Disclaimer: I don't own anything. Not NGE, not Dr. Pepper, not Starbucks, or Dunkin' Donuts, or Damon's Grill, or Microsoft/anything made by them. BetaMax, however, is mine.

Author's Note: Sorry it took so long for the update, but other things held priority over this story. With my 'serious' Eva fic completed (in all of it's dismal glory), I've started the outline for an original detective story. Hopefully I won't botch it as badly as I botched my last completed work. Ugh.

And as for the consultant interviews… Think of them like Instrumentality, but a little less menacing. A little. Not a lot.

Anyhow, I hope you enjoy the show…

Chapter 3: Wednesday

"I-I don't know, Doctor." Shinji's defeated sigh signaled the return to his depressed state. "It's just… well…"

The psychoanalyst stared back at him with her warm gaze. After a short silence, she spoke to him with her cool voice. "Tell me about Asuka, Shinji."

"I have." He stressed, running a hand through his hair. "I've told you a dozen times. She's—she's—I don't know. I can't hate her, but I certainly don't like her."

"Why can't you hate her?"

"Well, she had a rough childhood…" He trailed off as he looked up at the attentive, attractive woman. "I'm no expert, but that's probably what makes her so… mean."

The doctor smiled. "Are you saying that she's the one in need of psychotherapy?"

Shinji didn't hesitate to think. "Probably." He paused. "People say she's wack, and I tend to agree with them—when she isn't around, anyhow. A few weeks ago she threw me into a table after I said something to that effect."

She nodded, before setting her notebook down on one of the tables and taking her glasses off. "Shinji," she started. "It seems to me that Asuka is the driving force of your depression."

"What do you mean? I hate my job, too."

"Yes, but your girlfriend—or lack thereof—is the reason for your feelings of insecurity and insignificance. Her continual repetition of violent, degrading acts against you proves that she finds comfort in control." She shifted in her seat, crossing her stocking-clad, million-dollar legs.

Shinji shrugged. "Yeah… I guess you're right." A reluctant sigh permeated the air around him. "Even the sex has gotten boring for me."

The blonde seductress smiled. "Now that I can help you with…" Her voice had shifted into a lower tone, her curves making her way over towards him.

"U-uh—Doctor…" His voice was the only thing protesting now. "Are you sure we should be doing this here?"

"Shh," she placed a slender finger on his lips. "No one is going to know, one way or another, Shinji…" Her lips were already closing in, until—

A gasp, followed by a soft, low moan.

A whisper: "Doctor…"

WEDNESDAY; 5:47AM

IKARI RESIDENCE

---

"Jezus-H-Christ—"

Shinji opened his eyes to bring himself consciously forth into a reality of pain. His head throbbed traumatically; the lights everywhere were incandescent blurs of visual pain, the slightest sound turned into a cacophony of auditory agony, movement only generated kinetic suffering.

"Ikari?" A drowsy mop of bright blue hair stirred next to him, chaotically vacant red eyes suddenly focusing on his.

"Hi, Rei."

The first thought that didn't occur to him was why Rei Ayanami—co-worker and relative love interest—would be next to him in his bed. The second thought that didn't occur to him was why he had an arm draped across her waist.

The moment either of these thoughts surfaced in his pain-fogged brain, he shoved them back where they came from in favor of being hangover-less when he tried to sort them out.

"I think we drank too much last night." The groggy angel next to him only continued to stare, before shifting her awkward, unblinking gaze up to the hideous stucco ceiling.

Shinji blinked, following her gaze. "I think you're right." A hand covered his face and ran through his hair as he clenched his eyes closed. "I feel like my head was smashed in from a raging bull."

Rei nodded. "As does mine."

Shinji frowned. "I should have some pain killers somewhere over—" in his attempt to move, he fell out of the bed, landing on a shoe. He tripped a few minutes after standing, bracing himself against the wall before venturing into the bathroom for some sort of strong pain reliever.

---

Shinji woke up again, noticing that his hangover had subsided with the four or five extra-strength store-brand aspirin. He couldn't remember exactly how much he had taken, nor how much he had given Rei—but they did their job.

He glanced at the aforementioned bunkmate, the side of her face resting on his shoulder while she slept. He grinned to himself; this girl was a hell of a lot better than his ex-girlfriend ever was in bed, and this girl was asleep.

