Who would have thought that a factory could be such a cutthroat environment? Those words passed through the mind of James Burg as he noticed that the same bolt had mysteriously been unscrewed again. And just when the boss was making his inspection round.

James quickly raised his head and looked around. The people working the conveyor belt were too busy holding their breath while trying their best to not make a mistake as the boss, an obese, bald man that generally looked rather friendly but now had a stern look to him, stood behind them and watched them to see if they welded things quickly and accurately enough. For them there was always the threat of automation. And to compete with that they had to take dirt poor wages and work long shifts. That was unlike James whose work it was to maintain the machines. Something that made it irreplaceable, high pay and the envy of pretty much everyone else in the factory.

There was no time to screw the bolt in place by hand. But as everyone else were so distracted by the boss he felt sure no one would notice. With a little push from his mind the bolt screwed itself back in place within less than a second. James was barely able to let out a sigh of relief and straighten his back before he saw the the boss approach.

"Good afternoon Mr Price," James said with a half hearted friendly smile.

"Mr Burg!" Price said while returning a more genuine and friendly smile. "I trust everything is going as smoothly as ever?"

"I haven't found any faults, sir. At least nothing that I couldn't fix."

"That's what I want to hear. Keep it up." And with that Mr Price walked away to continue his inspection round.

James eyed him for a moment and when Mr Price was out view he went back to inspecting the rest of the machine to make sure everything was in order. Luckily the loose bolt proved to be the only problem. But it was just one more thing that nagged on him. All these little problems that kept coming up, from pages having been torn from the manual of the factory machine (which was already an old book where the ink had faded to unintelligibility in certain parts) to various spare parts getting repeatedly misplaced.

At least it wasn't as bad as the factory next door where they made lasguns. There machines broke down almost constantly and crates full of weapons and even people had been rumored to have disappeared. But lasguns were also more valued than the cogitator parts they made in the factory James worked in.

James looked over his shoulder, half expecting to see someone standing there with a wrench held high and ready to bat him over the head in order to make him disappear. It wouldn't be that hard to drag his body into a good hiding spot behind the machines from where he was standing. But there was no one there and James quickly glanced around the factory to see if anyone was watching him specifically. The people went about their jobs and nothing directly suspicious could be seen.

I'm just getting paranoid, he thought to himself as he moved his hand over his bald head. It had been months but he still wasn't used to it. He missed his long, black mane. But baldness was a rule for those working the production floor. At least he had been able to keep his beard.

As James looked around again he spotted something interesting: a cart carrying a basket full of buns. And given which elevator the delivery man was waiting outside it was clear it was meant for the big boss upstairs. Which meant even asking for a bun could land one trouble. So of course James decided to make a couple of buns float off the basket and across the floor below everyone's gaze to his feet. James then tried his best to hide a smile as the elevator arrived and the cart rolled into with the delivery man oblivious to what had happened.

With the two buns floating by his feet he made his way towards the offices. On the way to his little office James made a stop at the desk of Mr Price's secretary, Vanessa. She was a thin woman that looked to be barely above twenty, with big green eyes and brown hair tied up in a bun. She looked up at James with a big friendly smile as she saw him approach.

"James! What brings you here?" she said.

"Just thought I'd share on these," James replied as he put his hands behind his back and had the two buns float into his grasp before showing them to Vanessa.

She gave him a skeptical look. "Where did you get these?"

James hesitated for a moment before saying, "A bakery."

"Right. So you left the factory during your working hours and went to a bakery?"

"There may have been a middleman in this." James gave her a stupid smile as he tried to look as innocent, or at least as harmless, as possible.

"Uhuh." She continued to give him a skeptical look but snatched the bun from his left hand and began to stuff her mouth with it.

James meanwhile ate his bun more slowly and in more moderate bites. "So… have any of the engineers from the lower floors visited or talked to Mr Price?"

Vanessa raised a finger as she chewed and swallowed the last of the bun. "Not that I know of. Why do you ask?"

James leaned in closer and lowered his voice a little. Not that anyone else was in the office but just to show he didn't want anyone else to know. "I've noticed some strange things happening regarding the machines I'm in charge of. I think someone is trying to sabotage them just enough for me to get fired."

"Oh. That's… rather serious. You should speak to Mr Price about this."

"Well I would. But you know how bombastic Mr Price can be. He'd line everyone up and start shouting at them in the hopes that someone confesses. That would just make this saboteur keep his head down for a while. And I want to catch him."

"I see. And you want my help?"

"Well if you see any engineers go to Mr Price or hear any ill rumors about me I'd like to know."

"I guess I could do that."

"Thank you."

And with that James headed to his own office. It was a little bit of a mess, but it was an organized enough mess that James could spot if anyone had been rummaging around. Luckily everything seemed to be in place. Which was at least a small relief. The padlock on the locker was also untouched. As was the manual inside as James flipped through the pages to make sure no more had gone missing. He really should make a copy of it just in case. But even with a copy machine having to go through over a thousand pages wasn't a task he felt like doing anytime soon.

As his shift drew to a close James locked up the manual in his locker, hoping no one would pry it open, and made one last round on his production floor. This time everything was as in as good condition as he had left it an hour earlier. He then made his way out via the docking bay exit where a few trucks were loading on crates.

The sun had yet to fully set over the city and an orange hue could be seen in the sky. At least in the sky that could be seen as in the distance towards the center of the city one could see what looked like another city built atop the first one. And that second city was expanding in all directions. Banners with slogans like "A city for the future" and "We're fixing the housing shortages" along with stylized pictures of smiling construction workers and the ever so smug and handsome Duke Potestas could be seen hanging from cranes and scaffoldings.

James trudged along the streets on the outskirts of the city above. It wasn't long till he could no longer see the sky from his apartment. Even if the new buildings were promised to make city life better, James couldn't help but to feel they would also make the city more bleak.

His apartment was high up in a very tall apartment complex. It was relatively small with a kitchen, bedroom and one bathroom. But it also meant there was less to clean and so James managed to keep his home from at least becoming a mess. But the best thing about the place was that it had a gorgeous view over the outskirts of the city and even the forests and meadows beyond. Hopefully at least that wouldn't change with the new constructions.

James dug up some leftovers from the fridge and put them in the microwave before crashing face first into the bed. A few seconds later the doorbell rang.

Go away! James thought. But the doorbell just rang again and again till James felt he could no longer ignore it. When he opened the door it proved to only be a mailman standing there in his blue and grey uniform and large mailbag under his arm. In his hand he held a package.

"Delivery to a Mr… James Price," he said without giving James more than a passing glance and instead focused more on the writing on the package.

"Yeah, that's me. Haven't ordered anything though."

"Well it's addressed to you. I don't care who sent it, I'm just doing my job delivering it." He then held out the package to James.

James however hesitated a little to take the package. It wasn't his birthday or any special holiday so it couldn't be a present. As the mailman left James stood there by the open door and inspected the package. From the weight, size and shape he judged that it must be some kind of book. There was no sign of who sent it though.

He closed the door and began to tear at the dull paper wrapped around the thing. And it turned out to indeed be a book. A rather fancy one at that with blue colored leather cover. There was no title or text on the outside but there was a symbol imprinted on the front that looked like a round disk with two flames coming out from its sides.