John Williams was your average prodigy at his school. Top of the class in his university and graduated with honors. His Master's Degree was talked about for months after he presented his work and he was even among the youngest nominee for a Nobel prize.
But nowadays he couldn't feel more average even if he tried. He still remembers how good it had felt when he was scouted by the most prestigious organization in the world. How could he not after being scouted by the Saintworth Conglomerate?
And not by one of their satellite companies, but by one with their logo on it!
It was the happiest day of his life, what he thought at the time would be a life of glory and riches. And while he had plenty of riches, the glory was short-lived. Some might say that ten years of glory were plenty. But after tasting the sweet taste of adoration from the masses...Well, one couldn't say he could live as before.
Even if his subordinates said that nothing changed even if they were now deemed the worst of the best, they still were on top of the world. And he was aware that there were better people above him...But why would they come to his workplace!?
"Professor, the new weapon is on the testing ground, but the buyers want to ask you questions about it..." said a lab-coated aide, he never could remember their names before, but nowadays since he thought of himself as one of them...
" I am busy Bruce, tell them that if they ask stupid questions we will double the price, if they still want me around I will go" dismissed the Professor. If they arrived before the new monsters of Labs 0-2 he would enjoy every meaningless conversation he had with the investors...
Nowadays he couldn't stomach their eyes...Even if he was the sky for them and they only wanted to grovel as his feet...He couldn't help but feel that the image of those monsters would haunt him.
How could he dare to act as a big shoot with those monsters around the corner?!?
He knew they never came to his presentations after he asked them to not come. Even if it was mostly for solidarity reasons as he was the only lab that could reliably bring money into the site. Well, solidarity by Professor Kellet & Professor Eversoul. Alexanders was mostly just there to annoy people. And he didn't know how he was still above him in the pecking order.
Probably the spoiled brat of a son from a major shareholder or something. He never went to the parties of the investors made by the company so he couldn't be sure about it. Maybe if he went he would have known with more time about the reshuffle of the Labs, but that was a hope that was dashed by his own decisions to have a clear division between his work and his pleasure. "The investor says he is sorry to bother you...But he has a few doubts..."Said a meek voice again, bringing him out of his thoughts.
Nothing to do about it "Fine, tell him I will pass by in a few minutes" said John before starting the tedious process of logging out of his station. One of the few things he liked about the changes brought by those monsters. At least the workstations are more secure nowadays. Especially with all the extra steps, he didn't mind them much and was somewhat sure that Alexanders never did them. He would be a happier man when he found evidence of that, especially since he wouldn't be at the bottom of the pecking order. He was sure that's the reason he gave so many of his spots on the Priority List just so he could keep above him and feel superior. But he wasn't able to afford that kind of decision, too much of his work depended on his material. "Let's go and see to that big shot."
Today testing weapons should be a bolter variant. He never quite understood why they liked those oversized weapons, and never minded it that much. For now, he needed to get into that weird capsule and start the holo conference. Never liked these things, even if they made more secure the site...Even if he could now project himself to almost anywhere in the world. It never was the same. But it was for security reasons and the IT Overlord couldn't be convinced to allow guests into the site since it was 'Dangerous'.
"What can I help you with today, Mister...." said the Professor while looking into his notepad to see the name of his guest " ...Pain?" and so he did a double take, and indeed he was called Pain, talk about a weird name.
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"Doctor John! Glad you could make time for this! " said the overly enthusiast man "Was wondering if you could add electric rounds to this weapon...We had some problems with a few new species" and he even showed the image of some kind of wolf. By the looks of it, it was a really big wolf or they lived in really small forests. Since those wolves were as big as a tree. But while that would look interesting to Professor Kellet since it was a live sample of what looked like a giant monster kind of wolf, for himself it was just more annoying work.
Especially since "The manual we sent your way should indicate that this weapon allows special rounds to be loaded into." said Professor John while materializing beside his holo projection said page of the manual, the advantage of being connected to that pod was that he could hide his annoyance modifying his avatar. He could also show the information he wanted faster this way.
For his part, his interlocutor only said "Oh, beg you pardon in that case Doctor. To be honest this was an excuse to see you...You haven't been around parties as much and we don't even get to see you no matter how much we spend...So the boys were worried you had been fired or something..." and that was the reason he didn't want to come.
