Oh, this wasn't turning out good at all.

Where did it all go wrong? Troy had planned it all out. Use Adam to play the poker game, and gain better results that way. Simple. So, how exactly could he screw that up!

A debriefing meeting? Troy didn't even know that Adam had those. But, looking back at it now, it was obvious to have. It was weird, that Troy was not being debriefed actually. But, maybe it was just a weekly thing for him instead. Who knows.

The point of it all was; Troy was spiralling into a pile of figurative shit, and he needed to steer it away.

Adam said he would be back. For his own mental stability, Troy needed to believe that, for as long as possible. In the meantime, he needed to delay the group for as long as he possibly could. But… how the heck was he supposed to do that?

Troy pondered this, as they walked down the street. They had actually been walking down it for quite a while now. If Troy remembered correctly, they would be upon the casino in-

“The light of heaven shines upon us”, Charlie loudly proclaimed. How he said such things in front of others, baffled Troy to his core. Even more, the people around them didn't even spare Charlie a glance. It must be a regular thing, Troy surmised. What a horrible reality he lived in.

“Could you please just call it a casino”, Darlow pleaded.

“That's dumb”, Charlie refuted, without anything to back his claim up.

“What's dumb about calling it what it is?”

“It is uncreative. You can never have a full appreciation for something if you can't have a new name for it, every time you see it,” Charlie explained. Troy thought back to the tour with Charlie. On it, he was pretty sure Charlie had just called it a casino like a normal person.

“Yeah, you guys can just argue senselessly out here”, Zep said. “Me? I'm going inside. I have money to waste.”

Darlow followed.

“I think you're supposed to say 'money to win',” he said.

“I'm just being honest, sprout”, Zep retorted.

Francis walked in behind the two, without a word or glance to others still standing outside.

“Come on”, Esme said. “Nothing to do out here. Except for adultery, of course. But I don't think we can get away with that a seventh time.” And she walked inside too, leaving Charlie and Troy just standing outside.

“Are you ready?” Charlie asked the clearly nervous Troy. The reason for the nervousness was up for debate, though.

“Yeah, sure,” Troy replied. “Nothing stressful about the current situation at all.”

“That's the spirit!”, Charlie said, completely ignoring Troy's blatant wording choices. “Come on! We have some credits to exchange.”

And in the two went. One in great spirits, the other something of a nervous wreck.

'Defining it as a willingness to strike, might be a little presumptuous of you.', Adam said. He himself would define it as such. But, on paper, it didn't sound so good to say such things.

“How so?” Dr Fidelis asked. “You expressed interest in striking. Does that not satisfy willingness to do so?”

Through the microphone that Adam was strapped into, he could hear the classical music changing. Now, the melody had a faster tone to it.

'No, it does not. While I did express interest in doing a strike, this was only to gain knowledge about the subject, and the effects it would cause. I was not interested in achieving these effects, for anything other than scientific research.', Adam clarified.

“That is good to hear. Let the record state, that I see this as a reasonable explanation, for questionable interest and actions.”

That was easy.

“Next on the agenda for today… your methods of assessing truth from lies.”

Not as easy. Adam couldn't complain about it, though, or Dr Fidelis would just lengthen the debriefing, so he could talk about his feelings again.

The casino wasn't as grand, as the night before. Troy might even call it a little cramped. Not from the size of the place, of course. But, he felt trapped inside its walls. That… was not a good sign, in his own personal assessment.

Still, there was a good amount of people inside. The street outside may have been a little crowded, but this place took the cake. Did these people really like gambling that much?

The others had gone somewhere Troy couldn't see, likely to acquire the group a table to use. This left Troy and Charlie together.

“Let's get ourselves some of those tokens”, Charlie declared. “Credits won't do us much good here.”

This caused Troy to think back to the earlier night.

“I thought you had some in your pocket,” Troy stated, slightly confused.

“Oh, I do”, Charlie confirmed. “But, that's just one of my secret stashes. It is exclusively for emergency situations. No point in using them, when I have a way to transfer credits instead.”

That made sense to Troy, at least. Even though he couldn't think of any instances, outside of the casino, where a token was necessary, there had to be some. Also, there had to be one good reason, for why Charlie even started doing so.

