“Excuse me, what?” Troy said. He was now fully out of his own little world, properly fixed on, what Charlie had just said.

 

Troy had not been too focused on any kinds of news, but he was pretty sure that he would still have heard of such a thing happening. Even one as apolitical as he still understood the implications of that innocuous statement.

 

“I'm taking that as a no”, Charlie surmised, with a strangely amused glint, looking at Troy's shocked expression. “Am I wrong in assuming the same for you, Dr Hale?”

 

Dr Hale, who had been entirely focused on balancing a larger amount of food on her fork, looked up, only to quickly focus her gaze back down, as her steady progress had been rapidly lost, with it all spilling back onto the plate. Troy didn't feel any remorse, as he had maybe shaken the table a small bit while readjusting himself.

 

“No, you are not,” Dr Hale said, not looking pleased in her wasted efforts, but still holding her voice calm, albeit a small bit displeased. “Do continue, if not for my benefit, then for Troy's”

 

“Oh, I wouldn't have shut up, even if you asked me”, Charlie briefly consoled Dr Hale, sounding all too remorseful about it. As in, with none at all. “Anyway, where should I begin? Oh, yeah, how about the start of it all?

 

You see here, young children of near thirty years old each, or however old you are supposed to be, the strain between our country and another, henceforth known as Fatum and Bello respectively, have been growing rapidly for the last month or two. If somebody had questioned me about it last week, I wouldn't have been too surprised, if the two decided to just fight it all out, the consequences of it being damned. Not that it would have been too smart, on old Bello´s, for the obvious reasons, but it would have been entertaining in the least.”

 

The obvious reasons were much more serious than Charlie let on. Fatum, the country which Troy hoped he was currently housed inside, was not alone at all. It was centred inside a massive alliance, nearly allied with half the countries in the world. Fatum, on the other side of the spectrum, was a country, who´s sole survival had been on the fact, that it hadn't been aggressive, and others just letting it be for it.

 

But now, that status has developed. Bello was trying to take on a massive group of countries, without any real support from others. From what Troy could remember, they weren't even too equipped, when it came to the military, only having a couple of million drones in their repertoire. Bello, on the other hand, had virtually everything it needed to conquer any single country. If, of course, it had the rights to use all of those resources of course. If it was attacked, most would be at its disposal, though.

 

Anyway, back to Charlie's little explanation, which Troy was surely putting his full attention onto.

 

“As you could have suspected, from me having already spoiled it for you, Bello decided to get its mind out of whatever hole it was in,” Charlie continued, not even stopping for breath after most of the sentences. “They came whimpering over to us, with their heads to the floor and down on their knees, asking for all kinds of forgiveness. We, being the generous bastards we are, decided to accept their sincere regrets, under the condition that they join the little boys club, which a good number of the world have going on.”

 

Dr Hale was having a pleasant time, trying to enjoy her dinner, while Troy was over to her side, trying to contain his small nervous wall breaking. All mental of course. He wouldn't be able to afford to destroy anything in that facility of theirs.

 

Troy already knew, what came next in Charlie's explanation. And, the contents would not bode well with him.

 

“I think, that both of us already know, what this simply conditions of ours mean, right? It doesn't just affect us. It doesn't just affect Bello. It changes the whole political landscape of the entire, hecking world. We are nearly equal, with the other group. Three countries remain neutral, and both sides will soon be forcing a decision out of them too. And, once that is done, something´s gonna is happening across the world,” Charlie continued to spout. Progressively, he had been getting more and more heated in his body language, nearly standing in his seat, at the end. But, when there finally appeared a natural break in his words, he sat right back down, acting as if he hadn't moved at all. “What, I'm not too sure about. You would have to ask our resident expert on that.”

 

“And, who exactly would that be?” Troy asked, getting more enthralled into the subject than he probably should have. It wasn't his fault, that international politics, which would affect him personally shortly, was so damn interesting.

 

“That, my friend, would be our good, old buddy, Darlow,” Charlie stated, popping a spoonful of mush into his mouth, while still talking. “Not too sure, about his whereabouts nowadays. He keeps finding the trackers I´ve been putting on him. So distrustful of him. Took him under five minutes, with the last one, which I planted on him yesterday night. Didn't even have the decency of waiting to find it, until we had left the bar.”

