Day 6

Saturday, June 11, 2045

Sweat flowed down Kaden’s face, trickling into his eyes. He blinked, focusing ahead and waiting for the next monster to appear.

A fox-like creature appeared in front of him. It was much larger than a normal fox, at least twice the size, and three bushy tails floated out behind it. Massive teeth glinted in its’ oversized maw.

Catching sight of Kaden, the demon fox jumped to the right and started running, gliding smoothly over the floor. As he watched, the fox’s figure skipped forward in rapid steps, moving faster than he could follow as it tried to circle behind him.

As he rotated to keep himself facing the threat, Kaden took a precious moment to scan the readings on the monster’s aura displayed in the corners of his HUD. What he saw confirmed his suspicion.

“Aura signature readings… spacetime skipping…” he muttered to himself. “That should mean enhanced speed… Let’s lay a trap for this guy…”

Quick as he could, Kaden activated the air-shield ward that Jill had captured during the ward training. He and Bill had worked on configuring it last night. Basically, the ward created a layer of thicker air in a donut around Kaden. At this ward’s current configuration, the donut started a yard or so away from Kaden and extended about three yards.

The creature disappeared from his view. Kaden whirled around, expecting an attempt to attack him from behind. Sure enough, the creature was trying to move its way through the donut of compressed air, using its skipping ability to lurch forward. It was impossibly quick. Without the ward in place, it would have been on his back before he realized it.

In one smooth motion, he raised his gunsword and activated the blade. Swinging down, he released the ward holding the creature back.

The fox surged forward into his waiting blade. With a clean thwick, the gunsword cut the monster in two clean halves. Ichor sprayed, throwing streaks of steaming green goo all around.

Breathing heavily, Kaden deactivated the gun sword and stood up straight. This was the fifth and final monster in the training session he had programmed for the gym. As an intern, there were only a handful of basic training sessions available for individual or team practice. So far this morning, he had worked his way up from three consecutives monsters to the max of five consecutive monsters. He was starting to feel fatigued.

Following Julia’s advice, he had focused this morning practice sessions on his attack skills. Of course, the training sessions were not without danger.

He pulled at the torn sleeve of his business jacket as he walked out of the training room. In his first session of the morning, a lynx-like creature with eyes the size of softballs had gotten a little too close.

He had to buy a new jacket and hadn’t even been paid yet.

Bill and Jill were waiting for him outside.

“Hey guys! How’s it going?”

“It’s all good, bro. You’re looking pretty solid in there. Didn’t realize you’d be out here on dawn patrol.”

“Early bird gets the worm and all that,” Kaden shrugged.

“Looks like you’re getting a handle on reading the various aura alignments,” Jill chimed in.

Kaden nodded. After the meeting with Julia on Friday, the team had their own debrief over coffee and a light dinner. Bill had helped each of them encode additional wards, and Jill had walked them through additional detail on mana auras. Each monster’s primary aura was a big clue into the types of magical powers they possessed. This was particularly important when they had to face a new monster for the first time.

“Yeah, that last monster was definitely a speed-type.”

“You need a break, bro, or are you ready to go?” Bill asked.

“Nah let’s do this,” Kaden replied.

The team entered the training room, which they had booked for the next two hours. Kaden pulled up a team training protocol on his mobile, and selected the Chickenator exercise.

“You guys ready for this?” he asked.

Bill gave a thumbs up.

“Yep. Just like we discussed,” Jill said.

Three chickenators materialized in front of them, about ten yards away. Each of them activated a sound-dampening ward and moved to surround the monstrous fowl.

This time, the team attempted to replicate the way Team Alpha had performed during their team assessment. And for the most part, things proceeded as planned. One of the creatures didn’t quite get captured in the immobilization ward Kaden used, but as a team they were able to fill a little over three capacitors.

“That went pretty well,” Jill said.

Kaden frowned for a moment, thinking.

“You know,” he said, “It’s good to know we can run the play like that. But there’s another way to approach this, more in line with the feedback we got from Julia on Friday.”

“What do you mean?” Bill asked.

“So instead of each of us taking on one enemy individually, what if we work as a unit, taking on all three as one unit.

“What I’m thinking of is what happens when we run into a situation where we can’t divide and conquer like we just did. In fact, most situations are not going to allow us to operate independently. It’s better if we pool our strengths and work as a unit.”

“OK, makes sense, I think,” Bill replied.

“I think we should be able to do both approaches,” Jill said. “Individually and as a team. That way we’re most adaptable to the situation.”

“Exactly,” Kaden said. “Let’s try this again. But this time, let’s do it differently. Jill – you focus on collecting the mana. Bill will focus on the defensive ward to protect us from the sound attack. I’ll focus on trapping them for optimal mana collection. Make sense?”

“Sure,” Jill said. “Let’s try it.”

“Alright, bro. Let’s go!” Bill added.

Kaden teed up a repeat of the exercise. This time, he and Bill took lead in front, with Jill behind. As the chickenators materialized, he noticed they were a different color.

