Yes. Salws = sales. The w and e are right next to each other.
Chapter 77
34:00
I stepped off of the ball car after an uncomfortably long five minute ride. I was in a room I had once worked in: the fone room. Where all business (and more than a few personal) fone calls were made.
Not many people came in during the day - everyone entered in the morning and left in the evenings. So my appearance after the normal arrival time turned more than a few heads. In fact everyone turned to look.
The room was full of busy vykkers, chatting away on video fones. Sligs hustled here and there, carrying papers that were likely far too important for mudokons to be trusted to carry. They were likely just finishing up some quick business before they had to move along to zulag nine to hide.
But now they were all standing and looking at me. Some were whining.
“What the hell?”
“Shouldn’t you be in your office?”
“What in the name of Odd …”
And that was it. I quickly popped over to my mudokon body. This caused an uproar. Vykkers were suddenly trying to make different fone calls to try and tell Icarus that hey, there’s a mudokon that can turn into a glukkon in here, we’re gonna shoot him, etc., etc.
I didn’t give them the time. The shrykull power I had earned in the detention room suddenly ravaged me, and after a minute, I fell to the floor, transformation over, and room cleared of vykkers and sligs.
My joints ached everywhere. My muscles were sore. Too much transformation. Too much strain. Too much to do, too little time.
But I had to keep moving. I whistled at the mudokons, who had been making koffee for the busy vykkers, and set them free. Chanting made my shoulders and back ache even more, but … no complaining.
Now unarmed, I moved on into the next sub zulag, marketing. Where all the television commercials were pitched and even recorded.
It was empty. Only the mudokons were here, relaxing with no one to watch them.
“All o’ ya!” I whistled. “Follow me.”
They whistled in assent, and came with me into shipping. This was a large room, second largest in the factory (the largest was the giant indoor area where the “stockyards” zulags were). Crates everywhere. A large loading bay in the center, big enough to hold fifty crates. Directly above it was a round door in the ceiling, which was opened by remote from an overhead slig station. It was currently closed. There was heavy machinery, used to load the huge crates onto the loading bay platform. From here, they would be beamed up into Vykker’s Labs, but, seeing as how Abe and Munch had so recently destroyed it, the glukkons were likely planning on remodeling this room to accommodate mugs, and possibly blimps.
It was empty. Three mudokons were napping while the other two played catch with a piece of a bone.
I got them to follow me as well. This was really quite unnerving
[VISION]
zulag five is working busily. when the power goes out, several sligs begin to panic. soon the message about the poison gas release and the retreat to zulag nine comes on. when the message ends, all sligs in the sub zulags for marketing, shipping, and receiving quickly move out and into zulag nine.
[/VISION]
Aha. Fine.
I led the mudokons into the receiving department, which was considerably smaller. The only things we received were stock animals, dropped in from - you guessed it - Vykker’s Labs.
I gathered the five relaxing mudokons in here, and had fifteen with me. More than enough for another shrykull morph.
I chanted to free them, and when they were through, the surge of energy from the shrykull morph rejuvenated me, and my pains were almost completely silenced.
Now. Accounting. Then I would have to get out and to the stockyards.
