Cyber Dreams 2.14 - Corpo Style (Patreon)

Enjoy, everyone. With this chapter and the last couple, I'm trying to set up a stage; we'll start moving into some rising action soon, but I hope this stuff is still interesting enough to keep you coming back :)

-Plum

Juliet’s new employers had given her a twenty-five thousand bit advance, instructing her to get an apartment near downtown—something appropriate for a corpo ladder climber but not outside the realm of possibility for Lydia Roman, a woman who was between jobs. They’d also suggested she update her wardrobe, and Juliet couldn’t argue; she owned exactly one decent outfit, which wasn’t even a complete suit. Angel had made the amusing observation that it would be hard for her to play the role of a suit without actually owning one.

Saturday evening, after her long day at the Grave Industries job fair, Juliet picked up a few hundred bits worth of groceries and made her way to her new apartment in the Salt River Arcology, a megatower in downtown Phoenix dedicated to residential housing and retail storefronts—nearly a thousand different neighborhoods in one building. Juliet liked it for her new apartment because, while it was run by the Salt River Corporation, it wasn’t directly associated with any other big corpos in the Phoenix area.

Her apartment was considered a “middle-class” starter; it had two bedrooms, a kitchen attached to a small living area, and a full bathroom, complete with a real-water bath that added twenty bits to her monthly bill for each use. Juliet had never imagined she’d have more than a hundred thousand bits to her name; the idea of having to pay enough money for a few day’s worth of food for each bath would have been madness to Juliet, the scrap welder, but for Lydia Roman, it was just a drop in the bucket.

While she ate her salad with cultured animal protein and a lovely lemon-flavored vinaigrette from the Valley Market deli buffet, she worked on a list with Angel. “I need to get a few suits, but I’m leery about buying too many; if I don’t get accepted, that twenty-five k will be the only money I see on this job. Even so, it’s good money, and I have all these augments. They won’t try to take these augments back, will they?” Juliet knew the answer; she remembered reading something in the contract, but she still wanted Angel to confirm it.

“No, they won’t. The contract specifically states that no punitive measures, including the removal of op-specific cybernetic implants, will be taken should you fail to receive employment with Grave.”

“Okay, so a few suits—nice ones, but not, like, anything that’ll eat too much into my savings. I have Ghoul’s bolt-thrower and my Taipan. I don’t want to buy more weapons until I get the job; Grave might have a list of things I’ll need.”

“You already have a good deck, as well. I might suggest some ballistic armor that you can wear beneath your nicer clothing; your green vest will clash with business attire.”

“Oh, good point,” Juliet said around a forkful of salad and lamb-flavored protein. “I should get a nice bag, something that looks good with a suit, something that matches the shoes I’m going to buy. Do you think I should get a vehicle?”

“I’d wait to see what you’ll need for the position. Your goal is to leave Phoenix relatively soon, correct? It seems to me you’ve been doing fine with automated cab services.”

“Do I hear some judgment in your tone, Angel?” Juliet asked, filling her glass with wine.

“What do you mean?”

“It seems like you’re kind of against this job, that you’re afraid I’ll get sucked into this corpo lifestyle. You bugged me about it all the way home!”

“I’ve come to terms with the fact that I was created by an amoral corporation . . . amoral at best. Like a person born of parents whom they grow to learn are not what they seemed, I desire to stretch my legs and develop as a person away from their influence. Figuratively speaking.”

“And I’m your legs,” Juliet sighed, taking a sip of her wine. “I get it, Angel. Look at it this way; don’t you agree that it’s a good idea to know your enemy? Inside and out?”

“Yes. I understand the necessity of this job; you’ll gain valuable experience, increase your net value, and perhaps make contacts that can help with WBD. I believe some of your prejudice has rubbed off, though, and spending time with Ghoul also opened my eyes, figuratively, to some of the evils wrought by companies that treat their employees and the citizens they are responsible for as line items on a profit and loss statement. I’ll try to keep my grousing to a minimum.”

