Troy needed a moment to process this. Charlie knew. Adam knew that Charlie knew, but still hadn't told Troy about it, after finding out. Wait…

“How did you find out?” Troy asked Charlie.

“Not even denying it?” Charlie questioned right back, sounding mildly surprised by it. “You were pretty good at that, during the game. I nearly believed you, actually”

“I don't think my chances are too high here”, Troy explained, not taking Charlie's too high. “Might you be so kind as to explain, why that may be?”

He had done everything as best as he could. How had Charlie figured it out?

“It wasn't a fault of your own”, Charlie began. This didn't put Troy at ease. Knowing that it wasn't something he did, something which he could have changed, made it all so much more stressful. “Can I see that earpiece of yours?”

It felt like he cutting off Adam from hearing more. Or, did he even know the requirements about it?

Troy pulled the earpiece off of his ear, asking for no explanation for why. He was sure Charlie would monologue about it, no matter what he did.

Charlie took it graciously, before putting it extremely close to his eyes.

“This here is something of a specialized communicator. Or, is it even that?” Charlie said, with a fascinated voice. “When I take a closer look at this thing, questions blossom oh so quickly. Where is the camera hiding? This thing is so sleek, without any imperfections. No place for a lens to pop out.

Then, if you're using this to cheat, with the help of another person, how is the other person going to look at your cards? More importantly, how did you show the cards to the camera? During the game, the amount of time you looked at them, measured at less than one-fifth of a second.

Those eyes of yours must be superhuman if you even saw the values yourself. And, if there even is a camera on this thing, how did the camera see it? Sure, you would mostly be in head position, where it would be able to glance at them, but not always. I originally thought that you must have had some other way to show it. Some other device on your body, you used to communicate which cards you had.

Yet, after a quick body scan, using incredibly advanced, military technology, it showed nothing. The only thing on your body, that could even be called slightly advanced, was that earpiece, and the brain implant.”

Troy decided that it was a good time to cut in.

“At what point, did you use military technology on me? I can't say that I remember that part of the night”, Troy asked into.

“That isn't too important, and not something to share right now. Maybe later, though,” Charlie said, with a dismissive smile. Clearly, he thought of his current monologue as more important.

“Where was I? Oh, yeah, the brain implant.

I was honestly floored when I saw Zep reacting to the music. I couldn't understand it at all. No sound was coming out of the device, yet she was acting surprised, at your tastes in music. 'How could that be?', I thought to myself.

So, I did the smart thing and checked the earpiece out myself. It was very clean, of course. Don't really know where Zep got that detail from. Not important.

This was the important part; I was right. This earpiece had no sound coming from it. When I heard the music, it wasn't coming from any direction, and certainly not my ear. It was coming from my brain implant.

How in the name of elder god Korviliath, of the eighteenth hell dimension, did this thing connect to my brain implant? You can not begin to even slightly grasp the sheer complexity of fire-walls around any tech that I work with. We have hired some of the best people in the world to crack this shield, and none could do so, even after getting the source code.

And, then this bloody thing comes along, and just straight up ignores them. It just connects and begins playing that damn music.

Not to discriminate against the type of music, of course. By the way, your friend has good taste in music.”

The information that was currently being told to Troy just flew through his brain. He was sure that in a couple of minutes, understanding would crash into him like a tidal wave, but, for now, he stayed as calm as ever.

“I'll pass it along”, Troy said, taking a glance at the earpiece.

“So… this friend of yours cant hear us right now?” Charlie observed, with a smile. Dammit. “No need to answer. Your expression is enough.

I just knew it. No idea about how it works, but I know what it does now. This thing here directly interfaces with the brain implant. An amazing little thing. If I made something like this, I would get three promotions straight off. My wage would double, at the very least.

It's things like that, where I really just want to know what it is, that you and Dr Hale and whoever else is working on. For the last few years, things like these have just been popping up out of nowhere. Nobody in my department has any idea where they are coming from, but they must come from somewhere.

