by Tao Wong
Soot covered, with the taste of ash in my mouth, all I wanted was a hot shower and breakfast. Cleanse might clean me, but it never felt right. Which meant that my visitor, manbun and all, is an unpleasant surprise.
“Aiden,” I greet my ex-party member and teacher.
An extremely talented Mage who mixes his esoteric, mangled Eastern philosophy with an analytical mind to advance his magic, Aiden is also a minor coward. After a number of harrowing experiences with us, he no longer journeys out of the city. I disagree—passionately—with his decision, but I understand it. It makes our relationship weird since I desperately try not to judge his actions and fail, then I spiral into mental admonishment of myself over it.
“John. I was hoping I could catch a ride?” Aiden says.
“Ride?”
“To Kelowna. Lana mentioned in a message that you purchased a Mana field enhancement in the city. I was hoping to study it, perhaps improve the core formula, and well, bring it back,” Aiden explains.
“Of course. I need a shower, but we’ll go after that.” I pause after stepping into the door, curious. “How’d you know I was back? And when to see me?”
“Ah…” Aiden shifts uncomfortably.
“Roxley.”
“Yes.”
I leave before I say anything I would regret. Being on Roxley’s good side is smart, especially if you’re living in Whitehorse. The man did nothing wrong. Just because that devious, back-alley scoundrel…
Exhale. Shower. Portal. Breakfast.
***
Breakfast is in Kelowna, a simple series of Portals away. Aiden and I joined the team—or the portion of it that’s here—which includes Sam, our Level 39 Technomancer; Lana; and Mikito. Ingrid, our Assassin / Thief / general sneaky body is still in Seattle, making nice with the Americans. With the Sect pulling back entirely, the Americans have devolved into a series of skirmishes with one another as they scramble for control in the city.
After I made the necessary introductions, most everyone left me alone to enjoy my breakfast while the girls caught up with Aiden and Sam stayed his taciturn self. Sam rarely gets involved in our private conversations, a factor I enjoy about the older gentleman.
“Did John make arrangements for where you’ll be staying?” Lana asks Aiden after they’ve finished discussing the latest gossip from Whitehorse, the majority of breakfast finally finished.
“No…”
At Lana’s look, I protest, “I didn’t even know he was coming till this morning!”
“Don’t worry about it. We’ve got an apartment where we can put you up,” Lana says with a sniff at me.
“We’ve got an apartment?” I say, surprised.
“Not all of us enjoy sleeping on the floor of the nearest abandoned room,” Lana teases, making Mikito smile.
Even Sam snorts a little. Then again, that man set up his little house-cum-workshop almost immediately. As far as I know, Sam has a workshop in every major settlement he’s visited and spent more than a week in.
“It’s convenient,” I mutter. Between my high Constitution and resistances, sleeping on the floor isn’t really that uncomfortable. In fact, with System-aided healing, I don’t even wake up with sore muscles. I’ll admit though, I do enjoy sleeping in a real bed sometimes, but that’s what my house in Whitehorse is for. After all the upgrades we’ve done for the building, even with the massive swarms, it stays in good shape.
“Thank you. If you show me where it is, I’d love to get started on the enchantment immediately,” Aiden says. “I can already feel the difference in my regeneration rate.”
Lana nods, getting up and setting her plates aside, shortly followed by Aiden. Sam takes his leave at the same time, off to continue working on his latest project—an analysis and dismantling of Sabre. With my Personal Assault Vehicle badly damaged during our last encounter, it’s still in the process of fixing itself, which makes it the perfect time for Sam to analyze the changes. While he doesn’t expect to actually replicate the machine, the knowledge he’s gaining is supposedly increasing his skills significantly.
That leaves Mikito, who I gesture to stay when she gets up. The dark-haired lady sits down quietly, hands folded all prim and proper. Hard to imagine that this sophisticated, well-mannered young lady is also one of the deadliest—if not the deadliest—melee duelist I know. Well, excepting a certain frustrating Truinnar.
I break the silence with a prosaic question. “How are you doing?”
“Well.”
