The Quickening
The secretary of a competent executive leads a busy life.
Serena’s secretariat was a prime example.
Their days were packed, yet meticulously organized.
They arrived and left exactly on time, and work-related contact on holidays was strictly forbidden.
Consequently, while their working hours were incredibly hectic, they could enjoy complete rest once their shift ended.
Conversely, the secretary of an incompetent executive leads a miserable life.
Thomson Arcardo’s secretariat was the poster child for this.
Their days were grueling and chaotic.
Working hours had lost all meaning, and they could never truly put down their work, even on holidays.
They were constantly overwhelmed during the day, and their work only truly ended when their boss drank himself to sleep.
After a brief respite, their day began with cleaning up the messes Thomson had made the night before, managing the fallout, and contacting the victims.
Once those initial tasks were handled, they had to shower in under eight minutes and get into the car. Naturally, there was no time to dry their hair; that had to be done on the fly while the vehicle drove itself down the highway.
By the time they arrived at the office, the entire secretarial staff was already fully engaged in damage control.
Most of their workload consisted of silencing victims of sexual assault and disposing of the bodies of Thomson’s partners who had overdosed on drugs.
They erased traces of his brawls with corporate clients, and if things went south, they even suppressed those clients entirely.
Some of the incidents were far too massive to be caused by a mere branch director rather than a headquarters executive, but Thomson caused trouble constantly without a care in the world.
Even though he was a brainless, incompetent idiot, he strutted around with his head held high wherever he went.
All of this was possible solely because he was the nephew of a headquarters executive.
Thomson, who indulged in alcohol, women, gambling, and drugs, was the nephew of a highly influential director at Zyrec headquarters. Thanks to that backing, no one at the Zyrec branch dared to touch him.
When even the director of the branch where Thomson worked couldn't lay a finger on him, who else would dare?
The only people who could put him in his place were the high-ranking executives at headquarters. However, they had no reason to cast their eyes down to a mere local branch. Thus, Thomson became the tyrant of Eastheim.
And Elyse Meier was Thomson’s direct secretary. Everything listed so far was essentially her daily routine.
She had lived like this for eight years.
It had reached the point where people openly whispered that the "real director" of the Zyrexx Kinetics branch was Elyse Meier, not Thomson Arcardo.
In fact, when other branches reached out for business matters, they bypassed Thomson entirely and called Elyse’s direct line.
Although this made her twice as busy as the other secretaries, Elyse never complained. In fact, this was the exact change she had desired and hoped for.
Elyse’s goal was revenge against Thomson.
Simply killing him was not enough. She wanted to drag him down to the absolute rock bottom, make him feel every conceivable form of despair, and only then end his life.
That was why she had applied to Thomson’s secretariat, worked tirelessly to rise to the position of chief secretary, and was now slowly taking control of the Zyrexx Kinetics branch.
However, she lacked a decisive blow.
Since Thomson had the backing of a headquarters executive, a half-hearted attack would only put Elyse herself in danger.
Even so, Elyse had survived this long without giving up. She had never lost sight of her goal: the death of Thomson, and ultimately, the downfall of Zyrec.
Even if the latter was impossible for a single human to achieve, she was determined to accomplish the former by any means necessary—even if it meant selling her soul to the devil.
With that resolve, Elyse continued to grit her teeth and endure each day.
Of course, even Elyse had a single sanctuary, a brief moment of respite.
It was the short ten-minute break granted after lunch.
During this time, Elyse would sit in her private office, empty her mind, and drink coffee.
She would drape a blanket over her shoulders—one that Angela and their mother had handmade and gifted to her when they were young.
It would have been perfect if she could call Angela as well, but leaving unnecessary digital traces was dangerous. Thus, she contented herself with looking at a photo of them together.
Today was no different.
Sitting in her private office, wrapped in the blanket with a warm cup of coffee, looking at Angela’s photo...
It was a break of only ten minutes, but it was this brief window that had allowed Elyse to endure until now.
With exactly five minutes left of her break...
Elyse’s private line chimed.
It wasn't a line connected to the general Eden network, but a strictly private one. And there was only one person in all of Eden who could reach this number.
Angela Meier.
Her beloved younger sister.
A bright smile spread across Elyse’s face.
Even if the call was about work, just hearing her sister’s voice was enough to make her smile.
Clearing her throat, Elyse wrapped the blanket tighter around herself and connected the call.
“How was the moonlight yesterday?”
It was not very beautiful. Or, It was quite beautiful.
One of those responses had to come back. It was their private code, a way of asking how the other was doing.
"Can you hear me?"
However, today was strange.
In fact, it was very strange.
“...Hello?”
"I'm not your honey."
“Who is this?”
"Hi, I'm Swoo."
A faint chuckle came through the line.
There was also the sound of a light breeze and a sudden clatter, but unfortunately, those details didn't register with Elyse.
"I have Angela."
"If you want to save your sister—ow!"
"Sister! No, wait, this is...! Hyaah?! S-Swoo! I'm going to get really mad!"
"Heheh, *ahem*... If you want to save your sister, answer my questions from now on—ack!"
"Sister! I'll call you back!"
“...Huh...?”
Elyse’s face went completely blank.
“Hi, Elyse.”
Swoo spoke into the phone with a much more subdued face and voice than before. Though, she was currently kneeling on the floor, facing the wall...
I'm clearly an adult.
I'm really an adult. I didn't even get punished like this when I was a kid.
Swoo grumbled and complained for a long time, but Angela had no intention of letting her off the hook.
Watching Angela instantly subdue the wild, unpredictable dragon, Serena couldn't help but be amazed.
