Under New Management

Chapter 2

"Wait, what do you mean, you didn't capture him?" Silas asked.

"Exactly that." Gru replied, rather harshly. "He wasn't even there. Instead, we found this gigantic snake that tried to kill us!"

Lucy put her hand on his shoulder. He calmed down at her touch.

"So, what you're saying is that the mission failed." Silas said.

"We're sorry sir, but we were vastly under-prepared for this." Lucy said. "That creature was beyond what I've ever seen before."

"Unfortunately, this is becoming a pattern of behavior for you, Silas." A voice said from behind them.

Three or four people walked into the room behind them. They were all in dark suits and sunglasses, even though they were inside.

One of them stepped forward. He seemed to be their leader.

"This has gone on too far, Silas." He said.

"What?" Silas said. "No! There's something going on here that we need to fix."

"Yes. There is. You." The man replied.

"I'm telling you that there is a bigger problem here. We should be focusing our efforts on that, not pointing the blame finger." Silas retorted.

"Your time is up. Hand over your badge." The man said, face expressionless.

Silas hesitated, then pulled out his badge, and handed it over. He walked through the group of dark suits to the door.

"What was that? And, who are you?" Gru asked.

"We are the Board of Directors for the Anti-Villain League. The, now former, director, Mr. Ramsbottom has been falling down on the job for the past several weeks. Too many agents have been sent in with too little information. His time was coming to a close. We've decided that the League would do better to nominate a newer, younger director." The man said, face still expressionless.

"And who, may I ask, would that be?" Lucy asked, with surprising harshness. "There is no one else here that could do half the job that Silas did."

The tall, dark man walked straight up to Lucy, staring her down the whole time, but she didn't look away.

"Believe me." He said. "We'll find someone."

Gru felt like he should do something, but didn't know what to do, so he stayed quiet.

"You are dismissed." The man said to the both of them.

As soon as they got into the hallway, Lucy started walking furiously down to the garage, where their car was parked. He had to almost run to keep up with her.

"Lucy?" Gru asked. She stopped and looked at him. "Are you alright?"

"It's just that Mr. Ramsbottom has been here since before I can remember. He was even the director when my parents were agents." She sighed.

Gru hadn't realized how much Silas meant to his wife. The guy was frustrating, and often insensitive, but he was one of the only people who knew her parents.

Before he could say anything, a voice came over the intercom.

"All agents must report to the briefing room in five minutes. This is not an optional meeting."

"I guess we'd better get going." He said, and she nodded.

As they walked down to the briefing room, Gru put his hand on her waist, and she laid her head on his shoulder.

As everyone sat down, the lights dimmed, and the tall man in the dark suit stepped up to the front.

As he began to explain what had happened with Silas, Gru lost focus. He pulled Lucy closer to him. She looked tired. It seemed that she always looked tired nowadays. It had been weeks now since she had had a good night of sleep. He was worried about her, and all of these sudden changes around their workplace weren't helping.

His thoughts were interrupted by the man at the front of the room.

"So, what you are all probably wondering is: who's going to take over, now?" He said. "Well, after due consideration, we have decided upon a young man who we think is perfect for this position, Devin Myers!"

A young man walked up on stage, and by young, he meant really, really young. Like, this guy couldn't be older than twenty.

"Thank you, thank you," Devin began. "I am so honored to accept this position, but before I get into all of that, I would like to introduce you all to my new assistant director, and girlfriend." He giggled at this.

"Carla Martinez!" He exclaimed.

A tall woman came up to him. She was tan, with dark hair, and an hourglass figure. She wore a short, red dress with a plunging neckline. She giggled and wrapped her arms around Devin.

There was some scattered applause, but mostly just silence. Everyone sat in shock. Their director for more than forty years was being replaced by these two?

"I have one last announcement to make, before you all go home." Devin said, interrupting the silence. "It has been made pretty clear to me that things around here need to change. So, as a way of assessing all of the agents here, tomorrow, Carla and I will be conducting some simulations that we will be putting each agent through. Each of you will have a scheduled time for your simulation. These times are posted on the wall outside this room. These are not optional. You either participate, or leave the Anti-Villain League. You are dismissed."