Chapter 159: You're Saying... Compound V Was Made From Mutants?
Once Homelander was gone, the press dispersed with him.
Matthew was turning to leave when something stopped him. A faint pull at the ring on his finger. Decorative, or so he'd always assumed. The force was light, almost nothing, but it was deliberate.
He looked toward the source.
In the crowd moving past the building entrance, a man in dark clothes stood still and watched him. White at the temples. Somewhere in his fifties or sixties. His face carried the weight of someone who had been around long enough for it to show, and his bearing had a quality to it that pushed the noise of the street back a little without him doing anything visible to produce that effect.
Matthew knew who he was.
Magneto. Max Eisenhardt. Former leader of the Brotherhood of Mutants.
Magneto held his gaze for a moment, said nothing, and turned toward a coffee shop a short distance away.
Matthew read the invitation without difficulty and followed.
A few minutes later they were sitting across from each other at a table inside.
Matthew didn't waste time. "What can I do for you?"
"You know I'm a mutant." Magneto didn't answer the question. He turned it back as one of his own.
Matthew glanced at him, accepted the coconut milk the server had brought over. "It's fairly self-evident."
"Besides, Professor X and I are on reasonably good terms. I'm aware of your kind."
"Your kind." Magneto paused on the phrasing.
He knew his reason for being here had nothing to do with this, but he couldn't help himself. "The way you said that. Are you saying you're not a mutant yourself?"
"Strictly speaking, no."
"Mutants carry an extra X-gene. That's the source of their abilities. Mine came from somewhere else entirely."
"You can't classify everyone with enhanced capabilities as a mutant."
"Take the large green gentleman who has a temper problem, or the college kid who shoots webs from his wrists. Neither of them got their abilities through the X-gene. Technically, neither of them qualifies as a mutant either."
Matthew set that aside with a gesture. "So. What did you actually come here to discuss?"
Magneto let the clarification go. He got to the point. "A proposal. I want your help with something."
"What kind of help?"
"I'll explain." He settled back slightly. "After the incident some years ago, I've been living quietly in Kenosha County, in the southeast of Wisconsin."
"I built a town there. A refuge for mutants. The idea was simple: a place where they could live the way anyone else lives, without outside interference and without government attention. Something like a community of their own."
"Recently, residents have been disappearing."
"Not voluntarily. The signs are all wrong for that. Luggage untouched, money sitting where they left it, rooms that look like they were searched in a hurry. These people were taken."
Matthew took a drink. "I'll ask the obvious question. You're not here because you suspect us."
Magneto shook his head. "If I suspected Umbrella, I wouldn't be sitting across from you right now."
"A company operating at your scale has things it keeps in the dark. I have no illusions about that."
"But there's someone I consider a more likely candidate than Umbrella."
"Which is?"
"Vought International." The weight in Magneto's expression shifted.
"They've been hard to miss lately. Their Seven have made enough noise that even someone as removed from current events as I am has heard about them."
"Initially I didn't give it much thought. I was actually glad to see publicly celebrated figures with abilities out there in front of people. It seemed like it might change some of the assumptions ordinary people carry about mutants."
"But as my residents kept disappearing, I started paying more attention to Vought and to the individuals they put forward. The more I looked, the less comfortable I became. I started investigating."
"What I found wasn't simple."
He took a drink of his coffee before continuing.
"Vought existed during the Second World War. They were a private company then, operating in the medical and super-soldier space."
"But unlike the government-run program, they weren't interested in developing something from scratch. Their approach was more direct: find people who were already different, capture them, and study what made them different."
"Mutants were the primary target."
He paused.
"When the war ended, Vought's human experimentation program was exposed. The company went under as a result."
"What didn't go under: the core research team, the complete body of research, and the experimental compounds they had developed. All of it was preserved. A group with no public profile took everything over."
"That group went quiet for decades. They've only recently started making themselves visible."
"Given that Vought had a documented history of capturing mutants, I believe they're responsible for the disappearances in my town."
He looked up. Matthew had been about to say something. Magneto continued as though he already knew what it was.
"I know what you're going to ask."
"If you have a reasonable suspect, why come to me? Why not go to your old contact, Professor Xavier?"
"I did try to reach Charles recently. He's been unconscious for some time now. His body is functioning normally, but he can't be woken. No one knows why."
"Beyond that, the reason my people haven't continued the investigation independently is that Vought appears to have noticed the attention. They've been actively working to block us."
"I can't afford to have mutants seen as the source of another public incident. The community that's left needs to stay quiet and stay safe. I won't start a direct confrontation."
"Which is why, after considerable thought, I decided to come to you."
"Your position gives you natural cover. And Vought is already your direct competitor. If you can find hard evidence that they've been conducting research on mutants, you remove a rival and I get justice for the people they took."
He met Matthew's eyes across the table. "A reasonable arrangement for both of us, I'd think. Mr. Lawrence."
Matthew sat with this for a moment.
If Magneto's read was right, Vought's Compound V had likely been developed using mutants. Either as direct subjects or something closely connected to them.
The other thing sitting in the back of his mind: what had happened to Professor X?
About thirty seconds passed.
Matthew looked up. "I'll take the job."
"That said, I don't work for free. Even when the target happens to be a competitor. You still pay."
He considered briefly. "I'll give you a twenty percent discount."
"Eighty million. How does that sound?"
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