Cross My Mind

A RACE AGAINST TIME PART 1

Having reached the elevator, with shaky hands and a fast beating heart Dr. Reece pressed the button for the lobby inside the elevator with the hope that The mysterious man with the gun will not catch up to her in time before the elevator moves.

The elevator closed the door, descending downwards. As soon as the door opens again, Reece knew she was on the ground floor and dashed out of the elevator. She ran as fast as she could with her arms tied up together, without turning back heading towards the exit of the building.

Once she was outside, Reece took a left turn towards her car in the parking lot where she has always parked on the earmarked space with her name and although she left her bag back in her office, with her keys and phones inside, she knows she would not have any problem getting in her car even without the key because her car has a biometric fingerprint access system.

Once near her car she pressed the thumb of her left hand on the fingerprint sensor, instantly unlocking the vehicle. She turned to the department building where a raging fire is rapidly spreading over the offices of the second floor, and tilted her head upwards a little and on the top floor, she can see the blinking of the red backup lights through the windows of her laboratory with two shadowy figures, one apparently pointing something at the other and without warning, three flashes of light shone rapidly, one after the other and one of the figures fell down in a slump.

Knowing what this could mean, Reece quickly entered her car and closed the door, looking one last time through the window in the hopes that Ababio has somehow managed to take the man’s gun and shot the man, Reece knows quite well that it is unlikely but in her mind she keeps praying and hoping for that to be what has happened. However, her hope for Ababio to survive shattered in pieces when an explosion suddenly burst the windows of the laboratory to pieces, setting the entire place ablaze.

Reece quickly pressed the ignition button in her car and with a screeching sound, she drove out of the faculty complex as fast as her car can go. She drove through the campus and straight to the Exit, where she refused to slow down for the checkout point and instead drove through it, breaking the gate post and speeding like a raging racer with one thing on her mind.

“What do I do next, who do I call and should I report this to the local authorities?” Reece contemplate on her mind as she speeds up even more on the highway While using a box cutter she had picked from her glove compartment, cutting the rope binding her arms.

Back in the building, a few moments earlier Agent Stone stood bleeding from his right arm, where Professor Ababio had managed and carried one of the knives that have fallen off of him when the extinguisher explosion knocked him off his feet. The professor charged at stone without caring about his gun shot injury while the agent was trying to stand up. He charged in with such tenacity that before Agent stone could raise his pistol towards him, he has already stabbed him in the arm with the dagger.

However, unfortunately for the professor, he would need more than a stab in the arm to slow down a trained contract Assassin. Agent Stone easily knocked him down and stood up, this time around pointing his gun at him and firing three shots at his chest and killing him.

He pulled out the second can from his pocket and shook it, lighting it with a lighter he produced from his pocket and throwing it on the floor of the laboratory, closing the door after him and running towards the staircase. A few seconds later, the laboratory exploded with flames eating away all that can be found Around.

He started running down the staircase expertly with timed jumps and swift steps, trying to get out of the building as fast as he could before his target can get far from him and complicate his mission. As he passed two floors, he heard the screeching sound of a vehicle swerving out of the parking lot of the building and speeding off towards the exit of the faculty complex. Agent Stone continued to descend the stairs even faster than he was going before, but all was not enough because by the time he arrived at the lobby; Dr. Reece was nowhere to be found.

He ran to his Black Charger and stepped in, pulling out his phone and dialing the last and only number in his call log, a few seconds later the number went through and beeped three times.

“This is Agent Stone, code Triple zero six. Requesting mission update”. He said and the phone beeped three times.

“First attempt failed due to an unaccounted variable, Reece was not working alone as the mission description outlined, she was working with the Vice chancellor of the entire institution, a man called Professor Ababio, he engaged me in a fight and threw an extinguisher at me, letting the target escape as I took care of him. Target has currently fled the primary scene. Requesting permission to proceed with mission according to regulation and awaiting update on target's whereabouts as well”.

The phone beeped three times again and the deep voice of a man on the other end of the line said in an accent.

“Agent stone, you have lost your touch. How can you fail to handle two old professors? Anyway Update acknowledged, proceed with mission according to protocol and await information on target’s whereabouts in the next thirty minutes” the voice said and the phone call ended.

