*papers shuffling* “This is hell.”
As it turns out, the Archive base is just as it sounds – an archive. But to his surprise, they didn’t only archive documents; they also did all the paper work of 51. Along with the paper work came the paper wage – nothing. Due to the Archive Base being a passive base, it doesn’t have any passive wage, instead, the 13 tailed fox makes money by taking specialized orders straight down from the council. As well as that, 51-3 is responsible for fake documents as well as being in charge of laundering the accumulated money from the 9 branches - from narcotics to arms deals, all the money gets washed in 51-3.
*Samuel walks in* “Will, mate! Can you wash the 8 nil that I hacked from the central bank? I know it’s a lot but consider it as a special order. And, you can have half a nil or so to you and your bureau. I’ve traveled a long way here so consider my offer. And if you need help, call me.”
*sigh* “Yeah sure, why not. You owe me one, ok? And how the hell did you get 8 nil from the central bank? Well, who cares, eh? I’ll be shipping you about 8 zilch bricks. Return it back in about a week or so. You have the vehicles, right?”
51-7 is often called the “Pill box” base due to them being in charge of firearms as well as building materials, mostly cement and brick production. But because of the district being a bit too far from the CIC and Main bases, it’s often becoming the arms dealing base.
“So, 6 heavy grade transport vehicles were given to us by our generous 51-5-C. Let’s make this as easy for us. Conga line strategies, mates. Line up and load the vehicles with bricks. We’re going to finish this today and we party tomorrow. Ципка!”
After about 7 hours’ worth of work later, the 8 hundred thousand bricks were on the vehicles and were ready to be shipped. The shipping cost another 3 hours, totaling around 10 hours.
“Welp, we got the work done. Let’s rest and celebrate later, yes? As of right now, I’m very tired and maybe you too. So, see you tomorrow. Well-done.”
*distant scream*
…
*shoes clattering*
*something trips* “shit!”
Upon waking up, Will sees something a bit bizarre. Not only he isn’t at home, he’s in the north base of 51-1. Realizing this and misidentifying it for the south base whilst remembering what Liz said, he quickly gets up and tries to leave. But before his leave, he sees someone – Liz herself. At that exact moment, Will feels a familiar sensation – True Zero. But unlike before, he didn’t say anyone’s name as well as didn’t even know who he saw.
“I wish Wilson was here with me. It’d have been quite nice if he and I discussed what just happened. Welp, it’s best to just stand still and wait for my heart to slow down. Although, I believe I saw Liz back then. Come to think of it, how the hell did I end up here? Let’s see… I left the office at 5:30 with Chris, walked home, slipped somewhere and… blank. Let’s see, it’s 5 in the morning, I seem to have got the full sleep which means I had slipped around 6 and got dragged here in about an hour. Generally speaking, people of the Main base wouldn’t stalk out there. Meaning it was someone from my bureau. Luckily, it’s the weekends so it’s safe for me to be here. Maybe, just maybe, it had been that I got here whilst being under alcohol…”
As the True Zero wears off and Will heads for the door, he hears something a bit worrying.
“Pure Zero, the boy has it, doesn’t he? So why did you make him an officer of that place of all things? You know their history. You do realize he could easily get killed just by being in the office, right?”
“Yes, and?”
“Just why did you make him the officer of the 13? You seemed to like him so why in hell did you leave him to die in that place? Just why, mate? You could have easily been with him, happily, here. I usually don’t like your people, especially those you hold dear. But now, I’m more concerned for you, Liz. After such horrific path you took, the thing you need the most now is just someone you could rely on. And seeing you become more and more emotionless hurts me. You were the only one who refused to call the 6 “Sociopath Central”. What happened to the girl I recruited? What happened to the one who has empathy towards those who get killed? What happened to Liz the Pure?”
“What happened is that I saw just how happy I was. You said Will is what I need. And you’re not wrong, I like Will and think he could help me cure this illness. But the past I had just doesn’t coincide with what I am now. I was just an orphan with a talent that was named “Pure Zero” along the line. Kinda sad, isn’t it? That boy is like a reflection – a past’s reflection. And at the very same time, he isn’t me. He has dreams, big ones at that. Unlike mine which is just a faint, impossible mess… So, when the hell are you leaving? This is my base.”
This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.
After Peterson gets kicked out, Will emerges through the door and asks a few questions from Liz like what is her illness.
“So, what was that all about? I know you had a rough past but what is your illness? When did you catch it? What is it? What did Peter say?”
As Liz answers some of it with a vague reply, only thing she explained was her condition:
“Do you remember how I recruited you and said you were not a good person? That’s my illness – psychopathy. In fact, I deemed you unworthy because of your underdeveloped psychopathy. Ironic, isn’t it? But I really liked you from the beginning, Liam. But the only thing I was afraid of was that I was afraid to get you killed. There is a thing called “Pure Zero”. It’s a base for our corporation that helped to unify the branches. But before I was recruited there were no such thing as Pure Zero or anything that was demanded to have in 51. Yet then, they were already unified. The only thing I brought along with Pure Zero was destruction. As a result of my arrival, the base of 51-1, 51-3, 51-4 and 51-8 were destroyed several times. In the span of 8 years, we had to rebuild our bases 8 times, 5 of which were 51-3. But I didn’t want you to be killed alongside me. Better you don’t see the ones you love die rather that dying with them, eh?”
