opinions and if you asked him a question, he would answer. He was moving around, he was breathing. He was alive. He was a person. Now there was nothing.
“Why would they do this? He was out. He quit, he took his people and left.”
“Someone is trying to send a message,” Heart said.
“There is no escape?”
Heart nodded.
It didn’t matter if you quit, ran away, or got fired. Everyone associated with us was a target. Diatheke offered no mercy.
“What about the rest of his people?”
“As of now, everyone is accounted for. Abarca was the only casualty.”
I let out a breath. Diatheke must have considered the others beneath notice. They were grunts, none of them had magic, and a rash of sudden civilian murders would draw attention. Since they were no longer employed by us, killing them wouldn’t count as House warfare, and the Houston PD took civilian homicides seriously.
“You have two choices,” Heart said. “We can treat this as a civilian matter. He deserted. His employment ended the moment he left his post. We can notify Houston PD and let them take it from there. There will be questions, but ultimately this absolves your House of any further responsibility.”
“What’s the second option?”
“You can treat it as House warfare.”
If we pretended that Abarca died in the line of duty, it would save his reputation. While he worked for us, we maintained a two-hundred-and-fifty-thousand-dollar life insurance policy in case of his death. That policy ended when he chose to terminate his employment with House Baylor.
Abarca had two children and a wife.
“He’s dead because of us,” I said.
“No.” Heart’s eyes held no mercy. “He’s dead because he ran.”
There was really nothing to say to that. “We’ll treat it as House warfare. Please notify his next of kin. I’ll authorize an insurance payout today.”
It wouldn’t fix anything. It wouldn’t give them back a husband or father, but it would help a little.
“Do I have your permission to take him down?” Heart asked.
“Yes. Please do.”
Heart nodded and pointed up at the corpse. Two of his soldiers, a man and a woman, jogged over, carrying a ladder. Heart turned and gestured for me to follow him.
“I need your help,” I told Heart.
He nodded.
“We’ve always made an effort to treat our security people well. We gave them good gear, good benefits, and we tried to accommodate their wishes, but they still ran. I want to make sure we don’t repeat the same mistake twice.”
“The only mistake you made was hiring George Abarca.” Heart stopped and turned to me. “Do you know why Abarca resigned his commission?”
“He told us that he wasn’t making enough money to support his family.”
Heart smiled. It was slightly unsettling.
“I’ve worked with some excellent officers. I’ve also worked with some officers like Abarca. They put in the time, they do an acceptable job, they get promoted, but they don’t serve. Their primary motivation is ticking enough boxes to earn the next promotion. They miss the point. It’s simple: you’re assigned a job, you learn that job, you strive to excel at that job, and then you train the person under you to do that job. You set standards. New job comes along, you do it all again. That’s it.”
“Abarca wasn’t like that?”
“No. When I met him, George Abarca was assigned to a schoolhouse, training new officers. He was comfortable. About that time, the Army had started an initiative to actively recruit Significants and Primes. Because of their unique abilities and needs it was decided that the easiest way to integrate them was to build a small unit around each such officer, complementing their strengths and compensating for their weaknesses.”
“Like they did for Rogan?”
“Just like that. Rogan served as a test case for the program and I was assigned as his NCO. Abarca wanted badly to work with Rogan, but Rogan was a crucial asset and access to him was tightly controlled. At the end of Rogan’s training, command staff announced the formation of a new section within the schoolhouse dedicated to working with high-caliber magic users. Abarca wanted that command. He’d decided it would be very good for his career. He had put in his time schmoozing the colonel in charge, he’d made sure he was well liked, and he felt it entitled him to the post.”
“He didn’t get it?”
“No. They brought in Captain Swan, a Significant with a lot of combat experience. He shared a common background with the trainees, and he’d put in more time in combat. Abarca blew up in the colonel’s office.