Transference

The work he had to do was quite simple, for him at the very least, though many in the company could be heard grumbling about the dificulty and the low pay that came with it being far below the standards for said work. Few would dare to utter such complaints when the relevant higher ups were present, smiling and just nodding along whatever the suits would talk about. Frank could not blame them, the world was just that bad. Any work whatsoever meant some sort of stability and security and some one and something bigger behind your back. With the gangs in the cities having little to no police pushback, as long as the rich guys were not disturbed and corporation businesess could keep on going uninterupted, there was jack shit that protected the ordinary folks, that is unless you yourself were working for a corporation.

While a rich guy would not even bat an eye at a lost or damaged empoyee, the corpos liked their clocks running nice and perfect. Make no mistake, there was little care of the workers as entities. The suits in the corporations knew very well just how much of a productivity loss training new members for any lost empoyee would take, so they tended to ensure their worker bees, their drones, especially in the positions that needed even more specilized skill and mindset, would come and go in a rather good heathy condition. And well, then the gangs had to experience a rather rude wake up call, courtesy of the private armies under the corpo employ, that send a rather clear cut message.

"Dont fuck with our property and stay in your dumps!"

Still, there were enough fools, disillusioned with the government and their lives to fall on the needle or bottle of booze and then, well, it was kinda hard for such a person to care about any sort of consequence. Get more than a few of them together, put a thug at the top of their group and a few days later, as if out of nowhere, you got a new gang thats out to get theirs. Then a new confrontation between the old and new and a few shootouts in the backalleys later, you have either a brand new overlord of the area, or a more scarred and pissed off old boss. Either way, the racket and shakedowns on the little people gets more unbearable untill said gang cross the line and mess up the wrong person- a corpo worker or some dumb kid of a rich dude. Then either governments strike force or a corpo merc group swoops in and takes them out, mostly anyways, and its a semblance of peace for a small while. And then, the circle repeats itself, over and over.

As per ussual, during lunch break, Frank took one of the corner seats at the table in their small kitchen, as he pulled out his sandwitches. He was taking his break slightly later than most other of his colleagues to avoid the high activity and anquisitivness of his coworkers. The less in their focus he was, the smaller the chance of being dragged under their microscopes to be examined and understood. For all that the rest of the people working here , Frank was the band and quiet kid who was boring and uninteresting and worked hard enough to not incur any anger towards himself.

Unlike ussual, a few minutes in his dinner break, the door creaked open, as two of his senior coworkers walked in, talking among themselves. They were not much older than him, around twenty five to thirty years old. Their rather decent clothing spoke of a decently prominent background, probably some of the more dissapointing offspring of some mid to low level management position holder. Frank had little to no desire to but in their conversation, still, with both looking up at him as they entered, he inclined his head in greetings, since his mouth was full with a pice of sandwitch as he chewed through it.

A couple of nods returned as they moved to the cofee machine, returning to their conversation, untill just moment after, the door was flung open with gust as another person rushed in. The newcomer was a brunette in her mid thirties. Shoulder lenght hair, simple yet well make business suit, with skirt slightly shorter than industry standart, lightly chubby, but nothing to indicate exessive overeating or anything.

"Guys, I know who is going to be the new manager of the branch." she exclaimed in a rather excited and smug tone, clearly wanting to share her knowledge and earn some recognition of the two she was talking to. Then through the corner of her eye she noticed Frank in the corner. She was an assistant in the finance of the branch, thus knew most, if not all of the employees by names. A small,slightly apologetic expression appeared on her face as she looked at Frank, who finished chewing his bite, inclined his head and greeted her.

"God day, Ms. Reese."

She slightly bit her lip, the pitty on her face becoming more pronounced.

"Mr. Wraith, you have my sympathy."

Frank furrowed his brow, not quite aware of the connotation, or reason for her pity, though that did not last long, as the two other coworkers of his apparently knew what her words implied and did not waste a moment longer to converse of the topic, eventually filling him in on the reason for the girls pity.

"So it's the youngest one, Rick, who will be asigned here? Damn, I heard he is as petty and arrogant as they come and quite incompetent as well." the first one, Peter, spoke.

"Crap, not quite so sure about the stability of our branch anymore." The second one, Jack, added his own thoughts.

"Would you be kind enough to elaborate, as it seems to concern me quite a bit, judging by your expressions." Frank asked in a calm and polite manner.