Answer this for me, please. Are you the ones making this technology? I won't ask any more into it if you just give me some kind of an answer. This is the only thing, that I will press you on.”

Charlie finally ended his long speech, taking in a deep breath, as he relaxed his back slightly, against the table.

The time was ticking, and Troy had to formulate some kind of an answer. Honestly, he had never heard of this technology before. Likely because of his short time here. But, had he seen it before? Not small things, like the earpiece but bigger stuff. Way bigger even.

“Quick question”, Troy said. “How far along do you think the world is a three-dimensional projection?”

Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on Royal Road.

“Depends”, Charlie said. “Can you be a little more specific?”

“I was thinking around the lines, of being able to touch it,” Troy clarified.

“What? The visual projection?” Charlie asked. Troy nodded. “The visual projection, that's made with a basis of fancy light placement?” Troy nodded again.

“Why did I even ask?” Charlie said, looking up at the ceiling. “Your face talking about this whole thing should have made it obvious from the beginning.”

Troy just sat there, as Charlie mulled over his thoughts. The silence was better than an accusation, after all.

But, as the seconds turned into minutes, he felt the need to break the silence. The conversation was not over, and they had a likely impatient group to get back to.

“So… “, Troy began, hoping to draw Charlie out of his thoughts.

It took a few seconds, but he did turn to look at Troy.

“Yes?” Charlie asked. “What is it?”

“Will you tell the others?” Troy asked.

“What would I tell them about? I cant say that they can be too interested in the ongoing of your department,” Charlie asked right back, with a confused tone.

“That I cheated,” Troy clarified.

“Oh. That,” Charlie said, like it wasn't important. “You're putting too much pressure on yourself. We don't really care too much about who wins. In the end, it's just meant to be exciting.”

“But… aren't you angry? I could have cheated my way into getting your money,” Troy said, slightly baffled.

And, Charlie just laughed at him.

“Oh, what an exciting time that would be,” Charlie said, before he grew more serious. “Troy. There's something you need to know. A month's wage here is enough to grant you a good life until the day you die. Money is not a problem, which anybody of us have. We have positions that give us more than others will ever get to dream off. The money we gamble is meant to be lost in some way. We don't care how, as long as it's gone by the end of the night.”

A month is enough to live off… Troy could believe it.

“If you've got so much money, why haven't you just quit, and lived a life of luxury?” Troy asked, with a confused voice. It would be, what he would do.

“I probably would have, if I could”, Charlie said, with a short laugh. After looking at Troy's expression, though, that smile sobered up quickly. “You don't know, do you?”

“I don't think so.”

“Well… When you get the chance to do so, try to read over that contract of yours. I think there are a few details, which you might have missed,” Charlie stated.

“Any spoilers on what these details are?” Troy led on.

“No, I don't think I could say,” Charlie said, as he got up. “Come on. The group is probably thinking about where we are. Let's get back.”

“But we didn't get anything to bring back”, Troy objected.

“They didn't expect us to. Let's go”

And, back they went. He took the earpiece with him, as Troy's mind finally began understanding what they had just talked about.

----------------------------------------

As Charlie had predicted, the others didn't mind their lack of beverages. At first, they didn't even notice that they had even come back. Darlow had taken over, in Charlie's place, in discussing politics with Zep, turning it all around on itself.

The night went on. A few drinks were had. Some tales were told. Charlie was slapped a lot of times by everybody. Troy even got a light slap in himself by the end.

Good times.

But, like every good thing, that ever existed, it came to an end. The time had progressed so quickly, that Zep had missed her clock-in time, so she had to run first. Francis had already left at that point, not to anybody's notice. Troy was told that was normal, though.

With so few left, it was decided to just leave it at that, and get back their rooms.

Together they walked to the entrance of the shopping street, before finally making their final goodbyes of the night.

“Troy”, Charlie said, as they were walking down the hallway. The others had gone in the opposite direction. It seemed like the number of hallways of personal rooms had been vastly more than Troy had originally estimated.

