by Doc » Wed Jun 27, 2018 5:54 am
SPoK HQ Building
Kaliburg, Ananto
Tuesday Morning, 3:45 am
Terrence Henry wandered the hallways alone. It was a couple hours before sun-up and his job as a night watchman meant graveyard shift.
Every Night.
"I should have taken that job with my dad. What was I thinking. So... Tired..." As he walked, he could barely keep his eyes open. Sometimes it seemed as if he fell asleep on his feet, and his knees would occasionally give out beneath him and jolt him awake.
"I'm just going to do this through the Spring," Henry thought. "Then I'll get a better job, building something somewhere. Growing weed for ODEN. I don't care. I could reenlist in the NSP. I hear they are always taking retreads." He wandered around aimlessly. Every hour, on the hour, he would walk down the hall and recheck each door to every office. "Locked. Locked. Locked. Locked... All locked up, Nothing new to report." He would say to an invisible Officer on Duty.
"Did I say that? Am I losing my mind? No..." He wandered listlessly back to his post to await another hour.
Suddenly, he was jolted awake. "You there. What is it? Harris?"
"Terrence Henry, Sir," He said, still half asleep but with a start. Had he fallen asleep on post? His goose was cooked now for sure.
"Henry, You come with me." As Henry's vision cleared, he noticed a sharply dressed female, in a olive green service uniform standing in front of him. She bore the rank of a Staff Sergeant, Three Up, One down, but her uniform didn't look anything like the Regular Forces.
"Ma'am?" Henry Started.
"Don't call me Ma'am, kid. I'm not an officer," was the lady's retort. "Just follow me, and be quick about it. We have to get this done before any of these pogues decide they need to come into work early because they have heartburn and their wife kicked them out of bed for snoring. Let's move."
Henry noticed the time: 4:10 am... He'd only dozed for a few minutes... But it was long enough. He dutifully followed the Staff-Sergeant down a maze of very dark hallways, into a part of this ancient building that he had never gone into. In fact, nobody in the Socialist Party goes into this Part. Since the building was reopened a few years ago, it had been at 75% vacancy, and this area was normally completely closed off.
"Hey, Hold up, Ma'... er... who are you?" Henry finally remembered that he was supposed to be on watch and here he let some stranger just galavant through empty parts of the building he was supposed to guard. "Now, stop!" he commanded. She stopped, turned around and shined her red light flashlight on her face. Where she very clearly rolled her eyes.
"What is it Howard?" She said, with a sigh of someone put upon.
"It Henr... never mind. Just who are you?"
She stepped closer to him so she could speak in a lower, more menacing tone, but he could still hear her. "I'm the person who is going to leave you back here if we don't get going. Now, I need you help, they said you would help me, so come on." She turned to leave, but Henry didn't budge.
"Now just hold on! Who said..."
But she was already halfway down the dark hall and quickly fading from his blurry view. He rushed after her.
After what seemed like a dozen turns, the two arrived at an elevator. The woman pushed the button "down" and to both of their surprise, the elevator opened. The light inside flickered on: It had clearly not been activated for untold years, but it still worked semi reliably. She stepped in, while Henry picked his jaw up off the floor. "Well?" She said as she motioned for him to join her.
"What is this?" Henry said as the elevator started down. It was slow going. The lady looked up and said, "This elevator hasn't been used in hundreds of years. Its taking us to another floor."
Another floor? Henry didn't know anything about this. "What is on another floor?"
"The main signals station of the Republican Security Bureau."
"The What?" Henry stepped back. "Lady, this way above my pay grade. I'm just a night watchman!"
"Well, you've been promoted..." she said. "To common laborer." The woman had a grim smile on her face, which looked sinister in the flickering light. Just then the door opened, and she stepped out. Henry reluctantly followed her down a dark corridor in some deep sub-basement of this ancient building. The musty smell of ages, water and an infinite number of years choked Henry out. It was all he could do to keep from retching.
"Over here!" She called from somewhere up ahead. Henry looked up and saw the red light flashing, the only light in the place except that which was emanating from the elevator. He walked ahead and soon arrived. She brought the light to her face once more. "Look: we have to take this brick wall down. It was built to hide something that we need, not to necessarily keep anyone out. So it should come down pretty easily. Grab that brick up there, the loose looking one and see what you can do."
Henry complied. The Brick was just out of his reach. He tried to stand on his tip toes to reach it while she shined the light onto it, and in the dark, he lost his balance, and fell into the wall. And then, it crumbled before him. The mortar between the bricks was entirely dustified, and sheer inertia held the wall together until the dumb night watchman fell into it. It collapsed, along with Terrence Henry, and revealed a door.
"Bingo!" the woman yelled. She advanced, over the pile of bricks and past a prone Henry, to the door. He picked himself up and dusted himself off in the Dark. "Im fine, thank you for asking." But the lady just ignored him. She went for the door, fidgeted with a key and after a click, the lock turned and the key broke off in the lock. But she was inside.
She searched the walls for a light switch, and soon found one. She flicked the switch and a small lamp situated next to a giant console flickered on.
"Well, it could be a worse. I'm not sure how, but it could be." She moved past dumbfounded Terrence Henry and proceeded to find another light switch and another.
Primary: Institutionalist Party of Kalistan (IPoK), 5146-
Inactive:
Socialist Party of Kalistan (SPoK), 2591-
Hizb Al'Sultan حزب السلطان 4543-4551
Parti des Frères Lourenne, 4109-4132
Gaduri Brethrenist Movement (MHdG), 4481-4485