Everyday Stresses of Kazuki - Sci-Fi Action/Intrigue Webserial

Arriving at the intended location, both Karl and Kazuki looked confused. They were just... on a street, somewhere in the suburbs. It wasn't even a residential area! Just a few streets of night shops and markets.

"Is this a joke?" Kazuki snarled, head in his hand as Archius ate a kebab skewer.

"No!" Archius chuckled before wiping his lips of barbecue sauce. "Want some? Is that why you're all pissed off all the time? You hungry?" Archius jeered.

Kazuki sighed. Karl was smoking a cigarette outside the shuttle, but Kazuki was tapping his boot angrily against the shuttle floor, sitting opposite Archius. "Fine. We'll wait. At least tell me what we're doing here?"

"Improving my intelligence network, more eyes don't hurt the lumbersome beast, you know?"

"Then tell me... how does it work?"

Archius had to pause. What? Did Kazuki ask him that? Archius gave a very confused look to Kazuki.

"You never told me," Kazuki continued. "Not even briefly. The most you ever said was in April, 4922... You said it just... 'worked'."

Oh... Archius didn't? Well, guessed that was something that just slipped Archius' mind. "We had ears in the wall back then," Archius explained. "I couldn't even trust the equipment we were given. But... sure, it's simple, by proxy or in person, information trickles down the sewage pipes to me."

"How?" Kazuki asked, arms still crossed.

"Well..." Archius glanced around, gesticulating here and there. "Dead drops, for information, of course. I used to go around manually, but after we snatched Krystalink and Sato, I've been using Sato's system for zombie drones to collect data and send it, before... You know." Archius placed a finger gun to his head.

"Then what was about that earlier?" Kazuki asked. "That informant knows your face."

"And I know his!" Archius scoffed, finishing the kebab and throwing the skewer out of the shuttle and onto the concrete street below. "Some informants are... closer than others. He was one of the lucky ones. I earned him back when I was training in the CRIS. He likes money, I like information, it's a pragmatic deal!"

Kazuki was still somewhat sceptical about the idea. "He knows your face," he reiterated.

"Most people aren't like you, you know? Not like... a Prince, or a mercenary, but they're scared, not everyone can run into gunfire so willingly. Plus, I pay that informant well; he owes as well! Mutual interests," Archius replied. "The others are not so special, they drop information, I take it... they get rewarded, but if they pay something bad... hmm... Little Jessica isn't going to bed anymore."

Archius had to hide his laughter behind his facade, whilst Kazuki seemed to smirk slightly. Here, in a shuttle in the middle of fuck off nowhere, a psychopath and a sociopath were chuckling over killing a fictional little girl... And Archius wouldn't have it any other way.

"Sato was the best catch we could have made," Archius continued. "But on the topic of a catch..." Archius then gestured out of the van, across the street to a drowsy-looking salaryman. He had professional wear on, a thick coat even in the summer, with a small Republican cape across one shoulder.

"Never understood why they always have to wear those coats," Kazuki remarked. "How much did you know about him?"

"Too much," Archius admitted. "Anyways, you're backup."

Kazuki simply returned his orders with a blank stare.

"You have golden eyes! And look at yourself, you're like a damn burnt mutton chop. "Look, if something happens, I'll tell you and you'll have their neck snapped before I could finish my sentence, got it?"

Kazuki acquiesced at that, understanding that he wasn't the most subtle of people in the galaxy. Sure, he was capable of stealth at times, even to the point of sneaking up against that Noah guy without a sound - but stealth wasn't Kazuki's style. It was Archius'.

Jumping out of the shuttle, Archius began to walk across the empty road, towards the bureaucrat. Karl and Kazuki hung behind, watching intently. But Archius had to act the part... First, he ruffled up his hair, then unzipped his jacket and began to walk more drowsily. As he crossed the street, Archius 'accidentally' brushed by the low-level bureaucrat.

"Hey, drunken fuck!" The bureaucrat grunted at him as Archius continued walking forward. "Hey!"

Archius weakly turned his head, showing a more dishevelled facade. "Huh?" Archius grunted, nearly losing his steps as he crashed into the wall beside him. "Agh! Fuck..."

"Drunken fool, get off the streets, this isn't a place for you!" The bureaucrat berated Archius, all to plan...

"Sorry!" Archius began to cry crocodile tears. "Look... I... Please just..."

The bureaucrat began to walk, looking down at Archius. "Get your life together!"

Now was the time for infiltration. "You know that joy... right?" Archius inquired. The bureaucrat, intrigued, looked over. "That joy, I can see it... Your eyes have that fear and anger... But that joy!"

"What are you, psychic? Speak sense, if you're going to speak at all!"

Of course, the bureaucrat had something to prove, something from his dead-end job that the fucker wanted to shove onto others. Archius stood up for a moment, visualising how foolish this man was... how pathetic he could have been. In the warm summers of Anagora, this man was to be the next prized idiot in Archius' collection.