Agent Stone started his car and drove straight to the campus exit, where he noticed that the gate has been broken and realised it must have been Reece fleeing from him. He drove through the exit and headed for the main road connecting the exit road of the campus with the main highway. In a great burst of speed and horsepower, the agent reached the intersection in no time.

He parked his car at the side of the road near the intersection and walked to the very middle of the intersection and bent down. He knows that his target would be driving fast and would most likely take her turn in the direction almost adrift without slowing down.

He observed the fresh skid marks on the road and saw a skid that turned to the left. Agent stone quickly stood up and walked back to his car, lighting a smoke and checking his phone once again but there is no update yet on his target which will mean he has to depend on his instinct and skills to track her down and complete the mission.

He finished his smoke, got in his car, treated his stab would and started the car taking the left lane, heading straight towards Pasadena.

******(In Garba’s mental space)******

Garba slowly opened his eyes to find himself lying down in his mental space with MEDULLA’s projection standing above him, he stood up and converted the space into a living room with sitting furniture, he sat on a chair and asked MEDULLA.

“What is going on, why am I here. The last thing I remember was eating on a table with Mila, Akihiro and Nora. If I am here, it means I am unconscious out there”.

“Just hold on a minute Garba, I am tapping Mila in right now and once she is here, we are going to have a very important conversation so please wait a moment” MEDULLA responded.

Garba waited a couple of minutes for MEDULLA to patch Mila through to his Mental space and while he does that, he remembers that his sister’s future depends on him, with their Father Mr. Danladi retired, and hos sister’s Heterochromia which is not helping the circumstances at all, to add salt to injury it makes people who are superstitious which this is like a majority of Africans to avoid her because her eyes makes her a witch, an evil spirit or a bad omen.

Garba himself has had plenty of opportunities snatched away from him due to his Heterochromia, he has had many job opportunities where he was the top applicant but was denied because the job. Although it was not mentioned why, he knows it is because of his eyes.

Garba’s thoughts were interrupted by Mila’s appearance in front of him.

“What is going on here, the last thing I remember was dinner with those weird people telling us about the experiment and the next thing I know, I was in my mental space with MEDULLA standing on my head.” Mila said.

“I said the exact same thing just a few moments earlier”. Garba responded.

“Please have a seat, I am about to tell you something very important” MEDULLA said and Mila took a seat next to Garba, resting her head on his shoulder.

“Right now, the two of you are under strong Anesthesia so you wont be waking up for a while, Akihiro and Nora have dossed your food with a strong chemical agent that has no taste or smell but can knock a person out in a few minutes. Your true bodies have further been anesthetized for a specialized chemical process that even I have no knowledge of but I can tell you that Akihiro has proclaimed that he can specifically erase your memories of the experiment in a deal my mother Dr. Reece made with him as part of the plan to get you out of here” MEDULLA said.

“Currently, I am estimating that this will be our last contact in a while because My mother has her hands on Akihiro’s data for all of the experiment with direct evidence connecting Neuratechnologies and the experiment. I will engrave a program that will spontaneous be activated after you too have been released. My mother is in a race against time for your release so I have to leave and help before they catch up with her and murder her.

No matter what, once the program activates, I’ll be able to connect back with you wherever you are in the world and I have already sent you some packages to your various homes.” MEDULLA added, pausing for a few moments and then continuing.

“I have embedded the program in each of your Neuraface, as for you Mila once you wake up your Neuraface will automatically updater passively, Changing the operating system to the custom built one similar to the one Garba is using right now. I just received an update that my mother is in trouble, I need to help her out so this is goodbye”.

Without warning, MEDULLA disappeared from the mental space completely, leaving Garba and Mila connected. Sitting next to each other.

“Garba, I know this will sound weird for you, but I find your eyes exceedingly beautiful, I have been in your memories so I also know that you are a survivor like me, I was attracted to you the first time I set my eyes on you, not just because your differently colored eyes attract me, but because you looked handsome and interesting. If we ever make it out of here alive, please find me, you are the second person I consider family now and I will want for you to meet the first one.” Mila said and with a sudden blink, the connection was terminated.

Garba sat on his chair in his mental space alone and wondering and contemplating Mila’s words just now.

“I guess that is to be saved for when we survive all of this” he said to himself and his mental space disappeared, forcing him into a Dream.