Chapter 515

Arthur stared at the group of Climbers running around in a circle around the plot of land filled with containers. Shipping containers, repurposed to become a building, which were amusingly, less dire than it seemed. For one thing, they had placed a bunch of terraced vines around and in the short week plus they had gone, the vines had already started growing upwards, covering one side. The containers were still stifling hot, even with the air conditioning running and the windows – cut into the metal – thrown open.

Still, the entire thing worked and it was fast and met all their codes, which mostly annoyed the government officials who had demanded they put together a building for the Clan. That they made use of the land for a large, open air training ground was another point of annoyance. There were plans of adding some obstacle courses over the next few weeks, areas that required the Climbers to avoid, but the majority of the ground was going to stay open.

Cardio and strength training – functional strength training for the most part – was going to be the focus of these trainers. The large open space was going to be focused on close combat training, not because ranged fighters and ranged attacks were not required but because the entire damn city had been focused on it. There were so many places that taught shooting – badly, according to Rick who was trying to negotiate the purchase of a firing range to ‘fix it up’ – and archery and other ranged techniques that it made little sense for the Clan to replicate it.

Easier to just book out time for the Clan members to troop over and get training in appropriate locations than spend their time using and creating the same thing. In addition, it would let them focus on what they were good at – training people how to survive.

“We’re going to have to find some local guides to get people trained on survival tactics in the wilds,” Arthur said, arms crossed as he watched the kids running around.  Quite literally, in some cases. They started training early here. The groups running around were split into three sections, with kids, teenagers and adults all in separate sections. In time, they might split it further but they just didn’t have the personnel – or the prospects, truth be told.

“Our people aren’t good enough, ah?” Jan said, rolling a knife across her fingers.

“They don’t know the local land,” Arthur said. “Don’t know the plants, the geography, the animals. They could do it – and might be good training to see how far they’re going – but let’s not make the newbies suffer.”

“More work for Mel…” Jan said with a grin.

“Yup.” Arthur chuckled, knowing she was in the middle of a bunch of interviews. The moment they had come out, she had rushed off to deal with the admin. Which reminded him… He turned away from the windows and walked back to the tablet he had left on the table. He started reading again, forcing his brain to focus as he trudged through the contracts.

Thankfully, Casey and the lawyer had put helpful notes on a layer next to each article, such that he could understand what each section meant. He could have just signed without worrying about it, but he needed to learn – and this was the best way to do so. Arthur had watched enough bad dramas to know that if he didn’t pay attention to these kinds of details, the Clan could easily be stolen from him.

Well, the physical, mortal Clan. The Tower based one was much harder – near impossible in fact, so long as he lived – but that didn’t mean much. Wanting to grow the Clan and adding slots for Vice Clan Head and Enforcer and the like meant that, eventually, his death would mean the Clan would survive even if he died.

That also meant that, eventually, those beneath him might not need him.

“I hate contracts,” Arthur muttered but he was getting faster. So much so that he finished signing what needed to be signed, mostly things to do with the government and a bunch of bigger contracts, before he moved on to the major reports.

That consisted of their actions against the TG group and their gangster allies. That had expanded, slowly, with Inspector Li making good on the information given to her. Multiple members of the gangs had been swept up, thrown into prison and were awaiting trial now. The gears of justice ground slow, but since most of them had records, they weren’t getting bail.

Or shouldn’t.

“The Templer group leader was freed. And same with the Mamak Gang,” Arthur cursed. Then his brows drew down even deeper, as he read over the attack on the housing complex. A drive-by with Molotov cocktails that meant that none of the Climbers and security guards he had hired to keep an eye on the complex could do anything about it.

Not that the cocktails did much either, the fire suppression equipment they’d kept around dealing with the fires quickly; but it had scared a lot of their neighbors. The letter from his sister mentioned that their neighbors were now quiet pressuring her and their mum to leave, not wanting anything more to deal with them.

Reading over his shoulder, Jan snorted. “Not sure it help ah. People like the Mamak gang, quite nasty.”

“Agreed, but I’ll tell her to look for something anyway. We can afford it now…” Arthur muttered. The only question was what kind of gated community – something freehold and in a house or a big condo somewhere downtown. Both had their advantages and disadvantages, and really… “Maybe I’ll let them decide.” He certainly wasn’t going to have much chance to live there. For that matter…

“Maybe you should get a place of your own, boss?”

“Maybe,” Arthur sighed. It’d make bringing people back easier, if he could ever find someone not trying to kill him. On the other hand, maybe he could just stay in hotels. It was not as though he needed much space, since he kept most of his climbing gear in the Clan building. Only the basics were on-hand and even then, that mostly consisted of the cursed kris these days.

“Still, at least the Inspector is pushing them. And looks like Rick and the Prime Group going after their suppliers are beginning to help…” Arthur could, however, read between the lines of the documents. Their allies were losing money too, as the TG Group tried to do the same, forcing the MacKenzie’s and the Prime Group to overpay for supplies or just buy out new suppliers. Their profits were dropping, which were only partly ameliorated by the flow of beast stones from the Tower.

“Got to keep building us up otherwise, they’re going to stop supporting us,” Arthur muttered. At least the government was keeping its paws out of things – which, if you thought about the pressure they had put on them at the start – was not necessarily a good thing.

“So, next Tower, boss?”

“Three days,” Arthur said, running through the other documents he needed, considering the meetings he had to do with the local government. Dinners, drinks, some training and glad handing, more conversations with family and with Casey to make sure she was happy. Then… “We go in, in three days.”