Gauld led Callum to a small cafeteria on floor -12, that honestly seemed more like a café. It definitely was only for important people as she mentioned, almost exclusively filled with people who had just been in the session meeting. There were a few others that weren’t politicians as well: some high ranking soldiers and heads of business, going by their pendants. Once they’d gotten their food, they sat down to eat.

“Oh my, this is incredible,” Callum spouted after a single spoonful of soup.

“I know right?!” Gauld beamed “This is my favorite place in the entire HQ. I don’t even bring my family here, or they’d always pester me for food from it. Tell you what, though, I’ll give you access so you can come whenever you want, even without me, and it’ll put it all on my tab. But... if you ever purchase a dessert without bringing me some too…” Gauld picked up her knife and pointed it at him. “I will stab you!”

After that slight altercation, Callum silently ate the rest of his meal. He enjoyed it thoroughly, but there was a bit of a distraction that detracted from the flavor. He was unable to take his eyes off a certain girl standing by the counter. A Fiend? No, they wouldn’t just let a Fiend roam around here freely, would they? She was an obviously timid young girl hiding off to the side of the counter, cautiously glancing around. She was almost assuredly waiting for food, and was worried about people staring at her as she did.

That was the thing, though, no one seemed to be paying any attention to her. Callum couldn’t understand how that was possible, since she stood out the most out of anyone here with her mauve colored hair. He was starting to think maybe he was the only one who could see her. That, or everyone was just so used to her, that they didn’t give her a second glance. Part of his questions were answered at least when he finally got a glance at her pendant.

There was no flag in the center of her pendant, only the CP logo. Only two groups didn’t have flags, the CP special forces, and the science division which she was a part of. This was because to join either group, you had to fully renounce your citizenship to your country. It was seen as an act of commitment, that they were serving humanity as a whole rather than their own ideals or heritage. Now, Callum was mostly wondering what role she played in the science division. Perhaps she was some scientific genius that just seemed timid on the outside.

“I’ve got your order ready for you little miss. I see they’ve got you running their errands again,” the man at the counter said to her as he handed her several bags of food.

“Uh… umm, yes…” It was hard to hear, but Callum just barely made out the girl’s words. She made his nervousness earlier today look trivial by comparison when she spoke.

“Making a cute girl like you run around for them. Those scientists sure are cruel, aren't they? By the way, I snuck in a little treat for you, be good now!” The man gave her a big grin and waved her off.

The girl’s ears perked up when she heard, except it wasn’t quite her ears, it was her hair. Two lumps on the top of her head lifted up that looked like animal ears. Her butt also started wagging a little in excitement. Is she a dog? Callum wondered. I kind of want to pet her. The girl walked out of the cafeteria with a big smile on her face, which Callum couldn’t help but feel that it was something people didn’t get to see often.

With the distraction gone, Callum resumed his meal, but the strangeness wasn’t over yet. Just as he was finishing eating, he heard a slam and spun his head to see the commotion. A Representative was pressed up against a wall, lifted up by the scruff of his shirt. Holding him up was a woman with a terrifying expression on her face, looking at him as if he was dirt.

She was dressed in a women's military uniform, but had no badges, and there was no pendant. Instead a jewel was embedded into her skin, just below her neck. She had sleek long hair that went down to her butt. It was black on the back, and white on the underside. Another Fiend? Callum was confused. Wait, no, their hair doesn’t work like that… I think…

On one side of her hip was a slender longsword, sheathed in its hilt. On the other were two guns: a pistol and a stun gun. Callum was now even more confused. Weapons weren’t allowed anywhere in the CP premises, and normal guards could only carry stun guns. There was an actual arsenal somewhere in case of emergency and for military training, but the weapons could only be taken out for such occasions.

Callum looked around at the other guards to see if they were going to take any action towards her, but all of them were diverting their eyes and acting as if the scene wasn’t happening. The woman then pulled out her stun gun, and pressed it to the Representative's face. “Glass bottles go in the recycling!” she barked at him. “Do you think you’re so important that you’re above helping our planet?!”

“No… No Warden!” the Rep cried.

