Nine-to-Five 023 (Patreon)

Career Opportunities VIII

~~~

The ride back to Port Stanley was looking to be the longest in Amanda’s life.

Everyone had rushed out of the train as soon as it stopped at Happy Hogan Station. It was a miracle no one had been hurt in the ensuing stampede, though perhaps that could be chalked up to the relatively small number of passengers. Regardless, it proved to be a prime opportunity for Amanda and Tim to sneak away after ditching the masks.

Ms. Martel and the two bodyguards had been waiting for them outside the station. They even had a car with dark-tinted windows ready, something that Amanda was still trying to wrap her head around. Though some passengers showed enough sense to dial 911, the police still hadn’t gotten there by the time they left the station. Amanda did hear a few sirens in the distance, though, which was a big part of the reason why Amanda hadn’t hesitated to jump into the car.

It wasn’t just some random car that picked them up either. It was large, and the seats were arranged so they could face each other. Amanda and Tim sat side by side. In front of them were Ms. Martel and one of the bodyguards.

Despite the commotion in the train, Ms. Martel’s clothes were not even a little ruffled. She did not even have a single hair out of place. No one would be able to tell she had been in a train robbery less than an hour ago just by looking at her.

It had already been half an hour since they left the station behind. It was clear no one was going anywhere until they reached Port Stanley, which made this an excellent opportunity for Amanda to ask any of the dozen questions buzzing her head. She wasn’t blind to the oddities surrounding this whole situation. How was it possible that both her and Tim happened to become Exceeds? Why was her Exceeding not matching up with her admittedly limited knowledge on the subject? Why was Regum so accommodating?

Why did it seem like they were prepared for this?

Any of those questions would have been a good start, yet Amanda could not bring herself to voice them. There was a chill inside the car that was far colder than Jack Frost could ever hope to be. Even Tim seemed to sense something was wrong. The usually talkative boy was silent, nervously fidgeting in his seat without pause. He leaned left, then right, then left again, unsure of where to look while he twiddled his thumbs.

However, because he was Tim, he was making a game out of it, trying to see how fast he could twiddle his thumbs without them touching.

Regardless, something had to give.

Naturally, it was Tim.

“Sooo,” he said, head leaning against the window. “Nice weather we’re having, right? Because let me be honest here, I’m not a summer fan. Like, yay, pools and all that stuff, but hot temperatures don’t sit all that well with me. If it were up to me, fall and winter would last way longer. But today is good. It’s a bit chilly. Chilly is nice. Chilly is good. Not too chilly because then you get stuff like what happened on the train, which was bad. Kinda cool. But bad. Yeah, so…”

Tim looked around. Silence was his answer. He sighed.

“Yeah. Nice weather.”

“Enough already!” Amanda slapped her hands against her lap. If she weren’t inside a car, she’d be on her feet already. “Do you really expect us to stay silent all the way back to Port Stanley? Are you just going to sit there and pretend like you don’t know anything?!”

“Ms. Collins, please,” Ms. Martel said, and it shouldn’t have worked, but it did. “I understand both of you have questions. However, I would be a poor person to give you answers. As I am sure you have noticed, I am not what most would call a people person.”

“That did jump out to me, yeah,” Tim said, prompting Amanda to glare at him. He raised his hands in surrender and leaned away from her.

“She means she’s not convincing enough for whatever they want to tell us, so we’re going to be taken to someone who is! That’s not a good thing, Tim!”

“That’s a fairly cynical way to interpret my words.”

Ms. Martel sounded entirely too approving for Amanda’s tastes.

“You can deny it if you want,” Amanda challenged.

“You would not believe it if I did, Ms. Collins. Understandably so,” Ms. Martel said. “Regardless, I assure you that all your questions will be answered at Regum Tower. You are free to choose what to do after that. You can even go to the police if you wish to. No one will stop you.”

The ride back to Port Stanley continued in silence.

~~~

It was still daytime when they got back to Port Stanley. Regum Tower looked as magnificent as always under the sun’s rays, a gleaming blade rising into the blue sky. As Ms. Martel led them into the building, there was a single thought running through Amanda’s mind.

It’d be easy to escape.