"Right, sorry kid." Ms. Reese spoke, quickly explaining their knowledge and reasoning for the reactions. Frank has been nothing but polite and hardworking young man, as far as they could percieve, so there was no reason to not share what they knew.

Frank knew that their branch was getting a new manager after the last one had an accident that unfortunately ended with the mans demise. While it was classified as an unfortunate accident, there were a few hushed wispers in the office that the man was a bit addicted to illegal fights and gambling, possibly having acrued a rather sizable debt to some of the bookies there. And the accident was just a message said bookies sent to the rest of their debtors. No concrete evidence though. never would be, since the man was not important enought to warrant their full attention.

So, with the manager position now vacated, there were quite a few speculations in the branch itself abiut who could be promoted, or if there would be someone sent in from other branches and what not. The end result though, was not panning out for the future prospects of Frank, to be honest. Rick James Fjord, the youngest son of Jeremy Fjord, C.E.O. of the company he was working for. That in and of itself was not much of an issue for Frank, having never provoked either of the two, however, there was a slight complication.

Rick was a menace, a true spoiled brat that was incredibly vindictive and short tempered. And as it turns out, during his time in high school and college the man had wanted to be a star of their racing team. Never happened due to another rich kid, who surpassed him every time. The other kid was so good, he recieved a nickname 'Wraith' for his incredible skill teh way he sneaked up unto other and scared the shit out of them. The kid even applied for the same college, got in and continiued to wipe the floor with Rick. So, it was to be ex[ected, or so everyone in the office who learned of the new manager would think, that Frank would be trown out the moment Rick learns of a 'Wraith' in the branch he has to manage.

"Sigh." Frank sighed once the explanation was done "Thank you for both the knowledge and sympathy. I apreciate the heads up." he slightly bowed his head in thanks.

"Nothing I can do though. All I can hope that leaving school has matured our new manager." With another slight bow of his head, he threw the last piece of his sandwitch in his mouth, cleaned up his dining place, leaving it neat and clean, and returned to his work station, not spending much time on mulling over the information he had just learned. Truth to his earlier words, there was little he could do, since, while more than likely there was merrit to the words of his coworkers, there was no way it could be proven as of yet. Frank would just continiue to do his job while his brain adjusts to the current situation. His mind was still slightly fuzzy and not at his full capacity jutst yet after all. He would not jump to conclusions or do anything uncalled for without actual reason.

The rest of the day went on as ussual, no other suprises rearing their heads in an atempt to try and knock him off his track, with Frank doing his job as he had always done. Once the clock hit five, he finished up his current task and left the building, rather soon returning home, where he made a cup of tea and returned to his room, spending some time looking up more information on his new branch manager to be. Similar to what his coworkers had told him, there seemed to be more than a few pieces of less than complimentary articles about the youngest of Fjord siblings he found during his research. He even found a bit more info about the infamous 'Wraith' that had been the youngest Fjords nightmare.

With his tea done, he returned to kitchen, rummaged through the fridge, fishing out some vegetables and a piece of chicken. He spent the next hour or so prepearing a meal and about when he was finished the door to their apartment creaked open, indicating the return of his mother.

"Hi sweetie." she spoke with a tired voice, a small smile adorning her face upon the sight of him in the kitchen.

"Hi mom. Dinners ready, so go wash up and come eat afterwards." he replied with a light smile of his own, apreciating the presence and warmth of his mother and the sacrifices she has had to make to ensure they both had a decent life.

'Gotta get my head clear, then I will see what can be done with the knowledge I seem to have come upon.' he thought as he finished the preperations, plated the food and placed it on the dining table. A short while later Gloria returned to the kitchen, dressed in loose T shirt, shorts and a towel around her neck, her hair still slightly damp after the shower. She walked by him, as he was already in his seat by the table, lightly hugged him as cheek pressed against the top of his head for a moment, then kissed him on the top of his head and took her place at the table where her dinner was placed.

"Thanks sweetie. Mom apreciates your efforts, but dont strain yourself. I can see you are still not fully recovered."

Frank smiled at her once more, as he replied "Its nothing much mom, besides you are working too hard as it is, so I can't very well let you do even more and collapse like I did, now can I?"

"if you say so, but I am watchng you, mister." she replied with a slight squint of her eyes, as if warning him to not overdo it, then giggled at his roll of the eyes.