The woman dropped the Rep, and clicked her tongue at him. She then turned to the rest of the cafeteria, and now Callum could finally get a clear look at her face. She was beautiful, stunningly so, and he blushed a little just looking at her. Though there was something about her that didn’t feel quite right, she seemed almost androgynous in a sense, but that didn’t make Callum any less attracted to her. “I’m sorry for the commotion, please enjoy the rest of your day,” she bowed and apologized, then took her leave.

Callum then heard a chuckle from across the table, which he’d come to learn never meant anything good. Gauld had a big grin when he looked at her, and then she asked, “You were lucky to see something so rare on your first day. So that’s your type, huh? Boy, you were staring at her something fierce. Your face was a kind of flustered that even my comments couldn't make happen. That just makes this all the more delicious. I wouldn’t get your hopes up Callum, you have no chance with her. Though I suppose ‘her’ isn’t the right pronoun. That was the Warden, in charge of overseeing the Headquarters, and ‘they’ are entirely genderless.

“They have no political power whatsoever, but here, they’re the one person above the rest of us. What they say goes, and none of us have the power to overrule them. They were put in place to keep the rest of us in line, and to keep the headquarters a neutral territory. We couldn’t put anyone with even the slightest allegiance to any country in charge, since it would give them too much power. Their office is actually at the top of the artificial sky, looking down on the rest of us.”

“This place really never ceases to amaze me.” Callum was still processing it a bit. “What did you mean by them being genderless? Did they have a special surgery or something?”

“Not at all… well… I guess, I mean, kind of?” Gauld was poorly explaining. “The Warden is an entirely artificial human, the first of its kind, and the last as far as I’m aware of. Tell me, do you know of Pimitrad?”

“You mean the country that got wiped off the map in the single worst calamity in human history? How could I not know about that?!” Callum protested.

“Yes, that’s what most of the world knows it for, but it’s not what I’m talking about,” Gauld clarified. “Before Logyst was created, Pimitrad led the world in scientific developments. They were the forefront undisputed leader, specializing in biological advancements. The Warden was the second greatest weapon that Pimitrad ever created, and after the bombs went off, they walked out of the country, fully naked without even a scratch on them. Every other refugee from Pimitrad was adopted by another country, leaving the Warden as the sole remaining citizen of a now dead land.”

“Though, that might actually not be true. As I said, they’re the second greatest weapon created. The CP was able to extract some of the scientific records that weren’t destroyed, which mention another they called their greatest success. It was believed this person was killed by the bombing, but there are rumors that they’re still alive. Pure conjecture until we have proof in my opinion.”

"Anyways, don't let any of this stop you. They normally swap between male and female clothes so they may not always be your type, but if you've got some real feelings growing for them then I wish you the best of luck. Man up and ask them out. I can't wait to see how horribly you fall on your face. It'll be great."

Gauld then looked at her watch and suggested as she stood up from her seat, “We should get going. I’m assuming you’ll want to catch The Blank Meeting live.”

“Uhh, what’s that?” Callum asked as he stood up as well.

“I’ll explain when we’re back in the office,” Gauld answered as she went and put away her tray. When cleaning his, Callum made extra sure to properly sort everything into the appropriate receptacle.

Back in her office, Gauld instructed him to sit down in a chair, then rummaged through her desk for a moment. She pulled out a tablet, and walked over to him. “I actually meant to give this to you earlier. One minute, I need to register it to you. She tapped on the screen a few times, and then scanned his pendant with the camera. After she was done, she handed it to him. “That’s yours from now on, try not to lose it, and keep away from skeevy sites on that one. Don’t need the hassle of explaining to tech how you got viruses. Keep that to the personal computer in your quarters or your phone.”

‘Welcome, Callum Briz’ the screen greeted him when he looked at it. A desktop filled with icons then appeared, and he couldn’t wait to start exploring through it. “Oh right, I need to give you permission. Man I wish these things could read your thoughts sometimes,” Gauld grumbled, then sat down at her desk and began using her computer. After about 30 clicks a grimace stretched across her face. “Yes, I know I’m giving permission to an intern! How many times do I have to acknowledge this?!”

Eventually, a new icon popped up on Callum’s tablet: Blank Meeting. Callum tapped on it, but then he was forced to individually sign over 50 waivers and non-disclosure agreements. When he was finally allowed access, there were three meetings listed, all with timers counting down next to them. The closest upcoming one only had 8 minutes and 78 seconds left on its timer before it began.

