After seeing off the two Exosanguis members, Nuskul and Labiba had returned to the TESO facility and decided to hold a meeting. Or rather, a two-person consultation…
Before becoming a cybernetic, Nuskul had been a drug addict. That was why, before meetings, he would fiddle with his pleasure module for a while, hype himself up, and play with the hormones in his brain as much as possible until he took his place across from Labiba's flying chair. This was a century-old habit of his. Thus, at the start of a meeting, it was possible to see him either extremely excited or utterly dull. Which one you'd see was a matter of luck. Interestingly, this time he was as excited as could be.
"Sir!" he suddenly shouted. "I think we're magnificent… The first phase of the plan was quite magnificent." He wiped the drool escaping from the corner of his mouth before Labiba could notice. Labiba, due to the folds of flesh falling over his eyes from his withered forehead and his weary gaze, couldn't see anything clearly anyway. That was why he hadn't noticed the drool at the corner of Nuskul's mouth. If he had… well, that would have been a very strange story. Seeing the Production Manager foaming at the mouth with pleasure right in front of him while fiddling with the pleasure centers of his brain might have been a shock for Labiba. Yes… he viewed Nuskul as a useless, despicable sycophant, but he already had hundreds of sycophants like Nuskul.
It was just that Labiba couldn't beat the others as much as he beat Nuskul. Yes… occasionally, Labiba would pick up an old-world golf club just for the thrill of it and deliver successive blows to Nuskul's bare metal backside. This was one of the things Labiba enjoyed doing most when he was angry.
"What do you mean, Nuskul?" Labiba asked. "What do you mean by 'we are magnificent'?"
"Well… sir… how should I say?" Having just triggered the neural points in his brain with electrical signals from his module, Nuskul couldn't think logically while speaking. Therefore, forming a sentence had become a burden for him. Despite knowing this, he would activate his pleasure modules and play with them before meetings. Addiction… especially such a guilty addiction, gave the greatest pleasure when done at times when getting caught would cause the most trouble. "Azrak and Hikmar seem like the kind of people who would protect this cargo with their lives."
"They need money. At least we know that much."
"Yes, sir."
"As for the matter of Doctor Sevda," Labiba said. "You know I need that woman for my surgery. This is Uruzen… this place isn't monitored from the outside. Especially if we were to shut down the Republic Network for a day just for 'maintenance,' even the SWR couldn't watch us. So, if we wanted to force that woman to perform the surgery, no one could intervene. But the woman could leave here at any moment."
"I saw her just today. She didn't seem to be in a very good mood," Nuskul said.
"What do you mean?" Labiba asked. If his monstrosity of a body had allowed it, he would have sat up straight, but all he could do was clench and release his toes. "When?"
"Today…" Nuskul said, while playing with the screen on the table with his hand. "…while blowing up the cave."
"That cave where the Uruzenians were?"
"Yes…"
At that moment, a metal hand emerged from behind Labiba's chair, glided through the air, and grabbed Nuskul by the throat, slamming him against the ceiling. Then, with the same speed, it slammed him onto the floor. "You idiot!" Labiba screamed. "You useless man!"
"What happened, sir?" Nuskul said in a voice that trembled like an 8-bit game because his mechanical vocal cords were malfunctioning. "What…" His voice module was cycling through different forms consecutively. Additionally, since the pleasure module constantly touching the pleasure nerves in his brain was interfering with his voice, the voice modules had gone completely haywire. "…what impertinence have I committed to anger you?"
"You know I'm after that doctor. That damned connection to the Network was being lost inside that cave. You had the opportunity! You had her cornered! But you don't have the capacity to understand that, do you, Nuskul!"
"Sir…"
"And you screwed up that golden opportunity! Why! Because you are a useless freak, Nuskul!"
"I didn't want to take initiative, sir…"
"Look at this!" Labiba said, and the metal arm floating in the air lifted Nuskul and slammed him hard onto the middle of the table. The table split in two. "You, who take initiative for every damn thing, didn't want to take initiative, eh? You didn't ask for my opinion on sex tourism! You didn't ask for my opinion when appointing the manager of the production maintenance department! You didn't ask for my opinion on where you would build the waste refinery! You took initiative in all of them, but you couldn't take initiative to catch the doctor, eh? What? Or are you afraid of the doctor?"
"Sir… absolutely not!" Nuskul said, removing pieces of the metal table from his body.
"Are you sure? She is a very expensive cybernetic!"
"Absolutely not, sir! I am not afraid of her at all!"
"Then today, I will cause a malfunction in the SWR satellite in the atmosphere and cut the connection. And you will bring her to me! Immediately! Now!"
The metal hand stopped squeezing Nuskul's throat like a shackle and returned to its place behind the chair. Since his pain receptors were turned off, Nuskul hadn't realized how hard the hand was squeezing his throat. So, he began a damage analysis deep in his brain.
"Of course, sir!" he said. "That doctor will be in your office tonight!"
"No, you fool!" Labiba said. "She won't be in the office! She'll be in the warehouse below! Thus, the first phase of the plan will have begun!"