Chương 95: CDM 2, Chapter 31: Intake Process

We were warned it would happen, but that didn't make it any less pleasant. As soon as we reached customs in Los Angeles, the four of us were separated into individual interview rooms. Before we left Pittsburgh, Enforcer Chapman informed us that government employees returning from abroad faced more scrutiny. Customs would stop us, and we would also be interviewed at least one more time by CDM investigators, usually two weeks or so after we were back. That sucked, but it made sense.

I suspected Chrissy was familiar with this process as well because she gave us detailed itineraries that accounted for our time out of the country. Nathan and I agreed that it was more suspicious to have that information perfectly prepared, but Megan believed the people in customs would actually appreciate it. It was like Chrissy had pre-filled half of the report for them already.

My interviewer was a tired-looking soccer mom, the kind who, despite how docile they might seem, were really inches away from a nuclear-grade meltdown. After we verified all of the basic information, she went into her questions. What was the purpose of your visit to Hawaii and Taiwan?

"Hawaii was just a connecting flight. We were invited to be on a crawler television show, and that's where they sent us." How long were you out of the country?

"15 days." Where did you stay in Taiwan?

"With a company called Bluewater Security." What is it they do?

"They escort people into the wilds on leveling adventures." Did you go into the wilds?

"Yes." Are you bringing anything from the wilds with you into the United States?

"My roommate brought a stuffed dire guinea pig back with us." That answer knocked her off script. She went from being a living electronic form to a genuinely curious investigator in a blink. Given what she did for a living, I imagined saying something she hadn't heard before was a rare experience, so she paid close attention.

"Can you repeat that?" she asked.

"My roommate brought a stuffed dire guinea pig back with us. I didn't personally bring anything from the wilds back with me."

"Why?"

"We've had this running joke about getting a stuffed pet for the apartment. He was offered one, so he took it."

"Who offered it?"

"Bluewater Security."

"For what purpose?" My natural reaction was to sigh, which I regretted, given the nature of the interview.

"Decoration. I'm sure he'll use it to scare me at least once." She seemed to collect herself. Did you pack your own luggage, and at any time, was your luggage out of your sight?

"Packed my own. And several times. The people we stayed with sent them in a separate car to the airport for us, so not since then." Are you carrying any firearms, explosives, weapons, or illegal drugs?

"On my person, no. We did travel with weapons since we're crawlers, so there's a bunch of those in our checked bags." Did you or have you ever had contact with someone from a foreign government?

"Not to my knowledge." Have you ever been approached by someone wanting access to government information?

"No." Do you have anything to declare?

"No." When I got out of the interview room, I found Beth rubbing her eyes and Nathan asleep with his head propped against a vending machine. My heart lurched, thinking Beth was crying, but when she lowered her hands, that wasn't the case. She was just tired.

"They threatened to take Lil' Dorion," Nathan said. His eyes never opened.

"This thing better be worth the trouble."

"When you see it, you'll be mad we didn't get two."

"Did your interviews go okay?" They both nodded. A moment later, Megan joined us.

"I suppose this means we're all free to go then."

"It'd be cool if we were all going back to the guild house right now," Nathan added as we walked to baggage claim. Megan kissed him on the cheek.

"Someday soon. We're making progress."

"Yeah. We are." Eventually, Nathan and I got back to the apartment. We hadn't been gone long, but I was relieved to be home.

"We made it," Nathan whispered as though he were out of breath.

"Wild trip, bro." Enjoying the story? Show your support by reading it on the official site. He wrapped his arms around me before I could raise mine, bundling my arms awkwardly to my ribs.

"I'm glad you're my best friend, and thank you for putting up with me," he added.

"Of course, man." I don't remember anything from that moment until I woke up late in the night. Any drowsiness I had fled in an instant. With no hope of going back to sleep, I grabbed my phone. McDouglas sent me an email: Come to my office when you get in this morning. This morning? As in a few hours from now? I was certain we had the day off to recover, and a quick search of my emails confirmed that we did. Did McDouglas just not know that, or was this some kind of test? Goddamnit. I was going into the office.

"Welcome home, Enforcer Gray," McDouglas said with a big grin. His hands were laced behind his head, and he leaned back in his desk chair. He wore a cotton candy pink polo today.

"So an energy drink company took you to Taiwan to level? I thought Chapman was trying to make a joke, but it was actually true."

"We got really lucky."

"Blatantly accepting a bribe is an interesting decision."

"What?" He grinned.

"Just joking. How far did you get?"

"Level 10." McDouglas lost his smile.

"Are you messing with me to get revenge for what I said just now?"

"Nope. It was a busy trip."

"Sounds like it if you reached level 10. What did you think of the wilds? That was your first time, right?"

"I really liked it, to be honest," I said.

"I can see why people want to go deeper, but I also see why people avoid it. We got ambushed by locals coming out of our last gate."

"How many?"

"17."

"And what, you fought?" I shook my head.

