After the door closed behind Jess and Mike, Sam exploded. "Who is that guy?"

"The second in command of the EDA."

Sam rolled her eyes. "Where did he come from? How long have you even known him?"

"Mike was a student of Marius. We fought Nallit together and I have judged him to be a capable and worthy subordinate."

She watched through the windows as Jess blatantly flirted with the subject of their conversation. "Fine. But you have to accept Jess into the army."

"Your friend's interview will determine whether she can join," Cassandane said.

"Cassandane! If you don't let her in, then I will train her myself."

Mike pushed open the door and stepped through, his face once more hostile. "I could hear your insubordination all the way from inside. Imperator Stateira Cassandane is in charge here. You don't have to like her orders, but you do have to obey them. I didn't want a girl without any military experience promoted to a senior position, but it's not my call to make."

"So you don't want Jess in this army thing either?"

"I think she would be fine in the EDA. As an entry level soldier."

Sam squint-scowled at Mike. His willingness to accept Jess did nothing to improve her opinion of him. Quit the contrary. "Are you going to use the teleotic talent to fix your ears?"

"My ears?"

She gestured at his mangled features. "They look like goblin ears."

Mike chewed on that for a moment before responding. "It might be hard for you to understand, but I like my ears how they are. These represent a lot of time, a lot of sweat, and a lot of pain. They are a badge of honor in combat sports."

"That's stupid," Sam said.

Cassandane flashed a warning look at Sam. "I expect professional work relationships."

"Understood, Imperator," Mike said.

"Fine."

"Let's go to one of the rooms. We are having a senior leader's meeting." Cassandane led the way inside to one of the rooms where they sat down around one of the folding tables. Sam, the last to enter, chose to sit beside Cassandane. She wasn't sure if that was because she didn't want to be beside Mike or if she was trying to demonstrate her closeness to Cassandane. Either way, it was a childish symbolism. She hoped Mike caught on to it.

Cassandane folded her hands as she sat with her back unnaturally straight. "We have been gifted use of the fourth floor of this facility for a year by the city. Within the next week we should receive a grant, which will cover basic expenses and provide for a small stipend for our soldiers. In return, we have agreed to attune and train a small number of city employees."

"Well, I suppose we were never going to have a monopoly on the talents with Nallit's spreading them around," Mike said.

"Nor would exclusivity benefit our cause in the long term," Cassandane said. "The populace would not trust us if we hoarded the talents. More important, we need to manage the spread of power in such a way that it doesn't destabilize society. That means providing an early advantage to the established authorities. We will also be able to profit from the process, which is essential for funding the EDA in this early phase. Later this week, I plan to finalize a deal with the federal government that will recognize us as an international non government organization. That deal involves attuning this nation's president as a personal favor."

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Sam winced. "Of course that's the deal."

"We will also be permitted to provide training to federal employees as part of that deal. Military personnel, federal marshals, and members of various agencies. We will be paid for every individual who trains with us at a rate yet to be determined. That is one of the first items we need to discuss. I have had no exposure to the local economy. My ability to estimate values in the American currency is questionable at best. How much money will our organization need and how much will third parties be willing to pay?"

Sam inadvertently shared an uneasy look with Mike before the man cleared his throat. "Boss? I think we need an accountant for this discussion. Jimmy specializes in that kind of thing."

"Bring him."

They sat in silence while Mike left, then returned in a few minutes with a fit black man who sat down with Mike. "Jimmy, that's Centurion Sam, she's leading the training wing of the organization. I volunteered you as our numbers guy since you do accounting in the regular world."

"Finance," Jimmy said.

Mike shrugged. "Yeah?"

"Corporate finance, not accounting. I calculate net present value on projects, I don't handle money in, money out."

"C'mon, Jimmy. You just got drafted into the EDA. Do you want to be our money guy or do you want to be another grunt?"

Jimmy folded his arms. "I want my title to be chief financial officer."

Mike looked to Cassandane. "What do you say, boss?"

"You can be our treasurer, Soldier Jimmy. If you do well, then as our organization expands your role will change to reflect your performance." Cassandane leaned forward. "Are you capable of handling our finances?"

Jimmy looked around at the others in the room. "Better than any of you. Yeah, I'll be your treasurer. What are we looking at?"

"The city has provided us this location free for one year and agreed to provide a grant of two hundred and fifty thousand dollars. Is that a lot of money?"

Jimmy shook his head in an emphatic no. "That grant will barely put a dent in expenses for an organization staffed at our current level. Based on what I've heard so far, we intend to grow a lot, which makes the two fifty even less significant. The use of these facilities for free is a much better perk, but we're going to need something bigger before the year is up. We need to estimate our expenses and figure out ways to raise funds."

"We're going to be in the business of training government agents," Mike said.

"That's a start," Jimmy said. "We're providing a unique service, so we can charge a lot. To get to a specific dollar figure, we need to figure out how many hours of instruction we provide per student, what the class size is, and how many cohorts we can train simultaneously."

"We are contracted to train twenty city employees. They should be first responders, but the wording of the agreement does not specify that."

"City," Jimmy muttered. "So we're training twenty city employees in exchange for . . . let's just assume a grand total of half a million in benefits. Divide that out and Pittsburgh is paying twenty-five thousand dollars per student. If we can train a thousand students at the same rate in a year, that gives us income of twenty five million dollars. We can work with that."

Cassandane inclined her head in a respectful gesture towards Jimmy. "Can you prepare several tentative budgets by tomorrow night? I want to see a best, worst, and average case."

Jimmy gave a thumbs up and Cassandane turned towards Mike. "Does anything need done tonight operationally?"

Mike sat forward, causing his chair to crash back onto all four feet. "There is a set of stairs at either end of the hall, plus the exterior door to the roof. Also, I see there are doors at the back of the room, so there must be a service corridor with separate entry points. I want to barricade all elevators and stairs minus one and set a watch schedule overnight. We can have two hour shifts with two people on each. If interviews go well, we'll have twelve or so bodies to spread the work among. I'd prefer to pair up experienced soldiers with the newer ones."

"See to it," Cassandane said. She turned to Sam. "Are you comfortable teaching basic lessons on the kinetic, noetic, and teleotic talents?"

"I guess?"

Cassandane frowned. "Write up lesson plans tonight. I will look over them tomorrow morning. If there is nothing else, then I will begin the interviews."