Camaraderie between workmates was not something Myles Endeavour was skilled at cultivating. A life times habits of making himself what he could only articulate as ‘not a target’ had given him a non standard set of social skills. He was great at avoiding notice from the top brass, but kept himself competent enough that he would avoid rebuke. John Marquis had been one of the few people to actually notice him. The mans ambition just ran roughshod over whatever defences Myles had in place. Being placed as project liaison has forced Myles to interact more with fellow employees. not just his fellow Arkwright & Fletcher workers but those of Sweetbright. It was strange being in charge of anything at this level. Myles was mostly responsible for social media banter between the companies sub brands and any sympathetic brand willing to work with Arkwright & Fletcher. Now he was managing and solving problems of actual people. He thought it might not be a bad thing, but knowing that half of these people would probably be trying to kill him soon soured the thought.
That is not to say Myles was ready to wriggle out of his duties just yet. He had found a possible hack and was going to exploit it for all its worth. He had being helping with the construction. Rather than walk around pretending to be busy, he was actively keeping busy doing whatever small job he could help out on. Sawing, drilling, screwing things to walls. This had the knock on effect of endearing him to the Sweetbright workers and the Arkwright & Fletcher workers signed to help out. It was an odd feeling, but maybe he no longer had to worry so much about standing out. Yes his fears and instincts had a very real root cause, but he now was able to deal with it. Swiftly and brutally in most cases. All of the extra DIY like work though would go towards Myles experiment to steer his suits crafting ability. It took a lot of willpower not to keep checking, but he sensibly decided that waking his hands around at screens only he could see would land him first class accommodation at the funny farm. Still this was just as good as obfuscating his observations as walking around with a clipboard was. It may even have been better in some ways, something he kicked himself for not realising earlier. The same crew walked past every twenty or so minutes. Myles knew a security patrol when he saw one. He had timed the coffee and tea round to shadow them and saw the ‘not security guards’ disappear into an off limits door on his way to the canteen. He missed his clipboard. Myles’ investigation had not exactly progressed as quickly and fruitfully as he had liked. But what did he expect he was in the marketing department, he was not a real detective. It was on one of the later in the day coffee runs that ‘not a security guard’ number one as Myles had been calling him in his head, also visited the canteen for a brew, but managed to leave behind some paperwork.
Myles had figured it may be some kind of bait, but it was mostly just incomprehensible jargon. The blow struck to his espionage fantasy did not prevent him from returning the paperwork back to the management office. Knocking and entering, intending to leave the paperwork with whoever he could fine he was surprised to see Sandra Bright among the office staff, face down in a report, at least until she looked up and gave Myles a look that was not nearly as neutral as she thought it was. He dropped the paperwork in a handy looking in-tray on her desk.
“Found this in the canteen, just returning it.” Said Myles by way of explanation before turning to walk off.
“Wait.” Sandra Bright said. “You will be needed here Saturday night so cancel any plans you may have.”
Her tone suggested she would not be accepting no as an answer. This rubbed Myles the wrong way, he was very much a work to live person, anything he needed to do would still be thereto next day. So being told he had to be somewhere on a weekend of all times irked him. But he kept his face neutral, he did a much better job of it than Sandra Bright.
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“Send me an e-mail with the details and I will be here.” replied Myles Endeavour before walking back to his odd jobs and project lubrication.
“His poker face is not nearly as good as he thinks it is.” Said Sandra Bright to her underlings. “I want the person who thought of just telling him to be there this weekend rewarded with flowers and a paid holiday! Someone see to it.”
“But you thought of it Ms. Bright.” said an underling with more bravery than sense.
“I don’t see the point you are making.” Replied Sandra ‘Get to it. And make sure the Engine Dynasty gets paid but no bonus. Their idiot nearly killed the Trigger user before we got our use out of him”
Sweetbrights trade with the other side gave it access to a wide variety of potential assets. Digging into John Barrington’s history, it was found he had been on the front lines the last time the Engine Dynasty had tried to claim a portion of Earth, He had lost a few friends to those gastropod bastards and had a very understandable bee in his bonnet about them. Thus, the company assets had been used to secure the services of a lower ranked Dynasty noble to turn the screws on Endeavour. The idea would be to get Barrington worried enough to stick to Endeavour like glue for the next few days. There was the additional bonus of muddying the waters for anyone looking into whatever was going on by having another big player turn up out of the blue.
The cost for its services had been some Fairy Trigger generated tech. The Engine dynasty loved getting their hands on the stuff and trying to reverse engineer it for its own weapons of war. Of course when ever they equipped any thing derived from Fairy Triggers they tended to then go on a rampage against their fellow fae and need to be put down. So all in all it was a win win for team Luminary. It had nearly gone badly wrong. The reports stated that the Engine Dynasty noble had fired on Endeavour, but given that he was up, about and working on the site they must have missed. It wouldn’t be the first fae to exaggerate about its own prowess. Fairy Trigger tech was not cheap, but having a user or two as bait would bring in enough fresh resources to make the trade worthwhile several times over.
Sandra Bright was not willing to let this project fail. If the event did not go to plan then she had a built in a contingency. The child eating forrest or whatever it had been had piqued her interest and some of the spin-off technology Sweetbright derived from the genius loci was perfect for her needs. If the town knew the consequences of the harvest failing then this weekend they would be on their knees praying like zealots for the death of Myles Endeavour and his mentor. She had made sure that however Saturday played out she would reap the rewards, both for the company and personally. Cerulean Sweet would certainly want to reward someone who managed to set Sweetbright up with its most vital resource for the next few years.
Work…. On a bloody Saturday. Myles grumped to himself as he handled a rather large saw. It was Tuesday so he had a few days to prepare, but he had no clue what he was preparing for? He might need to pack trunks and a tiny umbrella for cocktails for all he knew. Okay, it was not going to be nearly that much fun. What did he need? First, communicate. He would tell John Barrington his suspicions, he would let Rusty know about potential clean us and a not so subtle hint to come and help. Myles was not going to turn down a big flashy rescue if he could get one on the cards. Second, make sure Charlie was fed, watered and safe. Third, top up suit resources and see about any upgrades. If there was anything more he could reasonably do Myles could not think of it. his sense of impending doom now had a time, place and was starting to take shape.
“If you are just going to stare into space, could I have the saw please Mr. Endeavour.” Said a workman he knew as Robert, one of the guys who had come to the project from Arkwright & Fletcher
“Oh, sorry Robert, lost in my own little world… Robert, I don’t supposed you have noticed anything odd going on here have you?” Said Myles, handing over the tools to his workmate.
“Not really Mr. Endeavour, a few lads say they can’t remember working downstairs, but these jobs all blur into one another after a while.”
Myles knew the evidence thus far had been circumstantial. But it was circumstantial while holding up a flashing neon sign that said ‘danger’ in big capital letters. Saturday was going to be a shit-storm and he was all out of bog roll.