178 :

Walking inside, Nathaniel starts making eye contact with everyone, lingering for a second more on Na-Yung face before nodding to himself, satisfied to have the attention of everyone.

"First, I wanted to say thank you for making the trip here. I know some of you live quite far from New York, not even mentioning the one that came from outside of the country." He said, nodding in Lucie and Hans' direction who had just come back for passing the holidays with his family in Germany.

"Next, if you are here, it means you are interested or curious enough to know more about what we do and what we are going to do in the future. But first, I would like for all who did not already do so to sign this non disclosure agreement." Nathaniel said, putting a file in front of Jon, Lucie, Camilla and Na-Yung.

Not really surprised by the demand, they all took a moment to read it attentively with the notable exception of Na-Yung who signed it before giving back the contract to Nathaniel with a smirk. Giving a stupefied stare to the asian girl, Jon just read it until the end before signing it, followed quickly by the latina.

"What if I refused to sign it before my lawyer took a look at it?" Lucie asked with caution.

"It's easy, you will be escorted back to the lobby where you will have the occasion to do so but being a law student, I can tell you that they will advise you to not sign it. Ultimately, it will be your decision but I'm afraid we will be away at that time you will be ready to give it. Moreover, it's just a NDA to force you to not say anything about any of the things I'm about to say, you will still be free to refuse my offer once you learn what we are doing here." Nathaniel shrugged, taking the two signed contracts from Jon and Camilla's hands.

Understanding what he was saying, Lucie finally signed albeit a little unwillingly before giving the contract back to him. Satisfied, Nathaniel took it with a nod before taking a seat at the head of the table.

"Now that you all signed it, I'm free to tell you what we are all about. We are a private company that will work outside of the federal agency at the discretion of the President of the United States. Our mandate will be varied, investigation, threat against the President or the White House, danger assessment and kidnapping, all that is too sensible for a federal agency to deal with. We will be free to refuse a case even if it's ordered by the President itself and we will be free to take our own cases if the situation demands it without asking for permission." Nathaniel explained succinctly.

Processing what they had just heard in silence, it was not long before someone exploded in raucous laughter.

"You really expect us to believe that load of crap?" Camilla shouted. Nathaniel could see that she was not the only one who did not believe him among the four new people around the table.

"Well it's the truth but I knew that some of you would never believe it because of my age and/or my background. This is why I made a plan for that exact situation. Lina." Nathaniel nodded in her direction.

Understanding the signal, Lina starts tapping on her tablet. A second later the big screen on the other side of the room flickers before letting appear a man sitting behind his desk and a woman beside him standing up and looking at the screen with attention. Seeing these two persons on the screen, the reaction was immediate. Scott, Jon and Camilla all jump to their feet making a salute. In fact, Camilla got up so quickly that her chair fell on the ground behind her. Even if the other did not get to their feet, they had an expression of surprise and awe on their face. The non american people in the room recognized the President easily as he was a well known figure worldwide.

"As you were." The President nodded in their direction with a faint smile on his face, he always liked the military type.

"Mister President, First Lady." Nathaniel greeted them respectfully with a twinkle in his eyes.

"Hellp Nathaniel. I see that the whole team is finally here but it seems we have a surprising addition." The President looked at Na-Yung with interest.

"Yes, surprising but not unworthy." He answers.

"I look forward to seeing that. Well, I'm busy so I will not stay here much longer. Just wanted to tell you that your help will be needed very soon so work hard everyone."

"Nathaniel, when are you going to come back? Alexander asked to see you." The First Lady asked.

"When I will have the time to do so, I promised Linda. Just make sure that your husband is not killing himself with work in the meantime, alright?" Nathaniel said, giving her a smile.

"Don't worry about it, I know how to deal with him by now. Bye Nathaniel." Linda said, her husband giving a bitter smile before cutting the call.

Seeing the stunt silence around the table, Nathaniel chose to speak to not let it linger.

"At least now you can be sure that it's not a scam." He said with a hint of humor in his voice before continuing. "I choose each of you because I believe you are the best in your respective field and you have still untapped potential inside of you. But first, let me introduce you to the others." Nathaniel adds, looking at them until his eyes stop on Scott and he starts to smile.

"Oh crap." Scott mutters to himself.

"Let's start with Scott." He said, taking the tablet from Lina hands and showing his service records on the screen. "Ex colonel from Delta Force, he's specialised in search and rescue and incursion tactics. As you can see, he's also the holder of an Air Force Cross which is the second highest medal you can get in the Air Force and two Airman's medals. The rest you can read it yourself." Nathaniel said, hiding a satisfied smile seeing the others starting to give respectful glances to Scott.

"Let's do the ones coming from the military first, shall we? Next, is Lieutenant Colonel Jonathan Smith." He said, showing Jon service records on screen. "Combat medic in the US Army for ten years, he chose after members of his unit got infected with a rare disease to be affected in the USAMRIID where he quickly became one of the best in infectious disease. He's also the holder of the Soldier Medal for saving five soldiers from his unit with little to no medical material on site while fighting back against a unit of rebel soldiers."

"Next, Corporal Camilla Flores. Specialist in demolition and explosive, she distinguished herself in Iraq and Afghanistan in their quest against IED and bombing of government buildings. She's also a skilled fighter with a good mastery over a few martial arts. Promoted for her bravery and for her skill to Sergeant Major, she was later demoted for bad mouthing her superiors repeatedly. It lasted until she was forced to leave after breaking her CO jaw for making a pass at her. After that, she integrated SWAT where she was fired two years later when she almost killed two of her fellow SWAT officers when they tried to assault her." At that point there were more than a couple of laughs around the table, Camilla having a smirk on her face, curiously proud with herself.

"Next, Lina Campbell. Labelled as a genius in High School, she succeeded in getting accepted to the Massachusett Institute of Technology or MIT. In MIT, she was respected and admired by her professor for her computer skills until she was unable to pay her tuition fees because of her mother's disease. After that, she concentrated herself on her hacking skills and is now one of the best at it. Separately, she's also a skilled shooter, having won several tournaments at the regional and even national level."

"Next, Hand Fuchs. German citizen, he graduated at the Technical University of Munich at the top of his class in engineering. After refusing huge offers from European tech companies, Hans decides to become a sort of Robin Hood, crafting devices to bypass security to steal money from big companies and rerouting it into various orphanages in Europe. He's fluent in German, French and English."

"Next, Lucie Lafitte. French citizen, officially she never pursued higher education after graduating from High School. Unofficially, on the other hand, she owns a masters in psychology and even entered the French Military where she became a fighter pilot on combat planes and Helicopters. Based on what I gather so far she owns six fake identities that she used in fonction of her need. She is also the heir of an important family worth billions of euros in France and where they own half of the vineyard in the region around Bordeaux." Nathaniel said, noticing a few speculative glances coming her way hearing that and after looking at her file display on the screen.

"And last but not least, Na-Yung Kim. A South Korean citizen, gifted student at school, she managed to enter Columbia law school after graduating from High School. After her family survived an assassination attack here in New York, she got recruited by the CIA as an agent in training. She's a skilled fighter and is highly trained with a knife and a bow. She's also from an influential family in Korea where they own a huge tech company worth billions of dollars. Full disclosure here, she's also a friend of mine but I reassure you, it just means I'm going to go harder on her than everyone else." Nathaniel finished explaining.

He had just finished when someone chose to speak and it was no surprise for Nathaniel to see who it was.

"And what about you? What are your skills?" Camilla asked, challengingly.