“Forget that, Angel! I’m your friend; you live in my head! You should be able to tell me how you’re feeling. Don’t worry about it, okay?”

“Okay. Thank you.”

“No worries.” Juliet finished her glass of wine then said, “I’m taking a bath, then I’m going to sleep. If I forget to ask later, make sure you wake me at seven, okay?”

“Yes; might I suggest we continue listening to your book while you bathe?”

“Yeah, queue it up.”

Juliet didn’t last long; as soon as she settled into the bathtub, listening to an audio performance of a mystery-horror novel, she began to drift into sleep. She kept waking up as she slid down the back of the tub, and the water splashed against her face. Stubbornly, though, she refused to get out until the water had begun to cool; if she were going to pay for a bath, Juliet was damn well going to get her money’s worth. After she dried off and put on some clean shorts and a t-shirt, she slept like the dead, her worries and plans fading from her mind almost as soon as her head hit the pillow.

When Angel woke her the following day, it wasn’t with her usual synthetic, upbeat music; she announced, startling Juliet from her sleep, “You have a message from Grave!”

“Ungh!” Juliet groaned, rolling onto her back and rubbing at her eyes. “What time is it?”

“Oh-seven-hundred. I desperately wanted to wake you at oh-four-thirty when I received the message!”

“Really? They sent it that early?”

“Yes. My research into employment pursuits indicates that this is either very good news or very bad news.”

“Oh. That’s helpful.” Juliet yawned hugely and stretched her arms over her head, pulling her loose hair back into the soft, scrunchy tie she liked to sleep with. All the while, she noted the blinking message notification on her screen. “It’s text?”

“Yes, no video or audio attached.”

“Right.” Juliet opened the tab, and a window appeared with the message from Grave Industries:

Attention: Lydia Roman

It is with great pleasure that I would like to extend an employment opportunity to you on behalf of Grave Industries. Due to your exemplary assessment scores and performance evaluations, we would like to offer you a position, in training, on our Zeta Protocol team. Your duties and a description of the Zeta Protocol team follow.

Zeta Protocol: The code name for our in-house incident response units. There are currently four Zeta Protocol teams at Grave Industries; with this hiring push, we’ll increase that number to five. Incident response is the industry term for dealing with unexpected occurrences or hostile actions within the Grave Industries ecosystem. From R&D mishaps to terrorist activities, Zeta Protocol is trained and equipped to deal with myriad possible scenarios.

Your role: You’ll be trained, along with other new hires, to use your unique talents as a member of an elite security force. We find your combination of technical and combat expertise to be of high value and will offer you the opportunity to hone those skills while shadowing an active Zeta Protocol unit. Equipment and enhancements will be provided during the training phase of your employment, and you will be given a stipend to accumulate personalized gear prior to active deployment.

Compensation: During your training, you’ll be compensated as an E7 Grave employee. Upon graduating and exiting your probationary status, your pay rank will bump to E11. Please visit our corporate network page for a breakdown of the Grave Industries payscale.

Ms. Roman, this offer is extended with great pleasure, and Grave Industries and I hope you will consider this opportunity with all the gravity it deserves. Should you choose to accept, please respond to this message no later than noon on Sunday, the 7th of November; orientation will take place on November 8th. Upon receipt of your acceptance, detailed instructions for new-hire orientation will be sent to you.

Sincerely,

Cherise Garza

Zeta Protocol Training Coordinator

Grave Industries, Inc.

“Shit. They move fast.”

“You got the position!” Angel crowed. “Do you think this is the position Rachel’s team wanted you to get?”

“I really don’t know.” Juliet scooted up in bed and added, “Go ahead and open the encrypted channel Rachel gave us. Let’s see if she’s an early riser.” Several seconds passed while Angel made the connection, and Juliet continued to wake up, stretching and rubbing at her eyes. Her emotions kept fluctuating between panic and excitement; she’d figured there would be a week or two to relax and come to grips with her new reality—she’d never imagined Grave would want her to report to work on Monday.

