"I checked him out after getting your message.  Daniel Lee's file is owned by the Pentagon.  My clearance level doesn't come close.  All I can tell you is the few brass that would talk to me about him tell me the same thing I hear from my defense industry friends: be careful dealing with Lee.  They say he's good to his word but not above arranging the pieces on the board as it suits him, and he's always ten moves ahead of where you think he is."

"One thing that I was able to find out ought to peak your interest, though.  Daniel Lee is the sole trustee of the New York Knights Perpetual Trust.  He's in charge of all their property and assets.  Everything, including the Pier, is his to administer."

The Colonel put his feet up on his desk and sipped his Jack.  The silence on the other end of the phone told him his words were being seriously considered.  That was good.

"I can't blame you," he sighed while turning his rocks glass and watching the light shatter across the facets in the crystal.  "If Lee's doing what I think he's doing, well..."

The Colonel's tone went from mentor to officer.  "The Army's official position is that we don't have one.  Any association you chose to pursue with Mr. Lee is your business.  However, you should continue to report in anything warranted under the terms of your 'retirement'.  Understood?"

There it was. Even The Colonel couldn't tap Lee. And the whole trustee thing made everything fall neatly into place. "Understood, sir." Dan replied promptly. And he thought he did understand. This was about the Knights. Had to be. 

"Be careful, Daniel." 

"I'll do my best, Colonel. Thanks for getting back to me on this. It is appreciated, and you will be kept informed." Daniel shook his head in disbelief.

This was about the Knights...

The old soldier made a grunt by way of reply, then hung up. Daniel shoved his phone in his jeans pocket, then looked out across the Great Lawn in Central Park. Sunlight slanted down on probably a hundred people, some playing frisbee, some sitting and reading, some walking and talking alone or in groups, and some just lying on the grass to soak up some rays. He crossed his feet at the ankles and stretched his long legs out in front of him, arms folded across his chest, eyes narrowed in concentration. Options and scenarios played out in his  mind as soccer moms and joggers made slight detours to avoid tripping over him, but he payed them little attention. The QE had remained quiet all day, despite the heavy crowds, but this didn't surprise him. Metahumans were just a fraction of a percent of the population, based on his experience and Army data. But now... now maybe he'd be on a team of them. 

Again.

His walk home that day was a slow, meandering one. One that took him purposefully by a certain building on 300 West 57th Street on Eighth. He'd paused as he considered the diamond-like elegance of its construction from the sidewalk, New Yorkers flowing past him like a stream burbling past a protruding stone. The Glass and beam construction reminded him of some blue-gray geodesic crystal, absorbing the rays of the late afternoon sun like a massive solar cel. At night, no doubt, it would be stunning. He had a meeting here tomorrow at 9 am sharp, but it paid to know the lay of the land beforehand and so here he was. Those going in and out of the building were sharply dressed for the most part, and more often than not had cel phones glued to the sides of their heads as they talked about whatever business either brought them here or sent them forth from inside. Several tourists of various nationalities and ethnicities snapped photos of each other posing in front of it, grinning and mugging for the camera. 

He entered the lobby, saw the security desk, and took note of the business names adorning the tasteful directory that hung on the wall behind the guards. This was a Serious Place, for Serious People. Lee probably owned the whole thing. He left, and grabbed a couple hot dogs at a cart near his apartment building, slathering extra mustard and onions on both and replying to the vendor that "yeah, the weather is pretty nice all the way up here." He took his dogs (and an extra large coke) and sat on the steps of his building, munching and thinking and just watching the people go buy. 

Then he went inside, took the elevator up to the his 12th floor apartment, showered and crashed. Tomorrow was going to be a busy day. 

--
Dan got out of the cab, dressed in the one suit he owned, a tailored slate gray affair with razor thin silver pinstripes, a white nicely starched oxford under the jacket and a dark navy tie. He paid the cabbie, took a deep breathe, then headed on inside. The phone was in his pocket, the debit card and business card in his wallet. At the security desk, one of the several guards checked his name against a computer screen, made a call, then directed him to a private elevator just off to the side of the ones servicing the rest of the building. "Just hit the button, Mr. Alexander. It'll take you to the top."

The elevator doors opened directly into a stunningly large space.  The entire top floor of the building was one large room encircled by floor-to-ceiling segmented glass.  There was a sunken area to the right that looked as though it was designed for sitting and relaxing complete with couches, padded chairs and a bar.  A long conference table off to the left lent the room some small amount of credence as a place of business. 

