Sasha's Brilliant Plan

Everyone looked at Sasha waiting for her idea.

"The crux of the problem is how the soldiers would react to what we plan to do with them. If we let them go, they can spread news that we do not know if it will work better for us, or against us. If, we let them stay, there is a possibility that we become notorious for keeping prisoners and hostages. If we kill them, then I'm sure their friends will try to avenge them. If we don't kill them, they might end up causing more problems for us in the future." Sasha explained.

"So I have an idea... We can choose some of them and employ them, but the choosing criteria must be strict and must be of own volition. Those that won't cut or doesn't want to work for us, we exchange with the Auger family. This will change the pressure of handling to them. After all, they worked for the Auger family and this will affect their reputation among mercenary groups if they fail to strike a deal with us. We're going to extort those bastards as much as we can. To the incapacitated, we can offer them a choice. A new life, or a swift mercy death, in exchange for their services." Sasha added.

"What's the need of employment for?" Jason asked.

"Hoho. So you think only Celine needs a bodyguard? We can select some of them to be bodyguards of any of the other's who are going overseas. They would still retain their mercenary status and get the perks of working for us." Sasha answered. This proposition got a lot of approval from the people in the room. Most of them, particularly Sasha and Emily would have work outside the country and would leave the house for days to weeks; some of these even went for months.

"Approved!" Celine said. So the main plan was to follow Sasha's proposal. They spent another hour working out other things and finalizing the plan. For most of the part, Jason was passive and only offered ideas from a soldier's point of view.

[Basement, An Hour Later...]

Former Captain Louis Formont was looking through bar railings of their holding cell. It was a huge cell that fitted eight people. Meanwhile their cell contained ten people. Luckily they did have sufficient men and the room was well-ventilated.

The rooms were well lit and space had huge and very clean. It was clean to the point that he started to think they were lucky this was the type of cell they were placed in. Food came three times a day brought to them by robots. They use simple disposable plates and they had to eat with their hands. All their gears have been confiscated too any they were just wearing simple pajamas. Louis really liked the pajamas as they were really comfortable.

In the security area, this place was a bad place to be at for most. The white color of the rooms and floor, and even the bars make some people insane. They were fortunate that there was a lot of them to keep their sanity. Also this place, for some reason blurs time perception. They were in cell for at most three days but some of them have been arguing four or five days has passed.

The bars were electrically connected that shocks people unconscious within seconds. While the ceiling had a small ventilator. It gave nightmares particularly to those who were affected by the what they termed the "Psychogas" among their group recently.

As for Captain Louis, he was beaten up by the main target at the third floor. Recently he mourned the death of the members of his squad. There were times when he wanted to seek revenge and kill them, but then again they were the ones who attacked another person's backyard so he had no real to be angry aside from their death.

He also noted how they were treated nicely here, although still like a prisoner. He began thinking too... If he chose to retreat from the get go, would the others still be alive? Was his decision to advance the wrong one? After all, their captors did not attack them deliberately. They fought passively for nearly the whole night.

That was when he heard a footsteps. The first one that wasn't barefooted...