Chapter 51: Within the Halls of the Consortium


    “Wee Mr. Halls, I am Frank DeSantis and I will be the one walking through your application today.” A tall middle-aged man greeted me immediately upon entering the meeting room.


    I reached out to shake his hand, “Thank you, Mr. DeSantis.” We then took our seats across from each other.


    He ced a hand on the terminal on the table and pushed it toward me.


    “I’m sure you’ll want to go over the contract once more. Please feel free to do so while I go over a few things.”


    As nned, I transmitted the footage from my optics back to thewyers we have on retainer.


    “So Mr. Halls, I am required to exin to you our geopolitical situation before you join us. Are you already familiar with it?”


    “Just what is known to the public.”


    He paused for a moment before he continued, “I see, then allow me to give you an overview. The Elevate City Consortium is a collection of thergest corporations that together manage the city, the space elevator, and trade with the various nations on this,” He paused to take a sip from his cup. “We enforce trade contracts and work together to create a more hospitable business environment. By bing a member, you are agreeing to join us in helping us with enforcing these trade contracts.”


    He directed his gaze to me, to which I nodded.“Now, with that said, please do not mistake our consortium as an alliance. It ismon for fellow members to have hostile rtionships and evene to arms. We do not manage the affairs and rtionships as long as it doesn’t go over the line and severely affect the market.”


    “I understand,” I replied fully well that he meant as long as it wasn’t outright tant, anything went.


    “Perfect, now we just need your signature once you are ready,” DeSantis said.


    When mywyer team gave the green light, I looked over the form myself onest time before I signed it.


    “Congrattions Mr. Halls. The Halls Corporation has officially joined our consortium today. You will receive a wee package soon that will introduce you to your new privileges and distinctions within our consortium.”


    I still winced a little at the mention of our corporation’s name. It was embarrassing to have it named after yourself, but ire and Thorne wouldn’t have it otherwise.


    Both parties didn’t linger further once business was done. We shook hands once more and departed from the meeting room. I met up with my guards waiting outside and started our journey back to thepany to deliver the good news.


    We ordered food for the celebration while we were in traffic, as it would probably take a while to prepare enough food for the entirepany.


    When we parked in the basement of our office building, a small crowd had gathered right beside the elevators.


    “So, how did it go?” ire asked as she held onto Thorne.


    <em>It’s notmon to be rejected thiste into the application, but I guess you can never be sure until the deal is done.</em>


    “Starting today, Halls Corporation will be officially recognized as a G-ss member of the Elevate City Consortium.”


    A boisterous cheer filled the basement as the party began.<hr>


    The next day, I brought both ire and Thorne into my workshop.


    “So what did you want, ire?” I asked.


    “To settle on ourpany logo, of course! Now that we are a corp, just using the same colors won’t do. We’ll want a logo to brand onto our products, uniforms, cars, everything!”


    I stole a nce at Thorne, who simply shrugged back in response.


    “Why can’t we just use ourpany name like most corporations?”


    “Boo, that’s boring. And I thought you hated the idea of having your name stered everywhere.”


    “Knowing you, you’re just going to have the name included, anyway. It’ll just be even more noticeable with a logo beside it.”


    “Hehe, maybe. Let’s see what wee up with first.”


    I listened as ire bounced logo ideas off of Thorne. They quickly settled on an animal theme for some reason, but couldn’t decide on much more than that.


    “We should do something cute, like a rabbit!” ire stated.


    “No, we should have something that fits ourpany’s image. With our Shade, we should use something like a chameleon,” Thorne retorted.


    Their exchange was at a stalemate and they both decided at the same time to turn to me instead, “What do you think, Rollo?”


    “...If you are dead set on an animal, we have to consider if it will fit our color theme as well. We already decided on ck and blue, so you guys figure it out from there.”


    They both paused as they fell deep in thought. A minute or twoter, Thorne spoke up, “How about a snow owl then? We could have a snow blue color theme for it and it fits into the camouge theme as well.”


    ire’s eyes started to glow, as she likely was searching for images, “Sure, why not? They’re cute! They’re like Rollo as well, nocturnal.”


    “...Yeah, sure, let this be over with.”<hr>


    “Good morning, Rollo, we have a slight issue that just came inst night,” ire said as she came into my office.


    “What’s the matter?”


    “We got an email from our bank, congratting us on incorporatingst night.”


    “Okay... What’s the problem?”


    “Our new status requires additional security measures to be in ce to continue using our ounts. They want you to send someone to their headquarters in Lion City to register the biometrics of people who you want to have ess to the ounts. They’ll be covering the travel expenses.”


    “Not in Elevate City, but all the way to Southeast Asia?”


    “Yes, they’re the biggest bank that issues the credits for a reason. They’re outside the control of corporations and operated by one of the wealthiest city-states. Otherwise, how could corporations entrust their money with another corp?”


    “All right, I’ll open up my schedule for a trip then…”


    “You don’t have to go in person if you don’t want to. You can entrust your biometric data to someone and send them in your stead. I think that’s what most corpos do.”