He blinked as a sudden realization hit him.

What the hell was Rei Ayanami doing in his bed?

…And why did he still have his clothes on?

---

"Hi, Rei." Shinji stepped out of his bathroom, drying his hair with a towel. He noticed her standing in front of his small mirror, brow furrowed in concentration as she tried to pull and smooth out the wrinkles in her blouse.

"Hello," Her gaze shifted from the hem of her shirt to his reflection, several feet behind her.

"You can take your…" he said, watching her start to unbutton her blouse. "Um," He turned toward the opposite door and headed into the kitchen. "I-I'll have breakfast soon. Frozen waffles alright?"

"That is fine." A soft approval wafted into the kitchen.

---

"Toji?"

"Kensuke?"

"Kaworu?"

"Hello."

Awkward silence reigned supreme for a brief moment.

"Toji, what are you doing in my bed?"

"Kensuke, what're you doin' on da floor?"

"I'd assume you two passed out in your respective positions."

"Why are you here, Kaworu? For that matter, Toji, what are you doing here, too? This is my house!"

"Apartment."

"Whatever. What's going on? What's this?" He lifted a bottle of something up to the light to read the label. "Smirnoff?"

Toji's brow creased in confusion. "Who drinks Smirnoff straight outta da bottle?"

Kaworu smiled for lack of a different expression. "Kensuke, apparently."

"Ohh, my head!" Kensuke fell back onto the carpet, grabbing his temples and massaging his forehead slightly.

"Yours to, huh?" Toji looked down at him. "I think we drank too much, man."

"So it would seem. I'm going to work." Kaworu started out the bedroom door.

"Work?"

"Fuck work, man. I'm callin' in sick…"

"An' make sure you tell 'em it's on account a' self-inflicted stupidity."

"Shut up."

WEDNESDAY; 8:33 AM

RUSH HOUR

---

"Hey, Shig. You're here early." Makoto flew down the steps of the townhouse, yanking open the passenger door of his co-worker's sedan.

"Just get in the goddamn car."

"Jeez," He pulled his seatbelt on as the car drove off to the end of the street. "Someone's grouchy today." Shigeru narrowed his eyes as Makoto sniffed the air. "Did you spill coffee in here?" Then he looked at the driver. "Oh, that's you."

"My goddamn coffee maker exploded this morning."

"Wh—"

"And I don't want to talk about it."

---

"Toji."

"What?"

"Isn't that meeting today?"

"What meetin'?"

"The uh… oh, for that thing we got Monday. I can't remember… Project somethin' or whatever."

Toji blinked, and sat up on the bed. "Dat Project E thing?"

Kensuke nodded. "Yeah. That sounds right. When was it?"

Toji yawned. "I dunno. Ten-ish?"

They both stole a glance at the clock.

"Shit."

---

Shinji searched through the CD case he had stored in his glove compartment of his sedan. In doing so, he had stretched himself across the gearshift, his head awkwardly close to Rei's lap while his fingers fumbled with the compartment hatch. Rei's blood-red irises followed his movements silently, her wordless inquiry going unanswered for the time being.

"Rei," he finally stated, pulling back from his awkward position with the case in hand.

She continued to stare at him.

"Do you know what happened last night?" He didn't look at her as he fished through the clamshell of various music CDs.

She shook her head. "No." She said, before her gaze moved down to the clamshell he held in his hands. "But I believe that we passed out in your apartment."

Shinji frowned, continuing his search through the case. "I just wanted to know what we were doing in my apartment."

She turned her gaze to the windshield. "I do not know."

A few more silent moments passed before Shinji found what he was looking for. "Ah!" He pulled two sleeves out of this clamshell, before handing them to Rei. "These are Depeche Mode CDs. I figured you'd like them."

The rest of the drive to work was uneventful.

---

Makoto didn't turn from the window when he asked his cohort, "Did Maya need a ride?"

Shigeru shrugged. "I don't know. Did she call you?"

"No."

"She didn't call me either." Shigeru frowned. "Oh well."

The two of them were silent as the car rode on, a boringly flat landscape flying past the windows.

"Maybe her car's fixed, now." Makoto suddenly said.

Shigeru took a sidelong glance at him. "What happened to her car?"

