A Slave's Game

[Manticore]

September, 819 AS
Six hours later.


STATUS: HOLDING. Thank you for your patience.

The girl sighed in frustration as she stared at the large comm screen embedded in the wall of her small apartment on Ames Research Station. For her, this was one of the worst parts of her involuntary “employment” with the shadowy men who called themselves the Theban Syndicate.

She worked directly for the two men who ran the company, a pair of brothers who went by the names Amphion and Zethus. She had first come under their employ about eight years before, when she had only been nine years old. They had taken her to work for them in order to pay off the debts of her erstwhile father, without a care in the world about such small matters as child labor laws.

She had been taken to a secret facility that had been underground or in some kind of space station. She’d never been given enough freedom to discover where she was, and they had trained her in all kinds of things. It hadn’t been the worst experience; honestly, as they had kept her well fed and the constant puzzles and challenges they had presented her with had actually been a fun sort of challenge. She knew no other life, and definitely knew better than to try and run away. The one time she’d attempted had been… unpleasant.

Her thoughts were interrupted by a change on the screen before her.

Call Accepted. SECURE LINK… ESTABLISHED.

She straightened in her chair, smoothing her shoulder-length hair a bit. Then, she was on with them.

It was the usual setup. Amphion and Zethus, obviously brothers and sharing a rather nondescript appearance, sat before her in two comfortable-looking chairs. The background was a simple room that could’ve been anywhere, and both men wore matching grey suits.

Amphion, the dominant and older brother, was the first to speak as usual. “Jaeger, I assume you have something to report?”

The girl winced internally as he said that name. She hated being called “Jaeger”, for it was her father’s last name. She wanted nothing to do with the man, but they had forced her to change her name almost immediately after she had been taken. It still upset her to this day.

“Uh, yes. I completed my assignment. The files obtained have already been dispatched through the usual channel.” She was nervous now. These men always had a way of putting her on edge.

Amphion frowned. “I had seen them, yes, but I assumed it was an incomplete dump. You are suggesting otherwise?” His displeasure was clear.

Zethus spoke for the first time, his voice softer, almost soothing. “I’m sure Lisa here has a reason for this. She’s always so thorough in her work.” He smiled at her, but still looked expectant.

“T-there was an issue getting the requested files on Division Five,” Lisa responded. “The f-files are stored aboard a space station in orbit of Pittsburgh. But they’re localized, so I can’t access them without going aboard the station itself. I g-got everything I could from the server on Pittsburgh, despite their security measures.”

Amphion glared at her. “Mere security measures have never been a problem for you before, girl. We invested a lot of time and money in making you the best.”

“Even I can’t get around localization, because there’s literally no link to the files. And there were also three watchdog AIs on that server…”

Zethus raised his eyebrows. “Three? Brother, clearly someone who knows what they’re doing is at work over there. Does this change anything?”

Amphion frowned, but shrugged. “Probably not. Whoever it is can’t be better than Jaeger here. But we need those files on Division Five.”

He sighed, then looked back to Lisa. “Your mission is complete. Your reward is two-fifty thousand.”

She blanched. It was a mere fourth of what had been promised. Not that she’d see a credit of it anyways, for it all went right back into paying the massive debt.

Amphion spoke again. “Your next mission will involve boarding that station and getting our files. Expect the details to reach your account within a day or two.”

She nodded, and he reached and cut the connection without another word.

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