The Bricktown ASCorp Supermarket had a rather apt name. The building was massive, easily taking up a block with its several-story tall structure. Half a block was dedicated purely to its parking lot, which had enough space to store at least several thousand vehicles.
Said super massive parking lot sat almost entirely empty. The few things moving about the space were customer service robots roving around the neat aisles. It would’ve felt distinctly post-apocalyptic if not for the hustle and bustle of the nearby roads. Heck, even a tumbleweed made of trash blew across the parking lot.
The noon sun hid behind a vast bank of clouds as light mist permeated the air. The ambient neon of the city seemed to dance to an ethereal tune across the slightly wet asphalt. As if to emphasize that, a wind blew across the lot, causing the mist to twist and twirl as the neon reflected through it into one kaleidoscope of color.
Since nobody lurked in the parking lot, I got a front-row parking space to the Supermarket. For the first time in my life, the walk into the front of the store was less than a hundred feet. Seriously weird.
I trudged across the damp asphalt, idly curious as to why exactly the store sat shut down. Usually, this kind of place would be popping with life as the wage slaves and corporate drones came to spend their week’s pay on one pointless thing or another, and yet now it lay entirely barren.
The automatic sliding doors blinked red at me as they hissed open, revealing neon-tinged shadows beyond. The doorway sat like a maw, lurking for some unsuspecting pedestrian to enter and be lost in its maze of aisles.
A large screen flickered to life across the short airlock entryway, casting a dim glow around its surroundings. A man, his features set with an almost creepy wide grin, moved robotically as he waved. He spoke in an annoying voice like he was talking to a toddler. “Hi, I’m Mr. Cheers! Let me be the first to invite you in. Welcome to the -Tzzt!- ASSCorp -Tzzt!- Supermarket!”
I paused my stride for a moment, chuckling in stunned surprise. Shaking my head slightly, I entered the dark store proper. Various neon advertisements scattered around the inside of the store flickered with half-life, sending an ominous glow around the largely abandoned store. A bassy buzz filled the air, seemingly coming from everywhere. Techno taps, hydraulic hisses, and robotic raps seemed to accent the buzz, drawing an eerie atmosphere when combined with the poor lighting.
A robot vaguely resembling a trash can glinted neon as it slid out of the dim store. Light green neon highlighted a hole on the top of the bot. A stilted monotone voice called out. “Please! Throw away -Tzzt!- ASSCorp -Tzzt!- in the trash receptacle, where it belongs.” It moved closer, pressing uncomfortably near my arm.
Burning temptation to push the little bot over coursed through my mind, yet I barely managed to restrain myself from such a mischievous act. Nothing good would come of damaging a mega corporation's property. Well, damage it more than its brain already was.
The robot died in its tracks, losing the glow right around the lid. A man stepped out from behind a shelf wearing a jumpsuit as he walked over to the bot. “Store’s closed. How’d you get in?”
“The uh- the door was unlocked…” I answered him as I looked around the supermarket. Now that I was inside, my eyes had rapidly adjusted to the darkness.
”Well, get out. Before I call the Crusade for trespassing.” He crossed his arms and rested back on his haunches.
Thinking quickly, I whipped out my badge and flashed it at him. Intimidation or persuasion, hmm… “I am the Crusade.” Like it was even an option. Intimidation was just too much fun.
The man stepped back onto his heels as his hands flew to the sides. ”S-sorry, ma’am… I didn’t recognize you out of uniform.”
When in doubt, wing it, right? “I am- was off duty… Crusade’s understaffed. They called me in since I was in the area. We received reports of rogue robots? I hope you aren’t in violation of the K-10 Convention.”
”W-what? No- no ma’am.” His expression twisted into something awful. Not that I would expect anything less from somebody being accused of breaching the K-10 Convention. That was a quick track to execution.
I crossed my arms over my chest and leveled a glare at him. “So you say… I’ll need a full tour of the premises to confirm no… illegal dealings.” I can see why Carone did it now. The pauses really drew emphasis and showed control of the situation. Still a bastard though.
“I- you- this is way over my pay grade. I-is it alright if I go get my manager?” He asked, already backing up towards one of the aisles as if that could save him.
I kept my gaze on him, somewhat enjoying the power as he seemed to wither under my eyes. “Hmm… I guess.”
A look of relief crossed his face. “Thank yo-”
“I guess you can take me to your manager.” I cut him off as the relieved look vanished like a ghost.
“Y-yes ma’am… follow me.” He started heading to one of the many aisles entrances, only pausing to make sure I followed.
I moved after him, unfortunately having to take two steps to his everyone. His pace was also quick, giving me little time to look around. Still, what I could see was a confusing layout. The store’s designs seemed to be made in such a way as to funnel shoppers to the middle of the supermarket. And there were no windows anywhere, similar to how a casino operated.
That wasn’t all of the predatory choices either. Various signs and advertisements sat around and hung from the ceiling. If they were working instead of their glitched-out flickering, they would be full of flair and flashy to draw people further in towards the ‘winning’ deals.
We traveled far back, past all of that and at least a couple dozen stocking robots that were glitched out working in reverse. They pulled items from the shelves rather than put them on, leaving a trail of tossed-away merchandise behind them. One bot, seemingly trying to hand out brochures, ejected them like bullets out of a gun towards another, burying it under heaps of paper.
It was abundantly clear why the store sat in a shut-down state. The store was in disarray and looked as if a hurricane had blown through, and every robot I saw seemed to be horribly glitched out. There were even oil spills everywhere, as if a blood bath- er, oil bath had taken place.
