Chapter 11
Capital City, Law District, Lau Industries Building
Cycle 6002.645.08.4W
Executive Lau drummed his fingers impatiently, the young intern was getting on his nerves. The intern was unquestionably annoying. However it was keeping pressure on the general population to ensure they could be easily guided, that was proving especially difficult at the moment. As you added more pressure to the human cogs in the machine, they tended too focus more on what they needed. It took much clever work to persuade them to keep living above their means and looking down on each other.
It was a job that rewarded the relentlessness and so he had done well out of the position. If one was trained to avoid biases of the mere human and make ruthlass calls, it was surprising what could be accomplished. Some days he worried he was cutting too many corners. But if he didn’t do it someone else would.
The office helped keep focused. Despite the intern buzzing around like an annoying little fly, it was a place of order. Various scattered work documents and project references were ready to be tucked back into place. Clever and simple cabinetry and desks would hide things, leaving only smooth planes. He would start and finish each day with almost a pleasingly sterile room. It was almost entirely white except for the stone floor and carefully placed pieces of timber trim.
With the intern not yet finished its self important buzzing, he let his gaze move beyond. He looked out of the offices windowed wall and scanned the city. From the seventh level up, one could see the city and part of the island with a better perspective, without completely being separated from it at the same time either.
Unlike others many others he owned his office, market garden and apartment. All were maintained to his exacting standards. As long as they could secure enough staff for the next few months, they would be sorted by the time winter rolled around.
As the very picture of a calm and patient boss he explained what was happening for the day to day operation of the places he owned. Being in the first phase of being broken down the boy Yimj made the expected moronic sounds. Yimj was trying to pretend he understood things and could help with the matters involved. He just hadn’t noticed that his world view was slowly deteriorating and temporarily his mind with them.
As he passed some documents to the boy it juxtaposed the difference between the two beings. One was definitely a boy in a tidy shirt and pants that fitted well enough to look smart. The other was a being, simpler cultures would have looked for a perfect word to describe the elegance of the appearance that was before them. His smooth flowing auburn hair was almost feminine and the suit so well made and pretentious that it had no label. This lack of label was because you were simply not good enough to know the name of the one that had crafted the suit.
He gave the boy a copy of next months planting schedule and then dismissed him. The fact was that the manager could already look this up. But keeping an eye on each interns progress during the hollowing, was always a worthwhile investment. It often helped reveal patterns in their infancy that would otherwise be harder to understand or cleanse later down the line.
With that thankful over for another day, he tidied the office and diligently returned everything to its spot. The Administrator office was back to being a tidy harmony of simple surfaces, mixing with a well framed view. Everything was now slotted neatly away into its spot leaving, only the room and furniture on display.
Checking the employ status of those remaining in the building, he was relieved to see the idiot intern heading out the main door. Now most that remained in the building were loyalists, except for a couple of almost zero threat receptionists and public facing security.
After one final check, he stepped into a little room behind one bookcase. Since he was now hidden from view he pulled a small switch for an elevator that the building plans of his office seemed to accidentally overlooked.
Now in the under-office he could check to see progress of the real work, away from prying eyes. This was a darker room in which screens would illuminate as needed. The main subtle light was around a chair that sat near the elevator. In some ways it was hard to tell how big the room might be. It felt if needed the screens could create an entire world around the chair in the darkness.
He started to compile reports and check on news broadcasts. It did little to relieve his growing unease that the general population was starting to break free of it’s invisible prison. He made a few notes before moving on to checking his operations.
Again he thoroughly went through the details of operations and especially the employee performance updates. This time he was much more re-assured by the orderly nature of everything from the reporting to the actual performances of his operations. With a few more notes he still found that his only concern was having enough people tied down, to get things done.
He had got halfway through making notes, when an alert sounded. Drahr was in the Office of the Executive. He used the separate intercom to let him know he was in the other office. He watched Drahr nod and head to the elevator. In the meantime he closed the displays around him.
Once Drahr had taken the elevator down he politely waited by the door As Executive Lau finished his work unseen on the chairs console. When he was finished he got up and both men got out card like devices that were half crystal half chip. These scanned the room and checked each other cards cards had the most recent authentication.
With the cards giving the all clear Lau could let loose with some winging. He was trying to decide if the state of the reactors or the general populations growing sensibilities were annoying him more.
Drahr agreed that both were quite troublesome for maintaining complete order.
Oh how Lau wished the reactors were still harvesting at the same rate. They would have been if what had been the Yotnear company had not interfered. No-one else was competent enough to dial the extractors down. If they had been completely removed from the picture, the reactors could have kept going despite the increasing side-affects.
The competency of the besieged Yotnear company and the captain that lead them, had been infuriating. Luckily the official placed with them had gathered more than suitable legal evidence to shut down their last craft. If it had not been destroyed in that explosion, they would finish the job swiftly through the courts.
The trouble was that there did seem to be a much higher amount of side affects that would happen even with the same energy draw that had been maintained for the last decade. What bit of the puzzle were they missing to be able to force energy draw?
Despite various divisions researching this separately and within existing institutions, no useful methods or even leads had been found. How was one supposed to make a stable economy like this. As the backup, they would just overdraw and when things temporarily dried up it could be used as the opportunity for people to buy generators, harvesters and batteries.
