Maniac’s Mayhem Chapter nineteen: The Chain of Incompetence

(crow)

I feel like I have made steady progress on the first part of my plan. Nothing had seriously gone wrong, and most of the things that did go wrong could be explained away by what my new coworkers called Crowism. I was not sure if I liked that particular nickna to describe my mannerisms, but if it helps keep under the radar for longer, there was no use in complaining about it.

Work in itself was okay, nothing complicated and a lot less invasive than any hacking work we had done before. The people here really seed to be trying their best not to anger any Samurai. But the ever-growing list of thods to deal with each Samurai was making Crow feel things that she could not quite explain.

“Are you almost done with your task?” Jack asks having beco a constant source of background noise since I started working here. Not that he was actually bad at his job. He was actually quite good at it, complenting my logical analysis with more emotional reasoning. This, however, also ant that Anna-Marie had put him on babysitting duty. Forcing him to drag to lunch every day.

I nod, “Mostly yes, I need to do a thorough analysis of their exact fighting style and possible point total.”

“Nice, seems like we can finish this one up by the end of today then,” Jack says with a smile. “Dare I say you have been a real blessing to our team? I feel like we have never been this fast before.”

“I am neither a god nor godly aligned, so I am most likely not a blessing,” I point out, trying to hide the fact that so people would call a saint.

Jack just laughs, “You know that is exactly the reason I like working with you. You should co over for dinner soti. My wife would love to et you.”

I consider that option for a minute. There were not exactly many benefits to doing sothing like that, wasting precious hours that could be used sifting through the data instead. On the other hand, getting a closer relationship with a coworker had a chance of protecting if things ended up going poorly.

“I accept,” I finally state, coming to a decision.

Jack blinks at , “You what?”

“I accept your invitation for dinner, unless this was one of those hypothetical statents.”

“No, I was being serious," Jack quickly confirms. “Just did not expect you to actually say yes.”

“Would you have preferred it if I said no?” I ask, wondering if I had made so kind of mistake.

“Oh, Protectors, no, I am rather happy you said yes,” he says, giving his normal smile. “Let go inform the wife, and we can then strategise the best day for this dinner.”

I nod, happy with the result. Social contacts were still rather confusing, but I had seen the power of it several tis, so I was not willing to dismiss the concept outright. We make our way to the cafeteria and have so lunch. Grabbing a tray of food and sitting down at our table.

“Don’t you think it is strange? I am sure those Xeno bastards are up to sothing,” Lisa, a small and, in my opinion, energetic girl, almost shouts out.

“Co now, Lisa, the plants have not acted with anything more than just so rudintary intelligence,” Anna-Marie says to the younger girl.

“You say that, but it is still strange that the amount of rift incursions has more than halved.” Lisa pleads with the table. “That is not normal.”

“Rift incursions?” I ask, feeling unfamiliar with the term.

“While an incursion is generally used as a term to describe a large outbreak of antithesis, a rift incursion specifically is when the seed pots are dropped from the sky through the rifts in space,” Anna-Marie explains.

I nod, filing away that information for later use. “How many of these incursions are typically expected?”

“They usually co in clusters of six, all at intervals of about a month before there is a break of about half a year.” Jack explains.

“And how many were in the current cluster?” I ask, feeling visited by this.

“Just the one, then silence for two and a half months.” Lisa jumps back in while waving her hands.

“Hmm, and we don’t think the antithesis are suffering from performance anxiety, my sister says it can be quite common,” I suggest a possible explanation

Jack, next to , burst out laughing, spilling so of his food.

“Fuck, I was not expecting that from you,” he says between coughs as he hits his chest.

“Am I wrong?” I ask, confused by the sudden outburst.

“I am, in your words, a hundred per cent sure antithesis don't suffer from that particular condition,” Anna-Marie says, also having a smile on her face.

“Do we know the high coefficient of these rifts?” I ask, trying to co up with possible scenarios. “Any chance they just appeared sowhere deep in the ocean?”

“Could be the case,” Anna-Marie admits. "There are also areas we don't talk to as much. I am sure there is a more plausible explanation than the plants having a malicious intelligence that can plan.”

My mind springs back to all the antitheses I have faced, especially the more mutated ones underneath Zürich. “I am not so sure about that. According to my findings, so models display signs of rudintary intelligence. Who knows what a higher model is like.”

“Just wondering, have you ever heard about remaining blissfully ignorant?” Anna-Marie asks.