It didn’t matter how big the security guards escorting her and Tim were. They weren’t Exceed. She was. It’d be easy to overpower them, take Tim, and run. She wouldn’t even break a sweat doing so, just like how taking down the human criminals in the train hadn’t even winded her.

Ms. Martel, however, Amanda was not so sure of.

The woman had an annoying air of perfection about her Amanda had noticed from the first time she laid eyes on her. Now, Amanda was wondering whether there was something more to it than good genetics. Still, even if Ms. Martel was an Exceed, she would likely not risk using her powers publicly if Amanda tried something.

Amanda could escape. She knew she could.

She didn’t.

If she ran away now, what would that accomplish? Regum knew where she lived and who she was. A simple phone call from them would be enough to inform CHEM that it had been her and Tim who had stopped the Exceed on the train. Amanda also wasn’t sure whether Tim would follow her lead or not. Then there was the big elephant in the room that was her deal with Gerald to have Regum protect her parents from the Exceed blackmailing them.

Those were all reasons not to run away. However, there was still one more.

If Amanda ran away right now, she might end up losing the opportunity to get some answers.

As she got into the elevator with Ms. Martel and Tim, Amanda knew she was making a choice. They rode it all the way to the top, then took another elevator.

“You need to take more than one elevator to reach the top?” Tim asked.

“Naturally,” replied Ms. Martel. “Elevators have limits. Besides, it is better this way.”

Better for who? Amanda thought of the question but didn’t ask it.

The doors opened up to a large office with a large, rosewood desk at its center. The binds were open, and the afternoon sun shone strongly through them. Amanda reflexively raised her hands to protect her eyes, but she need not have bothered. They got used to the light right away.

A handsome man with blue eyes and black hair sat behind the desk. His face was one Amanda had seen in many magazines and one documentary.

He was Arthur Cadogan.

CEO of Regum and one of the richest men in the world.

“Hey, Mr. Cadogan!” Tim raised his hand to wave at him. He did it so casually Amanda immediately turned around to stare at him.

“Hello, Timothy.”

That had her head whipping back to Cadogan.

“You two know each other?” she asked, her suspicions immediately rising.

“Didn’t I mention that?” Tim scratched the back of his head. “But yeah, he helped me out with something. It was pretty cool of him.”

“I am glad you think so, Timothy. However, I am afraid we are not here to discuss your new accommodations.”

Accommodations. Amanda narrowed her eyes. So that was how Tim had started living at Regum Tower. When she had learned of it, she had been a little envious. Now, she was beginning to wonder about the circumstances that led up to it.

“As I understand, you have had a rather trying day,” Mr. Cadogan continued, his face growing serious. “It is bad enough you had to face criminals, but the both of you have also been forced to realize you are different from regular people.”

“Actually, I already knew I was an Exceed,” Tim said, raising his hand. He then pointed to Amanda with his thumb. “Amanda is the only one who got that surprise today. Well, it was a surprise to me too, but I’m pretty sure that wasn’t what you were getting at. Still, it’s not every day you meet an Exceed. Well, two of them because the bad guy was also one.”

“You are not.”

“Huh?”

“Exceeds,” Mr. Cadogan clarifies. “Neither of you is an Exceed.”

Tim and Amanda stared at him.

“What?!”

“I mean, no, I’m pretty sure we are,” Tim said at the same time as Amanda’s outburst. “We got powers and everything.”

“Strength, durability, speed, increased mental capacity,” Mr. Cadogan recited with utmost calm. “Yes, I can understand why you’d assume you are Exceeds. It is the most logical conclusion. Why would you consider anything else when that is all that exists in your frame of reference?”

“What are you talking about?” Amanda yelled, finally having had enough. “We have powers! Why would we have them if we weren’t Exceeds?!”

“Because we gave them to you.”

The reply was said in such a matter-of-fact tone Amanda was left speechless. Even Tim couldn’t find anything to say.

“To be precise, we have been giving them to you ever since we hired you,” Arthur Cadogan continued. “With nothing less than stellar results, I might add. In less than two months, you have grown from regular teenagers to people capable of taking down an Exceed.”

“That doesn’t make any sense!” Amanda yelled. Her white-knuckled hands were shaking at her sides. “You gave us powers?! That’s not possible! How would you even give someone... powers…?”

