Infiltrating Harmony

Infiltrating Harmony Part 9

"The next day, two Bounty Officers knocked on our door and told us what happened," finished Berlin.

"Geez, I'm really sorry," I said, looking at the table we sat at awkwardly. I wasn't great at consoling people.

"Thanks. So why did you ask if I knew about Destruction?"

"Well... I don't really know how to say this," I straightened up in my chair.

"Just spit it out," Berlin said. She took another sip of her espresso, looking at me over the cup.

"Okay," I started. "Just like your father, I'm a Bounty Officer." Berlin's eyes sunk, as if disappointed... or possibly worried. "My real name is Monty Chapman, and I have a mission to infiltrate HARMONY Headquarters and stop Destruction from destroying our supply of HARMONY, and replacing it with an extremely dangerous drug. One that does quite the opposite of HARMONY."

"Okay," said Berlin. "And why are you telling me this?"

"We think that you can help. You are the only other human in the building of over 1,000 other vocations, and any of them could work for Destruction. If you aren't -"

"Listen," she said. Berlin's demeanor had totally changed. "My father died protecting the inventor of that shit. I swore on that day that I would never use it, but if it comes down to protecting it... well, if my father believed in it, it can't be that bad."

"Perfect!" I exclaimed. The discomfort on her face told me that she wasn't as enthusiastic about the whole thing as I was.

"Hold on just a second," Berlin said. "I never said that I was going to help."

"Okay. What will it take for you to be in? The Bounty Officers could really use your help... I could really use your help."

Berlin stared out of the window that we sat next to, vocations passing while looking down at their phones, none-the-wiser to the struggles that the humans that passed by them every day were dealing with. I could tell that Berlin was really mulling everything over in her head, running every single possibility through her brain.

I decided to leave it for today, I didn't want to push. "Well, I'll leave you to think about it. Let me know when you come to a decision though, okay?"

I got up to leave, but was stopped halfway to the door.

"Actually," said Berlin. "Do you want to hang out after work today? It's been a long time since I've had company... well, apart from my dog, Simon."

There was no reason not to - in fact I was sort of excited. I said, "Sure, I'll meet you at your desk at 5:00."

"Great," she said, and the smile sprouted on her face once again. "I'll see you later, Monty Chapman."

I smiled back, and went to work.

As promised, at 5:00, I met Berlin at her desk. It had been an easy day, and I could've gotten used to human resources, especially when it came to robots. Instead of the traditional human resource duties, I was more of a therapist to the vocations. The only complaint I had to deal with that day is that a vocation had fallen down the stairs trying to read while walking. Of course, his metallic body saved him from most of the damage, I just had to make sure he was alright mentally. The conversation went something like this:

"So you fell down the stairs?"

"Yes."

"Are you alright?"

"Yes."

'Perfect... see you next time!"

Berlin seemed happy to see me, which made me even happier. We walked the couple of blocks to her apartment, which was on the 12th floor of a tall brick building.

When we got to her door, Berlin turned to me and said, "Simon gets kind of excited with visitors, so sorry in advance for what's about to happen."

"No prob -" I was cut off when Berlin opened the door, and an old English sheepdog bounded out into the hallway, and tackled me.

"Wow," I said. "Hi Simon."

I followed Berlin into her apartment, which was pretty nice. Paintings hung from brick walls. A kitchen sat off to one side, and a living room sat on the other, consisting of a TV and an old yellow couch.

We took a seat on the couch, and Berlin picked up the remote. She pressed on, and some sort of comedy movie started to play.

However, as soon as the movie began Berlin and I started to have the most indulging conversation I have ever had. We talked about everything, from our opinions on HARMONY - she hated it as much as I did - to which party we thought the next president would belong to - of course it would be Peace. We talked about her father and how much she missed him, and about how ever since I had gotten in that fight with the vocations I was scared to look at myself in a mirror.

"You know, this is really nice," said Berlin. "I haven't talked to a real person in a long time."

I laughed. "Me neither. It feels almost surreal."

Berlin stared at the floor for a second, and then she looked up at me. I saw a bright twinkle in her eyes.

"I'm in," Berlin said.

"What?"

"I'm in. I'll help. But I want to be kept at a distance... The only reason I'm doing this is because I want to help you, the leaders can jump off a cliff for all I care."

Suddenly, I could see past the wall that Berlin had put up. On the outside, she was a smiling, welcoming, receptionist. But on the inside, she was as - or even more - troubled as I was, a Bounty Officer who had seen some of his best colleagues slaughtered.

"That's awesome," I said.

After that, we started to talk about other things. The reoccurring subject that came up, however, was how we were going to destroy Destruction.

"Would you like to be in my journal entry?" I asked.

She laughed.