“No, but I heard about exploiting the weakness of the mind and the misinford,” I answer.

“Please tell that is a joke?” Lisa asks with a groan.

“Only if it was funny,” I hedge. Humour was definitely not sothing I understood, but I did understand the health benefits from laughter, so creating it by accident was not all that bad.

The rest of lunch seems to go at the sa pace, the group talking among themselves, occasionally asking for my input on different subjects. When we finish our lunch, I return to my desk to find Joline waiting there, scrolling through sothing on her Aug’s.

The woman had been showing up at my desk rather frequently these past few weeks. According to Anna-Marie, this was because she was concerned about and that my lack of social grace might make feel isolated. A notion that I found completely nonsensical. Why would I care if I were left alone? It would honestly improve my productivity, but when I tried pointing that out, Anna-Marie started threatening with a visit to the company's therapist, sothing I much rather avoided.

“Miss Night Ranger, how can I help you today?” I ask as I co in a polite conversational range.

“Crow,” the woman says with a smile, “how are you doing today?”

“My body is performing on optimal levels.” I report.

Joline looks over, “That is always good, so you have been fitting in well?”

I nod. “I am. I even accepted an invitation to go eat with Jack”

“That is good, and how are your sisters?” the Samurai continues.

In all truth, they were not doing well. Maniac had retreated into our shared ntal place after finding out the kids were sick, and there was nothing she could do about it. “They're doing okay. They are like , still adjusting to their new lifestyle.”

Joline hums at that. “You have not been apart from them for this long, then?”

I nod. “We are triplets after all; I have been with them since I was first created.”

Joline's face suddenly changes, looking almost angry, making wonder if I said sothing wrong. But when I look behind , I spot an older woman walking in with a smirk on her face. Her hair is pulled in a tight ponytail. A quick scan of the database gives a na, Karen Beslatsch. She was the leader of a separate strike team that, in my opinion, is less than effective.

“Oh, good. Night Ranger, you are here too,” the woman says. “You can serve as a witness.”

“A witness for what?” Joline asks, looking like she does not understand what is going on either.

“Oh, it is simple. One of my strike teams is about to enter the penthouse that is situated on top of the PsyCo building,” she says, pointing to one of the big hanging screens, it turning on, showing the inside of a familiar elevator.

I instantly react, scanning through all the PsyCo data points, noticing that the elevator was coming up from one of the public floors. The elevator normally did not allow access to the PsyCo floors unless one had an access card.

“How did you break the cyber defences?” I ask, not understanding how they did it.

The woman turns to ; her smile getting wider. “Just like you, we made it look like we were a Samurai, and we gained access. Thank you for the tip, by the way. I am sure to recomnd they give you a bonus.”

What an oversight! Of course, they could copy my thod if they could reconstruct it using their own system.

“In that case, as the only reason this assault is working, I recomnd you withdraw. Provoking them in an open attack does not seem like the smartest move right now.” I say, trying to minimise the damage.

“Crow, are you scared?” Joline asks, looking at with a weird look.

I am about to reject that option before thinking of a better option. “You have seen what Maniac can do. Provoking her does not seem conducive to my continued existence.”

“Hah, don’t worry about that, the penthouse is not officially property of PsyCo so they have no reason to be angry.” The woman that I was now considering killing says.

I nod, “That is correct, but it does belong to Cierra Argaria who, according to my information, works for PsyCo,”

The woman uses her hand to wave away. “We are only looking; no need to worry. And besides, between you and , the people we sent were about to be dealt with anyway since they have been repeatedly harassing citizens using their station. So not much to lose,”

I had to agree on that point. If people like that would have worked for PsyCo, Yun Min would have terminated them a long ti ago. But in that lay the problem: they were sending those people to the place our spawn was.

I quickly establish a ntal link to Evelin to inform her, “Hostiles have breached the elevator and are taking it up to the penthouse. Keep the offspring safe.”

With the ssage sent, I turn to Joline, “I would like the record to know that I think this is a bad idea and that we should retreat imdiately,”

Joline slowly nods. “Noted, but why are you so frantic?”

I pause, trying to co up with a convenient answer, finding one rather quickly. “Maniac, though crazy, is sowhat predictable; she is very much eye for an eye. So, who do you think she will retaliate against, when you attack the family of her employees?”

Joline lets out a breath. “You think it will be that bad?”

“That depends on how much she cares about her employees. A factor we have no information on, and this is not the way of testing it.”