The Secret Office Meeting
617 Words
The emergency lights went out completely with the loud bang of a burst ventilation duct, and darkness filled the hallway like thick asphalt. Only the electronic tablet in the hands of the committee's representative was still glowing, reflecting twelve expressionless faces.
"Blockade lifting conditions changed." The representative's voice was distorted by metal in the darkness, "Diana Crawford, please hand over the backup data."
Diana felt the static in her pocket suddenly increase and her laptop burned like a soldering iron." The terminal has melted down, you know that very well."
Mark's laughter exploded in the darkness, "Ha! Now who's the virus that needs to be quarantined?"
The tablet suddenly projected a holographic wanted poster, Diana's staff photo swirling around the energy map, red alert lines creeping across the contours of her face." Energy anomaly readings match your biometrics exactly." The pupils representing mechanization contracted, "Under Section 7 of the Emergency Act, you must submit to quarantine testing."
There was a scraping sound coming from the ventilation ducts, like something was moving quickly down the metal ducts. Rogers suddenly stepped in front of Diana, "This is out of order! The committee needs at least three senior executives to cosign-"
The black-clad men's weapons loaded at the same time, twelve laser aiming points converging on Diana's chest. Static electricity caused her hair to float and the pungent odor of ozone filled the air.
"The program has been updated." The representative stepped forward, the heels of his shoes crushing the melted plastic debris on the floor, "Final warning, Ms. Crawford."
Diana's retinas suddenly burned as the indigo residue flashed again. She saw that the screws in the ventilation grilles were spinning on their own, the cables twisting like living snakes. The notebook in her pocket gave off the odor of burnt paper.
"Stand back." Her voice was hoarse and she surprised herself at the metallic tremors in it, "All of you, back off."
Mark suddenly kicked a nearby switchboard so hard that sparks cascaded down." Run, stupid woman!" He growled and lunged at the nearest black man.
The moment chaos erupted, Diana saw Rogers rip off his tie and wrap it around his hand, slamming it hard into the emergency alarm box. The blast gates began to land, cutting through the dark space.
"Channel B!" Rogers shouted over the alarm, "Remember disclosure-"
The laser beam grazed between Diana's ears, smoke rising from her burnt hair. She crashed through the half-descended gate, her leather notebook falling as she ran, the pages floating in eerie fluorescent coding as they scattered through the air.
The delegate stepped on one of the fluttering pages and the metallic-like pupils contracted suddenly, "Live capture authorization confirmed. Target has beta contamination risk."
Diana ran wildly through the maze of corridors, footsteps approaching behind her at an inhumanly synchronized rate. An eerie resonating sound kept coming from the ventilation ducts, like the entire building was echoing the static in her pocket.
She crashed into the fire stairwell and suddenly froze in place - more neat footsteps coming from below to encircle upwards. Indigo residue flickered wildly in her retina, indicating the ventilation shaft's access opening.
As the access flap closed behind her, Diana heard the delegate's voice ring out through all the speakers simultaneously, a metallic sound cascading through the narrow ducts, "Attention all areas, target is carrying a live data carrier. Authorization to use lethal suppression measures."
Deep in the darkness of the ventilation shaft, the static in her pocket suddenly subsided. Some kind of icy touch crept up her spine, like thin metal needles probing into the intervertebral space. Far below, the lights of the entire building turned a dangerous scarlet red at the same time.
- Writer
