The System

Chapter 8

Recap: Meanwhile, on stage, Jesse crosses his fingers. After a few moments Tessa smiles and says. "Congratulation, Jesse Kastago. You are now and Official."

Jesse's face lights up as he smiles. He makes his way back to his seat in a daze, and I think M claps the loudest.

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Jesse won't go to an office like me. He goes to a separate training camp to become an Official. Although he has the same working hours as the rest of us, his assignments will be different.

He has chosen to be a Monitor Official, which is basically a security officer. Roaming the streets, ready to take on any threat. He also knows what happens inside sorting and programming offices. They help program his pod specifically showcasing all important events, offices, and streets.

It's the beginning of the new month. Old workers either retire or they get promoted. New workers come. Not many are transferred to Rosewood Office, but Milis is one of them.

I see Milis in the lift, and she continues to the 5th floor for her orientation with Kinate. I really hope she doesn't work on my floor.

Going to my desk, I start to work. We had received this message from Geneva, and unfortunately there was a storm and the signal crashed along the way. A team of 6 programmers, including me, are trying to detect the exact location.

I'm so caught up in unscrambling co-ordinates, that I miss a message. I look at it only at lunch and realise it's from Milis. It's a typed one, so I take out the water from my container and drink as I read.

'You will not BELIEVE my job posting. I'm one of Kinate's personal assistants! I can't believe he's the CEO, you know? Anyway, I get a new pod, and it's kinda full of private stuff, so like, I can't call you. Hope to talk to you in person. Bye."

I spit out half my water. What? I have mixed feelings about this.

On one hand, I am so thankful that I won't be seeing Kinate all the fucking time, nor will I be seeing or hearing from Milis all the time. On the other hand, that is a hella good work position.

But really? Whatever. I'm cool with my schedule as it is.

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Two days later, Garry comes up to me.

"Selena, about those coordinates," he says. I look up. Nobody has gotten a lock on anything within 50 kilometres of the last recorded position of the crashed signal.

"We've gotten a lock on the crash. I need you to see what's wrong, and leave 50 copies of your report on my desk."

I nod my head and get to work.

"Dang it!" I hear. I crane my head up as I see a guy at the far corner of the room. I think his name is Reynold?

"What's the matter?" someone asks. The whole room is trained on him.

"The Machine is not working." I hear groans. 'The Machine' is what we've termed the photocopier-printer-scanner-thingy. I hear angry voices.

"That's the fifth time in two months! I keep telling Garry we should get a new one."

"Yeah. How are we going to get our work done? I'm pretty sure all of our deadlines are today."

I think a bit. I remember Andrea telling me that she once needed something printed, and the line on her floor was too big. She had asked around, and got permission to use the fifth floor printer. She told me it worked super fast. I'm guessing the copier would work fast too. It probably would. All the important offices are up there.