Manager

      ”…Sir, are you listening to me?”       “Ah? What? Yes, yes, of course. You were talking about the three? The mystical properties attributed to the number three, as far as I know, go back to the Old Testament, which describes the trinity of God…”       “Sir, is something bothering you?”       “No, I’m just a little sleep-deprived, that’s all.”       What can I do, I was too nervous yesterday, and disturbing thoughts emerge on the edge of my consciousness from time to time.       “Sir, please concentrate. Your lack of focus could cost employees their lives.”       “Well, work hasn’t started yet, so my lack of focus isn’t costing anyone anything yet.”       “Sir, you need to be more serious…”       “I hear you, Angela. Better tell me, how is Malkuth?”       “I suppose you’re about to find out.”       “Hmm?” — Is she coming here? Oh, indeed, here she is, all cheerful.       “Good morning, sir! That was amazing!”       “What do you mean? '       “Yesterday! I was watching the hall through the cameras, and… it was so cool!”       “Don’t exaggerate, please. All I did was punch a guy in the head, any fool could have handled that… oh, yeah, right!” — I admittedly was still unhappy with those knuckleheads. That wasn’t a difficult task! At least in my understanding. — “As it turned out, here we have only degradation and crooked-handedness! Picked up, damnit, by the adverts…”       “Please don’t be so categorical! Yes, they did not show themselves very well, but they will reach their potential, you’ll see!”       “Still have to live to see this beautiful moment…”       “Oh… Well, you will help them with that, won’t you?”       “No, I’ll feed them all to the first Aleph, because I’m not interested in staying in such a wonderful job. What kind of a silly question is that?”       “Oh… yeah, I suppose so.” — Malkuth giggled nervously. — “Ah, also, sir, would you approve?”       “Hmm? And what do we have here?” — Whoa! These are amendments to that draft I approved in the last iteration. So the approved drafts are safe after the restart? That’s good to know. — “Here you go! Anything else?”       “No, sir! Now if you’ll excuse me, I have to go.”       “Yeah, good luck out there.” — I waved after her and turned back to my desk. — “What a cutie she is, being so impressed by a trivial thing…”       “I should note that Malkuth is not the only one who is impressed by this 'trivial thing'. Almost the entire staff is discussing you: since yesterday I have registered 246 mentions of you in conversations. That’s almost six times more than on your first day on the job. You’re quite the celebrity.”       “All because I smacked a man on the head. What an impressionable crowd we have here…”       “Don’t be so modest. If you’ve managed to impress me, what to say about the rest.”       Then something unexpected happened: Yesod showed up. I turned to him, he frowned at the sight of me…       ”…You run a branch of the Lobotomy Corporation, which means you should set an example for others. You are, however, dressed inappropriately. Unfortunately, you are the Manager, which means I cannot reprimand you. That’s a pity.” — Is he going to say the same thing word by word every time? Oh, well, as some folk say: repetition is the mother of learning!       “Firstly, you should greet people when you meet. Secondly, when meeting each other for the first time, you should introduce yourself. Thirdly, there are no requirements for the appearance of the Managers, which means that your remark is inappropriate. Fourthly, inappropriate remarks, as well as ignoring the basic rules of etiquette is a sign of bad manners. And fifth, a bad manner towards superiors is a violation of the subordination. So you, sir, are to be reprimanded.”       “What?! But you can’t!..”       “Angela, can or can’t I?”       “You can.”       “There! I can and I did. Now get out of my office and let’s start over, only this time in a normal way.”       A bewildered Yesod looked from me to Angela and then back, but then gave up and walked out, only to walk back in two seconds later, greet properly and state the case. Good boy, I wish he’d always been like that.       The point of the case, as it turned out, was that I needed to finish the day early today, so that Yesod could do the Biomonitoring System repairs in peace. He promised me that if I do that, it would be working the day after tomorrow at the most. That’s great! Although, I didn’t get to make the EGO today, but this system is more important, definitely!       In fact, as soon as the minimum quota was reached, I called it quits, and soon Yesod and his boys started wandering around the Complex and doing something. And I finally got a chance to finish the mess on the table. Well, my wildest hopes didn’t come true: I couldn’t find a copy of “A’s” Script or Angela’s operating manual. But I did find a stack of reports on anomaly suppression by the Rabbit Team. Ho-ho, I’d completely forgotten about those big-eared ones.       What are those Rabbits actually? Well, long story short — they’re mercenaries from the R Corporation, which is actually a Private Military Company. We, I mean, Lobotomy, have a contract with them, the essence of which is that we supply them with energy, and they in return suppress Anomalies. Yeah… how many questions this point raises… For example, is it okay that because of the constant use of the TT2 protocol, there is a difference in the flow of time in this complex and outside? And nothing that the secrecy of this place probably went down the drain a long time ago?       