The Golden Bond

Chapter 22

When the Master returned to his headquarters there wasn't any good news waiting for him.

"Anything new from William?" he asked as Mia entered his office with the regular report.

"No sir, just the Italians are guarding the data centre from a distance and the local Umbra Club is still working on it intensively. One woman is primarily involved in it, probably of a high rank, because everyone follows her orders."

Valentina.It must be her.The Master sighed and looked at his agent tiredly. "Anything else?"

Mia shrugged. "That's all, sir. The civilian is clearly distracting William, otherwise he would have found him long ago. A task like this should be a piece of cake for him," she said annoyed.

"I didn't ask for your opinion," the Master snapped.

Mia looked at her feet like a naughty school girl in the headmaster's office. She was just about to leave when the Master stopped her.

"Are you all right?" he asked.

"Yes sir, why do you ask?" Her expression gave away how surprised she was.

"Just because," the Master replied and looked at his reports again. Mia knew that when he was no longer staring at her with his piercing eyes, the conversation was over and she should leave. His question, however, stayed in her head. The Master never asked anything just because.

Life in the Club carried on as normal. Apart from Rome, agents were solving many smaller routine tasks. It wasn't always fighting, although most frequently they had to deal with averting disasters caused by their Umbra counterparts.

Paradoxically, however, the Club of charismagicians didn't merely consist of charismagicians – those that were trained. They represented only a small part of it. The rest were technology specialists, assistants, coordinators, even accountants, teachers and doctors. They were mostly positions that were inherited, along with an oath of confidentiality. Often whole families were members of the Club and everybody did their real work in secrecy their whole lives. They sat in modern, well equipped offices and basically helped to save the world everyday. For the sake of appearances, however, they were just grey mice who worked in a private bank.

Unlike members of its support system, trained charismagicians had no personal life. They were loners who almost didn't exist. Their schooling, medical care and work was in the club and they more or less grew up and sometimes even lived there. Although many of them had their own homes, due to security they often moved house and changed their identities. The Code explicitly forbade them having any personal relationships at all, within the Club or outside of it. Basically it was a shallow existence apart from the huge satisfaction after each successful mission. Trained charismagicians lived a little like monks. They sacrificed themselves for their work because they believed strongly in what they were doing.

Sometimes they were children of other charismagicians who'd started families after completing active service, but mostly they were selected talented individuals who'd had a difficult start in life and joining the Club had basically saved them.

Ben was born in a war-torn region of Africa. Eve had excellent results at school but both her parents were in prison. Mia was an orphan and other trainees had similar stories. William was the son of a charismagician who'd disappeared mysteriously one day and no one liked to talk about it.

Emotions were a prohibited thing in general. Although the Lux Club wasn't cruel, it was in a way cold. Its austere facade balanced by natural charismagicians. They weren't trained agents and didn't live in secrecy. On the contrary, they represented a part of the Club that almost every person on Earth knew, although no one had the slightest idea that these people had a secret mission.

They were beings who'd been born with enormous natural charisma and the ability to influence people. They didn't need to train their abilities at all. They had a natural gift of intuition and sixth sense. They were always extremely successful people and thanks to their popularity they were able to spread the message of the Club. Among them were actors, singers, authors, journalists, scientists, doctors, activists, philosophers, philanthropistsand entrepreneurs. They had all sorts of professions but they always had one thing in common – immense popularity. They were people that others would pay attention to and follow, which was exactly what the Lux Club wanted – to change society for the better through positive role models.

It was a trump card that the Umbra Club didn't have. Yes, there were a few of those who sought to identify themselves with villains but their power could never reach such huge proportions like the Lux Club could, if we consider charismagicians who live public life. A bonus was also the fact that these people often donated a large part of their wealth to the running of the Club. Therefore, the Club didn't have to survive only on the gifts it had been presented with by kings and noblemen of the past.

Nevertheless, the Umbra Club was the better paid one. Dishonest groups within governments, lobbyists and various self-proclaimed modern-day rulers rarely had empty pockets. There is no wonder that money for projects such as the data centre came pouring in. It was about time to at least destroy the toy of the powerful ones, if not switch off their tap...