24. Company Matters, Part 1
When he showed up to his first regularly scheduled monthly meeting of the board of directors, he found it already in session with Noah Bennet giving a report. There were still only two chairs at the table, now both occupied. Nathan suspected that was intentional, as was telling him the wrong time - or starting without him - whichever they had done.
Noah saw him and half-rose, an alert, dangerous look on his face. Bennet looked at Angela. Nathan missed the signal she gave him, because he was watching Noah's hand hover outside the opening of his jacket, itching for his gun. Slowly, Noah sat back down, never taking his eyes off the man who looked like Nathan Petrelli. Obviously Noah wasn't told I was going to attend, Nathan thought.
Nathan looked away from Noah dismissively as soon as the other man sat. He did his best to look unruffled and walked over behind Angela, taking up a resting pose behind her shoulder and slightly to her right. If he'd been in her position, he'd have been annoyed at being loomed over. She showed no sign of it. He waited silently.
Angela introduced him almost formally, "Noah Bennet, this is Nathan Petrelli, the new member of the board of directors of the Company. Do you recognize him?"
What an odd way to phrase it, Nathan thought. He knows who I am. Why would she say it that way?
Noah finally stopping staring at Nathan. He looked down at the table and to one side. "Yes." It was barely audible.
Something just happened there, Nathan told himself.
"Good," Angela stated. "Then we can go on with business. You were saying?"
Noah nodded slowly and looked at his papers, sighing. His report was on four candidates for recruitment as agents and the progress that had been made to date in assessing their abilities and personalities. One of them, Nathan noted with a start, was a man who had been part of Danko's team, one Strauss had not gotten around to killing. He remembered talking to him once, but he wasn't sure if it was as Taub or Nathan. After each candidate's information had been covered, Angela handed him the four dossiers, offering them over her shoulder as if to a servant. She didn't bother to look at him. He took them wordlessly. His emotional control was getting much better.
"Do you agree to authorize first contact, Nathan?" she asked him.
He opened the first dossier, on a policewoman from Toronto who had killed a puppeteer after said individual had allegedly raped three women. The cop had left the service while under investigation. The investigation was dropped shortly thereafter for insufficient evidence of misconduct. She was now running a vacation lodge near a remote lake in Canada. Also, she was doing freelance assassination work for the New York mafia. Nathan frowned at the records, taking note not so much of the information but of what Angela and Bennet thought was important to compile about a person. Never owned a pet. Interesting.
"Yes, but I'm going to keep these until next month."
Angela pursed her lips and turned to look up at him. "Noah needs them back. We don't keep multiple copies."
He slid his hands over the folders, feeling for memories. He was watching Noah put them into his briefcase, then back further in time. He saw Bennet choosing which pieces of paper to put inside. He pushed back further. He was watching him make copies, sorting the papers into neat stacks. His eyes slid to Angela's. "I think he'll do fine without them for a little while. If he needs them before the next meeting, he can call me next week and I'll bring them to him." Bennet looked up at him uneasily, the first time he'd made eye contact since Nathan had come in. His eyes fell to where Nathan's fingers were stroking across the folders. He looked back down and said nothing.
Angela turned back. "Very well. I concur. You have authorization to make first contact. We'll review protocols next month."
Noah left before dinner. It seemed to Nathan that the other man couldn't bring himself to sit at the same table as Nathan. Bennet's reaction didn't bother him. Thinking about it, he was more surprised he hadn't shot him on sight, given what Nathan had done to Claire just a few short months ago.
After the meal, Nathan gave his mother a report on the Rockefeller party she'd had him attend. "I only saw two things related to business. First was Jason Carlson. He knew I was an imposter from the second he touched my hand. He seemed pretty shaken by it. He must have had some sense of who I am."
Angela looked up at him sternly, "You are not an imposter, Nathan. You are my son. There have been changes, yes, but you are Nathan Petrelli. The Carlson's of all people should understand after what happened with Curtis."
"Curtis?" he asked.
"Oh, his stroke." She waved her hand dismissively. "That was ten years ago. You probably weren't paying attention. I think I know what's going on with Jason, I've run into him before. Try not to touch him in the future and if he puts both hands on you, kill him. There's a reason why he tries to shake everyone's hand. One is safe - two is not. You said there were two issues?"
He tried to assimilate what she'd said without betraying emotion, but it was difficult. He recalled Jason bringing his free hand around and almost, but not quite, adding it to the handshake. It had looked innocent enough. What would have happened if he had?
He swallowed and said, "Yes. This." He pulled out Hasan's card and handed it to her. She looked at the front for some time. He added, "See the reverse of it." She looked and pursed her lips slightly. He said, "The man who gave that to me, Abbas Hasan, good-looking fellow, he had a really nice Steve Harvey suit, said they would eventually blot out the sun. Oh, and they're looking for investors and backers to help destabilize the world economy." He watched her for a reaction.
He didn't get much of one. She looked up at him, guarded. "He did, did he?" She put the card down, not handing it back to Nathan. "You took Heidi with you?"
"Yes." He wondered at the change in topic.
"How are things going with Mrs. Nathan Petrelli?"
"Good." He gave her nothing - at least not until he understood why she was asking. They'd begun seeing each other after the party and he had plans to move in this week.
"Nathan, even if things are not going well with Heidi, you can't be seen with men. You know that, don't you?"
He blinked twice. He wanted to say a great number of things in response to that - foremost that he wasn't gay and he hadn't had designs on Abbas. But he knew the first was simply not true anymore (at least insofar as Gabriel was concerned, incorporating Nathan's memories and personality had brought along his preferences, which were broader than Gabriel's had been) and the second was obviously questionable since he'd even mentioned the man's appearance. It was highly unprofessional and he kicked himself for saying it. That was a really nice suit, though. Besides, things were great with Heidi.
"Yes, I know that," he ground out. But she apparently doesn't know how things are going with Heidi. Point for me, then.
"Good, we're done."
He opened his mouth to ask about the eclipse, but let the question die in his throat. I don't know enough to know what to ask. More homework. Glad I made a copy of the card before bringing it here.