“Alright, let me explain.” Gauld came out from behind her desk and sat on the front edge of it. “I’m not going to mince words. After the Drazahs hijacked the Prosper New Year’s Celebration, chaos ensued here internally as you can imagine. Sessions went from generally civil meetings to shouting matches, and things even got physical on occasion. Everyone had wildly different and strong opinions about what should be done, and it was near impossible to get a unanimous vote on anything.”

“Almost nothing was getting done, and worse, people’s emotions were starting to draw dividing lines. Some people started holding the rest accountable for their opinions, and non-political ties were made. Groups were formed, and some flatly refused to work with others. Around this time is when Savvish started hating me, I guess I said something that pissed him off. Anyways, it became clear that a level of anonymity was needed. That’s where Blank Meetings came into play. They are entirely anonymous meetings held remotely through a private server to discuss the more sensitive topics.”

“Anyone can schedule a Blank Meeting, as long as it has a specific topic attached. The number of seats available are limited, and it’s first-come-first-served, so those who are in attendance are those most passionate about the subject. Everyone else with access can tune in live, or read the transcript later. Normally, this is specifically reserved for Reps and Vice-Reps, but I gave you special permission to view it. You won’t be able to participate in any, however.”

“When the meeting starts, everyone is assigned a randomized avatar. Sometimes it’s animals, sometimes it’s colors, sometimes it’s even famous children’s cartoon characters. The host can set what they want, but most just let the randomizer pick. The people involved can be anywhere in the building. They usually tune in from their offices, but they could be in their private quarters or even in the bathroom taking a dump if they wanted.”

“The meeting itself is a voice-call, but all the voices have a filter placed over them that even distorts their cadence and speech mannerisms. It really is impossible to tell who is who. The meeting is also transcribed in real-time for those who don’t want to or can’t listen. I always go with that option since I can’t stand the sound of those distorted voices. Seriously, if you want to listen-in then put in headphones or I will kick you out of the room.”

“So, what’s this meeting about anyways?” Callum asked her, quite intrigued.

“What else?” Gauld said. “The Fiends for Hire of course. There’s a Blank Meeting discussing them every few days or so, depending on what’s going on with them. Apparently, a few new reports have come in about them, but I haven’t had time to read them yet. Had to deal with you and whatnot. So, they’ll be discussing those in the meeting.”

Callum hastily tapped on the meeting that was about to happen, and sure enough ‘Fiends for Hire Report Discussion’ was listed as the topic. The meeting limit was ten people, and the estimated meeting time was 30 minutes. “Is it alright if I ask your opinion on them, Gauld?”

“Hmm, that’s kind of a tough one, since it’s changed so much recently,” Gauld remarked. “Originally, I was in the camp of not caring much about them. There were more of us than you’d think. Sure, they were a surprise, but with the actions they had taken thus far, it wasn’t exactly a huge issue for us as far as I was concerned. Most people were overly panicked about who they were, rather than what they were doing.”

“However, a few weeks ago they saved my country in a time of crisis. Someone had stolen some military tech and let it loose on a rampage. They managed to stop it when no one else could, and were very humble when we were unable to reward them properly. Of course, this has definitely drawn my favor, but I can’t say I’m firmly in their camp yet. I’m definitely more interested in them now, though. I find myself thoroughly reading every report on them, as well as every Blank Meeting, unlike before when I’d just skim them out of obligation. I can tell by the look in your eyes that they’re definitely a big topic for you.”

“Yes, well I actually wanted to do my thesis on them, but it was rejected for being too controversial,” Callum sighed. “That still hasn’t stopped my curiosity about them and—”

Gauld held her hand up and said strongly, “I’m going to stop you right there. I can see this is going to lead to a long time of me being talked at. Tell you what, send me your rejected thesis and I’ll give it a look through. I’m sure you wrote it anyways even though it got canned. We don’t have time for it now since the meeting’s about to start.”

Callum had almost forgotten about the meeting, having lost himself in Fiend discussion once again. He watched the counter tick down, practically on the edge of his seat.

Gauld picked up her own tablet when it started, and grumbled, “Oh how boring, it’s just animals this time.”

