Outside, Adam's car arrived at precisely 7:30am, just as CILLA had planned. She knew his schedule, how heavy the traffic was, if there were any diversions in place, before he'd even stepped out of the house. His reflection distorted across the panel of the car door as it swung open. He tossed his briefcase into the back seat, dropped into the vehicle and instructed CILLA to close the privacy glass. The driver didn't skip a beat. The moment the door sealed, he barked for CILLA to call his secretary.
"Good morning, Mr Ash-"
"Who the fuck is Alan Smith from Apex?!"
"I, I'm...Sorry, Mr Ashworth?"
"Answer the god-damn question Marie. Who is he? It's bad enough you didn't tell me about the meeting, but to go ahead and approve it without my say-so, the same morning I'm meeting with the Board of Directors...I can't even begin to explain how stupid that is!"
"Mr Ashworth, I did text you last night but-" Adam had already pulled out his mobile before Marie finished her sentence. He looked at the notifications on the wake-up screen and then remembered that he turned it off after he got run down by the boy on his e-wheel. 'Shit.'
"A single text, Marie? That's your idea of trying to contact me?!"
"Mr Ashworth, please, stop shouting at me. I tried to call you multiple times. I left voice messages. When you didn't pick up I sent you several text messages-"
"You really are clueless! Some knuckle-dragging fuck-wit sends a calendar invite, and you can't even work out how to decline it." Adam balled his hand into a fist and was dragging it against the fabric of the chair beside him.
"I tried to decline the appointment multiple times, but it kept re-appearing, until eventually it wouldn't even-"
"Wouldn't even, what?! Let you click the button?! Bullshit!"
"I'm sorry, Mr Ashworth. Do you want me to contact Apex Intelligence and ask for Mr-"
"Oh fuck off, Marie." Adam flipped her off in the air, despite there being no video feed. He sat in the silence for a moment, as the car continued its approach to Calder Energy HQ.
"I want you to do something and then take the rest of the day off. Before I get there I need you to find out who this Alan Smith is, what he 'consults' on at Apex Intelligence, who he reports to, his ring size, his waist measurement and which testicle hangs lower. Do you understand?!"
"...Yes, Mr Ashworth."
"Good, now get on with it, because I am NOT risking the most important meeting of my career for some prick who thinks he can dictate my day. Lock the door when you leave. CILLA, end the fucking call." Adam threw his mobile against the privacy glass.
His fingers clenched the plush leather as he stared out the window. He'd long since cleared the boundary of The Meadows; the greenery and palatial homes had been swapped for "economical living" and bright lights. Each street was progressively more crowded, older, poorer, as he passed through the residential district and headed toward the Corp district in the city centre.
Adam's car reached the intersection of Calder-Meridian Plaza, the central hub of the Corp district where every major player had their own skyscraper. A pair of Aegis Security drones hovered into view, running their patrol in perfect synchrony. They were visible by design—painted in the company's colours, blinking red every five seconds as both warning and reassurance. "What would they do if I jumped out and screamed?" Adam reminisced with the driver. "That's what I asked my teacher the first time we'd visited this place on a school trip." The lights blinked red, steady as a heartbeat. "Comply, and nothing happens," was the response Adam said he received, from the Aegis Security guard accompanying the children on the trip. The same drones patrolled the perimeter at Calder Prime — Adam had signed the security contract himself.
Alderbourne sold the dream of effortless affluence. A mix of industrial, economic and services districts, surrounded by enough homes to ensure every role could be filled by the local population. It was vast, a project that began almost 30 years ago as a new industrial region on the outskirts of what used to be Greater Manchester. But after the Second British Civil War of the 2060s, the whole region was physically and economically devastated. That's when the UK's two largest corporations, Calder Energy and Meridian Healthcare, whose founders had been competing for years, decided to work together to create the UK's first 3D printed city. It was an unlikely partnership. But the two combined the infrastructure, energy resources and capital of Calder Energy, and the brilliant new 3D printing technology-originally designed to 3D print organs- of Meridian Healthcare to mass produce 3d printed homes, roadways, practically anything and everything. The two corporations became the majority shareholders of a young business, then called Apex Robotics, to create the printing robots for the project. The whole city was built in less than a decade, and has continued to grow ever since.
The sun rose over Alderbourne's skyscrapers, huge glass monuments to the corporations that owned them. Holograms were projected across every surface, reminding the city who these towers belonged to. Some mornings, Adam felt lucky to be rubbing shoulders with the people inside. Other mornings, he felt the walls closing in. Today was the latter.
Adam stared out of the car window, taking in the city-scape as it passed, when the quiet was interrupted by his phone vibrating. He reached down to the footwell to pick it up. He had been emailed by Alan Smith directly.
To: Adam Ashworth From: Alan Smith
Good morning, Mr Ashworth, I know we were due to meet at 08:30am, but I'm just about to arrive. I'll be in your office.
AS
He looked through the glass partition and through the windscreen, where he saw an Apex Intelligence hoverdrone touch down on the landing pad of Calder Energy HQ. "Who the hell is this guy?!"