Maniac’s Mayhem: A guide to being a corporate slave

Assassination, espionage, and infiltration concepts are as old as time. It is no wonder that in our current time, this still is a prolific part of our society, from backroom deals to assassinating the contentious leadership just so your company does not get left behind.

It is of little wonder that famous infiltrators or company combatants, in a way, are just as popular as some samurai.

— intro to the rise of mercenary and subcultures, by Purple Truth

I sit down on the bar stool beside Edward, observing the bar. Behind the bar table thingy, whatever it is called, are several bottles of liquor backlit in their own special cabinets, giving the bar both a minimalistic and fancy vibe.

“What is your poison of choice?” Edward asks me, while waving to all the bottles behind the bar.

“I don’t drink; messing up in coding can cost lives, so got to stay sharp.” I say, “Also, it's like barely 10. Isn’t it a bit early.”

“Ahh, yes, it might be early, but I was up all night raiding the catacombs of Dur in the new expansion. So I will be going off to bed after this. Honestly, this whole thing could have been an email. But my security adviser caused me against that.”

“Smart, the amount of data I have managed to obtain from emails alone is staggering.”

Edwards nods at me with a smile in his eyes before he turns to the barman. “One merlot black stalk and a Choco deluxe for my companion.”

The barman goes off to make our drinks while I just look at Edward. “A Choco deluxe?” I question eyebrow raised.

“What? It is good. It is what I used to get here when my father would take me to meetings before I could drink. Still, you could have been drinking for three years, and you have never been interested? That is such a shame.”

“One year exactly, and not really. I am afraid of losing control, so alcohol seems like a bad idea.”

“One year? But your documentation says that you are 21.”

I look at him and then smile. “Have you forgotten why you hired me? I faked it to gain benefits.”

“What benefit could you possibly get by pretending to be older?” he says, visibly confused.

“Your sister.” I say in a serious tone.

We lap into awkward silence after that, Edward working through his own ideas about what I just said. The moment is broken by the bartender putting down a glass of wine and a mug filled well; I can not really see what exactly. The mug contains within; whipped cream, cocoa powder, and marshmallows. Edwards's hand snakes out, grabbing a little star-shaped cookie from the little saucer.

“I will be taking my best boss tax now.” he says, while taking a bite out of the cookie.

“Best boss tax?” I ask, confused by the statement.

He smiles. “Yes, I am your boss, and I am the best, so you have to pay tax to me.” he says in a jovial tone.

“And my tax is a cookie?” I am a bit confused by his antics. Sure, I have never had an issue with Edward. But that is mostly because he has always done his best to pretend that I do not exist. This is, well, it’s a bit weird.

He just nods. “Yes, what do you think of the drink?”

I take a sip through the chocolate covered straw; warm, hot liquid enters my mouth as I savour the taste.

“I have to admit that it is probably the best drink I have had in my life.”

“Cierra never got you anything good to drink?” he asks, clearly very confused.

I giggle. “If it does not have any alcohol in it, Cierra is usually not interested.”

“Right, she is an alcoholic. After all, it is a lot better than when she was popping Fancie pills.”

I stop. There it is again. “Can I ask what it was like? I only recently heard about it.”

He goes white. “Fuck, sorry, I am not supposed to talk about it.”

“Right, makes sense.” There is probably a gag order of some kind.

“But if anyone, you deserve to know the most.” He leans in further to whisper into my ear. “Cierra was, well, I don’t really know. I was young back then, so I was not allowed to know a lot. But she used drugs. It got really bad a few times, with medical breaking into our house to save her life. “

I can hear him swallow deeply. “She used to look like a dead corpse ready to die. Mom and Dad tried a lot of things. But nothing seemed to stick. And then suddenly, one day, I heard her laughing one day, and she started laughing more and looked like she was alive.”

“How? What changed?” I ask, still confused.

“You showed up. That is what changed. Suddenly, she was dragging you around everywhere. Her mood improved, and she no longer took drugs. She also took her part of the company more seriously, reworking it and making more profit than ever before.”

“I don’t remember doing anything special.” I say.

He shrugs. “That is all I know.”

“Thanks for telling me.” I say, while taking another sip from my drink. “Anyway, I assume there was a reason you wanted to talk to me.”

“Yeah, three things, actually”, he says while raising three fingers. “First, you will be paid a salary, but if you guys bring back something useful, you will be paid accordingly. You might be able to square away your debt like that.”

I grab his hand, forcing him to look at me. “Please don’t. It is amazing that you are offering such a thing, but I know too much. If I ever try to leave, even for legitimate reasons, the bomb in my head will go off.” I say to him in a steady tone.

His eyes go wide “Wait, that is unfair.” he stammers out.

“I know, but sadly, that is how the world works.”

“Fuck.”

“And the second thing,” I say, trying to steer away from this topic.

“Gerard has been told not to bother you. I don’t know for how long he will listen, but you should be safe from him. Nina Wagner might not listen to it, though.”

“The fucking peacock!” I blurt out.

Edward starts crackling, “The peacock, that is great. We should hang out like this more. “

“Isn’t that what everyone calls her?” I say, a bit surprised by his sudden outburst.