However, I was much more interested in the practical side of the question, namely — how should I summon them? I asked Angela about this, and found out that it was impossible to do it before the sixth day: when they are summoned, the departments to which they are, well, summoned, are blocked, and since they contractually clear the departments completely, that is, along with the employees, to summon them in the first five days “is equal to career suicide.” Well, the hell with Rabbits, I dug up something more interesting on my desk.       “Oh! What do we have here?”       “Hmm? Oh, yes, this cactus was given to your predecessor just before he left us.”       So this poor cactus, which I remember glimpsed in the story as a gift to me from some random employee, is standing right here all the time? Ha! Yeah, well, why keep the story set somewhere else when you can hide it right there on stage?       I carefully took the pot from the table and examined it up close. The cactus is quite small, a little smaller than my fist, and rounded in shape.       “I don’t like cacti much.” — Angela continued, — “And though there may be many reasons to grow plants, its sharp spikes are not pleasing to the eye, nor do they produce any useful sap.”       I laughed softly at these words.       “Did I say something funny?” — Her voice was steady and calm.       “I’m sorry, Angela, but I just find your misunderstanding of simple things amusing and even a little cute. I’m not a florist, of course, but even I know that people don’t grow a cacti for beauty or practical use.”       “For what, then?” — Now you can hear a hint of mild curiosity in her voice.       “For a very simple and trivial reason: they are very easy to care about. All you have to do with cacti is water them once a week, feed them once a month and replant them when they’ve outgrown their pots. You see, the natural habitats of various species of cacti are in deserts, and deserts are known as extremely inhospitable places for life with a very dry climate and extreme temperature variations during the day. Under such conditions, evolutionary processes have rewarded cacti with effective mechanisms for extracting and conserving precious moisture, like a strong root system and spikes instead of leaves, which in general have made them extremely resilient. This makes cacti the perfect plant for those who want some greenery in their room, but don’t want to go to the trouble of taking care of it. Simply put, cacti are plants for the lazy people.”       “So that’s how it is… Now I understand why so many employees wants exactly cacti.” — Angela, standing next to me, said. Wait, when did she get here? Ah, whatever… — “Sir, how does having spikes instead of leaves help cacti with moisture?”       “Simply: the surface area of the spikes is an order of magnitude smaller than that of the leaves, and therefore they evaporate much less moisture.”       “I see.” — Angela was standing at my side, facing the plant, though I think her eyes were closed. — “You know, I’ve never seen its flowers bloom. Theoretically, with proper care, it should bloom, but maybe it lacks something, since I’ve never seen it blooming.”       “Not for sure, Angela, not for sure. Cacti bloom about once a year when they reach a certain age. So maybe its time just hasn’t come yet.”       “Are you sure about this? Is it all right that there’s no sunlight in here?”       “Well, from how it looks, it has enough light in this office.”       I poked my finger into the flesh of the cactus, as the distance between the spikes allowed. It seemed fine. I felt the soil…       “Angela, did you water it? :       “Previous evening, sir.”       “Hmm… So you hid him behind those papers?”       “I didn’t hide it; your predecessor put it there. You can see it perfectly well on the other side of the table.”       Well, actually, the pot was on the edge of the table, so yeah… Let’s pretend to believe it.       “Okay, now it’s going to stand closer to me and pick up all the negative.”       “Negative, sir?”       “Hmm? Oh, you don’t know… There’s a saying that thorny plants take away all kinds of bad thoughts from people and thus have a beneficial effect on their lives. A simple superstition, but some people still believe it.”       “How interesting. Sir, how much do the different kinds of cacti look alike?”       “Oh, they can be very different…”       I started to tell everything I knew about cacti. I didn’t know much, but… I knew something. I told that wild cactuses as a rule are much greater in size than domestic ones and that some kinds can reach twenty meters in height. Then the conversation turned to deserts as the main places of their growth, what kind of fauna there is and how it survives there. I told a theory that perhaps once upon a time there were dense forests in the place of deserts, but ancient people burned them all down (or forests burned themselves). Mentioned the existence of the Arctic deserts, and then the conversation turned to them…       I only came to my senses at supper, when I caught my eye on my watch. Holy mother, I almost chattered since lunch! And my mouth was not dry only because Angela brought a box of tea and brewed it right here, in the office!       “Oh, my…! I’ve been talking a lot… I’m sorry, Angela, for having to listen to all this…”       “No, sir, it was very interesting. Can I get you some supper?”       “Uh… Yes, of course…” — I’m not sure she was really interested. Although, she didn’t interrupt and even asked clarifying questions, so I guess she did enjoy it?       Soon supper was eaten. I wonder who cooks it?       “You know, sir, I’d like to go there someday.”       “In the desert?”       “Among other things. And in the desert and in the arctic.”       “You wouldn’t like it.”       “Perhaps, but at least once to see them with my own eyes…”       Something tingled in my heart.       “Perhaps someday you’ll get that chance.”       “You think so?”       “I do.”       ”…you speak so confidently about it.”       “Well, if you want it, you’ll find a way. Alright, well, I gotta go. Good night…”

