It had been a while since she'd acquired Mondragon Labs legally. Several months. Since then, she'd talked with people. Made connections, or found ones she hadn't used in a while. Slate's businesses stretched across the world. There was Columbia to care about, Romania, and back at home in the states. The bio-engineering industry was but one area of work for Mondragon in which people were employed. There was also Kabal stuff.

Stuff. A good word for all the minutia. The tiny things she still hadn't gone over with a fine-toothed comb. Kabal members, drones in foreign countries, and all the power exercises that involved. New heads would need to be installed in places weak and begging for interruption from Adapted forces. She did not want the house of cards to tumble. She needed good agents for that job.

Simply put, she would need to install some new people. More explicitly put, she would need to meddle with the balance of power.

Obviously, Cortez would be out. Someone would be put in his place.

Before Lenna started offing people, she wanted to make sure her agent base was good.

Lenna had begun going over files a while ago. Checking logs of activity. Learning about Slate's contacts and finding contacts to tell her what the sources could not. A lot of the contacts were dead ends. Some had simply vanished. Some of the archives had, too. She made a mental note: More people would need to be hired. She'd have to do some recruiting. She might even hire some people from Lori's side of things to get jobs done.

Money is a good equalizer. Even if people weren't fully loyal to her, she could pay them, avoid mentioning key details, and get them to do what she wanted.

Lenna still wanted to talk with the few contacts Slate had that were still around to communicate with. She'd already talked with a few. Tarin Brooks was next on the list. An appointment had been arranged for that day. Lenna glanced at the clock. The time that had been set had arrived.

One of Katrina's little friends appeared in the doorway of the board room. Professionally, he announced that Mr. Brooks had arrived.

"Show him in," Lenna requested. She stayed seated at the table's head, in her dark gray skirt suit. Beneath the table, heels shifted. Legs crossed.

The tall blond paladin of a man vanished brusquely back into the hallway to fetch her guest.

Things with the Kabal had ground to a halt for Tarin when Kevin had been born. There just hadn’t been time to meddle in the rest of the world when his own had been so hectic. Slate had understood, Tarin and Lee had needed time, and they were given it without a second thought. The Medium didn’t feel bad…surely after all they’d gone through for the organization, he and his wife had earned the break.

A summons had come, though. A formal summons, it appeared, and quite different than anything that had come out of the labs for Mr. Brooks in quite some time. it appeared that his presence was required at a meeting. He had noted the time, and immediately started debating with himself over what he’d do if they were preparing to go overseas again.

That debate continued in his head right up until the moment he walked into Mondragon Labs with Kevin strapped to his chest in his Baby Bjorn, giggling and wiggling at all the new people and all the new places. This was his first trip to the labs, and he was excited.

Planning to simply walk to the Board Room, like he had every other time he’d come to a meeting at the Labs, Tarin frowned when he was told to wait. Shrugging his shoulders, Tarin waited. The spiritual activity in Mondragon was as high as it always had been, owing to the buildings sometimes-violent past, and the Medium passed the time talking to Kevin instead of dwelling on the macabre images his mutation was so intent on gifting him with. Soon enough, though, a tall blond man arrived and Tarin was escorted through the familiar halls, towards the Board Room.

Once there, the escort opened the door and Tarin walked in. Lenna, his apartment building-mate was in the room, sitting at the head of the table. Tarin rose an eyebrow at that, but shook his head and chuckled. Slate probably didn’t care about who sat where. The kid had such strange ideas about some things. Also, it looked like this was more than a one-on-one meeting, and that Lenna was now going to be a part of meetings that she hadn’t been in the past.

“Where’s the boss?” Tarin asked, nudging out a chair with his foot and sitting down. ”And do you know what this is about?” he said, hands moving to the buckles and working to get Kevin loose.

"I'm the boss." Lenna replied politely. She smiled at the child strapped to the man's chest. "Nice kid."

He sat down, and she continued. Again, taking note of the baby.

"This is about business, obviously." She added, with a glint of the eye. "Although, not the kind of business that will tear you from being a family man."

