Epilogue IV – The Bureau

“So let me get this straight.” Senior Administrator Jenson held up the digital pad.

“You two,” he gestured at rapid response clerks Yanna and Torren, “identified a corruption spike in an unbound realm. You then connected this spike to a…” He glanced down, searching for the name on the digital readout.

Torren coughed. “We connected it to a senior clerk, sir. Specifically, a senior clerk by the name of Kairon.” The wiry, far more junior clerk twitched nervously, his copy of The Bureau’s handbook held tight in his hands.

Jenson looked up, nonplussed. “Okay. Kairon. You two connected this corruption spike back to Kairon and—”

Torren coughed again.

Jenson’s left eye twitched. “Yes, rapid response clerk?”

“Well you said us two. But really, sir, it… It was Yanna.”

By his side, Yanna gave Torren a dirty look. “Thanks for nothing,” she mumbled.

“Alright.” Jenson set down the pad, studying them both. “Yanna connected the corruption spike back to a Kairon. Who, wouldn’t you know it, apparently worked for us. And by all accounts, was one of the best senior clerks we’ve staffed in the last hundred cycles.”

He paused, giving Torren a pointed look.

The clerk blushed. “That’s right, sir.”

“Now—”

Just as Jenson made to continue, another cough came. This time, however, it wasn’t from Torren. Nor Yanna.

Instead, it came from the fourth and final participant in the meeting.

Senior Clerk Randolf.

“Actually, Administrator Jenson, I’d like to add that labeling this… this Kairon as one of the best clerks we’ve staffed in the last hundred cycles is not only preposterous, but an affront to senior clerks such as myself. We supervise and ensure matters of the utmost importance in our subdivisions for a reason. But I had a look at this Kairon. And while his performance evaluations were quite impressive, the fact that he forwent an offered promotion to retire as a lowly and mundane provincial city lord speaks to his very character. I daresay the man may even be a fool.” He sat back with a scoff.

Jenson just stared flatly at the senior clerk. “Thank you, Randolf. Your input is appreciated. As always.”

Randolf sniffed in reply. “Of course.”

“Please. Everyone. Let me just finish.” Taking a deep breath, Jenson picked the pad back up and skimmed the forms listed. “So, Yanna here saw the corruption flag. Found it connected to this Kairon. And then, under your advice.” He paused, pointing at Torren. “She filed a 27-A escalation form, labeling a hundred point corruption spike irregularity for further managerial review.”

Torren and Yanna both nodded, while Randolf’s lips only tightened. “I might—”

“Actually. You might keep quiet. Because I’m just now getting to your part in this madness. So you, Senior Clerk, received this 27-A, with contents that warranted immediate escalation to your own supervisor. But instead of following the proper escalation path, you decided to return the 27-A back to Yanna here, claiming an incorrect energy classification with a countermeasure request demand on her desk. Now, it’s been a long time since I worked as clerk, Randolf. But I must tell you that even I can see the numbers coming from this unbound realm are beyond abnormal.”

The incredulous look on Randolf’s face made it quite clear to anyone in the room just what he thought of that idea.

“With all due respect, administrator, the abnormalities of the metrics in that report are precisely why we need to ensure every classification is done with the proper procedure. Mistakes at this juncture will only lead to improper findings down the line!”

“Randolf. There are abnormalities, and there is this. There are times when you need to ensure the proper ranking individual can handle problems. Problems that are far, far above your pay grade.”

“I beg your pardon, sir?”

“You beg my pardon.” Administrator Jenson let out a long sigh, taking a moment to tighten up the creases in his red tie. “Tell me something, Randolf. Do you actually understand the issue here? With this?” Letting go of his garment, he held up the pad.

“I do. That report goes against all logic. I mean the realm in question is unbound. It’s not beholden to us, nor anyone as far as I can tell. So explain to me where the corruption came from?”

“Ah. Actually, that’s not quite correct.” Torren delicately pointed his finger at the report on the digital pad. “If you scroll right… here. You’ll see that there was quite the flag on this report. One that it seems Senior Clerk Randolf may have mistakenly overlooked, or that came about during the escalation uhm… challenges in this process we are experiencing. Sir.”

Jenson let his eyes rove over the text, before stopping at the line in question.

“Randolf. Did you see this?” All polite pretense in his voice was gone. “Because I have to think that either you can’t read it, or you did and you let it slide back with a countermeasure request. To be honest, Randolf, I don’t know what’s worse. So which is it?”

