Maniac’s Mayhem: A guide to being a corporate slave

His smile slowly starts to drop as he notices that I am not doing as he says. A flex of some of my programs disables his augs. I know this is not how we should do things, but nobody threatens my friend and gets away with it. I started using the springtail to pump the drugs through my system.

“I said that you better do as I say, or Samanta gets in trouble.”

I start to giggle as I walk closer, hands behind my back. Making sure to appear as non-threatening as possible. Once I am right up to him, I stop, giving him my widest smile.

“No one threatens my friends and gets away with it,” I say in a low voice.

I throw a punch, hitting his side and sending him sprawling into the couch. The massive leather thing managed to flip over on its back and takes Chris with it. I slowly walk up to him, getting closer, but out of his reach. I wait until he comes out of his daze and looks at me again, this time with confusion but also with a good dose of fear. I stomp down on his left leg. I hear the satisfying snap of bones being crushed.

He screams, “Fuck, what is wrong with you? You fucking maniac!”

“Correct,” I say while taking out my mask and putting it on.

He looks at me, astonished, his fear having morphed into terror.

“Please don’t do this. I am sorry,” he gets out with a shaking voice.

“Well, did you let your victims go after they begged for mercy, huh, you fucking monster?”

Then I stomp down on his other leg. What can I say? I like symmetry. He starts to scream and yell for help. Not that it will help him much. These walls are soundproof. But the noise is a bit grating, so I kick him in his side, sending him into the wall. His legs are now bent and twisted at odd angles.

“You know what I don’t get about guys like you? You have everything: money, a nice house, a car, and if you put in some effort, a girl might actually want to date you. So why try and force yourself on people who aren’t interested?” I ask while stepping hard on his hand, breaking his fingers.

“I… I… Fuck you,” he gets out between his pained-filled gasp.

Suddenly, I get a call, which kind of kills all my motivation to continue my curent project.

“You know what? This is taking too long. Let's end our meeting here, shall we?”

So I activate Evelin's blade and cut his neck open. I sit in the room for a minute, letting the silence wash over me while Chris’s blood washes over the carpet, slowly staining it red. I slowly take off my mask and let out a sigh. I sit down on the couch that has not tipped over yet. Then I pick up the call.

“Cierra, hey, what can I do for you?” I say.

“Evelin, are you okay? I just got the news that Chris is your new boss.”

“Yeah, I am fine. There is just a lot of work, like usual. Why did they decide to send him, anyway? As far as I know, he knows nothing about coding.”

“Not sure exactly. I think my aunt wanted to prove that they had nothing to do with their father's betrayal.”

“Hmm, makes sense, but it seems a bit risky. I did not see any eyes on him. What do they plan to do if they are in league with each other?”

“I am not sure. My father has always doted on his sister. Anyway, can we talk? I left in a hurry on Saturday, and I would like to settle some things properly.”

“Yeah, definitely, that sounds good. I did not like how we left it either.”

“Cool, where are you, so I can pick you up.”

“Uhm, right now?” I say, looking at the still-cooling body.

“Yes, strike while the iron is hot or something. Anika also wanted to talk to you about some security concerns so we can knock all that out in one go.”

“Well, I am kind of in the middle of cleaning a room.”

“I mean, your room was not that dirty last time I was there. How bad could it have gotten in the meantime?”

“Ooh, it is not my room. I am cleaning a room at work.”

“Please don’t. I don’t trust Chris enough. He might try and pull something when the two of you are alone.”

“You know what? You might be right on that one,” I say, while trying to get camera footage of the office, completely forgetting that I bricked almost every camera in the building a minute ago.

“Please be safe, Evelin. I don’t want you to get hurt. We will be at your work in about 30 minutes. Is that okay?”

“Uhm yeah. I guess I will be waiting.”

“Okay, see you then, bye.”

As soon as the call disconnects, I send Sam several SOS asking if the office was empty yet. Luckily, she says that we are all clear, so I open the door and run towards her.

“Okay, I might have fucked up,” I say to Sam.

“Well, I got the gasoline you asked for.”

“Gasoline?”

“The code”

“Ooh, fuck! I messed up, sorry. Wait, maybe we can use it. Lyssa, you know how you drained the account of the human traffickers. You think you can do that again?”

Lyssa can do that. What would you have in mind?

