NEW QUEST (Covert): “SINS OF THE FATHER.”

  GOAL: Find out what Akihiko plans for Kaze Motors.

  TIME LIMIT: 6 hours.

  ALLY LIMIT: None.

  REWARD: XP and Credits distributed based on employee contribution.

  Daisuke stared at the quest for several more minutes to make sure that it was real. The elevator to the Office Pool dinged and Farhad, Belinda, and Maxi came out, laughing about something. He turned off his screen and swiveled to see the group. They were arguing about which superhero would win in a fight or something.

  Daisuke had never been one for flights of fancy. There was no point in pondering if Batman or Superman would win in a fight because they weren’t real. There was enough to worry about in the world to care about what happens in fictitious ones. He didn’t like most books, movies, or television because of it, and didn’t really engage in the water cooler talk about what was happening in the latest streaming hit.

  Daisuke’s preference for the real world often sometimes made people feel he was cool and disengaged when the reality was that he had nothing to say. He had no problem with people talking about the release of the summer or the book everyone was reading, he knew bonding time was important for cohesion of the team, he just didn’t have anything to contribute.

  When Maxi asked him to weigh in on their discussion, he brushed it off and said he was busy, less because he was actually busy but more because his mind lingered on the quest he was given. He needed answers, and he excused himself to get them.

  ***

  Moments later, he was in Sledge’s office, which was more a personal training gym. Unlike some of the other branches where the top tier player was the defacto leader of the branch, Sledge let someone else perform all the administrative tasks and make all the decisions for the Branch. The Branch leader was Tier 3.4 because all the top tier Sales Associates were killing monsters.

  It was part of why Daisuke had picked Sales to begin with, with most other branches, success led to being less in the field and more at a desk, whereas Sales were all out in the field, either fighting monsters or selling the company services. They were all doers and not desk jockeys. He was very similar to Maxi in that way, preferring action to immersion in a spreadsheet. However, unlike her, he always came prepared, and he wouldn’t even accept the new quest until he knew more.

  Sledge was punching a bag, his herculean muscles glistening with sweat. Daisuke walked over to the man and said, “There’s easier ways to boost your stat points.”

  “I like it,” Sledge said and gave the thing one final thwack that broke the chains holding it up and sent it flying across the room. He wiped his brow with a towel and sat on a bench with a sports drink. “People of your tier do a fair amount of groveling before they come talk to me.”

  “My mentor said you have an open door policy, not that you were royalty,” Daisuke said.

  Sledge laughed. “Muy valiente, amigo. Just make sure it does not get you permadead.”

  “What’s my father have to do with the company?” Daisuke said.

  It took Sledge a moment to figure it out, but then his eyebrows lifted. “You look like him, I can see the resemblance.”

  “You know my dad? He’s a NPC.”

  “Certain people are too rich and powerful to be kept out of the loop.”

  “So what does he have planned for Kaze?”

  “I think that’s why we gave the quest to you.”

  “I need some information. I just figured out the rules about NPCs are not as hard and fast as I thought they were.”

  “For your level, they are strict and immutable. If employees follow the rules only when they want to, people die.”

  “Rules should apply to everyone, not just the ones rich and powerful enough to afford otherwise,” Daisuke said.

  “That’s not the world we live in. Now, I’ll give you what I know. There has been some unauthorized elevator transit going to the Kaze Motor plant in Kyoto. Naturally, we thought it was you, so we had you monitored. Your Office Pool has been making waves, especially since the addition of the Breakwaters kid.”

  Daisuke was about to object when Sledge waved him into silence.

  “There are a lot of people who don’t like what you’re doing,” Sledge continued, “but you're killing monsters and keeping people safe so you’re okay in my book. There were a series of transits for about a week or so where a company elevator visited your dad’s plant. Sometimes several times a day. Once we ruled you out, we figured who better to find out what’s going on than you.”

  “Aren't there cameras in the elevators? Transit logs?”

  “Scrubbed clean from the company database so it has to be someone from IT.”

  “Or someone high enough with access.”

  “I know the company secrecy policies gives someone of your Tier very little reason to trust us, but we all are invested in the wellbeing of the company. However, they were sloppy, and missed a video file. One that may be of some interest to you.”

