Cassius was unaware, but his discussion with Galvius was not as discreet as he would have liked.

  Eli Torwind, an apprentice who had, not coincidentally, joined Emerald Crust as a workflow configuration auxilium around the same time that the guild had begun its collaboration with Helicon, received a transcript of the conversation on his device within seconds of Cassius disconnecting. The device was company issued, but since then, Eli had heavily modded it, bypassing all its security restrictions.

  The server room was dimly lit and the low hum of the large data processors and cooling units was ever present. It was late in the evening and besides a skeleton crew of maintenance staff performing routine inspection and troubleshooting operations around the corridors, the place was mostly deserted. Most of the staff connected to the systems here remotely. The majority of the personnel were not even aware of the existence of this place, though the machinery housed here played a critical role in the orchestration of Emerald Crust's galactic operations.

  As Eli scanned over the communication discreetly, their brow furrowed. They quickly pulled out another flexitab from their pocket. Unrolling the cylindrical device, they swiped through to access a secret application that connected them with their handler in Helicon. They quickly typed out their latest round of updates in the covert chatroom window:

  [04:10] L: Emerald Crust caving in. Azaroth will be aborted.

  As Eli waited for a response, they looked around the room. The servers were housed in tall, metal racks, their blinking lights casting a soft glow across the room. The pulsing indicators were arranged in neat rows, casting long, dancing shadows on the walls as they flickered on and off in a synchronized dance.

  To preserve their anonymity, Eli, or L, had to bounce around their communications through a network of relay nodes. While this system did manage to ensure reasonably well that the messages could not be intercepted, it did add a substantial delay to the communication. However, a few minutes later, through numerous intermediate proxies, a link was established to a Helicon nexus node. Slowly, replies from their handler streamed in.

  This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

  [02:03] E: Negotiation possible?

  [02:25] L: Unlikely. Financial situation strenuous.

  [03:08] E: Time for Option C then?

  [03:46] L: Affirmative.

  [04:29] E: Can our friend at Academy really be trusted?

  [05:03] L: We will find out. I am planning to head there in person.

  [05:24] E: Wait what?

  “Hey, are you slacking off?” A loud, gruff voice interrupted them.

  "While on company time, you are not allowed personal devices." A bald middle manager towered over Eli, “If I report this, you will be penalized.”

  This was not Eli's first encounter with this person. Tiberius was one of those folks who had just enough intelligence to make them capable of making life difficult for everyone else around them. His face, though not unattractive in its own right, held a permanent expression of discontent, as if each line and crease was a testament to the countless hours spent in the service of a thankless corporate machine.

  Eli had modded the chatroom interface to look like one of the popular games. While they were typing in a tiny section in the corner, the rest of the screen was taken up by ephemeral virtual characters wielding futuristic guns who shot at monstrous silhouettes in a continuous, never-ending loop.

  Jumping to conclusion based on the flashy graphics, Tiberius paid no attention to the text on the screen. As always, he looked tired. His eyes, sunken and hollow, betrayed a lack of sleep and an excess of stress. Fine lines crisscrossed his forehead, and deep wrinkles etched their way around his mouth, as if chronicling a lifetime of suppressed anger and frustration.

  Eli’s first instinct was to tell the guy to shove it. With Azaroth getting aborted, there wasn’t much left for them in this place, and the guild was anyway headed into a downward spiral.

  But then, they recollected the message by the stranger from the Academy, who called himself Nazaar. The guildmaster Flavia, whom Cassius was planning to swindle, was the same person who possibly had a hand in Kiri’s disappearance. There may yet be an opportunity here.

  “I am so sorry, Sir.” Eli said, putting forth their friendliest smile. "This will not happen again."

  “You better not. We take security very seriously here,” the pretentious chubby man intoned, turning away. Reflections of the blinking indicators around could be seen on the glistening surface of his bald head.

  “Of course, Sir,” Eli laughed on the inside. Within a month of joining the guild, they had been able to hack into most of the classified archives. After a few months of tinkering, they had, by now, granted themselves privileges higher than even the guildmaster. The security measures were laughably bad.

  They just quietly rolled up the flexitab and stashed it into their bag.