The Off Season

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Karl Jak

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Somewhere, deep in the bowels (lol) of Castle Karlstein…

“Mr. Jak, I thought you normally spend your off-seasons at the beach?”

Karl glanced up from his little workstation to see Kevin staring down at him from the other side of the uncharacteristically unkempt desk. As of late, the ginger had received a pair of lateral promotions, so Karl Jak wasn’t even sure what his title was, aside from ‘assistant to the CEO’.

“What brings you down here, Kevin?” Karl muttered as he adjusted his work glasses and looked at the screen of his PDA.

“Is that a PDA, Sir?” The younger man remarked as he glanced at the palm-sized computer. “It doesn’t look like the standard issue SynPad.”

“You dodged my question,” Karl replied as he looked up at his assistant. “This is for the intranet down here. You know how much I do adore my low-fi.”

The assistant nodded. He was well-aware that the CEO had a variety of personal and semi-personal private networks that he used throughout the various Syntech facilities, but Kevin had also spent the last six days traversing far too many work sites operated by the company. He was only down here to deliver the final reports to his boss, and then he could file for that sweet, delicious PTO until the pre-season kicked into gear.

“It’s the reports, isn’t it?” Karl finally asked as he stood up from the desk and retrieved his coat jacket from a nearby wall hook. When he received no immediate response, the CEO continued. “I take it everything is in operational order?”

“Yes, Sir,” Kevin answered as he took out his tablet and pulled up a variety of windows. “Everyth—”

“Project X?”

Kevin, mouth still muddled with the remainder of his previous sentence, took a silent moment before glancing down and shuffling through his windows. “In-situ trials continue to display positive results.”

“But?”

“The field reports are less than ideal. Most of the successful trials have come within confined quarters, but even so, there are many variables that are muddling with the figures.”

“Variables?”

“We had great results in subterranean environs, but those places also exacerbated mortality rates due to environmental hazards and local fauna.”

Karl snickered. “You didn’t like my idea?”

“Of further enhancing the series with that Yautja technology?” A nod followed. “We’re still struggling to backwards engineer all the nuances of the gear and equipment, but it is in alpha stages, yes.”

“And the Inverxe samples?”

“It’s been tricky. R&D believes that they’ve isolated the gene sequences that creates the necessary compounds, but they’ve been unable to splice them into a specimen without experience catastrophic system failure.”

The CEO frowned. “They’re melting from the inside out, aren’t they?”

“More or less.”

Karl had a knack for science and engineering, and even though he was cosmically attuned with reality, he didn’t have all the answers nor all the solutions to these types of problems. Could he snap his fingers and will something into existence? Maybe. Would that creation operate perfectly? Not unless Karl knew the nuances, and his understanding of advanced, molecular biochemistry was suspect at best.

“Have you reached out to that businessman on Opealon yet?” Karl replied.

The young ginger’s facial features twisted up slightly as he swiped to a different window and scrolled through something on the screen of his tablet. “Whom?”

“Ryan,” Karl answered. “Andrew Ryan. The one who you told me vanished long ago? The one that I told you was probably still alive and slithering around at the bottom of the ocean?”

“We haven’t been able to determine where this city is supposed to be… Opealon is a large place, and much of the oceans, especially the seafloor, is undocumented.”

“You’re fine,” Karl muttered. “We both know that just because someone existed here and somewhere else doesn’t mean they’re one in the same.”

“Your theses on the multiverse remain very popular among the academic circles of Arcadia, Sir.”

“They should,” Karl laughed as he finished adjusting his suit to ensure it wasn’t creased or wrinkled where it shouldn’t be. “They’re literally non-fiction.”

“Of course, Sir.”

Karl frowned. “We need to find that city, Kevin. If Ryan’s up to his usual tricks, it means he’s found ADAM.”

“ADAM?”

The executive shook his head. “We’ll talk about it later… just allocate more resources to Opealon. Hire some more undercover agents or something. Ryan’s discoveries hold the secret to what I want out of Project X.”

“Should I continue the operation in Markov as well? And the operative in Tinkerdrift?”

“Yes, they remain essential.”

“Now, onto the last order of business, Sir, and then I can leave you to your machinations.”

Karl rolled his eyes. “Don’t be so dramatic, Kevin, this is just your run-of-the-mill secret ‘anti-apocalypse’ operations. What was the last thing on our docket?”

“The Man in Red is hosting another event.”

With a grin, Karl nodded his head. “Ah yes, the minor leagues do start play around this time of the year, don’t they?”

Kevin paused for a few moments. “I’m guessing that was a rhetorical question, Sir?”

“You could humor me, Kevin.”

The ginger gave a half-smile. “Sorry, Mr. Jak. Long day.”

“Send him and be done with it.”

Him-him, Sir?”

“Yes, Kevin. Did I stutter?”

Kevin shook his head, opting to answer this rhetorical question. “We over in Ops just thought that whole little project was just you trying to be a troll or trying to distract yourself from the more serious stuff.”

“It was deadly serious, Kevin. Deadly serious.”

“As you wish, Sir.”
 
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