Ntshona (23 page)

Eve silently surveyed the ostensible narcoleptic’s person from a close distance to discover where his keycard was hidden.

Lon too came in for a close look.

Something must have disturbed the slumberer, as he quickly flicked his head up and straightened himself in his seat.

“No, I don’t like crocodiles in that way…” he exclaimed, still semi-sleeping.

“What do you think you’re doing, sleeping on the job?!” Eve, without thinking, took an authoritative stance to fool the stuporous man.

He was so taken aback and embarrassed that he immediately stood straight and began to apologise profusely, “… it’s just that I’ve been having problems wi-”

Lon quickly took the lead, “Quiet, we don’t want your excuses, we just need your assistance!”

Still confused, the apologetic man began to comply, “Yes, yes! Of course! How can I help?”

“We’ve been sent from above to perform maintenance on the SARP servers, and we need to have it done soon,” said Lon. How surprising, it was actually working.

“Sorry, but the government servers aren’t down here, this is just military-related stuff”.

Eve continued on Lon’s behalf. “We know that, but because most of our seniors don’t know exactly where the servers are, we were sent to see you, because you’re the most knowledgeable of all the techies in this building”.

The lazy technician grew a self-important smile, and confidently stated, “The SARP colocation servers are in Server Room Eleven on the two-hundredth floor”.

“Thank you, my good man,” said Lon, patting the gullible soul on the shoulder, “now, back to
… work”.

“Of course, I will continue to work diligently!”

Both Lon and Eve swiftly left room, hoping the dozy man would resume his siesta.

The data centre’s door clicked shut behind the two as they returned to the empty corridor.

“My heart is pounding like hell,” whispered Eve.

“That was some damn good improv in there guys, well done,” came Strys’ voice.

“God knows how we managed that,” said Lon, “maybe we
are
lucky”.

“Anyway, now we know where you must go. Better get a move on”.

“Right, but how do we get back to the lift?” asked Eve.

“It’s not too difficult,” said Strys,” just go back to the end of the hall in the direction you came from, turn left, then keep walking until I tell you otherwise”.

“Why’s there only one lift on this floor anyway,” asked Lon, beginning to power walk away from the data centre.

“I don’t know, there are usually lifts or escalators every several corridors,” explained Eve, following closely.

“It’s not worth thinking about now,” said Strys, “just get to the two-hundredth floor. That should be easy, no?”

“Not a problem,” said Eve, “once we get back to the ground floor, we’ll be able to take a lift straight there from the lobby we came in through”.

The lobby presented quite a contrast to the lower floors in terms of human activity. At least here it was easier to look
apposite.

“Why couldn’t we have taken that lift straight to the two-hundredth floor?” whispered Lon.

“Well, you already know the building is too tall to be completely vertical, so the lifts at the sides of the building, like the one we were just in, would eventually hit one of the outside walls because they move in straight lines, therefore they don’t go all the way up. Bit of a design flaw, really”.

“I’d say there are many flaws in this place, especially with the security system, seeing as we’re still alive”.

“You know, I can’t tell if you’re being optimistic or not”.

“It was simply an observation,” said Lon.

Strys’ voice yet again interrupted their exchange, “Come on guys, just get a move on, the sooner you get this done, the sooner we can get you to safety, man!”

Eve orientated herself towards the lobby’s central area, and began to push forwards. “He’s got a point, Lon, I just wanna get out of here”.

“At least we have a better idea of where we’re going now,” Lon said.

The two entered the closest possible lift to the far end of the lobby - close to the building’s centre - with Lon’s theory in mind that the data centre on each floor should be close to the building’s core area.

The ride took several minutes, and few words were spoken between Lon and Eve due to the lift being occupied by other workers.

“Two-hundredth floor,” sounded the voice of the lift compartment, to which the two alighted.

The corridors here were similar to those of the lowest floor on which they had previously been, however containing many people, and seemingly more comprehensive signage.

A more interesting feature of this area though, thought Lon, was the glass outer walls and floors of some corridors, with a view of an indoor park below them, complete with artificial, however largely convincing, sunlight.

“Excellent, this time we know exactly where to go,” stated Eve with some amount of happiness as she read the location information to the front of the lift’s entrance.

“Great man, but before you start to move again, please tell me how many people there are in the corridor with you,” Strys requested.

Both Lon and Eve paused to count.

“Ten… eleven…
twelve, I think,” said Eve.

“Yeah, twelve,” Lon agreed with her calculation, “why?”

“Right, get moving,” instructed Strys.

They started in the direction as per the instructions of the wall signs in search of Data Centre Eleven, with Eve leading the way, who was more familiar with the section of the building above ground level.

“If that’s it, then this one was considerably easier to fin
d,” said Lon, entering a single-doored passageway, Eve at his immediate behind.

“Great,” said Strys, “but before you go in, can you tell me the-”

“The length of the corridor?” interrupted Lon.

“Yes, please”.

“About… I dunno, maybe twenty metres long”.

“Okay, if that is the data centre, then it’s a lot smaller than the one downstairs,” said Strys.

They walked closer to the door, trying not to alert the passing employees to their unusual presence by hesitating before entering.

