On the sidewalk in front of the CenUMR building, I took off my e-watch and put it in my pocket, pulled my shirt so the collar fell over the comm necklace, then pretended to scratch my collarbone while I messaged Darcy on my personal communicator.
Me: Find out who programmed my new work comm. I'm worried about bugs.
I couldn't open up the Grey's Peons chat group until I made sure CEO Finn wasn't snooping. Having to redact my question about the CEO being called "Big Thumb" had me thinking that while the chat groups weren't monitored, the secretaries didn't want to chance CEO Finn knowing about his nickname. It was possible that certain words or phrasing could trigger someone to pull up chat records.
Since I couldn't be sure whether I was a special case to be monitored from the jump, I didn't want to expose the secretaries' sanctuary.
I also didn't want to expose any more of my health details to the CEO than would end up being in the report sent to HR, so decided to complete the hospital task tomorrow. Instead, I headed to my old apartment to check in on the movers and make sure they weren't mishandling anything. I felt like I could trust a company contracted by a government organization but better safe than sorry.
Once I confirmed things were running smoothly, I met up with Records Team 4 for lunch as I'd promised the day before. Around that time, my personal communicator buzzed. I put down my skewer to "rest my chin on my fist" while reading the message from Darcy.
*Darcy: H. Simon, 10 yr tenure. Quiet but friendly.*
*Darcy: Cam standard, activated for Class C+. Mic in e-watch. Ear mic for C+. My place after 5.*
I blinked hard as I suppressed the surprise in my expression. RRR fieldworkers had a ranking. The lowest rank, Class D, worked domestically, only in this world. That was where I stood. C and up worked outside this world, traveling and performing work tasks in other dimensions. C were the safest foreign worlds, the level of danger increasing towards A. I recalled Bradley saying Secretary Grey was Class A several years ago. None of that surprised me.
The fact that my comm had a camera that was supposedly deactivated due to my low rank and that it didn't have a mic was interesting. Instead, the mic was embedded into the removable watch. I could understand there'd be no need to be discrete about communication domestically where civilians have knowledge of fieldworkers and could spot them by their uniforms. But for what reason were domestic fieldworkers deemed to not need camera functions? It was food for thought, but that was not was surprised me either.
What surprised me was that I had fully expected Darcy to take me to one of their underground friends, perhaps the same one who forged my ID card and chip, for a bug check, but instead they wanted me to visit their apartment.
It was curious, but I trusted Darcy. Thinking on it a bit longer, I supposed there was likely a GPS locator embedded in either device, so it was probably safer to not visit the headquarters of an underground hacker.
"Why are you over there nodding to yourself?" Forest questioned. I looked at her across the table crunching a pickled tuber with a judging frown, and I finally took my chin off my fist while pocketing my personal comm with the other hand.
"Just thinking about my position moving forward." I am not a liar. But I can easily tell irrelevant truths.
"Hm?" Soma lifted his brows with a smile. "What did you decide on?"
"To give it my all."
My three former team members all hissed and scoffed.
Bayu lifted a corner of his upper lip. "As if you're capable of doing anything less."
YOU ARE READING
Employee of the Multiverse and His Darling Cat
פנטזיהThis journal was intended to recount how I, Noble Malik, a leader of the World Management realm, was transported to a strange world and forced to climb the corporate ladder in order to return home. Inadvertently, it seems to have become a diary abou...
