Tuesday, June 7, 2045

Day 2

The hot summer sun rose over the City. The sun’s rays shone deep into cross streets canyons. Shadows stretched behind the tall buildings, holding on to the fading darkness of the night.

Squinting against the bright sun, Kaden crossed 1st Street and stepped into the cool shadow of the Tower. His thoughts went back to the end of the day yesterday, rubbing the bandage in between the thumb and forefinger of his left hand. He contemplated how far he was willing to go to uncover the truth.

After yesterday’s demonstration, almost all of the interns joined Kaden in continuing with the Program. A few bowed out, leaving exactly 99 interns. There were a few additional orientation activities, like a tour of the Company cafeteria on the 3rd Floor and a catered lunch.

And then, for the final activity of the first day, the Company installed an implant in the hand of each intern.

The narrative from the Company was simple and straightforward, and made sense, to a certain extent. Every employee in the Company received an implant. The implant provided unique access control to Company devices and Company property. There were no passwords, no keys, and no way to pretend to be anyone other than who you were. Also, there was no choice – take the implant, or leave the Company and ostensibly have your memory wiped.

Kaden did not trust the explanation from the Company. He wondered what else the implant did. With the power of magic, who knew what was possible by inserting such devices into their bodies?

Kaden already had a very strong suspicion that the Company used the implants not just for access control to Company property, but also used them to keep employees from sharing Company secrets.

Last night, Kaden told his mom and sister all about his first day. He tried to tell them everything, but he found himself unable to describe anything about magic, or monsters or any of the details that might be considered confidential. As in physically unable to speak. He tried, more than once; but the words died in his throat. It was as if his body was too tired or lethargic to comply.

He even pulled the crocodile tooth from his wallet, where he had stowed it after Alexander’s demonstration, and showed it to them. He hoped he would be able to tell them about what he had witnessed, but something kept him silent. It was all he could do to stay awake in his chair. His mom and sister seemed worried by the awkward and lengthy pause. Kaden explained it away as just being tired after a long day, and went to bed early. He left the tooth at home on his dresser, a reminder of the deadly secrets he was unable to share.

It was frustrating to discover the depth and strength of the magic controlling the Company’s confidential information. He had no idea how it worked, but he now knew that everyone in the Company was severely limited in what they could or couldn’t say about the Company to outsiders. That helped explain why the Company was able to keep the monsters secret. But it didn’t explain all the rumors of accidents on Company property, nor his father’s death.

Even if I can’t expose the Company today, it doesn’t matter, Kaden told himself. What mattered was access to the Company – and access to the information he needed. He would find a way around the restrictions in the future, if he had to.

Kaden shook off these thoughts as he pushed through the entry turnstile into the Tower lobby. Today was a big day. He was supposed to meet his manager, start his official role in the mailroom, and receive his standard Company kit. He was excited to see what new developments the day would bring.

Kaden badged through security, now able to use the implant in his hand instead of a visitor badge. The mailroom was on the first floor, past the elevator bank. Kaden easily found the entrance, and with a deep breath, he opened the door and walked into a large, open room.

In the center of the room, boxes of mail and packages rested on a sorting table. A short, thin man with graying hair at this temples was busy picking envelopes out of a box and tossing them into cylindrical openings on the right wall. The door closed behind Kaden with a loud clang, and the man looked up.

He greeted Kaden with a thin smile, walking over to shake his hand.

“Intern?” he asked.

“Yes, that’s me. Kaden Chen.”

“Peter Ndugu.” He pointed to a door to Kaden’s left, opposite the wall with the cylinders for envelopes. “Julia’s office is over there, she’s expecting you.” With a curt nod, Peter returned to his task.

Kaden walked over to the door, but then paused to watch Peter work a moment. He was fast. And ridiculously accurate. He barely glanced at each envelope before tossing each one over ten feet into one of the openings on the wall. The wall was covered with cylinder tubes, and each envelope went into a different tube. Peter never missed.

How’s he doing that, Kaden wondered.

He knocked on the door of Julia’s office. “Come in,” a voice called out.

Julia Kingsley, Mailroom Manager, sat behind well-worn brown desk, typing rapidly on a laptop. She closed the lid and stood up as Kaden entered.

“Welcome,” she smiled, extending a hand. “Have a seat,” gesturing at one of the chairs opposite her desk.

Julia was a petite woman dressed in a no-nonsense business suit. She had graying, black hair and appeared to be in her late 40s. Her face seemed naturally serious, but a warm smile came easily.

“So second day at the Company – how was yesterday, by the way?” Julia asked.

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Kaden shrugged. “It was … interesting, I suppose.”

Julia chuckled. “I heard about it. Alexander Wolfe… yeah, he’s something else.” She shook her head. “Anyway, glad to have you.

“I’m the manager here in the Mailroom. We’re a small group. We don’t receive enormous amounts of mail and packages, but we do more than you might think. As you can imagine, we’re connected in someway to almost every department and office here in the Tower, so that keeps things interesting.