“Well, as in good or well as in well, things could be worse?”
“I am doing fine,” Mikito says. “Lana already spoke to me last night. Your concern is touching but unnecessary.”
I grimace at my friend. This… well, this is an area I don’t know how to handle. She’s hurting a bit, but if she says she’s good, what am I supposed to do? Tell her she isn’t? The fact stands that we all have our own pain, our own emotional scars. This world isn’t one where you can spend years in therapy, talking about your feelings till you get better. The next crisis is always just around the corner.
“Okay,” I say, slumping back. After a moment, I meet her gaze and change the topic. “We’ve been missing our morning training sessions.”
“You’ve not been around,” Mikito says.
“Yeah. Whitehorse or Vancouver’s fast becoming my base of operations. Simpler that way. I could use your evaluation on the delvers in Vancouver. And I’ve been meaning to test out their dungeon.”
“Lana says it’s only a gradated dungeon? It gets harder the farther you go?” Mikito says quietly. “Doesn’t seem like you need me for that.”
“Well, no one knows how strong it is anymore. At least, none of the delvers, though they believe the Sect did. Be nice to understand that,” I say, shrugging. “Furthest the teams have gotten is to a Level 40 plus building zone, and they barely made it out at that.”
“When?”
“Pardon?”
“When do you want me there?” Mikito clarifies.
“When can you get up?” I pause. “Down.”
Mikito bites her lip as she thinks things through. “We still need to work out who is going to replace Mel. None of the… the…” She clears her throat. “No one is shining through right now. And I’d like to get their average Level up a little more.”
I stay silent, letting her work things through herself. I know part of the reason why she’s taking so long to leave here is a reluctance to let go, a need to do good by Mel and her apprentice. Who, I have to admit, I can’t even remember the name of. I know I could if I wanted to, but I don’t. Dwelling on the past, the many people lost, is just a road to further pain.
“Two weeks. Maybe three,” Mikito finally says.
“All right.” I nod, accepting her word. It’s not great, but I’m sure I can figure out something to do in the meantime. If nothing else, my goal of basically visiting every village, town, and other settlement in BC will be mostly done by then.
***
Routine. I’m falling into a routine, even after a few days of peace and quiet. Training, breakfast, Portal to the last town I was at before exploring further to map and add the new locations to my map of explored places. Spend a couple of hours of exploring, then Portal again back to Vancouver and my office on the top floor of the central library and thus the City Center. Depending on how far and which direction I’m going, it sometimes requires multiple Portals, but that doesn’t matter. It’s all the same.
Routine. That is how she finds me. By the time I’m fully cognizant of my actions, I’ve dropped the Portal, cast a Soul Shield, and have my sword at the lady’s neck. She raises an eyebrow, seated as she is at a desk—a new desk, set perpendicular to mine—all coiffed and put together.
“Mr. Lee,” she says. “Or do you prefer your Galactic titles?”
“Who the hell are you? What are you doing here?” I snarl.
Ali floats above me as he updates my minimap with more information. Lots of dots right outside
my door. At least a dozen, though they’re all coded grey for non-aggressive. At least for now.
“My name is Katherine Ward. I’m your new personal assistant,” the woman says, meeting my gaze without fear.
Seeing that there’s no direct physical threat at the moment, I pull my sword back while regarding the older lady. Late or mid 50s probably, with smooth skin, minimal natural makeup, a pixie-cut hairstyle that frames piercing brown eyes, and a form-fitting, classic business suit. In other words, the perfect secretary.
Katherine Ward (Level 21 Assistant)
HP: 120/120
MP: 240/240
Conditions: None
“What? The male secretaries go on strike?” I say wryly, walking to sit on my desk as I stare at the woman. She’s no physical threat to me.
“There were few men doing this job even before the incident,” Katherine says. “There are even fewer now. And as you might note, none of them are here.”
“What makes you think I’d hire you?” I say, shaking my head. “You just walked into my office and set up.”
“Well, for one thing, your AI has agreed to the need for me,” Katherine says. “For another, the fact that I could just walk into your office speaks of a lack of organization on your part.”
