Chương 607: Limitless Path Chapter Six Hundred Twenty-Six

"What are you doing here?" the guard demanded when she got close, other patrons of the cafeteria clearing out, or at least moving farther away.

"It's my break. Didn't I say that?" Beth replied calmly, bringing the woman up short for a moment.

"You can't just ditch your escort," the woman said in what she probably believed was a commanding tone.

"I didn't ditch her, she walked me around and showed me where everything was. I went to the bathroom and after I was done, she just started walking off. Don't know where she was going, but I need to take a break and have something to drink, at least. I said that before, right?" Beth said, putting a little confusion into her voice at the end as she frown slightly at the guard, though hopefully with a more confused expression than annoyed.

The guard captain really didn't know what to do with that one, opening her mouth to reply before just letting it hang open for a moment as she tried to process. She shut her mouth again after a moment and cleared her throat, coming to some kind of conclusion before she tried again. She did a bit better this time, saying, "That guard was escorting you. You shouldn't have left her side."

"Sorry about that. Don't worry, I'll be out of here in just one minute," Beth said, holding up her partially finished food and drink. The guard captain eyed her suspiciously before saying, "You don't mind if I stand here and watch." She hadn't made it a question so much as a statement and Beth just shrugged, continuing to eat and drink until she finished what she had purchased. She got up and threw everything away, just suppressing a smile at the guard captain following her even over to the trash cans.

Looked like she was being watched much closer this time, though it was still quite amusing that they hadn't bothered to check her ID. She assumed they were so sure of the security on the teleporter pads and the other locations that they still believed she was an employee. If they had bothered to take a minute, think, and do what they should do in a security breach situation, the whole thing would have escalated.

Not that it would have gone well for them, but it wouldn't be this strange, shambling farce they were playing out. The guard captain wasn't quite firm enough to actually manhandle Beth, but she did stick very close as they returned to the room with the teleporter pad, whereupon Beth received quite the glare from the laconic woman that had been escorting her. Beth wasn't ashamed at all, just giving the woman a smile, though she refrained from going too far with it, walking over to the teleporter pad.

Despite all the suspicions, she still easily pulled the same trick, which, ironically enough, set all the guards at ease, as her swiping her ID and activating the pad showed that she must be an employee in good standing. Right? Beth didn't pull the same trick this time as she had before, not wanting to push her luck further, but it was pretty amazing that she could even just wander off and only get a reprimand for it.

She laughed under her breath when she thought of them trying to look up her employee file to put a demerit or a negative note in it. She didn't let her amusement fully distract her, however, as she had arrived at yet another teleporter pad, this one just as heavily guarded, if not more so. Despite there being eight guards and all of them on alert, the atmosphere was more relaxed here, though Beth guessed it was because these men and women were elites.

They were higher in level and rebirth than any of the guards she had seen so far, while also giving off that cool, determined air that real professionals had about them. Unlike the last guard captain, this one remained calm at Beth's appearance and didn't seem all that perturbed by a random woman in coveralls showing up on the teleporter Pad out of nowhere. Overall, though, Beth was a bit more… nervous was the wrong word, as she could school these clowns in an eye blink.

She was just a bit more hesitant because a group this competent might actually catch on to just how much smoke she had been blowing up everyones' collective asses.

"Who are you and what your business here?" the guard captain asked, not quite bored, but not nervous or serious like the other guards had been.

"Teleporter pad maintenance," Beth replied, once again showing the tool and demonstrating just a bit of spatial magic while pointing at the pad.

"Pads have gone too long without maintenance. They're starting to get to the edge of desynchronizing or losing coordinate precision."

"Didn't hear anything about a maintenance sweep," said the captain, holding up a hand in a 'give me one minute' gesture at Beth as he clearly communicated something with someone.

"Right. Right. Alright, let's do it like that. Ma'am, would you mind coming with me for a minute?"

"The pads need checked, but I can go somewhere if you need it," Beth said, keeping a smile on her face and a relaxed posture but inward cursing. This guy probably caught on and was taking her to a security station or someone in charge of the building, if not just someone else in maintenance who would realize she was a fake. The guard captain gave her a nod and led the way out of the teleporter room, moving down a series of hallways to arrive at an area with a bank of elevators.

After pressing the button and waiting a moment, they entered the elevator, Beth noticing the captain, despite his calm attitude, was keeping a decided eye on her as the doors closed. Beth didn't waver from her calm, steady personality, not really having to fake it as the elevator rose through ten floors before letting out a soft ding.

This was a second building that was quite large, and she would have loved to have time and freedom to explore the place, as well as acquire anything that she thought interesting, but she was in a bit of a situation now that needed resolved first. The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

They exited the elevator, the captain walking next to her as they made their way down a rather fancy hallway, with polished marble floors, dark wooden wall panels, and several gold fixtures and ornaments along the length. Beth didn't think it was too ostentatious, but it was clear that a lot of wealth, as well as connections in getting the materials shipped in, had gone into the construction of the place, setting a certain image in the mind of anyone walking down to the offices at the far end.

There was a door on the right halfway down that was their destination, the doorway leading into a room with a secretary and several chairs for guests to wait if the person in the office was busy. Clearly they were not busy, as the security captain took Beth right through the large doors that led into a lavishly appointed office, one that Beth would say was really dipping its toe past the line of gaudy.

There was a large man seated behind the wide oak desk, with broad shoulders fit comfortably in a well-tailored suit, he gave off the feeling of restrained power and authority. Beth using her eye power to check his strength, or what he was showing of it, told a bit of a different story, putting him at ten rebirths; anywhere else, or in front of anyone else, that would have been rather impressive, especially as this seemed like a general manager or VP and not the big boss, but in front of Beth it was a bit weak.