"My little girl..." Archius croaked. "I... I always thought about what I'd name her... and my wife... we'd never stop arguing about it. But when the time came..." Archius' lips and face fell once again, not daring to finish the sentence that this facade had uttered.

Almost by instinct, the man understood what Archius was going through.

"Oh shit... Uh... I'm sorry, sir, I'm a father of three, so I can understand something about..." The man trailed off, brushing aside the bureaucrat and donning the cloak of the father as he gently pushed his cape aside. "I'm sorry. I'm just tired, and I'm late."

Archius chuckled slightly. "Overtime? Heh, I get it. Can you... Look, I don't want to ask for much."

"Oh, no, not at all!" The father approached Archius, taking his cloak off and gently placing it on Archius'. "Please, if you do need a place to eat, I can offer you one for this night. My wife would scold me, but... I cannot abandon another father... even if he lost everything."

It would have been an amazing heart-to-heart, and Archius's work seemed to work too well! This man was offering shelter? No... Archius needed this father to be isolated, alone... Archius shook his head.

"No... An hour of your time, perhaps? Just... I need someone to talk to, maybe over some... beer?" Archius suggested.

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The father patted Archius on the shoulders. "Lui Wang, I work for the government... It would be weird if drinking buddies didn't know each other's names."

Archius faked a smile, hiding the devious smirk and grin he had behind the cracking mask. "Barrot. Yakubu Barrot. I worked at a drone manufacturing plant... I was going to be a stay-at-home husband..." Archius gave a hoarse and husky laugh.

"Drinks are on me, for a little bit," Lui said, the Trasian man walking off and gesturing for Archius to come. And of course, Archius strode forward, maintaining the facade of the tragic drunk. "I commit to my family, but I can't leave another man in the dark."

Going to a local Izakaya, Lui and Archius sat down. It was late at night, but the bar was relatively empty; it was a weekday, after all, and most people were either slaving away in overtime or dead-drunk on public transportation... Ah... the Republican dream, just as the Elder Fer-Charelota intended!

A drone served them alcohol, as well as some light snacks, as the two sat opposite, sitting down on the tatami mats. Karl and Kazuki entered soon after, taking up position within eye but not earshot.

"It's a hidden bar, not many people come here, and the owners are on their deathbed... but it's peaceful," said Lui. "I sometimes come here to get some rest from the family!"

Archius chuckled. "Ugh... it sounds nice, very nice..." Archius had to put a sense of longing into his voice, make this Lui guy feel like Archius really had lost both his firstborn daughter and wife! And not only that, but financial ruin!

"Well, life gives us cards, and sometimes we don't like them. Come on, drink up and tell this to-be-balding dead-end bureaucrat your troubles!" Lui snickered. "I'm worked to death because of all this new paperwork, something about some criminals or whatever."

The two raised their mugs of alcohol before both downing them. To ensure that he didn't get drunk, Archius had installed... a small pump to his ICAPAD. With a small tube running along his finger, Archius watered down his alcohol.

Lui, on the other hand, did not water down his alcohol. Or drink water at all. In due time, the guy was drunk. And all was well... After their time was up, Archius burped loudly. "Oi, you you drunken fool, why not uh... help me get to my place? I uh... I think I'm going to puke!"

"Agh, don't worry, it's close, right? I don't want my wife thinking I've gone and all just slept with another woman, you know!"

Kazuki and Karl's reaction to Archius' acting was... different. Kazuki knew Archius, so he had that everlasting infuriated face on. Karl, on the other hand, had his eyes glued on him.

Slowly, the two got up and walked out of the bar. One was drunk, whilst the other still had his senses on him. Unlike Kazuki or Eliza, Archius knew how to hold his alcohol well. Rushing up a flight of stairs in a specially selected apartment block nearby... Archius staggered to get his keys.

'Hey, uh... I don't have the keys,' Archius silently reported over the uplink. 'Karl, you have the Krystalink cracker, right?'

'Uh... yeah?'

Archius silently heaved a sigh of relief. 'Great! Story is I left my keys at work, but you don't know my fake wife and kid are dead, okay?'

'This... feels wrong,' Karl mumbled.

Kazuki interjected, 'It is. No two ways about it. But it's a dirty galaxy. Get on it, Karl.'

Lui scratched his head. "Everything alright, Yakubu?"

On cue, Karl turned the corner, walking up the stairs whilst whistling. He was about to continue up the stairs, but glanced at Archius and Lui. "Oh, Yakubu!" Karl waved over. "Uh... is everything alright?"

"Just... my keys," Archius grumbled. "They should be somewhere." Archius kept searching up his body. Lui was anxiously looking back and forth between Archius and Karl.

"If your... wife is still in uh... I still have my toolkit on me, so..." Karl was stuttering slightly, as well as scrambling for words. A sane, sober man might be able to tell something was wrong, but that was not the case. Lui was dead drunk, and Archius had him right where he wanted.

