Jakunen Mirai
Chapter 8: Damn Technology To Hell
***
Kazuya sighed deeply, and stared down at the idiot contraption,
waiting for it to do something besides make odd noises he knew it shouldn’t be.
He’d stood there for almost fifteen minutes now, watching the machine boredly. And to make matters worse, everyone else wanted to
use the photocopier too. This Friday was certainly different from last Friday’s
rather social outcome, to say the least.
He’d had no luck so far today. No luck with anything at all. His
alarm clock decided it was time for daylight saving, even though it was July,
and he woke up an hour late. Then, his secretary called in sick. Of course, he
had to get a surprise email waiting; a few shipments were going to be late
because of a tropical storm off the coast. And since his secretary was off work
for today, he had to do his own photocopying…not that he minded, but it was
frustrating when the photocopier at the mansion, like everything else, wasn’t
working. Actually, it was just churning out paper with black ink splots all over it. He had to pull out the paper tray to
shut it up, then turn off the power at the wall. And
now the photocopier in the main building was doing nothing but make strange
sounds.
To create just a little more tension, everyone was dead silent, as
if they were scared of rustling paper and signing their deaths to their boss.
He glanced over his shoulder at the woman standing behind him with files to
copy, then looked back at the machine. To hell with
it, he might as well break the silence. “I take it my predecessor didn’t believe
in maintenance, ne?” A few people shook their heads in agreement. It was a few
more tense seconds before he actually got a reply. It was the woman who stood
behind him.
“In all the years I’ve worked here, I’ve never actually seen a new
photocopier here.”
He looked at her again, and she visibly grew extremely nervous.
Gee, it wasn’t like he was going to eat her or something. He looked over the
back of the photocopier and raised a dark brow. Well, there were certainly
plenty of spider webs down there.
“You know, I’d certainly believe that…”
A few people shifted nervously and glanced down at their documents
and watches. Yes, time was always of the essence, and right now it wasn’t
co-operating.
“This is ridiculous. I’m going to call up for a new photocopier, this one is going to die any moment.” Just as
he was about to walk off to get to a phone, the copier started churning out
paper at an incredible rate, and people started panicking, trying to stop the
paper from flying out. Eventually, someone just pulled the plug out of the
socket, and a few sighs of relief could be heard.
***
Two hours later, the copier disaster had been amended, and, much
to Kazuya’s surprise, his laptop computer actually turned on without getting
the Blue Screen Of Death. The internet connected, too.
This looked promising.
He’d logged into his email account, and was looking for anything
new. Hopefully not a stock market crash, knowing today.
He scrolled down the page, and found something he wished he hadn’t.
‘live babes on cam…’
He stopped reading the subject heading right then and deleted it.
As he looked further down the page, he found more. Great…someone had sold his
email address to a porno ring. He knew something had to go wrong with the
computer somewhere. He searched out all the undesirable material, and blocked
the email services that had sent it. Once it was over and done, there was only
one unread email left. He opened it, and began reading.
It was notifying him of another raid on G-Corporation. This time,
it was the
In the meantime, he opened his diary beside the computer, and
looked for a free day. Next Thursday…brilliant. He
noted that