Chương 189: CDM 3, Chapter 65: Good Intentions

"McDouglas is unreachable right now, so I'm going to handle the debrief," Chapman said to all six of us in a basement CDM conference room.

"First of all, I'm glad to see all of you come home safe, especially after everything you encountered in Matewan. Second, you did good work. Two other independent teams were running hunts in West Virginia, and even without the Matewan numbers, you would have trounced them on total bugbear kills."

"Two other teams?" Megan asked, voicing the question we all had. Chapman nodded.

"I can't tell you any more than that, I'm afraid. I didn't know there were other teams either, and it's unclear whether or not McDouglas did. Regardless, you outperformed the competition, so congratulations." I wasn't sure how I felt about winning a competition I didn't know I was in, and judging by the faces of my teammates, they had similar thoughts. For my part, I couldn't think of anything special or unusual we did that any other group of hunters wouldn't have done. We investigated leads.

Looked for signs of bugbears. Found them. Killed them. And then moved on to do it again. At no point on that trip did I get the feeling that we were performing exceptionally well. The novelty of driving all around the mountains aside, the hunts were relatively basic.

"The Matewan incident is more complicated," Chapman continued.

"It's not clear what the fallout of that is going to be, but suffice it to say that opinions on its handling are mixed. I would have preferred being looped in immediately when you first spotted the boy in the cage, and frankly, that's what you should have done, but I can make the argument for the need to confirm such extreme intel before setting off alarm bells. We will see how far that argument takes us.

"The video you released should have also gone through me first, but the genie is out of the bottle there."

"Ma'am," Megan interrupted.

"Approval rights for our footage weren't part of the briefing, and we were transparent that we would be filming everything and confirmed with you that we could upload it."

"The volatility of the situation makes this an exceptional case." Megan shook her head.

"All due respect, ma'am, the only information we agreed not to disclose was the CDM's financial support of our hunts. I can understand that you would have liked to have seen the footage before we uploaded it, but that's different from saying you 'should' have seen it." Chapman leveled a hard gaze at Megan. Neither woman flinched.

"You are CDM first and YouTubers second," Chapman said.

"No, ma'am," Megan replied, her tone flat.

"We never discussed or agreed to anything on that front either. I do not mean to be confrontational, but we were private contractors for these hunts, and we followed the terms of our agreement. If the handling of the footage is deemed a problem, the CDM bears responsibility for not clarifying more specific terms prior to the mission."

"Know that in the future, all footage will be subject to CDM review prior to publication."

"If we are functioning as official CDM agents, yes, of course. If we are private contractors, we decide whether or not to accept those terms. I have to talk to my business partners to be able to speak on their behalf, but I believe we would decline that demand." We nodded that we agreed with Megan.

"Are you unaware of how dire circumstances have become?" Chapman asked, looking at each of us.

"New York City is unlivable, gates are wiping crawl teams, and wild monsters are killing civilians. In the face of all those threats, you would argue about video rights?"

"We will always do our jobs as members of the CDM. As Dungeon Divas, we can choose what we do and do not agree to." Chapman sighed.

"This is not the meeting I expected to have. Taking this stance could mean a loss of opportunities in the future, both for your CDM careers and for your YouTube channel."

"If we outperformed the other teams, that sounds like a loss for civilians," Megan replied.

"I hope that's not how this works out." I knew without a doubt that Nathan and I were going to geek out later over Megan being fucking awesome. I could picture myself taking the same position were I in charge of the group, but I definitely would not have been as articulate or as respectful as she was. That in itself was a skill.

"Each of you has a list of reports to file and trainings to catch up on. I expect all of that to be complete by end of day tomorrow. You're dismissed." We hesitated. The abruptness of the conclusion caught us off guard, so we sat in our seats dumbfounded while Chapman quickly gathered her documents and left the room.

"Sorry, guys," Megan said. Giago patted her on the shoulder.