Maybe, it was not used as currency but used for its shape. In the right hands, those tokens could be used as emergency screwdrivers… No, that was just Troy's city bias skewing his thoughts. But then, what else could it be? Emergency weapon? Troy sure didn't want those things put in his eyes.

Yet, in such a scenario, where tokens could be used, wouldn't fingers be more effective? You know, more pressure could be used. Maybe, he should just leave it, as unusual equipment for unusual circumstances. Nothing specific. That was the point.

Troy took himself back to reality. Charlie was beginning to stare, with Troy's unexplained silence.

What were they talking about?

…

Oh, yeah. The casino tokens.

“How do you even exchange the credits to tokens?” Troy asked Charlie.

“Oh, its a bit complicated, if I'm being honest with you”, Charlie explained. “You need a whole account set up, just to start with.”

“Is it harder than getting credits?” Troy asked.

“No, it's much easier than getting those damn things,” Charlie answered. “Most things are easier here, than getting that particular form filled.”

An opportunity to delay the game had shown itself. And, Troy wasn't gonna be letting it pass by.

“Well, if it is simpler, wouldn't it be a good idea, for me to learn how to do it, at the earliest moment?” Troy stated. “If we waited in getting me into the system, it would just impede us further down the line.”

The words seemed to surprise Charlie. If it was positive or not, Troy wasn't too sure.

“Are you sure?” Charlie asked hesitantly. “While it isn't too hard, it can take a good chunk of our time.”

This wasn't going the way Troy wanted it to. Charlie needed to commend him for his choices and go along with it. Not show non-adherence to it. He needed to twist this to his own side.

“I'm sure, it won't take too much time”, Troy began, throwing out his most charismatic voice. “And besides, the others will probably take just as long, in setting the table up."

Troy wasn't exactly sure if they were setting the table up, or just doing something else. But, the point still stood.

“Well… “, Charlie began. “If you're sure.”

“I am,” Troy confirmed hastily.

“Then… let's go get these tokens,” Charlie said, walking forward. Troy just followed. “First stop; The registration desk.”

It seemed that Troy still had a chance. Adam just needed to hurry up.

Adam was not hurrying up. He would have liked to, but Dr Fidelis didn't let him.

As of now, they had been at it for a good seven minutes. This didn't sound so bad at first until one realised that they were not even halfway done. At least, by Adam approximations.

“So, explain this to me again”, Dr Fidelis started. “You say, that you can detect lies or general deceit, by the position of people's tongues?”

Adam regretted trying to be quick. In doing so, he had just thrown out too many examples, without fulfilling each expected amount of explanations. This left Dr Fidelis asking into every single thing Troy had mentioned.

'I am not too sure about the mechanics of this phenomena. I have mostly studied it analytically.', Adam sent out.

“That is still data, that can be conferred”, Dr Fidelis pointed out. “Could you please try to do so.” That wasn't even implied to be a question. It was a full-out order.

'Through other methods of detection, I have been able to point out lies. Using this, I have studied the different states and positions and had their tongue in, while, and after, lying. In most cases, after lying, the human body tenses up by a lesser amount. This is also common to happen in the tongue, making it point slightly upward. Again, the only test subject in this analysis was my assistant, Troy Maxwell. Therefore the data can be skewed, and outright wrong, in the most extreme case.'

“Thank you, for the warning,” Dr Fidelis said. “Now, I believe that I've forgotten to mention the music, which is currently playing in the background. Adam, do you have any comment on the content?”

'No, I do not. Can we focus on the debriefing, please?'

Oh, Adam just knew he had messed up, after saying that.

“Why do you have such a fixation on the debriefing system?” Dr Fidelis asked, much to Adam's regrets.

This was taking too long.

Troy had hit the jackpot. A few minutes had already passed, and they weren't even at the desk.

There was a line! A god-given gift, in Troy's eyes. In Charlie's, though, it was more than a bit different.

“Are you really sure, we should be doing this now?” Charlie asked. “The line hasn't moved that much, yet. The others are probably done setting it all up.”

Not good. He needed some pressure to stay, it seemed.

“We have plenty of time”, Troy assured Charlie. Though, it mostly sounded like he was assuring himself, of the fact. “We have plenty of time to work with. And, if we go out of the line now, we'll have wasted the last few minutes we stood here.”

