together while giving what assistance they could to the local authorities. She had been down at the wreckage of the bank, trying to figure out what was going on and more importantly, where Jeffery was. They couldn’t tell who was dead and who wasn’t. The building had been seriously damaged and they were still clearing the wreckage. He hadn’t answered his phone, and the last ping they had from it placed him in the building.

She had spoken with the deputy mayor, Aaron Smiley, as well as the police commissioner, Haynes Armstrong. The work was almost complete, but they still hadn’t located Jeffery.

Hannah was beyond worried. She looked out at the Federal Reserve building from the meeting room she was in. She would much rather have been there. She and Jeffrey had come up through the ranks together. They had met when she had first started at IBM, fresh out of B-school. They had found kindred spirits in each other and she had followed him throughout his career. He respected her and wanted to make sure he was surrounded by people who knew what they were doing.

They had been through thick and thin and she wasn’t going to give up on finding out what happened to him. She owed him that. He would do it for her.

She had called Jeffrey's wife and left a few messages, but the woman was distraught. She had every right to be. It was as though at any moment of the day or night, Alicia could get a call informing her that the rescue efforts had pulled her husband’s body out of the wreckage of the building.

As for the barges, the authorities had not been able to rescue anything from them. That wasn’t a surprise. The ships had burned through and sank. The crew had been saved, mostly. The cargo had been completely lost. This was one of those times that Hannah had been glad to be in the position she was in. As it had turned out, the barges had been operated by Sivana Industries as part of the logistics department.

The division head had reached out to the families and Sivana Industries was covering the costs of burial. The life insurance payouts would be a good chunk of change, but Hannah was glad they were in a position that the increase in premiums really meant nothing. She would much rather not have lost the employees’ lives.

She sighed, trying to turn back to the meeting.

The others around the table were also having a tough time getting through it. The quarterly accounting results simply didn’t seem as important.

She looked around the room. “Guys, I think we should call it. I don’t know how much work we or anyone really is going to get done. I think some of you should take the day. We need to have some time with our families.”

She waited until everyone was gone and pulled out her cell phone. She dialed Aaron.

“Do we have any idea what happened?” She asked, once the pleasantries were exchanged.

“No.” He said. “We’ve got the FBI here to investigate though. I’m hoping they can dig up something more than we have so far.” He said. “We’ll find out what happened to Jeff.” He said.

“I hope so.” She said. “Listen, I know I’ve got no right, but do you think I could have a meeting with Armstrong?” She asked. “I just want to talk to him.”

“I’m having dinner with him tonight actually.” Aaron replied. “I think we can add a seat at the table.”
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Mir
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Re: Our industry will secure our future

Post by Mir »

Hannah smiled at the maitre’d of the Regalos. One of Fawcett City’s premier steak houses, Regalos was an institution she had been to many times. But she couldn’t remember the atmosphere being more moribund than it was currently. The maitre’d shuffled some of the papers at her station, looking flustered.

“I’m sorry.” She said. “Yes, Mr. Smiley and Mr. Armstrong are already here. They’ve been seated.” She said. “If you would follow me?” She asked, gesturing for Hannah to follow.

Hannah nodded, her eyes following the woman as they walked through the restaurant. There were fewer people than normal and the normal buzz throughout the building was more subdued. As they got closer to the table, Hannah stopped the woman for a moment.

“Is everything alright?” She asked.

“I…Yes.” The woman said, though Hannah could read from the body language that that wasn’t the case. “I’m sorry,” she repeated.

“Please, don’t apologize, it’s fine.”

“My husband works the docks and he was caught up in…in the thing.” The woman said.

Hannah’s mouth thinned before she changed it to a smile. She reached a hand up to the woman’s shoulder. “Is he alright?” She asked.

“He will be. It was a bit touch and go there. Please, let me get you to your table.” The maitre’d said and started walking again.

Hannah followed in silence, as they finished navigating through the steakhouse.

Smiley and Armstrong were sitting at a table across from each other. She slid in next to a seat so they all faced each other.

“Carpenter.” Smiley said, a small smile on his face. “Good to see you. Not the best circumstances, of course.” He said. “Glad you could join us.”

“I’m glad I could too.” She said. She turned to Armstrong. “Commissioner, thanks for agreeing to let me join this dinner.”