◆◆◆

『System: Blank Meeting 168 has begun. Date: Quadruneber 19th, 2077. Start Time: [585] Topic: Fiends for Hire Report Discussion』

『System: Host: Monkey』

『System: Ibex has joined the room.』

『System: Lemur has joined the room.』

『System: Skunk has joined the room.』

『System: Capybara has joined the room.』

『System: Dung Beetle has joined the room.』

『System: Yak has joined the room.』

『System: Finch has joined the room.』

『System: Reindeer has joined the room.』

『System: Trout has joined the room.』

『System: Room limit has been reached and is now locked. Current Viewers: 140.』

『Skunk: I feel like I always get stuck with the smelliest animal. This system is rigged.』

『Dung Beetle: At least you’re not dung beetle.』

『System: Reminder: Warden is observing.』

『Dung Beetle: Sorry!』

『Skunk: Sorry...』

『Monkey: Thank you everyone for joining. This is the same host as last time. I’ll do a brief review to catch everyone up. Today we are going to discuss the current movements of the four Fiends for Hire as they continue their expedition, as well as the raid we conducted on their base a week ago. New reports on both fronts came in just this morning. Unfortunately, I was only able to read the report on the raid before this, but it is my understanding that another is up to date on the other and has come prepared. For now, let us start with the raid report.』

Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

『Monkey: As you all know, we conducted an impromptu raid on Quadruneber 12th on the Fiends for Hire compound when their forcefield was temporarily disabled. There was an initial report four days ago that made it seem like the raid had been a complete failure. However, many of the agents were still in critical condition, but they have all at least regained consciousness and were able to get full testimonies from each of them. Furthermore, the one agent we believed to have died in action is now confirmed to be alive and has reached out to us.』

『Reindeer: What do you mean? She was confirmed dead on the scene by the other agents wasn’t she?』

『Monkey: She claims that she was revived by Ahvra Zalksin, the Fiend known as The Witch, and is currently in her custody.』

『Capybara: It’s good that she’s alright, but if she is still in custody how did she manage to get a message out? Is she that adept or did the Fiends slip up?』

『Monkey: According to the agent, The Witch simply allowed her to make the call without any convincing.』

『Finch: Are we sure it’s even our agent sending the message? Perhaps this Witch’s power is the ability to mimic the voices of others? What do we even know about her?』

『Ibex: I can answer that! This is Onyx from the last meeting by the way. As I mentioned then, I planned to create a team to investigate The Witch, and I’ve done just that. Apparently, she has a habit of imprisoning victims in the past and performing experiments on them. We managed-』

『Yak: Damned, dirty Fiend! Why wasn’t she dealt with before now if that was the case?!』

『Ibex: As I was saying before I was interrupted, we managed to get in touch with several of her past hostages. The main experiment she would perform on them was dissections, but in some cases, they would be killed. Then, The Witch would use her Curse, and any injuries the subjects sustained would be reversed, and the dead would be brought back to life. Going off of this, it is in our best interests going forward to assume that she does in fact have some power over life itself. Though many of those we contacted insisted that we use the word ‘time’ instead.』

『Dung Beetle: Regardless of which it is, the power to bring back the dead is a game changer. It seems we’ll need to re-evaluate some of our long term goals… Err sorry, ignore my rambling, this isn’t what the meeting is focused on. I’ll most likely make a Blank Meeting in the future to discuss this.』

『Capybara: If everything regarding The Witch is to be believed, then isn’t our agent in peril? We now know she is going to be subjected to tortorous experimentation. Are we going to do anything to try and save her?』

『Monkey: About that… It seems that the agent made a request of her own volition for us to do nothing. Apparently, she feels a debt must be paid for being brought back to life, which, given the circumstances, is understandable. She volunteered to undergo the experimentation and will be released soon. According to her, The Witch will let her free before the other Fiends return at the end of the month. Her request was approved under the hopes she’ll be able to gather more intel.』

『Reindeer: Well, what do you know, another useful piece of information just casually slipped in. Now we know the Fiend’s timetable. It’s almost as if they want us to know.』

『Yak: Don’t trust them, or the agent! She’s most likely compromised now, or brainwashed!』