  A request came up to share a video file in Daisuke’s field of vision. A box appeared in front of him, and he could see Sledge outlined behind it. Daisuke had his transparency settings set that anything the HR implant would materialize wouldn’t be entirely solid. He didn’t enjoy the prospect of someone sneaking up on him while he was reading email or checking messages.

  The video played in the box. It showed the interior of one of the elevators. It was stacked floor to ceiling with boxes. When the door opened a figure that was hidden behind the boxes pushed them out. Daisuke’s father was standing on the other side, and Daisuke could see the Kyoto factory behind him.

  The person, either deliberately or by accident was still hidden by the boxes when they reached out to shake his father’s hand. The elevator doors closed and the video ended before he could see anything else. Daisuke nodded to Sledge and stood.

  “I’ll find out what my father is doing,” Daisuke said. He turned to leave and headed for the elevator that was the only entryway into the room. The implications that his father had accepted a shipment from a company employee was profound. Company tech had the ability to profoundly change the world, thus the sale of it to NPCs was banned and the reason Janitorial worked tirelessly to get it back.

  Even what passed for WiFi in the company could change the industry overnight. The company had the power to disrupt the world economy, topple empires, and create empires of their own, but they didn’t because no matter how good the intentions, giving technology to a culture that wasn’t ready for it almost always ended in disaster.

  The resurrection chairs could be used to make accidental death a thing of the past, or they could be used to keep only the elite and powerful healthy. Having grown up in social circles where people truly believed they were better than everyone else, Daisuke was inclined to think the latter would be true. Humanity couldn’t even be equitable with the resources they had in abundance, much less a powerful object that would rewrite society overnight.

  Which now left Daisuke wondering himself what was in those boxes. There was nothing specific that he’d ever seen in the Free Market or otherwise that a car company could use. In fact, the elevator technology or whatever it was that made them work would put car companies out of business. People would only drive them for pleasure. They would be a hobbyist item for the enthusiast but if the magic elevator was available for general use, airplanes, public transportation, cars, everything would be relics of the past.

  However, Daisuke knew his father too well. He would never pass up an opportunity to expand his wealth or prestidge, which meant that he had to be prestidge, whatever was in the boxes would put him in the history books as a visionary or inventor if he claimed to come up with the idea.

  It wasn’t as if there were any patents in the company. If an employee came up with an idea that generated money, they would get a cut if someone used their idea. It was a system that encouraged creativity because Daisake could use anyone’s intellectual property or copyright, and would only have to cut the originators in when he started making money himself.

  Not that his dad or the employee who delivered the goods were working in the company system anyway. Whoever had delivered the boxes risked termination, and it wasn’t like his dad to have dealings on the black market. He remembered hearing his dad rant about the Yakuza, calling them derogatory names. Whatever his dad thought he was doing, he had to have thought that it was a legitimate business transaction.

  A short ride and walk from the nearest metro later, he was at his father’s house in London having accepted the quest. He was let in and discovered that it was a little impromptu family gathering. All his siblings were there. They were all in the sitting room taking tea and tiny sandwiches. Daisuke was amazed at how quickly they all had assimilated.

  They greeted and welcomed him with the same false sincerity he got from all of them. The butler proffered him a drink, and he declined. Father was talking in hushed tones on the other side of the room with his lawyer. His mother recounted some stories of her song and dance academy days.

  The whole family wore country club white except Tadanobu who was in a black tracksuit with red stripes. The man always wanted to look as if he was going to or leaving the gym. He sat next to Daisuke and slapped him on the back, “How’s New York treating you?”

  “The same way the city treats everyone,” Daisuke said flatly.

  “So you got that slice of the American pie?”

  “It’s the American dream.”

  “I have a proposition for you.”

  “I’m listening.”

  “I’m pretty close to cinching up the funds for my next film. Chinese immigrant gets tied up with the mob. Good stuff. Instant classic.”

  Daisuke was all too aware of what types of movies his half-brother categorized in the classic category and most of them would be forgotten in a year or two except for guys like Tadanobu whose movies were just another iteration of his adolescent fantasy. Also, Daisuke was always suspicious of anyone who led the conversation with preconceived notions of how people would react to their stuff.

  Daisuke had always been good with people and one thing he knew about them is that he never quite knew how they were going to react. Tried and true sales techniques like “always make eye contact and give them a firm handshake” only worked until he met an introvert whose culture equated eye contact to a slap in the face. It was far better to be adaptable to the situation and learn how to read people.

