I don’t know what I was expecting, but it definitely wasn’t this. Mr. Abernathy didn’t just own a house in Elysium, he owned a freakin’ mansion. I had to double-check the address several times before I finally realized- yes, this is the right place.
His house sat at three floors tall, not counting if there was a basement or attic. It took up a massive chunk of land and looked as if it was some kind of botanical garden wrapped around the front. Plants I had only seen in the holographic gardens scattered about the city were rampant, and the man obviously invested quite heavily in his garden.
A neat, white picket fence surrounded the entire property, a silent warning to those who wanted to trespass. And trespassing would be a very bad idea. I spotted at least four turret mounts scattered about the garden, obscured by patches of fake grass. I probably wouldn’t have even noticed them if the lawn wasn’t freshly mowed.
This house wasn’t alone in its over-the-top protection. Several of the properties on this block, all hosting large and extravagant houses, had similar defenses. I had checked out a couple of them out of idle curiosity, but the roving bands of security kept me from getting too close. Not that I necessarily wanted to in the first place.
Two gardeners were out and about, tending to the plants. They made me nervous. Their gazes caused Insight to chill over my skin, and I had a feeling it wasn’t just paranoia this time around. Although the weapons were well hidden, both were armed and probably dangerous.
Thankfully, I didn’t have to get on anyone’s bad side by trespassing. A manservant- a freakin’ manservant stood at the edge of the fence line, waiting. As soon as I approached, the elderly man nodded to me. “Are you from Mr. Carone?”
“Yes, sir,” I said. How long had this guy been waiting out here? It had been at least an hour since I left Carone’s.
The manservant- no, maybe a butler? Regardless, he gave me a deep bow and then swung his arm out in an exaggerated manner. “My Lady… please, follow me. Sir is awaiting your arrival in the drawing room.”
Damn… imagine having an entire room just for drawing. I barely had a room just for my bed, let alone a leisure activity. Well, leisure for some. “Sure”
The butler led me through the front garden, down a windy path that showed off the pure splendor of it. It would’ve been faster to just cut across the verdant lawn since the path seemed like just a chance to show off to guests, but I followed along behind the elder nonetheless. There was no point doing something to piss off my current boss.
The sheer size of the garden was impressive, and it was evident that the man was compensated well for his work. There I was thinking I was headed for a measly corporate executive in a small standalone house, and now the ante has been upped all the way to a freakin’ mansion. Just who the hell did Carone set me up with?
After a couple of minutes, yes- minutes, we finally arrived at the front door. The servant opened it for me, allowing me to enter the house's grand entryway. I didn’t get to ogle the wasteful extravagance for long before the man once again took the lead, directing me to a small room off to the side of the main hall.
He knocked lightly on the door. “Sir… your guest has arrived.”
A soft voice called from inside. “Please, come in.”
The butler once more opened the door for me. “Presenting the Lady, Sir Abernathy.”
The drawing room was… not what I expected. I expected a room covered in art and easels, with crazy splatters of paint and artistic expression everywhere. This- this wasn’t quite that. Instead, it looked just like a simple living room.
Gold-inlaid furniture sat scattered about the room, from desks in the corners to soft-looking chairs, centered around a grandiose fireplace that looked large enough to house a BBQ. Shelves covered the walls, books of all shapes and sizes lurking in the wooden confines. Art hung from the walls, each more expensive looking than the last. This room alone was probably worth more than everything I owned. Simple.
The center of the room, though, wasn’t furniture or art- no, it was a man. A rather large man, both in height and girth. He wore a simple button-up shirt and a black vest over it. Gold-rimmed glasses desperately clung to his nose as he set the book down. His entire left arm was some kind of golden ASCorp chrome, and he had patches of metal interwoven into his skin in several parts. “You are dismissed, Clarence.”
“Sir.” The butler bowed once more before retreating out of the room. The door behind me closed with a light click.
The man pulled out a device, one I recognized as a bug scrambler… and I thought I was paranoid. Once it turned on, his face cracked into a friendly grin, one which looked entirely genuine as best I could tell. “You must be the one Carone sent over… you’re younger than I was expecting.”
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“Hope that ain’t a problem.” He cringed visibly at my phrasing.
The cringe only lasted a moment before he waved his hand to a chair and the smile returned. “Not at all… might I ask your name? It's best to know who you’re working with.”
I took the seat across from him. “Zuku Ichima.” I mean, it was technically my name. At least, it was my name on my fake ID, so that had to count for something.
“I am Albert Abernathy, the Head of Operations for ASCorp.” He rubbed the back of his bald head. “Did Carone tell you about my… issue?”
“Something about unwelcome letters?” I asked as I tried to make myself more comfortable on the chair. For how fancy it looked, it was surprisingly uncomfortable to sit in.