“Different aura signature!” Jill called out.

“Stick with the plan,” Kaden said. “Bill – you ready?”

Bill nodded. “Null ward in place, instead of the sound dampening one.”

The chickenators attacked the group at the moment. Instead of blasts of sound, bursts of light and fire sped toward the team. As the attacks hit Bill’s invisible ward, they sputtered and died out.

“Going on the attack!” Kaden called as he moved forward.

The beasts were spreading out to encircle them, but he pulled up his gunsword to stop that from happening. He quickly fired off shots to the left and right, missing wide intentionally. The monsters stopped spreading out and focused instead on Kaden, eyeing him and preparing for a charge.

Kaden took a step back, and they charged.

Kaden caught Bill’s eye. He nodded.

At five yards, both Kaden and Bill activated wards, trapping the chickenators in a double-strength immobilization field.

“Hold!” Jill called. “Drawing in mana now,”

And within moments, the form of the monsters was disappearing as the mana flowed into Jill’s empty capacitors.

“Almost four full capacitors guys!” Jill said, beaming. “At this rate, we’ll need to get more empty caps from the armory!”

“Right on,” Bill said, extending his hand in a fist bump for his teammates.

“Run it again?” Kaden asked.

Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

With a short break to get more caps and reload for the next round, Team Kill Bill went back to running through the team exercises. Over the next ninety minutes, they cleared each of the three team exercises available multiple times. The chickenator exercise was the easiest / lowest rank exercise; the medium difficulty exercise featured five three-tailed foxes, and the last exercise had one enormous elephant-like creature with cobras for tusks. That one took attacks from all three of them to subdue it.

At the end of their two hours, they heard a knock on the door. Outside, another group of three people waited to use the room. Kaden didn’t recognize them; they weren’t interns.

As they left the room, Kaden hoped to be able to watch this other team of employees. But the first thing that team did was to darken the viewing glass into the room.

“Huh, I didn’t know that was possible,” Kaden said to Bill, but Bill was looking at the Leaderboard.

Turning to look at the leaderboard, he noticed a new column on the team board. In addition to rank, there was a column for total caps next to each team name. At the top, there was a total displayed:

Total: 1213 / 100,000

“Do you guys know what ‘100,000’ means?” Kaden asked.

“Not sure,” Bill replied, “But I bet it has something to do with what Julia told us on Friday. About the overall performance of the program.”

Uh oh, Kaden thought, feeling a new pit form in his stomach.

“One hundred thousand must be sort of target for the group.”

“And the due date is probably three weeks, at the end of phase 1,” Jill added.

Kaden did some quick math in his head. There were about twelve teams and thirty-six interns left in the program. One hundred thousand divided by twelve was a little less than ten thousand points needed from each team… and in the last two hours, his team had collected a total of fifty three caps. They had made multiple trips back to the armory to turn in filled caps in exchange for empty ones.

At that pace, it would take his team approximately two hundred hours to collect his team’s share… but that was practically impossible. It would take them ten hours a day every day for the next three weeks. The math didn’t add up.

“Either we’re misunderstanding the target, or there has to be a better way to get a lot more caps,” Kaden said.

“I’m afraid you’re right,” Bill said. “Something to ask our managers on Monday.”

Kaden agreed, but there was no time like the present to make progress. If they only had three more weeks, they needed to make every day count.

“Hey, did you guys see the Black Widows this morning?” Jill asked in a hushed voice. “They were filing out of the stairwell when I was coming in the front entrance.”

Both Bill and Kaden shook their heads. “What are the Black Widows?” Kaden asked.

“Special ops,” she replied. “The best field operatives and soldiers working at the Company.”

“Whoa, for real? How do you know about them?” Bill asked.

Jill shrugged, looking a little uncomfortable. “You know, you hear things,” she said.

“I wonder what they were up to,” Kaden said.

“I know right? But at least the air conditioning is working again!” Bill said.

“We’ve got an hour or so before we have a training room reserved, right?” Kaden said to the group. “Shall we refuel? Hit the third floor for a bit?”

Bill and Jill agreed and they all headed for the elevator.

The door on the elevator closed, and Bill turned and said, “You know, I wonder where all those monsters in the training rooms come from, you know? It’s like they're transported in from somewhere. I wonder if the Company is creating them somehow?”

“You mean like some twisted form of Animal Farm, but for monsters?” Jill joked.

“Who knows, right? It would be interesting to find out.”

Bill had a good point, Kaden thought. He made a mental note to try to find out.

“Hey Bill – after lunch, do you think you could take a look at something for me? I was working on the code for the invisibility ward, and part of it doesn’t make sense. Think you can help me parse it?”

“Yeah sure, man. I could see how that definitely could be a good one to have in a monster fight,” Bill replied.

And also in sneaking around the Tower, Kaden thought but didn’t say.

As they exited the elevator, Kaden spotted a familiar brown form trotting around a corner.

“Hey guys, go on ahead, I’ll see you in a minute,” he said, following the Corgi’s trail.