Amanda trailed off. Her hand stopped shaking. “The nanotechnology…”

Mr. Cadogan nodded.

“Wait! No!” Her hands closed again. “That’s insane! There’s no way science has advanced enough to allow something like that!”

Give people powers through nanotechnology? That wasn’t how anything worked. Superpowers were the domain of Exceeds. Certainly, Dr. Roper had talked to them about nanotechnology when they picked him up at the airport, but that stuff was still in its nascent stages! Even then, it was supposed to help people with diseases, not give them powers!

“The progress of technology is always greater than people believe it is,” Arthur Cadogan told her. “Do you really believe mere Exceed powers could have allowed two untrained teens to overcome a train full of hostiles with ease? Or defeat a warehouse full of dangerous drug dealers?”

The last part was aimed at Tim, making Amanda raise an eyebrow. The other teen had his arms crossed and was staring at Arthur Cadogan with the most neutral look Amanda had ever seen from him.

“At every moment, you knew exactly what to do, and your bodies acted in accordance to the image in your minds. Mere Exceeds would not have been capable of that without training. Of course, if you wish to confirm my words, you merely need to submit yourselves to a few tests.”

“Tests?” Amanda scoffed. “From the company you own?!”

“You could go to CHEM, but I wouldn’t recommend it.”

“Oh?” Amanda challenged. “Why not?”

“Because they will know you are not Exceeds if you do so,” Ms. Martel told them, making Amanda frown. “To them, you will be something new. Unprecedented. They will wish to study you. Life as you know it will irrevocably change.”

“And whose fault is that!” Amanda shouted, pointing a finger at them. “Why are you even doing this? For what purpose would anyone do this? You are rich! You are powerful! If you wanted an Exceed working for you, you could have hired one! So why? Why all this?”

Arthur Cadogan sighed.

“Because the world is ending.”

~~~

“He’s lying!” Amanda said. She was in Tim’s apartment, having yet to leave the building. “He has to be!”

“I don’t know,” Tim said. Unlike her, he was sitting on the couch, with one elbow on the armrest. “They all seemed pretty serious about the world ending.”

“It’s a joke! That’s what it is!” Amanda said, pacing around the room. “Oversaturation of Exceeds ending the world? That’s ridiculous! Who has ever heard of something like M Particles anyway! Or Marvel Fields! My mom has worked with Exceeds for years, and I have never heard those terms before today!”

“Well,” Tim said. He crossed his legs and grabbed hold of his ankles. “There’s really only one way to know for sure, right? Go to CHEM.”

“We can’t do that!” Amanda said right away. She glared at every corner, knowing there could be cameras watching their every move.

And yet, her words were not false. Going to CHEM meant exposing themselves. If Cadogan was telling the truth, if they all were, then there was no telling what could happen to them. They might even end up as lab rats.

Not that they were too far from being that already, Amanda mused darkly. They just hadn’t realized it until today.

“Yeah, figured. So, what are you planning on doing?” Tim asked.

Amanda stared at him.

“You’re taking this awfully calmly.”

“Not completely,” Tim said.

“Not completely,” Amanda agreed. “You stayed behind to talk to him.”

That had been odd, yet Tim had looked so serious when he told her to go on without him that Amanda hadn’t been able to deny him. He hadn’t stayed in Arthur Cadogan’s office for more than two minutes, yet she felt something significant had happened there.

“What did you talk about?”

“Private stuff.”

“Private stuff?”

“Private stuff,” Tim repeated. “As in, I really don’t want to talk about it.”

Amanda looked at Tim.

Tim looked at Amanda.

“You’re planning to stay here, aren’t you?” She asked. “After all the crazy stuff. After everything we just learned! You’re planning to stay here?!”

“I guess I am,” Tim said as if he had only realized it after she said it.

“How can you be so calm about this!” she hissed at him. “Don’t you get it? This is wrong! All of it! We’ve been experimented on! We were in serious danger today, and I just know they had something to do with it! None of this is right! Not a damn thing!”

“So… what are you going to do about it?”

Amanda didn’t know.

She didn’t know a damn thing.

~~~

AN: 

Up much later than I wanted. Day's been tough, and I've got a headache that doesn't want to leave.