“If you have any belongings on you right now, leave them here,” said Ox as he looked at Arron for a second.
Arron had not brought any bag or other items with him fearing that bringing anything more than necessary could cause trouble or reveal his identity.
Seeing there was no extra baggage, Ox nodded and said, “Hurry up and link your identification badge to the room. When you’re done we will begin the tour of our work zone.”
Arron did not delay his movements and tapped the identification badge to the holo-lock which let out a soft beep before changing the empty holographic nameplate to show his new undercover name: Ark Fune.
Ox then led Arron back to the cubicle farm that was just as busy as before and down another hallway that led them back up several hundred steps. They were stopped at two different thick blast doors and thoroughly scanned before they were allowed to pass and enter a small cozy self-serve bar room that only had plush couches with no tables in the room other than the bar.
The room was filled with laughter and clinking of glasses as several men surrounded by women on each side hooted and hollered at a story that one of the men had just finished.
The atmosphere here was carefree and lacked any seriousness that the busy office below had.
One of the men seeing Ox arrive, raised his glass filled with black bubbling liquid that was giving off a cold mist and said, “Chief.”
“I’m heading out to show the newbie the ropes. Hold down the fort while I’m gone,” said Ox.
“We’ll make sure nothing happens while you’re out!” said the others altogether.
Ox only nodded before walking to a mag-shoot and tapping in a few codes unlocking the blast door that was blocking its entrance.
Arron followed behind him and shot up toward the ground floor.
When the Mag-shoot doors opened again, they had arrived inside a private garage where a black armored flying car was already waiting. Although the armor was a custom job done by the family’s mechanics, it reminded him of his own patrol car which shocked him slightly.
When the two were seated in the back across from each other and the car had taken off, Ox looked at Arron who was deep in thought.
“What’s on your mind?”
“Those people before, are they my seniors?” asked Arron.
“They are. Are you wondering why they are partying in the middle of the day while others are working?”
Arron nodded his head.
“It’s simple, they have already cleared their monthly quotas allowing them to do as they please until the next month. This rule is the same in each branch of the family.”
“About the other branches… just what exactly do they do?” asked Arron as he watched the outside blur from the fast speed of the flying armored car.
“The name of most of the branches are really self-explanatory for the most part, the only ones with a bit of mystery are the [Housekeeping and Planning] and our [Special management]. [Housekeeping and planning] is for members that are not good money-makers when using their muscles. They are given the job of keeping everyone on point such as waking everyone up on time, getting food for everyone, and making sure that everyone remembers to get to meetings and appointments on time. That’s how they earn their pay each month.”
“As for us, you’ll see when you get to the Businesses. A bit of a warning, we have been given the honor of doing this job, so the boss expects us to work with no nonsense or playing around when on the clock. Everything is recorded so when you are caught misbehaving there will be punishment.”
Several more silent minutes passed before the armored flying car descended from its high altitude and landed on a small fenced-off private pad at the rear of a tall building that had shimmering ads plastered all over the building for gambling and other illicit deals. With all the brazen advertising covering the building, it was hard to find the building’s name. After a few frantic seconds of scanning the building’s walls Arron was able to find the small inconspicuous sign [Dragon’s den] hidden under many other ads.
As the two of them exited the armored car Ox pulled out a hidden handgun from under his suit and checked the ammunition in a new magazine before slamming it into place. The handgun let out a small beep and the digital readout of the ammo count changed from 0 to 40.
Arron was able to catch a glimpse of over ten other small magazines attached to his inner vest.
“Always good to be prepared, just in case,” said Ox, when he saw Arron looking at him. “You won’t get your own Chaka unless you prove yourself and become a true family member.”
As the two were walking across the small landing pad toward the thick armored back door, it swung open suddenly and a middle-aged man similarly dressed as Arron, although a bit messy, rushed out.
“Chief Ox! If~ if you had called ahead I would have been out here waiting for your arrival. I only received the information moments ago,” said the middle-aged man with a slurred voice as his foggy eyes were slowly clearing up from some intoxicant that was quickly leaving his system.
Chief Ox only snorted at seeing the building’s manager in such a messy state. Seeing Chief Ox’s stern expression the middle-aged man knew he was in trouble and sweat began to fall from his forehead.
“I expect more from you and the other managers. You’re lucky I am too busy taking this probationary member on a tour and have no time to deal with you. I’ll just send a report to the office and have them issue a fine for your actions,” said Ox.
“Thank you chief!” said the middle-aged man, who was now repeatedly bowing, nearly falling down from dizziness as the intoxicant had not fully worn off causing him to still be wobbly on his feet.