Lui interjected, "Sorry... Uh, I don't think this is the time to really talk about it. But, if you can let my friend in, I think he'd appreciate it."

Archius staggered against the door, pretending to be distraught over the mention of his 'wife'. Though obviously, the fake stories did have some truth... Some vestiges of truth in the pile of lies Archius had called a life. Karl walked over, taking out a small scrambler and sticking it into the keycard port. Instantly, the door came open.

Holy shit, that security is weak, Archius thought.

"So, we'll talk later?" asked Lui. "Recovery and springing back takes time, Yakubu. It might take weeks, months, years, but uhh...." Lui paused, scrambling for some words in a drunken stupor, but his words were somewhat wise - even if he was stumbling around like a drunk idiot.

Archius chose now to unsheathe the disguise. Opening the door, Archius remained silent. Then, Archius placed a hand on Lui, and chucked him into the apartment. "Alright. We have him. Get in here."

As he was drunk, he was barely able to stand up. Archius stepped in, as well as Karl. Kazuki trailed behind, closing the door behind them. Karl turned on the lights; they were... in a safehouse.

Lui glanced around. "The fuck?"

"Don't try to scream or shout," Archius said. "It's soundproofed. Now... It's time to get down to business."

"Yakubu!?"

Archius smiled. "Yes, that is me, either way, you have something I want... You want to help me protect little Rebbeci, right?"

Lui seemed to slowly sober up, heaving for air as he crawled backwards against the cold, reinforced floors. "Shit... I didn't tell you that!" He paused. "You shouldn't know my firstborn's name!"

"But I do." Archius rolled his eyes. He showed his ICAPAD, with the CRIS informational database online, specifically the employee view. "Your password and login. I need access to... specifics."

"You bastard!"

"You want to go home to your wicked-tongued wife and your three daughters, right?" Archius asked, looking back at Kazuki and Karl.

Karl sighed as he opened the door. "I'm not a part of this, man." Retreating, Karl left the room, closing the doors behind him. Kazuki was left. He did not chicken out. Instead, Kazuki stepped forward, taking hold of his pistol and brandishing it, showing Lui.

"My... you... I... I didn't betray anyone!"

"No, no, no, eyes on me!" Archius dragged Lui's gaze back on him. "Now. Be a good little bureaucrat and input the damn password!"

Lui realised quickly that he had no choice in this matter. Inputting the information, Archius was able to log back in on the CRIS database... Aha! Recordings! "What do you want?!"

"Access to the recordings, simple as!" Archius remarked. "I need information, and the CRIS isn't giving me it. Too much politics, as you'd know. But you... Well, you're insignificant, who cares if you look at security recordings..."

Archius showed Kazuki replays of information and recordings from across the Sub-Level surveillance systems. "See... Blood Contractors, thank god for Krystalink, otherwise I'd be searching until my hair fell off."

"So you admit it, Sato's good?"

Archius nodded. "Good," he bit the word off. "Never said she was a good person, though." Cunning. Archius went back to business, kneeling beside Lui. "Look, I want information, namely updates and access to... well, I need you to monitor things."

"I don't understand..."

"You don't need to. You will have access to this address. Here, you will dead drop slides, datapads and caches of information that I request. That information, of course, is recordings. I'll take this as your first of many." Archius gestured to the recordings.

It showed the decrepit background of the Sub-Levels in a run-down apartment complex. Armoured people were huddling beside fires and in the blown-out rooms, wearing warm clothes. Their insignias were clear, even in the smog and frost.

"Blood Contractors...!?" Lui grunted, trying to crawl backwards, hitting the wall instead. "No, please!"

Archius then slapped a wad of cash on the floor, a few thousand Standardis. "Of course, I'm no advocate for slavery, so you'll be paid very well for the amount of work you'd have to do. Think about it... will you?"

The slab of money was very much adequate for a first timer in the information market. Lui meekly took hold of the strap of cash. "This is a bribe," he correctly asserted.

"Bribe or not, do you understand me? Get your kids something nice for Irismas this year."

Weakly, Lui nodded. And with that, a new informant has been crafted, through both stick and carrot. Outside, Archius smoked another cigarette, leaving Lui to wallow in his new side gig and money.

"That was dirty," Karl snarled.

"But it got the job done," Archius noted. "I always get the job done."

"What do we have?" asked Kazuki, walking down the stairs with the other two.

Archius gestured to the recordings he downloaded before the CRIS systems flagged a foreign intruder. "The Blood Contractors... they're massing in the Sub-Levels, near the surface of all places. It's information, all in a good day's work. Plus… you heard the bureaucrat, the CRIS knows that the Blood Contractors are doing something, but they won't do anything… There's a reason for that."

Neither replied.

"Don't you all agree?" Archius' lips curled. "This is where we get to the fun part."