Makoto shrugged absently. "I don't know. She said it was in the shop or something."

"She didn't say anything else?"

"Well, you know how she talks." He said, turning to him. "It was hard to follow the whole story, so I only caught bits and pieces. Something about a crash, a bunch of police cars, and a couple kilos heroin," he shrugged, "Or something."

"Are you saying that Maya is a drug trafficker?"

"I'm not saying anything!" He said defensively.

Shigeru blinked. "When did she tell you this?"

"Last night, over the phone. She said that she only had one phone call, and that she needed a lawyer."

"Um,"

WEDNESDAY; 9:02 AM

THE OFFICE

---

"All hope abandon, ye who enter here." Shinji whispered the words to himself as he stared up at the Gates of Hell.

The lobby secretary suddenly piped up: "Good morning!"

"Too late."

---

"What the hell is this?" Shinji stared down at the monstrosity which occupied most of his desk space.

"Ah Shinji!" He suddenly found the space next to him taken up by a buxom, short-skirted tech supervisor. "Have you ditched that girlfriend of yours, yet?"

"Ms. Katsuragi—"

"Misato," she corrected him. "You can call me Misato anytime, Shinji." Her voice had lowered a few octaves, dropping into the zone of intentioned seduction.

He cringed. "Misato," he started again, "Why are you here?" He motioned to his desk as he returned his gaze to it. "And what is that?"

"Since most of the machines up here have fried, we've decided to replace them with typewriters!" She exclaimed, a fake smile donning her features.

Shinji closed his eyes in frustration. "We can't program with type writers." He stated, as calmly as he could. "We can't even do simple data input on type writers."

"Have you ever tried?"

"No! It's—stupid!" He turned to her as he spoke, dramatically flinging his arm in the direction of the outdated beast. "The thing barely even relies on electricity for its operation—for chrissake, it doesn't even have a monitor!"

"There's more to life than programming, Shinji." She replied, knowingly.

"No, there isn't!" he cried. "I'm a programmer. I program! It's my job! It's what I do!" He was steadily working himself into hysterics. "If I don't do my job—"

Kaworu suddenly poked his head up above the other cubicle. "You still get paid," he said, before walking out of his cubicle in the direction of the kitchen.

Shinji jammed his thumb and forefinger into his eyes, rubbing them as he tried to work out the twisted reasoning behind the tech manager's obscene comments. After a defeated sigh, he walked in and sat in his swivel chair before looking back at Misato.

"Is your department missing staplers, by any chance?" he suddenly asked, aware that his own still hadn't turned up.

"You know, now that you mention it…"

---

"I can't believe this," Shinji stared at the coffee maker after he joined Kaworu in the kitchen. "I simply can't believe it. It's like… a nightmare."

Kaworu leaned against the counter, waiting for the coffee to finish. "And you can't use your own personal computer?"

Shinji snorted. "No. I've only got Windows stuff on my box—and I don't want to endanger it by putting the cockamamie BetaMax OS on there. Who knows how badly BetaMax could screw up all my work on NT." He shook his head as he started walking toward the refrigerator. "Christ, why is it that all of our stuff is only compatible with BetaMax?"

"You're still using NT?" Kaworu asked. "Why haven't you upgraded to 2000 Professional yet?"

Shinji shrugged. "Haven't had the time, really." He said. "I should probably do that this weekend."

Kaworu nodded, before returning to his original thought. "Well, I heard that a team was formed to start official work on the OS replacement for this company." He shrugged. "That should mean that better times are just around the corner."

Shinji shook his head. "I don't know. I can't help but shake this hopeless feeling of pessimism." He stared at the refrigerator door in thought. "I mean, why should we program our own OS when we can just spend a couple thousand bucks to get us all running Windows? Everyone in the business world with a PC runs Windows—not personally programmed no-name operating systems."

Kaworu nodded, understanding. "Yes, yes I see your point."

"Are you on that team, Kaworu?"

Kaworu frowned, in an odd way. "It's hard to say." He started. "Officially, no—but Horaki has personally asked for my assistance and input on the whole project. And Ayanami—it's incredible what she can do for security and firewalls."

There was a silence then, as the two of them let their thoughts return to their heads. The only noise in the kitchen was the dull hum of the various appliances, and the constant bubbling of the coffee maker.

