Nine-to-Five 017 (Patreon)

Career Opportunities II

~~~

“That was actually pretty easy.”

“I know, right?” Tim said, nodding as he took a bite out of his donut. The two had already finished the assignment Gerald had given them and had ended up hanging out in the food court. Tim had bought a dozen donuts which they were quickly finishing up. Amanda told herself it was okay to eat this many sweets because she ran every day.

She had earned this.

“It’s like I said!” Tim went on in-between munches. Somehow, he never spilled food when he did that. “There’s no way anyone would get lost trying to get here from the airport! The airport is even connected to the metro station! There’re signs and everything!”

As Tim nodded in full agreement with his own opinions, Amanda couldn’t help but wonder how things would have gone if they hadn’t been guarded by Regum’s security. Not that she had seen them at any point. Amanda wasn’t even sure if they had to do anything. However, she had known they were there, and that made all the difference.

A few days ago, the notion of being watched by her bosses would have made her paranoid and uncomfortable. Now, it was a security blanket draped over her shoulders.

“Oh well. At least we got something out of it!”

Tim grinned as he held up a subway card. Gerald had given one to each of them and told them it was paid for the entire summer. For Amanda, the black card with a white S on it was just one more convenience. For Tim, well, Amanda was starting to discern just how much of a difference the money he was saving by having one meant to him.

She still rolled her eyes at him.

“That was not the only thing we got out of this,” she said. “Did you not listen to what Dr. Roper was saying?!”

Dr. Roper was the scientist they had picked up at the airport, a mousy, glasses-wearing man. He had seemed shy at first, but once he started talking about his field of expertise, the man had not stopped. Even Tim had not been able to get in a word.

They had left Dr. Roper on the HR floor so he could fill out some forms, but Amanda wished they could have dropped him at the labs instead. That was a side of Regum she had yet to see, one far more interesting than she could have imagined if half the things Dr. Roper was talking about were true.

“‘course, I heard. Hard not to. The guy just kept going. Nanobots and stuff, right?” Tim took a long sip from his coffee. “I mean, I get it. Revolutionary medical treatment and all that jazz. Big ramifications. Newer, safer treatments for a bunch of diseases like cancer and whatnot. Bet you could save a lot of people that way. Maybe somewhere down the line you get to design your kids right down to their favorite hobbies.”

Amanda stared.

“I’m not an idiot,” he said flatly.

“I-I didn’t say that!” Amanda said quickly. Too quickly.

“Whatever.” Tim bit into his donut with relish. “Like I said, I get what the guy was all about. Just couldn’t stand listening to him is all. He had one of those droning voices, you know? Really hard to bear. He went on and on too. Didn’t let anyone get in a word once he got going. It’s, like, if you’ve got something to say, just say it, you know? I can’t stand it when people can’t seem to get to the point and need a bunch of set up just to come out and say stuff that doesn’t need set up. You know?”

Amanda stared. This time for entirely different reasons.

She wanted to say something about pots and kettles, but that’d be rude.

Honest, but rude.

“Honestly, I’m kind of proud of myself for not falling asleep on the way here. It’d have totally missed Slate if I had.”

This again. Amanda fought the urge to facepalm.

“You just saw him fly by. Big deal! Everyone sees him fly by!”

“But he was flying slower and slightly closer to the ground this time,” Tim said as though that made all the difference. “He’s been doing that more often lately.”

He was, but that was not the issue.

“Who cares about some hero? Nanobots, Tim. Nanobots!” Amanda said, beating her palms against the table. “That’s huge! Only Exceeds can make those right now! This could change everything!”

“Yeah, what’s up with that? Don’t, like, a bunch of Exceeds already use those? I mean, not a lot, but like five Exceeds or so, right? I’m pretty sure it’s at least five who use nanos.”

Trust him to know his stuff where it concerned superheroes.

“At least five in the United States,” Amanda affirmed.

“Right? So why are we just now getting ‘round to this nano-medical research?” Tim scratched his head. “I kinda wanted to ask about that, but I also really didn’t want that guy to speak more, so I didn’t,”

“It’s complicated,” Amanda said, momentarily closing her eyes. Memories of her mother’s cases flashed through her mind. While she didn’t know them down to the exact detail, she had obtained enough information through osmosis. “Just because an Exceed can create things doesn’t mean humans can replicate it. For example, there was this one Hero who painted things...”

“Canvas.”

“Right. He could paint a robot, and it would work, but if you tried to take the robot apart to see how it worked, you wouldn’t get anything out of it. They tried once and got a bunch of nonsense parts that shouldn’t have worked together,” Amanda explained. Like everything Canvas made, it had all faded away after a few hours. “Sometimes, the technology Exceeds create can only be manufactured through their powers. Other times, it only works because of their powers. Then there are cases where the technology they create can be replicated, but the production costs are too high.”

“Ah, so that’s why we don’t have jetpacks,” Tim grumbled with a dark look on his face. “I had always wondered about that.”

Amanda was fairly sure not having jetpacks had more to do with jetpacks not being safe in general. The world had enough traffic accidents without giving the average citizen the option to go up. It’d be a major hassle for the authorities.

“Whatever. The point is one Exceed having something is not the same thing as everyone having that thing. If Regum can actually produce nanobots without having to rely on Exceeds or insanely high production costs, we’ll be seeing a major increase in medical science in just a few decades!”

Amanda was having a hard time keeping her voice down. Even her hands struggled to remain still. She felt it justified. It wasn’t every day one was faced with knowledge that could revolutionize medicine as they knew it.

That Tim didn’t seem remotely moved by this was maddening!

Why couldn’t he understand how important this was?!

“Even a year is way too long.”

He said it so quietly she almost missed it.

“What?”

“Nothing,” he said, quickly averting his eyes and taking a long sip from his coffee. Though it was smoking hot, he drank it all in one go.

“Want to go to my place and play video games?”