『Lemur: It’s starting to be pretty obvious who Yak is.』

『Skunk: If you don’t mind, let’s keep the discussion moving. Like with Ibex, I’ve also had a team investigating since the last meeting. They were investigating the culprit behind all of our agent’s injuries, Mallea Dulip, more commonly known as the Terrifying Temp or the Jumbled Jackal, for those who don’t know. During the last meeting, it was speculated that she was in fact the lost Pimitrad experiment. Through our investigation, we can now confirm within a reasonable margin of error that this is in fact true.』

『Skunk: The abilities she displayed line up with those in the extracted files. For additional confirmation, I was able to meet with The Warden this morning. She was able to confirm her identity. Would you mind explaining, Warden?』

『Warden: I do not normally allow myself to speak in these meetings but I will make an exception only this once. She is indeed the experiment that took priority above myself. Originally, we were in the same facility, but the rest of us were moved since it was believed we were hindering her progress. She has aged quite a bit since then, but I would not mistake her face. However, she would have no memory of myself or any of the other experiments, since it was wiped several times.』

『Dung Beetle: How troublesome, the best chance we’d have as a fighting force against Fiends, and she’s working with them.』

『Finch: Indeed, and there is no way we’d be able to sway her loyalty. She practically raised the Drazahs herself.』

『Monkey: That about covers all the new information we have currently we have on the raid. As it stands, no information about their plans nor was any of their technology extracted, but we’ll keep you up to date as the agents continue to recover. Let’s move on to the next topic. I believe Trout is the one who will be leading this portion.』

『Trout: Indeed, we will now be discussing the Fiends for Hire’s movements as they progress around the world. It has been officially made public that they have been infiltrating banks, but before now, not many details were known. However, all the information about each individual break-in has been compiled, and there is a definite pattern to their actions.』

『Trout: To try and keep it brief, basically they break in, place an object, drop cards for both ‘Breaking and Entering’ and ‘Grand Larceny’ and leave. There can be other random occurrences with each break-in, but those actions are the only ones consistent throughout.』

『Reindeer: Now why would they drop a Grand Larceny card when they don’t take anything? Are they planning to come back and steal something later, or have they stolen something we can’t see? Perhaps whatever they’re placing creates an illusion that money stolen is still there.』

『Finch: It’s also possible there’s no reason for its existence. I wouldn’t put it past them to leave it there just to mess with us and have us waste our time on this very conversation.』

『Yak: Yes, those dastardly Fiends and their filthy tricks!』

『Ibex: I actually find that highly unlikely. The Drazah’s actions have seemed chaotic in the past, yes, but they have always seemed to have an underlying intent. I doubt they ever do anything for no reason at all. I genuinely do believe every step they take is meticulously thought out beforehand. They are planning something, something we can not see because of our limited scope.』

『Skunk: I agree to an extent. They are definitely brilliant schemers. The pandemonium of the Prosper incident was expertly planned. I can’t think of a single other scenario where they would have caused nearly as much impact. However, they confirmed it themselves just a week later that the heist on the Cotagerie museum was entirely impromptu.』

『Skunk: While it’s certainly hard to think of them this way, we have to remember that what we’re dealing with are basically still just children. They may have had abnormal lives, but their mentalities are not yet strong enough to think of every step going forward. I believe there must be a certain level of spontaneity and randomness to their actions, though it's no less effective. Regardless of what I’ve just said, I do agree that the cards are most likely not a decoy.』

『Dung Beetle: If you don’t mind, I’d like to backtrack to the device that they place, and I’d love any and all information on it. I already have a few speculations. What we can know for sure is that it is no larger than the size of the palm of a hand. It must have a method of disappearing, so either a level of cloaking technology or it dissolves or dissipates.』

『Trout: Well, I do have a few details on the matter of the device. Any attempts to physically find it with the naked eye were fruitless as expected. We did full scans of bank vaults that had been previously visited, and it was confirmed that there was something there. It just barely caused a blip, but there was a blip nonetheless. Again, as expected, tracking the signature it left behind proved fruitless. One bank even did a clean sweep. They took everything out of the vault, did a full scrub down, but the blip remained.』

『Monkey: What is the device for, though? Are they perhaps just trying to study the economical habits of deposits and withdrawals?』