Tarin didn’t like the way Lenna smiled when she made her joke. Something about the way it stretched her face made him think that she was being serious. The straps by Kevin’s legs finally came loose, and Tarin pulled the baby from the carrier, setting him on the edge of the table as he studied Lenna.

Where was Slate? Tarin did some quick calculations in his head, trying to figure out when the last time he’d seen the young Kabal leader was. Had something happened that he’d entirely missed? Suddenly Tarin frowned, looking from Kevin in front of him back to Lenna at the end of the table.

They were there to talk about business, but not the kind that would keep him from his family.

”If you’re the boss. Where is Slate, and why didn’t anyone tell us what was going on?” The Medium asked, choosing his words carefully.

>>”If you’re the boss. Where is Slate, and why didn’t anyone tell us what was going on?”

It made sense people would react like this. A change in leadership usually happened with a bit more fanfare.

She sighed. "He didn't tell you because it is his way." His way was the way of inept leaders who failed to tell their underlings about major goings on, and made huge decisions, giving entire organizations and companies to virtual unknowns on a whim. "He gave me everything because he wishes to go to college. He didn't get things sorted out before he left."

Tarin looked at Kevin, who was making happy noises and drooling all over himself, while he tried to work out exactly what he needed to say to this woman. She said she was the boss now, and that Slate has summarily turned things over to her.

Something just didn’t feel right. The medium sighed and looked at the woman levelly for a moment. Now was apparently the time to be candid.

”I don’t think you understand Lenna.” Tarin said, pulling a cloth diaper from his pocket and mopping up some of the drool. ”Slate told me everything.”

”Me and the rest of his inner circle.”

"Inner circle?"

Everything?

"What do you mean 'Everything'?"

She'd done some more research since taking over the organization and the labs, sure, but everything? What exactly was that? Lenna had to arch her eyebrows in mild surprise.

Tarin smiled wryly and shook his head. Slate had turned over all of his company and the entire Kabal to someone who didn’t know a thing about the Inner Circle?

Not fricken likely. Only…the signs were all there, from the way that he’d been treated when he walked in, to the things Lenna was telling him. Tarin looked at Kevin, smile fading slowly into a frown as the baby waved his arms and kicked his legs.

”Yeah. Everything. And yeah, his Inner Circle.”

”His failsafe, his closest advisors. The people who knew his every plan, idea, and had full authority to oppose him in everything he did.”

The medium’s eyes moved away from his baby to study Lenna in her seat. ”So. You’ll have to forgive my skepticism.”

Skepticism, yes. Stupidity no. The Medium had noticed something too. No connection to the spirits in the room.

”Change is a bitch.”

His failsafe. His everything. Closet advisors. Not closest, mind you. Closet. As in, closeted. He'd have to forgive her skepticism. She was a bitch. And. "This is the first I'm hearing about an inner circle..." Lenna said carefully. "Maybe Slate didn't think they were that important, after all."

"Sorry," She said. "But what exactly did they do? Aside from oppose big plans he'd been planning? And who were they?" Was all of this coming off rude? She kinda felt like, yeah. Maybe it was. But it was kind of ridiculous. It kind of pissed her off, thinking that Slate could be so sloppy as to not tell her about advisors. An inner circle. Or really, anything.

Tarin didn’t like Lenna’s tone, and he shook his head slowly with a chuckle.

”You’re dumb if you think I’m going to tell you any names.” he said flatly, then shrugged his shoulders and dug a pacifier out of his pocket to quiet the baby noises Kevin was making. It wouldn’t do while the grown up’s talked.

”Apparently not.” he said with a shrug, ”But that’s why I was in Colombia. And that’s why I was with him in Romania when he got taken. We planned all of that in this very room. You weren’t here.” He said with a sideways glance.

”Think what you want, I can’t convince you otherwise.”

As to what they did.

”We made sure he didn’t mind control the whole world.”

"He mind-controlled me." Lenna replied. Seriously. Because that was pretty much a standalone line.

