Free Web NovelChapter 23: 23: It Must Be Translucent!
Never hate your enemies. It affects your judgment.
~ Michael Corleone (The Godfather)
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"Hmm, I believe you. We’re both victims here." Homelander checked Annie’s heartbeat along with the humiliation she went through and decided Starlight wasn’t behind it.
"The Guardian, I really don’t want to suspect you, but you’ve been stealing the spotlight a lot lately." Homelander turned his gaze back to Hillel.
Hillel kicked his legs up on the table and set the whiskey aside. It tasted like shit anyway. Not nearly as good as Steak ’n Shake.
Facing Homelander’s interrogation, he didn’t even blink.
"Homelander, you know me. If I was the one who leaked that video, why the fuck would I cut off the second half?"
He crossed his arms, looking pissed off. "That was a perfect hero-saves-the-beauty moment. If the full video dropped online, my image would’ve been pure justice! I might have caught up to your approval ratings by now."
He quirked his eyebrow, "Or do I look that fucking stupid to you? Besides, you know Starlight and I get along fine."
Annie backed him up right away. "I can vouch for him personally. There’s no way The Guardian would do something like this. Everything he does is for justice."
"He was the one who suggested this whole internal cleanup. If he really wanted to screw us, he could’ve just released the full video from the start."
"We wouldn’t have had any time to fix it."
In the room, only Ashley shot a quick, subtle look at Hillel.
She had shown that Deep assault video to both Madelyn and Hillel the very next day.
Madelyn had zero reason to leak it.
So the only one who could have done it was The Guardian. Should she rat him out? But Starlight was going all out to protect him. And then there was that promotion talk... Ashley started thinking it through calmly.
Maeve, sitting nearby, spoke up too.
"Annie’s right. The Seven rises and falls together. Anything that fucks up our image shouldn’t come from inside the team."
Homelander was getting confused. The internal video had leaked, so the source had to be someone inside. But now everyone had an excuse, and none of them were lying. He could hear that much.
"Could it be you?" Homelander suddenly pointed at Ashley, skipping over Madelyn.
Ashley jumped up from her seat, shaking her head in panic.
"It’s not me, Homelander! You know me, I need this job!"
"We’ve got no bad blood, and I get my paycheck from Vought."
"Why the hell would I do something like that? That’d just be shooting myself in the foot!" Ashley looked like she was about to cry. How the fuck did this get pinned on her?
"Ashley is the least likely," Hillel vouched for her.
Homelander turned around, his face darkening.
"Then who the fuck do you think did it?"
"I don’t know, but one thing’s clear: none of us benefit from this. We all get dragged down." Hillel continued, "The Seven’s image takes a hit. As the Supervisor of Justice, I’m catching heat too, and so are Maeve, Starlight, Black Noir, and Trans..."
"Wait!" Hillel suddenly acted like he just realized something.
"Where the hell is Translucent? Didn’t he come to the meeting?!"
Everyone froze, then it clicked, especially for Homelander. He’d been feeling like something was off.
Ashley delivered the final blow. "Translucent didn’t show up at the company yesterday afternoon, and he skipped today’s big press conference too. We’ve been trying to reach him for two hours with zero replies."
"Translucent’s unreachable?" Homelander’s voice shot up.
"Yeah." Ashley scrolled through her call logs. "Last message was at 11 PM the night before last. He said he wasn’t feeling well and wanted time off. Nothing since then."
"What about his phone?"
"It’s off."
Translucent. The invisible member of The Seven, but the guy who always popped up where he shouldn’t, like in the women’s restroom.
His power was invisibility, which made him the perfect spy. Logically, he could turn invisible, sneak into the security room, copy the files, and vanish without a trace.
"That bastard..." Homelander ground his teeth so hard they cracked.
Hillel gave Butcher a mental thumbs-up. Translucent was the perfect fucking scapegoat.
"I’m going to find him." Homelander’s rage was boiling over.
"No matter where that fucker is hiding, I’ll find him myself."
"Homelander, calm down," Madelyn cut in.
"Even if Translucent really is the leaker, going after him right now isn’t the smartest move. You just finished the press conference. Every media outlet in America is watching your every step."
"If you fly out and start tearing the city apart, they’ll use it to bury you even deeper."
"All the image work you’ve done will collapse again."
Madelyn’s analysis made sense, but Homelander wasn’t hearing any of it. He was breathing hard, his face twisting through a dozen ugly expressions.
"Then what the fuck do you suggest?" He whipped his head around and glared at her. "Let him keep hiding? Let that video keep spreading online? Let my approval rating keep tanking?"
"I’ll handle it. Just give me some time," Madelyn said.
"You said the exact same fucking thing last time!" Homelander suddenly roared. Everyone in the room got goosebumps.
"I’m not a fucking idiot, Madelyn. You said you needed three days to set up the press conference."
"The reporters were supposed to be our people. So what the hell happened with that female reporter?"
"Madelyn, do you really think I’m that easy to fool?!" Homelander wasn’t giving her any respect anymore.
At this press conference he was supposed to look like a king, but instead he got his ass handed to him.
Madelyn put on a wronged expression. "Homelander, listen to me, that reporter wasn’t one of ours..."
"I don’t want to hear it."
Homelander turned to Hillel.
"Guardian, what do you think?"
Everyone in the room shifted their eyes to Hillel. Homelander and The Guardian used to be at each other’s throats, but lately Homelander had been warming up to him. Meanwhile Madelyn kept fucking up. ƒrēewebnoѵёl.cσm
Hillel picked up the glass of whiskey, swirled it, then set it back down. This shit really didn’t taste anywhere near that shit.
"I have a different take from Madelyn." Here we go again!!
Madelyn wanted to rip Hillel apart with her bare hands. If it wasn’t for him, how the hell would Homelander have lost trust in her?
"Speak. I’m listening."
"We have to find Translucent. He knows too many secrets. If he sells them to our enemies, Vought could take massive losses."
"But you don’t need to go hunting for him yourself, Homelander. Let Vought’s security team handle the search."
"As the Supervisor of The Seven, this falls under my responsibility too, so I’ll run a city-wide search. Hell, nationwide or even worldwide if I have to."
Homelander nodded hard, suddenly finding The Guardian way more likable.
"The rest of them are useless, but you, brother, you’re the real deal!" Homelander slapped Hillel on the shoulder, fired up.
Before he could finish, he kept going: "That’s just step one. Your reputation has already taken a hit. Right now we need to stabilize public opinion and stop the negative shit from spreading further."
"Right, right!" Homelander kept nodding. He wanted Translucent caught, but the immediate priority was fixing the damage and pushing his numbers back up.
"This will need Annie’s cooperation." Hillel looked over at Starlight.
Annie pointed at herself, confused.
"Huh? Me?"
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