Chapter 61

Death, Taxes, and Bureaucracy (II)

Shutting the laptop down, Rick stared emptily at it for a good moment or two before sighing and lowering his head, cradling his face with his hands. It was exhausting and frustrating, he realized, yet he couldn’t step back. This was his life now, and it was a conscious choice he made.

Grumbling, he stood up and walked over to the cupboard where he kept his prized drinks, pouring a glass of scotch and downing the whole thing in one go, letting the fire burn away at the breath stuck in his throat.

Right around then, the doors to his office opened as Sarah walked in, carrying a tray of food and putting it on a table at the center, with a sofa nearby facing the window with the broad view of L.A. As always, she wore a casual dress, her hair tied up in a bun, minimal makeup present on her aging face.

“You look ready to kill someone.” she commented with a chuckle as Rick walked over and joined her. “That bad?”

“Awful,” Rick sighed. “I thought the whales would be difficult to deal with, but boy, the goddamn government isn’t making it easy to like ‘em either.”

“What do they want?” Sarah asked, pouring him a bowl of still-steaming soup.

"Half of the items I get as taxes," Rick replied. "Plus, any and all information on both the Towers and the Conquerors working under me."

“Will you do it?” she asked.

“... I don’t know,” Rick sighed, pausing and rubbing the bridge of his nose in frustration. “I don’t care much for the items, but sharing info... I’m definitely not doing that.”

“Can they even do anything to you?” she asked. “You’re like a one-man-army right now.”

“Yeah, but they have like fifty thousand of ‘one-man-army men’,” Rick shrugged. “This isn’t something I can deal with by just throwing money or influence at them. The world’s too shaken up for it...”

"... whatever you choose," Sarah said after a brief silence, caressing his hair gently, smiling. "I'm sure nobody else in the world could choose better."

“Ah, yes, the unwavering faith in me.” Rick chuckled, shaking his head.

“Why do you say it like that? It paid off, didn’t it?” Sarah said. “When I first met you, you were a bumbling, awkward idiot who thought that the best way to ‘pick up girls’ was to tell them he had millions in the bank account. Yet, look at you now.”

“Oh boy, I can still feel that slap of yours on my cheek,” Rick said, glancing at her. “You did not like me very much back then.”

“Very much? Try ‘at all’,” she grinned. “But... I trust you. Again, whatever you choose, I’m sure nobody else in the world could choose better.”

“I think I’ll just stall for now,” Rick said. “Wait until Cain and others return and see what they wanna do.”

“How the hell did you even find that guy, anyway?” Sarah asked.

“Eh... ‘find him’ is a bit too strong of a phrase,” Rick mulled, an odd expression surging on his face. “We just sort of... met. It’s one of those things that you just throw your arms up in the air for and go ‘welp, it happened, I guess’.”

“Though I don’t care much for him,” Sarah said. “Emma and Lana are sweethearts. Did you know that woman still loves him even after everything he put her through?”

“... I figured,” Rick sighed, finishing up the bowl of soup. “Can’t say why, though.”

“... I can,” she said, smiling gently. “I’m pretty sure I’d be just like her.”

“You would?” Rick glanced at her in surprise.

“Hm,” Sarah nodded. “While I can’t say you’re the only guy I’ve ever loved, I can say that you’re the only guy that ever made me believe in the old ‘till death do us part’. I think she’s the same, with the added benefit of him literally being the only guy she’s ever loved.”

“Damn... you’re out here dropping heart-stopping bombs even twenty years into it,” Rick chuckled. “Keep at it, and you might just give me a heart attack.”

“Don’t even joke!” she slapped him gently across the back of his head.

“Sorry, sorry,” he hid his lips that curled up into a self-satisfied grin. “But seriously, what do you think I should do?”

“I don’t know,” she replied without hesitation. “The same way every time you ask me ‘hey, honey, should I invest in this company?’ I tell you ‘I don’t know’. For all I care, you can hand everything over to someone else, and we can just continue living our lives normally.”

“...” Rick chuckled lightly, though made no commitments. It wasn’t a bad idea -- handing everything over -- but the fire was still in there, within him. If anything, it now burned hotter than it had before the Towers.

The world was changing, and he wanted to prove both to it and himself that he could be the central part of it heading into the future. However his meeting with Cain came about, he knew that it was an opportunity that he likely won’t ever get again. Cain was special, that much he knew. Not because he was immensely talented, or even any other parameter that made people uniquely qualified for something, but because, Rick suspected, he was one-of-a-kind.

Though he never took a step to confirm it, Rick was certain that Cain knew things that nobody should know. He didn't know precisely where that knowledge stemmed from, and the number of theories he developed was hair-raising, but, in the end, it didn't really matter. While everyone else was in dubious discussions over what the Towers were, what dangers they posed to Earth and mankind in general, and how best to deal with them, he sprinted in there without hesitation, already a plan in mind.

Even if he couldn’t literally stand by his side in the Tower, Rick did want to herald the journey with him -- give him the tools, the personnel, time, means, and space to do what he needed to do. His job, he knew, would be to hoard the spotlight, and to take the brunt of the suspicion. If he even cowed at the banal government request, then he would never be able to endure what was to come.

He scoffed at himself, realizing that he was dipping back into his old habits. That time he went inside with Cain awoke his youthful self, and he was, once again, trying to kill it in search of comfort. That’s what separated the two, perhaps the most, Rick realized -- while he paid attention to the bigger picture, to keeping up with every major news in the entire world... Cain didn’t seem to care at all, as though it had nothing to do with him. I can’t be the same, Rick realized.

Finishing up the meal, Sarah picked up the tray and left his office, leaving him once again to drift into his thoughts, surrounded by silence. He walked up to the window and looked outside at the sprawling city that, somehow, became even more adrenaline-driven than before. The city of glamour, the prime destination for the rich and famous... grew even more tempting than before.

"I'll concede to the taxation," he mumbled out loud. "I'm pretty sure that's what they're after more so than the info itself and are just strong-arming me. Most of the items are fairly worthless compared to what they'll bring out anyway, so it's fine. Instead of bickering with them, I should have guys optimize the algorithm better when searching for prospects. Taking into account Cain's notes from the last batch... we should be able to unearth at least one or two potential ones."

He stroked his chin silently, his gaze dulling as his thoughts increased. There was something empowering about thinking of the future, he realized, and how best to play it. The government is fully paranoid now, he knew, which was why they were trying to tie him up with them. The Tower was almost like giving a number of people tanks and fighter jets, perhaps even worse than that, and right now their priority was preventing any form of an uprising and unrest.

Though, as far as Rick saw it, people were too busy with the Tower to even care much for what the government was doing. And those who didn’t care for the Tower merely continued living their lives as they always did, as though nothing has changed.

The scary part will be when the differences in levels become insane, Rick sighed. Especially because Cain was right... the Tower is the breeding ground, basically, for sociopaths... it will just create another worship culture in the end, and things will stabilize... hopefully...

The issue would become prominent when the 'one-man-army' notion truly came to be a reality -- when a single Conqueror could level the entire continent if they wished to do so. It would mean that not only the government but everyone weaker than them, would have to make constant concessions, creating a spiral with no bottom. Aah... we’ll cross that bridge once we get there, he thought, sighing. Until then... let’s just do what I can. Just what I can...