The Lobby

"Welcome to the City. 

The City is ruled by The Class..."

I let the speaker rumble without really paying attention. I was here on invite, I didn't need any lesson in who not to annoy. People caught up my methods give results and results are welcomed eagerly.

It took the bus - aircooled bus - about twenty minutes to reach the conference center. The bus was also blinded - they called it reflective, to the brutal sun. Not a once did I catch a glimpse of the burrow around the center.

The manager himself came to welcome me. First question: 

"Did you pay attention to the clip?" 

"What clip?"

"Oh, my. remember this:

'The City is ruled by the Class. At the bottom is the Nameless. In between the Rest.' 

"Never forget that..." 

I caught my my eyes starting to roll just in time, but I acknowledged him:

" Class, Nameless, Rest, got it..."

"No you don't," I heard him mumble, or so I think. 

"Follow me..." 

He took me to some lobby, where food was stacked on tables, served by people wearing electronic footbands. Some bored looking girls came to me, to "guide me". Guide me in what? Taking some of the food on a plate and eat it? Yes, they did. Except I didn't eat. Any of it. Five rather nice looking girls, sitting at a table, no-one's eating, drinking or talking. 

They even followed into the restroom, but not in the cabin itself. Five girls doing make-up in the men's room. Nice an fancy restroom, though. Marble. Mirrors. Lights. Lots of them. 

I asked for a place to revise my notes, and prepare quietly. They took me to some nicely furnished room, next to the main hall, everything I needed was there, plus the five girls, that started doing girl-stuff like whatever, I wasn't paying attention to them anymore.

These people had had me already. I gave the trash-talk. Now they were getting the theory. Even more turned out, but I guess many would be leave, if they even make it to half and pause. 

ODS-N is more than growing plants according to Natural Ways.  In one sentence, I gather the strength of ODS-N. It IS and it is NOT. 

Half an hour, sir. Before I could turn my head, the door was already closing again. I hadn't heard it opening though. 

The water was on the table, it's all I asked for, certified and sealed. I started unpacking the seal, going through electronic layers of ID certification, eye-scanning and brute force layers, requiring hardware-tools provided with biometric lockouts, programmed to me. Water was gold here.  

Halfway I could remove the glass jar it would be drinking it from, and at ten to start when the bottle finally came out. I had wondered several times why they still had a glass bottle and a glass glass, but hey... I needed clean water. At home I had enough diverse tech to comply to that need, but here I needed that outplay of wasted energy around a bottle of water. 

I touched the pendant in my pocket and gathered my notes. I liked to be in time. Always have. I'd rather be ten minutes in advance, than waste people's valuable time in waiting for me. 

The hall was already filled to the top and from the moment I opened the door, all eyes were on me. Chitterchatter died down on instant.

I sat down, layed out my notes and put down the watch. My precious automatic chronomaster. It was the one thing I had left from my dad, and it still worked like a charm. Prior to this, I had an espresso-machine, I inherited from my mother, reminding me of her, every time I took one, and sometimes, I took a lot of them. All other materials from my paste had gone. 

The watch had survived The Blast. 

And the inside of my head did as well...