The building manager turned to Arron and with a large smile, he held out a hand and said, “Senior it is a pleasure meeting you. I hope we will get along well in the future as we work together!”
Arron took the man’s sweaty hand and shook it lightly as Ox spoke again, “His name is Sorry.”
Arron was exasperated and wondered why he was forced to come up with a fake name if it was never going to be used. The way things were going he was more likely to forget it now that everyone only ever called him ‘Sorry’.
“Sorry? Eh… that’s a nice name…” said the manager while taking a side glance at Arron.
“The old man gave it to him. During his test, he was slick as ice when he walked up to his target and apologized before beating the crap out of them with a glass mug.”
The building’s manager who was still holding Arron’s hand quickly let go as if he had been burned and looked at Arron’s expressionless face in horror as if he was seeing a monster even more terrifying than Ox.
‘How can there be two of them!’ the manager cursed in his mind which was now jolted fully awake as his body sensed danger.
“Sorry, did I hurt you?” asked a concerned Arron with a blank face.
“No! No! No!” said the manager. He held both his hands up in front of him while he repeatedly shook his head no as he trembled fiercely upon hearing the word ‘Sorry’.
“Enough chatter, take us to the security room,” said Ox.
“Of course right this way!”
They walked through the back door and down a small hallway that was heavily guarded by floating bots and entered into a large room that had several square tables each one having around 4-12 people sitting around them.
Many low-level grunt enforcers were strutting around the room looking for any disturbance or cheaters. Each of them was using shaded glasses that helped spot suspicious activity.
Arron’s tour of the room was cut short as they passed through a guarded stairway that led down to the basement. Only after the three of them had passed each of the identification measures were they allowed to enter the security room which housed all the controls and cameras for the entire building.
There were only a few other humans inside the room. They did not pay any attention to the arrival of the three as they were surrounded by thousands of flashing holographic videos from all the cameras on the many floors.
Each of the workers inside the room had cybernetic eyes that allowed them to quickly scan and take in all that was happening in any of the live-stream videos before moving to the next camera view.
Watching the blur of videos flashing by every other second made Arron’s head dizzy.
“Our main job is making sure everything is running smoothly, security is good, and that nothing is happening in the building that would jeopardize the family’s safety or income. As part of this mission, we oversee the transfer of monthly income to the family’s main account to make sure no skimming is happening. If we see anything suspicious we can notify the main office and they can send an enforcement team or a team of accountants to deal with it depending on the severity of the issue,” Ox said this out loud not caring that the manager and the other workers could hear him.
Arron could see the manager and workers flinching and shivering when they heard this.
“We also have to make sure to keep the building managers on task or they will try to get away with every single little thing,” said Ox pointing to the shivering manager standing behind them. “They are allowed to have side hustles to fund certain habits, drugs, food, or perverse carnal desires, as long as they do not interfere with the main business of our Ryu family. Don’t be surprised by their hobbies, some of them are just plain sick.”
As Ox said this he pointed to a video of people using drugs that they had bought before and were openly using them as they gambled at one of the card tables.
“If something does happen, or the building managers and enforcers can not handle a situation, it is our job to take care of it as quickly as possible so business is not affected.”
After spending a few more minutes discussing a handful of minor details and other tips they exited the gambling building. The manager was exhausted and sweating heavily as he waved the two off only to collapse against the armored door clutching his beating heart when they had flown off in the armored car.
When Arron was led into the second large building, the noise inside was almost deafening.
Cha~Ching! Clank! Clack! Cha~Ching!
The entire building was filled with machines that had a similar resemblance to the ancient slot machines of long ago.
There were several holographic images that once a lever was pulled, they would turn into a blur as they spun and only came to a stop after a button was pressed for each of the images. If the images matched or had a certain pattern the user would win. There were several different difficulties one could choose from, starting with the low payouts mode of only two spinning images up to over 12 images all at once that would give a massive payout if you won.
With the short tour over they once again left and headed to a third building. This building was more discreet than the previous ones they had visited. It was quite dim and had many people exiting who were either in a happy intoxicated daze or in a deep depression as they left with empty pockets.
When they entered the main floor a worker noticed Ox and walked over to him quickly.
“Chief! Welcome, do you want the usual?” asked the worker.
“I’m only here for work,” said Ox as he waved the man away.
Ox turned to Arron and said, “I come here sometimes after work to blow off some steam. It is a nice place to hang out and meet new people.”
As he said that he pointed to a few tables where games of dice were being played.
At a few of these tables were actual police officers still in their uniform! These officers were not paying any attention to the illegal activity happening all around them as they focused on the game of dice in front of them.