Despite the high-powered air conditioning system at work, Lon sensed a single drop of perspiration from his brow as he pressed the ‘open’ button for the door entitled ‘Data Centre Eleven’. What was inside, he could only desire to be the same as the previous centre.

What was inside, in fact, was slightly different to what he had anticipated. The room was much smaller, and indeed there was a single - unfortunately awake - worker, as expected, but he was pondering over a static screen on a surveillance panel.

The worker turned to face the room’s two new occupants. “Oh, good morning. Can I help you?”

Lon headed the ploy, “We’re here to perform maintenance on the SARP servers,” he tapped his briefcase.

“Ah, ‘
maintenance
’, got it. But, you’re a little sooner than expected,” said the technician.

He was probably referring to the server information being tampered with before the upcoming inspections.

“The sooner, the better,” replied Eve.

“Yes, yes,” said the worker.
“Can you please show me your government IDs first? You know, protocol and all that”.

“Of course,” said Lon, resting his briefcase on the nearest flat surface. “
My ID is in here”.

The man stepped closer to Lon.

Eve was confused.

Lon began to fumble with the case’s fake lock.

The man stepped closer.

Eve was really confused.

“Apologies,” said Lon, “I’m just having a little trouble getting this-,” he gripped the handle with his left hand and swiftly span round with it and struck the worker in the back of the neck in a display of the utmost precision.

The man fell forwards, hitting his face on a console before ultimately coming to rest on the floor.

“Jesus fucking Christ Lon!” Eve yelled. “Give me some warning next time!”

“What happened?!” came Strys’ voice in their ears.

“I just… er… knocked the guy out. I hope I didn’t hurt him,” Lon said in a regretful tone.

“It looks like you fucking did!” Eve shouted.

“Anyway, let’s get his keycard”.

The two rolled over the unconscious scientist in order to search his lab coat, and found a blue proximity keycard in the breast pocket.

“This is it,” stated Eve, quickly examining it for anything unusual. She then regarded the limp body at her feet, “How long do you think he’ll stay out for?”

“No idea,” replied Lon, “but it looks like we don’t hav
e anything to tie him up with…” his eyes swept their surroundings in search of useful materials, “unless we tie him up with his own coat”.

With some effort they removed his lab coat, reversed it, re-dressed him, keeping his arms unsleeved and at his sides so as to bind his front, fastened each of its buttons and tightly knotted the sleeves together behind his back in hopes of restricting his movement as much as possible, before laying him flat on his front.

“At least if he does wake up, he won’t be able to do a lot,” said Lon. “Let’s go”.

They quickly moved towards the door on the right of the room entitled “
Server Room Eleven
”.

Eve scanned the card over the ‘open’ button, which briefly shone green before the door covering thei
r path slid upwards, revealing a short, empty corridor with only a surveillance camera and another door at the opposite side.

They stepped in and tried to find a way to open the entrance to the threshold of their goal, yet could not find one.

Eve held out the proximity card close to the door, and after receiving no result, began to move her hand holding the card in a waving motion around the door in search of some variety of sensor. “I don’t get it, why isn’t it opening?”

The door behind them remained open.

“Dammit,” said Lon, “it’s a man-trap”.

“A man-trap?”

“The ‘open’ button is probably somewhere on the console in the main room”.

“So we need to find that first”.

“Yeah…”

“Then let’s do it”.

Lon remained still. “I don’t think you realise what we need to do. Once the button is pressed, that door,” he pointed to the still-open entrance, “will close so this one can open”.

Eve took a moment to consider the trap’s design. “Dammit! Why can’t this be easy?!”

“So, it looks like I’m going in alone”.

“I don’t want to be separated,” quivered Eve.

“It’s the only way we’re gonna get in”.

Strys interrupted, “Don’t worry man, I’ll still be connected to you both”.

She sighed. “Okay, I’ll go and find the button”.

“Give me the keycard, I’ll probably need it to get back out,” instructed Lon.

She handed it to him and returned to the main room.

“The button should be on one of the consoles by the surveillance screens,” Lon informed her.

She searched around the advised area. “I think this is it right here. I’m gonna press it”.

“Okay”.

She pushed the button and turned around to watch Lon disappear.

The area was not large, so as the door slowly came down to form a barrier between them, he could just about see the tears in her eyes.

Although the door descended slowly, there was an obvious thud as it came to rest on the ground, attesting to its large weight.

Following this, the second door ascended, revealing the sought after server room. Almost there now.

Lon anticipated there to be security personnel somewhere in the room, thusly his steps were light and his movements cautious. If these people were to be found, then it was better for him to notice them before being noticed himself. He began to piece together ideas in order to devise some kind of effective cover story in case.

The room was silent, save the smooth hum emanating from the multitude of server racks.

Not a single other soul could be found in the area, so Lon commenced his search for the SARP colocation suite, although he persisted in his vigilance, as he was certain there would be some form of security present other than the EMP-disabled surveillance cameras positioned around the room.

Dotted about the room were several specialised colocation suites built like small rooms, surrounded by alleys of stacked server racks and cases. Each suite, it could be seen through their transparent walls and doors, had inside at least one server stack, an access terminal, and a desk with a chair. Most suites also bore the inscription of a company name on the glass door.

“I can’t find anyone here, I think the place is empty,” whispered Lon.