Unsurprisingly, it didn’t take much convincing for Bobby boy to agree. It wasn’t even a full five minutes after he received the scroll that I felt his Mind creating the thread that would become his very own ReLinkuish, and I was sweating in anticipation to see the results. Would it be as majestic as I hoped? Was ReLinkuish going to become an avenue for insane amounts of power? I sure hoped so!

The best part about ReLinkuish for cases like humans was that it didn’t have the same drawbacks as Linkers; I didn’t need to expend resources on new bees, it didn’t have the same distance limitations, and it didn’t need to be replaced like the Linkers at the end of their lifespan. Sure, it had its own caveats, like the fact that a desperate situation like this was probably the only one where a human would actually consider forming the Link. But if it could be made easier…

As soon as Bobby finished, marked by the bright white string snapping into place, my entire Mind shuddered. Then the shuddering grew into an intense rumbling. This was nothing like when my bees had done it.

I took a moment to compose myself. This was almost comparable to the sharp pain of Mind Collapse, but it was more like my brain was growing too large for my skull. Fuck, that hurt.

The feeling subsided eventually, and I was left reinvigorated, as if I had gotten a good night’s rest. Just to make sure everything was in order, I checked my Status, only to find it empty. Huh? Wasn’t I still under the effects of Mind Collapse, albeit at reduced intensity? What happened there?

“I think ReLinkuish served its original purpose better than expected. Thanks to a human, no less.”

No shit? Was it really that easy? The sheer influx of a human’s Mind was that much more effective than one of my bees? What the hell? I guess it did make sense; bees, except for the queens, don’t have significant Mind proficiency. And my bees are certainly different, but they’ve been alive and working at it for, what? A week? A bit more or less? I suppose an experienced human like Bobby might work better, but man, didn’t get those streaks of gray in his hair for nothing. Wasn’t this a bit too extreme? Maybe he just happened to have a very strong Mind or something.

I decided to go to the man himself for answers. “Alright, let’s see. Welcome to the hive, Bobby!”

“Bobby? Oh, you’re the mastermind. So, what now? If your little experiment has concluded, does that mean you’ll just kill me to eliminate witnesses?”

“Experiment? No no no, that’s totally not what I’m doing! Well, maybe a bit. But anyway, no, I won’t be killing you; I’m not that heartless. Some might disagree though, as I’m coming to learn. But yeah, you’ll just be working with me. If you don’t mind, I’ll be inspecting your thoughts now to get to know you a bit.”

Bob didn’t reply, and I realized a tiny detail had escaped my notice. Bobby was still on the verge of death. Oops! How embarrassing. Without hesitation, I activated my new Ability on another for the very first time.

“Mister, you heal up right now!”

Apparently that was command enough. My Mind flexed, though I wasn’t worried about it now that Mind Collapse wasn’t an issue, and a fascinating process took place. The power of my Mind instantly appeared where Bobby sat, and, as the mercs watched, a viscous shimmery liquid coalesced into thin air around his wounds. The Mind juice moved like molasses, stuck to his skin, and slowly absorbed into his body. Almost immediately, color returned to his cheeks and his breath eased, but his wounds continued to look bad. They wouldn’t fully heal for hours, if not days, and I was very unsure of the possibility of his leg growing back. But otherwise, he was looking just peachy! His life, in any case, was perfectly secure.

As Jill and her gang untied him and propped him up, I decided to leave things up to them. Beatrice and I needed to understand that man that was Bobby first.

….

Hm? Where’s the info? Uh, B-boxes? CBU? Helloooo! When I tried thinking of Bobby’s thoughts and memories, nothing appeared in my thoughts. It was as if he wasn’t Linked at all. But I knew he was! I could hear and speak to his thoughts. Suddenly, I saw flashes of memories. Finally! However… they didn’t seem right. They were vague. Formless. The memories I could observe were flawless depictions of information that entered people’s Minds, not whatever was going on in Bobby’s head. None of it was a lie, that much I could tell. Bobby had a friend, a desk job, a cushy position in the capital.

Oh shit. His memories are protected.

One look at the connection told me everything I needed to know. The B-boxes processing his thoughts were remarkably spare compared to others, almost as if he were withholding information. I followed the problem to its source, and that’s where I found something truly bizarre.

A filing cabinet.

Minds, I’ve found, are unique to the individual. If you’re able to look inside them, like I am thanks to the Link, you’ll find something different in each Mind. They all have the same elements: memories, emotions, thoughts. But they look and feel different. Beatrice’s Mind was orderly, like a neat office space where everything had a system. It felt musty and dry, in a way. Bedivere’s Mind was dark and uncomfortable, as well as heavy. Something about it reminded me of an old withered fortress I had visited, with its old walls of stone and atmosphere of authority. Now, none of the Minds actually looked like these places or anything; they didn’t have a physical presence, per se. They simply evoked those feelings and memories of mine.

Bobby’s Mind felt similar to Beatrice’s but less straight-laced. More like a neat cubicle contained in a dark room full of conspiracy corkboards. But one thing was way out of place. Remember when I said Mind’s don’t actually look like those feelings I described? That extends to everything inside. There are no physical presences inside of Minds. The sturdy desk I could envision in Beatrice’s Mind wasn’t actually there.

There was an honest-to-god filing cabinet in the middle of Bobby’s otherwise normal Mind.

 Curious, I inspected it. Then I touched it. It shuddered. What the fuck? Looking around, I could feel specks of information be carried away from the confines of Bobby’s Mind into the Link, ready for processing. Everything he was seeing, hearing, smelling, touching. Every thought that passed through his head. Except that wasn’t the whole story. I watched as a spark suddenly shattered, and a portion zipped into the filing cabinet faster than I could perceive. This fucking guy. He has a Mind safeguard!

