"Sit. Down," I commanded.
The other four froze. Their minds were screaming now… He's a Supe. He's one of them. How didn't we know? Oh god, he's going to kill us.
Sterling scrambled for the door. "Help! Security!"
I looked at the heavy steel door. I visualized the locking mechanism fusing.
Cryokinesis (Tier 1).
Frost exploded across the doorframe. The metal groaned and warped as the temperature dropped to absolute zero in a split second, welding the door shut with ice stronger than steel. Sterling pounded on it, screaming, but the sound was swallowed by the soundproofing.
"No one is coming," I said. "It's just us."
I walked around the table. Voss was weeping silently. Thorne was shaking, staring at his hands.
I stopped in front of Sterling, who was cowering by the frozen door.
"Please," Sterling begged. "We can... we can fix this. The money. We can give it back. All of it. Just let us go."
"The money?" I laughed, a cold sound. "You think I care about the money? I have billions. You took my parents."
I closed my eyes.
Cloning (Tier 4).
The air shimmered. Five figures materialized around the room.
Five identical Aryans, dressed in the same midnight blue suit. They looked at the terrified board members with identical expressions of disgust.
"Grab them," I ordered.
The clones moved.
Clone One grabbed Sterling. Clone Two pulled Kincaid off the wall. Clone Three grabbed Voss. Clone Four took Thorne. Clone Five grabbed Halloway.
The board members struggled, but they were soft men and women fighting against Super strength. It was no contest.
I walked to Sterling. I placed my hand on his forehead.
Telepathy (Tier 3).
I dove into his memories, bypassing the fear and the panic and went straight for the data. I downloaded everything. His bank passwords. The encryption keys for the slush funds. The names of the corrupt politicians he bribed. His signature. His voice. His mannerisms. The way he liked his coffee.
It was a brutal process. Sterling screamed as I tore through his psyche, stripping him of his identity.
I moved to the next. Kincaid. Then Voss. Then Thorne. Then Halloway.
One by one, I harvested their secrets, their knowledge, their essence.
When I was done, they were slumped in the grip of my clones, drooling, their eyes vacant.
I turned to my clones. I projected the memories I had stolen into their minds, sharing the data via our psychic link.
"You know what to do," I said.
The clones nodded.
Clone One's face began to shift. His bones cracked and reshaped. His hair thinned and grayed. In seconds, Jonathan Sterling stood before me.
Clone Two became Kincaid. Clone Three became Voss. Clone Four became Thorne. Clone Five became Halloway.
I looked at them. The board of directors was now, quite literally, me.
"Transfer the funds," I ordered. "Every cent they stole. Move it back into the company accounts. Then, initiate a purge. Use their memories. Find every traitor, every leak, every person in this company who has ever sold us out. Ruin them. Or mark them for the Red Unit."
"Understood," the Sterling clone said, his voice a perfect mimicry of the original.
"Now," I said, looking at the five drooling originals. "Dispose of the trash in the basement of this building, below the parking levels."
The clones grabbed their counterparts.
Pop.
Clone One vanished with Sterling.
Pop. Pop. Pop. Pop.
The room was empty.
I stood alone in the silence. Spencer Industries was now truly mine, from the top down. The entire corporate machine was now an extension of my will.
A few seconds later, the air shimmered.
Pop.
The five clones returned. They were adjusting their ties, smoothing their suits. They looked exactly like the people they had just buried alive.
"It is done," the Sterling clone said. "They are sealed in the old concrete service tunnel. Oxygen will last... maybe three hours."
"Good," I said. "Take your seats."
The clones sat down at the table. They opened the folders. They picked up the pens.
I stood in the center of the room, surrounded by my new board of directors. The air was still thick with the smell of ozone and the lingering chill of the ice.
"Before we open those doors," I said, looking at the Sterling clone, "let's see how our neighbors at the Tower are handling the morning news."
With a soft pop of displaced air, Sterling clone vanished from the boardroom. Less than three seconds later, he reappeared, holding my custom built tactical terminal from my private office.
He placed the obsidian black laptop on the mahogany table and stepped back. I sat at the head of the table, my fingers dancing across the keys with the fluid grace of my Hacking Mastery.
The screen flickered to life, displaying a top down view of the Vought Intelligence Room. I saw Graves standing before the monitors, his face pale. And there, standing by the window with his back to the room, was Stan Edgar.
"…Look at them, Graves," Edgar's voice echoed through the speaker. "Look at how they move. No wasted movement. No grandstanding. This lineup... It is better than The Seven. These are soldiers. Their powers compliment each other perfectly…"
I watched the screen as Edgar pointed to the thermal images of my clones, the Red Unit. He was analyzing them like a scholar, his voice filled with a disturbing sort of professional admiration. I saw him zoom in on the thermal maps of the faces my clones had stolen.
"He's taking the bait," I whispered, a slow grin spreading across my face.
"…We have a leak," Edgar's voice dropped to a whisper on the monitor. "Someone at the highest level of this company has been siphoning the stabilized V. Someone handed the US Military the keys to our kingdom… You will find the traitor who gave Raddock the formula…."
I tapped a key, freezing the frame on Edgar's reflection in the glass. He looked like a man who had finally found a worthy opponent, and he was looking in exactly the wrong direction.
I stood up, the chair sliding back silently on the rug. I looked at my board members. "Keep the Vought contracts flowing. I want Spencer Industries to be the only hand Edgar can reach for when he finally realizes he's drowning."
"Understood, sir," the five clones replied in a chilling harmony.
I walked to the frozen door. I placed my hand on the ice.
Cryokinesis.
I withdrew the cold. The ice sublimated into mist, vanishing instantly. The door was unlocked.
I opened it. Marcus was standing there, alert.
"Sir?" he asked, looking past me at the board members, who were all sitting calmly, reviewing documents. "Everything alright? We heard... shouting."
"Just a heated debate about fiscal policy, Marcus," I said, stepping out into the hall. "We've reached a consensus. The board is... fully aligned with my vision now."
I glanced back. The five clones looked up and nodded at me in unison.
"Let's go home, Marcus," I said, buttoning my jacket. "I promised someone I'd be back for the afternoon."
As I walked to the elevator, I felt a weight lift off my shoulders.
PS: Sorry guys for the late update. I was out of town because our department organized a rural medical outreach, so I had to go with my team to nearby villages to provide free health checkups and basic healthcare services. That's why I couldn't update on time. Thanks for your patience.
PS: The novel is already completed on Patreon. If you want to read the whole story at once, there are 60+ advance chapters available. www.patreon. com/Drrajnovel