Chapter 16: Getting the Job

Though he'd expected to be escorted to some sort of official headquarters, Rick instead found himself meeting with CSLA staff in an unremarkable office building. It didn't even seem particular to them, just some cheaply rented space. Not that it really mattered, compared to the contract.

He sat in a metal chair next to a folding table, reading over one of the most important contracts of his life. The woman in the green pantsuit was working on her phone, occasionally leaving to take a business call, so she didn't seem to care how long he took. Rick tried to go over all the fine print with all the suspicion he could muster, but to his surprise it actually looked rather straightforward.

It was far from ideal, but the contract was blunt about the disadvantages. He had no guarantee of future employment, no retirement benefits, and little authority from the GLA. Yet that didn't seem terrible to him compared to the salary, not to mention the performance bonuses. They even gave minimal health insurance, covering serious injuries but not chronic conditions.

So it seemed like unless he failed to perform or did something grossly unprofessional, he'd have a well-paying job for the duration of the project. Not finding any hidden hooks, Rick stared at the paper a while longer, then signed in all the appropriate places.

"Good." The woman took the contract and slid it to one side of the table. "While you read, we've finished analyzing the anomaly you located. It's a solid one, so you're off to a good start."

"Thanks. Uh... I was a bit unclear on what the minimum standards for performance are."

"It's a sliding scale - as anomalies become rarer, our minimum requirements will decrease. That clause is mainly in there to prevent anyone from meeting the qualifications and then collecting a paycheck for no work. If you keep working at your present rate, you can count on receiving considerably more than the base salary."

Despite himself, he smiled. "Oh, then I'm not the last person to find one?"

"That reminds me, I need to issue you your proper equipment." The woman reached under the table - where there should have been nothing - and came up with a wooden sphere and a slip of paper. Rick saw that there appeared to be an ID and password on the paper, but puzzled over the sphere before she explained. "The ether sphere we gave you at the trials was simply a generic tool without any proprietary technology. This is what you'll be using to measure and record lucrim."

"Does it work any differently?" Rick picked it up carefully, noting that it seemed much stranger than the original. That one was like a dull marble for storing lucrim, but this was built from ether-enchanted wood. If his life became less hectic, he'd need to spend more time analyzing it.

"The differences would be immaterial to your work. We do expect you to take care of it, but if it's destroyed, it will just be a small deduction from your paycheck. In any case, perhaps more important is your account information. Our network is accessible from your phone, but you can't access anything useful without the permissions in that account."

"What kind of information?"

"Updates about the terms of the contract, potentially information relevant to all surveyors, and a few additional functions like the merit scoreboard. Set a new username if you don't want your name to be visible to all other candidates, by the way."

"Got it." That seemed like a pointless step when they'd already put his name at the top of the list for everyone to see, but he didn't want to antagonize his new boss. Besides, he was interested in seeing what other information was there.

"If there's nothing else, you can go. In the future you can make reports via your phone."

"Actually..." Rick wasn't sure it was a good idea, but decided that he should ask. "I noticed a feral dragon living near the lucrim anomaly, probably feeding off it. Will anything be done for it?"

For the first time the woman actually focused on him, as if her usual scripts had been interrupted. Yet all she did was shrug. "Once the locations are noted, we clear the lucrim via an extremely efficient extraction process. Any local wildlife will presumably go somewhere else. If you're really concerned about them, you can engage some kind of conservation program, but that's extracurricular."

He nodded, inwardly relieved to find out that the dragon wouldn't be exterminated or anything. Her comment about conservation programs made him curious. So far in his life he had been too focused on his own problems to think much about animals, but the half-starved dragon had struck him. If there was some way he could do his job in a way that harmed lucrim beasts less, he wanted to take it.

That was a concern for another time, though. Rick thanked her and headed out of the blank office back into the waiting room. It was nearly as spare, but it had a few folding chairs. He sat down in one and did as she said, logging in with his new ID. There was no need for an app or any kind of installation, so other than sucking up his data allowance, he approved.

First he looked for announcements, but those areas seemed to be empty. The only areas with any content were the scoreboard and a tiny forum with a few pointless threads. After glancing at the latter, he pulled up the scoreboard.

[1) Elliot Rutherford III - 114 merits

2) Pan Zhou - 76 merits

3) Kate Durham - 73 merits

4) [redacted] - 70 merits

5) Skinmaster0 - 51 merits

5) Oswaln - 51 merits

5) Heidi Cunningham - 51 merits

8) Damian - 50 merits

8) Machk Bearan - 50 merits

10) Javiera Banks - 49 merits

…

15) Jack Ganess - 47 merits

16) Rick Hunter - 46 merits

17) Harley Wilson - 22 merits]

It seemed like it only showed him the top ten and those candidates close to him by default, though he found a settings menu. Since Rick was more interested in getting a steady salary than in winning any contest, he didn't care. Admittedly, a competitive part of him wanted to see his name rise in the list. Not seeing any other Ricks, he erased his last name for whatever good it would do. On his own display it still showed his name, but allegedly it was invisible to others.

Notably, finding one good anomaly had been worth more than all the points granted during the initial trials. That fit with what he knew about the CSLA so far: they wanted results above all else. So the top candidates had pulled ahead by finding an anomaly, and he had just joined them. Though it looked like the top several people had found two different anomalies and one person had somehow found three already, he wasn't doing badly.

Despite everything, Rick sat back in his chair and smiled in relief. He'd signed a legal contract and he trusted such a large organization to at least follow the letter of the law.

That meant that he had a new job. Not just that, but one better than his parents or any of the local members of his family had ever gotten, even before bonuses were considered. Now he could officially quit his job at the House of the Cosmic Fist and move upward.

"Looks like there's hope for you after all."

The voice made Rick leap to his feet even before his mind had caught up with what he was hearing. Across the room, having just opened the outer door, Alger stood in another ridiculous suit. He tipped a bright green top hat in his direction and continued.

"Usually the GLA is horribly, dreadfully dull, but they've actually put together something fun with this little contest. Maybe it will stretch you enough for you to be interesting again."

Rick knew that the last thing he wanted was for Alger to be interested in him, but felt like he had to ask. "Why are you here? You aren't working for them too, are you?"

"Don't be ridiculous - that wouldn't be much fun, for a start. I simply have some business to take care of. Lovely coincidence to run into you here."

Was it a coincidence, or was Alger actually stalking him? The oddly-dressed man moved past him, humming a song under his breath, and entered the room with the CSLA employee. After staring after him a while, Rick decided that even if this encounter was random, Alger's presence was not. The man had fingers in far too many pies.

What did his presence here mean, though? Rick headed out and manifested his bike, but couldn't get his thoughts off it. He didn't think his expectations for the job had been too unrealistic, yet he'd allowed himself to feel optimistic. It still felt like the right decision.

He just hoped he wasn't wrong.