Chapter 4:
Grime in the Gears: Create, Read, Update, Delete
The screens floated through the air like gondolas on a peaceful afternoon. Akira leaned back in his chair and watched them drift by. On one screen was a Gannt chart labeled "Aquisitions," and on another was a bar chart showing "Fungible Capital." A ticker skimmed past on the chyron of one of the screens, and a feed of various business headlines scrolled past on another. It was almost soothing to watch the data drift by, painting a picture.
But what used to be fun, like the thrill of the chase, was now growing dull, mundane. He took his eyes from the screen and returned his attention to the daruma doll in his hands. He painted the face and body, leaving two white spaces where the eyes would go. He held it up and admired it in the light of the office.
He glanced out through the large plate windows of the office. There more data drifted by, albeit at a more frenetic pace, and in the form of cars, drones, floating billboards, and many unlicensed aerial devices. He even thought he saw someone zip by wearing a flight suit, but that could have been the window's refresh and his mind playing tricks on him. He sighed. "It used to be so fun," he said.
"What did?" asked a voice behind him.
He turned away from the window. Standing in his doorway was his assistant and company-issued bodyguard, Sakerse Yojimbo. She worse the requisite black pneumat suit of Araiguma security personnel, complete with a holster for her tasgun. However, instead of the traditional hikari-katana strapped to her back, she wore a swatloszalba, something Akira assumed was due to her being a Japolski. In many ways, she pushed right up against the company dress code, including a red and white-dyed braid of hair with a thread of gold running down the middle offsetting the natural dark brown of the rest of her hair. She had several glowing subdermals, and Akira suspected that the dichromatism of her eyes was due more to mods than a genetic condition.
The door was just shimmering closed, so he knew that she had just stepped into his office. He stood from his seat, waving all the screens to the side. "Sakerse," he said. "What brings you here?"
The woman's expression was unchanging as a river stone. "I saw your calendar," she said. "You were going Out There," she said, nodding to the window. "Company policy requires you have an escort."
Akira frowned. "I don't need a babysitter," he said.
"I am not a babysitter," Sakerse said. "It is my job to keep you safe."
"I can keep myself safe," he said.
Without warning, Sakerse was across the desk. She held the swatloszalba in her hands, its light blade pulsing and glowing millimeters away from Akira's neck.
Akira looked up, expecting to see her smiling, but no, still a river stone. "Not safe enough," she said.
It was Akira that smiled. "Look again," he said. He watched Sakerse's eyes drift down, looking at Akira's own hand. She felt something metal touch her neck. She shifted off the sword as she stepped back, strapping it to her back with a fluid motion that even Akira thought impressive. Her eyes narrowed.
"A tanto," she said, regarding the small blade he held in his hand. "Cute. I see your sentimentality doesn't stop at the fat dolls." She lifted her head to show him her neck. The subdermals glowed a faint blue. "However, that particular attack would not have been fatal. Annoying, but I would have been able to manage." She reached out her hand. Akira handed her the blade. She ran a thumb down the sharpened edge. "I respect your reflexes," she said. "But I still must do my job." She handed the blade back to him handle first. As he took it, she gave him a small bow.
Akira sheathed the blade and set it down on the stand behind his desk. "Very well," he said. He picked up the "fat doll" he had just painted. "You may accompany me today. Do you know what we're going to be doing?" He picked up the brush and got a dab of black paint on it. He circled the eye.
She looked at the screens that were slowly orbiting the room. "If I had to guess, it would be acqusition-related." She grabbed one of the screens and began to scroll down it, her eyes moving preternaturally fast as she absorbed the data.
"You are correct," he said. He handed her the daruma doll, one of its eyes now black. "Please," he said, "set it next to the others."
Sakerse took the doll. She rotated it in her hands. It was something her grandmother might have called a ningyolalka, a wish doll, but working under Akira for as long as she had, she knew them by their real name, daruma. The doll had some tradition where you painted one eye when you set out to acquire something, and then filled the other one in when you finally got it. This one looked like a rodent of some sort. She went to the wall where a large daruma doll painted to look like a raccoon sat. Next to it were a row of smaller ones, each one hand-painted by Akira to look like a different animal or thing, and each one with both eyes filled in. She set the new one down on the far edge.
She looked back at him. "What were you muttering when I came in?" she asked.
Akira removed his glasses, taking a moment to polish them with a cloth from within his suit jacket. "Just the musings of an old man whose lost the the spark of joy he once found in his work." He grabbed one of the screens as it floated by. "I analyze business acquisitions, make recommendations, and then oversee the execution. But it's just not the fun game it once was."
"With all due respect," said Sakerse, "It's called work, not super-wonderful-crazy-fun-time."
He chuckled. "Skippity-doo," he said, tossing the screen back into the air. He watched it drift back to join the others. "What do you do?"
"When, sir?" she asked.
"When you wake up and dread going into work. When you look at the vibrant painting of your life and see just dull shades of grey?"
Sakerse sat down on the chair opposite the desk. She gave it serious thought. Finally she spoke. "I have no idea," she said. "I haven't gotten there yet."
Akira shook his head. "Let's go," he said.
Sakerse stood from her seat and walked toward the door. She looked back and saw Akira opening a drawer. He pulled out an impressive and imposing firearm and placed it in a holster under his jacket.
He saw her watching him. "You never can tell how these things will go," he said. "I like to be ready for anything." He stepped past her and into the hallway. She followed after him as he walked to the elevator. They passed another man in the hallway. Sakerse wasn't sure what department he worked for, but he seemed to know everybody.
"Heading out into the real world, Akira?" he asked.
"I can't just sit around and play games like you do, Eremiya," said Akira.
The man laughed. "Good luck," he said. He walked away.
Akira pushed the button on the elevator. When the door opened, he and Sakerse stepped inside. The door closed, and they rode in relative silence as the elevator descended. Sakerse took the opportunity to check her equipment. Akira took the opportunity to check the scrolling feed of news on his watch.
The doors slid open, and Akira placed the watch back in his pocket. Sakerse holstered her tasgun. They walked toward the exit. A pulsing white rectangle of light, one meter wide and two meters tall, stood before them. A security guard sat behind a desk just before it. He nodded as they walked past. They stepped into the light, and after a faint tingling sensation, were out on the street. The door slid closed behind them, being just a green metal monolith surrounded by city on all sides.
Akira blinked in the daylight. After a moment, his glasses lenses began to polarize. He looked over at Sakerse. She wore reflective sunglasses.
"We're in the real world now, Mr. Taito, so I suggest you stay near me and stay alert," she said.
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