“How can I say no to that?” Joel said with a smile on his lips. It didn’t reach his eyes yet, however, as the man still did not trust the woman enough. “I have to ask something first, though. Why would you choose me out of all the managers?”

“It was chosen by an algorithm with a fixed set of criteria,” Kara explained with a smile, already having the perfect excuse for picking managers in the various departments. The Hivemind did not go into battle without a strategy and it was certainly not unprepared with alternative paths. “I checked through the administration workers based on their physical age, health, past issues with implants, and how well they would respond to this very question. It is incredible how much data we have on every person on this farm.”

“I know. It’s my job to collect it all.,” Joel said with a smile. “But… it seems that the use of the data has gone without my notice. I thought that Olivia was meant to pass by any requests about mass searches through me but it seems my assistant hasn’t been doing that.”

“It is likely a fault on my side,” Kara was quick to excuse. If there was one thing the Parasite had no intention of doing, it was stopping that assistant from having a job at the farm. She was more productive than anybody else, sucked up to the superiors just enough that she didn’t question most orders, and she had the social grace to not be hated by most on the farm. In essence, she was the perfect worker. If that ever changed, the Hivemind wouldn’t hate making her into a vessel either. “I have been putting too much work on that poor woman. And, again, I am sorry for taking away your assistant half the time.”

“Oh, that’s fine with me,” Joel said, waving away such worries without hesitation. “She was in Markus’ hands before, anyway. I already have my positions filled up so it was more to not fire her that she came to me. If you want to, I can transfer her over to you.”

“If you really want to part with Olivia, I would be happy to take her on,” Kara said with a smile, letting the white teeth show for just a moment. “Now, are there any other questions about this tracking device? We already have everything we need to get it for you.”

“So soon?” Joel questioned.

“Yes. We have everything needed to do it locally, after all. Waiting times aren’t something we need to trifle with anymore.”

“That sounds like a dream,” Joel said, standing up from the office chair before stretching his arms into the air. “Should I just report to the doctor’s office or do you want me to sign the papers first?”

“You can sign on the bottom here for now,” Kara said, pointing at another fabricated contract created just the day before. It all sounded like the work of a real lawyer but most of it was pure nonsense. Joel didn’t notice, not being too far into that profession to take note of fancy wording and ambiguous terms. “But, we will need you to sign a contract that comes in tomorrow. This is mostly for implanting the actual device. Using it to track your location is another legal debacle that we’ve barely scratched the surface of.”

“I would believe that,” Joel said, meeting the doctor vessel outside quickly. “I’ll see you around, Kara!”

“You too!”

And that was eleven new vessels in total, bringing the new count of actual vessels to twenty. The Hivemind was on a roll. With just seven spots left, only five of which were planned to be filled up, the Parasite went through three of them giving three more managers the same treatment as what Joel had gotten. Of those four, only the first had been so talkative, all others quick to accept the idea and follow along with the procedure.

If there was one power that the Hivemind loved from the humans above all others, they could just accept the situation and move along with it. They liked to think of themselves as predators too often, not realising they were the herds of the wild. If they sensed a shift in direction, they would change their path without question. They just followed the one in front and hoped to their gods that they had made the right choices. Then again, the humans barely even thought about all those minor actions. It was great like that.

As more days passed, the Parasite idly waited as the many eggs began to hatch. None of them had reached maturity in such a short time, of course, but many were showing signs of establishing initial connections. With any lack of dangers surrounding the increasing splitting of the Hivemind’s internal systems, there was nothing to truly worry about.

The farm was moving as it was meant to, the crops were only a week away from being sold to the proper supplies, and the amount of money was likely going to be higher than ever before. Their systems had been made with extreme losses in mind yet the lack of criminal activity had made the crops bloom like never before. Some of the different farming areas had nearly hit beyond their peak safe levels of crops. More artificial fertiliser would have to be bought in the next quarter because of that.

On the fifth day, something strange was seen. It was during the very early mornings, barely enough time having passed before Ted, the guard vessel came onto his position. The vessel had barely been watching the cameras for a minute when a certain car rolled onto a stop before the entrance, being allowed in within only a few seconds. It was some very strange behaviour, making the Hivemind look up the licensing plate through the internal systems.

