Chapter 29
“Excuse me, sir, there’s a man here to see you,” Tommy says, poking his head inside his office.
Tommy clears his throat. “What shall I tell him?”
“Did he say what he wanted?” he asks, not hiding his irritation.
“He says he works for GROW and has some information you might be interested in.”
Res6, whose attention had drifted back to the synthesis failure report, looks up sharply. “A GROW employee. Interesting. Send him up.” As much as he hates to keep Electra waiting, the prospect of potentially confidential information from a GROW employee piques his curiosity.
A few minutes later, Tommy shows in a tall, slim man wearing his blond hair twisted into a knot at the base of his skull. The man’s copper stare darts around Res6’s office before landing on him. He nods in recognition.
If he offers the man a seat, the meeting is apt to drag on, so Res6 stands. “You work for GROW?”
The man eyes the chair opposite Res6, noting the omission. “Yes, in their marketing department. I’m Viper, by the way.”
“Well, Viper, you know who I am. I have a very important dinner I’m going to be late for, so if you will please get on with it?”
Viper frowns. “I thought you might be interested in some dirt on your biggest competitor, but perhaps I was wrong.” The man turns to leave.
Res6 rolls his eyes, but the man’s taunt works. “Please sit.”
Viper grins as they both take a seat. “What is my information worth to you?”
He raises his brow in challenge. “It depends on what the information is.”
“What if I could lead you to one of GROW’s top physicians who’s using manupartners in an illegal fighting ring to throw the bets?”
Res6 leans forward, masking his intrigue. “I suppose I would be willing to compensate someone for that type of information.”
They take fifteen minutes to settle on terms, which include taking Viper on as an employee before he sends the incriminating files.
“Since I discovered them, the club’s owner, Jeffi, gave me access to the building’s footage.
Avoiding scrutiny by the authorities is a priority for him, as it is for GROW, I suspect.
” Viper leans forward, grinning proudly.
“That’s how I got their Blackmarks accounts frozen this morning.
Jeffi tracked down their club accounts and reported them to their Blackmarks depository.
Now the depository is working out a deal with him to return the illegally won funds. Serves them right.”
“Okay,” Res6 says, watching the video, intent on ignoring this man’s seemingly personal vendetta.
Viper comes around the desk to get a good view of the monitor.
He points to a woman in the center of the image exiting the SAT garage.
“That is Sable, the physician.” The video continues, and the group follows the woman down the hall, presumably toward the arena.
“Pause there. Those are the men she’s working with.
I couldn’t get the tall one’s name, but the other one is a manupartner called James.
The image of him isn’t good, but we were able to get his identifier because he fought a few times and Sable healed him.
I assume that’s how they met. Unfortunately, the fights aren’t recorded, but I’ve spoken with a dozen witnesses. ”
Res6 squints at the screen. The manupartner called James looks familiar, almost like the dark-haired man from IdenTECH, but he never looks right at the camera, so he can’t be sure about his nose.
Why would a guy running an identity fraud company be fighting in an illegal boxing ring?
Electra’s paranoia is probably rubbing off on him.
He locks the image away in his mind to ponder further later.
Nodding at Viper, he closes the file. “Excellent.”
“That’s it?” Viper asks defensively, crossing his arms.
“As I mentioned, I have a very important dinner this evening. I will review the rest of the documentation in the morning. When you show up tomorrow, you can ask for Tommy and he will direct you to the correct department for onboarding. That’s all for now.
” He stands, collecting his device and another bio-transport case.
Viper scratches his head as he follows Res6 out of the room. “What are you going to do with the information?”
“I haven’t decided, but it’s none of your concern.
” Viper’s eyes widen at his brisk tone, but Res6 continues.
Viper is clearly up to something. The robbery comes to mind first, but the connection to a GROW marketing employee makes little sense.
Considering his prideful boasting, he likely has a personal vendetta with this Sable woman.
Still, he’ll have to monitor him. Have his security protocols limited.
Give him some mundane tasks to occupy him until he finds out the man’s angle.
