"I'm going to establish a Supe Affairs Bureau."
Lucian looked at Neuman.
"You have a useful ability. Come be a Deputy Director."
Neuman's fingers stopped on the desktop.
She had imagined all kinds of answers.
Threats.
Blackmail.
Making her betray Edgar, hand over Vought's files, or push some bill through Congress for him.
But she had never expected Lucian to offer her a government position the moment he opened his mouth.
And no ordinary position, either.
The Supe Affairs Bureau.
The name sounded fresh, but what lay behind it was anything but.
Power.
Violence.
Legal violence.
"The Supe Affairs Bureau."
Neuman slowly repeated the name. "It sounds like a department dedicated to managing Supe affairs."
She spoke slowly.
"But what aspects of Supes would it actually manage? Identity registration? Their words and conduct? Criminal investigations? Or the commercial contracts of Vought's celebrity heroes?"
Lucian smiled.
"Everything."
That single word carried too much weight.
If it only meant policing crime, Congress could still accept it.
If it only meant investigating Vought, the public could still cheer.
But once the word "everything" came out, its meaning changed.
Neuman stared at Lucian. "So this isn't a hero management company like Vought, or a temporary committee under Congress."
"Right."
"This is a government for Supes?"
Lucian smiled.
"You could understand it that way."
A faint chill ran down Neuman's back.
Absurd.
Utterly absurd.
A government for Supes?
"What about the Supes who refuse to be regulated?"
"A new government oversees a new order. You should know better than I do what happens to the old powers."
Neuman took a deep breath. Of course she knew.
No new order came to power through speeches and applause.
Orders changed. The old interest groups would be purged, the old agents thrown into the fire, and after the