Ashton looked over the candidates again to make sure he got the right list. The folder had his name marked on it, as did the team building guideline. He set the candidates to the side and decided to read that first. To his surprise, the guideline began by going over his team’s purpose and classification.

“You will be leading the second experimental noncombatant team specializing in situations involving mental, emotional, and other unseen abilities. As such, there are many things to keep in mind when choosing your team. First, due to the nature of your mission, all members must train and work in the same space. Living arrangements are provided for each team to make this easier.”

It went on to talk about the importance of team mental health in the team setting, and how hand picking each team member could prevent future problems from arising. This was also the reason why teams, including the leader, trained together from the beginning. That made sense in a way, but Ashton had already gone through his own strict training during his life in the facility, and at SI.

As for the apartments, Ashton had already heard of them during his time with Jared’s team. Teams could choose to live on site or in company owned apartment complexes. The main difference seemed to be a paycheck deduction to keep the apartments running. Company apartments also had plenty of rules from his past experience at those run by SI, but it would provide far more privacy than staying in a room at Gale Research.

Ashton was glad to finally have some answers about his team’s purpose, but the greater details likely would not be revealed until official team training. He couldn’t tell if he was impatient for things to get going or uncomfortable with the speed they already were. He flipped through the profiles again to distract himself from useless thoughts.

The profiles all seemed to be of the same age or younger than himself except for one. It was a dual profile for twins who shared a power. By their picture alone, the two men looked about the same age as everyone else, but their actual listed age was ‘N/A’.

He glanced up at the name. Levi and Kai Smith. They looked identical, but nothing about them warned of undefinable age. Could it be their power? Equivalent exchange could mean a lot of things. That is when Ashton noticed an all too familiar symbol at the corner of their profile.

This prompted another skim through. There were only two profiles with this symbol. The Smith twins and Kayla Penn. If he hadn’t already been familiar with the symbol and its meaning, he may not have even noticed it. It was a little ‘f’ followed by a number in a gray box. Ashton was most familiar with F7, but the number was less important than the symbol itself. When he had stayed there, Ashton had been told that the gray box represented a safe because special talents like himself were meant to be kept safe.

The Smith Twins were from F8 while Ms. Penn’s symbol bore the number 2. The number of the facility they were sent to had to do with two factors. Location and danger level. For the first three and most dangerous facilities only the second factor was taken into account. Why was someone the government clearly considered extremely dangerous in his recommendations? Even his incident that cost the life of his family had only sent him to the seventh facility.

Then again, it might be a mental ability. They always seemed to fear most things that could not be seen. While Ashton knew logically he should be avoiding such dangerous people, he knew well what life was like there. This was likely their one shot at leaving that place. If he ignored them now, they would spend the rest of their lives as tools without the right to have wills of their own.

“Already done?” Sabrina asked as he brought her three profiles he had chosen, “I’ll send them to the top to get them approved for you.”

Sabrina was the recruitment agent Ashton had been directed to deliver his choices to once he was done. Her desk was a mass of unorganized papers and she looked swamped. Perhaps he should have mulled over his choices a little longer, but Ashton knew he wouldn’t change his mind.

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“They still have to get through the interview stage,” he told her, “I may have to pick again if they don’t work out.”

“That never happens,” Sabrina told him, “I mean, you can, but the interview is more of a formality. Anyone who has made it on your list has already been selected as a top quality candidate they believe you will do well with.”

Was that why those two profiles had been there? No, he couldn’t ask that. Sabrina likely had no idea what that symbol was or what it meant. “They have the right to refuse during the interview as well,” he reminded instead.

“Now that would be wild,” Sabrina laughed, “That’s right, I was told to give you this address. Now that you are an official employee the apartment you requested has been set up for you. The whole building has been reserved for you and your team so choose whichever one you like and move in. Make sure to give this number a call as well. They may need you to sign some more paperwork.”

She continued to tear off sticky notes with scribbled numbers and other important information he would be needing once he moved into the company apartments, and she let him know he could keep hold of the other profiles if he would like. There was no guarantee the individuals would remain unemployed for long, but it couldn’t hurt to have some backups until everything was solidified.

Ashton took the few things he had kept with him at Gale Research and drove to the address on the sticky note. It was fairly closeby, being a company apartment, and it was set in a neighborhood of other similar buildings. Rather than the usual endless set of doors that reminded Ashton of a hotel, these apartments were divided into smaller buildings split into six or eight. The address he had been given belonged to one of the newest buildings a few blocks into the neighborhood with six apartments divided between two floors.

Was this their way of limiting the growth of his team? He parked his car and dug out the sticky note with the master code to allow him into the apartments. On it were instructions to change the code later once he moved in. He would no doubt have to assist the others with this as well.

The six apartments were all almost exactly the same and extremely bare. They came with the basic appliances but no furniture of any kind. Luckily he had saved his from his old apartment. He would just have to pick it up from the storage unit. For simplicity, he chose one of the bottom level apartments.

Moving everything over took the rest of his day and unpacking necessities went late into the night. Ashton collapsed on his bed, still musty from being stored, exhausted. Not that any of that stopped him from getting up in his usual morning hours to get to work. He did a quick check of his phone to find several messages from Mrs. Aster.

“Summer left home. Is she with you?” from the day before.

“She hasn’t come back yet, has she contacted you at all?” from later that night.

The messages got more and more panicked as they went on. Ashton grimaced. He had never turned his phone off silent after everything that had happened the day before. He hadn’t even glanced at it the whole rest of the day. He sent her a message assuring her he would try to contact Summer and find out how she was doing.

He tried to give her a call, but just as he had expected she wasn’t awake this early in the morning. Ashton had noticed that Summer had a habit of sleeping in, and her late nights as Golden Reign probably hadn’t helped. Instead of that, Ashton headed right back to Gale Industries.

Ashton was immediately cornered and given armfuls of paperwork to fill out for the apartment, the team, and various other things. He was also given some papers he would need once the interviews began. After confirming he would be fine with conducting interviews that day he was shoved in an appropriate room and let to finish his endless mound. He could try to call Summer again once he took his lunch.

“Ashton?” Summer’s voice broke through his train of thoughts.

“You’re already here?” he asked back, then realized it was already past noon. When had it gotten that late?He played it off with a smile, “It’s nice to see you. I never got the chance to make sure you were okay.”

“That’s alright,” Summer said, and he noticed her looking away awkwardly.Maybe he really should have tried to call her again. “Did you really pick me?”

“I did,” Ashton confirmed, focusing on the task at hand, “Are you ready for your interview?” Everything else could wait until he finished.

“Yes.”

How was he supposed to begin an interview again? Ashton decided he would begin by giving her an explanation of exactly what it was she was signing up for, after making her sign the appropriate confidentiality documents, of course.