“What?! I reviewed it myself before submitting the… the… what is that?!” Hissing, he reeled back. “By the system! What have you done!” Randolf nearly fell from his chair, hands held protectively over his face.

Yanna, watching this whole time, stifled something between a gasp and a laugh.

Torren, however, was very, very solemn. As was Jenson. Both of them had realized what it meant.

Jenson pointed a finger at the screen. “Read it,” he growled. “Read. It. Now.”

“What? Me? I’m not reading that… That horrid… Atrocity to what… Goodness oh my…” Randolf was beside himself, clinging to the office chair like a lifeline.

“Read it aloud or so help me, I’ll have you placed so deep in the pre-rapid response monitoring division that no one will even know where you went, Randolf.”

“No! Please, sir!”

Jenson slammed his fist down on the wooden conference table. “Read. It. Aloud.”

Shaking his head, Randolf leaned forward and meekly read the text displayed. “Competitive Anomalies Detected — Source.” He shrunk back, hugging himself tightly.

“Good. So you can read it. Which means you saw this, and shoved it back. Correct?”

“I. Sir I mean… There’s no possible way that…”

“Oh but there is! It’s right fucking here, Randolf! This is going straight to your performance review. A managerial negative performance mark seems right for the occasion.” Pulling up his digital pad, he began swiping furiously until the senior clerk’s profile was up. With a soft ding, the man’s doom was spelled out for the entire room to hear.

“Sir! Noooo!” Randolf fell to the floor, tears welling in his eyes. Having that mark on his record at this point in his career was tantamount to bureaucratic suicide. His climb in The Bureau’s ranks was all but done unless he somehow found a way to absolve his record of it.

Growling in frustration, Jenson let the foolish man whimper in the corner as he turned to face the junior clerks.

“Now, as for both of you. I understand that neither of you made the same mistakes that Randolf here has. But like it or not, both of your names—and I do mean both—are on this report. Which means you both have seen this.”

The junior employees just stared back uncertainly.

Leaning back in his seat with a creak, Jenson motioned impatiently. “You. Torren. You seem like a bright man. Tell me. What do you make of this?”

Torren glanced at the whimpering, sniffling mess that was Randolf, before turning back to Yanna, and then finally to the flashing line highlighted on the digital pad.

Competitive Anomalies Detected — Source

“I think… It’s a big problem, sir.”

“Mmm. Might as well tell him what we dug up.” Yanna said it offhandedly, as if it truly wasn’t a big deal.

Jenson’s eyes narrowed. “Yes… Tell me. What did you find, Torren?”

Gathering his courage, the junior clerk gulped. “Well… While the competitive anomaly flag had little mention in the handbook…” He held up the physical copy next to him, “we did find at least a bit in regards to the Source mention. Nothing concrete—just some footnotes. But in them, the dates line up with the incident with Adrian World Breaker.”

“I see. And you pieced all that together just from the reports in here and the handbook?”

“We did, sir.”

Yanna’s patience seemed to finally give out as she butted back in, much more openly this time. “Look. I get it. This is a big deal and all that. But it doesn’t make any sense. I mean why would Adrian World Breaker break dozens of systems for a tax write-off under The Bureau, only to be connected to a competitor?”

“There are no competitors to The Bureau, nor The System, junior clerk,” corrected Jenson gently. Yet, there was an unmistakable dangerous certainty to his voice.

Yanna, either not getting the seriousness or not caring, yawned. “Yeah well. That ain’t what that says, is it?”

Administrator Jenson studied the junior clerk that rooted up this mess for a long moment. Before he could reply, Torren cut back in.

“Sir. If I may, I think what Yanna’s trying to say is that while we both very much realize the power and control of The Bureau’s System, we also have a monitoring report that’s been through multiple escalation cycles. Meaning it’s been verified each time it was sent between her desk and Senior Clerk Randolf’s. So it would seem that the readings are not only correct, but getting worse. And I think the consideration isn’t necessarily that The Bureau has some kind of… competitor.” Torren snorted in exaggeration.

“But… Rather that there may be some historical significance of this anomaly that somehow ties back to the event fifteen cycles ago with erm… Mr. Adrian World Breaker.”

Jenson drummed his fingers on the desk. Tap, tap, tap. Letting the silence stretch out.

Yanna yawned again.

“Sir. Uhm. What do you think?” asked Torren.

“I think it’s about time we set up a meeting with Mr. World Breaker.”