“If I require additional input, I’ll send for you. ”
He leaves his new employee in the hallway as the elevator takes him to his private SAT garage.
On the ride back to his unit, he considers how to use this new information.
While crippling a competitor’s public reputation is a good business move, inevitably leading to more market share for him, that isn’t his main motivation.
It is, however, removing NHOS scrutiny by stopping the reincarnate issue, which getting GROW shut down would effectively do.
But it’s possible that if NHOS discovered manupartners were being used in an illegal boxing ring—to throw the fights—it might bring more unwanted scrutiny of his product.
With reincarnates, most likely from GROW, running around, the Consumer Rights Protection Agency could have justification to pull their licensing altogether.
That’s exactly what happened with the ASI Personal Companions.
They got a little too smart, so NHOS shut them down.
Sometimes, it seemed The Great Equalizer’s main achievement was to instill excessive caution.
The thought of something happening to CHOICElover makes him shiver.
His trepidation stays with him until he enters his unit and his gaze lands on Electra, clad in a slinky black dress that falls below her knees.
The sleeves sit off the shoulder, showing off a tasteful amount of skin and her gorgeous collarbones that he’s dying to get his lips on. Perhaps after dinner.
She eyes the silver case in his hand, but before a frown can overtake her beautiful smile, he sets it by the door and sweeps her into his arms for a kiss. “I’ve been looking forward to doing that all day,” he says, earning a brilliant grin. “Shall we?” he asks, holding his hand out.
Blushing, she takes it and lets him sweep her out the door, the silver case thankfully forgotten.
Starting what will most likely end as another failed experiment can wait until tomorrow.
December 14, 2390.
“Three,” he shouts. “Three left, Lextr. This is unacceptable.”
The frown on Lextr’s face isn’t one of self-recrimination. It’s pity. “Well, sir,” he says, wringing his hands, “we knew this would happen. I’m running a comparison using the data you collected from the GROW reincarnates NHOS caught now.”
“Didn’t we determine it was our electrical impulses that triggered the NAM activation?” Res6 paces his office, running a hand through his hair.
“Yes, that was our initial suspicion, but we’ve run the impulse sequence exactly.
There seems to be a factor we haven’t identified.
We lost two samples in the accelerated protein compounding phase alone.
” Lextr pauses for a long moment before mumbling, “I have other work I should be focusing on.” He stares down at the little disk of organic material spinning in the Tissue Tangler and his eyes brighten.
“You should consider keeping it here. Perhaps something happened during transportation, or when we removed it from the original electrical source. Perhaps the loss of connection severed something. Plus, if you grow it in the big BioLume Scan chamber, you’ll know immediately if something goes wrong. ”
Res6 nods. “That’s not a terrible idea.”
“If you’re here, you might be able to intervene if you catch the failure in time.”
“That means I’ll need to camp out in my office for a week.” The idea of a week without Electra twists in his stomach.
Lextr shrugs. “How bad do you want your brother back?”
December 17, 2390.
He sent Electra a message that his experiment would keep him at the office for at least a week.
He hates the pang in his chest at the loss of her presence, but it’s necessary.
He also instructed Tommy to leave his latest failed specimen in his unit until he can make sure Electra doesn’t see its removal.
If he remembers correctly, the body double has enough protein packs to last the week.
That only leaves the FRIENDS appointments he’s been helping it slip out for.
They’ll have to be missed. There’s no way around it.
After two days, Electra messages that she wants to bring him lunch, claiming that venturing out is exactly what she needs to overcome her fears, which will eventually make her brave enough for another ID meeting.
He couldn’t argue, so they sat in his office in awkward silence, his secret experiment looming between them.
As he walks her to the elevators, he notes the clock.
14:57. He’s almost due to check on the specimen that’s growing exceptionally well.
Perhaps he should have thought to grow it here in the first place.
It illustrates how lax he’s gotten in recent years.
Too used to relying on others to think for him.
“What’s on your mind?” she asks as they step into the elevator.