“On the lower part of this building, there is a server farm holding all kinds of information, including payment details of all kinds of clients we have.”

“How the hell do you know that?” Sam asks.

“It was in one of the files I stole from Le Mond; I did not think it useful before. Anyway, I want you to transfer all the money you can to Chris, but make sure you don’t take away money from anyone who urgently needs it. Also, make it messy and send the data to the servers.

Why do you want to give him more money?

“I don’t, but it can help us now. Use that money to buy as much New Hope stocks as possible and put it under his allies name. What was it, Peter something?”

Do you mean Mitchel Parker? I can do that for sure.

“Nice, make everything semi-traceable like somebody tried to hide it but fucked up. Sam, I need you to go down there and burn the servers. Make it seem like someone was trying to hide evidence.”

“You know that the servers have backups and controls, right?"

“Yeah, of course, but Chris does not even know the difference between a server and a quantum computer, and we want to make it look like he did it.”

“Shouldn’t we leave his fingerprints everywhere as well, then?”

“Good point” I run back inside, activate the blade and cut off his right hand. I shake the blood out for a bit, then bring it back to Sam. “Here you go.”

She looks at the hand for a bit. “Ugh, fine, but you owe me one. Ooh, and when I get that watch, you better not be skimping out, okay?”

“Yeah, thank you, love you,” I say, while already making a call to Yun Min.

‘Lyssa, get the best watch you can find in my catalogues and put it on my to-buy list.’

Lyssa is happy to see that you want to add stuff to the list that is not sex toys.

‘Get out of my computer. A separate one for Samurai purchases you piece of malware.’

Ahh, Lyssa sees now that it was supposed to be private.

‘Fuck me, of course it was.’

Lyssa thinks that is what the list is for.

Before I can rip Lyssa a new one, my call connects, and I hear Yun Min.

“Hey boss, what up?” she says.

“I need your help. Quick.” I say.

“Sure, what do you need?”

“I need you to go into my room, get the carjacker bot, and see if you can reach Bubbles or any of the other Samurai. I need substances that can dissolve a human body without getting rid of anything else. Then I need you to come to my workplace. Stately Sam will let you in. “

“What are you going to do?”

“I am going to create an alibi for myself.”

And with that, I close the call and head to the front door to wait for my ride. As I am waiting at the platform, a group of people approaches me, consisting of two girls and three guys.

"Hey there,” one of the girls, with red highlights in her hair, says. “You have been standing around here for a while; me and my friends were about to go out, but we are at an odd number. Want to tag along?”

“Ooh no, thank you. I am just waiting for my pickup.”

“Ooh, don’t be like that,” one of the guys says. “It's late. We should go out and get some drinks. Have some fun. Sitting in the office all day must be hard. You should live a little.”

“No, I really don’t think I can.”

One of the other girls grabs me and says, “Come on, don’t be a spoilsport. Come and have some fun with us. You can’t be single forever. Let's just have one drink.”

“No, I..” I try to protest, but the people start to push me away. Just when I begin to wonder if I should do something more drastic, I hear a voice cut through.

“Could you unhand her?” Anika asks, “Or do you want me to become violent?”

For some reason, this is the scariest thing that happened this week. Her helping me is setting off all kinds of alarms, but I have no time to worry about it, as she leads me to the car. Before opening the door she bends over me.

“We need to talk later in private. Just know I did not tell anyone anything, okay?” she whispers in my ear.

I nod, and she opens the door for me. I step inside, and sit down on the same couch as Cierra.

“Have you eaten yet?” she asks me.

I look back at my work, “Not yet, no, how about you?”

“I haven’t either. Want to grab something together?”

“As long as you are paying.”

“Of course. Evelin, I am sorry. I did not know, and still do not know how much your situation hurts you.”

“It’s okay. It’s not your fault.”

“Well, maybe. I used to tell myself the same. That as long as I try to make you happy, I am not a bad person, but that is not right. I want to change, want to be better, but I am not sure how.”

“Honestly, I am not sure either. I don’t hate you. I think that I still love you, but I just need time to process everything.”

“Evelin, I still love you as well and I will do so for a while, so the only thing I ask from you, is that if you ever think you are capable of having a relationship with me again, you will not hesitate.”

“That I can do. In the meantime, can the two of us be friends?”

“I would like that very much.”