The antique clock decorating the office ticked in time with Jonas's heartbeat, and the black coffee in his cup held his brooding thoughts. He always tapped the desk as he thought-not out of habit, but as a way to help himself think when wrestling with a problem.
He let out a long sigh, then stood, walked to the window, and pushed it open. The city's distant neon skyline came into view, its lights flickering. District 25 was as noisy as ever.
The anger toward the Federation outside barely affected order in District 25, so Jonas paid it no mind. Right now, he had more important things to do.
Jonas rested his chin on both hands. He was alone in the office, and right now, he actually wished Iris or Eiffel were eating cake in front of him to lighten his mood.
He was not nervous about the unknown situation. What upset him was that a supposedly well-planned script had suddenly changed its plot. It was like someone messing up a room he had just cleaned, or scrambling a Rubik's Cube he had already solved.
Fortunately, besides that bad news, the R&D department had delivered some good news lately, so things were still reasonably tolerable.
Except all that news had been dumped into his communications at once. Documents, information-everything had been transmitted straight to him, including records of the R&D department's cafeteria meals. Reading it all gave Jonas a headache.
The office door opened, and Eiffel walked in. She glanced at Jonas, who was holding his coffee. "Mr. Jonas, I've finished sorting out the news from R&D. I've spoken to them, too. They won't put random junk in important files again."
In a barren region, an expedition team from the Alt Conglomerate had ventured deep into underground ruins and discovered some