“Bobby.”

“Urgh…. Ahem. Yes, my new overlord?”

“Open this cabinet.”

He coughed. A smile played at his lips, though his eyes didn’t share his mouth’s mirth.

“Sorry, bud. No can do. That’s classified information.”

Oh, we’re playing that game now, Bobby? IF that is even your real name. This guy was becoming more suspicious by the second. He was definitely no ordinary man. More than likely, he was a member of some shady organization or other. Based on knowledge of other humans like Jill, only a few came to mind. Other mercenary companies. A certain weapons manufacturing company from Rikitan. The Drevan Ministry. Technically, anything was possible. Bobby didn’t look Drevan, but who said he couldn’t be hired by them or something?

But among all the possible options, one stood out. An organization so mysterious, so large, and so feared that even the largest mercenary companies in the world bowed to its authority. The MIS. The Mind Inquiry Service. At least, that was my best guess based on what I could see. Bobby here was an analytical sort, and a desk jockey. And yet, he had a powerful Ability that would have allowed him to incapacitate Toh and the rest of the mercenaries with ease. Also, he knew information he considered being ‘classified’, and it was stored in a filing cabinet, of all things. That just screamed ‘government intelligence agent,’ right?

“You know, I think I may actually agree with you. Which concerns me. In fact, could you inspect the secure storage of his some more? Something about it makes me feel a sense of dread.”

I wasn’t one to ignore Queen’s gut instinct. And upon closer inspection, I discovered a disturbing fact. The filing cabinet didn’t shudder or shake unless I touched it, but it was constantly pulsing with a dim light and humming in a peculiar rhythm. It was eerie, deep and rumbly, close to Bob’s voice, actually. Almost like it was…

Almost like it was talking. Ah, shit.

“Bobby. I need you to tell me honestly. I command it, in fact. Are your superiors being informed about my existence?”

“…No.”

“Have they been informed about the fact that your Mind has been compromised?”

“…Ye-. Ye-. Damn it all, yes.”

Motherfucker. I had to remove the Link as soon as possible. Shit, maybe we should kill Bobby? Is there any other way to stop this? After a bit of thinking, I realized we were screwed already. The MIS or whoever were the bosses of mister Bobby here had already been informed about his Mind being compromised, so unless he was a sleeper agent or something, it might be fine to leave him as-is. At the very least, they weren’t getting specific information based on the answer to my first question.

“Okay Bobby, I’ll leave you in the care of Jill and the gang for now. When you’ve fully recovered, I want to meet with you along with my aide, Beatrice, to make some decisions about what to do with you and your company,” I said. Bobby didn’t respond with words, but he did grunt. The sense of resigned acceptance was more telling for me, though.

“Oh, and I’ve gotta know. Are you an MIS agent? I demand an answer.”

“Um. No.”

“Haha. I get it. I asked for an answer and you gave me one. How about this: give me an honest answer to that question.”

“Maybe.”

“Yes or no.”

“Ye- FUCK. Ye- I don’t want to answer this question. How exactly are you forcing me to do this? Full control over one’s will shouldn’t be this irresistible. Yes, I am an MIS agent.”

Finally. Although, Bobby’s capability to resist the commands through the Link was the concerning part. Was it because he was an MIS agent or something? Like, did he have special training to resist this sort of thing? I wasn’t completely sure. Him being able to resist my commands like that meant I needed other humans in Yiwi to keep him under constant watch to ensure he didn’t do anything crazy. His Link was just too unreliable. Time would tell on how best to deal with this guy. He did eventually yield to my commands, and never actually disobeyed me, but he was a tricky guy. The others instantly reacted to my intention, so it was a bit disconcerting.

“Is it perhaps a result of ReLinkuish itself? It’s a virtually untested fix we developed for our bees, who are our loyal family. I can think about it some more, since I’m not doing much else. Apart from that, I do have some ideas for his surveillance. My proposal is that Rette, Yoho, and Toh formally join Bob’s company in order to properly surveil him.”

Hm. I’m not gonna lie, Queen. I think you may be overplaying your hand. You think I haven’t noticed all the extra sympathy you’ve cast towards the humans and stuff? I don’t know exactly what’s gotten into you, but it makes me really uncomfortable. Especially since it makes me consciously think about myself. Anyway! It’s a good thing I know for a fact that you have the hive’s best interests in mind, because otherwise I’d start getting really pissed. Just kidding! Probably.

I’m fine with selecting those people to watch over Bobby, but only because I’m confident in the Link, Bella, and Beckham. It’s no surprise that you chose some of the most unstable and personally involved mercenaries we know. Two people deeply connected to Yelah and one of our most active operatives. I’ll humor you.

“Thank you. There may be hope for us yet.”

I’m not entirely sure what that’s supposed to mean, but sure. For now, we need to make plans for the possibility that the MIS acts on Bob’s alert. Compile all the information we have about them, get our best minds on the case. I needed strategies to use against covert government agents. If they were as threatening as the people I’ve Linked perceive them to be, then we had to be prepared.

As for myself, there was still a mountain of paperwork to do, so to speak. However, one task was at the forefront of my mind: making eggs. Mind Collapse delayed my most crucial task, interrupting me right as I was trying to level up that Egg-Laying Ability of mine, so I had some catching up to do. Now…

“Uh, Enno? You might want to pay attention to Feltan.”

Hm? Why? I knew he was yelling into Yelah’s ear to try and communicate with me, but I was sort of just ignoring him. And he wasn’t making a specific request or anything, so why’re you mentioning this?

“I think I can only chalk this up to instinct again.”