Frank spent the entirety of his saturday night coding, his gaze slightly glazed, with his mind focused on the lines after lines of code in his memory, his fingers dancing over the keyboard with terrifying efficiency as if they had a mind of their own. In such a state of half limbo, he had spent the better part of the night, only being brought out of it by a soft knock on the door.

"Did you even sleep dear?" came a worried voice, clearly his mom worried about the likely all nighter he had pulled, worried it was due to the betrayal he had just gone through. A courtesy of a supposed family friend at that.

"Ow, sorry." he smiled wryly at her, clearly repentant. "I had this great idea regarding the code I was mulling over. And once I started... Well, I just kinda zoned out and only snapped back with your knock. I am sorry if I worried you. And it has nothing to do with Bob's betrayal, if you are worried about that. I was barely interracting with him. I am more worried about you in that regard. You okay mom?" he asked, clear worry etched on his face.

"I am more dissapointed than anything, truth be told. though I would be lying if I said it does not sting. We used to drink every otehr week or so. Andhe just goes and does this? Heh, just shows how much he actually cared, I suppose." a self depreciating tone sneaking into her voice.

"I think we should consider ourselves lucky it turned out as it did." Frank spoke as he rose from his chair, walked over and hugged his mother, asuming she needed a bit of care from the only person trully close to her now.

"How so?" she asked, slowly relaxing as he stroked her hair.

"Just imagine, had he not done this now? Just how much damage could he have done were he to worm his way into our graces. What he could have stolen when much greater things come out this mind of mine? I say we are lucky he could not hold himself back at the sight of the plan I gave him."

"Say Frank, did you expect this to happen? And please, dont lie to me."

"I had a dangerous feeling that he could not be trusted when I arrived at his workshop yesterday morning, yes. It was then that I changed the plan I was going to show him for the one he got his hands on. I thought it better to lose that one, should my gut feeling turned out to be correct."

"Why didn't you tell me anything about it?"

"It was just a gut feeling and I know how old man always spoke of them and that mirrored your own thinking as well.'Heed the warning of your sixth sense, but always be sure to find tangible proof for confirmation.' Besides, without this action of his, would you have actually believed it?"

"Heh, That's my son, I suppose." she weakly laughed from his embrace. "I know my flaws better than anyone. And no, without that dagger, I would have defended Bob, using the same saying as one of the points for his defence. Then I would have called him, surely stopping his early bout of greed, setting us up for a much deadlier backstab at a latter date."

"But hey," a sudden chirp of happiness appeared in her voice "Would you look at that, you have his brains and my sence for people. I was worried I will have to find you a gal like your mom to keep your butt out of trouble. Phew, now I can look for a nice and sweet girl instead."

"Oi!" a worried sound escaped Franks mouth. His mother was a danger when she started to scheme, likely another trait of her he had inherited. he did not mind to have it, on the contrary, it was a godsend, but the same could not be said whne a similar things was used against him, by his mother no less.

"Now, now. lets not be hasty, shall we? I am barely over twenty and still have my whole life ahead. I can think about.."

"Hoooh?" Gloria interrupted Franks defensive speach in its early stages, not allowing her son to make a proper defence. "So you want some time to go and play the casanova then, using that brilliant mind of yours to woo and break the hearts of simple young ladies like your mom back in her youth?"

'Yea, right, like you are one to talk.' Frank scoffed in his mind 'I heard old man used to complain how you played him like a fiddle untill he was perfectly ensnared and you just laughing like an innocent little girl.' though he did not dare to speak said thoughts out loud. While his mom sometimes used her mind to fool around with him, it was never malicious. How could it be? He was her entire world for quite a few years.

"That not the case mom." Frank spoke, tightening the hug a bit more. "I want some more time to make more of a man out of myself. And what better way that to make it big and allow you to stop pushing yourself so hard. So, how about it? Let me work something out and retire you from that work of yours, then you can devote all the time you want to find the perfect daughter in law? What says the matriarch of the Wraith family?"

"Hmm" a thoughtfull humm escaped her lips as she was considering his offer. "You get three years. I dont think the combination of the best from me and your dad would need more, not when he is wholeheartedly dedicated to the task. We have a deal then, scion of the Wraith family?"

"Yes. Ma'am, I shall not dissapoint."