Then there was the Wadgin family. Disgracing those in this family spreading hope and striping them of their main assets, had only granted a temporary reprieve from there do-gooder activities. The infuriating bit was that the double crossing witch had let them flourish again, like weeds in compost.
Most other groups could be easily directed into caring for unwinnable causes or fighting others about pointless matters unrelated to at least one groups affairs. The thing was even before the witch had showed up, the Wadgin family almost seemed to be able to understand when things were there to turn them from their course. As if that wasn’t bad enough; many other do-gooders were sheltered under their wings and their ventures were helped to proceed. It was definitely time for the Wagdin family to be taken out.
Lau asked Drahr if he had really done any follow up after the plan to have the Yotnear crew blamed for Neodigs death had failed.
Drahr apologised saying that the follow up political activity had all been danced through, allowing the Wagdin projects to advance. If the boy survived he would most likely be in a coma from what the last trace scans had managed to salvage.
Lau gritted his teeth. He pointed out that this was another area that had not been handled well enough. They had got their colony plans approved with excitement from most people. Experience told him that this was the results of a failing control system.
He told Drahr to go through political splits for him. As an Executive, Lau now had less analysis access. He commented that they had the political system to stir up extreme differences, so why was it not being used properly. Even from the basic numbers Lau could tell that things were too balanced and the amount of registering non-voters indicated too many that were not being dragged into bickering.
Drahr ran his eyes over a few more complicated indexes that he was cleared for. He sighed and explained that advanced sample analysis revealed even more political levelheadedness than basic figures suggested.
Lau was now obviously getting irritated. He was in such a bad mood that he dared ask a question that if most understood, they would not mention. He wanted to know how those training in the way of the opening and the guild of educators were going.
The first part seemed straight forward enough. The way of opening was gaining increasing political support throughout the land. By merely focusing on creating sympathy for those affected by soul manipulation, there was increasing support for the individuals on the periphery of the group. These individuals unable to let go of their pain or struggling with the hunger of their souls were a reliable sources of social instability that any Executive needed to understand.
This did little to satisfy Lau, it was great that the periphery was growing and that art was pushing the agenda so well to improve the circumstances for this to germinate. The issue was whether or not there was any real practice on a large scale? Sacrifices and acts of real indecency. As far as he could tell it was a least a couple of generations since they had enough predatory openers with sufficient sorcery to warrant needing to do cover-ups. Where was the passion?
He asked about the educators, but was not hopeful. In some ways the educators developed the work that openers began. It was the beautiful harmony of allowing whatever chaos could be created in ones life through the openers, to rob and trap the victims with such clever sympathy.
Having the educators come in to support by shaping the trauma for this person could often result in them at least more manageable. But ideally it would lay the groundwork of emotional triggers for puppeting these people until they became further intertwined with those that dwelt with the darkness.
With this summary complete Executive Lau could only point out that the system was really struggling against some people of faith and competence.
He told Drahr that the first priority was to end the Wadgin family. He wanted them to be dead status wise, unless they were under the management of openers or educators.
Drahr looked a little startled but could understand that it needed to be done.
Lau commented that if that didn’t drag some of the stragglers back into political activity, then more action would be needed. Next he needed them to get their best sorcerers and writers together. Even with the material out there, they weren’t getting people addicted to darkness well enough or at interfering with other people’s existences.
And that was only the start. Especially concerning the openers if there was not enough passion or understanding in the community. There needed to one of the group that could grant this guidance and pain.
Drahr agreed politely.
Lau suddenly was very nice and inquired if Drahr had found anyone that could be promoted to work alongside him.
Drahr said unfortunately he was still the only one with the correct level of clearance.
Lau thought for a while. He then looked back at Drahr and a twisted smile spread across his face. He said then, that Drahr was the only one worthy of a gift. As Lau raised his hand the flesh on Drahr’s face started melting off till his nose had disappeared. The edges of his ears lost there shape and all the hair dripped off his head. His screams of agony neither filled the area nor echoed in space.
Satisfied with this Lau told the man in pain, to take his gift and the pain it gave. He wanted him to use it to carry out his wishes to restore the beauty of the darkness.
In-fact he wanted to give Drahr an even bigger dream. He wanted him to dream of a society where no-one merely felt that things were a little helpless. But had there very souls torn apart by the signals of complete helplessness and the appearance of happy luxury. He hoped he could find greater enlightenment, to speed people to the acceptance of inevitable rotten conformity that this world needed to control it.
Still writhing in pain Drahr managed to thank the Executive for his kindness before stumbling out of the chamber.
Over the next couple of weeks it slowly became obvious to those that Drahar worked with, that he was not going to be the same after the radiator burn accident. Many knew that he had loved his old classic car and thought it was so unlucky that this had occurred to him. They could tell bit by bit his patience was evaporating in the face of his ongoing pain.
Apparently Steve from accounts was silly enough to make a joke about his disguise glasses with a nose on. They were told he was transferred to an island office out west and never seen again.
It got to the point where Drahr was yelling at least one person every day. After a couple of weeks of this he got transferred. Unlike Steve though, the rumors were that he got a huge promotion. This sparked much irradiated office gossip and chitchat.
Wehl 2025
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