Eventually, he led me back to a break room in the back of the store. It was pitifully small, not that it really mattered since it looked as though robots made up the majority of the workforce. A few people stood around, but only one caught my attention.
With dirty blonde hair and a pudgy face, Mr. Keratás caught my eye immediately. He stood in the middle of the room, looking over a terminal as he rapidly typed away on it.
I was here… now what? I hadn’t planned this far ahead. I originally only thought of how to reach the guy, let alone what to do when I finally did. I needed to get him alone to question him and try to find some clues about the letters.
The one who led me back here spoke up. “Sir. The Blue Crusade is here.”
“What?” Mr. Keratás turned back towards us, his eyes passing over before entirely dismissing me. “Where?”
The guy just mutely pointed towards me. Taking that as my cue, I took a step forward. “I need a full tour of your facilities to make sure there isn’t anything breaking the K-10 convention.”
“Preem…” He dragged a hand down his face, leaving black smudges. Familiar black smudges. “Can we do this another time? I’m rather busy, and there isn’t anything that would break the laws of the convention.”
“I’m afraid not.” I took a step forward and emphasized my movements as I looked around the room. “Understand, every robot in your facility is going haywire? A leading symptom of a Rogue AI. Wouldn’t want one of those killers around, now would we?”
He gave me a long look before slowly shaking his head. “We’ve just experienced a hack, nothing more. Still, if you insist, I will lead you around the robotics garage, even without a warrant. A proper investigation would be too much of a hassle with all that’s going on.”
“It would be much appreciated.” I needed something a bit more though. If I just straight up asked him about the letters, he’d know something was up. And I wasn’t in uniform. “Let me see your office too. Just to make sure.”
His corporate smile brightened as his facial muscles twitched. “Just to make sure.”
“Good.” I smiled at him, trying to give my best disarming impression.
It seemed to work as some of the tenseness from his shoulders released. Honest Face truly was a great Perk. He sighed and motioned around the room. “Torrence, clean up here. See if you can’t isolate the rogue- the hacked robots. I just got a call. A Netrunner from corporate is coming in tomorrow, so we just need to make sure nothing is too severely damaged at that time.”
The man who brought me back here saluted. “Sir.”
Mr. Keratás motioned to me. “Follow me. The robotics garage is this way.”
We walked back through the store. Back here was far cleaner than the front, as if whatever happened to the robots had prioritized attacking the front area where customers would come in. Whoever hacked this place was not only skilled, but smart to boot. Hit the corp right where it hurts. That being said, there were a lot of oil spills back here, so it wasn’t entirely clean.
Eventually, we made it through the chaotic mess of ASCorp products and arrived at a secluded entrance. It was a rather large garage door, having room to fit several vehicles through it with ease.
Several robots milled around the door, bashing their heads into walls and a stocker bot was even trying to place what looked to be window cleaning supplies inside of another bot with mixed success. The hacker had done a number on this place.
The dirty blonde-headed man waved a hand at the several bots as he keyed in a code onto a small control panel next to the garage door. “As you can see, the hacker did a number on our operating protocols. But that’s it. There are no AIs anywhere around here, just glitched protocols.”
‘Course, I didn’t really think that there was an AI somewhere around here. That would be corporate suicide for ASCorp, and they couldn’t handle that kind of backlash. Still, I had to sell the point so I had a ‘reason’ to be here. “Not on these ones.”
He sighed as the panel flashed green. The garage door let out a loud clunk and started to slowly slide up, revealing a large workshop. Several tables were set up around the room, each laden with parts. Mechanics wielded tools and were working on dozens of robots scattered across the rooms.
“We’re working hard to fix up the mess this hacker made, but it’s been slow going. Take a look around if you want, you won’t find anything shady back here.” He pointed towards the back of the room. A door led into a windowless room off to the back. “Oh, and my temporary office is over there in the corner. I expect you can see yourself out, Crusader.”
He headed forward and struck up a conversation with one of the workers, leaving me to my own devices. I spent a minute wandering around the workshop, trying to look as though I was actually investigating. To be honest, I wouldn't know an AI even if it hit me over the head.
Seeing all the different kinds of robots and their inner workings was very cool though. It even gave me some ideas on stuff I could start to make on my own. The only thing keeping me from making a robot entirely was the coding skills required to make it seem alive. Net hadn't reached that level.
I headed for the office after making my rounds. If there was anywhere that would have what I wanted, it was his office. It would also probably hold any incriminating evidence. If the smudges on the letters were from the robots' oil like I suspected, then he likely hadn't kept the stuff at home. Otherwise, he would've probably washed his hands.
It was about as I would expect from a corporate office. There were filing cabinets everywhere, and papers were scattered around in neat little stacks. A desk sat against a wall, a small laptop terminal resting on it. I gazed around.
Where do I even start? I’m used to chaotic messes, not this- this… organization. I felt disgusted even looking at the neatly placed papers and files everywhere.
What was I even looking for? Threatening letters? A written confession? I glanced around his office. Check the obvious places first, right? I moved over to the desk and rifled through the drawers. Nothing. At least until I got to one of the bottom ones. A stack of red envelopes lay neatly in it.
There was enough evidence for me to pin him as the crook, but one thing haunted me. How? How would this random guy know about whatever it is that Mr. Abernathy wanted to hide if only four people knew about it? The why made sense, he was just eliminating someone above him on the corporate ladder. But the how?
Maybe his laptop would have some clues… I moved over to it and popped it open.
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