The next few dozen minutes they spent together at the dining table as they had their meal, talking about the days more important events. Frank mentioned that it seems the new manager he had told Gloria about seems to be decided upon, and that there might be complications at his work due to the takeover ot the duties, but nothing she has to worry about. Frank witheld the possiblility of the new manager having a bone to pick with him due to an unfortunate coincidence of the nickname of the mans worst rival and Franks last name being the same. He did not need to add an extra worry to her life. On the contrary, he was supposed to be the one to solve all of her current and future worries.

"By the way mom, i was thinking of visiting uncle Bob tommorow. I have this nifty little idea i wanted to run by him. You wouldn't know if he is in town?" Frank asked as their meal was coming to an end. old Bob, full name Bob Rodgers, was an ex soldier and a mercenary for a while and had quite solid little workshop he had made for himself. He just so happened to also be a rather good friend of his parents, and possibly the man who happened to introduce Gloria to his father long time ago, though that piece of knowledge had yet to be verified, as his mom was dead tired and slightly tipsy when she told Frank that particular part of her life.

"Hmm, he should be around. Havent talked to him for a few weeks, our last get together was canceled due to an emergency at work when I had to work that evening, and our next get together would be in a couple of weeks. I can give him a call a bit later if you would like?"

"Thanks mom, I apreciate it."

"Anything you would like to share about that nifty little idea of yours with your mom, by any chance?" she asked, a glint of curiosity and intrigue in her eyes.

"Not quite yet. Dont want to make it sound like a big deal if it turns out to be nothing. Thats why i need to see what Bob has to say about it. Would not want to be embarased too much by something that was old news, but I was too blind to recognize it."

"M-kay, but do tell me if it turns out to be what you think it is, no matter how small. Your dad was quite the genius, if I do say so myself. And since you have gotten the good looks from me, no doubt you have his sharp mind then." She laughed as they cleaned up the table after their meal. Frank sent her to relax and rest as he washed the dishes and then returned to his room with yet another cup of tea prepeared. He had quite some thinking to do.

During the work he noticed something peculiar about himself. He noticed the obvious imoprovement of his condition, his mind clearing up more and more every hour. Now, as he sat at his table and sipped his tea, he assesed his own status. He was still feeling a bit off, likely a couple of days more in such incomplete condition, yet there was even more important point that had to be adressed. His mind, while not back at full capacity, was much sharper than ever before. It was as if he had increased the speed at which he was processing everything around him. He could say that unlike before the incident, now it felt as if the whole world was slightly slower, though that was obviously not the case. The only logical explanation was that he was processing everything much faster, giving him extra time to make decisions in a split second and said decisions to be better due to the extra time he could process them in.

'This must be how people feel when they take cognitive boosters.' Frank thought as he was making other minute tests regarding his condition. Yes, his mind was much sharper and more precise, and while he could not feel any change to his physical body, he noticed another rather important change. His hand-eye coordination seemed to have improved as well, even if just a little. Something he could easily attribute to his enhanced cognitive capabilities. If that too was not the final stage of his improvement, he could do quite a lot with said improved coordination and his sharpened mind.

The next hour he tried to pull at the library of the knowledge he knew he had in his mind, and while it was notably easier than before, there were still some resistance, though no longer migrane inducing. he could also tell that he could not quite yet controll what comes to the forefront of his mind, though he had a rather strong suspicion that once he was back to his full capacity, it should no longer be the case.

So far he had seen new and unacounted for formulas of a superior medical products, solving debilitating headaches with ease, an improved and superior version of some obscure data compilation system and a much more developed optics cyberware, as well as some genetical enhancer, that would strenghten human regenerative factor by a multitude of ten for a limited time with no side effects. Once administered, it would force the body into an overdrive and cause it to regenerate any heavily damaged areas. The compound seemed so effective that even regenerating an amputated limb was not out of the question, though there was a whole lot of compounds, that said enhancer was made out of, Frank had no info on yet, clearly hidden into the depths of his memory, making it useless to him at the current stage. He would visit Bob in the morning and assess the mans little workshop with his new and enhanced cognitive might. Who knows, maybee he could use the place to start prepearing himself to take the world by storm and finally carve a little piece of heaven for his mom to rest and enjoy the latter part of her life.