Ding.

  The elevator opened before us. I had to shield my eyes away from the light. It was so bright up here; you could actually see things around you. I took a deep breath. The air here was clean and smelled like a fresh bed of flowers.

  We stepped out onto dark hardwood floors, our feet cttering against the polished surface. No cement or metal floors here. These damn corpos. They save everything nice for themselves.

  Two guards on either side of the elevator stiffly watched us emerge and head down the hallway. I followed Donald’s lead here, he knew what to do, and I hadn’t the faintest clue of where we were. I kept my head down, not to draw attention, but I couldn’t help but peek out through the offices we passed.

  Through soundproof gss, I could see the suits of the operation typing away at holo-decks, making vid calls, fitted head to toe in the test office fashion, all trying to outdo one another. Suits, skirts, shoulder pads, augmented body parts, whatever their money could buy to get them ahead in this cutthroat world.

  Some doors to our left burst open, letting the sound cascade out into the hallway. Cool, clean air washed over us. An Anthro-Fox body was shoved out into the hall, rolling into the wall, smacking hard. His neat hair was ruffled and blood stained his pristine shirt beneath.

  “Your work was found inadequate, Gerald.” An Anthro-Rhino suit stepped out into the hall, paying us no mind as we followed Donald and stepped off to the side, keeping our heads down. “You’re terminated starting immediately.” His voice was deep and rumbling.

  Gerald, I presume, looked up in horror, “What? Just like that? I’ve been here for five years, doing everything that was asked of me! Sarah, tell Tsebame that I’m a loyal Praxis man.”

  A blonde woman with enrged breasts and eyes joined the suit standing over Gerald, “Oh I told him everything you’ve told me over the past two years, Gerald.” She let her hands slide over Tsebame’s shoulders, rubbing him down to his crotch, “Especially st night.” She licked her lips and ughed into the air.

  Damn, this was a corny drama. Is this what these people did all day? Gerald reminded me of Uwu, who was somewhere in this pce. A piece of me was with him. I pitied these people, but at the end of the day, they sold their souls for profit. I couldn’t feel bad for them now.

  Gerald’s face was filled with dread, “You’ve been fucking Tsebame this whole time? I thought we were going to get engaged?” Gerald climbed to his knees, his face was bloodied, dripping on the floor below.

  “As if I’d marry a low-level loser like you. Tsebame knows how to please a woman, and he is going pces in Praxis, and I need a money man.”

  Tsebame held his hand out, shutting up Sarah. “You’ve been trying to gun for my job for years now, talking shit behind my back. Hmph, you’ll be docked pay for the cleaning costs.” He snapped his fingers, “Guards, show him out the door.” He smiled devilishly at Gerald, “We’ll bill you for packing your things and sending them to your apartment.”

  “But, I’ll be stuck on this shitty moon! The Gellical Collective is everywhere…they’ll kill me without Corporate protection.”

  “Sounds like an unemployed problem to me. Now, get lost.” Tsebame smirked as the guards grabbed Gerald and dragged him off.

  “Ha, serves that scum right…” Sarah was cut off by a sp from Tsebame, his rge rhino hand sent her to the floor.

  “Shut it, whore. You’ll be demoted to the receiving docks. I can’t stand the sight of some two-bit slut slumming around with unemployed shit stains. Get out of my office!”

  She looked up at the man in horror, “But…I did everything you asked…I…It was your idea…”

  “You’ll be fired if you don’t get out of here this instant. Head down to receiving. I’ll send your things. You’ll be billed promptly.” He snorted and turned back into his office, looking out across the desks and cubicles with a proud smile.

  The woman ran off down the hall crying, holding her face. Donald instantly got down on his knees, grabbing cleaning spray and some towels. He started scrubbing the wall clean, gesturing us to follow.

  “Don’t scrub the floors, dab them. We don’t want blood getting stuck in the cracks.”

  I grabbed some rags and began dabbing the blood, spraying it down with cleaning spray, “Was that the manager?”

  Donald scoffed, “No, that was a project lead. The manager is down the hall. We should hurry.”

