Play 2 Wage: Linked

I coughed and nodded my head in a pseudo-bow. “Not really, Sir, er… Director. Only that I thought to drive the best deal I was able to for both myself and all of Arktria. I am aware we need allies, and hoped this would be a step towards that goal.”

He regarded me for a moment, his face unchanging and unreadable. “Very well. We have decided to accept the offer of Clan Theedrite. Their offer for your transfer to their Faction was deemed acceptable to the Council by a vote of eight to two, with one abstaining.”

I breathed a sigh of relief before he continued.

“Your transfer notice will be delivered to you shortly. I am also to inform you that you would be allowed physical transfer to rooms at Hedril Spire outside of Huestings. Yet it is not to be required of you.”

I felt Katie bristle next to me, and hoped she would keep her mouth shut. Luckily, she remained silent.

“Furthermore, on a personal note, I would like to thank you for your efforts, and apologize for dragging you out of your bed at such an hour and in such a state. That was not my intent when I ordered you to be brought before me.” He narrowed his eyes at the balding agent for a moment, before returning his gaze to me.

“You have provided outstanding service and a valuable opportunity for our great country, and should be recognized for such actions. I look forward to news of your continued good work. That will be all.” He dismissed us, looking down at his desk. “Agent Haskar, I would like to speak for you for a moment longer. Ms. Roderegious, please escort Mr. Spenser to his home.”

Without so much as a nod or a wave, he spun in his chair to face the windows behind him, and the balding agent stepped forward, his footsteps muffled by the stiff carpeting underfoot.

“Right away, Director.” Replied Katie, before we both turned and hurried back the way we came.

I felt whiplashed from the encounter, yanked from my bed and dragged before the city's highest authority, only to be congratulated and told I was doing a good job and sent away within moments of arrival. I followed Katie as I organized my thoughts.

The mirror-armored soldiers were no longer in the air lock chamber between the Director's office and the hallway, and we moved through without stopping. The first door had been left partially open, but we ran into a small awkward moment when I reached the door to the hall first, which refused to open when I tugged at it.

Katie smiled and shook her head, before pulling on it herself and clearing our path.

The walk through the hall felt shorter and held a different sort of tension. I could sense that she was waiting to say something by the way she carefully kept her eyes off of me. We made it all the way back to the bay of the dropship before another word was spoken.

The pilots delayed take off until we were ready before tearing off into the sky this time, and Katie did me the favor of pulling a bundled jump-suit from a compartment built into the wall of the bay, finally letting me clothe myself in something other than my sleeping shorts. Only once I was dressed and strapped in, and we were swinging around as the ship maneuvered back over the city, did she finally speak up.

“I knew they’d give you some sort of offer to pull you out of here. What’s it going to take to keep you local?” She said, serious this time, with no sign of her earlier enjoyment of the ship ride.

I grimaced and looked back at her, thinking for a moment before replying. I tried something new, directing my thoughts at Max and willing him to offer some advice.

“Do you know how difficult it is for me to sort all that out? It feels weird when you direct your thoughts at me like that, I don’t like it.”

I willed some more thoughts his way, ‘too bad, you picked mental conversation’.

“Bah, whatever. My advice is paninis with some of that Trexel-steak the big-guy picked up, and slaw with some of that oil from the Geiangelgin. You need more B12 and calcium, and are low on iron.”

I looked away from Katie, sending confusion towards Max.

“Ooooh, your signals are getting all mixed up. You also want food, even if you're not thinking about it right now. You meant what you should ask for from her. Maybe Tevin’s on to something, and you could ask her to kneel down and-”

I cut him off with mental images of me smashing little stick-figure robots with a sledgehammer.

“Fine fine, that wouldn't even work, but I get your point. Your best prize dirt-side would be a portable Link with an Impex, although I doubt she’ll actually give you one. That's her whole jurisdiction and point of contact with you. If she won’t agree to that, a new pad or a better escort and a pile of credits are decent second options.”

