Trace groaned; it really was just one thing after another. They should have guessed that Ko graduating so early would have brought negative attention their way.

  He met her eyes. “Okay, I understand the general gist of the story, I think. At least in relation to mister pervy-eyes, I’m assuming he’s another supervisor or something.” She nodded. “And I understand how you initially became involved with all of this. What I don’t understand is why you are still involved. Why are you risking yourself and your cushy corpo job to warn and help her… us?”

  She smirked. “For one, I detest Harvey. You aren’t the only one who has noticed his eyes, believe me.” Cerys ground her teeth. “The actual reason is related to something else. How much have you looked into Siren’s Rush, after learning what happened to your… girlfriend?”

  Trace nodded at the affectation. “A fair bit, and a lot of what I’ve learned has been worrying. Your corporation, Sekmore Snak-Co, and a couple of others are all involved in a few combined projects.”

  The corporate supervisor blinked. “You managed to learn more than I expected. The fact that we are working together on several shared projects isn’t exactly common knowledge. However, it’s one of those exact projects that led to me being here.” She crossed her arms angrily, hands fisted. “They attempted to use one of those new projects on me. Specifically, a mind control drug.”

  “I know about the project, not a lot mind you, merely that it is designed to ensure the loyalty of a corporation’s employees.”

  “Well, there you are. It was what pushed me to go this far.” She shrugged. “Before, I would have been unhappy with them and maybe said a few things to my colleagues. However, I doubt I would have actually done anything. I wouldn’t have had the courage to do something like this before they attempted to drug me.” She finished wryly.

  He got a few details from her, and stood, only to stop at the door, a sudden thought coming to him. “How worried should we be about this Harvey guy? And I mean that in relation to the contract changes, as well as any power he could bring to bear as a supervisor.”

  Cerys rolled her tongue around her teeth for a few seconds, thinking, before she answered. “Very. I admit the details are a little murky, even to myself, but he is somehow related to one of the higher-ups, a section head, or a section director. It gives him even more authority than normal. No other supervisor would have been able to convince the council like he did. The usual process is a lot more involved and political in nature. He side-stepped all of that.”

  Trace banged his head against the door in frustration. “So, everything he said he could do, was true, and he’ll also be able to come attack us with guards or whoever he can hire if he wants.”

  “Sounds about right, yeah.” She agreed.

  He yanked the door open to find Ko and her mother in the middle of packing. The woman only had a few belongings left after she had been forced to sell most of what she had simply to keep eating and remain housed. What the corporation had done was disgusting, even to Trace’s normally uncaring mind. These were people who were legally not allowed to leave the mega-structure outside of certain times, like when they were being escorted to their jobs. In other words, they had absolutely no recourse against the corporation that controlled everything about their lives.

  “Have you contacted AdeKreed?” He asked, moving the bags they had already filled closer to the door.

  Ko looked up from her place sprawled across the floor, one hand stretched out underneath the bed. “I have. I also explained everything to him. He had started the paperwork last night since he knew I would be visiting Mom today. He already had access to the original copies from one of our earlier conversations. So, I don’t need to do anything just yet.”

  There was a sudden hard rap of knuckles on the doors, and Cerys turned her head sharply towards it. A look of worry flashed across her face.

  “That’s the signal that Harvey is on his way with more guards.”

  Trace began checking each of his weapons, making sure each was loaded, and that he was still carrying extra ammo and magazines. Strapped to his back was his knife as well, though he would prefer that remained as a last resort only.

  He glanced at Ko with a raised, questioning brow. She tapped the middle of her back and nodded. Good, she was carrying her gun as usual. Not that he had to worry about her ever being unarmed since she had wire whips built into the tips of her fingers. They were extremely sharp, but apparently also rather fragile, leaving them as more of a last resort.

  Su-Min shrank back, clinging to her daughter as a second round of hard knocks thundered against the door.

  Deciding the jig was up, Trace tapped the spot next to his right eye and then pointed to the two cameras that had been highlighted earlier.

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  Ko’s glowing green eyes darkened to a rage-filled, dark jade coloring. She had gotten the message loud and clear.

  While the three of them were busy packing her mother’s last few belongings, concentrating on any keepsakes they could find. Any clothes she needed could be bought later and would be of much higher quality than what she currently possessed. Everything she was currently wearing had been bought by Ko over the years anyway. Most of them were currently looking worn from constant use and needed to be replaced.

  The supervisor glanced back at them and then yanked the door open. Outside, her two guards were standing at the ready, each wielding their dual plasma swords, ignited and ready to be used. Standing a few feet away from them, just out of easy reach, was Harvey, with a cohort of his own guards.

  “Is there a reason that you returned, Harvey?” She spat out angrily. “I had things under control here, perfectly well without the problems your very presence tends to bring everywhere you go.”

