“Everybody! On the ground! Drop what you’re doing!” The sergeant’s voice range through the facility as he stepped through the smoke, entering the main production area. The City Watch forces had moved quickly to surround the building, noting all entrances and exits before setting their charges. They decided to enter through two places - the loading docks and the back doors - figuring they would meet the least resistance. They blew the doors open for surprise factor before pouring into the facility, weapons and cards raised.
They weren’t prepared for what was inside.
Thousands upon thousands of Wonder Corp. boxes were stacked on every wall. The production lines had all been shut down; the massive conveyor belts still running with long rows of benches and chairs set up beside them. At them sat almost every employee of the facility: engineers, laborers, security guards, and supervisors all parked next to the conveyor belt mindlessly opening Wonder Corp. packs.Each person had a case of cards next to them, with 3-4 employees constantly providing new ones when someone ran out. Several supervisors walked through the production lines, overseeing the workers as they opened their cardss. Each supervisor carried a large rifle, an ominous sign of what would happen to anyone that stopped unpacking. Jacob noticed the majority of the workers had at least 6 focus cards strapped into their equippers. Quite a few more had piles of them littering the floor where they had been dropped. The facility employees moved like zombies, not stopping or even noticing as the law enforcement officers moved in. There was an explosion at the other side of the facility, and Jacob saw a group of City Watch officers pour in from the back entrance.
“Just what do you think you’re doing?!” The angry voice of a woman range out through the factory, and Jacob saw the workers cringe back a little before continuing. Jacob glanced up to see a young blond woman on a balcony staring down at them, rage in her eyes. She wore a fine dress and expensive fur coat, and was gripping the railing of the walkway like she intended to strangle it.
“Agent Ryan Wazowski of the Card Enforcement Agency.” Wazowski called up to the angry woman, not breaking a beat. “Here to place you under arrest for multiple violations of Corporate Law.”
The City Watch moved to begin arresting the nearest employees, who barely noticed as they were shoved to the ground by officers. The supervisors raised their hands weakly away from their weapons; they looked just as exhausted as the workers on the production line. Neither group of employees objected when officers pulled them aside, slapping them with arrest equips.
“Secure those boxes.” Jacob called over to the officers behind him, pointing at the unopened boxes of Wonder Corp. cards “And check their serials.”
The officers nodded, and rushed over to grab them.
“KEEP WORKING! GUARDS, STOP THEM!” The woman began rushing down the walkway towards a curved staircase. Wazowski pointed and a couple officers moved to intercept her. Her guards didn’t move to stop the Officers, instead raising their hands away from their firearms to show their compliance as they were approached.
There was a thudding sound, and Jacob shook his head as he saw some of the City Watch officers fumbling with the boxes of cards. One of the officers lost his grip, and a large stack of the boxes began to tip over. Officers scrambled aside in either direction as a large column fell to the floor. The cheap cardboard easily gave way, and tens of thousands of Wonder Corp. Packs spilled out of them. The City Watch quickly moved to bag up the packs, labeling them as evidence.
“YOU CAN’T TAKE THOSE, THOSE ARE MINE!” The woman reached the bottom of the stairs just as the first officer did. The officer reached out to grab the woman, who gave him a switch kick in the crotch. She rushed forward, yelling as she evaded the other officers. “I NEED THEM AND THEY’RE RIGHTFULLY MINE!”
“SHE’S GOT IT!” The voice of one of the last remaining guards yet to be arrested rang out at the other side of the facility. “SHE’S FOUND THE INVITE!”
The woman’s head snapped to look towards the guard, who was gripping an exhausted woman by the wrist. The guard dragged the worker towards the angry woman, the worker holding a Wonder Corp. pack in her hand.
“FINALLY!” The woman rushed towards the worker and guard. Jacob glanced over at Wazowski, and the two jogged to catch up with her. As they did they saw the City Watch Officers begin pulling more workers off the production line, lining them up on the ground as they cuffed them. No one put up a fight.
