With the room quiet, Ronald started talking.
"To answer your question about why we were evaluating you, it is for a recruitment, to have you join our team."
He paused here and observed Altair, expecting a question.
"I don't know who you people are, you are a shady group who on our first encounter decided to attack me in the name of a test. Why would I join you?" Altair asked.
"I already explained the attack part to you. Try to think of it as a misunderstanding." David said with some exasperation.
"As for who we are…" He turned to Ronald, and Ronald started introducing the team.
"Sitting on the sofa to my right is Mr. James Elliot…"
"You can call me James." James said with a wave.
Ronald continued. "…to my left is Mr. David Beresford…"
"Just call me David." David said calmly.
"…and I am Ronald Shaft."
Throughout the whole introduction, he kept looking towards Altair without changing his position or posture.
"We are one team of a bigger organization that operates around the world, a special initiative of this organization, we are the Strategic…"
"You guys are SH██LD?" Altair asked, almost excited.
His excitement somewhat took them off guard, and they showed different levels of surprise. "What's that?" Ronald asked.
"I guess you're not." Altair replied, deflating.
"As I was saying, our team is part of a special initiative, the StrategicProtection and Enforcement for CovertThreatElimination and Response. A secret group known to a few as SPECTER."
At this point, David took over.
"Our tasks go from counter intelligence to the dismantling or disabling of hidden threats. Although we don't often do the first one since that's mainly the GHOST's focus. Of course, as a secret group, we have to avoid public awareness. So, very few know of what we do and even fewer know about us.
Listening to their introduction, Altair thought they were quite the fearsome organization. There was little doubt to their claims too, since not only did this team in front of him have at least two confirmed ability users, they also had enough resources to be able to track him and find his home without him noticing.
Not to mention, he still didn't know what means they used to find him considering how cautious he was.
"Can I know how I attracted the attention of a world class organization? I don't believe it's simply because of my activities over the past month, since that would not explain how you managed to locate me right to my house."
No response came.
A little earlier, Ronald said they had been observing him for some time, that was probably just a few weeks, since even they did not know that it had only been a month since he obtained his ability. It was unlikely that they had something to do with him having this ability.
If they could grant people abilities, they would not need to recruit a random person like him, who had nothing remarkable about himself. It was precisely this fact of being totally unremarkable in all aspects that confused him most about how he attracted their attention.
He also did not know the extent of their spying on him, or he could just run away.
"You have mentioned more than once information about me, how did that get to you, is it this "ghost" that sent it?" Altair asked.
After another moment of silence Ronald finally decided to talk.
"About a month ago, my team specifically received information about you. The sender is unidentified as of yet, but the communication method points at someone higher up in the organization. The information was very comprehensive giving us all the details about your life to that point. Your tendencies, your lifestyle, your inclinations and a lot more was included."
The more Altair listened the less pleased he was about this, and the deepening frown on his face was a clear indication of that. He was also confused about this whole thing. Who could do such a thing? Above all, he was scared about the direction in which this conversation was going.
"I thought you guys did not intend to harm me." Altair said standing up.
"Sit down, Mr. Rohan." Ronald said in a deep tone. Then he resumed talking in a calmer voice.
"We also assumed it was an elimination task seeing how much information was included. That's very rare, even for a target of the SPECTER. However, the task was simply to observe you and decide on the appropriate measure to follow."
Listening to this point, Altair's worries was somewhat calmed.
"As far as your capabilities went, the information mentioned that you were a Slinger, and that you were an odd one, nothing more. Your residence, as well as some of the locations you would choose to intervene in were all part of the information."
This particular piece of information was very important to Altair. It opened the possibility that Ronald's team did not have a way of tracing his teleportation from a certain destination to his house, but it did not explain how James found him in that ruin in Hzat.
'They mentioned Sling gates earlier.' A theory started forming in his mind. The possibility that James followed him through a Sling gate that was still open. Thinking about it, he teleported exactly two times to get to that ruin, which meant that he had not opened a third gate and therefore neither of the two had collapsed yet.
Even with all this information he could not be certain that by escaping now and switching homes he would be out of their reach. There is the chance that this "higher up" would also know about his new house, besides, in the digital world of today, hiding was much more difficult without the right skills.
Not to mention, there was still his family…
"I guess that was also true." James suddenly said.
Altair was brought out of his thoughts by the comment and he saw how they were staring at him.
"Your natural tendency to space out and dive in your thoughts." David said.
"You should avoid that going forward." Ronald advised, but he did not have high hopes on this. After all, how could it be so easy to get rid of a strong habit?
"To summarize, you got information from an unknown source, which you assume to be one of your leaders, that mentioned to watch me, and you decided after your observation that I should join your unit. Is that right?" Altair asked the three.
David confirmed. "That's right, yeah."
At this point in the conversation, James sat up from his casual laying position and looked at Altair with a serious look in his eyes. "You said earlier that your reason for your activities is to make things better. We give you a chance to do it the right way and in a controlled way. As a member of the SPECTER, you will be at the center of a stage where your help is the most impactful and far reaching."
Seeing Altair was not rejecting, James pushed further.
"While the things you've been doing are not necessarily bad due to the intention behind them, they are wrong. Every time you bring an ordinary through a Sling gate, you take the risk of exposing them to forces that you don't understand, and the way these forces affect them is beyond anyone's control."
James did not know if Altair was getting his point but he continued.
"Besides, your situation is not an isolated case. Just like you, there are many others who randomly obtain an ability and are exposed to something they don't understand, and unlike you they don't always try to help."
At this point, David had a sudden vague look, as if remembering something and there was a hint of guilt in his expression. Altair did not notice it.
"…and in the case of those who try to help, their motivation might sometimes be wrong…"
Now it was Ronald's and James's turns to have that strange look of sad reminisce.
"…or, like in your case, the effect is not ideal."
Altair seemed skeptical. He did not seem to understand in what way his actions had negative effects, and since he was not as good as them in masking his expressions and thoughts, James quickly noticed this. So, he asked.
"How do you think that even after a month of your activities, there is still no news of the people you left in Ozz or Kha'nia?"
Altair started considering the matter. He had wondered about it too but had just sidelined the thought, thinking the people had either not found a way of communicating their situation or that their comments were drowned by the countless other things on the web and people did not believe them.
Then came James's reply. "We did that."
What did that mean? Altair thought of their focus, threat elimination, and he had a nasty frown on his face as he asked in clear enunciation.
"…Did you kill them?