  Tadanobu never learned how to think beyond what impressed himself, and thus why he’d always be a mediocre movie producer. If he really wanted to make it, he would have learned what other people wanted.

  “I’m thinking we’ll be filming in New York,” Tadanobu said in Japanese. “I’m gonna need a personal assistant.”

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  “I already have a job,” Daisuke said.

  Tadanobu looked him up and down. Daisuke was wearing a fine Italian that would impress anyone except for those in the top 1%. To his family, it was cheap thrift store crap. Tadanobu’s tracksuit probably cost the same as a small car and the country club whites collective price in the room could probably buy a small house. It was just another way the family used to put him down.

  “It’s a good gig,” Tadanobu said. “And I’m only giving you the opportunity because you’re family. There are millions of hopefuls out there who’d drop everything to take it.”

  “Or word has gotten around about what it’s like to work for you, and no one wants to take it.” Daisuke didn’t say. Instead he just said. “I’m good where I’m at.”

  “When you’re done slaving away to make someone else rich, look me up. Just remember, if you want to make it in Hollywood, you got to know people. You’re never going to meet anyone if you don’t start somewhere.” Tadanobu said.

  Daisuke was once again not surprised how his half-brother always framed everything in terms of himself. His whole argument was predicated on that Daisuke wanted to break into the film industry. It wasn’t a missed opportunity if it wasn’t something he wanted in the first place. Once again, that’s why Daisuke was good with people. He could figure out what they wanted.

  He set his goal on his father, and worked his way through the family gathering towards his father, who had dismissed the lawyer after about ten minutes and returned to the party. Daisuke smiled when he needed to smile, gave a few platitudes to seem engaged, and listened.

  He learned a few details in his interactions. The gathering wasn’t accidental and no one had expected Daisuke to be there, so they were all tiptoeing around why father had called them all home. It was no coincidence that he got a quest with six hours to complete and all his family was in the same place.

  Eventually, when he finally got his father to himself, his dad wasn’t much help as Daisuke’s suitable attempts to steer the conversation towards business, his father seemed way too interested in how New York was going. Daisuke could count on one hand how many times his father had taken interest in him.

  His father was hiding something, but before Daisuke could weave the moment to get a glimmer of what the man had intended, his dad excused himself and called the family to attention.

  “As you know Kaze Motors is my life’s work.” his father addressed the room. “You know that my passion and care for making the world’s most reliable, safe, and affordable car has consumed my time that may not always have been favorable for spending time with my kids.” He made eye contact with Daisuke.

  Daisuke was a little taken aback. It was as close to an apology for being a shitty father as he was going to get. Had Akihiko been genuinely interested about the life of his youngest son in New York? Daisuke never doubted his ability to read people. It had gotten him through many situations where a grin was a predatory smile.

  He also had an Emotional Intelligence stat that made it hard for people to lie to him, especially NPCs, though he never quite knew if the stats were simply a measurement of the real world or company employees were destined to become super humans. He had seen people do extraordinary things, but how did he know, it wasn’t just an object powering them. Sledge could slice through five people with one sword, but that could be the sword.

  Even Cassidy West who arguably was the most powerful psy user in the company may be getting her powers from some hidden technology somewhere in the company basement. If psy was imbued from a futuristic tech from another universe, Daisuke would understand why it was the company’s best kept secret. The other option was to believe that some humans were psychic and just needed training to unlock it.

  “Today marks an exciting new development from the researchers at Kaze,” his father said, “and you all get to see it first.”

  He beckoned them to follow and the family wandered out of the sitting room murmuring to each other. Daisuke asked a couple of his half-siblings if they knew about any of it and they shrugged. Even Arisu, who was going to be the real person in charge of Kaze after father died, didn’t have a clue what he was so excited about.

  Akihiko had done family parties for big company news in the past. They all heard about hybrids and electric cars before the public did, even before the car shows where all the billionaires would show off their new models to each other. The man assumed that his kids were excited as he was about the next hot thing in the motor vehicle industry. When the reality was that he was he was just gathering them up to make himself feel better for being an absent parent.

  They entered a room with a screen that rivaled any movie theatre with large plush leather chairs in four neat rows and a popcorn machine like they had the movies. The siblings all took their usual seats. Even years later, they sat like when he was a child. Arisu and Tadanobu in the front, mom and dad in the center, and Daisuke by himself in the back.

