Ntshona (22 page)

“Just try to act naturally, and don’t say anything that sounds out of place,” said Eve.

“Yes Lon, calm down,” said Strys, “and tell me the height of the corridors”.

“Hmmm
… I reckon about three metres”. Why was he asking?

A sign on the wall opposite the lifts next to a three-way intersection listed the names of numerous rooms that were contained on that floor. It was a long list, as there were hundreds of rooms and areas.

“Oh my god,” said Lon, “are there seriously that many rooms down here?”

“Think about it Lon,” Eve responded, “the area of this floor must be at least that of the ground floor, and you saw how huge only the one lobby was”.

Lon stepped closer to the sign for a better look, “But seriously, are there really that many rooms?”

“Of course there are,” she began to feel frustrated at his sudden lack of understanding, “I’m sure I told you several times, this building is massive! What else can you expect?”

“But how the hell are we supposed to find what we’re looking for?”

Eve, too, moved closer to the sign. “It’s in alphabetical order, maybe that will help”.

To confirm this tip, he skimmed down the list looking at the first letter of each item. “Oh, you’re right”.

“Of course I’m right,” she said
, “how productive would it be
not
to organise simple things like that in a building so big?”

“Sorry,” apologised Lon, “my mind isn’t working very well right now, I’m running on adrenaline because I’m certain we’re gonna die soon”.

“Wow, you’re making me feel so confident about the situation,” said Eve.

Strys interrupted, “Come on guys, you must stop this and think quickly! Find where you’re supposed to be going”.

“Okay, sorry about that,” said Eve. “Let’s see…” she quickly scanned the list looking for the ‘S’ section, “‘Server Room Minus One’”.

“You’ve found it?” asked Strys.

“Yeah,” replied Lon, “but it only gives us a room number”.

“What number is it?”

“It says ‘Data Centre Minus One: Room Three’”.

“Okay, so you must find ‘Data Centre Minus One’ on the list,” instructed Strys.

“Okay, found it,” said Eve after a moment of searching, “but we only have a direction this time. It’s pointing to our right”.

“Is there no other forms of navigation there?” asked Strys.

“No, it just seems like a complicated mess,” said Lon, “which is odd, because I thought it wouldn’t be productive
not
to organise simple things like that in a building of this size,” he gave Eve a critical glance as he spoke.

She ignored his sarcasm. “I don’t get it either; there are usually navigation panels outside each lift on every floor”.

“Perhaps they expect you to already know where you’re going if you work down there,” said Strys.

“What do you mean?” asked Lon.

“I don’t know, but maybe they only expect certain people to go down there; people who are specifically chosen, and those who aren’t supposed to be there will get lost”.

“So you reckon there are secrets down here?” asked Lon.

“Probably,” Strys replied.

“Then that makes it all the more exciting,” he replied in a flat, depressed tone, “if someone sees us down here, then there’s more of a chance they’ll know we’re not supposed to be here”.

“That’s a point,” stated Eve, “this place seems empty, but usually every floor is busy”.

“Then it either means that something’s down there that you’re not supposed to know about, or that there’s actually nothing down there at all,” said Strys.

“But why would there be so many rooms if there was nothing here?” inquired Lon.

“Either way,” Eve sighed, “we’d better get moving”.

They began walking to the right, the direction indicated on the sign.

They traversed the corridor, walking, and walking, and walking, passing many turns and junctions, yet no more signs advised where to go, only small written indications on the doors they went by noted any locations.

“This is actually stupid,” said Lon, “we’ve walked at least a couple of hundred metres, yet we’ve got no clue as to whether we’re closer to the data centre or not”.

“You’re right,” agreed Eve, “it is stupid. What don’t they want people to see?”

“Maybe the government servers we’re looking for are on this floor,” proposed Lon hopefully.

“Based on all that’s happened to us in the last couple of days,” said Eve, “I’m not gonna bet anything on our luck being so good right now”.

Lon sighed.

Eve sighed.

Strys sighed. “I would tell you to be more positive, but I’m at a loss, man! I knew it would be a challenge, but I didn’t imagine that place to be so damn difficult to navigate”.

“Like I said, it usually isn’t,” stated Eve.

“Well
… what should we do? This place is obviously a maze, I’m scared to take a turn somewhere in case we get lost”.

“Strys, I thought you were an expert at this kind of thing,” said Eve.

“I’m an expert with computers, not architecture!” he defensively replied, “and call me ‘Mammy’”.

“Just a sec,” interjected Lon.

“What?” said both Eve and Strys.

They came to a stop.

“Is everything in this building wireless?”

“Of course,” said Eve.

“But aren’t the computer systems wired in case wireless goes down?”

“It makes sense to do that, but I’m not sure I’ve seen any wires in this building
… why?”

“It’s just that
…” he paused for a moment to think through his upcoming suggestion, “if all the data centres in the building are connected with wires - which they probably are - don’t you think the easiest way to align them would be vertically?”

“Vertically? Why?” asked Eve.

“Because it doesn’t really make sense for one data centre to be connected to another one on another side of such a large building, and then that one be connected to one on another side, like, diagonally”.

“Yes, that would be extremely inefficient,” added Strys.

“So basically,” Eve began to clarify, “you think the data centres are pretty much stacked on top of each other?”

