Cross My Mind

A DEADLY ENCOUNTER

Agent Stone drove to the faculty of engineering and located his way to the department of software engineering where he parked his car a little walk away from Reece’s department building, he pulled out his glove compartment and picked out two cans containing liquids. He shook the cans thoroughly and after a while, carefully stuffed them under his leather Jacket. He raised his hand, revealing a rugged wrist watch that he wore. He set a time counting down to the next two hours which he expected would be enough for him to enter the building, find his target, eliminate her and set the whole damn place ablaze. He double checked his suppressed pistols one last time before he stepped out of the car, putting on a face cap and begin to approach the department with so much determination in his eyes and motion that anyone seeing him would naturally assume he works there due to how confident he looks as he approached the building.

Inside the department building, in the secret board meeting room Dr. Reece and Professor Ababio are busy seated on different computers sorting and attempting to decrypt and unlock the sensitive files MEDULLA has helped them copy from the Neuratechnologies servers on the unknown island where Akihiro Amida and Jefferson Lockwood are carrying out a government sanctioned, illegal human experimentation to develop a weapon of mass destruction covering the experiment in the guise of a clinical test for their newly developed Neuraface.

“I have finished decoding one of the files, I think I may have figured out the pattern of encryption used to encode them in the first place, I believe it is a five layer security encryption that converts the locked data inside the files further and further away from the original form of information it is. Each of the five times the data is encrypted, it becomes less and less recognizable”. Said Ababio.

“What is in the file Ababio, what we need right now is what we are looking for is anything that can give is an edge over Jefferson Lockwood, Baker John and even the entire Neuratechnologies. If we can find in there any video evidence that can prove their direct linkage to Project Ragnarok, I can make a few calls and pull a few strings that will let us meet the Judge of the supreme court. Check what is in the file” Reece responded.

Ababio expanded the decrypted folder to see a few hundreds of other encrypted folders inside the file he just unlocked.

“What kind of crazy encryption is this, this is crazy Reece. I just spent the last two hours breaking the folder’s security encryption which I just mentioned has five different types of encryption on it only to discover that the files inside the folder themselves which God only knows what kind of crazy encryption method was used to lock and fragments the information they contain beyond reasonable imagination” Ababio lashed out. “Wouldn’t this be easier if MEDULLA was to do it?”

“Medulla is currently connected to unable to further multitask itself since its main program has established itself a connection to the Neuraface of one of the test subjects on the island. We need to do this manually ourselves until MEDULLA confirms the safe departure and release of the two surviving persons on the island before it can help us with the decryption. Since MEDULLA is not communicating with me right now, it must be quite busy.” Reece added.

Just outside the department building, agent Stone walks through to the entrance of the building where the automated sliding door opened, letting him through. As an expert in his field, he has already located the cameras mounted to the ceiling of the room and have lowered his cap just enough to cover his face and prevent it from being captured by the camera. He quickly moved to the elevator and pressed the button for the last floor, which is where his target has an office and a multipurpose advanced computer laboratory based on what the mission briefing contained.

The elevator beeped, closing the door and started descending upwards with Agent stone in it. After a few seconds, when he realize that he is almost on the top floor he pulled the pistol on his waist and cook it, releasing the safety and held it in his hand just enough to pass anyone not paying attention well without the gun being Noticed.

‘At a time like this, three possible scenarios for where the target will be, her office resting before she continues her work, her laboratory in the middle of work or in the toilet' Agent Stone thought in his mind, setting his mind on the order he wants to check the places and decided to start with her office which is much easier to get into than the laboratory.

He sneaked his way through the hallway, avoiding direct exposure of his face to any of the surveillance cameras in the building. After walking midway through the hallway, he took a left turn that leads directly to Reece’s office. On arrival, he pulled out a latex glove and put them in his hands to avoid leaving any traces that may expose him layer.

With careful and professional gesture, he peered through the keyhole of the door to see if she is inside but realized that there a sliding covering on the side of the keyhole preventing him from seeing inside the office. He gently pressed the handle down to try unlocking the door but as he expected, it was locked with a key. He bend down and pilled out two pieces of wire, inserted them into the keyhole and started to pick the door lock. With Agent Stone's expertise it took him less than thirty seconds to unlock the door.

