Later that night, after Devin had left Tyler’s room and returned to his, the quiet finally settled in, with the weight of the day.
Tyler lay in his bed, staring at nothing in particular. The low hum of the air conditioning system and the distant bark of a neighbor’s dog were the only sounds in the room.
He wasn’t ready to sleep yet and his mind was filled with thought of the incident in the afternoon.
The robbery attempt at Westmont Plaza wasn’t sothing he could shake off easily. It had ended in his favor, yes. No one was hurt and the man was now in custody. And Devin was safe.
But the "what if" still lingered like a foul sll in the back of his thoughts.
What if he hadn’t been strong enough or fast enough? What then?
What if Devin had stepped out of the car too soon, and if the robber had panicked and pulled the trigger, if there had been a second man with a different plan—
Tyler exhaled slowly. These were not exaggerations. These were possibilities. And for the life he was building, the future he was shaping, such vulnerabilities couldn’t exist.
It was true that his family wasn’t living large and they are always quiet, but things happens. But who said that things can’t happen to them.
He knew that he has to start putting necessary asures in place. He has to employ security for his mom and Devin. And also himself.
Tyler thought about it and more and finally made a decision to get himself and his family security.
He opened the GlassChannel app on his phone and typed a direct ssage to Freya.
[Tyler]: Begin scanning all known intelligence and private sector databases. I want the best. Forr CIA. MI6. Mossad. Tier-1 operators. Get nas.
Freya’s response ca instantly.
{Understood, Master. Results will be filtered by combat experience, operational integrity, and declassified service profiles.}
{Also... I apologize. For this afternoon. I should have seen him coming. I was monitoring the mall but wasn’t positioned to intercept the incident in ti.}
Freya was aware that Tyler’s latest instruction was related to the incident of the afternoon.m, thus she felt the need to apologize.
While Tyler was moving around, she was stealthily hacking into all surveillance caras around him and using it to monitor his safety.
Tyler stared at the ssage for a mont, then typed back, "It wasn’t not your fault. You’ve done enough already."
{Still. He could have hurt you. Or Devin.}
"But that didn’t happen. Don’t beat yourself up over it," Tyler texted back.
{Don’t worry, Master, I will make sure that he spends ti as he should.}
"Don’t bother with him, Freya."
{If you don’t mind, may I ask why you don’t want to press charges?}
"I don’t want to go through the stress. If I go ahead with pressing charges, I might have to appear in court to testify or sothing. There’s also a chance that my family might be dragged into everything, and that’s sothing I don’t want. But I’m sure that the man will be punished."
{What if he doesn’t get punished?}
"You can handle it your way."
{Affirmative.}
Freya wanted to ask him why he doesn’t want her to handle everything from the beginning and nip the problem in the bud at once, but she decided not to.
She has no idea what her Master was thinking and since he had told her to only handle things after they have gotten to that point, then she would wait.
But she wasn’t going to just let the situation be and she decided to make a suggestion.
{Master, may I make a suggestion?}
"Go on," Tyler texted back, curious.
{I feel that it would be wise to build your own private defense structure. Either a Private Military Company or Private Defense Organization.}
Tyler raised a brow when he saw Freya’s suggestion.
"You’re talking about a full security firm?"
{Yes. With vetted forr operatives, possibly rcenaries. Trained, mobile, and loyal. They can be stationed in Gumua and rotate through here as needed. You’ll always have a layer of defense.}
Tyler didn’t respond imdiately as he thought about what Freya was suggesting.
The idea made sense. A lot of sense. But it was also a logistical monster. Vetting, arming, housing, paying, and managing such personnel wouldn’t be simple. But it won’t be too difficult either.
But there was one major problem.
"That’s a big move. How do we equip them? We’re not a governnt. And I don’t intend to register the company for easy access to weapons stockpiles," he asked, curious to know what Freya would say.
{Leave that to . I’ve located several black market routes that could be neutralized and rerouted. Also, a few smaller defense manufacturers with compliance gaps in their export laws. Given your resources, we can secure a pipeline—quietly.}
Tyler sat up from his bed. He was now fully invested in the idea.
"That’s not what worries . What about loyalty? How do we make sure they don’t turn?" He texted back.
{I’ll only shortlist candidates that are fully out of agency reach. No backchannel loyalty or sleeper ties.}
Tyler smirked slightly.
"You can go ahead with the plan. I will take care of the loyalty issue."
{I’ll begin imdiately. A full report will be ready before tomorrow morning. You should get so sleep now, Master.}
"No, I don’t feel sleepy. I will be waiting for the report," Tyler texted back.
Tyler stood and walked to the window, gazing at the street outside. His neighborhood was quiet again, wrapped in suburban normalcy.
This was the life he was trying to protect. Not just for himself, but also for his mom and his younger brother.
He needed people he could trust, ard and ready. The kind of n who wouldn’t flinch when chaos reared its head.
But he also needed them to know who they were protecting. They had to understand this wasn’t just another contract. This was personal.
...
A few hours passed, and Tyler remained in his room, with his eyes on his laptop as reports began to flood in.
Freya had installed the GlassChannel app into his laptop and he could now communicate with her easily, and securely.
Freya wasn’t just good but she was also terrifyingly efficient.
Across his screen, profiles flicked by. Nas, aliases, forr ranks, confird kills, exfiltrations, black site deploynts, counter-insurgency records.
These weren’t just soldiers. These were the ghosts of the intelligence world.
So had disappeared completely off the map, but Freya had still found them.
Many had settled into quiet lives by running gun shops in Alaska, teaching wilderness survival in Colorado, working private mariti security out of the Philippines. But their resus were unmistakable.
Freya had narrowed the list down to fifty candidates. She organized them into roles: Tactical, Strategic, Surveillance, Cyber, and dical.
Tyler scrolled through the nas slowly and he paused at one:
{Na: Logan Vance
Age: 42
Forr: MI6 Field Commander
Specialty: Infiltration, Urban Warfare, Counter-surveillance
Current: Disavowed. Operating freelance. Location: Romania.}
Then another:
{Na: Amos Price
Age: 39
Forr: Israeli Mossad Tactical Operative
Specialty: Executive Protection, Ergency Extraction
Current: Unknown. Last ping: Argentina.}
And another:
{Na: Kimberly Ren
Age: 35
Forr: CIA Psychological Operations Division
Specialty: Interrogation, Influence Engineering, Counter-Manipulation
Current: Private Security Consultant. Base: Nevada.}
These people weren’t just soldiers. They were full-spectrum operatives.
Tyler was satisfied with the list.
"Start contacting them. Don’t offer jobs yet. Just initiate contact. Start with Kimberly, Logan, and Amos. I want to speak with them first," he texted back.
{Understood, Master.}
With that taken care of, he could finally go to sleep.
Reviews
All reviews (0)