『Reindeer: But what use would that information provide? Given their technological capabilities through The Engineer, it would be a lot easier for them to just hack into banking records if that was all they were after.』

『Finch: I find it more likely that they’d simply be incendiary devices that will burn all of the world’s currency and send us into economic collapse.』

『Ibex: Of the ideas, that seems the closest to being accurate to me, but I still can’t help but feel we’re missing something.』

『Capybara: I just want to confirm again. They’ve really not taken any money?』

『Trout: For the most part, no. The Treasury Head ordered every affected bank to do a full count and submit a report. There are some minor cases where it’s confirmed the Fiends did actually take money, but it was such a small, almost negligible amount; most likely funds for their trip. Any cases where a large amount was missing was discovered to be caused by other factors, mostly employee theft.』

『Monkey: If their plan is to steal all that money, what do they intend to do with it? Surely they’d know that stealing most of the world’s cash would render it essentially ineffectual. We would be forced to establish a new currency and make sure everyone’s losses were recuperated. All that money they stole would become worthless.』

『Trout: What if that is their goal? To force us to make a new unified currency? We do have plans for that very thing in the future, but it is so far on the back-burner it may not happen in any of our lifetimes. What if, by their twisted logic, they believe they are helping us and the world by taking the initiative and expediting the process?』

『Finch: Yeah, no way.』

『Ibex: Don’t be silly.』

『Reindeer: Agreed, there’s no logical benefit in it for them.』

『Yak: As if a Fiend would ever do something so courteous.』

『Dung Beetle: Alright, I believe we should table this discussion for now. We can theorize all we want, but I doubt we’ll get answers unless we get them straight from the source. So I want to put forward a new topic. In a few days time, the Fiends will enter Horage to rob our banks. Are we going to do anything to try and stop them?』

『Reindeer: That is an interesting proposition. With our new information, we do have at least some form of an upperhand. Setting an ambush would be easy, but whether it would be effective is another issue.』

『Monkey: I’ll be frank in that I highly advise against it. There are several plans in motion to deal with them, some that all of you might not be aware of. If we were to take action now when we weren’t entirely prepared, it could severely hamper the months of other planning and efforts.』

『Skunk: I agree as an overseer of one of those said plans. An ambush in Horage would be almost expected of us, but it would most likely end up as a waste of resources. I believe we should stick with ones more likely to succeed.』

『Dung Beetle: Very well, I just thought I’d float the idea. I take pride in knowing all of our dirty little plans, so I know for a fact that none of them will be ready before the Fiends complete their world tour. By not acting now, we will be subjecting ourselves to whatever they have in store for us. I hope everyone is ready for the fallout.』

『Yak: No, that is entirely unacceptable! We can not let them get away with whatever they are planning, whatever it takes! You are fools for believing that we will be alright if we give them even a speck of control over us! I don’t care what our losses are, we need to take them out and we need to do it immediately! Send every soldier we have after them. No matter the country they’re from, this needs to be our top priority!』

『Yak: If we can’t catch them, then we’ll hurt them. Raise their compound to the ground, burn their friends and sympathizers at the stake. Take their families hostage, make them know the fear that they instill in all of us! Then, they will come begging to us on their hands and knees for forgiveness. When their guards are down, swing the axe and watch their heads roll!』

『Capybara: Well that was... something...』

『Warden: Yak, if you continue with these disruptive outbursts that are not conducive to the topics at hand, disciplinary action will be taken against you. This is your only warning.』

『Yak: Mark my words you damnable morons! You will rue the day when you find out I was right, if you even have your lives left!』

『System: Yak has left the room.』

『Lemur: Did… did Yak just seriously say ‘rue the day’?! Ahahahahaha, that’s a riot. Yeah, I definitely know who they are.』

『Ibex: And what about you, Lemur? You’ve been quiet this entire meeting, do you have nothing to contribute to this discussion. If not, why are you here?』

『Lemur: Sorry, sorry, I was just taking in all the information, but I don’t mind giving my opinion. The honest answer is that I’m excited. In fact, I haven’t been this excited in years. Don’t get me wrong, we’ve accomplished many great things since the foundations of our organization rose up from the ashes of the Drazah war, but it all became a bit mundane. There was nothing unexpected. Everyone voted how you thought they would, every bill passed and failed entirely as I predicted, almost as if by design. The future was entirely certain, following a script we had all written together.』

