Chapter Nine - There Were 12 Monkeys
While Mr. Hansen was on doctor-forced medical leave, Christian assigned them to another recruiting job. This time it was someone Hugo actually recognized, a relatively famous jazz guitarist by the name of Clementine Hudson; although everyone called him Clem. The Director of Research, Dr. Arliss, had analyzed Clem’s concert footage and deduced that the musician could command people with his voice and was exceptionally charismatic. Hugo was impressed. He’d seen the same footage and was a lot less confident about either ability prediction. Dr. Arliss had a reputation for being spot on about people’s abilities
Hugo was in charge of figuring out how to approach Clem, so the plan was simple and stupid; an interview with Gideon Enterprises for their holiday mailer, which didn’t actually exist. The musician, surprisingly enough, agreed to do the interview since he was already in Seattle on a hiatus. And that was why Hugo was currently sitting awkwardly in a chair while Laura, the Director of Public Relations, was amiably chatting with a famous jazz musician. She’d decided on a fluff piece to hopefully put Clem at ease before Hugo was supposed to broach the real subject at hand. And even though Hugo was trying to attract as little attention as possible at that moment, Clem kept glancing at him, not like he was nervous, it seemed impossible for Clem to be nervous or surprised, but he was looking at Hugo like he expected him to speak. And he was supposed to, but it seemed that everyone was politely waiting for Laura to finish.
And she did. And Hugo panicked. He didn’t want to do this, he would say something stupid and Clem would get offended and then something bad would happen. Hugo stood when Laura did, fully intending to leave without saying anything, but Clem was watching him again.
The musician smiled, “Why don’t you stay for a moment, Hugo.”
When Hugo stopped, CJ stopped, and they both turned to look at the lanky man, auburn hair pulled back in a loose ponytail. The eyes that watched them with amusement were a peculiar shade of blue, almost turquoise.
“Uh…” Hugo offered unhelpfully.
Clem just kept smiling, “You wanted to say something, so please,” he gestured for Hugo to continue.
He was going to say something dumb and Clem was going to freak out and command them to go jump off a bridge, not that he actually thought Clem would do that. But he would say something wrong, for sure. “Uh,” he was blushing.
CJ rolled her eyes, and then threw her hands into the air, “Geez, Hugo!” She turned her attention to Clem, “We know you have powers dude, and we work for a company with a lot of other people who have powers, and they think it would be cool if you joined us.”
“Abilities?” Clem asked mildly.
CJ didn’t find that amusing and rolled her eyes again, responding in a rather flat voice, “I can be lightning, he can control air and is super smart, if sucky at talking to people, and you can make people do stuff for you. Which, while not awesome looking, could still be pretty cool.”
Clem cocked an eyebrow, “You can be lightning?”
“Yeah! You wanna see?” CJ paused before finishing nervously, “But you can’t freak out, promise?”
Clem folded his hands in front of him, the smile never wavering, “I consider myself prepared.”
CJ hesitated for a moment longer, than crackled and sparked into lightning. Clem just watched intently while CJ jumped around in demonstration. When she was finished the man nodded appreciatively, “Very nice. So, I’m assuming Gideon Enterprises is the company with a lot of other people like us?”
“Yep!”
Hugo nodded, finally able to remove his line of sight from the carpet. He slipped a business card from his back pocket and handed it to the jazz guitarist, “You can give us a call, or come by if you’re interested in finding out more. I’m sure Mr. Gideon would love to meet you.”
Clem glanced appraisingly at the card and then slipped it in a pocket in his jeans, “I’ll think about it. Thanks for stopping by.”
That was their cue, so they left. Laura was outside, greeting them with an amused smile, but admirably refrained from making fun of him.
“How did it go?” She asked.
“Well, I think. He seemed curious, so he’ll probably stop by at least.”
CJ snorted, “Yeah, after I had to do all the work.”
His face turned red, but there was really no denying it, so he just chewed on his thumbnail as they got into the company car.