The inside of the elevator was just as sleek at the rest of the building with tastefully recessed lighting and a glowing touch pad with the floor numbers showing beneath a pers-com reader. Alex swiped his wrist over the reader which caused almost all of the floor numbers but the highest three to instantly brighten and allowing him to select what floor he wished to go to. With authorization handled, Alex selected the twentieth floor and the elevator doors slid smoothly closed before the car started rising through the shaft.

“The paperwork should only take about a half hour and I know President Willcot wants to meet you himself before we see you settled into the apartment building. As far as I know, you will be the first person to be moving into there so you will have the pick of the place.” Alex smiled at me as the elevator continued on its way up, the indicator above the doors flashing as each floor was passed by.

“You mean I am going to be meeting the president of the company today? Shit… I should have worn a suit if I knew all of this was going on today. Thanks for springing this all on me when I am in casual clothes you prick.” I laughed softly, not really putting any venom into the words which Alex would pick up on that I was joking with him.

“Please… I am just glad you managed to get a shave and haircut before this all happened or I would have to call you a hobo for the entire day and never let you live it down. Carl might not have let you into the building the way you looked this morning!” He laughed at me and I joined him easily as the car finally dinged that we arrived on the designated floor.

The silver metal slid aside to reveal an open area with a receptionist sitting behind a desk. The woman sitting there rose to her feet as Alex stepped onto the floor and she smiled warmly at him. She was a bit older, maybe forty-five or so and had a motherly look about her. “Mr. Chapman, hello. What can we do for you today?”

“Good afternoon Dorris. I need an empty conference room please and send word up to President Willcot that I have brought Dale Sullivan in and we are going through the paperwork in whatever room you have ready for me.”

The matronly woman smiled again and nodded before motioning down one of the side halls. “Sounds good sir. We were informed this morning that this might happen, so we had conference room four readied for your use. All the papers were sent up in advance and are stacked neatly in triplicate for you to go over. Go ahead and head over whenever you wish and I will get the word on its way to Mr. Willcot that you are ready for him at his convenience.”

“Perfect, thank you Dorris. As efficient as always!” He grinned and winked at the woman before clapping me on the shoulder. “Shall we Dale? Sooner we get this done, the sooner I can get back to the mountain of work I have left to do for the day.” Alex started walking down the hall with me following behind him. Several doors lined each side of the hallway, each numbered and titled with a little plaque to the side of the door for easy and quick reference. As I looked around I noticed even here cameras were spread about to capture all angles of travel with what looked like zero blind spots.

“Damn, are there cameras in the bathrooms too?” I spoke quietly, more to myself than to actually bring the topic up, but Alex heard me anyway and laughed as he opened the door marked conference room four and lead me in.

“Just ignore them Dale. DT is a bit on the paranoid side and likes to keep track of any and all people wandering the halls. So long as you aren’t doing anything wrong the cameras are just a decoration.” The inside of the room was spacious and dominated by a large oval table surrounded by chairs. From the ceiling hung a small AR projector that looked to be able to display multiple screens before each seat for a presentation.

The soft color of the walls went well with the muted sunlight streaming in from the wall of windows on the far side of the room bright enough to almost not even need the continuation of the recessed lighting in the ceiling.

“Yeah, you say ignore them, but are these things going to be all over the apartment complex too? I can understand security and paranoia… But damn Alex, there has to be a limit somewhere!” I walked around to the seat with three neat stacks of paper set before it and pulled the chair back to sit down.

Alex settled into the chair next to mine and shook his head softly. “No, there are a few cameras in the common areas, stairwells, elevators, entrances and the roof. Not that many, but enough to make sure the company feels that they have a good eye on their employees without invading the privacy of individual residences.” He shrugged softly and laughed. “Besides, if you think that is bad, you should see the spyware they have on my pers-com to make sure I am not divulging anything confidential to the wrong people. Once again it comes down to they pay damn good and if I don’t do anything wrong the security is redundant.”

I shook my head again in wonder at how he can be so matter of fact about all of it. He had a point though, the money made the invasion of privacy well worth it and so long as I obeyed their terms nothing bad would come out of it. “I will have to live with it I guess… Doesn’t mean I won’t bitch and moan about it all though. Now what all do I have to sign to get this rodeo going?”