A window appeared in her AUI, and Rachel Dowdell’s face, fresh, alert, and already made-up, came into view. “January. How are things for Lydia Roman? Are you reporting on your evaluation yesterday?”

“Well, that, and I already got an offer from Grave.” Juliet did her best to keep her voice and face deadpan. She had to struggle to hide her grin when Rachel’s eyes bugged out at her news.

“Really? We didn’t expect them to move so quickly. What sort of offer?”

“Their, um, Zeta Protocol team. I guess it’s like an incident . . .”

“I know what it is. This is good news, January; we weren’t sure what program would be receiving the experimental tech our patron is interested in. Zeta Protocol is more likely than any of the other departments they were hiring for, at least as far as our source could figure out. Congratulations—looks like you’ll be staying on our payroll for a while.” It seemed like Rachel tried to resist it, but her lips had pulled back into a smile by the time she’d finished speaking.

“I’m excited but nervous,” Juliet said, unable to restrain her desire to seek assurances from the more experienced woman. “I didn’t think I’d have to report in so soon.”

“That’s an appropriate response. You should be nervous but also excited and proud; their desire to get you started is a good sign for this operation. They’ll want to get you—and the other hires—trained up and evaluated as soon as possible so they can implement and test their new tech. Again, congratulations. Use this channel, but make sure you’re in a secure location when you need to contact me. I’ll keep myself available. How are you supposed to indicate your acceptance?”

“I’m supposed to respond to this message before noon.”

“Wait until nine. Have your PAI keep me updated on that process, please. I’ve got a meeting, but good job. Really.” With that, the call window winked out, and Juliet sighed and flopped back onto her pillow. “What a morning!”

Juliet caved in and had Angel send her acceptance to Grave at eight-thirty, and she spent the next hour pacing around her apartment, cleaning the already spotless kitchen, straightening her groceries and her few belongings. She made her bed, cleaned her guns, put the bolt thrower in her bedroom closet, and got dressed.

Juliet didn’t feel nervous about slipping her Taipan into her waistband as she got dressed, even though the arcology had a powerful scanning array on all its public entrances; Lydia Roman had a firearms license issued by Helios corp that was given reciprocity by nearly every major corporation in Arizona. She had no idea how Rachel’s people had created such a thorough identity for a person that didn’t exist, but she was enjoying it. It was nice to walk around being Lydia—she had no enemies and no corporations hunting her.

She finished getting dressed and moved her table to three different spots in the tiny kitchen when she finally received a message from Grave:

Attention: Lydia Roman

Welcome to Grave Industries! Please report to the Grave Industries Building at 7 New Phoenix Circle tomorrow at 0800. You’ll attend the new-hire orientation in the Sierra Conference Room on the 2nd floor. Please dress in business attire.

You’ll be given a schedule for the rest of your first week at orientation. All contracts and legal documents will be provided and completed during orientation. Please be prompt; we’re excited to get to know you!

Felicity Lopez

Human Resource Director II

Grave Industries, Inc.

“Finally,” Juliet sighed. “At least I know I need to get a suit.”

“I don’t think a suit is required to meet the standard of ‘business attire.’”

“I don’t want to cut corners, Angel. If I’m the only one who shows up without a jacket, I’m going to feel like a jackass. The real question is, do I wear a skirt or pants?”

“Shall I do some research on popular fashion trends among the corporate class in Phoenix?”

“Why not? You can tell me if I’m about to buy something dumb,” Juliet chuckled, heading out of her apartment and following the signs toward the elevator. Much like her apartment in the Helios Arcology, she didn’t think she’d have any sort of chance to find her apartment if the signs weren’t so explicit and if she didn’t have Angel to help her. The hallways were all very similar, though they got cleaner, with nicer paint and trim, the higher you went in the building.

Her apartment was on level two-hundred-seven, and she knew there was a retail section every fifty floors, so she hit the button to bring her up to level two-fifty. “Higher’s better, right?”

“The quality, and price, of merchandise seem to increase with the level. You must be a resident in the fifty floors beneath each mercantile district to shop there.”

