Page 8 of A Light in the Dark
EIGHT
I wondered who was forced to deal with the idiocy.
Madeline beat me into the office by ten minutes, something I viewed to be a promising sign. Tomorrow, she wouldn’t be stuck waiting in the reception for me. Our first task of the day involved getting her full access to our floor along with a tour. By the time I finished with her, she’d be prepared for life in Stonecreek—and be at no risk of facing Gabriella’s fate.
I wondered how she’d made it through the floods, and I could only assume someone had taken a liking to her and advised she stay indoors at the start of the rainy season. Within an hour, the woman relaxed, which led me to wonder what the hell was going on at our client’s office.
Rather than ask, I sat her down at my desk, explained the sad truth about our role in the company, and went to work introducing her to our clients, their various quirks, and the paperwork disasters she would need to help me conquer. Upon realizing we were the poor bastards who set up the accountants, tax preparers, and lawyers for dealing with the clients’ submissions to the government, she made a gesture, crossing her heart with her hands, and muttered a prayer.
“I wondered who was forced to deal with the idiocy,” Madeline whispered when no one else was around. “My former employer? Organization was not in their dictionary. That explains why the filing boxes. I watched them fill them, Valerie. They wiped everything off a desk and shoved them into the boxes without even looking at them. They just assumed they were needed.”
I regarded the boxes in question, which sat beside my desk and waited for me to have time to deal with them. “I appreciate that warning. We’ll be dealing with that mess tomorrow. Today, I think I’ll stick with the companies that do a tolerable job of organizing their documentation. That mess will be excellent for teaching you the ropes and what we need to do for some of the harder clients, though.”
Madeline regarded the collection of boxes as though snakes might rise from them and bite her. “On Earth, we used digital records for everything. We signed digitally, too. Paper did too much damage to the environment, and there weren’t enough trees for oxygen as it was. But the mining we were doing did even more damage. We learned to fully recycle every piece of our tech so we did less damage.”
But then Earth’s days as a habitable planet had come to an end, her volcanoes wiping everything out. In the months following the eruptions, satellite photography had shown the sad fate of the world. Rather than nuclear winter, something those on Earth had feared since the creation of the devastating weapons, a thick layer of volcanic ash blocked out the sun and lowered the temperature of the planet .
Probes revealed more volcanoes had stirred, and the land had become mass lava fields incompatible with most life.
The oceans either boiled or froze, and most doubted any substantial life remained.
“But then the eruptions happened,” I murmured.
Madeline nodded. “I guess those who said Mother Nature would sort our shit out if we couldn’t sort it out ourselves were right. She definitely won that round. It will be several lifetimes before Earth is habitable again.”
I had a hard time imagining the planet as being habitable again in even ten or twenty lifetimes. “I think Earth has served as an important reminder of why we need to be ready for catastrophe. I take it how things operated on Earth doesn’t work here?”
“It really doesn’t, and I think my previous employer was frustrated with it. We can’t do things the same way we did on Earth. The technology isn’t here. And the technology doesn’t belong here. I couldn’t answer any of their questions on how to make it or how it works. I just used it.”
Ah-ha. As part of the migration process, the refugees had been asked to limit how much they discussed tech, with those who had minimal understanding of Earth tech remaining on our world while those with strong technical inclinations had been sent to a new planet. From my understanding of the situation, we would be swapping refugees for years moving forward until our world was inhabited by those who wouldn’t miss Earth’s level of tech.
Once I got home, I would reach out to the Hunters and ask if the pursuit of knowledge and technology might be part of the reason refugees were being eliminated in Stonecreek. One thing was certain, however: I would do what I could to protect Earth’s survivors.
I had begun with Gabriella, but I would not stop until I felt at least some confidence in the security of those who had sought safety and refuge among us.
Madeline’s previous employer had attempted to bleed her dry, and it took an hour to convince the woman overtime was a dirty word we only used in the two months leading up to the submission deadline for taxes for the year. As my boss caught me in the act, he joined the fray, informed us both we’d be getting the overtime from handling Madeline’s onboarding, and he assured the refugee she would have all but nine of her thirty-two hours each day for herself.
The idea she got weekends off confused and baffled the woman.
Then, because Mr. Accor understood more about life than I often gave him credit for, he gave her the dual-employment options in case she needed to work longer hours or wanted to skip having weekends.