“So first things first … I have something for you,” she said, pulling a mobile device out of a desk drawer. “Let’s hope this works – it’s supposed to be paired to your implant chip.”

Kaden took the device and powered it on. The red Company hourglass logo filled the screen for a moment, and then a message bar appeared.

“You’ve met Peter, I take it?”

Kaden nodded.

“Great. We’ll rejoin him in a few minutes and get you started on helping out there.”

“Looks like its syncing,” Kaden said, “And now it looks like I’m in,” turning the phone to Julia to show a home screen with a collection of pre-installed apps.

“Alright – excellent. Messages, email, meeting calendar, payroll, etc. – it’s all on that device. I’d show you how to use it, but honestly, you’ll spend a few minutes with it and probably be teaching me how to use it by the end of the day.

“Before we get started sorting mail, I’m curious – what did you think of the online exam?”

“Well,” Kaden paused a moment to collect his thoughts. What’s the right thing to say? “It was pretty intense, but also a lot of fun. It was very different than other skill assessments I’ve taken. But once I understood the structure of each game, I was able to dive into it.

“Actually it reminded me a lot of the classic role-playing games I used to play growing up. The strategy, tactics. Thinking ahead to solve problems, that sort of thing. There was a clear story to each of the quests, and once you understood the story, the path to clearing it became clear. But I could see how some people might get stuck and not finish within the time limit.”

Julia nodded. “Thanks for the feedback. Peter and I actually worked on that test this year. It was one of our Plus assignments. You did pretty well on it, too, by the way. Not the best, but pretty close.”

“Thanks,” Kaden replied. “That’s great to hear.” Interesting…he thought. Who did better than me? Perhaps Bill? I don’t know of any other interns who tested into the program like us.

“If I could ask a question – what’s a Plus assignment?”

“Right – so this morning when you came in, you saw Peter sorting the mail, right? That’s an important part of Peter’s work… but not all of it. He has extra assignments that vary through the year, mostly project-based work. Everyone in the Company has a primary “day job,” so to speak, plus extra assignments to further the Company goals.

“So as an intern – your primary role will be assisting Peter with sorting, deliveries, and other tasks we do to keep the Mailroom running. You will also have Plus assignments throughout the internship. More to come on that later.

“Let’s head out to the sorting room. I’d like you to help Peter with sorting this morning’s mail.”

Kaden followed Julia out the door and over to the sorting table.

Julia pointed to a box of mail on the table. “Here’s your box. Take a look at the addressee, see what department it goes to, and put the envelope in the appropriate hole on the wall.”

Pointing to the wall of cylindrical holes, Julia said, “That’s a pneumatic tube delivery system. There are two hundred department addresses on that wall. They’re each labeled with the department code.”

Squinting at the wall, Kaden leaned forward and could make out “X-1” in tiny font under one of the openings.

“Make sense?” Julia asked.

Kaden nodded. “I think so.”

“Good. If you have any questions, just ask Peter, he’ll help you out.” Peter was still doing his thing, pausing only long enough to grab another box of mail off the floor. Kaden estimated he was going through at least three envelopes a second. Paper was literally flying at the wall.

“I’ll be back to check on you in about half an hour. You need to finish sorting the whole box by then. If sorting is done by then, you’ll get to keep your job. If not, I’ll have to look into having you reassigned or dropped from the program.”

Wait what? Kaden thought. That’s extreme.

Kaden looked at Peter, who just smirked. Julia was already walking back to her office. Nothing else to do but get this task done as quickly as possible.

Kaden picked up an envelope out of his box. He looked all over, but there was no department code. He picked up a different envelope, and then another. There were department names but no department code.

“Hey Peter,” Kaden called, “Sorry to bother you, but there’s no department code on the envelopes.”

“Ah right,” Peter said and then frowned. “Let me see… I think we have a hard copy of the department directory around here somewhere…” Peter walked over to a desk in the corner, rummaging around in a drawer until he pulled out a greasy and well-worn laminate sheet filled with columns of 10pt font.

“Here you go,” Peter said and went to back to slinging paper.

It took Kaden a minute, but he found the cross reference. “S-3,” he muttered, turning to the wall. Bottom right corner.

Kaden went to the wall, paused to make sure he wouldn’t get in Peter’s way, then pushed the envelope into the tube.

One down, Kaden thought. At least one hundred more to go.

Kaden did three more envelopes in about five minutes. Peter was almost done with all the other boxes in the room. At this rate, there was no way Kaden was going to get through this box in thirty minutes.

As Peter went to grab the last box, Kaden interrupted with a question.

“So Peter, I have a question if that’s alright.” Peter looked up.

“There’s a better way to do this, right? I mean, you’re plowing through like 200 envelopes a minute and I’m over here moving slower than a snail. Any advice on how I can speed this up?”

Peter thought a moment and then said, “Actually about 220 envelopes per minute. But who’s counting?”

He smiled at his own joke. “Yes – to answer your question, there’s definitely a better way. But you don’t have the tools or skills yet.”

Kaden frowned. What was he supposed to do? If he didn’t find a way out of this, he wasn’t going to make it past his second day on the job.