“I'm not turning on the VPN for you anymore. You can live all by yourself without me, Swoo. I won't do your laundry or clean up after you either.”
To think she could tame and quiet Swoo with just those few words. It was a method Serena could never have pulled off.
She's not even a real kid, so why is she so easily swayed by that...?
And what was this about a VPN anyway?
If it was Angela’s VPN, ordinary trackers wouldn't stand a chance, but what on earth was Swoo doing with it?
Serena had thought she spent a fair amount of time around Swoo, but there was still so much she didn't know about her.
"...Yes, hello."
“Do you have a moment?”
"I have about three minutes. May I ask what this is about?"
“I heard you're a secretary. Can secretaries not build up their own personal track records?”
"I would like to answer, but unfortunately, disclosing company regulations is strictly prohibited."
“But this is Angela’s private line. If I keep my mouth shut, it's a complete secret, right?”
"Why should I trust you, Swoo?"
“Because I'm Angela’s partner?”
"You have two minutes left."
“Ah.”
As expected, it would have been much better to talk in person.
That way, she could read the other person by observing their expressions, gaze, breathing, and pulse.
It was impossible to discern someone's thoughts just by listening to their voice. There was no point in dragging this out.
If Swoo couldn't read her, then she couldn't read Swoo either.
“Mmm...”
Information about Elyse lined up in Swoo’s mind.
Elyse Meier: direct secretary to Thomson Arcardo, director of Zyrexx Kinetics, and the de facto director of the Kinetics branch.
That was the extent of what Angela had shared with her.
Angela had apologized, saying it was difficult to share any more information for now.
And then Swoo had made the call, got scolded by Angela, and ended up kneeling...
Swoo shook her head to clear her thoughts and continued her train of logic.
The branch Elyse Meier belonged to was Zyrexx Kinetics. And its director was Thomson Arcardo.
Swoo knew him all too well. He was a fairly famous named villain in Cyberpunk: Eden. He had to be, considering every time he appeared, it was accompanied by some highly suggestive scenes.
Anyway.
She hadn't known that Thomson’s secretary was Elyse, but she knew exactly what kinds of things he had done.
Because of that, she could quickly deduce why Elyse had to work as Thomson’s secretary for eight years.
To understand that, she had to start with Angela’s past.
Angela, who had raised a dog as a child, must have come from a fairly wealthy family. In Eden, owning a pet was a status symbol of the rich.
So, Angela and Elyse’s family must have been very well-off, likely because their parents were mega-corp employees or representatives of a major corporate client.
Yet now, Angela lived alone and had never once brought up her parents.
The two sisters had separated, keeping in touch only in secret while walking completely different paths.
The older sister was the secretary to a mega-corp director, and the younger sister was a suspiciously talented Netwatcher.
It was strange how out of hand things got, too.
The conflict between Lui Chen and Zyrec had no real reason to escalate to this scale.
Even though Swoo had stirred up trouble in the Wasteland, it shouldn't have escalated into a drug scandal that turned into a full-blown turf war over corporate influence.
She had suspected someone within Lui Chen or Zyrec was intentionally expanding the board, but she hadn't expected it to be Angela’s sister.
Why did Elyse have to blow things up like that?
If the conflict ended in defeat, the one who would suffer most was the branch that fueled the fire—Thomson’s branch.
No, Elyse had actually wanted exactly that.
Zyrec’s defeat. The tarnishing of their reputation. The drop in performance.
“Do you want revenge?”
Nothing came through the headset, but Swoo saw the shift in Angela’s expression.
She was right.
Swoo smiled and continued her thoughts.
Revenge for their parents. Whether it was for their father or mother didn't matter. The two sisters were living for revenge. And the target of that revenge was Thomson Arcardo.
Looking at Thomson alone, he was so incompetent and stupid that taking revenge seemed easy. However, he had a very solid backing behind him.
Therefore, Elyse’s plan must have been to build up her influence within the Kinetics branch first to drag Thomson down.
Even if it took longer, it was the most surefire method.
Thomson, with his massive ego, never backed down from a fight, and if nudged just a little, he was the type of man to slam his foot right on the accelerator.
It was time to reach a conclusion.
What could Swoo do to help the two sisters right now, and where should she start?
It wasn't far, and it wasn't complicated.
Swoo knew exactly what Thomson Arcardo had done, and what he would do in the future.
“Elyse.”
"You have a little under a minute left. If you have nothing else to say, I will hang up—"
“Do you know about the IEP among the CSIA's authorities?”
"If you are referring to the Integrity Execution Protocol, of course I know it."
“Zyrec Core Asset Protection Code, Article 4. The moment a threat to a core asset is detected, the CSIA may bypass all Zyrec internal regulations and the chain of command of individual branches to invoke the authority specified in this code. This authority is designated as the Integrity Execution Protocol, or IEP.”
There were Articles 1, 2, and 3 before it, but she didn't need to recite those. Not only was time running out, but Elyse would already know them by heart anyway.
"...How, how do you know that?"
“Within two months, the IEP will be activated at the Zyrexx Kinetics branch.”
Angela gasped and covered her mouth in shock.
Serena also widened her eyes, waiting with bated breath for Swoo’s next words.
What kind of face was Elyse making right now?
She really should have had this conversation in person.
“Thomson Arcardo will fall then.”
It was a shame she couldn't see it, but a smile still played on Swoo’s lips.
Leaving things for the next meeting built up a healthy amount of anticipation, so she decided to be satisfied with this for now.
“Director of the Zyrexx Kinetics branch, Elyse Meier. Yep, sounds nice.”