"Have you ever thought about working for Jet Alone, Kaworu?" Shinji suddenly asked, returning to his counter space.

"You mean the office across the street?" Shinji nodded. "I suppose it's a valid option, should we get fired here."

Shinji craned his neck, cracking it slowly. "Yes, it is a valid option," he started. "But have you seriously given it thought?"

Kaworu shrugged. "Why? I'm sure that their office is identical to ours. After all, that's how corporate places work. Similarity equals success."

Shinji sighed in defeat. "Yeah, I guess you're right. They probably have their own illogical version of BetaMax, or something like it."

"Done," Kaworu suddenly stated.

"What?"

"Done," he repeated. "The coffee. Want some?"

"Sure."

---

"We're gonna be so damn late it isn' even funny." Toji sighed as he rested his head against the window of the passenger side door.

"Shut up, man." Kensuke yawned as he relaxed in the driver's seat. The traffic jam had blocked most of the highway for the time being. "We can't afford to miss this meeting. Our careers pretty much depend on it."

"I don't think it's dat serious." Toji said. "Prolly jus' our paycheck."

Kensuke shrugged. "Same thing, really."

A siren caught their attention as red and blue lights suddenly flashed behind them.

"Gah, shit."

"What?" Toji looked over at the driver.

"There's a cop behind us, and I can't move anywhere to get out of his way."

---

"Well, we're here."

"Yep."

There was a silence as the two marketers stared at their empty office.

Shigeru spoke first. "Where the hell is our stuff?"

Makoto looked around, a morbid thought occurring to him as Shigeru started to slowly pace the entirety of the starkly furnished, small room.

"This can not be good."

WEDNESDAY; 9:57 AM

CONFERENCE ROOM

---

"He's a winner." Shinji stated, upon seeing their new, prospective client. "Who wears sunglasses inside like that?"

"Have you noticed Kensuke or Toji anywhere?" Kaworu looked around at the conference table as he sat down. "I was aware that they were on the project as well."

---

"I can't believe we got a ticket for that." Kensuke grumbled, slamming the door to his car. "I mean, Christ, where the hell was I going to go? I couldn't move—there were cars everywhere!"

"It didn't 'elp dat you cursed at da officer for pullin' you over." Toji remarked, walking into the building.

Kensuke noted the time as they walked into the lobby of the office. "Damn, is it ten already?"

---

"I'm sure they'll be here any minute now," Shinji replied.

As if on cue, the two aforementioned, disgruntled employees strode through the door, closely followed by the project manager, Hikari Horaki.

"I humbly apologize for the lateness, Mister…?"

"Actually, you've just made it, Miss Horaki." The elderly, balding, somewhat rotund man stood as the rest of the team members took their seats. "My name is Lorenz Kihl, and I'm chairman of a very important committee."

Everyone around the table blinked.

After a silence, Shinji was the first to pry. "Alright…" he started, "What exactly does this 'committee' do?"

Kihl pushed his nose up the slightest bit. "I am not at liberty to divulge that information."

Shinji shrugged, doing his best not to sigh. "Okay then, what do you want us to do?"

"I trust you have received the preliminary reports?"

Everyone nodded.

"Good. Your assignments are in these folders." He said, passing a set of sleek, black, double-docket folders down the table. "You are not to talk about this project to anyone outside of your group. You are to follow all of these orders to the letter. Should you disobey anything, you will be severely disciplined."

The man named Kihl rose from his seat, and promptly left the conference room. Silence reigned supreme as Kihl was seen walking to his car from the conference room windows.

It was a rather long time until anyone spoke again.

"Is it jus' me, or did dat guy seem like a robot or sumthin'?"

"So…" Shinji looked down at the folder he had received. "What are we supposed to do? I mean, none of us have working machines…"

Horaki paused at the door to reply to Shinji's question. "Do as much preliminary work as possible," she said. "Computers were ordered, but they probably won't come in until next week."

As she left, Toji gave a sigh of defeat. "Den what da hell are we s'pposed to do?"

"I have no idea," Kensuke said, standing up. "But I do know that it's getting late, and lunch is needed."

"It's only ten twelve," a small voice said, reminding everyone of Rei's existence.