There was a reddish sculpture as large as five men with a fluid abstract shape to it near the center.  There seemed no rhyme or reason to the form that Dan could recognize.  It was as if someone stole all of the walls on the floor and the five or six rooms started to melt together, so smoothly and elegantly the decor and architecture blended the space.  It worked impressively.

Across the cavernous space was a large desk, the largest Dan had ever seen.  It was modern style, no doubt.  There wasn't a bit of wood to the concave base that flared up from the floor to support a spacious crescent of shiny black.  There was no phone, no computer that he could see on it's surface.  There wasn't anything at all.

Behind the desk stood a salt-and-pepper-haired man in a fine dark suit watching David intently, patiently.  He was tiny with the distance, but even from this far away Dan could sense the gravitas of David Lee.  

Dan closed the distance, extending his hand as he approached the much smaller man. "Good morning, Mr. Lee. I'm Elrohir Alexander. It's a pleasure." 

"The pleasure is distinctly mine, Mr. Alexander," Lee replied crisply with a precise diction.  He gestured to a seat across the desk from his own.  "Please."

No handshake then. Dan took the indicated seat, back straight, hands on knees. 

Lee had one of those large ergonomic chairs that looked terribly uncomfortable but which was likely quite the opposite.  He sat down and rested his hands in his lap.

"How is New York treating you?  Settling in okay?" Lee asked. 

"Yes sir, I am. And thank you for asking," Dan replied. 

"It's a funny place," Lee offered.  "You either love it or you hate it, no in-between.  I find it invigorating.  It challenges you every day.  Do you like challenges, Mr. Alexander?" 

"Yes sir, I do," said Dan. 

"Really?"  Lee's face took on some skepticism.  "Not much challenge working for Ma Bell.  And after your Army experience I doubt walking a beat would hold your interest for long.  Besides..." He paused just slightly for effect.  "...NYPD policy doesn't allow for the hiring of special people like yourself.  Too much liability on the ACLU front.  The bureaucrats at Police Plaza are terrified of the v-word.  A shame, really."

Lee leaned forward in his seat just a bit.  "I know you've thought about it, thought about what testing your limits would really be like.  Sure, they pushed you pretty hard in the Army, testing you out, but that's just simulations.  I'm talking about that.  Out there."  He used a slight head motion to indicate the city beyond his glass walls. 

"What do you know about the New York Knights?" Lee asked after a moment, changing topics.

Dan paused as he considered what Lee had just said. Either he wasn't as connected as Dan thought, or this was some sort of test. Interesting. He nodded his head, once. "I thought it might be that." he said calmly. "As the sole trustee to the Knights and the Pier, you would be in a unique place to either reboot the team, or send someone out to find them sir. It was the thing that made the most sense to me when I got your invitation and did a little digging." He thought a moment. "To answer your question directly sir, I don't know a lot about the Knights. Aside from what is on the website, and what's been documented at the various news agencies of course. There's a great deal of information out there on the social networking sites as well, but you can only trust YouTube and Facebook so much. I do believe that if you were planning on rebooting the Knights, I could be of great benefit to you and to their legacy. And you are absolutely right in that it would be one hell of a challenge." Dan permitted himself a little smile at that. 

"My Army training was much more than just a simulation or two sir, and included real world field operations in a multi-national theatre. I learned a lot there, but there's more to learn." He paused again, raising an eyebrow to see if Lee wanted to ask for any clarification before continuing. 

The man across the desk had nodded along as Dan spoke, seeming to like what he heard.  "You're right, of course," Lee said agreeably.  "Your work in the Army was solid, if somewhat limited in scope.  What the Knights did was very similar but much more improvisational.  It's like live versus pre-recorded television.  You'll see."

"I am rebooting the New York Knights, as you say.  It's time.  And based on all the homework I've done I think you'd make a superior Knight.  To be completely honest, I'd already made up my mind to extend the offer before you arrived.  This meeting was just to make sure you weren't a total douchebag."

Dan blinked, a bit surprised at Lee's verbal downshifting. The colonel was right, this guy was good. Real good. 

"It'd be an honor," Dan replied, a heartbeat later. And it would be. "I'm assuming you have other candidates in mind as well sir?" 