  “Yes, I can see how under control everything is,” He replied back drolly, noticing the bags on the floor just behind her. “The council requests their presence. All three of them.”

  “Is there a reason we should feel obligated to attend to the desires of a council that doesn’t even keep the contracts they signed? Their word, the basis for all business, has proven to be worthless. If I can’t trust them to honor a contract they signed, how can I trust them to do anything else they say?” Ko demanded angrily, coming up behind the woman at the door.

  Cerys cocked a brow with a half-smile. It was one of many points that she had brought up at the initial discussion of Harvey’s plan. All trust, what little there had been to begin with, had been lost, likely forever.

  The man growled at them and threw his hand out to the side, signaling his guards, who all drew their weapons. “It may have sounded like a request, but let me be clear, YOU do not have a choice in the matter. The three of you will be coming with me, whether you like it or not.”

  Cerys nudged Ko back from the door. “What is it you would like to do?”

  The younger woman, in turn, faced her mother and Trace uncertainly, looking for their opinions on the matter.

  Su-Min remained silent, her eyes on the floor. She felt as though she had lost the right to voice her opinion as a mother years ago. The last few years living in this place had done little to build back up her destroyed self-confidence, but it was impossible to ignore the facts.

  Trace stared first at Ko, and then Cerys, trying to understand where she stood. After a few moments, he shook his head. “We can’t risk a fight with them, not here at least. There are too many cameras and watching eyes. Assuming we even won and managed to escape, the corporation would put a bounty on us, a proper one. If we tried to stay in the city, we would never know peace again as long as it was there. It’s a terrible option, but really the only one we have at the moment. I think we need to see what this council of heads wants to say.”

  Ko, who was chewing on her lower lip to the point that it had begun to bleed, slowly nodded. “I don’t like it, but I agree.”

  They couldn’t exactly trust Cerys and her guards in these circumstances, either. The woman might have been willing to give them information when the risk to her was minimal. However, that was no longer the case as Harvey had come back, and this council of heads was now monitoring the situation.

  “That is probably the best choice,” Cerys agreed softly. “As your boyfriend said, fighting here would only make things worse, no matter the outcome. I’m afraid I won’t be of much help for you though,” She continued speaking a little bit louder this time, bringing a hand up to her ear and discreetly massaging the lobe. “The support I can garner on the council is nothing compared to Harvey.”

  Her golden eyes flashed, and both Ko and Trace abruptly received point-to-point messages from her.

  ‘Go with him and be careful. I’ll send both my guards here with you. Try to extend the time of everything as much as possible, the trip to the upper floors, the meeting itself, everything. In the meantime, I’ll do what I can to find information that will help your mother. Ko, send me the contact information for your manager.’

  A few moments later, three were standing outside the apartment, while Cerys nodded to her two guards. “Put those away, for the moment. I want you to go with them, and make sure our esteemed Mister Putts here doesn’t get any odd ideas in his flathead.”

  Trace tilted his head and leaned closer to the man. “Huh, I didn’t notice that before, but you do have a strangely flathead.”

  The man in question placed both hands on top of his head and glared at them both. “My parents thought it was a good style choice!”

  Ko reached out and patted his shoulder. “Careless parents? Surgery can fix that, you know. If you’re so insecure about the shape, it can be done in only a few hours by any competent mender. I’m sure one of your corporate doctors, with their access to even better technology and drugs, would be able to do an even better job.”

  The man ducked down, muttering to himself.

  Cerys chuckled and then began to laugh uproariously. “He’s tried that a couple of times. His uncle, or aunt, whichever one that is a section head or something, has stopped it each time. They supposedly keep saying that it’s a remnant of his parents and that he needs to keep it.”

  “Oh, well, I guess as long as it isn’t hurting him,” Ko muttered, taking a few steps back. Despite the current situation, her training as a mender was still shining through.

  “Eh, he gets headaches occasionally, otherwise, he’s fine.” She snorted a couple more times and then pointed at her guards. Who nodded, understanding the directions they had been given. With that completed, she slipped away, ready to be about her self-given task.

  Harvey’s guards had lowered their own weapons at the same time as two female guards sheathed their glowing swords. For the moment, they were all busy looking down at Harvey, who was still crouching down, muttering to himself.

  “It’s not even that noticeable,” Trace told Ko and her mother softly. “I honestly hadn’t even noticed until it was pointed out. If he had a more robust hairstyle, it probably wouldn’t even be noticeable at all.”

  Ko looked closer and slowly nodded. “True, what a weird fellow. Maybe, he does actually like his flattop. Oh, well.”

  On the floor, Harvey continued to mutter to himself, slowly wasting time just as Cerys had asked.

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