I’d opted against joining the program, but the company did have a method of handling employees who wanted to work extra hours.
After he finished that, he also gave her the option to work for our company in a second position.
Once Madeline left, my boss sighed and said, “We’ve learned that Earth wasn’t a leader in employee rights… or ot her rights, either. It wouldn’t surprise me if Madeline is used to working fourteen hour days just to get by.”
“But Earth was on a twenty-four hour cycle.” How could anyone live with working fourteen of twenty-four hours? When was there time to make breakfast or have lunch? What about dinner? How did they sleep? The math didn’t add up.
It often took me over an hour to make dinner and clean the kitchen afterwards, and I spent just as long on breakfast and lunch. How had any of them had the time to do basic chores?
Even an eight hour day seemed somehow unmanageable when only working with twenty-four hours.
My boss held up his hand. “I know what you’re about to ask, and you won’t like the answer. In fact, if I tell you the truth about it, you’ll be fuming the rest of your day and come in cranky tomorrow. I wouldn’t blame you for that. I become rather unhappy thinking through the specifics. What matters is that Madeline will need to adapt to life here. She now has a job where she only needs to work nine hours a day to have the rest of her thirty-two hour day for leisure. This is going to be new territory for her. I’ll see about a bridging program to get her used to not working late. I’m sure we have plenty of extra work kicking around here to manage fourteen hours a day for her until we can wean her down to nine and get her used to the idea of having free time.”
Having to teach my assistant that life wasn’t just about work would test my patience, but I’d muddle through somehow. “I’ll work with her.”
“I know you will. Now, head on home. I’m going to meet with my boss tomorrow about the refugee situation. If one of our clients has been abusing a refugee, others are… and we can take advantage of that.”
“That’s rather ruthless, sir.”
Mr. Accor’s smile chilled me. In a way, he reminded me of a predator on the prowl for his next meal. “Yes, it is. A month of free work is a small price to pay for loyal employees, and if these fools want to cultivate star employees for us, I won’t say no. We need good employees, and we’ve been talking about expanding our operations for a while. Anyway, head on home. We’ll talk more about how best to settle Madeline in tomorrow.”
I did as told, although I made a show of gathering things at my desk, jotting down a few notes, and otherwise handling my usual routine. However, I checked Madeline’s file, jotted down her refugee information, and slipped that into my purse so I could ask the Hunters about her. On the entire walk home, I questioned everything about life in Stonecreek. When I’d first heard we would be accepting refugees, it had been in a state of hope that everyone from Earth would find a better life. Instead, bodies rotted in the lake below the city, companies used the refugees as little more than mules, working them far beyond what we’d do to ourselves, and I questioned everything about our society.
How could we tolerate such injustice? Worse, I couldn’t shake the belief that there were those, including those who ran the government, who abused the refugees—and killed them—for profit.
Once inside my home, I locked the door, dug out the Hunters’ phone from the depths of my purse, and pulled up the text conversation, mustering the courage to ask if there was a reason to be concerned if employers were trying to learn about Earth’s technology.
A moment later, the phone rang, informing me someone named Roger wished to speak with me. As the contact was registered on the phone, I answered and said, “Hello.”
“Good afternoon, Valerie. Are you somewhere safe to talk?”
“I am. I’m at home.” I headed into my kitchen, grabbed my kettle, and plunked it onto the stove so I could have a calming cup of tea. Given a few minutes, I would need it. “Dare I ask how many you found?”
“We’ve pulled out almost two hundred bodies, unfortunately—and we found some skeletons beneath. We’ve been able to identify them all. We have DNA samples from every refugee to come to our world, and we have records of when the refugees entered Stonecreek and when Stonecreek received payment for their care. We have determined that, according to the age of decomposition, the refugees were killed thirty to ninety days after Stonecreek received their payments.”
I sucked in a breath. “Why are you telling me this?”
“We need someone on the inside of Stonecreek to look around for us. None of the Hunters can do it; the powers that be in Stonecreek know to keep an eye out for us. A citizen of their city-state? They won’t be expecting that sort of betrayal.”
I appreciated Roger’s honesty; I would be betraying my city-state. However, anyone who murdered others for money deserved betrayal, and I would stick around for however long was needed to see justice done. “I’m in. ”
“I thought you would be. You don’t seem like the type to accept this sort of thing lying down.”