Before he didn't mind mingling with these big shots, he even made a show of showing into parties of high society "Apologies, we have been busy with work, and the new security prevents me from going outside as much as before" said without missing a beat the Professor. Giving his usual excuse for not mingling as often.
"I see, it must be hard being the most renowned Doctor in that company. Maybe you could delegate some work to that new blonde guy that started working in there?" Said the investor "I saw him a few days ago in a restaurant..." and so the dread started to creep in "I think he said he was called Alex-something...?" That shouldn't be possible. But it was somehow..." Here it is, we even took a picture! I knew he worked in your lab since he has one of those weird emblems on his clothes like you used to" and so it was...
A picture of the ever-smiling asshole that leads Laboratory 2 with the big shot he was seeing right now. By the date on the metadata of the photo, it was taken a few weeks ago. Another advantage of this pod, he could see the metadata of the photo too, and the geolocation was indeed very far away from the site. Even if most of this data would be scrubbed clean when he left the pod. And he knew he couldn't save the evidence since the pod and the room it was in were isolated and most would be lost when he logged off.
Dammed security! He had the info to screw that man right now and couldn't use it!
But for now "Actually Alexander is part of another Lab, and we have different work so I can't order him around" Start defusing the situation and don't let them know he was below that asshole in the pecking order.
"But if a person of your importance orders it unless he is a head of a Lab he shouldn't be able to shrug it off. If needed you can even use my name for it! That's what friends are for!" but this man, like most of his ilk, couldn't read what they didn't want to read.
"I will think about it..." and he wouldn't be the one to say it "...But I don't want to indebt you to another laboratory. So I will see if we can manage a party one day when the current joint project is finished" For the love of all that is holy he wouldn't admit to an old acquaintance that he wasn't as high in the command order as he was before.
Even if most of his privileges weren't lost. Even if his influence was rising nowadays "I will settle with that for now then" said the investor "But I mean it, use my name if necessary... I will sign the order with triple the asked price as proof of my sincerity" What sincerity was that if it costs nothing? He liked this pod in these cases, he knew this man was rotting in money, so paying thrice the price wasn't a problem for him, so there wasn't any honesty behind his words. For what's money worth when you don't miss its absence? He would recoup that loss by the time he had left the building.
"Thank you, the thought is what matters. And don't mind Alexander that much. Even looking like that, he is still the head of Laboratory 2" spat John, he even left his true feelings to show in the avatar to make a point of this. For his part, the investor acted like he didn't notice, but he knew that in his calculating head, he was formulating plans over plans to try and use Alexander for his gain. Wouldn't that be amusing? That man didn't look like he liked to mingle in high society. So maybe he could mess with him like this. Anyway, "I must leave you now, if something does show up in the first month we will reimburse the original price and give you a discount on the new order." said John while walking his avatar to the outside of the door. He didn't mention the extra money that wouldn't be returned. Nor said how that "Bonus discount" was meaningless if they were paying close to 300% of the value of his weapons.
As the top weapon manufacturer in the world, his Lab (Even if now it was Laboratory 3) chose the pricing of weapons, and there weren't doubts in his mind about how this investor would spend the first half of the month trying to reverse engineer his work. Not that it would matter. Even if they somehow managed to reverse engineer the bolters, the models he sold didn't even have semi-automatic mode, he wondered if they would ask for it to be included in their next iteration or would just suck the bullet again. How many iterations till they noticed that part never changed...Of course, the model with semi-automatic mode was ready, even if it was only a 3-round shot. And most of the guards on the site hated that mode.
"Charge 500% of the original MSRP for normal buyers, he was willing to help me out, so he will help me out," said John to one of his aides after getting out of the pod chamber. It was such a good piece of technology and they were one use only. Some days he thought too that these new security lineaments were over the top. To destroy such a fine piece of technology beyond saving and then repurpose it for another user to make sure not even a single byte of data was salvageable. One couldn't argue with the IT Overlord, he meant business alright.
But he was still annoyed on his way back to his lab. "So close, yet so far away ♪~" and the day was ruined. The blonde asshole was again singing another nonsense song while strolling without a care in the world "The evidence was here and yet couldn't be used, such a tragic story right John?" he never quite understood what this man was going on about. What was he even talking about? "No cognizance after all...Man, that's harsh" said the blonde leader of Lab 2, and then without further ado, he went on his merry way.
"Never understood that man" Thanks to that asshole he even managed to lose his train of thought. But one of these days he would get evidence of mismanagement and climb his way to the top one lab at a time!