The woman reached the worker shortly before Wazowski and Jacob could catch up. As they approached they saw the woman slap the worker and shove the guard, grabbing the pack out of the poor girl’s hands. Two more officers appeared behind them, and Wazowski indicated to the worker and guard. Both were swiftly arrested without a fight, while the angry woman savagely ripped apart the Wonder Corp. pack. She flung various cards aside until she reached what she wanted: a golden holographic card that had YOU’RE INVITED! written on the front in massive glittery letters. The woman jumped up and down with glee, and both Jacob and Wazowski froze momentarily at the sight of a woman so caught up in herself that she hadn’t noticed the silence of the factory around her.
“I’ve got the third invite!” She thrust the card at Jacob and Wazowski, gloating at them. There was an unmitigated greed in her eyes, a greed that made Jacob flash back to the Shadow Demon one of the RevGang enforcers had played two days ago. That seemed almost like a millennia ago with all the excitement that had happened since. “I’ve found the third invite card!”
“I think technically she found the third invite card.” Jacob quipped, nodding at the worker on the ground “And that you are arrest.”
The woman stopped jumping, and took in her surroundings. The factory had fallen mostly silent, with the only sound being officers securing cards and moving arrested employees out of the building. Outside, City Watch vans were beginning to pull in to take the various prisoners and evidence in for processing. The look of excitement and greed slowly melted from her face, being replaced with anger.
This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.
“For what?!” The woman turned towards Jacob and Wazowski “I’ve done nothing wrong. Those are my cards, and this is my factory, and those are my workers.”
“Assault for one thing.” Wazowski replied evenly “Of both civilians and an officer, threatening employees with a deadly weapon, multiple labor violations, misuse of production facilities, Corporate sabotage, and given the current supply and how many Wonder Corp boxes I see, probably illegal card smuggling as well; we won’t know about that though until we run those cases through the system. And we will be running them. Every single pack.”
“You can’t prove anything.” The woman replied smugly “And I’m not saying anything without my lawyers.”
“You’ll have plenty of time to talk to them where you’re going.” Jacob replied as Wazowski slid an arrest card into his equipper. A pair of cuffs materialized around the woman’s wrists, locking her hands in front of her. Jacob took a hand off his weapon and took the invite card from her. He looked down at the card with interest; despite all the newscasts this was his first time seeing one of the invites everyone had been losing their minds over. The card was the usual thickness and weight of a Corporate card, but was colored in bright foiled gold The words on the card face - You’re Invited! - were in a special raised pattern, while a smaller line of shining metallic text below contained the details of when and where the tour would happen. The tour was scheduled to occur in less than 2 weeks, with the winners of each invite card expected to meet at a small dock in the northeast. The card was otherwise blank; a golden card with no purpose other than telling it’s holder where to go.
And everyone in the world wanted one.
“Give that back, it’s mine!” The woman lunged forward at Jacob, but was grabbed by two City Watch officers.
“Add attempted assault on a federal officer to the list of charges.” Jacob said “You’re going to be going away for a long time.”
*****
The woman did not go away for a long time. She was released that afternoon, immediately posting bail once it was offered. The Agency fought to hold her longer, but the prosecutors office could only do so much. The woman had connections; her adopted family had multiple high powered lawyers, and her factory produced several types of vehicle for the government. She was given a hearing date a 6 months later to issue her plea, and escorted out of the station. Plenty of time for her to tour the Wonder Corp. factory.
More frustratingly to the agency, they were required to return all possessions she had on her at the time of arrest - including the invite card. The battle over that went on for hours, but in the end they had little choice. The agency was able to get a full scan before releasing it, but it wasn’t the same as the card itself. The woman was smug as she recovered it from the evidence lock up, and as she left the station there were already newscasters from a dozen channels waiting.
