A red signal beeped for a couple of minutes, with neither Alvara nor Robert paying attention to it; it was obvious what happened, but there were countermeasures in places for such occasions; escape routes, scramblers for deep scanners, multiple tunnels, it was all taken care of.

The man yawned, generating a large, digital sign that illustrated it, like in a comic book; a personal touch that Robert has added to his virtual avatar.

Robert- “ Hmmm, we’ve got, like 10 minutes? before the meeting… Do you feel peckish? I’m feeling peckish.”

Alvara- “ I shouldn’t…but who cares, let’s grab a bite.”

Their bulky pods shifted and quivered, moving pieces and parts around until a couple of tubes connected to the physical bodies of the CEOs. A mix of unknown ingredients that resulted in the green goop slowly slid through the plastic pipes directly into a pair of flat bellies. It took a while for the concoction to be absorbed, during which a concert of splashing and slugging noises reverb around the pod.

Inside the virtual land, the two CEOs slowly ate Robert’s favorite old-time meal, the now extinct potatoes alongside the long-forgotten fish. “Delicious. Just like my ancestors used to fry them”, remarked the man while licking the plate.

Alvara- “ It’s…fine. Same as yesterday. Or the day befor-”

Robert- “ Stop it, I get it. And I told you, the power needed to generate new flav-”

Alvara- “ But what luck you had that you were able to enter your fucking slop! Look at me, I’m bob cut Robert, check out my fake glasses and equally fake accent. “ The woman lifted herself from the table, continuing her mocking imitation, adding more and more insults to the mix.

Robert- “ You’re being childish”, he coyly added; a non-reply, weaponized by man to hide his own juvenility with the mask of a grown up; to bury the impulses to just scream and yell in return.

Alvara- “ And can you blame me? Two fucking years wasted to cover our asses, tons of industries in shambles from the lack of worklabour; the stress is pilling up, not to say how much energy we are throwing in this wonderland of yours-”, she turns around to encapsulate the white void of the virtual world; “- and after all that bullshit I’m stuck with eating fake fish and-”

To Robert’s reprise, the remaining members of their new group, the Trust, finally arrived on scene. Four CEO from the older guard entered first; a mousy woman wearing a fancy winter coat, called Elina, followed closely behind by her new husband, Zude; as the two members with the least amount of power, they decided to band together, fearing the might and influence of Alvara and Robert’s partnership.

Joni, a large man with a metallic jaw, carried on his arm the former number one, Samuel, who has finally let old age catch up with him;

If you spot this narrative on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

Robert- “ Seriously, Joni? We’re in a digital plane, he doesn’t even have to move a real pinky to be able to fly around here.”

Joni- “ Eh, the old man’s too tired to even think about that. Give him some rest.”

The last ones to join were the new head of the Zin family, the Comandante and, broadcasting from his purified chamber from his church, the Reverend, who turned up his excuses from mark one.

Reverend- “ Excuse my lack of curtsy, my colleagues, but I-”

Alvara- “Yes, yes, you want to keep your human body protected from the toxins etc. We know. All I want is for us to get this over it for now. “ She then frowned at their “leader”, giving him the “permission” to start the meeting. He ignored it, though, seething inside as none have used the avatars created by an app developed at one of his companies. “Bunch of ungrate- all that wasted time to gather data from-”

Robert coughed, amplified by the virtual place, which also muted everyone else. A “feature” he imposed. “Miss Comandante Tuniczia, please begin with your front row reports. “

Tuniczia- “ front r- what th- Thank you, Robert. We’ve advanced in our tries to infiltrate the Playground; on all of our attempts. My copy managed to obtain information related to how we keep losing C.T.Ds to them- and it’s this”, she then pulls out an image of Savan, to Elina’s eternal shame, as she sponsored the clopy in the last R.O.C.

Tuniczia- “And former CEO Priya along with C.T.D. Vivar. They discovered a method to use the cloned employee to interact with the drones minds and remove our dormancy over their minds.”

Absolute silence soon followed, as neither expected that to be the answer to their two years mystery.

Robert- “ Fucking Priya… She never even logged this anywhere. Anything else?”

Tuniczia- “ Unfortunately, no. My copy managed to condense this short analysis in the signal sent to your infiltrators before being shut down. “

Alvara- “ Great, but now even our trump card was foiled. Not without thanks from your other husband, I might add.” While her words were filled with venom, the head of Zin barely felt them. Even to her, Fabius and Melina’s mission was a mystery, as both were seemingly captured and haven’t sent a message back. To her surprise, though, Joni felt more insulted by the remark.

Joni- “ Watch it Alvara; if Fabius has helped them out, it is for our benefit in the end. Never doubt the Zin family's professionalism…right, m-am”, he turned towards the matriarch.

Tuniczia- “ True, thank you…But I’m not entirely sure myself.”

Zude then raises his hand, prepared to deliver their report. “We’ve upscaled the production of clones…and they managed to cover for the missing workers, with some hiccups…”

Robert- “ Chemical plants explosions aren’t what I would call hiccups, Zude.”

Zude- “ Well, what do you want from me man? We’ve cut lots of corners in the manufacturing to solve the quality problem with quantity…as per your orders, by the way!”

While they were still on mute, the CEOs mouth kept on moving, raising a racket inside their pods, even though no one could hear them- but they could feel them, their anger and frustration. Especially Robert, who then caught a glance of Samuel, and could have sworn that he saw a grin on the old man’s face. For a moment, a second only.

Robert- “ENOUGH!”he yelled out, stirring a sense of fear in the others; he still had years of imposing his will unto most from the older guard. “ We’ve got issues with staff? Fine! Elina, Zude, start making copies of whatever specialists we still have. And it doesn’t matter if we lose some of them in the process, the copies will cover for that.”

A few touches later, he then sent the rest of their assignments: Alvara to continue working on Samuel’s old plans for the C.T.Ds, Joni was in charge of upgrading their drones that lost in the R.O.C; The Comandante continued her strikes on the Playground, while the Reverend to diversify his programs of appeasing the works- “Your preachings managed to quell some uprisings somehow, so something works there”, declared Robert, not realizing the hole he was digging himself.

Samuel- “ And you?”, talked the old man for the first time, with a shrivel voice.

Robert- “ Ah, welcome back. Me? I’ll use all of my, and your, resources to develop a new power source.”

Samuel- “...You do that, boy. You do that”, he remarked, then turned away to fall asleep.

Robert- “ Prick…Whatever, I declare this meeting of the Trust to be over. Dismissed.”