  Echo wrapped up the cleaning, “Man, what a…”

  “Great employee. I know, the best.” Donald gave a half-hearted smile while his eyes gestured over to the camera nearby.

  “Yeah…” Echo nodded along, getting behind the cart, and pushing it deeper into the power pnt.

  This pce was a fucking mad house.

  We came to an ornate set of doors, lined in what I could guess was gold and other precious metals. There was no sound coming from the other side. Donald knocked twice and stood back, he looked at us and held his head down. We followed suit and waited for the doors to open.

  Before us, the doors slowly opened to the yelling of a man. An Anthro-Dog in a butler’s outfit stood before us, waving us in. His hair was greying, voice was old, tired, and a bit quivery, “The Manager would like you to clean up his mess.” The dog looked behind him at the man yelling at the vid screen. He leaned in, “It’s a big, bloody mess. My apologies. Just ignore the Manager and get it cleaned up quickly.”

  This Manager must be a piece of work to have everyone on eggshells. Often times, these types were nepotistic pcements, some sort of deal or strings pulled to get your fail-son into a sweet spot. It must be nice to be able to fail into success.

  Donald nodded, “Lead the way.”

  We stepped into a vish office that smelled heavily of cigar smoke and booze. Red carpet and dark hardwood floored the office. Professional, antique paintings were hung here and there about the dark wood shelves, filled with old books and Knick knacks, and some diploma.

  The Butler held out his hand, shielding his boss from us, or more like OUR boss now. “This way.” He pointed to a doorway that led to a rge room beyond.

  “What the fucking hell, cousin, these Gellical fucks come around throwing their weight like they have some sort of authority over me, ME! This is fucked up beyond belief. I’m better than this bull shit! I want them out of my power pnt!”

  I gnced over to the man in the most expensive suit I’d ever seen and a face stretched into a permanent smile. His robotic hand was holding a crystal gss filled with a brown liquid. He downed the gss instantly, wincing as he did so.

  There was a massive vid-screen with a dark figure on it. I could hear him speak, but nothing was visible on my end, “I might be your cousin, but I am the CEO and you will treat me with respect. You are not above the line here, Miles. I can have you shipped here for punitive measures in one day, no matter the blockade.”

  The suit gulped hard, “My apologies, sir.” He bowed his head, calming his voice even though he was still visibly angry.

  “For now, just let the fanatics be. They won’t be long. A little chaos is good for business. Once they leave, we can sweep in and rebuild the pce, pcing whatever we want, charging whatever we want, and as long as you keep up the good work, there is a pce at the top of that venture for you. If they cut into profits too much, I will send a private detail to take care of business. The other Corps are worried too.”

  “And what about these rebel fucks? They are everywhere. Constantly shooting at us, bombing the fuck out of everything. They mostly target the Gellicals, but they have been bolder tely, hitting our shipments. We’re running low on supplies with this blockade. My booze are running low.”

  “Do whatever you deem necessary, as long as operations aren’t halted. The local popution is of no concern.”

  The butler quickly cut me off with his body, waving to the room beyond. His voice was hushed and urgent, “This doesn’t concern you, now get cleaning.” His face was in a scowl as he was pushing me along.

  Miles looked back at the commotion. I quickly gnced away, keeping my head down.

  I could feel his creepy smile burning into the back of my head.

  “The help is finally here. I haven’t been able to use the on-suite all day. It’s about fucking time these zy fucks got here. Okay, Sir, I’ll keep things running smoothly, and I’ll deal with the rebels. You can count on me. You have a wonderful day.”

  “And Miles, do not disappoint me, or you will pay the price.” The vid-screen shut off and the suit began pouring another drink.

  I stepped into the room behind Echo and Donald. I had to hold back my gasp as we looked on the gruesome sight. Something so disgusting and heinous, only a Corpo suit could pull this off and get away with it.

  “What lovely red hair you’ve got.”

  I turned around to see Miles staring right at me. That horrid smile pstered across his face.

  “Why don’t we get to know each other?”

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