I could see the distaste on Smith's face as she turned her gaze towards the street, going from her 'resting bitch face' as she called it- to an outright scowl.

"I can't believe those people, standing around like stooges. They aren't fighting for anything, or doing this for anyone other than themselves. They're all just waiting to beat the shit out of each other for the hell of it at the ring of a bell."

I had never bothered to ask about her past in empowered and criminal activity, I didn't much care in the first place so long as it didn't affect me. Despite working for her over 4 years I knew about as much as the average person would of her past activities, which would be surprisingly little for how big of a deal she had been. Seeing her quickly look at each individual nearby, I saw how quickly the gears turned in her head. Parsing through the empowered and their level of 'threat' before quickly dismissing them, and turning to me.

I need to remember she used to be a straight up villain. Sure, I don't know her full story and she might have had good reasons for whatever she did. But, she still was on the most wanted list for quite a while. No Matter how well I think I know her, I shouldn't forget that. Sure, everything she does in her business has been by the books and clean- but that doesn't mean she isn't still capable of doing awful shit if I cross her.

I was interrupted from my thoughts as Miss Smith finally turned back to me for whatever reason she came outside for. Though I had a pretty good guess, I had brought this up with her and had been waiting for a response for long enough.

"I've got some good news and two healthy helpings of bad news, I'd rather not be outside to talk about it; one of those idiots-"

She subtly gestured her head to the street, that was now much more filled with people in various costumes of different qualities with tension still building between the growing crowd.

"-could have super-hearing. I already get enough headaches keeping legal intrusions out of my business, I'd rather not have them burst into the situation guns blazing making things worse or trying to pin me as causing the problem."

Most people hearing that would probably assume there was some shady shit anyway, which partially made me wonder why she didn't just wait for me inside before explaining the situation- I was already on my way anyhow. Granted, they probably couldn't follow us inside unnoticed- therefore getting into legal trouble themselves making it was a moot point. Empowered blustering their noses where they don't belong aside, I was worried about what the bad news could be. Was I wrong and getting fired for the false alarm? Was there a reasonable explanation for the stuff I had found and making a big deal out of nothing? Or is it really bad news, like there is a rogue empowered involved? I couldn't begin to guess, plenty of things could go wrong with the subject of potential corporate espionage. That wasn't even considering the empowered aspect, which while unlikely was still theoretically possible, a lot of normally harmless stuff could turn ugly real quick if empowered stuck their noses in it. It's a large reason why the F.D.D.I was created in the first place. Well potential danger with an unhealthy dose of post nuclear testing paranoia. Whatever the news was, I was going to have to wait to hear it.

As we entered the building she quickly used the main elevator taking us to the 12th floor. This floor had purposes mostly irrelevant to our current circumstances, except for the fact it also was where Smith's office was. She had actually explained to me not long after becoming CFO that the main reason why she was here was because it avoided most empowered from easily getting to her to fight or harass her without having to go through some form of resistance first. That fact also reduced the amount of empowered from bothering in the first place, which meant we probably wouldn't get interrupted during our conversation.

It seems inconvenience is a greater obstacle than walls when dealing with empowered who have it out for you. Although I imagine there's probably other factors involved I'm not thinking of.

We reached her office quickly, with Smith using her 'get out of my way' jog to get there without interruptions. The few who even attempted to make contact quickly saw she wasn't in the mood and backed off without a word. I could see her shoulders getting tenser by the moment, until finally we entered the plain room and the door separated us from prying eyes and ears. She sighed out a breath I hadn't noticed she'd been holding in, and quickly turned to me looking exhausted despite the day just starting.

"I looked into what you told me last month, about the Chief Accountant potentially siphoning off money. Good news is you were right, and we found out who was involved and fired them without much issue."

A surprise, but definitely a welcome one. It made me wonder what could be so bad if the main thing I had been worried about was already dealt with-

"The bad news it was about 70% of our financial division-"

"Fuck me, how the hell did we not notice that many people immediately?"

"Because with so many people in on it, one of which in a powerful position and coordinating everything, they were able to cover their tracks surprisingly well. We probably would have gone years without noticing it if you hadn't pointed us in the right direction. More importantly, it gets worse."

"Right, the other bad news. This is shaping up to be great already."

"I'm afraid you're going to also have to act as Chief Accountant in addition to your normal job as CFO until we find a suitable replacement. None of our remaining employees have the experience or capability to take up the role, we're going to have to hire new people and hope we find someone good enough quickly. I'm really sorry about this, but you'll be getting overtime pay along with other benefits while we sort this out."

I wordlessly groaned, I didn't have much need of 'benefits' or extra pay. I'd been frugal enough to not need it. My hobby-side project- took up a good chunk of the pay I didn't use, but I still had plenty sitting in the bank or apart of stocks I had been buying and selling on the side. For me this was just a dumping of unneeded responsibility without much benefit, and for what will probably be a long time too.

Looks like working from home went from a habit to a requirement. I'm going to be so exhausted.

"Is there anything else? I could really use something positive."

"Actually there is, thanks to you finding out about the money leak we now have extra cash at our disposal. We'll probably be able to use that extra capital and entice a good amount of fairly qualified people. Not to mention, this is sudden enough that it's unlikely the F.D.D.I will be able to scramble out someone in time to act as a mole, meaning we won't have to vet as thoroughly."

"Ok, so this nightmare won't take any longer than a year or so then. At least I have that."

"It might be less than a year actually, when I said we gained a good amount I meant, good. Even using half of it would still cover your pay and a half for the entire fiscal year, with some money still left over. We aren't using that much mind you, but it should turn enough heads to let us be picky and still undo most of the damage to our work force."

That’s….. a lot of money. I probably am in the top ten when it comes to how much an individual gets paid in the company. What she was saying implied we had been taking a huge drain to our finances, and now that the leeches were removed we had an unprecedented excess. Which also meant on top of my old job and new responsibilities, I also had to find out where to allocate that money. It wasn't exactly Rockefeller amounts of cash, but it wasn't chump change by any margin- which meant my previous outline for the company's financial plan is worthless. Another thing I'll have to take care of.

I really needed something big to soften this blow. Luckily it seemed Smith had already been aware this was an unreasonable expectation for me to deal with, and would provide some kind of help. Which considering I was partially responsible for not noticing this immediately I couldn't guarantee would have happened. It wouldn't have been the first time she left someone who messed their job up out to dry.

"Like I said, half of it should more than cover your salary and a half for an entire fiscal year. You're getting a temporary doubling of your pay for the year, and when this blows over it will go down to about a 50% increase. I know you don't care for the money that much, but it's the best I can offer. We still have some workers so you won't be totally alone. You can use any one left at your discretion to assist, including anyone we hire as we build our workforce back up."

That wasn't quite what I wanted to hear, but it was better than nothing. This was a pretty god awful way to start today, but it's what I have to deal with. I guess I'll see what the rest of it brings.