Nine-to-Five 003 (Patreon)

~~~

His and Her Circumstances III

~~~

“Those are Leon and Kirk,” Ms. Steiner told them, pointing to the security guards as they walked into the main lobby. “You will be seeing them most mornings. Hi, guys!”

She waved at them, and though they had faces that looked cut from stone and muscles that strained against their uniforms, the two burly men inclined their heads in Ms. Steiner’s direction and even smiled at her.

“Top of the morning, Ms. Steiner.”

“Always a pleasure to see you, Ms. Steiner. Makes our days brighter.”

“That it does.”

“Oh, you flatterers!” Ms. Steiner waved her hand to the side. “Your wife better not catch you talking to me like that, Kirk.”

“Eh, what’s there to fear?” The large man, probably Kirk, shrugged. “She’d just make fun of me and tell you to let me down gently, ma’am.”

“I can vouch for that, but feel free to let him down harshly, ma’am.”

“You’re terrible!”

As the three shared a laugh, Ms. Steiner came to a slow stop, forcing Amanda and Tim to stop with her. She put her hands on their shoulders and pushed them forward. It made Amanda feel as if she was being shown off.

“These are our new interns: Amanda and Tim.”

“Hi!”

“Good morning.”

Tim was all smiles and vibrant energy. His voice rang clearly across the lobby as he waved. Amanda envied him for that. Her voice came out as barely more than a squeak. She did not like being put on the spot like this.

“Morning, kids.” Kirk nodded at them. Leon followed suit. To Ms. Steiner, he said, “The boss already briefed us. He says he’s got their IDs ready in his office.”

“Wonderful!” Ms. Steiner brought her hands together, a warm smile on her face. Amanda averted her eyes. It felt like she was looking at the sun. “Tell Gerald we’ll pass through his office later today.”

“Will do, ma’am.”

Last time she had been here, Amanda had to use one of the visitor elevators. They were smooth and quick, but only stopped at certain floors. This time, Ms. Steiner swiped her ID card over a scanner and called an employee elevator for them.

“I know they look intimidating, but they are good people,” Ms. Steiner said once they were all inside the elevator. It was fairly large. There was enough room for over twenty people. “There is also Luke and Locke, but they are not on duty today. In any case, don’t be afraid to talk to them if you need help.”

While Amanda understood what Ms. Steiner was saying, she still felt infinitely grateful they had all happened to run into each other. Otherwise, she would have had to approach the two scary men on her own.

“I hope you get a chance to meet Kirk’s wife at the company picnic. She’s the best. Everyone loves her.” Ms. Steiner smiled at them. “But enough of that for now. Once again, allow me to welcome you to Regum. All things considered, it is a good thing we happened to run into each other since I am going to be in charge of you for most of the day.”

“We will be working in your department?” Amanda asked. She hoped she didn’t sound too eager, but she could imagine far worse fates than working for such a warm, cheerful woman.

“Oh, no,” She said, causing Amanda to immediately deflate. “It was decided you’ll be helping out in Human Resources. However, before dropping you there, the boss figured it would be a pity if you did not get a tour of the place first. After it would be a shame to work here and not see everything The Blade has to offer, wouldn’t it?”

Obviously, Ms. Steiner did not mean the actual owner of Regum when she said boss. Most likely, she was talking about whoever was in charge of the internship program. All the same, Amanda could help but perk up. A tour of The Blade! How many people ever got a chance like that?

“A tour? Of a building?”

Tim, to her surprise, did not seem all that enthused by the idea. He looked dubiously at Ms. Steiner, one finger rising to scratch the side of his cheek.

“Trust me,” Ms. Steiner said. “You are going to need it, and you’re going to love it. Now… who wants breakfast?”

Amanda—who had left her house so early and quickly she only had a glass of orange juice in her stomach—couldn’t help the way her stomach growled at the word breakfast. She would have felt mortified if only Tim’s stomach hadn’t chosen that moment to voice its opinion as well.