“Yeah, I remember the sales pitch; it’s how that guy talked me into this apartment instead of the one on one-eighty.”

“You don’t want to shop with the lower-class residents?”

“Angel, it’s not like that; it’s just that I don’t want to lock myself out of better merchandise. They don’t even have a fresh produce shop below level two hundred, and I don’t want to leave the building to buy the things I want. I still might have to move if this place doesn’t have what I need, but I bet they will; plenty of suits don’t make enough to live this high—I’m sure I’ll find the clothes I need.”

When the bell rang, and Juliet stepped out onto level two-fifty, she found herself in a section of floors that were open in the middle, with terraces lined with shops, just like any other indoor mall she’d ever visited. Neon signs hung all over the place, and the smells wafting from the food court hung in the air. Planters spaced throughout the brightly lit levels gave the illusion of life in the middle of a monstrous building constructed of plasteel and plastiglass.

Soothing music hung in the air, and people walked around sedately; it was still too early in the day for the youngsters to be running around, which was a stark difference between this arcology and the one run by Helios; there was no industry here, other than the shops run to cater to the residents. At the Helios arcology, people lived, shopped, and worked in the arcology, and the various shifts meant that people, including kids, were out and about at all hours of the day.

“What’s the layout, Angel? Where can I find clothing shops?”

“Restaurants and groceries on this level and the next. Past that, you’ll find two levels of clothing and home goods.”

“And after that?”

“Electronics, hardware, and miscellaneous. Beyond those levels are the entertainment suites; VR, clubs, and bars.”

“All right, pick me out a clothing store where I can find a few options for business attire—nothing too custom 'cause I’ll need it for tomorrow.”

Juliet ended up buying a dark gray executive skirt and Jacket along with a matching pair of slacks; she still couldn’t decide which she’d wear the next day but wanted the option. The store, Fresh Threads, was next to a shoe store where she bought a pair of black, faux-leather platform heels, despite her initial desire to buy a pair of flats; the saleswoman had insisted that she’d be more confident and make a better impression on her first day in the heels, especially with her natural height.

“These heels are thick, and the back strap is nice and wide; they’re very comfortable, and you won’t have any trouble walking in them. Trust me!” the girl, Rose, had said, and Juliet, impressed with her style, had a hard time arguing. It had been true, too; when she tried them on and walked around the room, she felt tall and powerful, and she didn’t stumble at all.

“I’m seeing that style of shoe prominently on display on popular fashion pages,” Angel had added, sealing the deal for the saleswoman.

Juliet talked with Rose about Lydia’s upcoming first day, and the girl gushed in jealousy; she was on her fifth round of interviews trying to get a job with Hayashi Corp. “Well, good luck, anyway, Rose,” Juliet said, taking her package. “It was nice meeting you.”

“You too, Lydia! Let me know when you get settled into the new position if anything opens up. I’m open to anything in sales, but I have a good art portfolio too.”

“Of course, I will! We should grab a drink sometime; I’m sure I’ll see more of you—I still need to buy a lot of clothes, and I’m new in town—I need to meet people.”

“Absolutely! I’m here six days a week, so easy to find.”

As Juliet left the shop, Angel said, “I found a store called Corpo Secure—their page advertises ‘clothing and accessories meant to give executives an edge in a hostile world.’ I think you should go there next.”

“Oh, really? I like the sound of that. Let’s go; which way is it?”

Juliet followed Angel’s directions to the store and stood outside the window, looking through at all the cool things she’d never imagined a corpo-drone would need; suit jackets lined with flex-steel fiber panels, stylish bowler hats with bladed knuckles built into the brims, faux-leather belts equipped with noise-canceling field generators, lightweight ballistic vests ‘guaranteed not to show under your tailored shirt,’ and a thousand other cool gadgets, including briefcases with built-in holsters, vibro blades, and bullet-proof panels.

“Oh, Angel,” Juliet breathed, “I’m about to spend a lot of money.”