There was a surprising lack of consequences for the Hivemind in the following days. The massive murder spree was entirely shrouded in darkness, no law enforcement guessing at that being the reason for the extreme amount of disappearances in just a single day. With so many leaving at once, it had been thought that it was planned from the very start.

Of course, some of the people had left behind their phones and allowed the investigation to figure out the general area where they had supposedly headed. Sadly, the tracks left them on a wild chase to nowhere, the Parasite having worked hard to miss redirect any attempts to track the group. For all they knew, they had travelled several kilometres by foot before disappearing close to a road.

Since nearly all of the people that had gone missing were directly connected to illegal trade, it had been coughed up as a case of business gone wrong. It wasn’t often that an entire group was taken away but it happened every so often. At least, that was what Olivia told Arthur and Tom, the Hivemind listening in on the conversation.

“Forty-three people left in just a single hour, every single one of them walking out of the farm at the same time,” Olivia repeated. “If not for the fact that the security guard walked out with them as well, I don’t think anybody would have ever allowed it to happen.”

“It isn’t like a simple barrier is going to stop a group of that size, Olivia,” Tom commented as the tall man ate through his lunch. Another sugar-filled bread increases the daily expenses even more. It was a requirement to attain more energy after the recent rapid fire of eggs but it was more than worth it. “Honestly, just five of those brutes could leave without anybody doing anything to stop it. Those guards aren’t paid to do anything.”

“They very much are, Tom,” Olivia replied with a pointed gaze. “We have hired with the requirements of experience in the field, a willingness to use force if required, and the ability to reason with anybody who tries to break in. If they did nothing, we wouldn’t have hired them to begin with.”

The Hivemind had to agree with the woman. Past attempts during its first days alive had left it without the ability to do much else but the standard routine, being rejected at the barrier and told to return to regular duties. Contractual obligations held everybody to new heights.

“Then you might want to hire the new batch in the same way,” Tom said, matching the woman’s gaze without issue. “Maybe this time you should put in the requirement of them not having any ties to the local mafia.”

It was a gross exaggeration of the truth. Frank Evan’s trading had been extremely local without any ties to larger criminal organisations. The Hivemind was sure of that, having checked extensively before ridding the world of them.

“Don’t tell me that,” Olivia retorted, sounding like she did somewhat agree with the words. “I’m not the one hiring the new batch of people, even if I should be since my position was directly below Markus.”

“Who is in charge of hiring the new people?” Arthur said, finally breaking his silence as he stopped going through his lunch. The older man was having a mix of salad and chicken, the doctor having prescribed it at the last visit to make sure his cholesterol was in check. “I haven’t heard anything about it recently.”

“You shouldn’t have unless you had bugs in the manager’s room,” Olivia stated, giving the Hivemind a great idea for the future. “Kara is taking care of looking through all the new submissions and making the necessary calls to all hiring facilities in the entire Sector. She has been taking this new position very seriously lately. I’m not happy with being side-stepped for a promotion but I have to say that she does deserve it with that work ethic. I know for sure I wouldn’t stay past normal hours just to look through spreadsheets.”

Now that was something the Parasite was very happy to hear. Skipping forward through the day, one message finally met its sight. Even with waiting two entire weeks for the process to complete, having three more bodies to work with was perfect.

Stage 4 of Replication completed!

Vessel is ready for use

The moment that message came across, the Hivemind opened the eyes of Kara Walker, one of two new vessels that the Parasite had been able to acquire through recent events.

Basic Information

Name

Kara Walker

Species

Human

Age

34

Stats

Strength

8

Speed

10

Dexterity

10

It was a spot of luck that the Hivemind had been able to get that particular vessel, a touch of dosing food to make the woman unconscious being required before the Parasite could infect the woman securely. The initial attempt at getting her drunk as the Hivemind had done with Markus had failed, forcing new strategies.

And it was those new strategies that had allowed the Hivemind to infect the farm’s doctor as well. With all the recent attacks, the management had required a close inspection of every person on the farm, making sure they were all in good health. After the initial worries about the Hivemind being spotted in searches, all of which were found to be without basis in reality, the Parasite had been able to stage an accident that made the doctor unconscious and allowed the infection to transpire without issue, though it came at the expense at worsening the relationship between the Biomancer and the doctor.

Basic Information

Name

Steven Singh

Species

Human

Age

54

Stats

Strength

8

Speed

8

Dexterity

11

With those two vessels added, the Hivemind was able to boast an impressive count of seven vessels all being controlled simultaneously. It was still a distance from the maximum threshold, the Parasite being secure in adding another two before it needed to start worrying about possible errors and the danger of another berserk vessel. And on that note, it did have several that it wanted to attain control of.

The first was the watcher of the cameras, a guard by the name of Ted Lutz. Surprisingly enough, he was the only person to watch the recordings. The new leave from other guards had forced the management to put on more work for those left. And, surprisingly, the guard had nearly taken over that duty as a whole, working through it perfectly. The Hivemind has listened through several occasions where the man’s abilities had been complimented. From that alone, the Parasite had wanted to add him as a vessel, yet the potential of having control of the cameras was worth so much more.

“Here are the files you requested, Kara,” Olivia said to one of the Hivemind’s new vessels. “Might I ask why you wanted the data from last year’s sales?”

“I am just making sure that all the numbers seem right to me,” Kara answered with a bright smile. “With this whole debacle around us, we can’t be too sure they didn’t leave their footprints in the account. I think it is best to get these parts over with before I get the interviews going. Have the possible workers arrived yet?”

“They should be here within the hour,” Olivia answered with a look at her tables. “Is there anything else you need? Coffee?”

“No, I am doing fine, thanks,” Kara said, raising her warm cup for the other woman to see. “Again, thanks for the help. I’m not sure I could have made this work without you.”

“Knowing you, Kara, I am sure you would have done just fine,” Olivia said before leaving for her regular duties. The Hivemind had been able to be reassured about Olivia’s desire to rise in the ranks, including being friendly with any superior she knew. It worked well in the Parasite’s favour, too many of the files are currently restricted. Even while Kara had all the required keys, the vessel was very stubborn about writing them out for the Hivemind to see and memorise. It would need a way to note them down soon, lest the number of times it needed to get others to access files wouldn’t go unnoticed.

For now, it needed to look through the data surrounding the crops. As nobody was surprised by, there were major faults in many of the statistics. The farm itself produced quite the extreme amount of crops every year, enough to feed half of a medium-sized sector. However, only three-fourths of this was sold through the proper channels, the rest being labelled as faulty or without the quality to sell. That only made the Hivemind worry since it had already seen the high level of health that the entire farm had. By giving the crops an artificial environment, they were able to eradicate the plants from their usual drops of disease and animals that ate them. Yet so much was still being wasted.

Or, maybe that wasn’t the right word. Looking through the names of the handlers of shipments, it turned out that many of the ones in charge of exporting the crops had also been on the list of deaths. Frank Evans dealt in more than just drugs, having an entire section of workers sell food in underground networks. The Hivemind did put in a note about the possible ramifications of that supply stopping entirely. Somebody on the other side would likely ask questions about the dealer suddenly going missing.