"Of course," Lee answered.  "I've got interviews lined up with several prospects.  Say, did you bring the phone?"

"Yes sir," Dan replied, fishing the phone out of his pocket and placing it on the desk. 

As soon as the device was set upon the glass-like black surface, the spot on the desk around it lit up with a soft green aura.  Daniel Lee's hands touched the surface in front of him and an organization of files, icons, and avatars appeared on the desk's surface.  He manipulated them around and pulled out a few icons from a file and then sent them sliding across the desk to the phone.  The phone's screen lit up and after a brief progress bar the icons appeared on the screen.

"It's yours again," Lee remarked after the desk went dark again.  "I uploaded some information for you to review, starter protocols and so on plus the details of our arrangement.  There's also a costume designer app.  Play around with it and send me something by the end of next week.  And by all means reach out if you have any questions.  I'm reachable twenty-four-seven."

"But while you're here," he said, leaning back in his chair again, "Do you have any questions I can help you with now?"

"Will you set the new team the task of eventually discovering what happened to the old?" Dan asked immediately, scooping the phone off the desk and returning it to his pocket. He'd review the protocols later. 

"The team sets their own tasks.  At least, that's how it always worked and hopefully will once the team's in place and operational.  I might bring it up down the road but the immediate priority will be to get the team settled and field ready.  That alone will take considerable time and effort."

Dan nodded again. That made sense. He looked at the now dark surface of Lee's desk for a moment, considering. "I'll probably have more questions after reviewing the information you've just given me sir. I don't want to waste time asking things that I already have the answers too. If you could, tell me why you felt I would be a superior knight? Is it skill set alone, or the QE, or some combination?" Dan assumed things like psych profiles had either been modeled by Lee's people, or had been copied from the existing data the Army had. He was more interested in the thought processes behind his own selection, but wasn't sure how to go about asking that without sounding like.. well.. a douchebag.

"Experience," Lee answered.  "Not yours, mine.  I've seen a lot of Knights, been close to them.  I have a good feel for what makes a Knight special."

"It's no one thing," Lee explained.  "Your abilities, your training, your experience, those matter.  But just as important is the mentality someone brings to the job.  You value the right things and are motivated by the right things.  You've got a good attitude and you're a natural leader.  You've got more potential than I've seen in a very long time."

"Just don't let it get to your head," he added dryly.

Dan smiled. "No sir, I've got several people in my life who would kick me in the behind if my head started getting big. No danger of a Daffy Duck sized ego as far as I'm concerned." He leaned forward a bit. "What you just said implies a level of familiarity with me and my life that's pretty tight. Since I've just heard of your interest as of two days ago, either you're a hell of a data analyst, or you've been watching for a while. May I ask just how long you've been considering me? And were your observational methods ones that would be approved of in a court of law?"

He held a hand and offered a friendly smile. "Please understand sir that I'm onboard as of today, but I'm understandably curious, not paranoid, about your intel gathering methodologies." 

"My methods are my own, Mr. Alexander.  First and foremost you should understand that.  As for you, I've been considering you as soon as I saw the first Army report on your quantum entanglement.  It generated some intriguing thought, so I learned everything I could about you.  That's it."

Well, that's something at least. All I'm going to get for now, too, Dan thought bemusedly as he rose. "Well that's all the questions I have for now then sir. I"ll review the data you've given me and be in touch by the end of the week. And if I have any more questions, I'll take you up on that 24/7 offer you made earlier." Dan thought about extending his hand, but since it wasn't taken the first time it would probably just be rude to try and force the issue now. "Do you need anything else from me today?" 

"No, we're good," Lee declared.  "I look forward to working with you, Mr. Alexander."

"Likewise, Mr. Lee," said Dan. He turned and left the office, his mind already compartmentalizing and analyzing everything that had been said in this room this morning for later review. After all, he had some reading to do.

Back in his office, Daniel Lee began to take a look at his data.  Icons and files danced once more at his command upon the surface of his desk - GPS data for everywhere the phone had been since it was first activated, voice-activated recordings, intercepted communications, everything he'd downloaded.  He brought up a phone call from the day before.

"Kid does his homework," Lee murmured to himself.  He listened to the end.

"Well, nobody's perfect," Lee said with semi-disappointment.  He pulled up the head shot lobby security had taken that morning and studied it for a moment before adding it to Mr. Alexander's file.