Kaden took a deep breath and let it out slowly. Either there was a way out, and he would find it; or there wasn’t. If he was being purposely set up to fail, there was nothing he could do about it. On the other hand, if there was a way through this, he would do his best to find it.

Peter was about halfway through his last box.

“So Peter – how long have you been working here?”

Peter slowed down a little but kept going through the box. “Yeah, about 10 years or so.”

“How’s Julia as a manager?”

Peter shrugged. “Pretty good, I guess. I’ve had worse. She can be pretty demanding; very high standards. She likes to crack the whip, if you know what I mean. But she’ll also go to bat for you if needed. She takes care of her people, unlike other managers I’ve had. Some people make a habit of throwing their subordinates under the bus, so to speak.”

Kaden winced.

“So look,” Kaden said. “There’s almost no way I’m going to finish this up in 30 minutes. I see how the system works, but I have no idea how you’re doing what you’re doing so quickly.”

Peter nodded as he wrapped up the last of the envelopes in his box, paper flying in perfect arcs across the room.

“Any chance you can help me wrap this up? Maybe I can help you with something else in return?”

Peter shrugged. “Sure, ok. In return, you can help me hand-delivery larger packages. Sound good?

Kaden nodded. “Sure. Thanks!” What choice did he have?

“Hand over that box,” Peter said.

Kaden did so gladly. Peter made short work of the box. Kaden felt relieved the task was done on time, even though he had to ask for help. He was still amazed at how quickly Peter could pick up the envelopes and throw each of them so accurately.

“So do you mind explaining how you’re doing what you do?” Kaden asked. “If that’s ok to ask.”

Peter pointed to his eyes. “Optical implants. Augmented reality overlay. AI-assisted recognition algorithm I coded myself. All of that combined literally shows me which tube each envelope should go in – a visual overlay in the heads-up display embedded in my eyes.”

Peter held up left hand, pointing to a pair of rings on his thumb and index fingers. “Custom wards. You’ll learn more about these sometime this week, but basically they help me steer anything I throw with that hand. It gets complicated, I’ll explain some other time, but basically these are tools I’ve built over the years using Company tech.” Peter shrugged.

Kaden was amazed. While the Company sold and marketed a wide variety of products, there was nothing like that publicly available. He wondered what else was possible and if he could get his hands on something like that.

Peter walked over to Julia’s office and knocked on the door. Julia walked out.

“Done already?” Julia asked Kaden.

“Yes,” Kaden replied, and then added, “Peter helped me get it done quickly. I offered to help him with deliveries in return.”

Julia nodded her head and turned her head to Peter. “What do you think?”

Peter shrugged. “Good enough.”

Good enough? It seemed like they had planned this out, as if Peter was in on the test.

“OK, great!” Julia smiled. “Kaden – so we’re clear – what we do here in the Mailroom is more about connection and influence, and less about mail and packages,” she said, gesturing to the sorting table.

“Despite doing well on the entrance exam, I needed to know a couple things right away – one, are you willing to ask for help if you need it; and two, are you able to develop a connection and influence a situation to a desirable outcome. I can’t have someone working for me who’s overly reliant on their own abilities and unable to build their own support network. Make sense?”

Kaden nodded.

“Excellent – so now we have a reward for you for passing our little test. Peter?”

Peter went over to the desk in the corner and pulled a box out of one of the drawers. He brought it over to the table and gestured for Julia and Kaden to join him there. He opened the box and Kaden saw ten or so pairs of eyeglasses, of varying different shapes and sizes.

“You get to pick one of these,” Peter said. “Not quite the same as my implants, but similar tech. You’ll be able to pair them with your mobile and other Company devices.”

Kaden looked over the frames. None of them we’re going to win any fashion awards.

“Which ones are best?” Kaden asked.

Peter looked to Julia. “What do you think? How about the 36-Es?”

“Hmmm, yeah that should be fine. Still in beta phase but they passed all the QC checks, right?”

Peter nodded.

Julia picked up a pair of black, circular-framed glasses with thick lenses and handed them to Kaden. “Try these on.”

Kaden took them and put them on. Remarkably, they fit pretty well.

“Pair those with your mobile and get used to navigating the message interface. You’ll need to have that up and running before you make your first delivery.”

Julia went to a corner of the room, retrieved a small package, and handed it to Kaden. It was addressed to Alexander Wolfe, SVP of Product Development, 39th Floor.

