Madmcgee

  Phil.

  Phil sat in the pristine e and semi-rubberized room, his fingers wrinkling the top of his foam cup while the miserable coffee within cooled, absent his i.

  He’d certainly had worse before—or, he thought, he did. But lousy coffee was lousy coffee... And this particur brew mao be a triple threat!

  How, when in a world where maes cooked in pce of humans, a simple pot of bck could still somehow taste sour, ashy, and bnd was indeed a tradi of on sehat existed simply to spite those who enjoyed a good brew…

  Admittedly, his mood was already lingering on the precipice of frustration, knee bobbing wildly while his boot tapped a staccato rhythm on the polished floor.

  He was on edge, angry and fused, and maybe even just a bit ashamed.

  He’d pletely lost his marbles, his nerve deg to piss off the near first moment when the going got tough.

  Y-yes, it was teically his first day on the job after two whole weeks of interaining, but Phil had holy thought, after what he’d gohrough, that all of this would be—a cakewalk!

  Instead, he’d e face to face with a body that had looked like it had been put through a blender. Only to theold he didn't have the chops for the job.

  His pride was wounded.

  His expectations of his new career—skewed.

  And worst of all was the look of exasperated pity he kept seeing in the older tech’s eyes ead every time Phil found himself staring at the data pad… Almost as if he were wishing something would magically appear and, all of a sudden, his worst fears would be ratified.

  Sadly, at this point, he was going to have to admit that his paranoia might genuinely have beeing the best of him…

  They’d been monit the android's systems for ten damned minutes, and not so much as a blip of abnormality had shown up in its log… Almost as if it were too perfect, too—curated… but that couldn't be the case.

  Ugh… and he’d been so sure the damhing really was messing with them!

  Oddly enough, after dropping out of college, his MIP career all but flushed down the drain with the decision. Phil had thought he’d wotery when his application to ‘Paradise’ had been accepted.

  Det money, fifty-pert co-pay health bes, a free apartment, tiny and in the ‘Meadows’ as it was… Indeed, it had been a deal that seemed too good to be true. And now, Phil knew why.

  He was getting pensated for potentially hazardous work.

  And while Frank had boldly procimed that there was no way one of their maes would gue and attack a Paradise tei, Phil also hadn't heard a siory about the maes attag ts either.

  So, in his mind, it really wasn't a leap in logic to assume the pany was doing the same thing to the public as it did to its own employees.

  Mix that in with a warning that the job had a high turnover rate and that he’d all but signed his soul away uhe mountainous tracts, NDA, and waivers he’d been told were only ‘proper procedure…’

  Well, needless to say, there was a sinking feeling in his guts that stood as the reason why Phil still held an intense distrust for the android upstairs…

  Idly, he lifted his cup to his mouth, deg that, while the coffee was awful, he still wanted a sip.

  Yet, Frank's arm shot out and held his wrist, the other man’s gaze log on his own before nudging his at the cup.

  “Fug tore the rim right apart, son, there’s more foam in your coffee than coffee!”

  Phil gnced down, blinking at the floating mass of, well, garbage that was now colleg on the surface of his drink.

  With a sigh, he put it back down oable, grumbling to himself while slumping in his seat. “Aly how many of these sort of calls did you say you got in a month?”

  “Heh… eh, only two or three, d. Holy, most of the techs don't ever see this sort of thing, not unless were short staffed. But those of us assigo the ‘Meadows’ on a full schedule, like we are? Well, we see it fairly often.”

  “I feel like I’ve beeo…”

  “Nobody said nothing towards that accusation. Trust me, Paradise’s hiring division is meticulous and good at what they do. Ha! I mean, surely you assumed there was a reason why such a massive pany would hire on a flunkie like yourself, no?”

  “I just assumed three years in the program was enough for them to say, ‘Why not?’”

  “Well, it was, and it wasn't.” Frank chuckled, merrily sipping from his drink. “If you didn't have at least some background in the field, you wouldn't have gotten the shot you did. That said, not too many people who actually finish their degree would tolerate w out here, let alone what it uh, well, entails, if you know what I mean.”

  Phil g the versation distorter that Frank had deployed oable. His gaze lingering on it for several moments before he tore it away.

  Evidently, Paradise was so tight-lipped, eve came to its own employees, that they were forced to deploy a ‘versation jammer’ while agents were taking a break in public.

  Insanely, the little drone had actually shot out of Frank’s robotic arm the moment they’d sat down, though as to whether it was fully autonomous or simply something the other man sciously activated, Phil still wasn't sure.

  Teams like their own always operated in pairs, with a senient ag as their leader and a junior meant to assist.

  At some point, Phil would be sidered experienced enough to lead his own little duo, at which point Frank had not so cheerily stated that he’d be saddled with yet another rookie.