"No complaints here. I'm glad you were the one to do it. Came out a lot more professional than I would have managed." The rest of us agreed.

"Thank you for sticking up for us," de Saint added. Nathan nodded.

"And the channel will bounce back. The Matewan Melee is pulling our usual viewership. We'll come out of this okay, maybe even better."

"Beers tonight?" Hornby asked.

"I'm going to need at least five if this paperwork is as bad as it sounds." The High Bar Pub was a touch busier than usual but not by much. Beth and Kwame went there right from work, so when Nathan, Megan, and de Saint ran late on getting out of the guild house, I walked down by myself to meet them. Beth and Kwame both had beers, I noticed. One of two bartenders worked every shift at High Bar, and by now, we were regulars in the eyes of both of them.

The middle-aged woman working tonight knew Beth was underage, of that I was certain, but I supposed there was something to be said for building up goodwill with consistent bar tabs.

"Welcome home," Kwame said as I sat.

"Quite the business trip you had." I chuckled.

"Yeah, it was pretty memorable."

"I've seen that helmet cam footage of the bugbear tackling you. Seems like it's everywhere. That was nuts." My camera didn't catch the bugbear blindsiding me, but it did capture me twisting as I fell, looking up at the monster driving me to the ground before I fired up at it from my back. I was glad it looked badass because in the moment, I was scared senseless. I had no recollection of any conscious decision-making in those moments. Survival instincts carried me through.

A cup of orange juice appeared in front of me.

"I'm sorry," I managed to say as the bartender stepped away from our table.

"I didn't order this." She smiled.

"On the house. I'm calling it an 'Uncle Gray.' Orange juice and Grey Goose vodka. I had an uncle who drank one every morning." And she was back behind the bar before I could mount another protest. Support the creativity of authors by visiting the original site for this novel and more.

"I'll drink it if you won't," Beth said. I pulled the drink closer to me.

"I think I can handle it. Did I miss anything interesting while I was away?"

"Kwame's almost done with his internship. The Strikers and the Mill Rats offered him jobs in crawler management." I knew immediately what Beth wanted me to do.

"That's great news," I said to Kwame.

"Congratulations."

"Thanks. It's a hard decision to make." I shook my head.

"No, it's not. You want to go to Homestead Strikers, for sure."

"Really? I hear good things about both."

"I've interacted with all sorts of people from both. Homestead Strikers are always nicer, more professional, and seem to treat their people better too. Mill Rat job sites are all over the place, and you never know if you're getting someone reasonable when you have to talk to one of them."

"That's good to know," Kwame said, filing that information away. Beth gave me a thankful glance. If Kwame ended up working for the Mill Rats, she would have a difficult time staying in that relationship. Having to hear about Kielars and Kielar-adjacent people every day would be miserable.

"How does it feel to be famous?" he asked.

"I don't think I'm famous."

"We have a pile of interview requests for you specifically," Beth added.

"Really?"

"Yep. Uncle Gray is a hot topic. Nad-Nade is very excited about the publicity." Rolling my eyes, I said, "I'm sure they are. Here I was getting ready to beg for your forgiveness." Beth blinked a few times.

"Huh? Why?"

"I blew our lives up. A doomer vigilante twice suspected of murder who lied to the internet about being a woman and mysteriously survived where other people died? I wouldn't want to be related to me right now, if I were you."

"I'm proud to be your sister."

"You don't have to say that."

"Honestly, it's annoying," Kwame interjected as he sipped his beer.

"She won't stop talking about how great you are. Dating a girl whose brother is an unkillable crawler? That's pretty intimidating." Beth playfully pushed Kwame's shoulder. He laughed.

"I like being associated with you," Beth continued.

"You're an impressive person who deserves recognition. If you need me to follow you around and remind you that you've done well for yourself, I'm here. And you're not getting away from me." Giago and Hornby stepped into the bar, already arguing.

"Hey, kids," Giago said when he paused at our table.

"Hornby needs his ass kicked. Save me a seat for when that's done."

