Chapter 153: Gloria’s Opportunity
After tidying up her clothes, Gloria headed out to work. As for David… he was still asleep. Her shift started much earlier than usual today.
Apparently, the corporation had something important to announce, and there were also some issues that needed to be dealt with.
As a logistics worker, Gloria didn’t have any objections. To be honest, she had been very wary of kindness from strangers at first, but… after all this time, nothing seemed out of place.
Although the other side seemed to value David’s talent, she didn’t really feel that she herself was being particularly valued—at least, not for now.
At most… maybe a slightly higher bonus?
Thinking of that, Gloria shook her head with a small smile, quietly scolding herself for being greedy.
After all, they had arranged a decent job and were willing to hand out higher performance bonuses. Wasn’t that already enough? In a place like Night City, that was more than generous.
Very few corps would go that far. Most would squeeze every last drop out of their employees, chewing them up to extract even greater profits.
That said… while they did exploit labor to an extreme degree, they also paid accordingly. Things like delayed wages only happened at small-time outfits.
Before long, Gloria arrived at the corp, clocked in as usual, and started work. Quite a few people were already there.
Soon after, their team leader walked over.
“I’ll now announce several decisions from the corp. First, we’ve decided to establish a Counter-espionage Intelligence Unit. Anyone who discovers relevant information may report it. Once verified, rewards will be issued, including—but not limited to—bonuses, priority consideration for promotion, and upgraded insurance coverage…”
“Those rewards are really generous…”
Gloria couldn’t help murmuring to herself.
“Tell me about it. If you actually managed to find one, you wouldn’t have to worry about David’s tuition ever again.”
The colleague beside her laughed and patted Gloria on the back.
“I probably won’t ever get a chance to earn that kind of money.”
Gloria smiled and shrugged helplessly. Truth be told, even if such an opportunity came up, she probably wouldn’t take it.
She was just a small-time employee. She had no desire to get involved in power struggles between major corps. Who knew if, after reporting a spy, the corp backing them would come after her?
Even if PROJECT Corporation retaliated on her behalf… who knew what would happen to her by then?
As David’s mother, she couldn’t take that risk.
As the news spread, some people inside PROJECT Corporation showed no change on the surface, but their emotions were already in turmoil.
“Second announcement. Upper management has decided to assist the Northern California government in resisting the New United States invasion. We need personnel for logistics transport. Any volunteers will receive triple pay, along with a €30,000 resettlement allowance.”
The team leader scanned the room. Several people clearly looked tempted, but quickly restrained themselves, weighing the risks against the rewards.
The risks were obvious. The New United States might attack logistics convoys. If that happened… would they even survive? Even if they did, the odds were extremely slim.
Still, hands soon went up.
The pay was simply too attractive.
The colleague beside Gloria raised her hand as well, clearly drawn in by the generous compensation.
“There are two spots left. Anyone else?”
Gloria took one last look at the team leader and finally made her choice…
“Sigh… I hope everything goes smoothly…”
She let out a long breath and returned to her workstation. Some of the others packed up their things and left the corp.
Yes—she chose to stay.
At that moment, Gloria noticed a usually very quiet coworker. After glancing around, he slowly walked into a cubicle. Driven by curiosity, she cautiously moved closer.
“Y-yes, this is Sam. What do you need from me?”
“W-what?! No, that’s not what I meant. I… I understand. I agree. I’ll do it. Please make sure the money is transferred to my child’s account.”
Hearing the almost resigned tone in Sam’s voice, Gloria sensed that something wasn’t right.
As soon as she heard the door open, she quickly hid to the side.
In truth, Sam’s identity really wasn’t simple. However… he wasn’t a professional spy. He had originally just been an ordinary employee—until Militech approached him.
Militech offered extremely generous terms, depositing a large sum into his account every month. The condition was simple: whenever they needed him, he had to act. If he refused, the ones who would suffer were his family.
When the team leader announced the second item, Sam immediately sensed trouble. He hadn’t expected things to move this fast… which also meant that there were others acting as Militech’s internal agents.
All of this was observed by Astat, PROJECT Corporation’s security AI. As a security intelligence personally created by Lissandra, its capabilities were beyond doubt.
Information about these spies and their missions was quickly reported to Roland.
There were also other schemes at play.
For example, some lower-ranking spies were deliberately treated as expendable pawns, allowing higher-level spies to report them, gain promotions and trust, and further entrench themselves.
As for these people, Roland silently had Lissandra write their names down in her little notebook, then instructed Astat to keep a close eye on those fools.
“Gloria… hmm, let’s see if she can seize this opportunity…”
Roland rubbed his chin, curious about what choice Gloria would ultimately make. At the same time, David had been taking it easy for quite a while—maybe it was time to arrange something for him too.
But Roland quickly dismissed the thought.
After all, the kid was still just a kid.
What Roland didn’t know was that, at this very moment, David was already about to come into contact with someone very important.
Comments (0)
Please login or sign up to post a comment.