There actually turned out to be quite a lot of paperwork, and all of it in triplicate! Talk about paranoid, but at least I was able to keep a copy of my own to go over as often as I needed or give to my lawyer for that fact. After he too signed a NDA of course… Yes it was a stipulation on page one of the contract that any outside attorney also had to sign a basic NDA for the information. As I mentioned a few times now, paranoid.

After twenty minutes of reading, re-reading, and talking over the various bits and pieces of the contract, I finally got down to the longer process of signing every individual clause by hand. I never had to sign something by hand since I was in grade school! All in all, there were thirty-two places on each copy to sign and the process was making my wrist hurt when you figured in that each signature had to be done three times.

A little over halfway through the signing we were stopped as the door opened to allow in a tall thin man of older years with salt and pepper hair and thing wire framed glasses. He was dressed impeccably in an expensive suit and shiny black shoes that screamed money as well with their obvious name brand design. Outside of the door I saw a pair of huge men in black suits with conspicuous bulges under their left arms who had to be private bodyguards for the man who was obviously President Willcot.

Alex stood up and extended a hand to the older man and started speaking quickly, but not making that big of a deal about such an important man in his presence. “Ah, Mr. Willcot, good afternoon! Please have a seat if you have time and meet Dale Sullivan.”

Willcot shook Alex’s hand with a chuckle and indeed took a seat across from us before holding his hand out to myself next. “Yes, the infamous Dale Sullivan. Welcome to Dumadine Technology! We are glad that you came aboard for this venture, as Alex here never stopped talking up your skills as a gamer from back in the day. I swear, how he goes on you were a god in the games.”

I laughed as I shook the company president’s hand and shot a look over at Alex before replying. “Well, not to be a braggart or anything, but I was pretty high up on the global rankings for several years when I was invested in playing those games. It actually paid my way through college with all the add sponsors and tournament prizes.”

“By all means, with a history like that, brag away!” Willcot laughed heartily and I found myself almost instantly liking this man. He didn’t hold back on his thoughts and his tone of voice was so upbeat and energetic despite his old age that I wanted to make sure he kept that happiness. It probably worked on more than just a simple employee like myself though, so I shouldn’t read too much into that kind of act.

Alex spoke up again before I could say anymore and maybe make a fool of myself. “Yes, Dale here is a bit on the shy side when it came to his fame six years ago when he stepped down from the gaming world. We will crack him out of that when he gets situated here I hope, or at least set it up so that his gaming skills can do all the bragging for him!”

“Eh, what can I say…” I broke in, “I was only concerned about making sure my bills were paid back then and not about finding a fortune in the industry. E-sports were getting huge back then and the area was still fairly new and not well established so I didn’t want to toss all of my cookies in that pot at the time. Now though, it is a rife field of treasure and cash galore!” I grinned at the president and motioned to all of the paperwork before me. “So now that I am signing my soul away here, what more can you tell me while I have you here? I figure you are the man at the top so you can answer my questions without going through hoops.”

I heard a coughing sputter and looked over to see Alex’s eyes nearly bulging out of his head at my disrespectful address of the president of the company. Willcot on the other hand let out another burst of laughter and spoke up before Alex got anything intelligible out. “Dale, I like you. Not afraid to cut to the heart of the matter where it concerns you! Don’t do anything to get rid of that son, it is actually impressive to be that way to most men in my position.” He turned to Alex and shook a finger at him. “Not you mind you! No getting a cheating shortcut by taking Dale’s lead here.”

Willcot grinned as he looked back at me and leaned back in his chair with his hands folded neatly on the table top. “Now, as for your questions… Well I can tell you easily that the technology we are going to be having you use is quite expensive and sensitive and will require you to have a full body scan to input all of your data into your own machine. Once synched up to your body nobody else will be able to use the machine unless it is reset and reconfigured again. While I can see this being a problem in the future, it isn’t as important of one as you might think as we are working on a few different ways to get around that.

“Another thing you need to know is that we are expecting a healthy competition inside of the game between yourself and the none other endorsed players that will be living in the same building as you, but if we hear of any incidents between players in the real world we will be cracking down hard on that.” His face took on the stern look of a father looking at a misbehaving child as his eyes seemed to shoot daggers at me. “I know that some of the people who will be involved here are old acquaintances of yours, so just make sure to keep the disagreements to in game please.”