I grunt. She’s not wrong. Being accosted by random individuals with their own agendas has been driving me slightly insane. That I’ve been using Portal and Blink Step to get away from them is less than dignified. Though effective. But dodging the problem can hold only for so long…
“Kim?”
“WE HAVE CONDUCTED EXTENSIVE INVESTIGATION INTO MS. WARD’S PRIOR EXPERIENCE. HER RESUME IS EXTREMELY IMPRESSIVE, WITH PRIOR WORK EXPERIENCE INCLUDING CEOS OF YOUR WORLD. PRIOR TO YOUR APPEARANCE, MS. WARD WAS ONE OF THE MAIN ORGANIZERS OF THE EASTSIDE ASSOCIATION.”
“The what?”
“EASTSIDE ASSOCIATION—A GROUP OF LIKE-MINDED ARTISANS WHO WORKED AS A CO-OPERATIVE ASSOCIATION TO MANUFACTURE COMPLEX EQUIPMENT FOR RESALE. THE ASSOCIATION USED PROFITS TO PROVIDE ASSISTED HOUSING AND LOAN REPAYMENTS.”
“What bits-for-brains means is that she’s a do-gooder with skills. And diplomacy. After the art restoration incident, we decided you needed some help. Bits and I did some research and reached out to a few candidates. Unfortunately, she’s the only one not majorly compromised. So far,” Ali says.
“And the ambush?” I growl softly to him while I stare at Katherine. She hasn’t flinched, just sitting there waiting.
“Her doing. We were actually going to talk to you about her tonight.”
“What’s with the ambush?” I say out loud.
“After the limited information provided by Kim, I conducted some research myself. It was soon clear”—and at that, she looks at the door leading out of my office—“that you require help in organizing your day. While you desire to not be ‘bothered’ by such incidents, you do need to deal with them. Or at least arrange for others to deal with them.”
“And you can help with that,” I state flatly.
“Yes.”
“How do I know you don’t have your own agenda? People you’ll sneak into places of power?”
“You are asking how you’d expect to trust me and that is an impossible question. Trust must be built and we currently are strangers. However, be assured that your AI is watching what I do,” Katherine says.
“As am I.”
“If we are finished with the interrogation, I have a recommended schedule for the day. I have set aside an hour for you to meet with petitioners—fifty-five minutes now—after which we have an hour for hiring. And then—”
“Why not the other way around?” I interrupt.
“At this time, we do not have a full grasp of your responsibilities. Also, as evidenced, you have certain trust issues. It is better for you to gain some first-hand experience with your petitioners. I would even recommend that you randomly select some to speak with on an on-going basis even after hiring and delegation is complete.”
“I…” I consider what she said and wave her to continue. Fine. Let’s see how this plays out. If there’s a trap here, I’m not experienced enough to see it. Or I am, but I want to see how it plays out. Because she’s right—avoiding running the city isn’t going to work. And the council is too busy fighting about how they’re going to run it to actually do it. But… “Tomorrow morning, I want it free.”
“For…?”
I smile, waving her to continue.
***
Hours later, after a number of meetings with petitioners and job applicants, I’m finally alone. One thing I’m grateful for is Katherine having the foresight to order in lunch. When lunch is served, Lana saunters in, glancing at Katherine with narrowed eyes. After a few minutes of soft-spoken conversation, the initial wariness slips away from my girlfriend as she drops into a chair next to me.
“How’d you make it here?” I say, frowning. One of the more significant purchases I intend to make is the installation of communication arrays in each settlement. Once set up, they will allow for long-distance transmissions between each settlement. “And how’d you find me?”
“Mmm… your new assistant contacted me,” Lana says around a mouthful of crab. “And I took the boys out for a run.”
I grunt, wanting to chide her for risking her neck, but decide against it. Lana’s a survivor like me and can handle herself. Anyway, with her pets, in many ways, she is a lot tougher than she should be for her Level. Especially since she’s been focusing on Leveling them lately. Especially Roland. Roland is scary.