"Good. Come, breakfast is ready. And you will take a nap afterwards. Cant have sleep deprivation affecting your ability to think and work."

Frank only nodded in agreement, releasing his mother from the hug and following after her. He did not feel tha he was decieving his mother one bit, for he was not. Even without "The book", his mind had been filled with all kinds of ideas, some of which were started by his old man, some radnom nuggets of wisdom or thought passed to him in the early yers of his life, others, coming into existance as he pondered while using no more than a third, and thats a generous estimate, of his mind for the workd he was employed at, still performing just slightly above the average worker in the company for the same position. He was seen as neither a burden, nor the shining jewel of the company. He was one of the efficient drones that were apreciated just a tiny bit, ensuring that under normal circumstances he would never have to worry about being let go. Now though, with someone taking over the reins of their branch, who apparently had a trauma because of someone nicknamed 'Wraith', and well, chances were rather high said someone might fly off his handle with a 'Wraith' working in the place he takes over. Still, that was a problem for another day.

The breakfast was a calm and silent affair, with him thanking his mom and then returning to his room, recieving a warning to sleep at least for a few hours. Not wanting to worry Gloria, he did as asked. A couple hours later, Frank was back up and at the desk once again, his hands dancing across the keyboard like proffesional dancers taking over the dance floor. There was no rest for the wicked, so he worked on and on, the clock on his wall tirelessly ticking and its arrows moving across its surface, indicating the hours that flew by one by one. He was called over by his mom once more around eight, for supper, reminding him to take it easy and to not forget to go to sleep.

You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.

"Sheesh, sometimes you are just like Rick. He too had to be chased to sleep, or draaged to the table when his mind got locked on one invention or another. Take care of yourself first and foremost son. How else are you gonna fulfill your task if you collapse from exaustion or hunger?"

"I know, and I was aware of the time, as well as I knew you would call me over for supper. I am only a few hours away from finishing this part anyway, so there is also no need to worry I will not get enough sleep before work towwmorow. But thank you mom for worrying for me."

"Always." she replied with a smile. "You are my sweet boy after all."

Frank thanked for the food and kissed his mother on a temple and returned to his room, once again sitting down in front of the computer. He knew that this Pc had surely some sort of a bug from the manufacturer, though without the tech he had manually put together, the code did nothing, nor was there any indication of what it was supposed to do. It was a simple turn on a, turn off b, and so on and so on. Any person with half a brain would asume thatthis was some sort of an exercise in either speed typing or some other 'find the difference' task. When placed inside the little device he had prepeared though, an entirely different effect would be displayed.

He was done with his little taks around midnight, just as he expected, and so, he wasted no time by inserting the program into his little 'toy', making it complete and turning it on after placing it in one of the corners of his room. Noise supressors worked by generating a sort of a white noise on a couple of frequencies, that added together dampened any other sound in the close vicinity of the supressor. With the knowledge from "The Book", Frank used a couple of those creating an extremely complicated and intertwined resonance of ratehr weak sound waves that did one, and only one thing, in an extremely limited range, allowing him to ensure that whatever he was doing in his room would not manifest anywhere but in said room. He would love to deploy a similar device in his mother room as well, but with the lack recourses and security, as well as the specifics of her job, he could not afford such an action just yet.

With the compound enigma wave emmiter activated, he went to sleep, allwoing it to do its thing, his first of the many preperations under way. Due to the extremely limited genetical manipulation and elevation experiments performed around the world, due to the practice being heavily litigated and restricted, there was barely anything known about the topic, making his CEWE (compound enigma wave emmiter) device something outside the realm of possibility for the current times.

What the compound waves did, was ratehr simple and complex at the same time- it strenghtened human genome, modifying it on the mollecular level at an extremely miniscule rate, hiding any changes that were occuring from any sort of device that might be monitoring your healt, like for example PHVI that every person in Arganza, and most of the world for that matter had to some capacity. Due to the enigma waves effect, Franks body would develop a higher resistance to different viruses and diseases, as well as have heightened senses and better regenerative factor than your ordinary humans. His muscles would also be able to withstand notablyu higher strain than the same amount of regular human. To top it off, the aging process would also slow down considerably for him as well. Though it did come with a cost, as all of these improvements did require quite the amount of callories to burn, causing his food intake to rise quite considerably.

