AWACS - An American With A Chinese System
Copyright© 2025 by PT Brainum
Chapter 3
I woke up sometime during the night hurting, I grabbed all my points, converted them and shoved them into my healing and went right back to blissful pain free sleep. If you ever have the opportunity, definitely try magical healing, it’s awesome.
I woke up the next time to uncontrollable sunshine piercing my brain at around 8 am. I immediately checked my stats.
0/450 (8) Level
2,091/4,500 positive points
2,076/4,500 neutral points
2,025/4,500 negative points
3 Active Skills
1 Passive Skill
Healing: 37,013 minutes
I cringed before I realized that even without my midnight healing my karmic point banks would not have reached full. I’d have to be careful as I didn’t want to convert to neutral points and lose points to overfilling my bank. I was still a little ticked that I had lost my first life’s karmic points, I know that I probably had scored really big just before my death.
I spent the neutral, then converted the others one at a time, spending them as soon as they arrived in the bank.
0/450 (8) Level
0/4,500 positive points
0/4,500 neutral points
9/4,500 negative points
3 Active Skills
1 Passive Skill
Healing: 13,073 minutes
Even if I didn’t spend another point, I was 9 days from completely healed. Man, I felt good. I ordered room service and took a leisurely bathroom visit, dressing for my 10 am appointment. I was just finished when there was knock at the door.
“Come in, it’s open,” I hollered.
A bald head on a relatively young guy poked thru the door, “Koby? It’s John Marcham, are you available?”
“Not going anywhere today, come on in and find a seat.”
He entered the rest of the way, barely five feet tall, but dressed immaculately. I don’t know fashion, but he obviously did, and was ironed and pressed and starched like he should creak when he walked.
He took the seat across from me, setting his briefcase down and giving a sigh. Almost theatrical in nature. Probably was theatrical since everything about him screamed lawyer.
“First of all, thank you. Second of all, I’m so sorry about what you’ve been thru.”
“I’m not going to say it was nothing. It could of killed me easy enough. By the time I got off the plane here there was an ambulance waiting for me.”
“Right, and my sympathy is complete, and wholly mine. The company and the union have their own sympathies, but they are completely self-serving in nature.”
“That seems oddly truthful, from somebody who screams lawyer.”
“Well, they put me in charge of making it right, because it’s going to be a difference between a huge windfall or a significant loss depending on the situation and the choices you make next.”
“Is it wise to start by telling me I have the power in this negotiation?”
“Not so much power, but you have the goods that other parties desperately want to acquire. You’ve got the ability to squander it or make the most of it as you please, I’m hoping that you’ll see the benefit of making the most of it.
“Alright, so what do I need to know?”
“First, how about you tell me what happened.”
“Sounds good, can I order us drinks while we talk? It’s going to take a bit.”
“That sounds very nice.”
As I ordered coffee and tea service from room service, he pulled out a notepad and a recorder from his briefcase. Room service only took a couple minutes, bringing up a selection of pastries as well.
As I took a pastry and a sip of coffee, he did the same with a small smile.
He clicked on his recorder, “Do I have your permission Mr Roberts to record our meeting?”
“Is it for legal or personal reasons?”
“Not legal per say, but just to have documentation. I’ve pretty much got your story from other sources, I’m most interested in what happened from your perspective.”
“We’ll see. It might be pretty different from whatever Mike has told you.”
“Mike is no longer an employee of the company or a member of the union, who I ostensibly work for.”
“In that case, Yes, you may record this conversation.”
He nodded, took the recorder and spoke into it, “This John Marcham, Today is January 9th, it is 10:34 am, and I’m alone with Mr Koby Roberts in his hotel room in Portland Oregon.
“Mr Roberts, please tell me the story of how you ended up here.”
“I’ve been an employee of TransNat Construction since graduating college. My specialty is workflow management and streamlining the movement of materials and workers into large construction sights. For the past 3 years I’d been working in Abu Dhabi, three months ago, I got transferred to head up a team that was falling behind on a project in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.
“I got right to work, getting things straightened out. The project had gone on hold multiple times during the pandemic, and never quite ever started back where it left off each time work resumed. It was a mess. I didn’t leave the job site, or the compound for those three months, overtime practically everyday, and way too many hot days out of the air conditioned office trying to get actual information on what had actually been accomplished compared to what work was being attempted.
“I finally got things squared away enough that I put in for a week break. HR didn’t even blink, and immediately OK’d the leave. I sent the message that I was out, updated my voicemail, and set my phone to only bother me in an emergency.
“I’d heard that there was an actual bar that had actual alcohol, and if I showed my passport I could get in, so I headed there for the first beer I’d had in three months. I had just gotten out of the cab when I heard a woman shout koydo nay heem. I don’t know what language that is, but I recognized what it meant from a job I had in high school working for this guy from India.
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