District 42-Chapter 168: Asking for help
Casper felt a huge pain in his back, and it made him raise his head from the top of the table immediately. He was sitting on the chair in a strange position.
Some minutes ago, he was taking a nap after struggling like crazy with Adam to get some things done before Katarina could arrive and rip their heads off.
Casper also helped the man with his other projects, and it was difficult to manage everything at the same time. The busy times were already there again, and the soldier got so absorbed that he ended up exhausting himself.
"I don’t want to get overworked right on the first day of work here... That’s not even reasonable..." Despite his achy back, the soldier also woke up by the sound of his phone ringing. Before fall asleep, Casper settled an alarm to make him wake up in some minutes, and it seemed that his back took the duty to do so a couple minutes before.
The soldier was going to stand from the chair and go take some coffee, but he barely firmed his right foot on the ground and already felt more pain, this time a sharp pain that crossed all his leg until it got his head.
"Maybe I will have a big headache later... That’s not good, I can’t keep finding ways to harm myself to the point where I can’t stand anymore. There is no space for incompetence or limits here..." He tried some more couple of times. It persisted for some while before he could really walk properly.
He felt that the situation of his foot was getting better even with some rest.
The doctor had said before that the wound was infected, so he could bet that it had something to do with that.
"That doctor had mentioned it, and now I can’t even be skeptical. My ankle is all swollen, I barely could walk, and even now I am striving... Damn, I just wanted a cup of coffee..." He started to limp towards the coffee machine.
The section where Casper worked was a total mess by that time of the day. It was 1 pm, and people were working until their hands and minds get numb.
It was very busy, so a lot of scientists were walking around, making the path until the coffee machine a painful and hellish experience.
He ended up getting there, taking a cup, and filling it with that drink.
"I need as much energy as possible, otherwise I won’t be doing it until the end of the day... I am overly tolerant to caffeine, but it has some effects."
Casper got some time to enjoy his coffee and look around. He liked to see people as concentrated and determined as he was. So, watch those scientists closely and see how their busy and, most of the time, unhealthy schedule could be.
He tried to look for Adam there, but he couldn’t find the guy, as he mentioned to be too busy and couldn’t stay at that section for the time being.
The atmosphere between Casper and the genius was really tense before. It was even uncomfortable to be beside each other, and both seemed to be overly cautious.
Casper compared that strange feeling to the one he always felt when dealing with Vick, which left him the more uncomfortable since he appreciated the funny and relaxed time he passed with Adam.
Nonetheless, after they entered into the section again, both returned to their usual selves and no one seemed to really be bothered by that awkward situation from before.
Those two knew inside, though, that they both couldn’t stop to think about the meaning behind their words and in the secret that was hidden.
"I still need to sort out what was happening with him... But is it worth trying? I mean, Adam is also a cunning guy, he wouldn’t let me get too close to anything that could expose him too much... That is if something wrong is really happening. It’s common to see the negative sides of things, but he could be acting for the sake of anything else..."
Casper, for now, was out of options besides keeping what happened in mind and pay attention to Adam’s next moves. If he really was into something, that wouldn’t be the last time he would be doing it.
"Also, I need to keep an eye on that Project Jomurgand. I saw this Project in the files that they were keeping on the Third Lab. They probably have something to do with this as well, and if those guys were involved, then it is probably something bad."
Casper wasn’t bad at investigation. Before, in the Yanke Forces, his job had investigation involved constantly. If he really tried hard, he was sure that he would come up with something just as better as any other person there.
"For now, I have other things that I need to worry about..." He looked towards his foot, concerned.
"I think I should be working on this as soon as possible, and also find a way to treat the issue on my brain. But I need to do this without the Princess knowing, nor that crazy Aesir..."
Casper thought for a while, gathering in his mind all the tools he had in his hands now that could help him.
In the end, the strongest weapon, and most worth tool, that the White warrior would have anywhere he went, was his influence.
Without people under your influence, you are just limited to do what you can do. On the other hand, you have a lot of individuals with different abilities that can be of good use.
Casper finished his coffee.
"This was a good time to drink some caffeine and reason a little bit. Now, gotta go back to work, but this time work more related to me..."
After confirming that everything was settled and anyone would need him, Casper said to Katarina that he had finished his current tasks and was going to visit other sections to work on side projects.
The woman was the jealous type with her group, and she would narrow her eyes and nearly beat anyone who would ask her such a thing as going to another search group.
With Casper, she was a bit less jealous though.
This way, the soldier exited that place and went again to Astrid’s group. There was a good reason for him to be there.
"Astrid, I need your help." Just as Casper didn’t bother with her accidental straightforward manner of asking help, so she did with the White warrior.
"Yes."
"I suppose that your search group has a lot of influence in the Second Lab, right? I mean, you are in touch with them a lot of times since you always need support for a lot of procedures and your crafts to help them often as well."
Astrid wasn’t crafting anything at that time. She was just typing at an absurd speed at the computer. She lasted some seconds to answer him.
"I need your influence to help me with something. For this, I would like if you talked with a reliable doctor from the Second Lab and bring him to treat an injury I have..." Casper was using his most kind tone to talk with her, although he knew that it was unnecessary.
Astrid would do it even if he yelled and cursed her while ordering that she did so. She was an intelligent person, with eccentric characteristics, but her sense of judgment was just strange. She seemed to be untouchable by criticism and verbal aggression, which also left her opened to blackmail.
She continued typing for some more time, and the soldier kept waiting for her to finish what she was doing to answer him.
However, it delayed too much, and Casper got concerned that she didn’t hear him, actually.
He was getting a bit impatient and was going to ask her if she listened to him, but Astrid spoke before. 𝒻𝘳ℯℯ𝑤ℯ𝒷𝘯ℴ𝓋ℯ𝘭.𝑐ℴ𝑚
"He said that he is up to come anytime, and I said that it would be good if he comes now. Did I make it right?"
For a minute, the soldier got surprised, even confused. Astrid kept looking at him with her naive eyes, which didn’t seem to belong to a genius, but a child instead.
"W-wow that was really fast... Thank you, Astrid, I wasn’t expecting that you would be so efficient... I mean, I wanted to do it fast but..." He laughed, rubbing his neck.
The woman was dumbfounded. She looked at the computer’s screen, concerned, then at Casper again.
"But humans don’t have time to lose. We can die in a lot of different manners each second that passes." She said it in a so light way that seemed as if she wasn’t talking about the short longevity of humanity.
That wasn’t the best type of subject for Casper to talk about, so he just brushed off that matter.
"Hehe, yeah, you are right... Okay, then... We are doing it today!"