Kensuke frowned. "Brunch, then. Morning coffee. That meal/snack which is directly after breakfast but before lunch, and shouldn't be confused with Elevensies."

Shinji blinked in confusion, while Toji simply stared.

"Sure, I'm game." Kaworu stood up and waited patiently by the door.

Toji shrugged. "Yeah, whatever."

Shinji stood up. "Rei, you coming?"

"The coffee here is sufficient."

"Oh."

---

CLOSED

"Starbucks was bought?" Kensuke stared at the sign. "When did this happen?"

Shinji shrugged. "I don't know."

"I believe that it was one of the various Columbian coffee makers which bought them." Kaworu added his own input before staring absently across the street.

Toji scratched his head. "Dat's weird." He said. "I always thought dat Starbuck were da guys who always bought other coffee makers."

Kensuke looked off in the direction that Kaworu had zoned off. "You know, I thought I heard that Dunkin Donuts had pretty good coffee."

---

"Wait, wait, wait," Shigeru said. "Wait." He said again. "Wait. Can you run that buy us again?"

The older Marketing Supervisor stared down at him, annoyance donning her odd, somewhat masculine features. "There was a clerical error," she said. "Everyone that worked in your office—Ms. Ibuki and Mr. Huuga included—have been laid off by the Supervising management, higher up. However, due to an unexpected occurrence, the Tech division has just rehired you."

"So… we just move our desks across the building?"

The brunette nodded. "And you don't work for me, anymore. You work for the Tech supervisor, Ms. Misato Katsuragi."

"Okay. I suppose this is goodbye for now, Ms. Akagi." Her wry smile was her own way of sending the pair off, formalities apparently below her.

"She creeps me out," Shigeru mumbled.

"Oh man, this is great!" Makoto said. "Katsuragi! What a babe!"

---

CLOSED INDEFINITELY

"Ah man, this Dunkin Donuts went out of business?" Kensuke stared dumfounded at the 'closed indefinitely' sign, posted across the glass double doors.

Kaworu shrugged, staring up at the clouds idly.

"You know what this means," Kensuke started. "We'll have to go to the local shop on Route 30."

Shinji turned to him. "But that's a half an hour away!"

"You have anything else planned for this morning?" Kensuke pushed his glasses up his nose. "I mean, we don't even have computers, Shinji. What can we possibly do?"

Toji scratched the back of his head. "He's got a point."

---

"So you're my new tech guys, huh?" The buxom nymphomaniac stared at the new additions to the department. "Your desks are over in that office over there—" she nodded to another small room across the way, "—and I trust that Ibuki is on her way?"

Makoto started to reply. "Well, actually, Maya's in j—"

"She's sick." Shigeru said, cutting him off. "She had to take the day off. Strep throat or something, you know the sicknesses these days."

Misato nodded, knowingly. "Yes, well I hope she feels better. Send her my regards."

WEDNESDAY; 12:01 PM

DAMON'S GRILL

---

"I'd say that this was a productive morning well spent," Kensuke said, raising his glass to his lips.

"What are you talking about?" Shinji suddenly asked. "You guys barely got here in time for the meeting, and then we spent the rest of the morning looking for a decent coffee shop."

"Which we found, I might add." Kensuke said. "It was some damn good coffee, too. Being rid of a hangover and spotting a damn good coffee shop in one morning—I'd call that productive. Isn't that right Kaworu?"

Kaworu just smiled and raised his glass, as if in toast. "Sure."

"Toji?" Kensuke looked to the other friend for approval.

"Huh? Oh, yeah sure." He nodded absently, fiddling with his straw. "It was pretty good coffee."

"There," Kensuke said, returning his conversation to Shinji. "See? Everyone agrees."

Shinji nodded. "Yeah," he said, "yeah, it was some good coffee, alright. I do have to admit that."

There was a silence as they all regarded the morning's proceedings.

"So what do you think of this whole Project E thing?" Shinji was the first to break the silence.

Kensuke shrugged. "All I see is some rotund robot-man with sunglasses who has a pole shoved up his ass." He said. "Not much to be said."

"Yeah," Toji agreed. "And da whole project looks pretty bogus anyhow—have you read what we're supposed t'be developin'?"