As it turned out, their stomachs were of the same mind on this.

~~~

Amanda had read up on Regum even before she had gotten the internship. She had even seen a documentary about it once.

Though the company was almost five decades old, it was with Arthur Cadogan that its story really began. He had inherited the company from his parents at a young age. Naturally, there had been plenty of doubts as to his ability to manage it, but the results spoke for themselves. Regum’s ascension to one of the best, if not the best, pharmaceutical companies in the world was one of the greatest success stories of the modern era. Under Arthur Cadogan, Regum had built several installations all over the United States and beyond.

Of course, none could compare to The Blade.

Amanda hadn’t needed to do any research to know The Blade was one of the tallest buildings in the world. Everyone in Port Stanley knew that. You couldn’t not know it. You couldn’t avoid it. You couldn’t not see it. To live in Port Stanley was to know The Blade. It was to see its pristine glass shining under the sun like the finest steel.

Amanda had even come with her friends to the observation deck once a few years ago. They had taken a couple of pictures, one which she still kept framed in her room. However, back then and during her interview, Amanda had only come as a visitor. She had only seen the parts of The Blade visitors were allowed to see. This was the first time she truly was allowed inside.

Still, she had not been expecting something like this.

“This place is amazing,” Tim said, licking on his oversized ice cream cone, the last of what remained of his very unhealthy breakfast.

As it turned out, the cafeteria, which occupied an entire floor, was more like a food court. It did not have any restaurant Amanda had ever heard of, but she could not deny how amazing the place smelled. Best of all, Ms. Steiner had told them they were entitled to free breakfast and lunch.

Tim had not held back after hearing that. Amanda couldn’t understand how someone who ate so much could be so thin.

“We are number one in employee satisfaction for a reason,” Ms. Steiner said proudly. Amanda had expected her to get a salad, but she had a hearty omelet on her plate instead. “Our employees are entitled to free breakfast and lunch. Anything outside the breakfast and lunch menus will, however, cost you.”

Considering the free options included the monstrosity of bacon, eggs, hash browns, pancakes, and ice cream Tim had just ordered, Amanda doubted many people spent money here.

“But wait,” Tim said, wiping some ice cream from his mouth. “If you get free breakfast here, and I’m assuming you do because you just said so... Why did you go buy that Asteroid coffee first?”

Amanda blinked. Come to think of it, Ms. Steiner had been holding a cup of coffee when they found her.

“Oh, you caught that?” Ms. Steiner laughed, a little embarrassed. “I wish I could say it is because there’s a coffee place near my house, and I can’t function without my morning coffee. But really, I just want to collect these.”

“Ah!” Tim snapped his fingers and pointed as Ms. Steiner took a now-empty plastic cup out of her purse. “That’s the-The 35th Anniversary Collection or something, right? I think I saw something about it on TV! There are nine unique designs! Or something!”

“36th Anniversary Collection, actually. Thirty-Six Years Valiantly Protecting the Skies,” Ms. Steiner declared dramatically before cracking a smile. “Or so the tagline goes. Asteroid retired over a decade ago, so he’s not really doing much protecting the skies these days.”

Asteroid.

While not one of the greatest superheroes the world had ever seen, he had, nevertheless, found great success by leveraging his popularity towards pursuits outside heroism. Asteroid Coffee was the largest chain of coffee shops in America.

“You like heroes?” Amanda asked.

“Who doesn’t?” Ms. Steiner’s reply came instantly. “I was a big fan of Asteroid growing up. I wouldn’t buy his coffee if I wasn’t. Trust me on that. It really isn’t that good.”

“My mom says it is devil juice,” Tim said.

“She’s not wrong,” Ms. Steiner admitted. “Anyway, once we're done here, we’ll go get your IDs. We’ll visit the gym while at it.”

The gym?

~~~

The gym was located on the 70th floor.

No, Amanda amended in her head. That wasn’t quite right. Saying that may give people the impression that the gym happened to be on the 70th floor. While not necessarily wrong, it missed the full scope of what Amanda was seeing with her very own eyes.

The gym was the 70th floor.

“This is… big. Super big. You need to pay lots of money in monthly subscriptions to be here big.”

Amanda was in full agreement with Tim. The entire 70th floor was a gym with rows of treadmills, elliptical machines, and more. There were weights, mats, and several other fitness accessories. Perhaps even more surprising was that there were people using this place, even though it was still early in the morning.

“How do you have all of… this?” Amanda had to ask. She understood Regum was a very wealthy company, but she had still expected it to be like a company.

Instead, she felt as if she had entered a gated community in the shape of a building.

“It is not as hard as you may think. With buildings like this, much of the office space is rented out to several companies. This allows the construction to pay for itself and go on to generate profit. However, Mr. Cadogan decided against it. He wanted the whole building to be for Regum by Regum. Since we don’t have to share the space, we are free to make full use of it in the way that best benefits our employees.”

“That seems…”

“Wasteful?” Ms. Steiner finished Amanda’s statement. The girl flushed in embarrassment and shyly nodded. “Other companies would agree, but the results speak for themselves. We are first, and everyone else is competing for second place.”

She smiled impishly.