 

“Did you put any of those trackers on me?” Troy questioned, mildly sidetracked by Charlie's lesser disturbing words. Here he was, fussing so much about the potential recording devices of Dr Fidelis, while Charlie was actively talking about tracking somebody in front of him.

 

“... no”, Charlie meekly answered, not showcasing off his earlier prowess in poker faces.

 

“He did”, Dr Hale confirmed, from the sidelines, while enjoying her food in relative silence. “It's on the inside of your left shoe. It should look like an overly large part of old fluff.

 

Oh, it did not matter, if they were messing with him, or not. Troy would be checking that place no matter what was said.

 

“How did you know where it would be?” Charlie asked, with a curious tone. “I didn't even put it on him, while you were there. Got a few bugs on him yourself?”

 

There was a bloody tracker on his shoe! It was shaped like an oddly flat-shaped old yarn, which Troy must have glanced over last time, he put those shoes of his on.

 

“What you have in technological prowess, you lack in all other subjects”, Dr Hale flatly observed, which made even Troy wince, from under the table. “From the moment I first met you, every tracker you have put on people were always located on the inner side of the left shoe. As a small tip for you, maybe you should try another place. The current one is too obvious.”

 

“Don't give him advice about it”, Troy told Dr Hale, who didn't even react to his words, before attempting to steer the conversation back on track. “Anyways, do you think you might be able to get me in contact with Darlow? Not to sound too self-centred, but I wouldn't mind knowing a bit more about the situation from an expert, instead of you.”

 

Charlie didn't seem to take offence to his words, instead of laughing at them.

 

“Oh, that is perfectly understandable. Most of the time, I don't even trust half of what I say either. Supposedly, I put my own spin on already factual information, making it even harder to understand, but that's just fair criticism”, Charlie stated, shrugging a bit in the process. “And, if you really want to know more about it that much, I can just bring you along, next time I try to spy on little Darlow. Does… this afternoon sound fine to you?”

 

Before he even had the chance to answer, Dr Hale went to do it for him.

 

“Keep it to the day hours. This kid nearly caused me to lose a few more rights today. I'm not putting that much faith in you or him,” Dr Hale stated, with no small glare at Charlie.

 

“Do you even have any rights to lose?” Charlie questioned. “That last drinking debacle of yours took away most, that I could count.”

 

The glare shone in pure intensity so much, that Troy was feeling it from the side. How Charlie kept up that oblivious smile of his was a wonder to be seen.

 

“You signed multiple contracts, effectively stopping you from even being allowed to think about this unnamed incident,” Dr Hale pointed out with a voice that could steel. “Are we clear?”

 

Troy felt the need to shout ´yes mam´, out of pure survival needs, but luckily stopped himself.

 

“I still have a couple of loopholes in my sleeve, which you don't know about”, Charlie smugly replied, the sheer energy radiating from Dr Hale not seeming to affect him in the slightest.

 

Dr Hale just sighed at him, the previous, mildly murderous intent, vanishing with it.

 

“For the last time, Charlie, editing typos into your own copy of the contracts does not make them valid,” Dr Hale stated.

 

“It makes them real to me!”

 

“Can I get some background information on this rapacious discussion you two people are having?” Troy asked, deciding to throw caution to the wind. Getting some more storytime about Dr Hale's drunken adventures was just too good. Charlie had only mentioned them in passing, which did not help in infuriating Troy. But, now, he had an actual chance of learning more from the main sources.

 

“I mean-”, Charlie started, his smile ever-widening, but Dr Hale cut him off before he even had a chance to utter more than a couple of words.

 

“Oh, no you don't,” Dr Hale said, the sharp tone back with a vengeance. “Troy is, according to the specifications of the contract, a professional worker at this facility. You only have the right to mention that the unnamed incident in question occurred, but you are not allowed to give anything further than that!” Was that a mild fluster?

 

Troy knew, at this point, that toning it down on the already mild pressure would be a good choice of action. Dr Hale was starting to show emotion on her face, something which both intrigued and utterly horrified him, deep into his core.

