Brax sighed as he scrolled through his emails. Slowly, he closed his eyes and hoped this accursed workday would end. After a few seconds, he opened them again and started emailing people once more.


    His job mainly involved emailing people and getting them to email things back to him—catalogs, files, or updates—a truly dull task.


    Achingly, the digital clock crept up to 5 PM, closing time. As it got closer, his body slowly relaxed. Any second now, he’d be ho—


    “Did you hear about Jenna?” his coworker, Tim, asked, having crept up with the grace of a panther—uncommonly close to Brax and irritatingly close to closing time. Truly devious.


    Brax did the mental gymnastics to figure out the best option. A glance at his screen told him it was 4:50. Ten minutes to go. Realizing there was no way he was going to get anything done now, he decided to see where this was going.


    “Did something happen to her?” he asked nonchalantly as he started shutting down his laptop.


    “I’d say so. She’s taking maternity leave! She’s only been here a few months; HR must be fuming!” Tim said, eager to gossip.


    Brax thought about Jenna. She was responsible for managing the export paperwork at the company—a vital job that few people had the skill to do, as the regulations made it incredibly tedious. The previous expert had left on bad terms, and her assistant, Mark, whom she was training, was unprepared for the responsibility.


    “Oh dear, that sounds like trouble. Has management decided what to do yet?”


    “Nothing yet, but I talked to Mark at lunch, and he said they’re thinking of shifting all the employees who have worked on exporting into the problem. So, we might be doing something different for a change soon.”


    “That sounds... drastic. I''m not sure throwing more bodies at the problem will help. Maybe they should bring in an external contractor, at least temporarily. That way, there wouldn’t be any potential issues with exporting.”


    Brax glanced back at his screen: 4:53. Time to start packing up.


    “It would cost a fortune to bring in outside help, and some people, like you, have worked on it before. They’re willing to take the risk on this one,” Tim said, a pensive look on his face. “You should be able to help.”


    The author''s narrative has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.


    Brax took a second to think about it as he finished turning off his laptop. “Maybe a change in work wouldn’t be so bad.”


    He stood up and stretched. “We’ll see how it goes; the last time we didn’t have a resident expert, it was a fiasco. They might just get external help anyway.”


    “You can say that again. I’m not looking to go through that again, but things are different now; it might work out, and Jenna said she’s willing to remotely oversee the process as well. It was one of the reasons management hasn’t freaked out yet; it might just be halted as they wait for her input,” Tim said as he pulled out his phone. “4:55 already? Looks like I need to pack up. See you tomorrow, man. Take care.”


    “Take care, Tim. Tell your dog I said hi,” Brax said as they parted and went their separate ways.


    “Tam misses you, man; we should meet up this weekend. Cheers!” Tim said as he disappeared around a corridor.


    As Brax walked through the facility, he thought about how management was likely going to push him into the role, and he wasn’t sure how to handle it. On one hand, a change would be nice; on the other hand, it would mean a big change in his day-to-day life. Ultimately, change was inevitable, and he might as well approach it with joy rather than sadness.


    Pulling out his phone to check the time, he read 4:58, and with that realization, he sped up, as there were few things he hated more than unpaid overtime.


    He reached the exit of the building and stepped into the staff access point; the sun was stiffly peeking out from the horizon dotted with low-rise buildings. The seasons were changing, and spring was fast approaching; all around him were small hints of change.


    He sped up to the final access point and began signing out of the facility. As the security officer was noting down his time, the man raised his head: “5:00? How? You’ve done it again. There should be a prize if you do that enough days in a row,” he joked as he took his signature and opened the security gate, letting him out—free into the world at last.


    Free at last, he looked around for his car, an old Subaru, and got started driving off. Entering the highway, the road was packed with other cars like sardines in a can. Achingly, he inched toward his apartment, and eventually, he was parked at the last intersection, staring at a red light.


    Sighing at the hell that was traffic, he opened his phone. 5:10. He was making good time; it looked like he was going to have some good relaxation time today. He slowly smiled as he considered what he’d do. He could watch a movie. That new game looked good; it had really cool gameplay. He could have a really good sess—


    HONK HONK!


    He had no time to think and even less to react. In a fraction of a second and a flash of red, Brax was gone.


    [System Analysis Commencing...]


    [New Entity Detected, commencing bioanalysis]


    [Analysis Complete]


    [Access the new information at Updates]