“If you think this is impressive, wait till you see the indoor pool in the 65th floor.” Ms. Steiner’s smile grew at their shocked expressions. “We value fitness here. A healthy mind dwells within a healthy body. Regum employees are required to use the gym for at least one hour every week. The people you see here are those with non-standard schedules.”

“Does that… Does that include us?” Tim asked, pointing at himself and her.

“Only if you were to become full-time employees,” Ms. Steiner said. “However, there is nothing stopping you from using the gym if you wish to. Personally, I recommend it. There is nothing quite like working out after a day’s work.”

“So what? People who work here get a free gym, a pool, and food? That’s so cool!”

Ms. Steiner smiled proudly. “As I said, we are number one in employee satisfaction. Now, let’s go get your IDs. Once you have them, you won’t need anyone’s help to get into the building.”

Amanda felt a shiver of excitement run through her body. With the exception of The Disk just outside the city, The Blade was the most secure location around, and she was about to be given an ID card that would let her get in whenever she wanted. This was a huge deal.

However...

Ms. Steiner wasn’t heading back to the elevator. Instead, she was leading them deeper into the gym. Amanda wanted to ask why that was, but if experience had taught her anything today...

“We’re not going to another floor?”

Perfect.

“The head of security has your IDs in his office,” Ms. Steiner said. For the first, she sounded a touch exasperated. “However, we won’t find him there. He tends to be in the gym at this hour. At most hours, really,”

That… didn’t sound too professional.

“Ah, there he is! Gerald! Get over here!”

“Alice!” A smile full of perfect white teeth was flashed in their direction. Amanda’s breath got caught in her throat. “I wasn’t expecting you this early in the morning.”

Tall, blonde, and green-eyed with powerful muscles that had surely been shaped by a master craftsman. The man in the blue tank top that walked up to them was a greek god come to life—a modern-day Apollo. Amanda’s eyes couldn’t help but meticulously follow his every rippling muscle as he patted himself down with a towel.

“Well, it seems you underestimated our new interns.” Ms. Steiner crossed her arms. “They got here before I did.”

“Is that so?” He looked upon them approvingly. “Good, we like people who work hard here.”

Amanda knew she was being complimented for something very insignificant. She had merely been here earlier than what was asked for her. That he felt the need to praise that was a platitude and nothing else.

She still blushed and giggled.

She might have muttered a thank you while at it. Her mouth was not exactly under her control at the moment.

“Present company excluded, of course.”

“Oh, come on, Alice. You know I do my job.”

“I couldn’t possibly tell you. I see you work so rarely. Did you at least remember they need their IDs?”

“Of course, I did,” Gerald said, puffing his chest. Amanda almost swooned. “They are in my office right now.”

“And if we had gone there first, we’d have to come here anyway to pick you up. You never leave your door open.”