I unconsciously nodded in reply to Max, and looked back to Katie, stating simply, “I’d like a personal Link with an Impex, and as many credits as you can give me.”

She surprised me with a grin, “I could make that happen. How about a transfer to the new residential tower on Transom and 2nd ave? Each apartment is equipped with its own Booth, and comes with unlimited power, water, and a top-tier network connection. It even has its own interior shopping center and rooftop park, you wouldn’t have to walk the gauntlet at all.”

I chewed on my lip, “I meant a portable Link, any chance of that? I kind of like living with Tevin and Rin as well, I’d hate to leave them behind.”

Our conversation paused as the ship banked hard for an extended period of time, causing us to cling to the straps as we pulled multiple G’s.

She managed to reply about halfway through the turn, “The portable units are out of my price range, unfortunately. The best I could do is to move your roommates into rooms next door to your own, and I’d have to step on some toes to do it, but I will if that's what it takes.”

I clung to one of the long handles along the wall, feeling queasy. “I guess. What about that credit bonus?” I pressed.

“Are two brand new apartments and your pile of gems not enough for you? I could check the budget and see what’s available, but I think you’d be best served just taking the new apartment. We’d both attract even more attention and animosity than we already have if I pull credits from somewhere else to hand over to you.” She replied coolly as the ship leveled out again.

I thought for a moment, releasing the handle and steadying myself onto my feet again. “The gems aren't worth all that much themselves, that's the whole reason I ended up talking to the dwarves. How much will rent be at the new place anyways?”

“They’ll be comped for, let's say… six months? If things continue to go smoothly.” She paused for a moment, considering me. “I’ll even make you a deal, if we do end up in a long-term alliance with your new Clan, I’ll make sure your residence waiver is included in the contract.”

I thought about it for a moment more, only to be interrupted by Max again.

“She sure knows how to drive a deal. It’s not a terrible deal for you either, and lets her think she won. Frankly, I doubt we’ll be staying there for long anyways. I have so many plans, you have no idea.”

I tried to ignore Max’s ominous comment, wondering what he meant by it. “Alright, deal. Can you throw in a truck or something to get our stuff moved over to the new place? Tevin and Rin will have to agree to it as well.”

She beamed at me, as we accelerated into another hard turn and swung from our harnesses again. “Of course! I’ll have the boys on the ground start right away. Don't worry about your roommates, they’ve been assigned to your retinue and will have to follow if they wish to keep their contracts.”

I looked back to her, surprised. “What do you mean retinue? I knew they were assigned to me, but it sounded more like, uh, a security detail.”

“They were, but things move quickly in today's world, and you keep making all sorts of interesting things happen. We’ve needed a maverick like you to come along, and are going to give you all the resources we think you need to keep it up. Despite you no longer being a part of our game Faction, you are still a resident of Nubranagin after all. You’ll be assigned staff and security to handle the day-to-day tasks, so you can focus on what you're best at.”

The dropship banked upwards into a steep spiraling climb, causing us to both swing towards the back of the ship, and Katie to hang above me at an angle. She let out a laugh again and I averted my gaze from her, remembering she was wearing a skirt, but not before noticing she was smart enough to wear shorts underneath it.

She continued her sales pitch, now looking down at me from above, “We need you to impress those aliens, Nick. We’re on the brink of war with a dozen other countries, our allies are distancing themselves from us, and our trade partners are forcing us into terrible deals because we don’t have a choice. If we can get the backing of the Dwarven Clan, and the Zk’Aek by proxy, we’ll be in a much stronger position and can start to claw back the ground we’ve lost.”

I kept my eyes on the decking, “I knew things were bad, but… War? I’ll keep at it.” I fell into silence as our climb leveled out and I felt the ship start to slow.

