Arron opened his eyes and found that he was laying in his bed. If the projected date and time on the ceiling of the room was correct, he had been knocked out for over two days.
The time on the ceiling was 3:23 A.M. His body and head were no longer aching since all his bruises, bumps, and cuts had been taken care of by Doc Octy before the Robo-Doc had performed the implant surgery to replace his damaged NerViz with a new NerViz prototype.
Arron was wholeheartedly against having the surgery but the Office of Reason had other plans for him and had already cut through the red tape and put everything into motion.
The only good thing to come out of all of this was the Office of Reason offering to drop all the charges against him if he agreed to the surgery.
Arron had tried to get a second opinion from Officer Riol but there was nothing that he or M1 could do. If Arron declined the offer he would most likely be forced into the surgery and then shipped off to a re-learning camp.
Normally with his old NerViz, he felt a slight itch on his neck every so often but now both his neck and mind had a continuous itch that he could not scratch. His right hand was spared any discomfort as the new cloud chip that replaced the old one was very similar and did not have any active functions to cause discomfort.
According to the gloating Office of Reason agents, the prototype was supposed to connect to his brain with a deeper, stronger, and more secure connection. He was unsure if that was true or if any other nasty surprises were waiting for him as they did not give him any other information on the prototype that he was now stuck with.
One thing he did notice was the normal hazy feeling he had with his right eye implant was now far easier to connect to the several functions. Before it was like trying to push his hand through a layer of thick rubbery slime. Now it was more like pushing through a thin layer of mud. He had not noticed the difficulty before as he had thought it was normal but now there was no doubt in his mind.
Using his Implants remote access to his wrist-datapad he checked up on any calls or messages he had missed.
There were only 3 blinking messages. 1 from his parents asking questions about his recent news appearance, 1 from Kix wishing him a fast recovery, and 1 from M1 HQ ordering him to return to work as soon as he woke up.
Arron sighed and began to think deeply about how to explain everything to his parents. He spent several minutes typing up reply messages before getting out of bed to sort himself out so that he was in proper shape to start work in a few hours.
***
“…you probably don’t have to worry too much. From what Doc Octy told me the Office of Reason always tests these kinds of things on other… subjects before starting tests like yours. Are you still feeling any pain?” asked Kix.
“Nothing from the attacks, just a bit of discomfort from the new NerViz implant. I don’t need any of those prescription drugs that they were trying to push on me. I’ll just bear with it,” said Arron.
ANNNNN! The buzzer on the large metal desk the two were sitting behind lit up before a 2-D holographic projection appeared above the desk. It was Mishka from the front desk and she was chewing on her usual pink synth bubblegum.
“I just sent over your last appointments for the morning. This time it’s two people, they seem kinda shifty so keep your guard up,” said Mishka.
“We’ll keep a close eye on them,” said Arron.
Due to all the recent commotion that the two had been a part of, the chief had put them on office duty where they had to accept clients who paid a fee for M1 to take care of certain small issues or personally investigate something that was normally out of their normal tasks.
Mother and Father did not care about such deals as it was a way for M1 to fund itself. As long as M1 was not participating in illegal activity and the more M1 was able to fund itself, the happier Mother and Father would be as it lessened the burden on the Mega-city’s massive budget.
So far the day’s tasks had been simple, hacking into certain digital accounts or objects, physically unlocking things, and tracking down people or objects.
The door to the office room opened and a middle-aged man with short brown hair entered the room followed by a similarly aged female.
The man scanned the room with his synthetic implant eyes making sure that no hostile enemies were lurking in the corners before he looked at Arron and Kix who were sitting in the middle of the room.
Arron raised an eyebrow to Kix who only silently shrugged.
The couple sat down in the only two hover chairs positioned in front of the large desk.
Arron looked at the notes sent to him by Mishka and then used his right eye implant to see if the couple were who they said they were.
“Uhh… Mr. Synmi?” asked Arron.
“Yes that’s me,” said the agitated man, he seemed to have a nervous tick that caused him to scan his surroundings every few seconds.
“How can we help you today?” asked a curious Kix.
“Someone or something is trying to kill me!” shouted the frantic man.
“Okay… can you give us more detail?” asked Arron.
“Every time I go outside I get beat up and chased by bots, drones, and even store assistant bots!”
