An Engineer In Night City

Back at the Starter Base, Mark finishes cleaning everything and putting things in place. "My supply of oil is running low. I hope Kiwi arrives on time today." As if summoned by his words, the recently hired Netrunner arrives at the public face of Wube Inc.

"I thought things would look beaten up, but it's almost the same," Kiwi remarks when she enters the building. "Save for the stolen server, of course."

"Well, you can't work in a trashed up place, right? I had to dig on my precious reserves of wood, but everything else should be in order. You can decorate with other things if you want."

Kiwi blinks, looking at the furniture made of hardwood. "It's handmade?" Nowadays, most items are mass produced in factories, and very few craftsmen remained since the latest industrial revolution.

"Something like that," Mark vaguely replies, "anyway Kiwi, Wube Inc. is officially incorporated and you're now on the company payroll. Wube Inc. will start hiring soon, and I know this is beyond your position, but I will need your help to manage things for a bit, and the company will be relying on your experience as a factory worker to talk with our future employees."

The woman replies with her usual stoic attitude. "I don't know how much help I will be to you, but if my work hours don't change and I don't have to sign anything, I'm fine with it."

"Great! Miguel should be arriving anytime now, but while we wait we will go over some of the most important people in our organization: the janitorial staff."

Kiwi raises an eyebrow at him. "The janitors? Do you really thing that janitors are so important?"

"Yep," Mark admits without missing a beat, "never underestimate how much a clean environment help with morale, and I want to create a workspace where people want to be here, instead of being yet another soul sucking corporate trap."

"I see," replied in a polite tone, "who else are you going to hire?"

"Miguel will help hiring security for low to mid danger areas, and to act as armed escort. Once that's finished, I will hire people as truck drivers to bring crude oil back and forth from the oil fields."

It takes two seconds for Kiwi to register what Mark said, and her questions came hesitantly, almost as if the words were caught in her throat. "You found untapped oil fields? Do you have any idea how much trouble that will cause?"

"I can take a guess," Mark answers dryly, "it's a small oil field, and only gives between 1,6 Mbbl/d and 6,4 Mbbl/d, and it will exhaust itself in two years at the current rate of extraction. Not enough to compete with the oil companies, but more than enough to supply our needs at the upstream."

"I never thought I would see crude oil threated as a retail product instead of a commodity substitute to CHOO2 like you see in the news." Kiwi sarcastic replies to try and regain her balance, "any other world shaking information you want to reveal while you're at it?"

At Mark considering look Kiwi instantly backtracks. "No, no, no. Keep it to yourself. I'm already debating if I should sell the info about your oil discovery or not, since it will paint a target on my back."

Mark decides to keep quiet about his offshore platform pumps that are more efficient than the land pumps, or the potentially infinite ore and oil he can extract by using the Core Mining building. "Well, Wube Inc. will be busy on the following days setting things up, and we should officially start operations by the end of the month. If you have anyone to indicate to take a new post, please let me know."

Kiwi makes a few calculations using her inner Agent, estimating the costs of everything, and finding it a substantial amount for a single person. "How do you even afford this?" She asks jokingly, and to dig for valuable information.

"With the blood of my enemies." Mark replies seriously to Kiwi's mild discomfort.