He nodded and reached for his pocket, pulling out a handful of letters. All were in bright, eye-catching red envelopes. Mr. Abernathy’s kind smile drooped. “I’ve been receiving threats for weeks. The Crusade won’t do anything since they’re only threats, but I need these to stop.”
I stretched out a hand. He hesitated, refusing to hand them to me. “I need to see them if you want me to try and track the person down.”
He sighed and his shoulder slid back to the seat. “Yes- yes, of course. I just hesitate- because, well, the nature of these letters… Carone assured me confidentiality would be maintained, but…”
“Once the job is over, it’ll be like I never even saw them.” I offered and smiled gently. I tried to go for a mixture of a kind and innocent smile, drawing the perfect trustworthy expression.
Mr. Abernathy handed over the bundle of letters. “Right…”
I cast a look over the letters, setting them down to the side for now. Nothing immediately stood out other than black smudges all over a couple of them. “Do you know who might be sending them?”
“Miss Ichima, I am the Head of Operations for all of ASCorp. It could be anyone, from a disgruntled customer to a political opponent trying to get under my skin.” He waved a hand around the room. “It could very well be anybody. That’s why you are here… and if you can solve this issue discreetly, you’ll have a friend in a very high place.”
I nodded my head and looked back down at the five letters. There was no indication of where they came from, but that didn’t necessarily mean there were no clues at all. I opened them one after the other and read through the five letters.
Each of them were, indeed, threatening, though not in the way I expected. I had expected some kind of threat to Mr. Abernathy’s life or limb, but that wasn’t at all what the letters were about.
In a way, I guess I should've expected this instead. Every single one of them threatened exposure for something unless he paid a king’s ransom, something which was apparently big enough to, and I quote, ‘topple you like an obese pig sitting on a throne of beer bottles’. I had to give whoever wrote it A for creativity at least.
Of the five, three were marked with the same smudges as were on the envelopes. One of them even had what looked to be beer spilled all over it. After looking through the threats I looked up to my temporary boss. “You know what they're threatening? You don’t have to tell me what it is - I’d rather you didn’t - just yes or no.”
“Yes… The people who could’ve known about it I could count on one hand. None of them would resort to something like this…” He dragged his flesh hand down the flaps of his face, sighing into his meaty palm.
“Can you tell me who knew about this… situation?” I raised the letters to him a hair as I rescanned one of them.
He shrugged, his face scrunching up as the fat coalesced in a worried expression. “The CEO of ASCorp, but if he wanted me gone, he’d just kill me and dump my body in the ocean. My wife might know, and so might my son, but they both live off of me, so there’s no way they would. And maybe my old foreman, but she died a couple of years back.”
“This… foreman. What was her name?” It definitely wasn’t the CEO. Like he said, there were easier ways to get rid of someone than blackmail. I wasn’t so sure about his family though, especially considering the backstabbing nature of corpo life. It was probably the wife looking to black widow her husband…
His face shifted to a small, sad smile. “Leanara Strun. She was an amazing woman. I paid for her to be interred in the Grayhill Depository back when she passed. Her poor son.”
Still looked genuine… Was he actually genuine or just better at hiding his Cues than anyone else I’ve seen? It would be foolish to assume I was the master of telling Cues merely from a level four perk, and it had already been somewhat defeated by Feras just recently. It was good against normal people, but maybe not so much against those with lifelong experience of deceiving.
Assuming this was real, I did feel a small amount of pity. Grief was... well, grief. Not the most profound statement, but anyone who's been there would know. “I’ll get to the bottom of this, just give me some time.”
Mr. Abernathy nodded, his bulbous neck jiggling slightly with the motion. His worried expression eased, falling back into a kindly smile. “Right… if you need anything else, feel free to drop by anytime. I’ve taken a week’s vacation to see this through.”
I stood up from my chair, feeling no small amount of relief at leaving its painful grasp. “Yes, sir. I’ll be back sometime soon.”
He rose too and stuck out his large palm. “Well, it was a pleasure to meet you. If you solve this quickly, I might even throw in a little something extra for the help.”
I left the room, following behind Clarence as he led me back down the winding path to my bike. Before I stepped off the property, the butler stopped me with a business card. “My Lady, I greatly appreciate you helping Sir out. This is a stressful time for him, so if you need any help getting this done quickly, don’t hesitate to ask.”
I grabbed the card and looked it over. It had Albert Abernathy’s number on it, as well as one scribbled in on the back. “Chek.”
Sliding onto my bike, I thought through the list of potential suspects. Leanara Strun. She was the least likely suspect, being dead makes it kinda hard to blackmail, but I might be able to find some records and see if she had any living relatives. I could just use the Crusade backdoor, but it would be more trouble than it's worth to find someone based just off a last name.
I queued in Grayhill Depository onto the Mapp™, and kicked my bike into gear.