As Will realizes Liz and him have almost the same take on mortality, he says one thing and goes off to his base to let the 13 Tailed Fox know their past and their general directive (and also to party).
“Je bent zo schattig, ik hou van je”.
Not knowing what he said, Liz thought to herself that Will had said something along the lines of being disappointed and disgusted.
At the Archive Base, Will and his bureau is having a meeting. As Will has to tell them why they were chosen to be the elite, he hesitates as they all have their reasons to become the people they are.
“So, mates, we have half a nil to spend, so any suggestions?
“Nope”
“How about we go for an order?”
“Eh?”
“You see, the base of District 3 has been burned down a few times. So, let’s find the one who keeps committing arson.”
“Even if you find them, there is just no way that they would go down to a mere dozen people. And see, it’s the thing you keep forgetting – we are their target. Unless we call in reinforcements from the other districts, we would go down just like the previous.”
“Nope, we are going to get them once and for all. And even if we are only a dozen, we are the elite branch of 51 and we have the capitol to go for the operation. And we have reinforcements if we have to call in one. Don’t you guys want to kill them – the people who burned down your district’s base 5 times? You people are less of a fox than a cat, eh?”
“Well, we have nothing better to do so let’s go for it, eh?”
“Excellent! Now, who here have another plan? I want to hear it”
“Perhaps we should go to a bar and drink for a bit. And maybe we could go to a karaoke. Or we could go to a good restaurant and eat as a bureau.”
“Welp, it’s settled then. Shall we go for a hunt then?”
*a bit over 2 hours later* “Well, that was easier than expected.”
“Huh? Mate! Here is a letter addressed for you. It says “to Liam”.”
“That’s odd. Who in their right mind would write a lengthy letter to their target?”
*opening the letter* “Dear, Liam. I’m writing this to you to be founded after your breach into the 12’s base. As of the time of writing this, I’m glad to say that telling you my condition was a good thing. Unless you’d go about your way like normal people, you’d do just like me and go for the order of taking out the people who burned down District 3’s base. And if you’re wondering, I knew these people and their address so I wrote this right after you left to go party with your bureau. As said before, I went for the order to take care of these people. But I fell short of pulling it off because of my concern in the lack of manpower. Or so I thought. Since you’re there with presumably the 13 tailed fox, with great regret to tell you, I was a chicken. Ironic, isn’t it? You were under a rule of a chicken and then became the head of a fox. If you’re conflicted, remember this one thing I’ll say – schizophrenia. And one thing before I end this letter: What did you say to me before you left? I didn’t understand the thing you said to me – I don’t speak Dutch, mate. Well, hope you’ve succeeded in your assault. From Elizabeth the Pure, have faith in this.”
“Well, that was fun, wasn’t it?”
“Aside from Liz, only you would say that because of the similarity. How could you be this happy after killing that many people?”
“It all boils down to my inability to assess danger and the lack of commonsense. Haven’t you had fun?”
“Well, I would be lying if I say I haven’t had fun. But it was risky. And that letter of yours proves that. As Liz, the most talented CO, said she chickened down from this order. And you, not the most talented CO, took the order and went completely blind to kill off a half a hundred or so people. But, we did it. And that proves that we are still the elite group of the corporation.”
“So, let’s get this report on the way and party tonight”
*several drinks later*
*drunk Alfonso* “Liam, mate, you look tipsy. Here, let me call you a cab”
“It appears that you’re too drunk, mate. You’re calling me tipsy all of a sudden. And calling me a cab? You become a bit too generous after a couple of pints. Well, if you insist, keep it to yourself and bring it out once it’s your turn to cover the bills.”
“Who are you calling drunk? I’ve always been. It’s you that suddenly got an eyeball… Well, it’s maybe time to go home”
“Look at them, happy and living out their best lives. They don’t know why they are here or how they ended up here yet they are happy.”
“Maybe you’re too drunk too, Liam. You’re spitting gibberish. We are here because we didn’t die at the time of our death. We’re dead men, Liam. Sad but we are all dead. Our llama there, died in 2019 from a car accident. And Zoë there died in 2018 from a house fire. We all are dead, mate. We were orphans and due to 51 rules, we can’t be registered as orphans or else they’d have to explain things outside of work to the government. Instead, they “adopt” us and we would die soon after we get adopted. As that, our records would be terminated legally.”
“So, you don’t have parents?”
“Yep”
“Well, that explains a lot. Where do you live?”
“In corporation funded apartments. We have communal breakfasts and everything.”
“Eh? And where exactly is that?”
“Our apartment is in Sector 18, near your house.”
“So, that’s that. I called a cab and you seem to know your address so you tell the driver where your house is. I can’t get drunk so I’ll stick here for a bit.”
“Fare well!”