“Not to me. Anyhow, she is Gerard's fiancé and she does not like losing you. Outsmarting Gerard like that would be something she might take offence to”

“I see. I try to be careful; why did he do it anyway?” I ask, still confused. “I feel like his plan was way too convoluted. If it was just to take out Anika and me, a hitman would have worked as well.”

“It probably was, but Gerard has issues.”

I chuckle “Fair point.”

Edward looks at me with a little quirk on his lips. “I mean, with Cierra, Mom wanted a girl, so she has always doted on her. I mean, at the moment, it is not clear who will inherit, Gerard or Cierra, but Cierra’s chances are higher just because she is mom's favourite.”

“I am sorry, that must be rough.”

“I don’t really care. I am too young; I did not have a chance before we even began. But Gerard is the first son, he was expecting to inherit. But now that Cierra is threatening his position, he has been lashing out in strange ways.”

“Fuck, so basically, there is a power struggle between Cierra and Gerard about who will inherit the company, and I was just caught in between.”

“That is my assumption, yes.”

“What about you? By recruiting me, did you not pick a side as well.”

He laughs. “No, I did not; Gerard did not want you to work for Cierra but could not find a valid reason to put you under his control. I could, by basically taking you away from Cierra, get into Gerard's good graces.”

“Then what about Cierra?”

“Ooh, she is a lot simpler. As long as I treat you as well, or better than, a normal employee, she just thinks I did it to protect you.”

“I see some flaws in your logic, but on the basis it is a decent plan. One thing though, aren’t you sending me on a dangerous mission?”

“Fuck, did not think of that, was just happy to have you. I mean, you finding out Gerard’s plot already proved to me that you are good at investigation.”

“You do realise that a building exploded because of my investigation, right?”

“As long as you make sure it is one of Myca’s buildings that explodes, I am fine with it.”

I stopped having any retorts for that particular stream of logic. “Fuck, fine. At least now we are not under a massive time crunch, so we have some more time to get things done properly.”

“I mean, there is some hurry. If they bring out whatever they are planning before we are ready for it, it's going to be a problem. But with any resurge, you probably still have like half a year or so.”

I take another sip of the wonderful drink. “Yep, I am sure now you are definitely my favourite Argaria.” I say.

“What about Cierra?”

“Close second.”

He chuckles. “Well, my wine is gone. Time to go to sleep.”

“What about the third reason you wanted to talk?” I ask.

“Well,” he says, his face turning red, “you should probably wear some better clothes to hide your marks.”

“Marks?”

He motioned to my neck. I feel around it, then I take out a small pocket mirror to check, only to realise that Claire has left more than a few marks on me. “I am so sorry.” I say.

He just shrugs. “It's no problem. I don’t care, but if you don’t want to advertise what you did last night, it might be better to wear a turtle neck.”

“I'll keep it in mind; also, could you please not tell Cierra about this? I am planning to talk to her about it,” I say, as I pull my suit jacket closer to me.

“Sure, no problem. Well, if that's all, I'll be off. John can be quite a bit of a brute, but he is good people. You are safe with him.”

“I read his file. A return rate of 98% for teammates is quite good, yeah.”

“You do realise those records are sealed and are only for upper management or shareholders.”

I baulk as heat rises to my head. “I am sorry I did…”

“Don’t worry, I heard nothing,” he says before walking off.

I stay for a bit longer to finish my drink. When that is done, I stand up, putting my sunglasses back on and activating my sensors. And almost immediately stumble by the difference in feedback.

‘Lyssa, do we have something that needs to get done urgently?’ I subvocalise when I get out of the bar.

Finding a pet sitter would be advised. Daisy's GI tract has been modified to not leave any waste, but someone should still feed her.

‘I see. Well, I guess I can find some people for it, moving on to my mask. I want the storage option as well.’

That is no problem. We can fit it in when you get back to the hotel.

I make it back without much issue and head to the training hall first, where Yun Min is training the rest of the PsyCo private military group. I smile. Yeah, that is definitely a good name.

Yun Min stops her training when she sees me and runs over. And fuck, how is she so fit? It feels like yesterday since she was only skin and bone-charged up into the office. “Hey, do you need anything?”

“Uhm, kind of. Two things. First, do you have a learning implant?”

“Yes, I do. It is how I learned English.”

“Neat, that makes the next part easier. I can give you a copy of all of mine. I have bloodwork and movement skills.”

“The program for using Blades would be good, but I don’t want a movement one; I don’t want it to mess with the movement I usually do.”

“That is fair. I will transfer it to you.”

“Thanks. Why are you asking now?” Yun Min asks.

“So, I will be going away for a bit. Need to get a job done and all that, so in the meantime, if you want, you can act as a Maniac, but only if you are okay with that, of course.”

“So you are asking me if I want to run around like a crazy person, swinging a sword?” She asks with a straight face.

“Or spear,” I say defensively.

“Sure, that honestly sounds amazing, so I can do it.”

“Thanks, ooh, and one last thing, can you make sure Daisy gets fed while I am away?”

“I will, but I think the little cyborg got it covered.”