“For the summer internship program, Mr. Wolfe has a temporary space on the 10th floor. He’s typically on the 39th floor in the afternoon but works on the 10th floor in the morning. Before lunch, I’d like for you to take this up to the 10th floor and personally hand it to him. I’ve updated your badge for temporary access to the 10th floor. Do your best to deliver the package directly to Mr. Wolfe.”

Kaden accepted the package. “OK, will do!” he said, but his mouth also suddenly felt dry. Memories of yesterday flooded his mind – the green whip slicing the crocodilian head; the teeth, bone and gore spraying the room; and the wicked grin on Alexander Wolfe’s face. Such violent power.

Kaden spent a few minutes working on the glasses. Peter showed him to adjust the notification settings. He also took a few minutes to orient Kaden to the tools for putting together an AR overlay algorithm.

“Later this morning, after we make our deliveries, I’ll show you how to put together the code for the visual overlay to help sort the mail,” Peter promised. “For tomorrow morning.”

Now that Kaden was oriented to his new glasses, it was time to start making deliveries. Grabbing the package for Mr. Wolfe, he headed out the door of the Mailroom.

As he made his way to the elevator, Kaden noticed Bill next to the front desk, squatting down next to a dog.

Surprised, Kaden stopped and watched as Bill fed a cute, well-groomed Corgi a treat and scratched behind his ears. Intrigued, Kaden walked over to Bill.

“Hey Bill! Who is this? Did someone bring their dog to the office today?” Kaden asked.

“Hey man, good morning!” replied Bill. “Let me introduce you to Sandy. Sandy, this is Kaden. Kaden, this is Sandy, our resident canine office companion. He’s the official office pet for the first ten floors. Sandy likes peanut butter.” Bill looked up at Kaden. “Do you like peanut butter?”

You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

Kaden chuckled. “Sure,” he replied as reached down to scratch behind Sandy’s ears. “So Sandy just stays here and roams around the office?”

“Yeah, pretty much! At night, he goes home with Cliff,” Bill gestured to the guard working the desk. “There’s actually an app on your mobile that will tell you Sandy’s location and give you more information about him. You should definitely check it out.”

“I think I will,” Kaden replied. It was nice and somehow relaxing to see a dog during the day. The experience was comforting and homelike – but also jarring and out of place here in the Tower.

Sandy looked up at Kaden expectantly, panting slightly and tongue lolling to the side. It seemed like the Corgi was waiting for Kaden to give him a treat.

Kaden smiled at the dog. “I’ll have a treat for you next time,” he told the dog.

Kaden pulled out his mobile and searched for the app Bill mentioned. He installed it and pulled it up. He was prompted:

Join canine neural interface trial? (Yes / No)

Sure, why not, Kaden thought and selected Yes.

Select translation algorithm:

Corporate Standard

Household Pet Standard

No Filter (beta)

“Hey Bill, can you take a look at this? Do you know about these choices?”

Bill stood up to look over Kaden’s choices.

“So I’m familiar with the first two but not the third, I wonder what that’s about?

“So ‘Corporate Standard’ goes something like ‘Good morning, how are you? Would you like to share a treat with me?’ More formal language, I guess.

“I prefer ‘Household Pet Standard’ – it’s much cuter. ‘Hi there! Can I have a treat? Aren’t I cute today? Scratch my ears please!’” Bill mimicked a small, cute voice.

Bill reached down to scratch Sandy behind the ears. “Isn’t that right, buddy? Aren’t you the cutest.” For his part, Sandy leaned in to the scratching, eyes half-closed and clearly enjoying the attention.

“Cool – thanks Bill. I think I’ll try out this other third option, see what it’s like.”

Intrigued, Kaden selected No Filter (beta). The next screen showed a simple map of the Tower, Sandy’s location, a log of his most recent activities, etc.

“So where you headed, Bro?” Bill asked.

“Making a delivery,” Kaden said, holding up the package. “Mailroom stuff.”

“Right on, right on. We should catch up at lunch or something, yeah?”

“Sure! Sounds good – I’ll message you later this morning.”

With that, Kaden left Bill and Sandy and headed back to the elevator bank.

Kaden had to scan through to a separate elevator bank for floors 10-20, and once inside the elevator, he had to scan his hand again to get the elevator moving to the 10th floor. Lots of security controls, but he was alone in the elevator as it rose smoothly.

As the doors opened, Kaden stepped out into a small reception area. There were a handful of chairs, a couple coffee tables, and an administrative assistant sitting at a long desk. The admin glanced up as the elevator opened but then ignored him.

Before Kaden could take step out of the elevator, a large, red notice popped up on his glasses:

Warning - Restricted Area. Proceed with caution!