Shinji shook his head. "Not really. I haven't read much of it, anyhow." He chuckled, "I barely leafed through the preliminary packet, honestly."

Kensuke chuckled in suit. "I tried, but just about all of it was technical language—programming methods and stuff." He shrugged. "I understood it all, but I still fail to see it's relevance to the project."

Kaworu nodded. "Ironically enough, these guys happen to be my former employer."

"Really? How'd you know that?" Toji asked. "The client's name isn't mentioned anywhere."

"SEELE," he said, enigmatically. "It was a part of government intelligence, until the whole field was privatized. They were laid off, and subsequently formed that company."

"What do they do?" Kensuke leaned forward, interested.

Kaworu shrugged. "It's hard to say, specifically. I just know that everything they told directly to me was top secret."

"So you're sayin' that anythin' you tell us could get all of us shot, right?" Toji leaned on the table.

Kaworu chuckled softly. "Something like that."

---

"Shig,"

"Mak,"

"We need to go down to the precinct."

Shigeru dropped his fork. "What? Why?"

Makoto frowned. "Because I think we should bail Maya out of jail."

Shigeru scratched his head for a moment. "Why?" he asked. "If she got herself in jail, there's probably a reason—like drug trafficking."

Makoto shrugged. "I dunno, but I don't think she was really doing anything conspicuous—I mean, look at her: it's Maya we're talking about. She was probably framed or set up or something."

Shigeru sat back in his chair, thinking for a moment.

"Alright, fine. Let's go." He grabbed his keys, and walked out the door, followed closely by Makoto.

It wasn't until they had been sitting in the car for several minutes did they realize a rather important fact.

"Mak, do you even know where the local precinct is?"

---

"I have an idea," Shinji stated, gathering the attention of the rest of the table.

Kensuke sipped his Dr. Pepper. "What would that be?"

"Well," he started, "Remember how, on Monday, I wanted to bring the wrath of Black Metal down upon everyone?"

Everyone nodded.

"And remember how I was going to do that?"

"Through the utilities server," Kensuke said. "I had it all ready, but Mister Revolutionary, here—" he gestured to Kaworu, who just smiled vaguely, "—said something about saving the plan as a wild card until we need it."

Shinji nodded. "Yes, I remember that. Well, I think I have a way to get back at management, but we're going to need Rei's help."

Toji looked at him. "Why?"

"Kaworu says she's good with anti-virus programs." Shinji explained. "If she's good with that stuff, she should know how to design and program a pretty damn good virus, as well."

"Hmm," Kensuke made a thoughtful noise. "We'll talk more about this at the office—considering I have a consultant meeting to get to in about… twelve minutes." He said. "Horaki gave me the notice just before the conference this morning."

WEDNESDAY; 1:30 PM

THE OFFICE

---

"And you are… Aida."

"Yes."

Kensuke stared back at the rather intimidating man, who sat with his hands bridged over his nose like some sort of evil, plotting mastermind. His cohort regarded him a tad more warmly; unlike the intense stare which seemed to bore holes into his very soul.

The orange tint to his glasses was driving Kensuke insane, really.

"You're… a programmer?"

"That's right."

"What do you program?"

Kensuke shrugged.

"What do you program?" he asked again.

"Programs."

"What do you program?"

"I program programs that require programming." He exclaimed. "It could be anything!"

The elderly man next to the speaker blinked, frowning as he regarded the logic behind Aida.

"Do you enjoy it?"

Kensuke shrugged again. "Do you enjoy your work?"

"We're asking the questions here," the man reminded him. "Now, do you enjoy your work?"

Kensuke frowned. "Yeah," he said. "Yeah, I'd say so."

"Liar."

---

"I wonder how the consultant meeting is going." Shinji stared into the windowed conference room, where the backs of the consultants were seen.

Toji shrugged. "I dunno, man." He relaxed against the cubical wall he was leaning up against. "We're probably gonna be laid off."

"Yeah," Shinji agreed. "My résumé is pretty up to date, so I'm set." He nodded toward the windows facing the street, to his left. "I just keep thinking that Jet Alone's stock has been looking pretty nice."

"Jet Alone, huh?" Toji followed his gaze. "Yeah, dey 'ave been doin' pretty well, 'aven't dey?"

"Yeah," He replied. "Say Toji, have you noticed something about our employee benefits?"

