We pass through the intersection between corridors and continue onward.

631… 633… 635.

That’s the room.

Whereas the offices on the right side all have even-numbers, the offices on this side have only odd-numbers; a peculiar designing choice.

Eric passes his card by the room and it obediently opens.

“Oh, yes. I trust you already have a card?”

“Yeah.”

I show him the ID card I received on floor 2.

“Good, because this company doesn’t use keys. You’ll need your card to open and close the office.”

I vaguely remember being briefed about it.

“Can I open any office with my card?”

“Heh, you wish. If I could freely open the CEO’s office with this card… let’s just say I’d have some big extra zeroes in my salary.”

He laughs with a shrug.

“Then how does it work?”

“Cards grant access to various areas, according to database configurations. Your fresh card probably doesn’t have access to anything other than the elevator. I’ll later contact the relevant people to fix that.”

We both enter the room.

“Ugh, gah gah…”

“Geh, yes… it hasn’t quite been used, geh…”

We both cough once we are inside. The air is so thick that I can hardly breathe in here. I thought Eric was joking about me being the only QA member, but this room proves otherwise.

“Wait a sec, I’ll be right back.”

Eric exits the room and strides through the hallway. Struggling with the poison inside, I step out and examine the room from a safe zone.

In front of the door stands a big table, with metallic legs and a wooden top. It’s surrounded by many black chairs and looks useful for team meetings... if there WAS a team.

To the right stands a nice, big sofa; it can probably house at least three people at once. Further into the room there are four desks, separated by partitions. These must be small personal offices.

“Let’s try this.”

Eric returns before I notice, with a remote controller in his hand. He points the remote at the air conditioner and successfully activates it.

“Good.”

He nods and puts down the remote on top of the big table.

“I borrowed this from room 631, in case they ask.”

What does he mean “in case they ask”...? Did he steal it?

“So? How do you like your office?”

“It’s… eh… well…”

“Yes, that’s a good way to put it.”

Am I really going to be alone in such a huge room? It feels like I’m some sort of VIP, not a greenhorn.

“I heard they are recruiting more people right now, so don’t be surprised if others pop up.”

“Makes sense.“

I simply arrived first in an office which was planned for a real team, that’s all there is to it.

“There’s no much you can do until they bring the model for testing, you can just loaf around until then, heh.”

He shrugs with a sarcastic smile. He’s acting like a lazy boss, but that’s totally fine by me.

“So… what am I actually going to test?”

“Hm? Obviously it’s an android. What, you applied to this job without knowing that much?”

“Ah, no… I just, er… wanted to make sure, you know.”

He gives me a blank expression which makes me feel embarrassed about the question. Nevertheless, there’s definitely something strange about it.

“You said that you’re releasing a version of it soon, right?”

“Yes, I sure did.”

“But… as far as I know, Anomalia’s androids aren’t released to the market.”

“A company can’t live for long without some sort of income, they do sell the androids.”

“Really?!”

That’s a shocker. If there are androids as well-made as the “Veronica Bles clones”, they should be a huge sensation in the market.

“They are only sold to certain individuals, is what I heard. It’s true that they aren’t sold to the public market.”

“Certain individuals? Like who?”

“I couldn’t say, that’s not my business.”

He shrugs in disinterest.

He’s a classic programmer: he doesn’t care how his code is being used as long as he gets paid for writing it. Most of the developers in my previous company held the same attitude.

My guess would be that the company only sells androids to very rich people. I read before that Anomalia’s androids haven’t yet reached the market due to their absurd price.

“Oh, it’s already 13:00.”

Eric checks the watch on his left wrist and turns to me.

“It’s lunchtime. We don’t have free meals here, so you can hit floor 1 to buy something.”

“It’s okay, I brought food from home.”

“I see, then just stay in the area. Call me when they deliver the model, I’ll show you the basics. I’ll be going to floor 1 for a while, then back to my office.”

Once Eric leaves the room, I put down my backpack and fish inside it. When I take out my phone, there are mandatory messages from mother:

“How’s it going?”

“Don’t forget about the sammich ;)”

Sigh, nosy as ever. I briefly text her back: “Fine so far. Eating now.”.

While at it, I notice that my phone’s battery is running low. The room has multiple wall plugs, so I casually plug the phone into one of them and steal some electricity.

I then sit down to eat, wondering what sort of mind-blowing android they are going to bring.