But, they were placed strategically. The placement was so, people would have to walk the least amount of distance, throughout the day. As it turned out, the two of them had personal rooms very close to each other. Not the same hallway though.

“Yes?” Troy stated, looking over at Charlie.

“Just before we go separate ways tonight, you should probably know this,” Charlie began explaining. “If we're following the normal schedule, we should be playing blackjack at the next meet-up. It would be best for all of us if you didn't bring that earpiece with you next time. The first time, it's fun and new. The next… it gets a little strained. Not fun for anybody. Do you get what I'm saying?”

An underlying threat, thinly veiled in sweet words.

“Yup”, Troy said, with no amount of calmness in his tone.

“Oh, do relax now”, Charlie said, with a good clap to Troy's back. “It's bad for your health to be stressed at this time of day.”

Like saying that would bring any positive effects.

“And… this is my stop for the day,” Charlie continued. “See you in the morning.”

“See you”, Troy said right back, with a small wave to accompany.

Charlie walked down the hallway to the right, while Troy just walked forward. Now that he was alone, he finally had time to formulate his thoughts.

What could he call tonight? A success? A failure? Calling it either would be a lie. Somewhere in between would fit the best. He succeeded in coming into the group, smoothly assimilating into it, with only a few hiccups.

But, there had been failures too. While he succeeded in one goal, he severely failed in the other. Nobody was to realize his… personal changes to the rules. Charlie noticed it. But, that hadn't been Troy's fault, from what he was told. It was Adam's.

Wait. Did Charlie ever tell how he realized?

…

That wide piece of-

No. Troy needed to focus. A void of information was found. And, to fix this hole, he would need to ask somebody, that had the needed, very specific information. Adam, to be exact.

Fishing the earpiece out of his pocket, he took a good, long look at it. This little thing had helped Troy so much. Should he thank Adam for it all? Not outright, of course. More along the lines of informing that the test had been successful in its goals?

Eh. It sounded fine enough in Troy's head. What's the worst that could happen?

He put on the earpiece, with a little twisting, to make sure it fits snugly. It had been getting a little used, and the ear-hanging part was getting loose. Troy needed to get that fixed, somehow.

'You have questions.', Adam started out immediately.

“Was it that obvious?” Troy asked rhetorically.

'Through the context, yes.', Adam sent.

Troy decided to just ignore Adam's answer, as he jumped right into it.

“Why didn't you tell me that Charlie figured it out?” Troy asked, as he continued to walk down the hallway. He couldn't remember it splitting at this point, but that could just be him misremembering. He did remember walking to the right, at some point, so that's what he just ended up going with.

'I was worried about your reaction. It was your obvious reaction, which started the whole chain reaction. Hoping that you would not react to the same extent, with more severe news would be illogical of me.', Adam explained.

“And, not knowing that Charlie knew about you was a better alternative? What if he told the others?” Troy said. Okay, there was definitely supposed to be a left turn here. Instead, Troy could only go forward or right. The left turn had to appear at some point, so he just went forward.

'You know it would not change the outcome if Charlie decided to reveal it to the other people in the group.', Adam pointed out, which was fair.

“Fine,” Troy conceded. “How did he even figure it all out?”

This time, it took a small while for Adam to answer.

'It was an avoidable failure on my part.', Adam finally said.

“Care to be more specific?” Troy asked.

'Do I have to?', Adam asked back.

“Yes.”

'What will the consequences of my silence be?'

“I will slightly twist your requests during regular testing so that the end result will have a slightly larger chance of ending in failure.”

'You wouldn't dare.'

“Try me.”

A pause.

'I-congratulated-him-on-his-succes.'

“A bit slower, please.”

'I mistakenly congratulated him on success in winning, due to my personal failure in identifying who I was talking to.'

“... that's stupid.”

'I have realized.'

On the subject of stupidity, where exactly had Troy wandered off to?