“Head of Security, remember?” Gerald tapped the side of his head, a winning smile on his face. “That’s just good sense.”

~~~

The Surveillance and Security Department was proving to be the most normal part of the building so far. It was full of rows upon rows of cubicles. As they walked to Mr. Gerald’s office, Amanda saw several people hard at work, analyzing security footage.

“We take security very seriously,” Ms. Steiner said. “We have to. You’d be surprised at how many attempts at industrial espionage we have to deal with every month.”

“Industrial espionage?” Tim asked.

“Regum produces top-of-the-line medical equipment and holds control over several patents,” Amanda spoke before she could stop herself and immediately blushed. Still, she kept going. She’d look foolish if she stopped now. “There are many who’d like to steal that sort of information.”

“Correct.” Mr. Gerald gave her an approving look which made Amanda’s blush turn an even deeper crimson. “It is our job to make sure that doesn’t happen.”

“Coool,” Tim said.

“Damn right, it’s cool,” Mr. Gerald said as he opened the door to his office.

The inside was spacious and fairly modern-looking. Amanda had no doubt her father would like it. However, most people’s eyes would inevitably go to the many TVs on the walls. It was like being in the electronics section of a store.

“Hey! Is that Silver Knight?” Tim asked, bounding over to one of the screens before Amanda could stop him. She wanted to tell him he couldn’t just walk around like that in someone’s office but didn’t dare raise her voice. Completely ignorant of how many unwritten rules he was breaking, Tim leaned in until his nose was mere inches from the screen.

“It is, isn’t it?” He turned back to look at Mr. Gerald. “That’s the London fight with Sentinel!”

Rather than being angry or even annoyed, Mr. Gerald smiled approvingly.

“Well, look who knows his stuff. I’m impressed, kid. Not many know about Silver Knight.”

“I learned of him through message boards,” Tim admitted, rubbing the back of his head. “The guy is all sorts of cool! Did you know he fought Sentinel and got away? I mean, yeah, of course, you do because you have the video, but how many people can claim that? He’s also fought The Royal Guard and Kinetic and has never been captured! So yeah, dude’s super cool. But really, how did you get footage from that fight? The best I could find was a video taken by some tourists, and that looked all spotty and blurry. This looks super neat. It’s like it was recorded in a professional camera or something. By the way, isn’t it weird that we say caught on camera when we mean video because...”

Tim trailed off, suddenly realizing he was talking a little too much. His cheeks started turning red, showing he was not entirely above self-reflection.

“Sorry,” he said. “I get too caught up in things sometimes. I just keep talking, and I know it can be-”

“Relax,” Mr. Gerald said, smoothly stopping Tim before he could pick up steam again. He flashed him a winning smile that made Amanda weak at the knees. “To answer your question, the fight happened near our London building, so we ended up getting some of the footage. You’d be surprised how often something like that happens.”

“Naturally, when it happens, we always give copies of the videos to the relevant authorities,” Ms. Steiner added. “However, I am not surprised this one didn’t go public. Authorities do not like giving criminals publicity.”

“Wait!” Amanda could not remain silent any longer. “Just who is Silver Knight? And why is there a video of him here?”

“He’s a super cool Super!” Tim said earnestly but not helpfully.

“He’s an international tech thief who appears every two years or so,” Mr. Gerald said, far more helpfully. He jabbed his thumb at the screen. “You won’t see this guy stealing from a bank or museum or causing panic in the streets just for kicks. It is why he is not that well-known. However, he is exactly the sort of person we have to worry about.”

“It is as you said, Amanda,” Ms. Steiner said. “We work with a lot of experimental technology, so we are always worried about people trying to steal it. That doesn’t mean just spies. In today’s world, anti-Exceed measures aren’t something you can forgo.”

“Exactly.” Mr. Gerald nodded. “At the very least, we need to be ready to slow down people like that until the heroes arrive. Analyzing their fights is an important part of the job.”

“Or so he would like you to think,” Ms. Steiner added. She looked at Amanda. “Don’t believe him. He’s just trying to make himself sound responsible. The truth is that man is hopelessly in love with fights between Supers.”

“Already undermining me in front of the new interns?” Mr. Gerald put his hands theatrically over his heart. “You cut me deep. You really do.”

“Someone has to.”

As the two shared a laugh, Amanda turned to Tim.

“You’re a fan of a villain?” She asked, deciding to latch onto the only part of that whole explanation she felt comfortable with. The realities of big tech companies and the effects of Exceeds on the world were not something she wanted to think about right now. She got enough of that from her mom whenever she was talking about her job.

“Hey, it’s not like he is one of those Circle crazies or anything.”

“Just an international tech thief.”

“He’s got a really cool armor,” Tim said, as if that excused it all. “Look at it!” He pointed at the screen. “It’s all shiny and silver.”

Amanda did look at it. One of the Supers fighting on the screen was Sentinel, one of the most popular heroes in the United States. His trademark black costume was one every child could draw from memory. The other one was a Super she had never seen before. As Tim said, he was wearing shiny, silver armor, reminiscent of a medieval knight.

“Hence, Silver Knight. How original,”

“It so is. Hey,” he raised his voice and looked at Mr. Gerald. “Can I have a copy of that video? Please?”

“Sorry, no can do.” Mr. Gerald shook his head. “ All the videos here are company property. No one is allowed to take them outside the building. That means no saving them to a flash drive or attaching them to an email. However,” he added when Tim visibly deflated. “If you come here during the weekend, you can sit down and watch it. I’ve got a whole folder of fights if you want to go through it.”

“Can I?” Tim was almost jumping in place, his eyes wide and shining with hope. He looked like a puppy.

A puppy that was going to spend time with the very handsome Mr. Gerald.

Amanda cleared her throat. “Can I come as well?”

“Oh?” Amanda felt her heart do a backflip when Mr. Gerald’s green eyes met hers. “Are you a fan of Supers as well?”

There was really only one answer Amanda could give to that.

“Who isn’t?”

~~~

Alice Steiner
Codename: ???
Height: 5’9
Age: 34
Birthday: November 14
Favorite Food: Saltimbocca alla Romana

Gerald Hart
Codename: ???
Height: 6’3
Age: 36
Birthday: February 8
Favorite Food: Steak

~~~

AN: I almost ended up uploading this with all the removed scenes. Would have been super embarrassing.