  The fact that so many techs who were assigo the Meadotly left Paradise's employ was something that the other man wasn't too keen on enting over.

  He’d said something along the lines of ‘most people simply 't hack it’; however, Phil was starting to put together a much darker and alternate possibility for that discrepanbsp;

  Why, when a job had so many bes, would senior teis leave?

  It was a question that had seriously been gnawing on him all this time, doubly so after he’d witnessed what had transpired upstairs.

  Well, maybe the reason stood as oh a more lighthearted cast?

  Maybe people simply left fger aer things after getting some experiender their belts.

  That said, Paradise offered better pay than sixty pert of petitors out there, so the math was already on the wrong end of things.

  Worse was, of course, the darker option. One where the turnover rate wasn't at all reted to people ‘moving on’ with their careers, but rather, ‘passing on’ to wherever it eople went when they were—killed…

  Again, Phil g the data pad, mind just tuning out all the ambient noise around him. Hell, even Frank’s voice distorted to a yawning garble as the young ma his pulse skyrocket through the ceiling!

  His lips twitched, eyes shooting wide, breath catg in his throat as, through the stream ected to the android’s eyes, Phil watched as a gore-caked arm lifted itself, palm ft and out, pointing at the locked apartment door but heartbeats before it slid open…

  “F-Frank—”

  “Get down!”

  All at once, Phil’s world was ed by the rapidly approag floor!

  His eyes bugged out while his partner’s hand pushed him down, even as the younger ma somethi ay pass over the top of his head, heavily thumping against the nearby wall at speeds that beggared belief.

  His ears were screaming as Phil, moving on instinct, scrambled behind the overturable that Frank was already flipping, excmations of pain and numbing fusion all ing together to scramble his fritzing thoughts!

  Frank risked a ce over their impromptu barrier as, from the left, Phill watched a woman abruptly smacked by a rge heap of mashed vegetables that snapped her neck sideways with a siing crack!

  The woman fell in a twitg and vulsing heap, eyes wide with terror as drool spilled from her gurgling lips, body clusion ielltale signs of spinal injury.

  Phil’s breath was ing faster and faster now, the whistling hiss of projectiles stantly flying through the air and subsequent snap of food as it spttered against walls, people, and furniture, making it sound like the stuff was being shot rapid fire out of a damned on!

  Swallowing, Phil ced a gnce as well, peeking around the side of the table, only for his head to retreat, but a moment before, a massive wad of goop tried its best to brain him!

  “What the fuck is happening?”

  “Malfun!” Frank ughed, dropping back down to his ass and pig up the retively durable data pad that had vely fallen nearby.

  Though nht beside them, Frank's meical arm reached out, distending aending in strange unlog patterns as the limb practically stretched itself, just long enough for the man to flick the tablet their way!

  A massive heap of ky gravy nearly sent the man spiraling as it took him in the arm! Frank cried out in a moment of surprise as he was nearly dragged out into the open by the force of the blow, but Phil had him, taking hold of his jacket and keeping him behind cover.

  “Appreciate it!” Frank grinned, an almost maddened gleam filling his gaze, winking at his junior partner as though this insanity were another damned m for him! “Don't worry, I’ll hack the fucker right, good and square. Might get a little sp on the wrist, but it’s better than a broken neck, right?”

  “Frank, the fug Andoird was moving on the s!” He shouted, ung for those who heard him. Even with the shitstorm that had abruptly maed at the worst possible timing, Phil felt like he o alert the other man to what he’d seen.

  For his part, Frank just looked at him with a rasing and very bushy eyebrow, all his mirth and chaotic amusement for the situation faltering as he gnced down at the tablet, then back up at Phil, then back at the tablet.

  The stream was still pying, and just as it had for the st quarter hour, the image there upon the pad was of a familiar sight...

  The apartment just as they'd left it.

  The android’s line of sight persisted precisely as it had ead every time he’d stared at it, save for one lone instance.

  With an intensely weary and saddened look, Frank simply shook his head at him, letting out an exasperated sigh as he flicked over from the video and opened up the tablet's nearby avaible es.

  Then, as he used Paradise's hardware to brute force the maddened kit-bot, pung through its security with the weight of distant banks of super-processors, the younger man could only feel his heart sink to his guts…

  “Frank…” Phil whisper-shouted, hands beginning to tremble. “I know what you're thinking, but you o trust me! Just—look at the rec log when this is over! Please! I swear to god, if I’m wrong, I’ll march right back to HQ ahem I’m done!”

  For a moment, the older tech seemed to hesitate, gng back up from the rapidly filling progress bar before Phil a stern frown.

  Still, he allowed the younger man a single nod, his patience clearly thinning as the pad beeped, and he began tapping away.

  Phil, still sitting there, mind a hurrie of ay, simply thought back to that brief moment when he’d seen the android upstairs—leave the apartment…