After what felt like an unending journey of twisting staircases—including one that went straight up to the twelfth floor, one that sent them back down to the third and one leading back up to the ninth—Alex began to question their decision to avoid the elevator. Her thighs were burning from all the repeated climbing despite her Combat and PE-honed level of fitness, and the panting noises from Bear and D.C. put her on edge, reminding her it had been a while since they had heard any of the guards patrolling close by.
Turning questioning eyes to Bear, Alex gestured for his ComTCD. Reactivating the holographic map, she saw they only had one final staircase to go until they reached the eleventh floor, before traversing the entire length of the building to arrive at their destination. This would be made more challenging by the glass-walled skywalk in the centre, since the facility diverged into two separate towers from the eighth floor up.
Handing back the Device, Alex hurried forward again, ignoring her protesting muscles when she hit the next staircase. They had only forty minutes left to use Johnny’s codes and she was feeling the pressure.
Finally on the eleventh floor, Alex guided them through zigzagging corridors, pausing at every corner to peak around and make sure the next section was clear. It was time-consuming but proved necessary, since an automatic door clicked open nearby and Alex was forced to pull Bear and D.C. back behind the bend in the hallway.
Carefully peering around the corner, Alex confirmed there was another security guard, a woman this time. Like the first, she was dressed in a gunmetal-grey jumpsuit and had a Stabiliser holstered to her belt. She also sported a sword strapped across her back, the hilt of which poked menacingly above her shoulders. Worse still, her purposeful strides meant she was quickly eating up the distance between them.
Realising their side of the corridor was too long and narrow to avoid being spotted, Alex hurried her friends to the closest door, intending to hide in whatever room lay beyond until the coast was clear. But since the eleventh floor was dedicated to Research and Development—or so Johnny had said—the door wouldn’t open without clearance.
Noticing the touch-screen access panel mounted on the wall, Alex gestured to Bear and waited anxiously while he tapped on his TCD screen. A life-sized holographic hand quickly floated out of the Device and encased his skin like a shimmery glove, which he moved closer to the access panel. After the forged handprint was scanned and accepted, he hit a few more buttons until another image came to life—an eyeball, to Alex’s disgust.
As soon as the retinal scan cleared, the door clicked open, allowing Alex, Bear and D.C. to tumble into the room and escape the click-click-click of the guard’s boots nearing them.
The moment the door sealed them inside, there was a violent hiss of air depressurising, the only warning Alex had before she rose from the ground. She heard both Bear and D.C. curse as they too were lifted weightlessly upwards until the three of them were suspended in the air as if floating in water.
“It must be some kind of anti-gravity field,” Bear said, waving his hands around, his movements appearing as if in slow motion.
“Um,” Alex said, feeling like an uncoordinated turtle as she bobbed mid-air. “How are we supposed to—uh—” She trailed off with a distressed sound when her torso tipped forward too far and she was left to somersault her way back around until she was close to the right way up again.
“This is so unnatural!” D.C. exclaimed, looking like she was trying to use swimming strokes to move, but to little effect.
“Hold on a second, guys,” Bear said. “We won’t get anywhere with you fighting gravity like that. We need a plan.”
You don’t say? Alex thought. But she reined in her inner sarcasm and did her best to stay as still as her current state of floating would allow. While Bear was deciding their exit strategy, she took the chance to look around the room. With cream-coloured padded walls, floor and ceiling, it was empty of furniture or anything else. It was clearly a room intended for one purpose—messing with gravity.
Alex heard a beeping sound and she arched her neck until she could see Bear again, his ComTCD in hand. A holographic body came into view above it.
“Yo, little brother. I take it things aren’t going so well?” Johnny said, and Alex could hear the humour in his voice. She wondered how much of their current predicament was showing through his Device and figured it was enough to give him a good laugh at their expense.
“You could say that,” Bear answered. “We wouldn’t be stuck in here if you’d given us a warning about the guards.”
“Guards?” Johnny repeated. Alex managed to float close enough to see his quizzical expression. “There aren’t supposed to be any guards there. Not on site, at least.”
“We’ve seen two already,” Bear said. Johnny looked genuinely concerned. “We had to break into this room to avoid one of them, but now we’re caught in an anti-gravity field. Can you help us out?”
Johnny gave a quick nod. “Give me a sec.” He disappeared for a moment and soon reappeared with a larger, tablet-style Device. “I take it you’re on the eleventh floor? Anti-gravity is R&D for sure. But if I’m right, you’re still on the wrong side of the facility.”
“We haven’t crossed the skywalk yet,” D.C. said. Having given up on her breaststroke, she was now attempting to freestyle her way across the room, looking even more ridiculous than before and still getting nowhere.
“You guys better get a move on,” Johnny muttered, distracted by whatever he was doing with the tablet. “You’re pushing it for time.”
“Yeah, well, if we’d known about the—” Bear started, but his brother interrupted.
“Got it!”
With Johnny’s exclamation, the air-hissing sound came again and Alex dropped like a rock to the floor.
Grateful for the padding that saved her from a very bruised backside, she jumped to her feet and walked over to where Bear was rising. “Thanks, Johnny. We owe you one.”
“Listen, guys,” he said, squinting at the other Device he held. “I don’t know what’s with the guards, but heat sensors indicate there’s one patrolling every floor. That’s fifteen in total. You’re lucky you’ve only come across two, but if you trip any alarms, they’ll all come running.”
Alex closed her eyes, wondering again what she’d been thinking leading her friends here.
“One of those guards is wandering up and down the hallway outside your room. There’s no way for you to get out without being seen. But you’re only a few rooms away from the skywalk, and once you make it over, you’ll be in the clear. I think I can guide you there without you having to step foot in the corridor. But you’ll have to trust me.”
The trio looked at one another before turning back to Johnny. “We’re listening.”
There were three other doors leading from the padded room, and using Johnny’s remote access to open the furthest one, they followed his direction into the long, dark chamber before them.
It was only once the door sealed behind them that he absentmindedly said, “Heads up, you’re about to get wet.”
“Wha—”
Alex’s question was cut off when a billowing mass of cloud materialised above them just seconds before a torrential downpour of water fell straight onto their heads.