Jacob wasn’t present for any of this. He was reviewing the accounts in the facility’s head office when the file on the woman was delivered to him. A thin manilla envelope with basic details of the arrested party, delivered by an overworked Cadet from the station to each of the Agency officers involved. The woman - a wealthy businesswoman named Veronica Worth - was a well connected, and had spent most of her professional life in government manufacturing. She was orphaned as a baby and adopted by lawyers, who sent her to prestigious boarding schools. She received an Ivy League education in business at a University that had a science wing named after her. She had never wanted for anything, and despite submitting poor work throughout her education seemed to constantly receive high marks. She was far from the top of her class, but was well above the lowest. Once she graduated she immediately landed the contract for constructing government vehicles without a facility, and opened the production line only 3 months later. It wasn’t a mystery to Jacob where she had gotten the capital to build all this.
Officially, once she started her company, she focused solely on standard specification vehicles. Unofficially, her books noted a variety of activities that added up to a long time in a minimum security prison - with the right prosecutor. Like most companies, the facility had two sets of records; those she showed the federal agencies once a year, and those she kept for herself. Veronica was entitled, but also meticulous; her arrogance kept her from seeing the inevitable result of her crimes, while her business acumen kept detailed records of them. Espionage, theft of corporate and government secrets, selling of the aforementioned secrets to outside parties - including a few foreign nations - alongside blatant disregard for employment law were all carefully denoted in her secret ledgers. A secret ledger she had left wide open on her desk, the raid having caught her mid-update on the latest delivery of card packs. Packs which - to no one’s surprise - were black market in origin.
Jacob added the folder to a stack of evidence, then leaned back in his chair. He sighed, and placed a hand on his face in exhaustion. Across from him, Wazowski was buried in files of his own, digging through purchase orders and setting aside the ones that had the most promise. Both of them were doing work that could be done later in evidence, but they knew the sooner it was sorted the better a case the prosecution would have. Wazowski exhaled heavily and put down the paper he was looking at, rubbing his eyes.
“I read any more of this and the letters are going to start swimming.” Wazowski’s voice dripped with exhaustion. Jacob nodded weakly in response.
“I suppose in a way we should be thankful Wonder Corp. has driven everyone nuts.” Jacob sighed “Otherwise we wouldn’t have a gluttony of evidence, we’d have next to nothing.”
Wazowski grunted, then started boxing up papers. The ones he had set aside went into special red folders before they went in the evidence boxes, making them easy to pull aside.
“It’s like nothing was ever enough.” Jacob looked back down at the ledger “Bribery, deals with foreign governments, a literal secret ledger.”
Jacob shut the book and huffed “It’s like I’m reading the accounting of a cartoon villain.”
“These companies are so used to getting their way that they’ve gotten cocky.” Wazowski paused and grabbed the ledger, considering it before adding it to a box “This is probably the first time in decades we’ve caught any with their pants down.”
“I just hope it’s enough.” Jacob said “All this evidence here is one thing. In court? A whole different beast.”
“Luckily, that isn’t our problem.” Wazowski shut the evidence box he had just finished filling and handed it off to an officer that entered the room, “The sooner we get it all packed away, the sooner we get sucked back into the Wonder Corp. madness.”
"Mhm.” Jacob began packing away the various paraphernalia on the table into his own box. When they said they were taking everything, they meant it. Old office supplies, pens, paperpads, name plates, clocks, paintings and photos off the wall, everything was going into evidence. “Only two more invites, and things return to normal.”
“I doubt anything will every truly be normal again.” Wazowski handed off his second box to another Officer, opening a third to load up more of the never ended supply of evidence. “The world is losing its mind over those cards. Once that factory opens, the genie aint going back into the bottle.”
Jacob nodded, looking around the mess of an office. It was completely covered in paperwork, card packs and luxury goods, coating every surface. Wazowski had a point. This facility was a symbol of it. The world was already nuts. It had been nuts, well before the cards had appeared. The recent events, the cards themselves, they only made that madness more apparent.
Regardless, the third Invite had been found.
Which meant there were two left.
more. More money, more cards, more resources, more. It is the circumstances behind that need for more I like exploring; the world has fallen apart, what drove our characters to this place? What are their desires and dreams? I hope you have been interested by it as I have: hating the arrogance on the page, wondering what made the world as it was.
trust in the cards…
What kind of characters do you like reading in your stories?