~~~

“How did I agree to this?” Amanda asked herself as she took a look at Tim’s “house.”

It looked like some of the suites she had stayed in with her parents when traveling. A spacious kitchen-living room with a separate room for the bedroom. The interior was largely dominated by soft blues with gold accents. They were on the comfortable sofas, on the carpets, and on the curtains. The TV was large, flat, and stood on top of a sleek, white stand that had all sorts of things in it.

Like the Gamma Station Tim was connecting to the TV.

“‘Cause I offered and you said yes? Don’t tell me you’re bored already.”

“It’s not that! It’s just…” Amanda’s eyebrows crinkled together. How could she say this without making it awkward? “Never been to a guy’s place before. That’s all.”

That was not it.

It was true, though. Her circle of friends was entirely female. She had been at some parties held at guys’ houses—because Sophie kept dragging her into things—but those had been at best acquaintances and there had been several other people with her. Amanda had never been alone in a house with a guy until now.

It felt less awkward than she had thought it’d be.

Until she opened her mouth.

“Well, I’ve never been to a girl’s place if that makes you feel any better.” Tim didn’t even look up as he spoke. He just kept plugging in cables. “Unless you count my house, which belongs to my mom, who is a girl. I guess. So in that sense, I have been to a girl’s house before, but that’s probably not what you meant. Come to think of it, I don’t think I’ve been to a guy’s house either. Like, there were group projects in primary school, but I don’t think those count. One time, a classmate’s mom, I think his name was Steve, bought us pizza and ice cream when we went to his house. That was nice.”

“Do you… do you do that on purpose?” Amanda asked, staring at Tim like he was some bizarre lab specimen. “Just ramble things into submission?”

“Nah, that just happens. I tried biting my tongue in middle school, but I stopped when it started bleeding. That was no bueno. Made everything taste coppery.”

Amanda did not want to know if Tim was serious or not.

She hoped he wasn’t because it’d be too sad if he was.

“Why did you even invite me here?”