I shrugged and nodded my head, knowing that Willcot had a point on the arguments that were bound to happen with active players going at each other’s throat living next to each other in real life. “Honestly, knowing who is going to be here involved with that, you shouldn’t have much of a problem. I can’t speak for all of the players, but Kayla and Archie will have zero trouble keeping things in and out of the game separate. We have butted heads countless times in the past within a game and usually met up for dinner afterwards in the real world when we could.” I laughed softly and poked Alex in the side. “He was part of that too mind you, but at the professional level in gaming there is a bit of comradery involved since the circle is so small.”

Alex gave a nod to Willcot at that and added in his own thoughts on the matter. “I have mentioned that before, sir. It is why I thought we should bring in groups of known pro level players to do this project. There will be little spats here and there in real life, but the bulk of it will be dust under the rug once the players have been logged out and work their frustrations out in the gym.”

My head nodded vigorously at that and I chimed in again. “Oh yes, the gym was a good call actually. Especially if it has a few rows of heavy bags and a sparring ring with full padding available. Nothing like hitting something for twenty minutes to vent your anger and then a hot shower to wash it all away. After that I can look even my worst in game enemy in the eye and smile with a ‘good game’ attitude.” I looked at Willcot and smirked. “So long as you got all adult players that is. I have seen a ton of teenagers go on a butt-hurt rampage when they lost to the point of even smashing their VR rig against a wall. Not a pretty sight, let me tell you.

The president nodded his head at my words and smiled at Alex. “Good call on bringing this one in.” He turned back to me and went on. “I am glad you are here Dale. If all of the rest of these gamers are as level headed as you seem to be I think this will all go wonderfully! Alex has vouched for you above all others, even if he is a bit biased, and I would like to receive reports from you every few days on the situation in the apartments if you don’t mind. We can work out the extra in your bonuses for these reports, so you don’t feel like I am taking advantage of you here.”

“Woah, wait… Does that mean more paperwork here? I swear my hand is going to fall off if you keep piling more of this stuff on me!” It came out without any thought, and I almost thought I may have blown Willcot’s opinion of me with that outburst. I let out a relieved breath when the old man began laughing heartily again.

“No, Dale. No more paperwork once you finish up everything here. Ha! Your younger generation have it easy with these pers-coms. When I was a young man your age, we didn’t have an option to just press our thumbs down and be done with it.” He tilted his head some and leaned in almost conspiratorially. “Not that I mind the easy way we have now mind you.” He straightened in his chair before pushing it back and standing. “But anyway, I will handle the bonuses you receive personally if it will make you feel better and if you have any complaints about anything feel free to get a hold of me directly or bring it up at one of our meetings. I have gone over a lot of your past record and I have to say I am quite impressed with all of your achievements to date.” He pulled a thick business card out of his front jacket pocket and set it on the table in front of me. “There is a direct line to my secretary on there, so if anything comes up please give me a call.”

I was actually kind of shocked that this man was giving me such a privilege as I picked up the card and looked it over quickly. Thick stock of a white color with etched in black letters consisting of the company name as well as a single number beneath the name ‘Henry Willcot’. I stood up and tucked the card into my pocket so I didn’t lose it and extended my hand out to Willcot again. “Thank you, sir. I will keep that in mind and don’t see any problems with keeping you up to date whenever I am free of the game. I imagine it will be taking up a lot of my time though, and until I am in game and have things running I am not sure what kind of schedule I will have to be keeping at the moment.” I frowned slightly, not wanting to put this important man out. “I don’t mean to be rude or anything, but if I am going to be playing this at full time pro level I can’t just randomly log out to make it to a meeting without it having a negative impact on my game play.”

Willcot actually seemed pleased at this statement, despite my apprehensions and grinned at me to show perfect white teeth as he shook my hand. “Never be sorry for putting in dedication to your job Dale. That kind of attitude is well worth small inconveniences on my part, and any boss who says otherwise will never make it in the big leagues. We will work it out though, fear not.” He flicked his wrist up and looked at an AR screen above his pers-com with a sigh. “As it stands though, I need to head out and get to another meeting. Pleasure to meet you Dale, and Alex, we if you can make it to a dinner meeting at six-thirty I would appreciate it.”

“Not a problem, sir. I will be there, just have Trish send me the details please and I will clear my schedule.” Alex also shook Willcot’s hand and the older gentleman swept out of the conference room with a wave, the body guards taking up positions around him as he walked away. Once he had left, Alex turned back to me and we both sat down once again. “Now then, let’s get this finished so we can set you up in one of the apartments. My day just got busier so no more breaks!”

