After Maxi finished talking about it all, she felt lighter. The fact that she had just a couple weeks to figure out which one of the Power Twelve was attempting to kill her didn’t seem as daunting. There would be another head in the game. She wouldn’t have to do it alone.
“You’re from another world. That explains so much about you,” Farhad said when it was all over.
Maxi punched him on the shoulder and said, “I grew up on Earth.”
“No, I mean...never mind. It was a stupid comment. You do know that by telling me this, you risk termination,” Farhad said.
“Oh, gee, no! Not termination!” Maxi said sarcastically. “Which only happens if you start posting conspiracy theories on the message boards.”
“I would never do that. There is a Public Relations Branch. They post most of the conspiracy theories.”
“I suppose they are the ones behind all those conspiracy theories like dogs aren't real.”
“Among other things. The easiest way to hide the truth is to put enough bullshit out there so that it all looks like bullshit.”
“So, do you believe me?”
“I can’t say what I believe, but I can say that I believe in you, and if you say it’s true, then I’ll have to treat it like it's true unless I learn otherwise.”
“You don’t know how much that means to me, Farhad.” Maxi wasn’t much of a crier, but she could feel the emotion forming in her gut. She decided to rein it back before things got too gushy. “So, can we track information about the Power Twelve? Even just their damage dealt during the last year of raids or so would be helpful. We’d at least know who wasn’t putting in all their effort.
“Considering they aren’t throwing all the raids, just enough to keep us weak, I don’t know how helpful that would be. Even the last raid that failed may not give us enough of a signal.”
“But if we compared the damage they had done to the last three bosses to the one last month, we’d maybe see who wasn’t putting in their top effort.”
“People go on vacation, get sick and even injured. Sometimes they are just bored. There are a lot of reasons why some people may not give it their all. I don’t think poor performance means they are murderers or out to undermine the Company.”
“But it would at least narrow down the list. I’ve only met two of the Power Twelve. My uncle–”
“I still can’t believe that,” Farhad said.
Maxi ignored him and continued, “and Sledge, or whatever his name is. Who names their kid Sledge anyway?”
“Once you get to a certain Tier, you can use a handle that isn’t your real name. Being at the top has its privileges. I wouldn't think Sledge would be in any conspiracy. He is the top Sales Associate and believes in the mission.”
“Heavy Metal Wiki is the top sales guy?” Maxi asked incredulously.
“Yeah. I mean, our business is slaying monsters. What better way to convince a client that we are good at what we do than that guy.”
“Fair point.”
“I’ll run the analysis using your uncle’s data. We’ll see who may not have been putting in their best effort on the last raid. I just don’t want you to go and storm their office and challenge them to a duel,” Farhad said.
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“What makes you think I’d do that?”
“Your track record of impulsive decision-making isn’t exactly the best. You couldn’t even sit still long enough to heal fully before going on another quest.”
“That was supposed to be a simple fetch quest.”
“Nothing is a simple quest around here.”
“Duly noted,” Maxi said, and sighed. She didn’t know what she would do if Farhad hadn’t stepped into her life. “Let’s get back to the office. I know this is costing you.”
They took the magic elevator back to the Pool and stepped into chaos that had broken out during the moment they were away. Patti was holding a picture above her head while Belinda was attempting to snatch it away. Daisuke and Flav were attempting to separate the pair, but Belinda was quick and could wriggle free from their grip. Yancy was trying to talk them all out of it.
“What the hell is going on?” Maxi said in her best mother voice, cutting through the frenzy.
Belinda ran behind Maxi, hissed like a cat, and said, “She stole my boyfriend and won’t give him back.”
Daisuke and Flav stood down and slumped on their chairs. Patti, on the other hand, had a framed picture of the pop star Ricky Martin.
“I’ve had this at my desk since… well, I can’t remember,” Patti said, then added, “He inspires me.”
“Why do you have–” Maxi said. “Never mind. Belinda...”
“Meow?” the wild haired inventor purred.
“I don’t think that’s your boyfriend. You left him in the shop.”
Belinda licked her hand and brushed it against her face like a cat and then bellowed with laughter. “That’s right! He’s in the shop. I left him in the shop!”
“Next time you have the urge to take something off someone’s desk, ask,” Maxi said.
“Meow. Meow. Meow,” Belinda said, then trotted off to her cubicle where she pulled out three old granola bars from her bag and sniffed them in turn.
“Do we have to keep her?” Patti asked, placing her signed Ricky Martin photo back on her desk.
“You haven’t seen her in a fight,” Maxi responded. “If we are going to make this Office Pool into something, we are going to need everybody.”
“What’s with you being team leader all of a sudden?” Daisuke said pointedly.
“I came to some realizations recently,” Maxi replied. “This place isn't all that bad, even when you’re being a shithead, and we actually have the makings of a good party here. So, we can either try individually to jockey for more power and prestige, then jump ship when another Pool comes around, leaving the others to die if we fall below Tier 9 again, or we can make something of ourselves.”
“I don’t know if you got the message,” Daisuke said, “but it’s the Power Twelve, not the Power Office Pools.”
“But why couldn’t it be?” Maxi asked. “There are twelve rank 1 players in the entire Company. None of them are in the same Office Pool. In fact, I checked the leaderboards. None of their cumulative Tiers is even the top ranked.”
“That’s because chasing the cumulative is a fool’s errand. All having the best team does is get you a free pizza party or a day off at the movies on the Company’s dime. Do you think the Power Twelve, who spend their Saturdays on a yacht or at the golf course, care about those types of incentives? It’s all so they can keep making money so the wealthy people can just play around with their money.”
“My point exactly. The whole system has us focused on the wrong thing! What if we picked quests not because they would get us the most credits, but because they saved the most people? You saw what it was like after we figured out how to defeat the raid boss.”
“That was all you,” Farhad said.
“I couldn’t have done it if you and Yancy hadn’t believed in me. The point is that people were cheering us, not because we made money.”
“That was pretty nice, though,” Flav interjected.
“They were cheering us because we saved one fourth of the Company from getting murdered at the end of the month. And you know what? I think we can save a lot more of them.”
“What? How?” Yancy said.
“We buy out their contracts.”
“That’s impossible. The amount of money that it would take to buy even the lower performers' contracts–”
“Would be what the Power Twelve are making. That’s right. I can do math, too. Well, sometimes. I had to use a calculator, but that’s not the point,” Maxi said. “The point is, when you’re on your deathbed, do you think the world will measure you by how many yachts you own, or how much golf you played? Or will it be for the difference you made? There is shit in the world that even the resurrection chairs can’t handle. When your time comes, do you want it to be for another sports car or for something that matters?”
Belinda clapped. “Meow! Meow! Meow!”
Daisuke frowned, but said, “What’s the plan?”
“Take a look at your quests. Take the ones that matter. We’ll pool our resources. Buy out contracts at the end of the month for people who don’t make the cut, so they can go back to their loved ones,” Maxi said.
“But what about our loved ones?” Patti asked.
“We’ll be saving them, too. Trust me on this.”
Maxi hoped she was right. There was an apocalypse on the horizon. Whether it was grutomatons, killer ooze, a hostile takeover by one of the less-friendly-to-human-life multi-dimensionals, or something else – she knew it was coming.