  They sat down and Akihiko pushed a button on a remote, and the screen loaded a commercial. It was the typical car commercial, a sleek SUB winding through picturesque mountain roads. A title screen came up and said, “Are you ready for the next evolution?”

  The video cut to the SUV parked next to a cliffside and the driver, who was probably a fashion model, looked out to the magnificent landscape before him. The man stretched his arms to the sky with the raw natural beauty around him and slipped. His mother gasped.

  The scene cut to just below the cliff edge where the man was being held by the hood on his jacket by a grutomaton. However, it was unlike any grutomaton that Daisuke had ever seen. It was fuzzy like a golden retriever and had big dopey eyes like a dog. The creature lifted the man gently to the edge, and set him down. The beast then licked the side of the guy's face and nuzzled up to him. He scratched behind what was the creature’s ear formed from the rearview mirror.

  The next scenes were of the beasted out car zooming on mountain roads, driving through streams and rocky terrain, and all the typical shots a person would see in a car commercial. There were also scenes of the man playing fetch with his cartoon version of a grutomaton, and it dozing next to him around a campfire. The screen finally ended with a title card that said, “Introducing man’s new best friend.”

  The lights came up and Tadanobu was the first to speak. “Is this a joke?”

  “No joke,” Akihiko said. “My scientists have finally bridged the gap between organic life and machines.”

  For once, Daisuke and his half-brother were in complete agreement. Corporations had a long history of failed product ideas. From Crystal Pepsi and Cheetos lip balm to the Sega Dreamcast and the Smith & Wesson mountain bikes, history was littered with ideas that displayed the disconnect from the boardroom to the general public.

  Even his dad, who had more success than failure, was subject to the same cognitive dissonance of thinking what was good for Kaze was also good for the general public. The only difference was that his blunder would get people killed.

  Daisuke was just coming to the conclusion that his father was to make a serious error when his vision displayed:

  GOAL: Find out what Akihiko plans for Kaze Motors. Complete.

  Level up.

  +2 sp

  +4 skill

  500 credits.

  New GOAL: Stop Akihiko at any cost.

  Daisuke wondered if he was being monitored. He knew the company had surveillance capabilities that made DARPA look like a toy manufacturer selling cheap spycraft gear to kids, but as far as he knew there wasn’t a way to hack the HR implants. Many people have tried, considering the value of even just seeing what happened behind the closed doors of the Power Twelve meetings. There was nothing, even in the forums, that indicated the skull gear had ever been breached. However, the company had experience in covering things up.

  Daisuke excused himself while the family chattered about the “new” technology Kaze was about to unleash. He went down the hall and stepped in a toilet bigger than his apartment with fancier fixtures than most hotels. He turned the water on and sent a connection request to Sledge and to his surprise, it went through.

  A miniature version of Sledge’s bust hovered a few feet in front of Daisuke’s eyes. The man was wearing his power armor.

  “Daisuke,” Sledge said. “Tell me you got something.”

  “I think you already know,” Daisuke said.

  “I don’t and you called me.”

  Daisuke realized that the man was telling the truth. He wasn’t sure why he knew other than that he was. Sledge had admitted to monitoring Daisuke which was different than hijacking his implant. They could send employee to follow him and pull up his elevator transit logs, but they wouldn’t risk hacking into his implants because tampering with the HR unit was a terminable offense. Sledge wouldn’t risk that for what he could ask freely of Daisuke.

  “They are going to make gutomaton cars.”

  Sledge snorted. “Wait, you’re serious?” He said.

  “That’s suicidal,” Sledge said. “Maybe a coffee maker as a pet or something you can easily put down if they turn, but a car?”

  “A whole fleet of cars.”

  “We have to stop him.”

  “I know, my new goal on the quest says as much,” Daisuke probed.

  “You know the quests are dynamic. They’ll create new goals when the situation calls for it.”

  “Yeah,” Daisuke said, but wasn’t sure he bought it. How would the AI that doles out the quests know the gravity of the situation and alter the goal to fit it? He understood quests like Run Like Hell that would pop up every so often when he was being chased by monsters the system would up the stakes every so often when the situation called for it but something felt different.

  He couldn’t put his finger on why it felt different other than a cold unfeeling bureaucratic system suddenly taking a personal interest in him and his family. He knew the company prided itself on always finding the right person for the right job but something was off here. It didn’t change what he had to do next.