"I've seen you play pool," Hornby teased.

"This will be a short game." The trash talk continued as they ventured to the back of the bar to the pool tables. Nathan, Megan, and de Saint came in a few minutes behind them. Nathan and Megan peeled off to the bar to order drinks while de Saint joined us at the table. She stole a sip from my drink and frowned.

"Since when do you drink screwdrivers?"

"That's a custom cocktail named in Dorion's honor," Kwame explained with a grin.

"She called it an 'Uncle Gray.'""The trappings of celebrity." Megan slid a tray of shot glasses onto the table.

"Hey! Jarheads!" she yelled to Hornby and Giago.

"Jarheads are Marines," Giago spat as he marched over.

"We were Army."

"I know."

"You said that to piss us off?"

"Yep. And to get your attention."

"You're cold as ice, Osheski." Smiling, Megan raised a glass.

"That was a heck of an adventure, and I'm grateful to have a heck of a team. To the Divas!" We threw our shots back. Hornby and Giago scurried back to their game of pool.

"Did Rainy tell you about her theory?" Nathan asked.

"I just sat down," she protested.

"What theory?" I asked.

"It's barely a hypothesis. It's more like a wild guess with a sprinkling of educated guess."

"She knows how the Assamese got their levels that high." Me, Beth, and Kwame whipped our heads to look at de Saint. She raised her hands.

"I do not know. I have a hunch I want to test. That's all."

"Explain the hunch," Nathan encouraged.

"It's smart as fuck." De Saint blushed.

"I already signed up for the experiment," Megan added. De Saint put a finger on my coaster to pull my drink toward her. She finished it.

"First of all, let me say that I'm probably wrong," she began.

"Way smarter people have been thinking about this for longer, and I can't be the first one to have this idea, so it's almost certainly nothing." Nathan twirled a finger to encourage de Saint to get one with it.

"I'm trying!" she retorted. My phone buzzed. It was McDouglas. I excused myself and slipped outside to speak with him.

"I hate to deliver bad news after a good hunt, but I wanted you to hear this from me," McDouglas began.

"You alone?" I looked up and down an empty sidewalk.

"Yes."

"Our deal with the werewolves is off."

"What? Which parts?" I heard exhaustion in his voice when he replied, "All of it. We had the EPA on board for designating Matewan a wilderness sanctuary, and we were making headway with the state of West Virginia too. A few senators rallied some support, though, so now the talks are about quarantines and detention centers, 'in the interest of public safety.'""No, we can't let that happen. We promised we'd fight for them."

"And we did. I'm sorry, Dorion. I really am."

"What else could we try?"

"There is nothing else to try. It's out of our hands."

"Fuck that."

"Dorion," McDouglas said curtly.

"You can die on this hill if you want, but it's not going to do anyone any good. The blight has everyone on edge about anything gate-related spreading on Earth, so you can make a fuss and get arrested for it, or you can take this on the chin and still be able to hunt. You picked being a killer over being a politician when you signed up for this, and we are going to need every hunter we can get. So get your shit figured out." He hung up. Everything Silas feared was coming true, and I helped it happen.

Out of reflex, I pulled up my system profile: Class: Archer Level: 13 XP Progress: 88, 631 / 409, 600 Str: 10 Dex: 19 Con: 14 Int: 9 Cha: 3 Abilities: Piercing Shot Dual Nocking Multi-Shot Vengeful Arrow Splintering Arrow Traits: Ranged Accuracy Improved Reload Sharpen Momentum Swift Hands Bloody Hands Battle Hardened Improved Recovery Steady Hands Spells: (none) How could I be this strong yet so powerless? Nathan popped his head out of the bar.

"Hey, man. You should see this." Inside, everyone was quiet with their eyes on the television over the bar at a news report of some kind. The lower thirds read, "Amateur astronomer spots E-ranked dungeon gate on the moon." With a tired sigh, Megan stood.

"We need more shots." See you in book 4!