He smiled, reaching for his small glass of whiskey. “Like Smiley said, not the best circumstances, but when Aaron says the CFO of Sivana wants to sit down, that’s a meeting I need to take.” He said as their waiter came up to the table.

She ordered. A ribeye, medium rare. House compound butter. Asparagus. Fingerling potatoes. Water was fine.

She turned back to Smiley. “What’s the latest?” She asked.
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Mir
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Re: Our industry will secure our future

Post by Mir »

“We’ve gotten through the worst of it.” Haynes replied, his voice a bit grim. “The total number of dead is around twenty five at the Federal Reserve building and forty three on the river. The worst terror attack in Fawcett history and we’ve seen some over the years.” He said. “The body cataloging should be finished soon. We had individuals from the FBI here and they took over the site so there are aspects and some amounts of information that are out of my hands.”

“And we still don’t know who did this?” She murmured.

“No.” He replied, looking over at Smiley. “That’s one of the things that concerns me.” He said, looking down at his drink. “We’re ill-equipped to deal with something like this because it’s been so long since something like this happened. Back in the day, we had the Shazaams of the world. That’s not an option for us anymore. We have to take care of our own.”

She nodded slowly and looked over at Aaron, saw he was in agreement with what the commissioner was saying. She cleared her throat, as she knew what she was going to suggest and she wasn’t sure how they were going to take it. The plan had been in her mind for a few days and pitching it was going to take some doing. Though, she could tell Aaron and Haynes were open to something if it made sense. Hannah had worked with them before on different initiatives for the city. Was this really any different?

“What if it was an option for us?” She asked.

Aaron turned to her, some confusion on her face. “Which part?” He asked. “We’re going to take care of our own as best we can, but there’s only so much the FBI can do.”

“I know.” Hannah readily agreed.

“We can’t just find a Shazaam.” Smiley said.

“I know.” She agreed again. “Shazaam was one of a kind. Who knows who the Wizard gave his power to now. That’s not what I meant though. Shazaam was special, absolutely. But he and his family can’t be the only people in Fawcett City committed to doing good. Some of them just need the tools. What if we gave them to them?” She asked.

Aaron and Haynes exchanged glances. Haynes reached up, stroking his beard as he thought about what she was saying and realization came to him. “You mean, create our own supers?” He asked.

“Something like that.” She said. “It’s something I’d have to take to the board, especially since I don’t know who will be named interim CEO with…with Jeff…unaccounted for.” Hannah said, settling on the word that best described what she hoped was the situation. “Sivana has the resources, we have the technology. We can work with Fawcett City Police and we can help protect the city. We’ve seen crime go up after the Shazaam family were killed. We’ve been working to bring things down, but this attack is something the police,” she said and turned to Haynes, “you just aren’t equipped to respond to.”

Aaron leaned back in the booth as he processed what she was saying. “A city sponsored hero?” He asked.

“Or a team.” She said.
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Mir
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Re: Our industry will secure our future

Post by Mir »

Armstrong and Smiley looked at each other. They both seemed intrigued by the idea.

“Well that’s interesting.” Armstrong said. “I’m not opposed to it, but the idea of a corporation sponsoring a team, that seems to be…I don’t know if I’m fully comfortable with it.” He said.

She nodded. “I can understand that, I definitely can.” She said. “I think I have a solution. Fawcett City Police Department has full oversight. We can run the team out of Sivana’s headquarters, but FCPD picks the participants, FCPD picks everything.” She said. “That way, there are no issues with who’s in charge. FCPD and by extension, the people are.” Hannah said. “I don’t want anyone to think we’re doing this for any reason other than to help people.”

Smiley ran a hand over his mouth as he thought about the idea. “It’s…like Haynes said, it’s interesting. We could do a lot of good with this, I think.” He looked over at Haynes. “I’m not that opposed to it, to be honest. Hannah’s never failed this city when it comes to great ideas. Remember the recycling initiative?” He asked.

Hannah smiled warmly at Smiley’s vote of confidence. She turned back to Armstrong. “So, commish, what do you think?” She asked.

He looked down at his meal, nearly finished. Considering her words, he looked back up at her. “I think it’s worth a shot. I think it’s something that we could bring to Andrea, after we hammer out some of the finer details.”