  “If you aren’t up to this,” Sledge said. “I can get the quest reassigned. We can have a team–”

  “No,” Daisuke said. “He’s my father. I can handle it.”

  He cut off the communication and straightened his suit. He turned from the bathroom and saw his father standing there.

  “You left in a hurry,” his dad said. “I just wanted to check on you to make sure you’re alright.”

  There was definitely something terribly wrong. It wasn’t like his dad to check up on him. Daisuke could have been doing drugs and having orgies when he was a teen and his father wouldn’t have taken notice.

  “I’m fine. Father, can we talk?” Daisuke said.

  “Come, the family is–”

  “Alone.”

  “Come with me to my office.”

  ***

  Akihiko’s office reminded Daisuke of a Gilded Age Tycoon. It was dark hardwoods with shelves and shelves of dusty tomes, heads of big game animals, and even an elaborate sailing ship in a bottle. It was as if he had moved plank for plank from the estate of Railroad Baron of the past. There wasn’t even a computer on the massive desk, though Daisuke knew it was there just hidden away for the sophisticated masculine aesthetic.

  They sat on two armchairs near a fireplace that was burning with real logs. Something he rarely saw anymore as gas powered hearths replaced the old wood burning ones. Daisuke also took note that there was a servant who’d keep the fire going in case Akihiko wanted to sit by it.

  Before Daisuke could speak, his father pulled out a microchip encased in plastic. “This is the grutomaton prototype.” He handed it to Daisuke and continued. “It causes the transformation without any of the violence. It will revolutionize the world. Did you know that the one thing people spend more on than their cars is their pets? There are pet hotels and spas, gourmet food brands, that the veterinary services industry alone is worth–”

  “They are not pets,” Daisuke said.

  “Then why do people keep them as one?”

  “For the same reason people take home a bear cub or breed tigers,” Daisuke said. “I don’t know. But the company has rules against interfering with world affairs.”

  “It’s a good thing I don’t work for your company,” Akihiko said with a smile. “That is why you will never be as successful as Arisu or Tadanobu, you follow the rules. I make my own rules. That’s what sets the weak of the great. The weak need structure, a chain of command. The great carve their own path.”

  Daisuke didn’t realize how much his father’s words stung until he found himself running a checklist of all his combat gear in his mind. He had his swords and his shotgun, not that he would even use them against his own family, but it was comforting that they were on his person even though they were invisible.

  Daisuke wasn’t sure why the man was getting to him. It wasn’t anything new from his father, pointing out his failures, holding his older kids on a pedestal. The man probably thought he was motivating Daisuke when all it really did was make the gap grow further and further. The gaps was so wide now that he felt it couldn’t get any wider, yet it was happening all the same.

  He cut his father off and jumped from the chair. “You don’t know anything about what I do for the company so you have no right to lecture.”

  “I am your father that gives me the right.” His father jumped up and met him eye-to-eye.

  “Do you want to know why I didn’t try to get into the family business? Because I wanted to be as far away from you as possible.”

  “So why’d you come back? Give me a warning about the grutomatons? Tell me I’m about to make the mistake of my career?”

  “I think you already know that.”

  His father collapsed on the chair and wept. This was something he had never seen before and didn’t know what to do about it. He had fought with his father. He’d even tossed furniture and broke things in anger. They were no strangers to an adversarial relationship, but a vulnerable one. He had never seen it. His father always kept his emotions buried very deep.

  Daisuke had never seen his father cry, and didn’t know how to handle it, so he just sat down.

  After a while his father looked up at Daisuke. “Turn them off. However they are monitoring you. Turn it off.”

  Daisuke pulled up the menu for his implant and switched it off. He did the same with all the other technology he had on his person. Before he turned off his phone, Daisuke checked an app on his phone first, one Farhad installed that would tell him if his implant was sending and receiving any data, and it wasn’t. Still, he couldn’t shake the feeling that he was being watched. Perhaps he was just being paranoid after Sledge admitted to him that he was being monitored. He shook it off and turned off his phone.

  Once Akihiko was satisfied, he wiped the last moisture from his eyes, and returned to the stoic gaze that Daisuke was all too familiar with. It was the one his father used during negotiations. One that an American friend of his called the “world’s best poker face.” Daisuke wondered about what was going on behind that gaze because all his life, he thought he understood it, until now.

  “I first saw the man with the abyss for eyes a couple weeks ago,” he began.