“Yeah, that’s what I would’ve done if I’d designed the system, and I’m pretty sure any other computer systems engineer would have done the same,” explained Lon.

“Yes, come to think of it, I’d have done that too,” agreed Eve, “but that only helps us if we can find the first data centre”.

“Well, you said that this floor is probably wider than the ground floor, right?” Said Lon.

“Right”.

“Why?” he asked.

“Well, because the building is so tall it needs to be wider at the bottom than it is at the top”.

“So,” Lon continued, “if the data centres are all aligned vertically, they can’t be near the sides of the building because the building’s walls aren’t vertical”.

“Oh, I see what you mean!” Eve exclaimed.

“Nice observation Lon, I didn’t think of that,” said Strys, “the data centres must be close to the actual centre of the building on each floor”.

“Yeah, exactly, so if we manage to find the centre of this floor, we might be able to find all the data centres in this building”.

“Well, it’s worth a shot,” said Eve.

Lon beamed with pride at his deduction, yet was momentarily cut short.

“So, how do we find the centre of this floor then?” asked Eve.

“Fuck, I was hoping you’d know what to do next”.

“Take the right turn nearest you,” instructed Strys, “let’s start from there”.

“Okay”.

They did as he said.

“But this corridor looks the same, there aren’t any distinguishing features; the doors and walls are uniform. How can we guess where to go?” said Eve.

“Just keep moving forwards, but pick up the pace,” Strys instructed again, “if the data centre is at the centre of that floor, then you’ve got a long way to go”.

“Oh god, we’re gonna be in here all day, if we don’t get killed,” moaned Lon.

“I’d much rather have the former,” explained Eve.

“And don’t you find these lab coats restrictive?”

“Just leave them as they are, you want to look natural in there,” said Strys.

“I know, I’m just warning you that should we need to run at any point, it might be a little difficult”.

“Lon,” said Eve, “please shut up, I don’t plan on needing to run today”.

“Nor do I, but I’m just making you aware of our weaknesses,” he said.

“Okay guys,” said Strys after another two or three hundred metres of power walking, “you should be coming close to the middle of the building, and data centres are usually big, so it shouldn’t be too difficult to find it”.

“But everything so far has looked the same,” noted Eve, “so what if the data centre looks like everything else?”

“Look for a long corridor on your right without many doors; the data centre will probably have only one or two entrances”.

“Okay, I’m holding thumbs we’ll manage to spot a corridor like that,” said Lon.

Soon enough their luck appeared to turn. They came to a halt at the next junction and peered down the expansive passageway.

“I can only see one door,” stated Eve.

“That must be it,” said Lon.

“Thank goodness,” said Strys, “it seems like we might be getting somewhere now”.

They proceeded towards the door.

“What happens once we get inside?” asked Eve.

“You start to look for the server room, but it should be obvious where it is once you’re inside,” said Strys.

“But what if someone’s in there?” she said.

“Yeah,” said Lon, “even the most advanced, fully automated life support system should have at least one person to oversee its processes, not to mention any security personnel that might be there too”.

“Ah, man, if that’s the case, then you’ll just have to be creative”.

“Be creative?!” Lon shouted.

Eve quickly hushed him.

“How can you tell us to be creative just like that? We could die here!”

“Come on man, you knew from the beginning this would be dangerous,” Strys said in defence.

“I really don’t like this,” he said.

“None of us do, but it has to be done”.

They paused before reaching the door.

“Who’s going in first?” asked Eve.

“I’ll do it,” said Lon, taking a deep breath.

The door, marked “Data Centre Minus One” slid open at a button’s push to expose a large room with numerous screens and panels set around most of its perimeter. In a chair positioned to the front of a series of monitors on the left side of the room was a man, also in a white lab coat, with his head on the desk in front of him, clearly asleep on the job.

The door made a beeping sound when it opened completely, disturbing the man, yet not quite wakening him.

Lon and Eve glanced at and offered each other a look of slight relief.

Lon took the first step into the room. “Should we take a look around?” he whispered, “or should we wake him?”

“Wake who?” said Strys.

“There’s somebody sleeping in a chair,” Eve explained.

“Ah, maybe you’re in luck then. Tell me, how many doors do you see?”

She glanced around the room, “Three”.

“Isn’t the server room number three?” asked Lon.

“Yes, that’s what the sign said,” Eve recalled.

“Check door number three then,” said Strys.

Treading lightly so as not to wake their sleeping ‘co
-worker’, they ignored the rooms entitled “
Environmental Control
” and “
Local Surveillance
”, and checked the door entitled “
Server Room
” to see if it would open.

A small, red light flashed from the ‘open’ button as it was pressed.

“That means it needs an access keycard,” said Eve.

“A keycard?” repeated Lon, “Not a retina scan?”

“We usually use proximity access cards rather than palm screens or biometric data because it’s common for personnel to shift between departments. Issuing cards is the most efficient method. Also, biometrics can be dangerous for the bearer, for example, if someone wants access to somewhere they don’t have authorisation and needs, say, a fingerprint, then the owner of that finger may be forced to part with it if they don’t comply”.

“Yeah
… that’s understandable… and it makes life easier for us, but how do we get one?” he said.

“We could steal one from sleeping beauty over there,” she pointed at the snoozing technician.

“God, this isn’t gonna be fun”.