Vivienne Hartwell had just wrapped up a mission and stepped out of the time corridor when the stench hit her head-on so hard she nearly fell backward. She slapped a hand over her nose and held her breath on instinct.

"What the hell? What is this?"

Inside the system space, Rascal lounged there, swinging its stubby little legs like it had all the time in the world. "Didn’t I tell you last time? Vivienne, you really are getting old. Full-on grandma memory loss."

Vivienne’s eyelid twitched.

"Our Time-Space Administration has the Career Division, Romance Division, Strategy Division, Villain Division, Cannon Fodder Division..." Rascal went on in a lazy drawl.

"We’ve got every division under the sun, except one."

"No childcare division."

"In a bunch of minor worlds, tons of kids are drowning in resentment and nobody’s handling it. Some parents gave birth and then just ditched the job, some went way too far in the other direction, and some kids had miserable lives from start to finish. Now all those little ghosts are furious and teaming up."

"That resentment shot straight into the Time-Space Administration. It’s been stinking up the place for days."

Only then did Vivienne remember Rascal really had mentioned it before. She just hadn’t cared much at the time, since she’d been buried in mission after mission nonstop.

But now that she was actually breathing this in, she seriously felt like throwing up.

"Ugh..."

It was so damn nasty.

"So that’s it? Nobody’s fixed it?"

Rascal bit into an apple with a loud crunch and answered around the mouthful, "People want to fix it. They just haven’t found the right person."

Vivienne was still talking to Rascal when the administrator of the Time-Space Administration, Desmond Hale, suddenly started walking toward her.

Her heart instantly dropped.

Bad vibes. Very bad vibes.

"What do you want?"

Vivienne turned and tried to bolt, but Desmond grabbed her in one move.

She went alert in a second. "I’m from the Career Division, okay? The ace."

"My director would never approve a transfer!"

Vivienne had always been the top executor in the big-female-lead career track.

Her record was absurdly stacked. Tens of thousands of missions completed, win after win, and not once had she ever fumbled.

Her KPI had been sitting in the Time-Space Administration’s top ten rankings for years.

Seeing that Vivienne Hartwell had already figured out what he was after, Desmond Hale stopped beating around the bush.

“I’ll make you Director of the Child Division. Ten subordinate slots. You can personally go into the minor worlds and pick your own people.”

Vivienne was just about to say no. Did he seriously think she was that shortsighted?

But Rascal suddenly shot up from the chair like it had been electrocuted, full-system rage mode activated, and hurled the apple in its hand straight to the floor.

“Vivienne, listen up. That jerk of a director just messaged you.”

“He said there’s no spot left for you in the Career Division. If you don’t say yes to Desmond Hale, he’ll come back and make your life hell.”

“Damn it!! Those two absolute trash men!”

Vivienne felt like she’d taken an arrow straight to the chest. Her director had fallen in love, and now the moment things got awkward, he was ready to sell out his own subordinate.

And honestly, she didn’t doubt for a second that the bastard meant every word. If he really decided to mess with her, best-case scenario she’d lose a layer of skin. Worst-case? She’d be done for.

Desmond added another bargaining chip. “Double points?”

Vivienne’s eyes flickered.

Desmond gritted his teeth and pushed further. “I’ll upgrade your system Rascal to top-level permissions. Full mall access. Twenty percent off everything you buy. And I’ll install a Time Gate system on Rascal too.”

“That’s my bottom line, Vivienne. If you still won’t take it, I’m getting someone else.”

A grin bloomed across Vivienne’s face in an instant.

This was gold. Pure gold.

Just the Time Gate system alone was worth several hundred thousand points. She’d busted her ass for years and only managed to save a little over a million.

Without a Time Gate system, every mission meant entering through the same old time-space passageway. But once a system had a Time Gate, it could jump into mission worlds anytime, anywhere. Total cheat code.

“Come on, Desmond, saying it like that is way too formal. What’s our relationship here? If you ask, there’s no way I wouldn’t help.”

“From today on, please address me as Director of the Child Division, Vivienne. I’m heading over to the Child Division to start the mission right now.”

Vivienne switched into full-on bootlicker mode in under a second, then turned and leaped straight back into the time-space passage.

Rascal sounded a little more serious for once. "Want to pick something easier to start with? A beginner-friendly mission, just so you can ease into it?"

Vivienne Hartwell didn’t stress over stuff like that. She and Rascal had worked together for years. Yeah, its mouth could be kind of savage, but their teamwork was rock-solid, and when it came to doing the job, it was absolutely legit.

"You pick."

"Say less."

"Hidden-marriage, workaholic rich mom. Plot transmission in progress. Host memory transmission in progress. Mission location transmission in progress..."