NOVEL WEB 15 – Genesis 42:9
Genesis 42:9
And Joseph remembered the dreams that he had dreamed of them. And he said to them, “You are spies; you have come to see the nakedness of the land.”
James was in their private gym working up a sweat as he pushed himself past his limits.
"Sir, we have a report regarding one of the girls you asked us to investigate." he heard one of his senior subordinates say from behind. She had long black hair and sported a pair of slim glasses giving her a serious look. She was wearing a slim black high waisted skirt with a white dress shirt tucked into it that emphasised her assets.
She was one of the few of his first batch of hires that survived which lead to him taking her on as one of his closer subordinates. He hired her when she was only 16 offering to pay for her college that she was dreaming to attend. She was a genius which is why she was able to go to college early however a good education can be hard to get when your family is in debt even if you can get some scholarships. She was still the one that regularly updated him on any news stemming from his organisation even now that she was going to college.
Unless something urgent came up he only required her to give him a general update over the weekend in person.
He calmly finished his current set before putting away the weights and changing his focus to her. She respectfully handed him a cup of tea 0n a saucer for him to recover from his workout before getting on one knee in front of him to show respect for her master. She had already been relatively loyal when she originally joined leading to her not be one of the one to betray him, however it wasn't hard to put one and one together when a bunch of those that joined along with her were dropping dead like flies some of which with indications that they had betrayed her master. Ever since then her slight loyalty had quickly transformed to an almost fanatical loyalty.
He ignored her fanatical look and instead took a sip of tea while letting his heart rate return to normal.
"Ahhh.... ok, you were saying one of the priority targets has been found?" he finally addresses her.
"Yes sir. We were able to locate the target Himiko Toga." she says looking up at him almost gleeful that she is finally able to fulfil one of the tasks given to her.
"We were able to track her down due to her being admitted to a facility by her family recently. She was effectively abandoned by them and is forced to stay there." she starts explaining to him.
"Hmmm... tell me more about the facility and her current situation." he tells her.
"The facility is a government sponsored one with the goal of 'fixing' those holding deviant quirks. The goal they have is suppressing the psychological effects of those quirks to return them to being functional members of society. At least that's their public stance. We haven't been able to get as much information about their day to day goings on with the limited time to investigate, but from what we have been able to find out their treatment might not be entirely humane." she elaborates.
"Well given the discrimination our society has surrounding quirks towards the quirk-less and those with deviant quirks that wouldn't be entirely surprising. Many consider the quirk-less as subhuman even if they don't say it out loud and those with deviant quirks are often even seen as monsters that will just become villains." he agrees.
"What do we know about her life before entering the facility?" he asks her.
"Her family situation wasn't good. There were some reports by neighbours and teachers accusing domestic abuse happening however despite some follow-ups made nothing came of it. Even if we can't say for certain that domestic abuse has occurred neglect definitely has been documented by the school from early on. " she told him.
"One of our agents investigated the neighbourhood she lived in speaking with the neighbours including the one that made the report and it sounds like she generally looked malnourished, her clothing was generally worn out and they even sometimes saw bruises which was the reason for the report." she elaborated on their investigation into Himiko's family. James nodded in agreement and for her to continue.
"As for her school life, this was a bit easier as there was actual documentation from her teacher reports and also reports from any conflicts regarding the students. It sounds like for the first couple of years in school she was doing okay at least better than her home situation. During this time she was able to get good grades and make some friends in class. However over time this degraded likely due to her quirk affecting her behaviour and causing a rift to form between her and her classmates over the next few years which all culminated in her biting one of the boys in her class recently hard enough to draw blood and require stitches which was the final straw for both the school and her family." she said.
"Which lead to her incarceration in the facility she is currently at." he said in confirmation.
"indeed sir." she confirmed.
"Anything else about the facility?" he asked
"Although from what little we could find out it sounds like their 'treatment' would be considered inhumane to most so far it seems there haven't been any casualties so we can't confirm just how serious it is and the reports regarding the facility we have been able to access have been rather limited." she says sad she wasn't able to gather more, but she wanted to tell him as soon as possible.
"Good work Tsumugi." he told her causing a smile to bloom on her face.
"I will need to prepare for an operation. Gather as much as possible regarding the facility she is being held in. Prioritise security related information such as the building plans, security team and have Mio test their network security to see if she can gain access to support me in the operation." he orders her.
"Yes sir. I will get started immediately." she responds getting up from her knee and straightening her back.