“Katherine?” I say with a frown. I’m really curious how my new assistant knows enough to contact Lana already so quickly.
“My Class provides me with a number of Skills. A minor Skill in communication called ‘Contact List’ allows me to contact a certain number of individuals within my sphere of influence. Normally I’d need to designate them individually, but with another Skill of mine—Intuit—I am able to access a portion of what would be your contact list. It was a simple matter then to mark Ms. Pearson as a priority individual,” Katherine says. Interestingly enough, she’s also pulled a plate of food to her, though she’s eating with significantly more decorum. I guess the lady has no problem eating in front of her boss. “Now, we were going to speak about your most recent interviews…”
I sigh, but considering Lana’s here, I might as well make use of her skills and knowledge. At this point, I get a nice surprise as Ali uses his gifts as my companion to flash up images of each applicant as we speak, allowing Lana to view them and, in some cases, watch certain portions of the interview.
While we don’t have a broad-based idea of the government system that we want in place, we do have the roughest of sketches. Security, legal, education, and city management are the highlights. The last encompasses a lot of things, from city planning for new System-registered buildings to working with petitioners who have their own ideas about what the city needs. We already have a burgeoning homeless problem—System-homeless that is—which needs to be resolved. With pre-System infrastructure slowly falling apart, staying in non-registered homes is fast becoming less and less comfortable for many.
We talk, debate, and weigh the pros and cons of the applicants for our budding bureaucracy. Of the eight who arrived and passed Kim’s background checks, three are removed from the list for being too skeezy. Another two are put on hold till we can find a proper task for them. And the last three are hired to begin the process of actually putting together a working bureaucracy. Thankfully, with the System and the various Skills involved, the numbers we would require should be significantly lower than pre-System. Never mind that we’ve also got a much lower population. Unfortunately, Security continues to be a crucial gap. Everyone who could do the job has either been deported by the Sect or is a delver and thus tied to the vying political groups.
“I approve,” Lana says, stretching in her chair as silence finally finds us. “Roxley mentioned that you’d need an assistant soon unless I wanted t
o be stuck with the job. It was part of the reason why I came down today actually. But Katherine seems to have things well in hand.”
“Never said I’ve hired her,” I say.
Katherine doesn’t rise to my provocation, continuing to eat calmly, having already informed the successful applicants. I’ll have to give them their brief tomorrow and get them working on hiring others, but at least this should sort out some of the pressing applications. And perhaps get the city back up and running. Not surprisingly, the Sect took their own form of organization with them, and in any case, the Sect had very different objectives than us—for one thing, we have the entire downtown now available for reallocation.
“She seems to be doing a good job,” Lana says.
“Yeah, yeah.” I wave, indicating Lana is correct. Good job or not, I don’t like the feeling of being rushed, even if I can admit that we’re getting a lot done.
“Lana says to stop being so paranoid. You need the help and we’ll keep an eye on her.”
“What’s next on the agenda?” I ask, deciding to change the subject.
“Upgrades,” Lana says.
“Fair enough,” I say.
The moment I do, Kim displays the summarized Settlement Management Screen.
Summarized Settlement Status
Current Population: 129,308
Combined Settlement Treasury: 98.93 Million Credits (+157k per day)
Combined City Mana: 13,309 Mana Points (+298 Mana per day)
Taxes: 10% Sales Tax on Shop
Facilities of Note: City Dungeon (1), Mega Farms (3)
Enchantments of Note: Mana Collection Field
Defenses of Note: Settlement Shields (III * 1 & IV * 2)
While it is a summarized information screen about the major areas of concern for the settlements under my control, it obviously misses a lot. Still, considering I need to know the basics, it is a good starting point. Interestingly enough, while Credits could be transferred between settlements without any issue, transferring Mana is actually much more expensive and ends up being a 5-to-1 ratio. The summarized amount shows the Mana we have available if we use it in Vancouver, which would obviously change depending on where we want to trigger the Mana usage. Considering Mana usage is mainly linked to upgrading or changing higher-tiered buildings, it isn’t as much of an issue. Yet.