"Our guides got us out right before the gate closed. Our attackers were still inside when it did."

"They deal with that a lot out there?"

"Seemed like it."

"You good?"

"Yeah," I answered.

"I'm fine."

"Well, welcome back. I wanted to tell you in person that George Baker got released, in case you hadn't heard."

"Chapman emailed me about it. Should I be worried?"

"Just aware. If you ever get a funky feeling, though, let me know."

"Did anything big happen with RAID while I was out?" McDouglas shrugged.

"As far as I know, the case is still in court. That was really all I needed, though. Mostly wanted to say 'welcome back.' Oh, I also heard Grensmith gave you a contact for wilderness training. How is that going?"

"He never called us back. I'll try him a couple more times before I give up."

"That's a shame. Those are good skills to have. Let me know if you want another recommendation."

"I will. Thank you. Can I ask you something? I read this study about gates getting progressively more difficult, and I was wondering, does the CDM take an official stance on that kind of thing?"

"What sort of stance would they take?"

"Like announcing that they agree with the researchers and are planning accordingly or maybe the exact opposite of that." Chuckling, McDouglas replied, "You think I'm exaggerating, but digitalization is still a new idea around here. Changes to anything take a long time to trickle down when you work in government, so I wouldn't expect any sort of agile adaptation. Nobody hurries unless something is on fire. They hurry the fastest when it's their own department burning."

"That makes sense. Well, thank you for your answer." When I turned to leave, McDouglas called after me, "I'm impressed you came into work today. I figured you would take this day off to recover." All I could manage was a weak smile.

"Ah. I'm sorry about that. Thanks for coming in just for me."

"It's fine."

"Good to have you back," Enforcer Cortez said to me at the start of our shift the following morning. We were scheduled for three shifts in a row, which was brutal. This first shift was harvest site inspections, and the next two were RAID room duty. I wondered if Cortez did something to upset Chapman, but I decided against opening that box.

"Was the leveling productive?" he asked as we got into our CDM SUV to start making the rounds. Two feet of snow had recently fallen, and that was the third snow in a row. The city was out of places to put it, and many of the roads, especially those not in the city proper, were plowed down to "good enough" rather than cleared completely. We didn't pull any sites that required chains on our tires that day, but that was just dumb luck.

"Made it to level 10," I answered as I drove.

"No shit. Damn. You trained like a manic."

"We definitely did."

"This was a Nad-Nade contest? I couldn't find anything about it online."

"They said their socials run behind by a few months sometimes, so you might not see us for a while." Which was a half-truth. The Dungeon Divas would appear on the Nad-Nade social channels, but my face never would.

"And the wilds? What was that like?"

"Like the surface itself was a dungeon," I answered.

"We had escorts, but it was still pretty intense."

"I'm so jealous, brother. So jealous. I got one goddamn crawl while you were gone. One!"

"That's awful."

"Not going to lie," he said, "I'm pretty frustrated. A Ricky Contract is starting to sound pretty good."

"Ricky Contract? As in Rick Young, the crawler prophet?"

"Guess you missed that little nugget. New Eden is going to need its own version of the CDM, so he has outright said anyone with dungeon management experience above level 5 is automatically given an interview, so people are calling it the Ricky Contract. It ends up being twice what I'm making now and comes with a bunch of other shit."

"The CDM has to be pissed about that." Cortez shrugged.

"I know Chapman wasn't happy, but none of the shot callers have said anything, as far as I know."

"A nation-church doesn't sound like your kind of party."

"That's only where it's starting," he argued.

"The pilgrims had big sticks up their asses, but that didn't stay the norm."

"Yeah… How long do you expect to be alive? That wasn't a fast process."

"Let a guy dream. I already missed the first wave of South American crawler jobs. I told myself a special project with the CDM would be good for my career and keep me close to my family. Nope. I end up in fucking Pittsburgh with no gates to run." He turned to me.

"No offense."

"None taken."

"South America still gives me a decent chance at seeing my family every so often because I'll actually have the money to fly back home. If I miss this boat, joining up to resettle Australia might be my only real choice."

"You're that serious about leaving the CDM?" He sighed.

"Sometimes even I don't know whether the shit I'm talking is for real or not. The idea is serious enough that it's rolling around in my brain. I can say that much for sure."

"I'm sorry," I said.

"I totally get why you're frustrated. What would have to change for you to feel better about being here?"

"More gates and a raise."

"So that sounds like you've already made your decision."

"Because neither of those things is likely to happen?"

"Yep." Cortez slouched in his seat, defeated.

"You're right. I only just got my bump for finishing the internship, so a raise isn't happening. I don't see the gate situation getting better either."

"For what it's worth, I like having you as a partner."

"That's definitely not enough to keep me here," he said, holding a straight face before breaking out into laughter a few moments later.

"Come on, Enforcer Gray. Let's go write the Allegheny Dungeon Delvers some tickets."