“Excuse me?” Jeri asked, taken aback by his stare.
“What if you decided to take that knowledge and use it for good? You know… to protect those things that needed protection. Or to help regulate those things that were beginning to grow beyond anyone’s control.”
“That sounds great,” Jeri answered sarcastically. “And just how would you do that?”
“By manipulating things from the inside,” Chilly replied, his mouth creasing into a grin. “After all, even the world’s largest corporations have their weaknesses. For all their power, they still have one serious vulnerability – and that one vulnerability just happens to be their single greatest asset.”
“Which is?”
“Their human capital – the people at the top. Of course, I’m not talking about the executives. The guys in suits will come and go. No, I’m talking about the geniuses with a vision of tomorrow and the scientists sitting in laboratories discovering the next big idea. They’re the ones that really matter. They’re the ones the corporations can’t afford to lose. More importantly, they’re the ones that competing corporations will do anything to get their hands on.”
He paused and gave her a conspiratorial smile.
“And that’s where we come in. Our little agency was created by Chip for one primary purpose – to recruit the world’s top talent. More specifically, we acquire some of the more critical personnel within giant multi-national companies – or ‘corporate states’ as your father liked to call them – and redistribute them to their smaller rivals. You might say our agency is the business equivalent of Robin Hood. When it comes to human resources, we steal from the rich and give to the poor.”
“And how often does recruit really mean kill?” Jeri demanded.
“Never.”
“Oh really?” she said, shaking her head. “Then what’s your excuse for killing Petronus Energy employees?”
“I don’t need one,” Chilly shrugged. “No Petronus employees have been killed. We just made it look like they were.” He raised a finger to his lips and smiled. “But keep that to yourself. That’s one of our little trade secrets.”
Jeri glared at him in surprise. “You faked their deaths?”
“Yes, we did.”
“But why?”
“I said these corporations are vulnerable, not stupid. They know the value of their people better than anyone – which is why most of their best talent is usually hidden away in hard-to-find facilities or some far corner of the world. That’s why the people we recruit can’t just disappear. It would raise too many eyebrows. Their departures have to be more definitive – hence the reason for making everyone believe they’re dead.”
“And exactly how do you do that?”
“The process is always the same,” Chilly replied. “After we’ve identified the recruit, we find a suitable package. The package is just a fresh corpse… someone unfortunate enough to have died in the local area that matches the recruit’s sex, height, and basic body type. Once we’ve got a suitable package, we figure out a scenario for falsifying our recruit’s death that looks and feels plausible, like a car accident or some random act of terrorism. Then we put the final touches on the package, put the scenario in play, and, when nobody’s looking–” Chilly looked at her sternly and snapped his finger. “We take them.”
“And these smaller corporations… they pay you to do this?” Jeri asked.
“Yes,” Chilly answered, nodding his head. “Quite a lot in fact.”
“Right, of course they do,” Jeri replied flatly. “Unfortunately, that doesn’t sound very much like recruitment to me. It sounds more like slavery.”
“On the contrary,” Chilly replied, giving her an odd grin. “Imagine a company wanting you so badly they’re willing to blow up half of a city block to get you. Do you really think they’d go to that much trouble without making it worth your while?”
Jeri stared at him suspiciously. “Wait… please don’t tell me that you–”
“We’re not bad people, Jeri,” Chilly interrupted. “Despite everything that might lead you to believe otherwise, we’re not murderers or terrorists. Hell, we’re not even home wreckers. We won’t take a job if the recruit in question has kids or a spouse. And we don’t just take any assignment.”
“What do you mean?” Jeri asked.
“Well, take Petronus for example,” Chilly said as he lit another cigarette from his crumpled pack and gazed out at the sea. “The five people we recruited aren’t just ordinary researchers. All of them are leading experts in the field of alternative energy development.”