She smiled, both outwardly and inwardly. This was exactly what she was hoping for. Getting both of them on board with the idea was the perfect outcome. Hannah had been hoping for at least one and working to convince the other. But this? This was the best outcome.

“We have an amazing opportunity to help Fawcett City. Think of the community outreach. We can do so much.” She said.

Aaron nodded. “I think it’s a great idea.” He said as the waiter came over and started clearing the plates from the table. He gave Haynes a smile. “Do you have some potential people we could ask?”

Haynes leaned back in his seat, thinking about it. “Of course. I mean there’s a few people I could think of. It would depend on how many people we’re considering for this team. I can think of at least two right now off the top of my head. Two very solid officers. Good with the community, I think there’ll be a lot of buy-in.”

“That’s awesome.” Hannah said. “Let’s circle back after we’ve spoken with the Mayor.”

Aaron winced slightly. “Andrea may take some convincing, I think. It’s not that she won’t like the idea, she’s going to want to know how we’re planning oversight. After all, it’s not just Sivana that would require it, it’ll also be the officers themselves.” He said. “Also, if she does go for the idea, I wonder if it makes sense to open a roster spot to a member of the public. It’s a way to include the people of Fawcett themselves in another way.”

“I like it.” Hannah said. “Let me work on how we convince Andrea.” She said.
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Mir
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Re: Our industry will secure our future

Post by Mir »

As it so happened, convincing Andrea hadn’t taken much effort. She had taken the meeting with the three of them and after maybe thirty minutes of conversation, Fawcett City’s Mayor had been on board. Maybe that was because she truly believed in the proposal. Maybe it was because Hannah had spent a few days working on how to develop the oversight portion of the idea. She wasn’t sure, but honestly, she didn’t care. They’d gotten it done, which was really all that mattered in the end. Andrea’s primary suggestion had been to identify candidates before they made the announcement. That was something that made complete sense and something Haynes had already been working on.

He’d identified two current police officers. Madison Hahn and Patrick Swain. They were two fairly decorated police officers. Swain was by far the more experienced of the two of them. A five year veteran of Fawcett City SWAT, he had seen his fair share of tense situations. Madison was closer to a rookie than a vet, but she had been working her beat for some time and her superiors had nothing bad to say about her.

They had run the names through Internal Affairs and nothing had come up. They’d spoken with the District Attorney to see if there had been any formal litigation surrounding either of them. Corey Richards, the County District Attorney, had come back to say there had been some issue with Swain early on in his career. He’d had a complaint lodged against him for excessive force. Internal Affairs had investigated but nothing had come of it.

Still, the individual had filed a lawsuit, but it had been handled. Hannah had looked over the facts of what had happened, and while she was no lawyer, she could understand why both sides had stuck to their story.

Either way, both Swain and Hahn had passed the vetting process.

Then they had started to work on the proposal itself, how they would present it to the public and how they would organize finding another member of this force. Hannah had been on a run when the name “The Guard” had come to her.

It fit everything they were looking for.

Now it was going to be time to figure out what Sivana was going to do to get these individuals ready to combat the threats the City faced.

Haynes had been in touch with the FBI regarding the attack on the Federal Reserve Bank. So far, there hadn’t been much but there was some information about the type of blasting caps used. Something about them being older and may be that was a way to figure out who had done this. Whether they found out who had caused the attack or not, Hannah would sleep better at night they were putting in safeguards to make sure that it didn’t happen again in the future.

That’s what this was about.

So when she woke up the morning of the announcement, she was excited but she was also calm.

She knew what she was doing was right. That it was good. That it was necessary.

That meant everything to her. She was in her office, to speak to one of the top developers in the company to figure out just what they were going to outfit this team with.

The Guard.
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Mir
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Re: Our industry will secure our future

Post by Mir »

Hannah rose from behind her desk as the doors opened. She smiled at the man walking into the room. Barrington St. Germaine was one of Sivana Industries’ best developers. Possessing a brilliant mind, he had revamped a lot of their applied physics department. St. Germaine was a bit temperamental but she considered that par for the course for someone like him. As long as he got the job done, she didn’t really care. Well, as long as he wasn’t breaking laws, of course.

