“Oh, H.A.V.E is very legal.” Candice said. “As to how it is possible. Well, that’s due to the genius of our founder, Deal Slayer.”

“Deal Slayer?”

“Isawa Nonyama, better known nowadays as the super-businessman, Deal Slayer. Seven years ago, he was just a lawyer in Skyhawk City with a reputation as the go-to man if you signed a bad deal and needed it annulled. In the founder’s own words, he got a knack of finding legal loopholes in even the most ironclad of agreements. It was almost like a superpower.”

Victor maintained an expressionless face but inside he was lampooning this Isawa guy. What the hell is a super-businessman? He sounded like another wannabe with a made-up superpower. Candice continued.

“There was this legal case between Red Sakura Coffee, and the superhero Cobra Iaido. They had a commercial deal, and Iaido was supposed to be the spokesperson of Red Sakura Coffee. Unfortunately, Iaido was caught on camera drinking the coffee of a rival brand and the company sued him for it. Deal Slayer’s law firm was hired by Iaido but they lost the case. However, Deal Slayer discovered a loophole in the agreement. The deal Red Sakura Coffee had was with the superhero, Cobra Iaido, not with the man behind the costume.”

“So?”

“Heroes can’t be made to pay damages.”

Victor’s eyes widened slightly at that. It was called the Samaritan law. Property damage and collateral damage were a fact of life when heroes and villains fight, so there had been cases of people trying to sue heroes when their houses got destroyed. Most of the time, the cases were simple, and the judge would rule against the heroes. However, the heroes almost never have to pay damages. Heroes would not go into action if they are going to be sued for their actions and without them, the villains would go rampart. Even if the police and military could put a lid on the local villains, who would they call when aliens invade? Victor heard of the law but ...

“This was a commercial deal, right? The Samaritan law covers commercial deals?”

“Not really, but it didn’t matter. According to the deal Red Sakura Coffee had, their agreement was between them and the superhero, Cobra Iaido. It made sense. They wanted the image of the superhero, not the man behind the costume. And since superheroes are not liable for their actions while working in costume, Cobra Iaido can’t be made to make damages.”

Candice then went into a lengthy explanation of what happened. “Cobra Iaido had stopped a bank robbery and waited for the local police to arrive. As it was the middle of winter, the police offered him a cup of coffee while he was explaining the situation to them. Someone took a photo of Cobra Iaido drinking the coffee and uploaded it to the internet. Unfortunately, the cup had the name of a rival brand on it and when the photo became viral, Red Sakura Coffee sued. Deal Slayer’s argument was that Cobra Iaido had drank the coffee after stopping the robbery, so the Samaritan law covers it as well. He argued that the alternative would have heroes leaving the premise after stopping the crime. Letting the police solve the aftermath on their own. Since no one wanted that, the judge decided that the Samaritan law apply to this incident. Deal Slayer’s genius came after. Deal Slayer believed that since the Samaritan law covers commercial deals between heroes and companies, why couldn’t it cover deals between villains and companies?”

“That’s ridiculous.” Victor shook his head in disbelief. “We’re villains. Do you mean that if I register with H.A.V.E, you can get jobs for me? Find crimes for me to commit?”

“No directly. We have an app for that.”

“An app?” Victor said. His disbelief was growing by the second but Candice didn’t care. She happily replied.

“Yes. Technically, H.A.V.E is considered a technology company. There’s a lot of legal mumbo jumbo involved, but basically you can’t catch a villain before he commits a crime. If there’s no warrant out for you, and you haven’t done anything, the law can’t touch you right?”

“Clients, who we termed ‘civilians’, upload their missions on the app, along with monetary rewards we termed as ‘bonuses’. Any villain who register with us is considered a freelancer. Any appropriate freelancer who had registered with the company could either accept or decline any mission on our app. The civilians can select the ‘freelancer’ they want for the job, and then rate the freelancer once the job was done. Don’t worry about confidentiality. No one has been able to hack our servers since we came into operation, and all information on it are strictly confidential.”

“And this is all legal? This is just calling villainy by another name. How is your company still around?”

“There is already legal precedent of technology companies not being liable when people use their apps for crimes, so H.A.V.E is not liable for any loss or damages incurred when the freelancers use our app. The app server isn’t with us and officially the company has no knowledge of what the app is used for. We just registered the civilians, the freelancers, and operate the app. Anything outside that are…”

“So, the company has plausible deniability.” Victor nodded. He could get that at least. “Who are the clients?”

“It could be anyone.” Candice answered. “As an experienced villain, you should know that the lawful and lawless powers of the world aren't so much different from each other. Powerful people follow the rules when it suits them but when the rules are in the way of their goals, they will think nothing of breaking them. Politicians, tycoons, celebrities; when they want something done that can’t be traced to them, they use H.A.V.E."

Victor silently took in what the young woman said, but Candice wasn’t done. She dropped another bombshell.

“However, we are not just a middleman for crime. There are a lot of people out there who want to hire our freelancers for totally legitimate purposes.”