『Lemur: Then, the Drazah’s appeared, taking our plans and deep-frying them in lava. And it was wonderful. For once in a decade, I didn’t know what the day held. Don’t get me wrong, the Fiends are definitely in issue. Whether they are good or bad for the world remains completely yet unseen, but I’ll tell you what, I can’t wait to find out. I’m practically titillated to see what future the Fiends will bring us, and I’m glad we are unable to stop them this time. Let us see what we are up against, what level of change they can bring. That is my honest opinion.』

『Capybara: Those are bold words Lemur. I can’t agree with everything you said but it’s almost inspiring to hear you say them.』

『Dung Beetle: Oh, I couldn’t agree with you more, Capybara. Lemur, I would very much like to meet you later in private to discuss things further.』

『Reindeer: I would like to be included in that meeting if I can.』

『Monkey: Well, that seems like a good place to wrap up. The next meeting on the Fiends for Hire will be in three days to continue our pace unless an incident occurs. Thank you all for this rather… lively… meeting.』

◆◆◆

The Blank Meeting ended there, and Callum turned off his tablet’s screen. His mind was racing, going over every detail they had discussed. A lot of his astonishment was coming from how several of them had behaved. It seemed the anonymity allowed them to be less restrained, acting closer to how they would in private. Callum knew for a fact the things which Yak and Lemur had said would almost never occur in a public meeting. It was a little scary to see their true feelings, but having been with Gauld all day it had likely jaded him to an extent.

The rest of the day was rather mundane in comparison to all that had happened so far. Gauld called on the rest of the staff that worked for her, and had them introduce themselves. They seemed like a lovely bunch of people, but there was a level of difference in their relationship to Gauld than he had expected. Overall, they acted much closer to how he would expect people of their stations to behave around a superior. Not all of them called her Gauld either, and she didn’t even seem bothered by it. By his estimates, none of them were at the level of closeness she was forcing upon him.

She really is taking grooming me her personal apprentice quite seriously. That means if I fail… I’m dead… Callum did his best to shake off his fears, but they would gnaw at the back of his mind for a while.

“Well, I guess that’ll wrap things up for the day,” Gauld said with a yawn as the fake sun started to set. “You did pretty well keeping up for your first day Callum. I half expected you to be passed out on the floor by now. You’ll find your room assignments on your tablet. I’ll get things cleaned up here, so you can go ahead on your way. I’m sure you’re excited to see where you’ll be living.”

“Sorry, I couldn’t get you anything closer, but you still being an intern is rather limiting. Rest assured, I did get you the best possible place an intern can possibly have. Now then, as for tomorrow… I’ll be in at [350] sharp, that means you’ll need to be up by [300]. I know that seems like a long time to get ready and down here, but you’ll have some errands to run. From now on, each morning I expect to be greeted by a hot cup of coffee and a pastry I’ve never had before. I know that sounds unreasonable, but I can guarantee there’s a bunch I haven’t tried yet. See you tomorrow, my shining doormat.”

Callum left her office, already worried about the next day, and used the elevator ride to look into all the pastries he could buy. His room was on floor 137, quite a commute from Gauld’s office, but it was reasonable in the scope of travel time for normal commuters. If he was ever running late, he could just use the express elevator. For now, he’d avoid it as much as possible, not wanting to take it away from someone who needed it more.

When he got into his room, Callum immediately collapsed on his bed. It was pretty comfortable, but he imagined it would take some getting used to. After he moved into a dorm room for the first time, he barely slept the first week due to the unfamiliarity. The room itself was rather nice, yet modest. It was roughly the same as an average hotel suite: nothing too ritzy, but all the amenities were included. Undoubtedly, the room that was originally meant for him would be like a janitor’s closet in comparison.

Callum rested his eyes for a few minutes, but then they lurched open. He was right, there was no way he’d be able to relax and sit still, at least for now. After a brief stretch, he rolled over and grabbed at his tablet. Even though it was barely approaching night, the light from it still strained his eyes. “Let’s get this started then, shall we?” Displayed at the top of his tablet was ‘Waiver 1 of 906’.