She would have thought Mr. Brooks would have been more forthcoming with information. But then again, she probably wouldn't have, in his position. Especially if her boss had addressed her with her rude tone she'd just used. And it was true: She had not been here. It was also true that Slate had not thought it worthwhile to contact Mr. Brooks, or Katrina, or anyone. Tarin's boss was pretty absentminded, like that.

”Did he need to?” Tarin asked, raising an eyebrow and studying Lenna closely.

”Because he never even tried to do it to any of us.” The pacifier fell from Kevin’s mouth and onto the floor, and Tarin bent to grab it, one hand holding the baby steady as he picked it up. He hadn’t known that Lenna was under Slate’s command, and the fact that there had been one secret opened a door for others. He mulled over those facts while he cleaned the pacifier and presented it back to the baby.

After the passy was back in place, Tarin lened back in his chair and ran a hand through his hair.

”Look. We can sit here all day having a pissing match over who’s more special, or you can tell me why you called me in, and we can move on. I can prove what I’m saying is true, so I’m in no hurry.”

Tarin really hoped she still wanted to parle. He needed a job.

>>”Did he need to?” Tarin asked. ”Because he never even tried to do it to any of us.”

"No," Lenna said coldly. "No, he did not."

She was tight-lipped, now. Was he making fun of her for having been controlled by Slate? That was no joking matter. If she hadn't been an Adapted, it could have been far worse.

The fact that Slate had trusted her with all of this after having mind controlled her... was a testament to how bad it could have gone. It was a dead horse she was beating, true, but in her mind, there was no worse leader than Slate. Except maybe Cortez. Cortez was pretty much the worst.

Brooks tried to smooth things over. Bluntly. Insisting he was right.

"I don't doubt that you can prove what you said is true," Lenna replied. Her voice was careful, methodical. "Slate kept plenty of secrets. When I was working in Romania, he didn't tell me all the information I needed to know. When I was working in Columbia, he made me tell him everything I knew against my will. But he did not tell me everything I needed. And now... well, now he has turned over Mondragon and this organization to me without telling any of the people he considered important about that decision. He didn't even tell one of his closest friends, Katrina. She was shocked."

Lenna took a moment to let what she'd said fly towards the fence. Then, she went for home. "Yes, Mr. Brooks. He kept secrets. Which caused things to fall apart. And I'm here to try and pick up the pieces."

She folded her hands together in front of her and waited to see what he would say to that. She had a hunch.

Tarin shrugged at Lenna when she said that the mind-control hadn’t been necessary. Obviously Slate had thought otherwise. They’d have to agree to disagree on that point.

The more Lenna talked, the angrier Tarin got, jaw clenching as she rambled on about all the mistakes that Slate had made. In Columbia, in Romania, and even when he’d turned the Kabal over to her.

That was the most mind-boggling thing of all. Slate had turned the Kabal over to her. Not Sebastian…not him. Slate had turned the whole fricken’ Kabal over to someone who wasn’t even a part of the inner circle.

And she was trying to pick up the pieces.

”And you’re doing a piss poor job of it.” he said.

”A good leader wouldn’t be running people off who just might know something.”

The Medium shook his head, watching Kevin for a moment as the baby kicked his legs, ”I’m sorry if I’m offending you, but I’m used to an insistence that I speak plainly, and not kiss ass.”

Her hunch had been correct. **** off. That's what he'd said. In more words, more effectively.

"You're probably right." Lenna seethed. "This is my first major leadership position. I'm probably terrible. But look." She took a calming breath before continuing. "I want this to work out. So you have to work with me. Or at least listen. I'm not trying to say 'I'm so special', and I'm not trying to give you reasons why he picked me over you. He's Slate. It's hard to tell what he's thinking. And--" Bah. Lenna stopped herself. "You know what? I don't know what to say to you. There's been a leadership change, and no amount of me tossing my hands up into the air and saying 'the old leader was a bad boss' will help there. I don't work for Slate. I work for me. And if you want to keep working for me, you're going to have to start working with me to tell me what it is you want. Listen, Tarin..." Lenna evened out her tone and tried to calm down. "We're friends, aren't?" She asked slowly. "Please, for the sake of the meeting, let's try and hear each other out."