That answer didn’t clear up much of Arron and Kix’s confusion. They looked at the man’s face and the rest of his body trying to see if there were any severe wounds or bruises. There were a few minor bruises but for the most part, he looked fully intact and unharmed.
“Do you know who would want to harm you?” asked Kix.
“Why would they target you in the first place?” asked Arron.
“It all started when I received the contract to produce the new limited Pickled Pickle flavored Synth-energy jelly(With 2x the pickle flavor!)…”
“Wait! You’re the manufacturer of the new flavor!?” Asked Arron interrupting Synmi.
“Yes…? Well technically only for sectors 11 and 12. The other sectors, as well as the levels 2-4, have different manufacturers,” said Synmi, uncertain why Arron was asking such a question.
“I love the new flavor you are producing! My apartment’s food storage is full of Pickled Pickle synth-energy jelly [2x the pickle flavor!]!” said Arron.
Seeing Arron was a true fan of the product he was manufacturing, Synmi seemed to calm down a bit and confidently say, “I am glad you have taken such a liking to the new flavor! My company strives to use the best materials that Mother and Father provide to us.”
“How long will the limited-time flavor be in production?”
“Uhh… I can’t say. You know, because of the manufacturing contract I signed.”
“Sure, sure, I understand. Do you know when or what the next flavor will be?”
“…that. I don’t know either. But… I think they will only release it after we finish manufacturing the Pickled Pickle flavor.”
“Ahem…” Kix loudly cleared his throat while bumping his shoulder into Arron.
“Right… please continue where you left off,” said Arron remembering where he was.
“At first I only received death threats and ignored them since that is nothing unusual. But when the details in the messages started to get more personal I decided to hire a bodyguard. That’s when the attacks started. The first guard died from an attack and two others have been severely maimed due to the increased attacks. It has gotten to the point that no security firm will take up the job of protecting me no matter the amount of credits I offer!”
“Everything he is saying is true. We are constantly having to run and escape from places we normally thought were safe! It is becoming nearly impossible to live a normal life!” said Shysha while she hung onto Synmi’s arm.
“Do you have any data to back this up?” asked Kix.
Synmi nodded his head and quickly tapped a few options on his Wrist-datapad that was the latest module and swiped a large compressed data pack to both Arron and Kix.
“I have included both the messages as well as videos of several of the attacks that I have managed to get hold of from the store owners.”
Arron and Kix quickly skimmed through the messages and videos, so far it appeared he was telling the truth.
“We’ll send this information to our data sleuths and hopefully they will find something,” said Kix.
“That’s it?” asked a deflated Synmi.
“That depends on you. How busy are you from this morning to around 3 pm?” asked Arron.
“I’m completely free! Can you help me?!” asked the desperate Synmi.
“Yes, but we need you to walk to all of your normal places you go to. We’ll follow at a distance and intervene if anything happens. If something happens we can hack into the attacking bot or drone and try to trace it back to the culprits.”
“Thank you!”
***
Unfortunately for Synmi after being trailed for the rest of the morning until 3 pm nothing happened.
“I don’t know why nothing has tried to attack us! This morning we had to escape two attacking drones just to get to the M1 headquarters!” said a distraught Synmi.
“We are sorry that we are unable to clear up your situation. You can get a half refund if you call the front desk. The information sleuths will continue to work on the messages for now.”
“Can’t you stay a bit longer?” asked Synmi.
Arron shook his head, “We just got a message from HQ. Our chief has called us back since some big-shot has shown up and is demanding someone take his case. We were given the case.”
Synmi’s shoulders dropped and said, “At least you took the time to try and help me unlike everyone else.”
Kix slapped the man’s shoulder, “If we find anything out from the data you sent us we’ll call you immediately.”
“Thanks…”
***
Ping!
Arron and Kix were changing their clothes after finishing their long shift when he received a loud notification from his NerViz.
He was still trying to get used to the volume that was far louder than his old NerViz.
The notification was a personalized alert he had set up earlier to notify him if anything new on the Synmi case happened. him to freeze what he was doing and looked at the alert.
He stopped what he was doing and read the notification. After reading it once he had to reread it several times to make sure he understood it correctly.
Kix saw his odd behavior and asked, “What’s up?”
“Synmi was attacked. This time it looks pretty bad. He is currently in the hospital receiving treatment for life-threatening wounds.”