Hannah shook his hand and indicated he should sit.

“This is a special project we’re working on.” She said. “We’re in need of three, at least three different types of super powered equipment sets.” Hannah said.

Barrington nodded and steepled his fingers. “I appreciate us getting to the matter at hand. My time is being pulled in a number of directions, however I feel those directions may be useful for what you’re requesting. My first question would be how many sets are we looking at. You said at least three, but I need some upper constraint.”

She smiled. “Let’s say five.”

“Five.” The British born Frenchman said, holding up five fingers and she nodded. He looked away, at one of the pieces of artwork on her walls in the office. “Is there a particular theme or ‘thing’ we should be looking for?”

“Well, this is for the Fawcett City Police Department to use. I would want something that properly outfit the police with the tools they need to combat crime in the city and anything…more dangerous, should it arise.”

He reached into his pocket and produced a small pad of paper and a pen. “We’ll need some kind of a heavy, some kind of an aerial specialist. Maybe a…I don’t know, some kind of a speed related set up.”

“That’s why I figured we should talk.”

“I concur. I think the department has a few projects that could work. We’ve been developing a pair of suits that we planned on pitching to the government as an exoskeleton project.” He said. “They could work, if repurposed. Additionally, there’s a hard light project that could also be viable. It shows a lot of promise.”

She smiled. “That’s what we’re looking for. Those kinds of things. What else?” She asked.

“I have some ideas for an aerial specialist.” Barrington said and smiled. He rose from the chair and smiled. “I have some ideas that will work nicely.”

“I’ll have our two current candidates speak with you once we’ve pitched them the idea.”
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Mir
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Re: Our industry will secure our future

Post by Mir »

Two SUVs pulled up to the Sivana Industries building. Hannah, in a green suit with a pale creme silk shirt underneath walked out the front door with a smile on her face. The doors to the cars opened and three people exited the vehicle. The first was a blond woman, strikingly beautiful. Madison Hahn had been with FCPD for a few years and had been working as a beat cop. She had gone through the vetting process and had been approved. In the lead was Patrick Swain, a five year veteran of FCPD SWAT and one of the most decorated and experienced officers in the entire department. She had no issues there, even with the background check.

The newcomer to the process was Valentina Rojas. Rojas, a Colombian woman, was relatively new to FCPD. She was putting in her time and working her way up. She had been heralded as one of the first on the scene at the Federal Reserve bombing and had done a lot of work in the first few crucial moments.

She had been the one to establish the base of operations for what would turn into the recovery efforts. Rojas was quiet, her docket indicated and kept to herself. But she had a drive to help the community. The background check on her was still coming back and the vetting process would take some time. Still, it was good they got her in the building. Hannah had a good feeling about Rojas and she wanted to get ahead of the curve on all of this.

The sooner this group was working together and working on the streets of Fawcett City, the sooner everyone would feel safer.

“Thank you all for joining me today, my name is Hannah Carpenter,” She said.

The officers nodded and she led them into the building. “Do you all know why you’re here?”

Swain was the one who spoke up. The other two were probably deferring to his rank. “Something about a task force. Not sure why we’re at Sivana though.” His voice was gruff and she could tell he was a bit rough around the edges.

Something good to have in a police officer but more importantly, something important to have on the team, in her mind.

“Yes, a task force.” She pressed a button on the elevator and took them inside. “I don’t need to remind you of what just happened to Fawcett City. Whoever did that, they’re still walking around. We don’t know if they’re still in the city or not. We don’t know exactly how they pulled it off. We don’t know much of anything about this situation, to be honest. That’s part of the problem.”

Now Hahn spoke. “Excuse me. You seem to know a lot about this but you’re not with the FBI or the police.”

“That’s correct.”

The elevator doors opened and she led them out onto Barrington St. Germaine’s floor. “Since the attack, we’ve been working with FCPD on how to stop something like this from happening again.”

Madison’s face shifted. “Like a preventative task force then.”

Hannah opened the doors to Barrington’s lab, looking over her shoulder and giving Madison a smile. She saw the shift to astonishment on the faces of Rojas and Hahn, whereas Swain kept his mask of imperceptibility. “Exactly like that, but also…nothing like that.”
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