    “Nah, it’s fine. I don’t mind doing some sightseeing, anyway.”


    “Okay, then I’ming too, since I manage the finances normally. I’ll see who else wants toe.” She excitedly exited the room with a hop in her step.


    With an uing trip on the horizon, I had to hasten my n to upgrade my cybeics. I opened my status screen so I could review all the imnts I currently had.


    Status


    Level:


    15


    EXP:


    1480/1500


    Musculoskeletal:


    76


    Neural Reflex:


    15


    Visuomotor Coordination:


    27


    Endurance:


    24


    Sensory Perception:


    52


    Upgrade Points:


    1


    Upgrades: <ul><li>Stealth +7</li><li>Hacking +3</li><li>Cybeic Engineering +7</li><li>Stealth Technology +10</li><li>Software Engineering +6</li></ul>


    Enhancements:


    SAID: Zenitech Hoth Mk.3


    Optics: Nova Tech Stars Mk.4


    Cyberarm(Left): Nova Tech Mudra Mk.6


    Cyberarm(Right): Nova Tech Shiva Mk.5


    Auditory: Amazing Corp FieldTac Gen 2


    Cardiovascr: BioGen Labs Marathon 4


    Misceneous: HSU Custom Shade


    Most of my cybeics were quite expensive to me when I bought them at the time, but my financial situation has drastically changed and has stabilized as well. I was long overdue for an upgrade.


    I opened the procurement list from the suppliers for the clinics and started browsing various high-end models for sale. The high-end models started from several tens of thousands and went up into the millions. I’m sure there were even more expensive options that were only avable with connections, but that wasn’t my concern for now.


    With the high-end models, I could probably trust them to be reliable enough to think about imnts that improved my Neural Reflexes and Visuomotor Coordinator.


    I also could start taking a look at the SAID with hypnopaedia feature again. Now we were a corporation, I should be able to buy knowledge cassettes to help ire learn. I could then study it and hopefully reproduce it myself. If that worked, I could provide my people with the ability to learn while they slept.


    I selected several high-end models to rece what I already had first. Although our corporation was raking in money, we were also expanding and had to purchase equipment and vehicles. That meant I didn’t have unlimited money, and I settled for the ones around the hundred thousand credits ballpark.


    The one imnt I had to splurge on was the SAID. As the centerpiece of everything, it was vital to have a high-quality secretarial assistant.


    With my order ced, I exited the building and went to check out a downtown mall I had yet to explore. My new cybeics wouldn’t arrive until tonight. With my impatience, I wanted to examine the real thing in person first.


    A small team of four security guards followed me around at the orders of Thorne. He said they would even follow me when I went out at night. He told me they could just watch if I wanted, but he wouldn’t budge on sicking these babysitters on me.


    Upon entering the mall, we immediately headed for the cybeics floor. As a legitimate corporation now, one of my privileges included having armed guards apany me to most ces that normally didn’t allow it.


    We entered the Zenitech store where I found the SAID imnt I had just ordered, projected on one of the showcase cabs. An employee noticed me and my guards and came to assist me.


    “Sir, how may I help you today?” She said, bowing low, emphasizing her subservience with her bodynguage.


    “Please give me an overview of the Sebastian model right here.” I pointed at the projection.


    “Of course, sir, the Sebastian model is one of our gship products in the secretariat assistance imnt market. It boasts the capability to host a rudimentary AI to truly provide you with a secretary in the truest sense.” She smiled proudly as introduced the product.


    “How does itpare to SAIDs in a simr price range on the market?” While I had my own view on the matter, I wanted to see what a Zenitech salesperson had to say.


    “While I’d like to say it is better in every possible manner, our Sebastien model truly shines in its ability to ess the web securely. With our proprietary solutions, there is no worry about giving hackers a potential avenue to invade your systems. You’ll be able to have the convenience of staying connected to the web while fully being at ease.”


    From what I could tell with my cybeics and software knowledge, the Sebastien model used some air-gaped method inbination with read-only ess.


    While I did not believe in imnts being truly unhackable. With the proper settings on the Sebastien, you could easily detect any attempt at hacking and disconnect to seal off any attempts.


    With my curiosity sated, I spent some time shopping for clothes and treated the entire team to lunch.


    I frolicked around until I got a message that my order had arrived. I arrived at the nostalgic clinic that was my home for a few months and met with the cybeic surgeon on duty.


    I’ve done plenty of instations before, but it was a bit awkward this time around because I had my security team as the audience. I couldn’t imagine how the surgeon felt as well, probably nervous, which didn’tfort me at all.


    <em>You can do it, Mr. Surgeon. Steady hands, please…</em>


    I inhaled the anesthetic and hoped it would all be over soon.


    <em>I would feel a lot morefortable if ire was the one to operate on me. She is one of the few people I fully trusted. I should really try harder to get her that cassette on cybeic knowledge for her.</em>