"Like what?"

Shinji shrugged. "I dunno, but it seems like every time we get the monthly updates from our company, the list gets smaller." He thought for a moment. "Say, how's your retirement fund going, anyhow?

---

"Oh man…" Kensuke sat back at his cubicle, and stared at his desk for a little bit.

"Hey man, what's up?"

"Yeah, Ken-man. What's hangin'?"

Kensuke shook his head. "We're fucked." He said.

Shinji blinked. "Why?"

"These consultants—they're crazy. Wacko. Off their rocker." He said. "That wasn't a consultant meeting; that was an insulting interrogation." He sighed. "I'm pretty sure that they know now that we're all a bunch of lazy-ass, disgruntled workers who barely do enough work to scrape by."

Toji frowned.

Shinji rubbed his neck as he stared at the ceiling.

Kaworu walked in and stopped by the cubicle. "Coffee?" he asked.

"Actually, I could do with a Captain Morgan's." Kensuke replied, eyes clenched shut.

Kaworu frowned. "I don't think we have any of that, today."

"What a shame."

---

"Come on, you piece a' shit coffee maker." Kensuke brought his hand down in a firm smack, delivered to the maker's top. "Work!"

Kaworu frowned as he did this. "Hmm," he made a funny noise. "It worked for me this morning."

Kensuke shook his head as he leaned back against the counter. "Whatever. Screw it."

"If it's any consolation, I think I've got a pretty decent plan to get back at management." Shinji leaned against the refrigerator after grabbing himself a Dr. Pepper. "Want one?" He tossed one over to Kaworu.

"I'll take one," Kensuke said glumly. "What was this idea of yours?"

"Well," Shinji started, taking a long gulp of the beverage, "It's gonna require all of us, including Rei." Everyone nodded, listening. "My plan was this: we're going to hack into the server, like last time—that's where Kaworu comes in,"

Kaworu cocked his head. "Why me?"

"Because they've probably changed the location of the utilities we need to access. It would be great if you could get us a map of the directories." Kaworu nodded, and Shinji returned to his original thought. "But then we'll need a virus—a nasty one. I figure we can get Rei to concoct some sort of devastating virus which will only target the management-level machines." He took another sip. "Once that's in place, I figure we'll have fun with the utilities again—Tsjuder blasting over the P.A., lights flickering, nasty thermostat malfunction; the works. Kensuke, I'm gonna need you to hack into the server itself, while Rei is delivering our present to management. Toji, you're gonna have to come up with the music bug."

Toji raised an eyebrow. "Music bug?"

"Yeah, we're gonna have to have something play over and over on the P.A., not just one song." Shinji said. "You know, to add ambiance to the computer terminal chaos."

Toji nodded in understanding.

Kensuke frowned, finding a fault in the idea. "How are we going to get Rei to go along with this plan?"

Shinji shrugged. "I'll figure something out."

---

"You are Hikari Horaki?"

"Yes, that's correct."

"And you are a…?"

She shifted uncomfortably. "Junior Manager of an Engineering team."

"Junior Manager?"

"Yes."

"What," the consultant paused, for effect, "is a Junior Manager?"

"We um," she started, awkwardly, "We deal with clients." She said, then added as an afterthought, "And engineers." She waited for a response. When she received none, she elaborated. "We're like middlemen. The clients tell us what they want, and the engineers tell us what the client gets."

"Then what is a Senior Manager?"

"Uh—" she started, "We report to them."

"What do they do?"

She blinked, caught completely off guard. "Y-you'd have to ask one of them."

The man's eye twitched.

After an eternity of silence and the scribbling of his pen, he looked up again. "Very well, we're finished. You may go."

WEDNESDAY; 4:08 PM

COUNTY PRESINCT

---

"You want to tell me what the hell happened?" Shigeru stared at his co-worker through the iron bars of the jail cell. Makoto was next to him.

"It's… a long story," she mumbled.

There was a silence.

"We'll bail you out tomorrow morning." Shigeru suddenly said, then turned to leave.

"What? Why not now?" Maya gripped the bars of the cell.

Makoto shrugged. "We don't have the cash right now. With bail posted at a couple thousand…" he trailed off. "Don't worry, Maya. We'll get you out tomorrow... I think."