 

Consequently, changing the topic of conversation yet again did not seem like too bad of an idea. It was surprising, truly, that they were letting him do this. Usually, it was Troy trying to hold still, with their conversation.

 

“Speaking of things we can't speak too much about, Charlie, has anything interesting been happening at your position?” Troy asked out of the blue. “And, we are not talking about people breaking in on your alone time.”

 

Charlie seemed saddened by Troy's specific cut out of the topic, but he just did not want to learn another story about it. Three in one session was more than enough, thank you!

 

“Well, if you want to be like that, I could tell you how I'm doing with my current project,” Charlie sulkily observed. His current appearance would have fit on the face of a child, and not one of his real age. “There has been one interesting thing happen with this project of mine. Do you have any guesses, what it is, Dr Hale?”

 

Oh, yeah, Dr Hale had some… mechanical organs, right? They were miracle hangover cures. Or. so it was stated to him. at least.

 

Dr Hale just looked at him, having nearly honed in on her food again.

 

“Troy is trying to have a conversation with you, and not me,” Dr Hale stated. “Please, do your best to keep with his wishes, and incorporate me in your tirades as little as possible.” And right back, she went to focus on her food. What a person, to aspire to be, not giving a single damn about other people's thoughts.

 

“That would be hard, seeing as you're the project of my dreams,” Charlie said, making a rather vulgar smile in Dr Hale's direction, before sharpening back on Troy, who was uncomfortable watching it all unfold. “As you should know by now, Dr Hale is still in possession of my current, standalone project. To be more exact, the project has replaced a few of her vital organs, and created a few whole new ones! I'm not allowed to tell you what the new ones do, but, trust me, they are rad. Like, guns are nearly useless against them, level of rad.

 

Or, at least, they would be, if somebody would allow themselves to only drink human amounts of pure alcohol. That is, what I'm guessing the fine lady beside you is drinking constantly, for I can see no other reason on how she messed up her mechanical liver. Seriously, even pure oil would have done less damage.

 

I will be seeing you later for that, by the way, Dr Hale.”

 

She gave a very polite grunt to affirm she had heard him.

 

So, that was actually really interesting to know. Cyborgs supposedly existed, and they were heavy drinkers. Not what Troy had expected if he was being straightforward. Also, he had presumed the look of a cyborg to be more… not manly, per se, but more muscular. Much more muscular. Like, at an amount, where a normal human would get heart failure, due to the pure muscle mass around it.

 

…

 

Troy really needed to cut down on his tv shows. They were shifting his worldview by too much.

 

“What organs, other than the liver, was replaced?” Troy asked, with no hesitation. Yes, they were talking about some slightly nasty stuff, while others were eating, but it was just too intriguing to pass off on.

 

“Oh, you would not believe, all the things I got to cut out off her,” Charlie said, with the tone of voice, that made Troy believe it very much. “At first, I only had permission to replace the boring things like her liver and the kidneys. But, then, I wrangled my way out of replacing her right lung, too, you know, make a comparison on identical specimens. Yet, because of me doing so, there was too much weight on one side. Not by much, of course, but enough to make a difference.

 

Therefore, I got the thumbs up on taking her heart out as well. I loved that part. Making a mechanical heart, which can respond just as a natural one was hard, but I got it done in record time. I might even have overdone it. Let's just say, that she won't be legally entering any endurance competitions.

 

But, that isn't even the craziest thing, I got the permissions to do. After some quick discussion, I was even allowed to cut out her-”

 

“And, we are stopping it there”, Dr Hale said, getting up from her chair. Troy looked down at her plate, which had been cleaned to the last bite. “The time has come to continue procedures, and I don't take this as a valid excuse to delay.”

 

Taking a glance down at his own plate, Troy saw it nearly untouched.

 

Again, he had forgotten all about it. He needed to just start automatically wolfing down his food, or he was gonna be losing weight again.

 

“A shame”, Charlie simply said, still sitting down. “I'll tell you another time when I get the opportunity.”

 

He nodded in affirmation, as he got up to follow Dr Hale, who had wasted no time in waiting for their conversation to finish. Troy knew that shouting for her to wait would be a fruitless endeavour.

 

“Hey, wait up.”

 

However, this didn't stop him from trying.