Search the Shadows (Part 2 of ?)
Harry instantly knows something has changed when he steps into the room.
The Kingsman chairs are ominously empty. Harry has a reputation for being late, but even though he’s only fifteen minutes past due, he’s never arrived before Arthur has taken his seat at the table.
Quiet murmurs are coming from all sides of the room, and escalating quickly. Harry suspects that it will only be a matter of minutes before the other bosses start making calls and the fighting begins.
He’s just slipped into his seat and straightened his suit when the back door opens. The room goes silent and a man saunters in and stands at the head of the table. Harry’s never seen him before, and by the looks on the other’s faces they haven’t either, but he’s immediately intrigued.
The man is about Harry’s age, tall and lanky, but he carries himself like a fighter. There is a strange juxtaposition to the man, his glasses are bookish and unobtrusive, making him look a bit nerdy. But as he takes them off and sets them on the table, his shaved head suddenly makes him look far more intimidating. Harry wonders which version is closer to the truth.
When the man reaches inside his jacket, Harry isn’t the only one who tenses and moves towards his hidden weapons. But when the man slowly removes his hand, he’s holding only a mobile phone. An barely there smirk crosses his face and he glances down to tap a few buttons.
Immediately the room is filled with phone chimes and vibrations. Harry can’t help his curious expression as he pulls out his own phone. Across the screen are several alerts -- one warning of a freeze placed on accounts that no one other than he and his father should know about; another mentioning some compromising information that Harry is sure that he did not want to know about his father; and a third with an image of a bird skull entwined by two ouroboros with the caption The Warlock.
Harry looks around as the tension in the room ramps up. Some of the bosses look visibly paler, others are angrily typing into their phones or talking to the others sitting around them. Harry keeps his face neutral, head tilted to the side as he considers the intelligence and skill the man at the head of the table must have. There isn’t a single person who isn’t showing signs of panic, except for Harry, and the new man takes notices.
They make eye contact and Harry’s pulse stutters just once at the depth of curiosity he sees. It’s a heady feeling, Harry so used to going unnoticed by others, entirely by design. He blinks and the man looks away, and the world rights itself. Harry watches as the man’s tongue peeks out to press at the corner of his mouth.
“Now that I have your attention, let me introduce myself. I’m The Warlock, and I’m the new head of Kingsman. Arthur has found himself… indisposed for the next decade or two, at my behest.”
The man is bold, but he’s also showing off, and Harry has to bite his cheek to keep from smirking at his choice of moniker.
“This is a demonstration,” he says, gesturing to the phones around the room, “and a warning. I could take you all down, if I wanted to.” Warlock lifts his phone from the table and taps a few more keys, and everyone’s phones chime again. Harry glances down to see that the accounts have been unfrozen. “Instead, I want you to understand that I know all the work you do, and ask that you choose to work for me instead.”
There are a few disgruntled murmurs around the room, but no one refuses or speaks up against the man.
“Excellent.” Warlock tucks his phone back into his pocket and sits in the seat of power. “Now, shall we get started?”
As some of the other bosses start talking, Harry looks back down to his phone and swipes to The Warlock’s calling card. His curiosity is piqued, and he can already feel the excitement of a new obsession forming. He plans to find out absolutely everything about this Warlock.
(Shoutout to @dianyx and @anarchycox for the excellent suggestions for the calling card. I couldn’t decide, so I used them both!)
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