When the ship's bay door opened again, we were once again blasted by wind, but the view was much less impressive. This time only showing the steel beams and prestressed panels of fiber-cement walls of an indoor hanger, slowly spinning by as the whole ship pivoted on a giant turntable. As we turned, I caught a bit of a view out across the city through a massive hanger door as it closed behind us.

“Not even gonna let me say goodbye to my old place?” I questioned Katie as we waited at the top of the ramp for the turntable to finish spinning the nose of the ship to face the hanger door.

“Why take the risk? You’re a VIP now. After the hijacking yesterday, we finally got the greenlight to run a full sweep-and-search of your old block to clear out the outlaws and terrorists, the area is still pretty hot at the moment. Plus, I wanted to show you your new home!” She gave me another smile as she smoothed her skirt and blouse back out as best she could.

I shrugged in reply, “Fair enough, I guess.” Before we disembarked and exited the hanger.

We took another short elevator ride upwards, that only seemed to last a few seconds, before the opposite side of the elevator that we had entered opened up to a clean hallway lined with artificial windows and a ton of indoor plantlife.

Katie once again took the lead and led me down the fancy-ass corridor. I probably looked like a tourist as I swiveled my head around to look at all of the various flowers, plants, and vines that hung from the ceiling and filled little nooks that popped up to either side of the hall every 20 meters or so. I felt instantly and immensely out of place, especially in my borrowed and frumpy ship jumpsuit.

We crossed the path of a sharply dressed middle-aged man who was too busy talking into his ear-wig about some upcoming deadline and scrolling his data tablet to even notice us. Then a group of laughing teenagers who were playing some game in one of the park-like nooks to the side who quieted and whispered to each other as we moved by, then erupted into fits of hushed giggles once we were out of line of sight.

Near the very end of the hallway, a single door down from a small lobby with another pair of elevators and an impressive looking stairwell, we turned to one of the solid metal doors. A scanner-eye discreetly set above the door looked over us for a moment, before the door quietly whirred and slid into the wall to one side.

Apartment 6718 was impressive, it almost reminded me of the Travellers station with its tall decorated ceilings and polished marble floors. Here, meter square granite tiles stretched across the floor, covered by patterned rugs in a few areas. Burnished steel walls ran the length of the room and ended against massive tinted windows that spanned across the entire far wall, only broken by what I guessed to be a fake stone fireplace about a third of the way from the left wall.

We walked into the large open room and I looked around. On the far side of the room, near to the fireplace, there was a leisure and entertainment space with dark leather couches, chairs, and a large screen. To my right, close to the door we had entered through, lay a well equipped kitchen with a large L-shaped island bar set with tall stools. Across from the kitchen and closer to the doorway was a dining setup, with a long table that could fit a dozen people comfortably set on a striped rug and ringed with neatly tucked in carved wooden chairs.

It felt oddly similar to the lay out of my previous apartment, even down to a similar placement of the tall hallway that I assumed led to the bedrooms, just translated into what felt like opulence to me. I wondered if it was coincidence, or an intentional move by Katie to give me something a little familiar, and felt even more confident in my decision to not pursue her. She was one scary lady and I was under her thumb.

I was also surprised to find the room occupied.

Standing over near the kitchen island was a tall middle aged man with immaculate posture and neatly styled dark hair that was more salt than pepper, wearing deep blue formal wear with a white undershirt and a necktie that perfectly matched his jacket. All together the outfit had the distinct vibe of a uniform.

Beside him stood a younger black haired and fair skinned 20-something year old woman, her hair tied back into a short ponytail. She wore almost matching clothes to the man, the only difference being short sleeves and a midriff cut to her jacket, and some lacey ruffles that puffed from her neatly tucked-in undershirt out between the lapels instead of a tie.

They both had nearly friendly looks on their faces that were touched with a serious cast, and bowed at the waist when our gazes met.

Katie introduced them. “This is the staff I was telling you about. The gentleman on the left is your Seneschal, Koryn Dalls. And the young lady on the left is your Attendant, Alianora Grauss.”