“To play games? Aha! Done!” Tim yipped and leaped to his feet. The game was up and running. “How else am I going to find someone to play co-op mode with me?”

He offered a controller to her.

“Come on, there’s this dungeon you can only play with a friend! It’s super insensitive to guys like me!”

She rolled her eyes but was already grabbing the controller and sitting next to him.

“How long will this take?”

Though she asked the question, she was in no hurry to leave. The truth was Amanda knew exactly why she had agreed to Tim’s request. It was the same reason why she had agreed to Gerald’s request.

She didn’t want to return home just yet.

Home was where everything she wanted to avoid was. Sure, she knew what it was her parents had been hiding from her now. She knew the cause behind their decreased presence in her life. That, however, did not make things better. In some ways, things were worse now.

When she got home and found no one there, she’d know exactly why that was. Her parents were doing their best to gather the files that slimy Exceed wanted while at the same time trying to figure out a way from under his thumb. They had let her know what was happening only because they had no choice. That did not mean they were going to let her participate in this.

They didn’t know she had already gone behind their backs and secured help, and she wasn’t in any hurry to reveal that to them just yet. Not until she had anything more than hopes to give. It has been Gerald who suggested that to her, but Amanda would have probably done the same without his prompting.

“I don’t know.” Tim scratched his head. “It’s like a hundred floors or so, so probably a while?”

“I’ll come back tomorrow if we don’t finish it. And no, I’m not inviting you to my house,” she added as soon as she saw the idea start forming on Tim’s face. “The last thing I want is for my father to start worrying about me bringing a guy home.”

“Worry?” Tim pointed at himself. “About me? Am I dad-worrying material? Seriously?”

He sounded inordinately pleased.

“Don’t flatter yourself.” Her fingers went over the buttons as she spoke. “Every boy is dad-worrying material. That’s how dads work.”

Not that she had much experience on that front, but Sophie and Kate certainly made it seem that way.

“Is that how it is? I.. Hey! Don’t go starting without me!”

The screen flashed. The game began.

For the next hour, all that passed between the two were requests for healing, items, and inane arguments about strategy.

They didn’t smile the entire time, but they smiled all the same

~~~

Above the residential floors was a hospital exclusive for those who worked for Regum.

This was where Tim’s mother had been moved to.

She had been given a clean, white room with large windows that allowed plenty of light to enter. Right now, the sky was dark, but Tim had seen how pretty the view was during the day. It was high enough here that you could see the ocean without the buildings getting in the way.

His mom would love it when she woke up.

Tim gently brushed some hair out of her face. She was still asleep, but the doctors had told him it was a temporary condition. That was good. That was great.

He just needed to be patient.

There was a flower vase by the window. Ms. Alice had sent them after hearing what happened to his mother. That was super nice considering Tim had only met her for a couple hours.

The pure white room. The comfortable bed. The fancy equipment to monitor his mother’s condition. The complete lack of any bills.

Everything was way too nice.

And yet, what was there for Tim to do but be thankful for his good luck? There were probably plenty of other people out in the world who wished they were in his position, but they weren’t. Tim was.

Tim was the person Mr. Cadogan had decided to help out.

“Hey, mom,” he said. “I had a pretty nice day today. Met a scientist who was talking about this cool science stuff…”

Even if it would take way too long for those breakthroughs to be of any help to his mom.

His voice almost quivered, but Tim snapped his mouth shut in time and took a deep breath. He couldn’t sound worried. The doctors had told him it was fine if he talked to his mother. That it may even help.

He couldn’t talk to her all sad and worried, though.

Happy! He needed to be happy!

“Hey, you won’t guess what happened? Me and Amanda made it all the way to the 30th floor in one run!”

~~~

AN: 

Later than it should be, but still earlier than expected!

Thanks for being understanding guys, and don't worry. It's just a flu.

Since the first arc is done and about to be available to all patreons, I've been thinking on how to best upload this to Royal Road. The format is probably going to be different than the one for Ave Xia Rem Y.

Also, if you want to pitch a summary, feel free to.