Troy had actually read up on that! Right now, they were at a potential loss. If they stepped out of the line, it would register as a definite loss. But, if they stayed in the line, the potential loss would grow, but also give the chance of turning into a victory. It didn't make sense to Troy, but the brain worked in mysterious ways, and he wasn't questioning that fact.

Charlie seemed to be debating his choices, weighing it all in his head. This all culminated in him sighing.

“We'll stay here”, he said. Oh, how happy that statement made Troy!

“But”, Charlie began. “If we aren't first in five minutes, I'm just giving you half of the emergency tokens, and then we'll find the rest of the group. Deal?”

Troy had no good, explainable reason to say no, much to his displeasure.

“Deal.”

“So how did that make you feel?” Dr Fidelis pressed on.

Eleven minutes had now passed. One minute over the told maximum. Adam wanted to point it out but was afraid that it would lengthen the whole debacle even more.

'Irritated.', Adam sent.

“Full sentences, please. 'I feel' statements if you prefer,” Dr Fidelis clarified.

When did this turn into a psychological assessment? This was not even inside the spectrum of Dr Fidelis' regular profession. This part should have been done by Dr Hale if you asked Adam about it.

'The sarcasm was annoying, in the least. I understand, where he might be coming from. Repretetive work is not for every sane entity. But, I have expectations of him. This is his job. He is supposed to assist me, in any way, that I request.', Adam explained.

“Something that you said there, isn't what we're looking for in a partnership,” Dr Fidelis stated. “While, yes, Troy is supposed to follow your orders, his mental health is therefore in your hands. It is a big responsibility, and something you need to think about every time you give him requests. Some of your orders may have seemed fair from your perspective. But, from mine, and likely from Troy's as well, they have looked to be gruelling to perform.”

This actually interested Adam. A contradicting world-view was always so.

'Could you give me an example of these unjust requests of mine?', Adam asked.

“Any particular reason, for this request of yours?” Dr Fidelis asked. Why did he make it so hard? Adam understood that he was making a show for the camera's, but did he have to lay it on so thickly?

'To understand my downturns, and hopefully improve them in the future.', Adam stated.

Dr Fidelis paused, before swiftly nodding.

“Your reason is valid,” he began. “Due to our lack of surveillance of your exact words, we have been relying on context, through the words spoken by Troy Maxwell. Particularly, his frequent mutterings, of what seems to be repeats of your orders. One of these mutterings is what initially caught my attention.

During the latest test, at one of the last phases, Troy Maxwell was under heavy stress. This caused a variety of symptoms. One of which was involuntary eye twitch. From what we've gathered, you berated Troy for this. Is the research of ours not correct?”

'It is. And thank you for the example. In the future, I will try to refrain from criticizing involuntary actions caused by the nature of the testing.', Adam sent. He was specific on his promises though. The critique was something he felt was needed everywhere. How could one improve, if they didn't know where they failed?

“It is of no hindrance. Shall we continue?” Dr Fidelis asked.

Of course, there was more. There would always be more.

In under five minutes, Troy and Charlie were finally at the desk. On the other side, sat a automation, with one of those realistic plastic faces. It was supposed to have a smile, but Troy thought it swayed more towards the sadistic department of looks.

“Good afternoon, gentlemen. How can I help you today?” it asked, with a jovial, business tone.

“Hello,” Charlie quickly said, before Troy got the chance to speak. “My friend is new here, and looking to get through the papers, so he can exchange credits to tokens. Is there any way you could assist us with that.”

“Certainly,” the automation said. On the metal desk, a holographic document appeared, written in text so small, that Troy had to squint to even recognize the letters. A standard practice nowadays, if one ignored the legal implications of it.

The automation handed a pen out toward the two.

“Please sign, and we'll get you started instantly,” the automation stated.

Instantly, huh? That didn't sound slow enough for Troy's taste. But, from the look in Charlie's eyes, Troy would need to speed it up a little, if they were even going to go through the whole process.

Troy scribbled out his signature, and the holographic image disappeared.

“Processing. Please wait for a- Done. You can now use the automatic exchangers to your right, to exchange currencies,” the automation. “Please have a nice day, and step out of the way.”

“Come on”, Charlie said, nearly pulling Troy along. “Nearly done, now.”

He said that as if it was a good thing.