Without making any loud sounds, he slowly pressed the door handle and opened the door, with a flashlight in one hand and his gun on the other, Agent Stone searched all parts of the office and as he earlier expected, His target is not there. He sneaked his way out of the office and pulled the door shut, using the same pair of wires he locked the door just in case his target missed him somehow and come to the office. Seeing her door unlocked may set her off.

He proceeded along the hallway leading back to the main part of the building and proceeded further inward where the laboratory doors were located at the end of the main hallway. With his pistol in one hand, he peered through the translucent glass to see if there is anyone inside but the visibility is so bad that he couldn’t see properly. What he saw however are lights that look like they are definitely from a computer screen that is on and operating, he focused more and realised that the lights are blinking and Changing color, indicating based on Agent Stone’s reasoning that someone is undoubtedly inside the laboratory working. He turned on his flashlight and proceeded towards to pull the door open.

In the secret board meeting room, Ababio and Reece are still trying to c***k open a any file that can give them credible leverage over Neuratechnologies but have yet to obtain any, Ababio is trying the same method he used earlier but this time around, the decryption process has been awfully long.

With a sudden motion, Ababio quickly stood up looking at Reece with a terrified expression on his face, Reece was so shocked at his sudden spring that she quickly turned back to see what was frightening him only for her eyes to meet the blank wall starring right back at her. With a sluggish movement, Professor Ababio pulled out a vibrating phone from his pocket and unlocked it.

“One of the sensors went off but this is wrong, it is only the sensor near the computer that went off without any of the ones I put by the door”. He said.

“Did you close the window you opened where you were seated?” demanded Reece

“Oh heck, I totally forgot to close it, no wonder the cameras didn’t automatically start streaming the video, I set them to be triggered by the sensors on the doors and there’s no way anything gets in without triggering the sensor ”. He responded.

“This could be the wind knocking off something that sets off the sensor, we need to quickly reset the sensors or we won’t be able to catch whoever they send on the cameras.” Reece added, standing up and heading towards the door.

“This is my fault, let me fix tis I will be back in a jiffy” The professor said and headed to the elevator, when he arrived at the Laboratory on the top floor, he opened it and saw a torchlight on the floor which he reckon must have been knocked down by the wind, he closed the window, he reset the sensor as quickly as he could and went back to the secret board meeting room where Reece was seated still trying to decrypt the files.

Ababio sat down and continues his decryption process without saying a word in an attempt to not distract Reece and after a few minutes, Reece asked

“What was the matter with the sensor in the lab?”

“It was a torchlight that tripped over and fell next to the sensor, it must have been knocked over by a breeze from the window.” He responded.

“What torchlight? I don’t remember any torchlight since I have never taken one to the lab and I am currently the only person who use the place” Reece responded.

There was stillness in the room, none of them is pressing their computers or saying anything, realising that they could have been outplayed by a master assassin and just at this moment, Agent stone Burst through the door with his gun pointed in their direction.

“Stand up and step away from the computers, move towards the wall behind and put your hands where I can see them” He said.

The two stood up and simply did as he ordered them to, he tied their hands and asked them to stand by his side as he removed a can from his pocket he shook it hard, lit the tip of the cap with a lighter and threw it to the other side of the board meeting room and as the three of them exit, the entire place set aflame.

With a gun pointed at them, he walked them to the elevator and climbed back to the top floor of the building and into Reece’s laboratory. As they walk into the laboratory, the fore siren went off in response to the fire Agent Stone has set earlier on the lower floor. Using this brief moment of random alarms blaring and the sudden power outage, Ababio quickly picked up a large fire extinguisher that was stationed just next to where he was standing.

As soon as Agent Stone saw this, he raised his gun and aimed at the professor, but Ababio has already hurled the extinguisher at him. Agent Stone quickly fired his pistol three time, the first Bullet missing both the extinguisher coming at him and the professor, the second bullet hit Ababio at the side of his abdomen and the third one hitting the approaching can of fire extinguisher in the air, making it burst in an explosion, knocking Agent Stone down and filling the entire laboratory with white particles.

“Run Reece, don’t look back just run and call for help” Ababio said as he stood by the side dripping blood, he looked at Agent stone who is trying to regain his Balance after the explosion.

Reece wasted no time in bolting out of the laboratory in the cover of the white particles from the fire extinguisher towards the elevator.