***

      The next two days passed very smoothly and quietly, and the only significant event was the long-awaited restoration of the biometric monitoring system. And after that I established two facts: firstly, this system displays health (both physical and mental) not numerically, but as a percentage, which is not very convenient, but not essential; and, secondly, when dealing with Anomalies, the loss of health of employees sometimes reaches 90%! Not always and not all of them, but the fact itself! And even at low indices my workers behave as if nothing had happened. Yes, they sometimes complain that they feel hard and uncomfortable, but I hadn’t noticed that they were falling off their feet, or that they look like they were dying. Instead, they calmly walk out of the contaiment cells on their own two feet and calmly return to the Main Hall, where they just as calmly sit and wait for the Bioregenerator to restore them.       That’s an interesting thing too, by the way. These Bioregenerators are installed in the Main Halls and treat my employees. How? They periodically spray the healing gas, and it is absorbed almost instantly into the employees thanks to a tricky and advanced technology based on the Bioregenerators' radiation (not a nuclear one), the gas charge, and the properties of the EGO armor. No, after all “A” was really a genius scientist, if he could create such a tricky system. Too bad his genius didn’t extend on everything else…       Oh, well, at least now I don’t have to worry about sending people to work with half-empty health, and now I can order to retreat those who are about to die in combat.       But back to the work routine. At the end of the fifth day I had to choose an Anomaly again, and one of the folders with Anomalies immediately caught my attention, because it was very thin. I opened it and saw there was only one sheet. I read the text… Bah! It’s Button! The-Very-Same-Button-You-Can’t-Touch! I always took it whenever I could, because it doesn’t do anything, it doesn’t run away, it doesn’t “overheat”… Simply put — it reduces the workload, because you don’t have to do anything with it. Of course, if you touch it, you’re f*cked, but nobody’s going to touch it, are they? Although, my goal is to get as much EGO as I can, and Button doesn’t give me EGO… But it will give me an opportunity to train Agents. Trained Agents will be able to work with more dangerous Anomalies. More dangerous Anomalies mean more powerful EGO. That’s it — I take the Button!