The truth revealed itself quickly. The owner was one Ulf Voss, the current leader and owner of the Amity Farm. It was nearly six weeks since the farm had last been able to put its eyes on him. The Hivemind had been under the idea that another twenty weeks would pass by before it was forced to look upon them again. Even in their old age, they had decided to come much quicker than planned.

It was still early morning, luckily, and the only people who’d seen the leader of the farm were the guards and the vessel on the security cameras. Some early risers were moving about in the administration building but none came across the leader as he strode through the building, moving towards a certain office that the Hivemind knew well.

They were going towards Kara’s office. The woman wasn’t currently in her position, still scheduled to sleep for another thirty minutes before starting the daily activities. Yet… as the man walked into the office and took a seat, there was little promise of anything going right. Moving the vessel out of the bed and into professional clothing at record speed, albeit with hair that looked a bit more frazzled than usual, the Kara vessel arrived at her office nearly an hour early that day.

“Ulf!” Kara exclaimed as she came to her office, mildly red in the face. “It’s quite the surprise to see you here.”

“It’s a surprise that I had to come here at all,” Ulf said, the old man looking at the woman harshly as she sat down behind her desk. He looked angry. With a quick thought, the Hivemind began to move the [Strength] vessel towards the administration building, bringing along a tool cart designed for cleaning supplies. It was more than big enough. “Joel sent me a message three days ago.”

“Did he now…” Kara said, looking quite confused. “I don’t remember that we were meant to bring up work matters with you in the next couple of months. Did something happen to you and him privately?”

“Nothing of the sort. The matter he let me know about was something I was already meant to have been dealing with,” Ulf said, the old man’s beard moving about as he talked. To the Hivemind, it was quite distracting. The Parasite had to take a noticeable amount of effort to stop the vessel’s eyes from following the movements. “You and I have been implanting our workers with tracking devices. Since I have neither allowed nor proposed this idea, I have to question what your motives are meant to be here, Kara.”

The man knew everything there was to know. At the very least, Joel didn’t seem to have questioned it too hard with how long it had taken for the man to come around. No security had been alerted, there were no police showcasing outside, and the man was quite clearly not wearing anything questionable. If anything, it seemed the man was merely suspecting Kara of having become corrupt.

“What do you want me to say here?” Kara questioned, the Hivemind fueling it along. “That I got some money in an off-shore bank account for doing this?”

“That depends,” Ulf said. “Is it the truth?”

“Not even close,” Kara said with a smile, giving it a few more seconds until the [Strength] vessel came into the room, the large cleaning cart entering as well. “Ah, I believe the two of you haven’t met yet. Ulf, this is Eric. He’s our newest local Hero of sorts, able to lift tons like they’re grams and able to crush skulls like they’re already dust.”

“That’s certainly… an apt description,” Ulf said as the stronger vessel towered over him. The Strongman was in the ready position.

“He isn’t going to crush your skull today, Ulf,” Kara promised with a smile. The old man widened his eyes, clearly ready to shout for help. It would have done nothing. With the door closed and with the lacklustre amount of workers around, there was only so much that could be done. “I wish I could say I was sorry about this but I have no ability to offer sympathy to you.”

The leader did make some amount of screaming before the Strongman put him out cold, stuffing him inside the tool cart before moving along yet again. The doctor vessel put in an egg, letting it patch up nicely. After that, allowing a temporary coma was easy to accomplish, letting the old man rest beside a certain Vigilante in the backroom. Another perk of having the doctor vessel. It was so easy to hide bodies.

Deleting the video evidence of the old man coming along, the Hivemind wondered what to do with the car in the front. It couldn’t just move it away since the Parasite wouldn’t be able to do much with it. Just dumping it out in the forest would allow it to be found as well. Decided to just throw a tarp over it, along with a sign not to touch it, the evidence was saved for later. It wasn’t as if others didn’t do the same, letting their cars be protected during their time working full-time. It wasn’t like the farm had on-site accommodations for nothing. Nobody was meant to leave.

Nobody.