Then again, he could be way stronger and fudging his numbers downwards in the same way Beth was, but she had a pretty good sense, after tens of thousands of hours of crazy, high-level fights, on what a being's true strength really was and she was getting the sense the man was a fresh Enlightened. Well, that might be a bad assumption, as someone could sit at any of the ten rebirths of Enlightened for a very long time, given certain circumstances.

Tazeen was always her go-to example, as the elf had achieved immortality before even hitting Ascended and had focused on raising his weapon skills and abilities rather than his rebirths, which wound up making him one of the scariest people around.

"Captain Ross. Excellent work, but you can return now," the man said.

"With respect, Manager Kim, I would like to-" the captain began before he was interrupted.

"Captain," the manager said in a slightly harsh voice.

"I have the situation under control."

"Yes, sir," the captain said, giving a small bow before turning on his heel and marching out of the office.

"Please, take a seat," the manager said to Beth, gesturing at a chair in front of the desk.

"Thanks," Beth said, still alert but happy to play along, sitting across from the man and crossing her legs at the knee.

"Now, let's discuss who you are and what you're doing here," Kim said, leaning back in his chair before pulling something out of a drawer. Beth hadn't reacted, glad she didn't when she saw it was a case of smokes, Beth recognizing the universal form of the cigar as the man pulled one out and trimmed it.

"Cigar?"

"I don't mind but I usually don't smoke," Beth replied, declining with a slight hand wave.

"I'm curious about something," Kim said as he finished preparing the cigar and stuck the end in his mouth, not lighting it right away.

"Who, exactly, were you sent by. It can't have been those bumbling fools over on Argand; those twats wouldn't know good help if it slapped them in the face. I doubt you're here sniffing around for one of our direct corporate competitors, either, which has me rather confused. Were you hired by one of the teams competing with the Founder over the new entrance near the City of Mended Dreams? That seems most likely."

"Hmm, don't know if you know how much you just gave away there, but that's very interesting," Beth said, reclining into the chair and making a mug of hunting spice appear in her hand, casually sipping it as she thought.

"Honestly, this might not be a very productive conversation, but your first guess was actually closer than you might think."

"Surely not," the man said, taking out his cigar to gesture with it for a moment, clearly an unconscious habit of his.

"Those bumblers couldn't even keep a relatively docile population in check, but they managed to hire a spatial mage to go over and snoop around on the main funders of their little rebellion? I highly doubt that that's really the case."

"Well, maybe we can separate out a few things and come to some understanding here," Beth said, making a gesture and revealing her Gold Emblem.

"I'm not with the people on Argand, but I am a seasoned Gold Emblem that is in consideration for Platinum that was asked to come and investigate the rebellion."

"Ah, I see," Kim said before she could continue.

"I haven't been hands-on with that operation, considering the whole company has taken a step back from it, but somebody must have crossed a line for you to be involved."

"Yes, that's exactly right," Beth said with a nod.

"Several people—we have the names and IDs—decided it was a great idea to attack uninvolved CRA members, and I mean truly uninvolved members who were there on other business. That caused a response that caused an escalation and then I was called in. Given your understanding of various factors, I'm sure you're not surprised by such a chain of events."

"No, it was something we really wanted to avoid and a reason we pulled back, or mostly pulled back. The rebels are, forgive me for being extra derogatory here, but not the greatest minds, or people, that I have every met. If I said to you they were mostly criminals and bottom-dwelling scumbags, that wouldn't really be too far off the mark.

Funding their little power play aligned with several of our current company objectives, but it was not ever a serious relationship," Kim explained, pausing to finally light the cigar.

"We invested in them, mainly money and weapons, and they had an agreement to operate within certain limits and to provide our company with several key access once they took control of certain sectors. They've already gone past all reasonable limits with their actions so far, and I haven't even kept entirely abreast of the situation. So, they brought you in to clean up, and now we're in a bit of a situation."

"Maybe we can work through this without your company getting into a major conflict with the CRA," Beth said with a shrug.

"I'm not entirely opposed to negotiating, but you're going to have to cut ties with the rebel group. That's going to be non-negotiable, and further than that, there might be some restitution demanded from the company, depending on what we agree on."

"I understand that's a disguise," Kim said, frowning at her as he puffed on the cigar, "but you don't seriously expect to dictate terms to us, do you? I have to say, even being a Gold Emblem, I think you might be a little outclassed. We do not want a conflict with the CRA, trust me on that point, but we are not the sort of organization that will just roll over to anyone coming by and being slightly angry." Before Beth could offer a retort, there was a knock at the office door, drawing both of their attention.

"Apologies, but this must be an emergency," Kim said with a frown.

"Enter!" The secretary from before opened the door and hurried inside, striding across the office and around the desk, placing a small stack of papers on the desk in front of Kim and bending down to whisper in his ear.

Beth found that rather amusing, considering basically anybody with above a hundred stats could hear even a very faint whisper from that distance, and she was way over a hundred stats, and she listened as the secretary informed Kim of an emergency report outlining damages to the rebel operation alongside a plea for help and resources.

Kim glanced at Beth after the secretary's whisper, shuddering just a bit at the malicious grin she was sporting, before reaching down and quickly paging through the pile of documents, frowning as he skimmed them.

"Well, I see you've been busier than we thought," he finally growled, looking up at her.

"Hey, I can't take all the credit," Beth demurred, slouching a little in the chair and swinging her right leg a bit.

"I have a very talented team that is very good at what they do."

"And what is it they do?" asked Kim with an aggrieved expression.

"Break things," Beth answered with a massive grin, just a touch of her power displayed for a fraction of a second making the secretary go pale and nearly pass out while Kim started to sweat profusely, even if he kept a straight face.