***

      “Angela, remind me, what does that lamp over there mean?” — I pointed to the Qliphoth Overheat Indicator.       “That light signals the approach of the Ordeals.”       “Yeah? What’s a Ordeals?” — No, I haven’t lost my memory (in this particular question), I was just wondering why Angela didn’t say anything about them.       “These Anomalies appear spontaneously as a result of Qliphoth Overheating. Their nature is such that we cannot contain them, only suppress. They are one of the problems you, as Manager, will face here.”       “Is there some kind of catalog of these Ordeals, describing who they are, what they do, what they’re dangerous for, and so on?”       “We don’t have such a catalog…”       “And why don’t we have one?”       “Because these Anomalies are not in maintenance, information about them is not entered into the database…”       “And the fact that these Anomalies regularly appear and cause turmoil, doesn’t bother anyone? This is one of the major security threats! Why can’t we create a separate list and put information about them on it, so that Managers like me are prepared for trouble?”       “Because there was no such order.”       …I’m going nuts, dear readers. I have to admit, I thought that “A” had managed to screw up again, but in this case, it seems that female machine logic was involved. Apparently, when “A” hadn’t lost his memories, he hadn’t thought to give such an order, and Angela hadn’t felt the need to take the initiative. Or was there something Angela wasn’t telling me? All right, the hell with it.       “Well, you can take that as an order. From me. I need a complete catalog of all the Ordeals known to the Corporation, with their descriptions, behavior, peculiarities, and so on.”       “It’ll take time to create…”       “That’s okay, it’s not urgent, the main thing is that this catalog exists in principle.”       “Got it. It will be done.”       “Good. And now, my dear Angela, tell me what Ordeals await me on today’s path…” On today’s path awaited me was the Green Ordeal, a bunch of robotic melee fighters. I listened to Angela’s brief description of them, heard nothing new, warned all the staff to get ready for combat, waited for them to appear, and… was unpleasantly surprised. Why? Well, first of all, there were more robots than I thought: if in the game they appeared one per department, here I found six of them! Fortunately, not in every department. And secondly… oh… I’m not a combat training expert, of course, but I expected something… more from those who wear EGO. Well, for example, that they would at least try to dodge their enemies' lunges! The higher ranked ones actually did try and succeed, but the others just stood there and beat their enemies with their crosses! Ah, no, they were still trying, with varying success, to repel the enemy’s attacks.       What the hell? Why do they suck at fighting? EGO-weapons give you the knowledge of how to use them, and if you know how to use weapons, you know how to fight, right? Well, obviously not, otherwise I wouldn’t be seeing such squalor! Or is it because of the low specs? Most likely. For some reason I got the feeling that if I had an EGO I could take them all out by myself…       Anyway, I realized almost immediately that I had to take charge of everything, and I began to call the shots. Well, or I tried to command, because, as I said, I was not a combat expert, and my knowledge in this area was rather poor. So my combat tactics were at the level of “run over with the crowd — strike a few times — retreat if necessary”. But even those tactics worked pretty well. Not well enough to avoid casualties, though: one robot did manage to take out Peter, and one of the newcomers panicked and ran away when he saw it. Well, at least he didn’t attack people, already good enough.       In general, once we got the last robot, I took a breath: we lost Peter, and another one is insane, but it could have been worse. Okay, I’m going to let the men catch their breath now, and send them to fix Gwen’s brain. Where is he, by the way…       I looked at the monitors looking for Gwen and saw him in the hallway of the Information Department… Uh, wait, what’s he doing with the containment cell door there? Why is he… HOLY SHIT!       “Everyone to corridor Y-1-1, NOW!” — This lunatic is trying to break into Button’s cell! WHY? WHY?!       “STOP, YOU MORON! What are you doing?!”       “It’s calling me! it’s calling me!!! I have to press it, and then we’ll all be free! Free! FREE! The Anomalies, the humans, the dead… WE WILL BE FREE! EVEN IF ONLY FOR A MOMENT, WE’LL BE FREE FROM THIS NOOSE! A NOOSE WOVEN OF BETRAYAL, OF DESPAIR, OF LIES! A NOOSE THAT STRANGLES TIME ITSELF! WE! WILL! BE! FREE!”       Holy shit, in this world Button can control people?! Oh, I just hope the team can stop him in time…       When Gwen managed to squeeze through the sliding leaves, I knew they wouldn’t make it…       “Crap!” — I could only say one word before Gwen, laughing madly, slammed the Button as hard as he could.       I heard a scream in my head. I couldn’t make out a word, I didn’t know who it belonged to, all I could tell was that the scream was full of terrible agony. Unbearable pain overwhelmed me, and…

***

      I woke up suddenly, as if someone had switched me on. For a second I thought I was dreaming about everything: and Angela, and Corporation, and Button, and Pain… I turned on the light, looked at the chair, saw my “uniform” of the Manager. Wasn’t dreaming, alas.       Yeah, I didn’t expect it to turn out this way. Well, it was my own fault, I didn’t keep track of everyone. Of course, it would have been a lot easier for me if all my charges had been more competent, but what isn’t there is not there. It’s a shame, what can I say. It’s especially frustrating that I can’t even make it to the tenth day. I feel like a fool. Eh, okay, time to get ready to try again.

***

      “Greetings, X. Welcome to the Lobotomy Corporation. I am Angela, your advisor and secretary. Although I am an AI, feel free to talk to me.”       “Greetings. I hope you’ll bring me up to speed?”       “Of course, sir…”       And I was brought in, after all the proper pleasantries. I was explained all the things I already knew, promised a report on the technical condition of the complex, and then I was “rejoiced” to hear that we had no EGO. I managed to keep a calm expression on my face, but inside I was swearing like a team of drunken sailors after a year of sailing.       And then I got the report, and I learned that the Biomonitoring System needs to be fixed. Again.       I think I figured out why I got an empty vault from my “predecessor”.       So, I came to a simple conclusion: We don’t take the Button anymore.