Still, there were quite the limitations how far he could go with simple biological strenghtening, causing his next steps to be rather obvious as well- cybernetical implants that would eventually make him into a veritable badass and a one man wreching crew. Still, there were a few obstacles in that part of his plan, the first of many being the matterial and technollogy neccessary to even create the implants themselves. Quite a few of extremely complitated machines would have to be constructed from nothing if Rex wanted the nanometer precision that was neccessary for most of the implants. Machines, that needed even more rare and precious materials as well as a secured location where no snooping cunt could gain access to them.

And then he would need a reliable way to implant said tech into his body as well, and since there were no cyberdock proffesion yet in his world, what with the industry just barrely starting its ascent, it would require even more super advanced tech to pull off. So, he was quite far off from most, some would say all, of the neccessary prerequisites to proceed further with his plans, though it was not quite true.

First, he had just started his own strenghtening process. Something that had to be done if he wanted to ensure a much safer and more likely to succeed implantation surgeries in the future. Secondly, he had established a contact with a possible partner for the time being, allowing him to attain a few crucial early components to start up the rest of his plans. The unbugged PC was a crucial part of it all. He would spend quite a bit of his time creating his own AI assistant, allowing him to monitor most, if not all suspicious activities around not only himself but his mother as well, recieving enough knowledge and data to deal with any growing threats before they attain critical mass and become unmanagable.

The AI assistant would also enable Frank to earn large amounts of credits and move said money discreetly, once again providing him with ample oportunities to attain whatever was needed at any given moment. So, once he had the PC, and then the AI in turn, he could escalate his plans to the next stage, aquiring a place for the tech, all under the watchfull gaze of the first true AI in their world, making his next steps even easier.

Still, while it all seemed rather simple and foolproof on the paper, or in Franks mind in this case, there were countless different circumstances that could, and would interfere with a perfect execution of said plan. Still, to achieve what he wanted, Frank did not have much of a choice but to proceed with caution. Besides, in but a couple of weeks he would be notably more capable than the baseline human, with no apparent reason either, the changes to his existance so unique, yet well hidden in the depths of his genome, that even extensive testing with cutting edge technology would come up empty, not that he would do anything that would warrant such tests. He was smart enough to understand that the most dangerous were the hidden daggers, not the large claymore that was visible to everyone from dozens of meters away.

There was a reason tyrants more often than not died from an assasination, through a dagger in the back or a poisoned wine, and not armies led by righteous men, fed up with the atrocities said tyrant would perform or order his armries to do in his stead. He would develop quietly, but steadily under the radar of, hopefully, all possible dangers to him and his mother, untill it was too late for said dangers to deal with him.

Morning came and his alarm rang out, stirring him from sleep and reminding that the sweet, sweet weekend had come to and end. That it was time to once again don the mask of the barely above average office worker and perform the role he was supposed to play, all the while waiting for "The Junkyard" to put together the device he had given them plans for, check it out and ensure it works as intended, giving them a nice little profit from producing and distributing it. Then waith for his new and bug free PC to fall in his lap, as well as maybee some credits from his new friends, along with a way to discreetly contact them, should he comes up with something else, and then get to the AI's creation, all the while still playing his role at the company he worked at.

Mondays and tuesdays were the days he was the first one up, his mother having her shifts start later in the day. Good thing that he felt quite energised, quickly getting out of bed after that short grumble regarding the current situation, though said brumble was nothing new, only the more elaborate plans of his now being tacked on to his daily routine. Soon enough he was in the kitchen, prepearing breakfast not only for himself but for his mom as well, a small routine they had developed during the last few years, even when Frank was still studying. A couple of days of the week he would do just as he was now, waking up first and prepearing breakfast for both members of the family, ensuring his mom could sleep a bit longer at least every now and then, returning even a bit of the love he had recieved during his life. It also warmed his heart every time he saw his mom smile with apreciation and love for the caring son she had raised.

With the breakfast all ready, and his share already dealt with, no extra hunger yet appearing due to CEWE's effects, he placed Gloria's share in its ussual place and silently left the appartment, his boring job waiting for him, though while he expected some waves at the work, what awaited him once the new branch manager arrived was way beyond any of his expectations.