Gravity force field in effect (2x)

Ominous debuff active (minor)

You have temporary authorization to enter this area.

Huh? Gravity? Debuff? What did that mean?

Kaden stepped out into the lobby, and he almost stumbled. It was as if a heavy weight was continuously pushing down on his body. A feeling of warning grew in his mind: You do not belong here. Something bad will happen if you do not leave now.

Kaden clenched his jaw and struggled to the desk.

“Hello,” he managed to croak. The admin continued to ignore him, slowly chewing his gum.

“Hello,” Kaden repeated more loudly. “I have a delivery for Alexander Wolfe.”

The admin glanced up and pointed to a basket at the end of the desk. “Deliveries over there,” he said dismissively.

Kaden saw other packages and mail piled up there; however, Julia had been clear about delivering this package to Mr. Wolfe personally.

Kaden frowned and cleared his throat. “I was asked to deliver this to Mr. Wolfe personally …”

The admin looked up and focused on Kaden for the first time. “Well…. To be honest, not sure if you can… not sure how you got clearance for this level because you seem to be in over your head? I don’t think you’ll be able to make it past the hallway if you can barely hold it together here.”

Before Kaden could respond, a door to the hallway on the left opened and out walked Alexander Wolfe. Both the admin and Kaden turned to look, and Alexander paused on his way to the elevator.

“Is there something you need?” Alexander asked.

The admin gestured lazily in Kaden’s direction and went back to his desk screen. Kaden struggled to raise his arm; with double gravity, it was hard to move. Kaden managed to shakily hand over the package.

“Package for you, sir,” Kaden said.

Alexander took the package, and examined it. “Ah! Thank you. You’re Kaden Chen, right? Assigned to the Mailroom?”

Kaden nodded.

“Well then – please give my regards to Julia. Looking forward to what the both of you can contribute to the program this year.”

Alexander called the elevator and remarked, “You know, it’s been a long time since Julia requested an intern for her department; I do hope you have a good experience on the 1st Floor.” With a parting smile, Alexander went into the elevator and up.

So this is what it’s like, Kaden thought. 1st floor versus 10th Floor… This is the difference in power.

Kaden hit the down button. Sweat trickled down his brow. His hands were shaking and he was struggling to keep his breath. Kaden set his jaw and stood up as straight as he could. I can do this, he told himself.

The elevator chimed, and the doors slid open.

With relief, Kaden collapsed against the back wall of the elevator. Kaden was sweating and out of breath. Thankfully the cab was empty; no one else but the rude admin saw Kaden’s discomfort.

Kaden walked slowly back to the Mailroom, trying to recover from the experience.

Julia was waiting for him when he got back with additional packages in her hands.

“So,” she started, raising an eyebrow. “How did it go?”

“Well… to be honest, I had no idea such things existed. There was an extra gravity field in place plus something called an ominous debuff. But I did deliver the package directly to Mr. Wolfe,” Kaden added.

Julia smiled. Somehow, Kaden felt like his boss had fully expected the experience to be painful… and was enjoying it.

“Well done on making your first delivery! What you experienced were fields created by wards built directly into the Tower’s infrastructure. Every floor has wards of various kinds – of which the Tower’s systems will inform you of some, but not all.”

“So why didn’t the wards affect Mr. Wolfe or the receptionist on that floor?” Kaden asked.

“Good question. There are a few different ways to combat the effects of those wards. For example, if your individual level is higher than the floor level, then you will generally but not always be immune to that type of ward. Even so, I doubt the receptionist is over level ten – in this case, I suspect he had a counterward that negated those effects on his person. That’s why I need you to focus on wards for the next week or so, because I want you to make more deliveries for me to that floor and others.”

Kaden gulped. He couldn’t say he looked forward to experiencing that Ominous debuff again… so he definitely wanted to get whatever counterwards he could to help him make these deliveries.

“Where do I get these counterwards?”

“You’ll learn about them in your training classes,” Julia replied. “But don’t forget to ask for help if you need it. For some locations, you’ll need to take a special ward with you. Basically anything above the 10th floor or below the 1st floor, make sure you ask one of us first. When he gets back, Peter can show you where we keep specific counterwards – we have a locker in the back and a check-in/check-out procedure.

“Until then… here’s another one… Tenth floor again,” she said, handing him another package. A pit formed in Kaden’s stomach.

“It’ll be good for you. A learning experience,” she smiled.

Kaden sighed. Reluctantly he turned around and set out to complete his second deliverable of the day.