With almost two hundred dead, I would be chomping at the bit to find out who was behind the killings and make certain they rotted in some prison, preferably off-world, where they would never see the light of day again.
None of our prisons, at least as far as I was aware, seemed adequately terrible for punishing such a crime.
“I’m really not. How can I help?”
“We need to find out what is happening to the surviving refugees. How are they fitting into society? What kind of person is being viewed as useful and kept in the system?”
“The company I work for just poached a refugee from one of our clients. We traded a month of work for them in exchange for her employment. The company is housing her.”
“What do you know about the housing?”
“It’s a good house down the hill with a properly shored foundation. I was there for the first viewing of the place. It is being bought from the bank as a foreclosure for a pittance.”
“Do you know the address?”
I told him how to find the property, apologizing for not knowing the actual street address despite knowing how to get to it and which house it was. Roger chuckled, promised I’d given him the information he needed, and that he’d dig more into the situation. Then, worried Madeline might become another victim, I asked, “Does it look like all the killings happened during the flooding?”
“As far as we can tell, yes. Stonecreek has been processing refugee claims in a window before the flooding happens for the most part. ”
That worried me in some ways but relieved me in others. “Is it possible to check into a specific refugee?”
“Yes, we have a database of all refugees on our planet.”
I pulled out the scrap of paper I’d hidden in my purse and read off Madeline’s information. “This is the woman my company poached. When we got a hold of her, she was really stressed about her work situation, so I have concerns.”
“This is the exact sort of thing we need to know about. Thank you. Are you in any position to find out more about the refugees working for your company or other companies you work with?”
I thought about it, and a chill ran through me.
I could, and I could do so without anyone being the wiser for my clandestine operations. “Yes, I can do that.”
“Please get us as much information as you can and give me a text should you find anything.”
“I’ll do that.”
Roger hesitated, and I narrowed my eyes, wondering what the Hunter thought.
“Is there a problem?”
“How would you feel about joining forces with the luna moth shifter that helped Gabriella? We would be more comfortable knowing someone else is keeping an eye on you while you investigate this matter for us.”
Interesting. I’d assumed the luna moth had gone solely for Gabriella’s benefit rather than being acquainted with the Hunters of Moonriver. “You know the luna moth?”
“We know most of the rare shifters in Moonriver,” Roger admitted. “That specific shifter has worked with us before. He enjoys rescuing people, and his ability to vary the strength of his glowing makes him easy to spot. He tends to find victims in need of rescue and glows brightly enough for us to find him. For the most part, you’d have a winged visitor keeping an eye on you and checking to make sure you make it home each night. If you don’t make it home, he’ll contact us, and then we’ll handle matters from there. There will be no disappearances under mysterious circumstances happening to you if we can help it. And honestly? All the luna moths help locate flood victims. That glow really helps draw attention to those in the water, so they all do it every year. He’s just different; if he could rescue people daily, he would.”
Considering the number of bodies, Madeline’s fear, and the unsettling feeling I kept getting about the whole situation, I appreciated the Hunter’s concern. “I’m worried someone will figure out the phone belongs to the Hunters.”
“Don’t worry about that. It belongs to you now. Consider it compensation for having done a good deed. The model you have can run two numbers, so you can take it into a store, get a personal line, and use it as your daily phone. That way, nobody will be the wiser. If someone discovers you have two lines, tell them you have one for your closest family and friends and one for businesses and so on to get a hold of you. Most people will just assume you value your privacy and stop questioning it.”
“That’s a good idea. I’ll do that.” That would let me revive my personal cell phone number, too. “When should I expect the luna moth?”
“I’ll have him check on you in the evenings. He can peek into your window from your courtyard. If you install a bell on your back door, he can ring it and you can let him in that way. I can send you a link to the kind of bell that will send a notification to your phone, and you can even get one you can set up for multiple doors. If anyone asks why you have one in the back, just say you paid for two, so you may as well use both.”
I laughed as that was something I would do. “I’ll do that tonight. Send me a link to a good model. I’ll view it as a home improvement, especially as I need to shore up some stuff in my house anyway.”
“I’ll do that. And good call on shoring your place. If you need any help paying for it, let us know, and we’ll come to an arrangement. What you’re doing is valuable, and you deserve to be compensated for the risk and the effort.”
“Saving lives is the only repayment I need.”
“Still, if you need financial help, do let us know. We’ll get into a fight over the compensation you’re owed another day.”