“Hmmm… Maybe the first note of business with Mr. Willcot will be to bring up the slave driving tendencies of a certain individual?” I grinned at Alex as I picked up my pen once again and got back to the business of signing forms for the next fifteen minutes.

Finally done with the mess of paperwork, I put the cap back on the pen and slipped it into my pocket with a devilish smile. Alex raised a brow at me and chuckled. “Wait, are you seriously stealing a pen? There is a camera over in the corner you know…”

“Oh, they can take it out of my first paycheck if they are that uptight about it… Besides, this pen and I have some unfinished business when I get the time to deal with it. I can’t destroy the contract itself, that would be dumb, so the pen will feel the brunt of my displeasure. Damn thing will rue the day it was manufactured!”

Alex sighed and got up from the table, gathering two of the copies of the contract and shuffling them into a neat stack. “You know, you were just saying that we didn’t want juvenile people in on this testing, and here you go acting like a damn kid.”

“Hey! Let me have my little victories where I can with this bull shit.” I stood up as well and collected my copy before pushing the chair back in and looking around once more. “Right then, so how about we work on getting me to my new pad? I kinda want to relax for a bit after running around all morning, and not having to work the rest of today sounds divine right now!” I paused and frowned. “Wait, I still need to get all my shit from Janet’s place… My VR rig is there as well as a bunch more of my stuff.” I got an evil smile on my face as an idea came to me. “Any way I can borrow a couple guys from security to escort me? Would love to see the look on that bitch’s face when I bring goons to use as intimidation against whatever douche bag she is shacking up with now.”

“Eh, that seems kind of petty, Dale. I mean now that you are an employee I can have Carl get two guys to go with you, but to use them for that seems a little, I don’t know, childish?” Well, maybe Alex had a point there, but damned if I cared about that at the moment. In all reality, I really just wanted to use them to keep her cowed and away from me when I collected the rest of my things and left her in the dust.

“Maybe… Either way, I would still prefer to have them even if it is just to use as movers.” I chuckled as we made our way out of the room and back down the hall towards the reception desk and the elevator.

Alex called the car to our floor before stepping up to Dorris at her desk and setting the double stack of contracts down there. “Dorris, please make sure these get to legal before they close up for the day?”

“Not a problem Mr. Chapman. I will have one of the assistants run them over in a few minutes so it is done and out of the way. I take it room four is open again?” She pulled up her pers-com and flicked through a few AR screens to summon someone to run the errand quickly.

“Yeah, we are all done with it and it is still in good order, no need to send in a cleaning staff.” Dorris nodded at Alex’s words and waved to both of us as the elevator doors opened up with a chime for us to enter in.

The ride down to ground floor was a quick and quiet affair as I went over everything that had happened so far today. It was only a little before four in the afternoon and I was already set up with a new chapter of my life. Interesting how things can turn around so quickly without much effort put into it to make it all happen on my end.

As soon as we stepped out from the elevator, Carl and his buddies were standing at the security checkpoint chatting quietly before they noticed us walking towards them. Once they saw us, all of them stood up and nodded politely to us as Alex took the lead to speak with Carl.

“Before we leave here Carl, please update Dale’s pers-com with security clearance level three as well as sub set level D if you would. Everything is all set upstairs and he is now a permanent employee of Dumadine.”

“Sure thing Mr. Chapman, and welcome to DT Mr. Sullivan.” The burly man picked up the bin with my things in it and pulled my pers-com out to set on top of a plate connected to a computer behind their desk. A soft hum filled the room and several AR screens popped up over my device as it registered the new programs quickly. “Here you are Mr. Sullivan, you are all set to go.”

“Thanks Carl, I appreciate it.” I slipped my pers-com back onto my wrist and looked over to Alex again as I swiped my wrist over the quick pass podium to skip the checkpoint. Thankfully it seemed the programs took to the band easily as I didn’t set off any alarms on my way out the door.

The sun was starting to sink towards the western horizon when we stepped out into open air once again, and I took a deep breath of the clean air. Sounds of the city were a distant noise while standing here in the center of this closed off area, and it was a nice thought that I wouldn’t have to deal with those sounds anymore unless I wanted to.

Turning to Alex as he joined me outside, I smiled and started down the steps. “Now then, let’s head over to where I am going to be staying for the duration of my employment here! I want to get settled in for now!”