He caught up with the dog at a window wall on the north side of the Tower. Sandy was staring out the window at the street below. It was the weekend in the Financial District, and it was practically deserted. Kaden didn’t see any pedestrians.

“Hey Sandy,” he said. “Surprised to see you here on a Saturday.”

Sandy glanced over his shoulder in a motion that seemed almost human. Eerily so.

Right back at ya, kid. Who’s got ya working the weekend? The Mailroom Mistress? Or someone else.

Kaden frowned. Mailroom Mistress? Did he mean Julia? “No work for the Mailroom today. I’m here with my team, practicing in the gym and trying to improve. Gotta grind while I still have the chance.”

Ha! That’s for sure. You guys suck balls. You are going to have to get a lot better if you want to be seen in public with me.

Anyway, I got some info for ya. Then the dog turned looked up expectantly, mouth widening in a toothy dog grin.

Kaden smiled and reached into his pocket, pulling out a couple peanut butter treats. “Of course!”

Kneeling down, Kaden held up a hand. “How about you sit first?”

Sandy’s tail stopped wagging.

Bitch, please. Treats. Now.

Kaden chuckled and threw the treats in the air, one by one, and Sandy caught them in his mouth with a satisfying crunch-crunch.

Smacking his lips, Sandy sprawled out on the cool tile floor, looking somewhat mollified.

Listen, kid, only going to say this once. Mind your manners and know your betters. I’ve been part of this damn tower longer than you would believe. I could make your life hell if I wanted to.

“Right,” Kaden said, trying to keep a straight face. He wasn’t sure he should be scared or if he should laugh. This dog was confusing and not just a little aggressive. Despite the adorably cute face.

“So… the info on the other interns?” Kaden prompted.

A deal’s a deal… So – your teammates. The Bill guy, he got the top score on the online exam. Same one you took. He’s a little bit of a black box. There’s a lot online for his previous career, of course, but why he’s pivoted to being an intern at the Tower is anyone’s guess. But he appears to have done it on his own merits. Even so, I’d keep an extra eye on him if I were you. Something doesn’t add up in my opinion.

Kaden frowned. “That seems a little paranoid.”

Hey, like I said, when you’ve been around as long as me, you have a sense for this type of thing. Something with his background and story doesn’t quite add up. Could be something, could be nothing.

“How about Jill?”

She comes from a family with connections to the Company. She has an aunt in a pretty high role at the San Francisco office, and most of her extended family members either work for the Company or for Company contractors. It’s actually not that uncommon, to be honest. That Patricia girl is similar in that way.

“Oh really? How so?”

The head of the London office is Patricia’s father. Her schooling and other work experience has prepped her to be successful here from day one.

Kaden shook his head. “So is nepotism that rampant within the Company?”

Sandy raised a hind leg to scratch furiously around his collar.

It’s not what you’re thinking. The family connections might give you a ticket to the dance… and they might help you network more effectively once you’re in… but no one will help you prove yourself. The Company’s a true meritocracy in that way. Brutal, in fact. Many scions of Company leaders have learned that the hard way, and many more will as well.

“Like Iqbal?”

Sandy cocked his head, surprised at Kaden’s question.

Yeah, I think you’re probably right. I got money on that turd washing out this week.

“But what about Patricia? She’s a grade-A asshole, in my opinion.”

Maybe, but she’s a competent asshole. Trust me – like a lot of people in this cursed Tower, she doesn’t care about words, feelings, or other people. Just competence and results. So don’t take it personal. She’s probably trying to sift through the cohort of interns to find out who will be an asset, who will be a liability, and who will be worth taking under her wing.

Kaden wondered about that, but he had no reason not to trust Sandy’s judgment. At least not yet. Still, he really didn’t like her entitled attitude and didn’t want to work with her, even if she was the second coming of the Company founder. He decided to avoid her if he could.

“What about Mariko?”

I think you can tell me more about her, kid. Didn’t know you were neighbors, once upon a time. You got a thing for her or something?

Kaden bristled, but let it go. “No, I’m just really surprised to find her here. Seems like a strange coincidence, that’s all. I haven’t spoken to her in years, since high school maybe.”

Well she got into the program through the more traditional route – Ivy league, B-school, capstone project for a Company subcontractor, etc. Not the best candidate but not the worst. Middle of the pack. No family connections, but seems driven and ambitious. With a little luck, she could make it here. She’s in the Facilities department, which she’s turned into an advantage. She’s been quite the busy bee making her into other parts of the Tower. She’s already got a pretty extensive network from what I can tell.

Kaden nodded. From what he knew of Mariko, that made sense. “Thanks Sandy. That’s helpful.”

Sandy hopped up and started trotting off.

Gotta go … but we’ll be in touch. I’ll have more deliveries for you next week. So don’t do anything stupid and get kicked out of the program!

Kaden waved at the Corgi, watching the wagging tail head off down the corridor.

He wondered about Sandy’s last statement. Did the dog think he would do something stupid? He shook his head.

“Don’t worry,” he said to himself. “I’m not going to do anything stupid.”