While Light and the others had finally come to an agreement with Orange Base, Aida was still at Green Base. She was working through hundreds of problems with logistics on the base.
After the grand town hall meeting, everyone had settled into new roles and the mood had improved greatly, yet she didn't get to catch a break at all. Realizing the workload, she decisively dragged the three lackey's into the room to work with her as well. Since then, screams of terror could often be heard from the room.
The penthouse they were residing in now looked more like a DMV as the line of people waiting outside extended through the emergency stairs all the way to the bottom floor. Aida and the three lackeys were having one on one meetings with all the newly assigned team leaders. She didn't want any bad seeds among the leadership that could topple all her efforts.
Every interview was uniquely tailored to the information that she had on the person. With Artie's help, she would be able to ask the right questions and identify any suspicious behavior. Her targeted questions made every interviewee shudder in fear. She seemed almost omniscient in their eyes, preventing most of them from lying.
After each interview, Aida would provide an assessment and teach her new lackeys different tactics to read people properly. While it made her sound like an expert, in reality, it was Artie in the background running all the information through his algorithms and explaining it to Aida.
Rose and Little White didn't stick around for this process. Rather, they were sent out of the base with a few trusted guards to collect more gems and gather essential materials. Before they left, the Lackeys made sure to pass Rose and Little White some of her favorite foods for the road. Lackey 3 who was in charge of the inventory winked at her and with a friendly smile, "Can't work on an empty stomach. Stay safe out there."
Rose nodded seriously as she took the food, she would make sure everything ran smoothly. Over the past few days, all three of her Mama's lackeys had been extremely kind to her and Little White. The lackeys had assigned their trusted guards to help scavenge for food, resources and everything else. There was an extreme shortage of everything on the base so the two of them were there to lead and expedite the process of acquiring resources.
Aida wasn't at all concerned that Rose and Little White would get in trouble since both of them were level 2 and Little White had the ability to travel at the speed of light. Based on this, they were practically invincible and wouldn't have anything to fear even if they were backstabbed by the guards. Nevertheless, Aida reminded them to never trust anyone and not allow any strangers to follow them back to the base.
Even Xiao Ai, who no one on base knew about, didn't stay idle. She spent her time going through the network on the base and strengthening the security. Aida had to remind her not to go too crazy with it because she didn't want a big target to be painted on the base as a result of stronger than usual security.
The grind continued as more incidents popped up. During an interview, some underlings came running in, saying that the water pipes had burst. The throbbing vein on Aida's temple similarly looked as though it would burst. This water pipe issue brought to Aida's attention all the other potential infrastructure challenges they would have.
She delegated all the other issues around the base to the other lackeys and began walking around with Artie. Aida used her psychic scan to map out the entire base. She could send electromagnetic pulses across a wide area to sense what objects there are while Artie would process the information and make a 3D rendition of everything. Artie would then follow up by comparing the different parts to highlight any wear and tear or items that are broken.
Doing such a task should've been a nice break. Sadly, reality was cruel. The further she walked along the base and evaluated the conditions of the base, the stormier her face got. She practically looked ready to kill by the time she finished checking everything.
Aside from discovering many repairs needed in the building, she also discovered multiple cases of people already reverting to their old ways of drug and rape. Over the course of her 2 hours walking through the base, she found no fewer than 15 cases. Each person found to abuse or rape were immediately killed while the ones with drugs were sent to detention. The lackeys had a few guards follow Aida around for her "protection," who ended up just picking up after Aida left a trail of terror.
As she walked through the city, she noticed an older lady who was very sick lying out on the streets. She had a scar running across her face, a deep wound on her stomach that was festering and one of her legs had been amputated. The lady seemed to be in great pain, yet kept a gentle smile on her scarred face as she looked at the young man besides her.
The young man squatted besides her and meticulously cleaned her body, careful not to jostle her wounds. Aida couldn't see his face, but she could feel his deep sorrow.
Aida frowned, "Didn't I order everyone to have a place to live? Why is she out here on the streets?"
"Boss, there are a lot of people at this base. We can't possibly house all of them immediately." The guard shrugged indifferently. Clearly, he didn't care what happened to these street rats.
Ignoring the blatant discrimination from the guard, she ordered, "Get me some antibiotics and anesthesia."
"But…" Began the guard, who wisely shut his mouth as he saw the ominous glint in Aida's eyes. He quickly shuffled away to obtain medicine.
Aida sighed. The discrimination wasn't something that she could solve in a day or two. That was something that had long been seeded, even before the outbreak itself. Only time and a common enemy could untie those knots.