Across the way, on top of the APEX building, two Apex employees were staked out. One of them was vigilantly watching the Dragonbyte while the other sat nearby.

  “So, what are they doing?” Gui asked.

  Lazarus turned around slowly, still holding the binoculars up to his eyes. He looked at Gui with them and just for a second his face was ultra close and funny looking. He then lowered them slowly and stared at him.

  “What?” Lazarus asked, slightly aggravated.

  “C’mon man, I asked, what are they doing now?” Gui repeated.

  “You know, I am getting really fucking sick of answering that.” Lazarus said, extremely aggravated.

  “You’re the one with the fucking binoculars. I can’t see shit, dude. Maybe if you let me use them once in a while I wouldn’t be asking you. So, don’t get on my fucking case about it.” Gui laid into him.

  “Okay, okay, look. They appear to be doing the same thing that they do every day.” Lazarus said.

  “Which is?” Gui asked, crossing his arms and raising an eyebrow.

  “Talking. All they do is talk.” Lazarus said calmly.

  “That’s all they ever do and that’s all they probably ever will do.” He continued.

  “BECAUSE THAT FUCKING STORE NEVER HAS CUSTOMERS. THEY HAVE NOTHING ELSE TO DO BUT TALK. SO, THAT’S ALL THEY DO IS JUST IN THERE AND FUCKING TALK!” Lazarus yelled.

  A few people in the parking lot could faintly hear his yelling, looking up trying to pinpoint the source of the noise. They couldn’t figure it out.

  “What do you think they’re talking about?” Gui asked.

  He had completely tuned out all of Lazarus’ yelling.

  “I fucking hate you Gui.” Lazarus groaned.

  “I know you do.” Gui chuckled wryly.

  He then had a realization as he remembered something.

  “Hey, wait, they don’t always talk. What about when the other Apex guys go over there to hassle them?” Gui asked, bringing up a valid point.

  This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

  “Well, anytime I’m watching them, they’re always talking.” Lazarus said.

  He rolled his eyes and then went back to watching the Dragonbyte with his binoculars.

  “Maybe you shouldn’t use absolutes like that.” Gui said.

  Lazarus just huffed instead of giving a real response.

  While Lazarus was into the idea of spying on the competition, it was done more out of curiosity than because he was ordered to. He wasn’t up on the roof by choice. He had been assigned to it after a few bouts of insubordination. He had simply been doing a better job at managing some things than the managers and they didn’t like that. His making valid points to their arguments only made them madder.

  It had put him in a unique position and from that position he knew a few important things about the competition, but the main one was something that he kept very close to the belt. He had witnessed Cassius use his power and that meant that he was aware of the reason why Cassius was able to do exactly what he could.

  After spotting it, he had made the decision to vehemently refuse Gui when he asked to use the binoculars. He wasn’t going to tell his managers either even though they expected updates if anything was spotted. The knowledge of Cassius’ power was his and his alone among the Apex employees.

  He couldn’t take any chances that they found out about it.

  Gui just saw Lazarus as someone who was kind of stingy. The only time he spent with Lazarus was the time they had up on the roof together. He did not have a lot to go off of. Nor was Gui the sort of person to theorize about what someone might be like outside of work. He took people at face value, which in this case meant that Lazarus was the sort of person that annoyed him.

  His reason for being on the roof was because he hadn’t been doing his job the exact way that he should’ve been doing it, but that didn’t stop him from quickly finishing his tasks. He was a good employee without actually being a good employee. He had so many complaints against him because he was constantly flirting with customers. The managers did the only thing they saw fit to do that they actually could. Which was to exile him up on the roof away from customers.

  “Hey, do you ever wonder why they want us to watch that store anyway?” Gui asked, breaking the silence after a few minutes.

  “I do from time to time, but I don’t put a lot of thought into it.” Lazarus answered.

  “Like, it’s just a dinky little tech store. Is it really that important that this store monitor and harass them?” Gui continued.

  Lazarus put the binoculars down and turned back to him.

  “They’ve been trying to shut it down before we both worked here. I don’t really get it, but they made a mistake putting us up here to ‘monitor’ them.” Lazarus said, using air quotes.

  “What do you mean?” Gui tilted his head, not really getting it.

  “I don’t go tell them anything about what’s happening. And you definitely don’t go telling our managers about anything.” Lazarus explained.

  “Well, all they do is talk. It’s not like we really need to report anything anyways.” Gui said.

  “And if they ever do anything more exciting, we’re not gonna tell them anyways.” Lazarus added.

  “I ain’t no fuckin’ narc.” Gui asserted.

  He paused.

  “Unless it’s that Douglas guy doing something. I’ll narc on him, but only him.” Gui groaned.

  “Agreed. Douglas kinda sucks.” Lazarus nodded.

  Gui’s jaw then suddenly dropped.

  “What? What is it?” Lazarus asked.

  Gui simply pointed up into the sky.

  Lazarus turned around and spotted a hover van descending into the Plaza. The van had the logo of the Dragonbyte sprayed onto its side.

  “No fucking way.” Lazarus said in disbelief.

  The Dragonbyte obtaining a delivery van was the very last thing he expected to see.