“Dr. Director, I have to say this is perhaps the most insulting thing I've ever heard.”
The single-eyed woman rose her eyebrow and stared at her second in command incredulously. “I seriously think you're overreacting, Agent Du.” She picked up her mug of coffee and sipped slowly.
“I have to agree with Will,” said Wade, standing nearby. He had been grumbling to himself ever since leaving the meeting with Shego and Kim and had finally decided to speak up. “Not only is Jack Hench apparently pitying us, but he sent a known criminal to make his offer. Everything about it was insulting.”
“His delivery aside,” started Dr. Director. “Can we discuss the merits of the offer?”
“I'd rather not,” dismissed Wade, turning to look through the large one-way window into the conference room. “Let's just send in the guard to arrest Shego and get Kim out of here.”
“Mr. Load,” scolded Dr. Director. “Can you please act like the agent I gratefully allowed to be instated as? This petty anger towards Shego is not appropriate for your rank. And your animosity towards Ms. Possible, however justified, should also not affect your judgement as an agent.”
Wade stiffened and turned away from the window. “Of course, sir,” he said, then deflated slightly. “I'm sorry, it just still hurts.”
The Director softened and walked up beside him. “I know,” she said, putting a hand on his shoulder. “But it really wasn't her fault.”
Wade said nothing and eventually Dr. Director turned her attention to the offer from HenchCo. “You looked over these designs, what do you each think?”
Wade paged briefly through the packet. “Some of this stuff, if they were successful in developing them, could really cause us trouble. It looks like this laser rifle was specifically designed to penetrate the armor of our A1-214 guard drones. So say nothing of the body armor R&D has been developing. The other stuff here, sonic replicators, spider alarms, neural inhibitors, they're quite dangerous stuff.”
Dr. Director turned to Agent Du. “Will?”
“The turnaround time of our research staff is about twice the time it takes for HenchCo to create new technologies. We've known that we've been behind on this race for some time.” Will shook his head. “Thankfully most of the people who buy these things can be defeated with strategy and ingenuity, but that's just been luck. Some day, a truly intelligent person will turn towards evil and I doubt we'd be able to stop them.”
“That's sounds awfully bleak,” assessed Dr. Director. “Are you insinuating that we can't afford to turn town this offer of Hench's?”
“Not at all,” replied Will. “We can always expand our R&D staff, pull in more up and coming radicals like Mr. Load here. We certainly could put up a fighting chance.”
“But what about casualties while our staff develops the counter-technology to Hench's weapons?” asked Dr. Director.
Will only frowned. “Agent injuries have been on the rise the last three years. Which may only reflect our growing size, but… there's also the matter that we don't have the financial and government support we used to have. We still haven't been able to make a big dent in terrorism, which is a hot topic in the western world. And while single person or small-group driven crime is a greater threat to the world, most of our actions to circumvent 'villainy' goes unrecorded. We are suffering for our low profile, while Hench has prime time commercials.”
“I refuse to run this organization like a business,” frowned Dr. Director. “Human lives and justice do not have a price tag.”
“I concur,” nodded Will. “I'm only stating the real world factors affecting us.”
“Isn't anyone else worried that we're financing our enemy?” asked Wade, rejoining the conversation. “I mean, 212 million dollars is a lot of money, and there's no guarantee that Hench isn't just going to use it to build a huge bomb to sell to Professor Dementor or just use it himself to ask for control of the world.”
“Also, Shego has demonstrated exceptional ability and intelligence in the paast,” Agent Du added. “If there were an enemy to be afraid of having the power to carry out her wishes, it would be Shego. What assurances do we have that she's not tricking everyone.”
Dr. Director looked to the window and watched as Kim stuck her lip out at Shego who turned and put her hand over her mouth with a smile. The two started laughing together, completely oblivious as to the discussion going on in the next room. Betty almost wished she could be that way again.
“They seem like close friends,” she said, finally. “Did anyone see that coming? How did that happen? I thought we were watching Kim at her university.”
Wade and Will shook their heads as they looked on.
“If it's not all an act,” she continued, “then I guess we're supposed to trust that Kim wouldn't let her come here without a legitimate offer.”
“She betrayed us last time,” said Wade. “She attacked the PossiBots and forcefully aborted our mission to--”
“Oh, give it up, Agent Load,” snapped Dr. Director, turning away. “We betrayed her. She only attacked our agents to stop it from getting out of hand. I know you took it personally, but the truth is that the Op never should have happened.” She turned her eye to Du. “You know that too.”
“Yes, sir,” nodded Will. “But she still should have told us instead of handling it herself.”
Dr. Director looked back to Kim and Shego laughing in the conference room. “I think that's what she's doing now.”
Will looked back and forth between the Director and the window showing the conference room. “You're going to accept the offer, aren't you?”
Dr. Director nodded. “Get legal in here, so we can hammer out the details.”