The communications building was silent....well, as silent as it can be. The Machinery and the constant transmissions being coded and decoded still cast a busy overtone in the halls, but with the lights dim, and empty halls, it was a quiet as it gets. In the daytime, it would be almost violent, the noise...with the heavy
sounds of a million steps echo through these halls, and the transmissions of the daily propaganda, screaming through the speakers. Now, just a hiss of static, and the buzzing of camera moves, back and forth...back and forth...Omni-Com was rarely
this peaceful...but it was Sunday night....and all but the essential had taken rest till work on Monday.
Click....click....click......It started faint, in the distance...the sound of heels moving....click...click....click...getting closer...and closer....click click...the sounds moved slowly but steadily up the hall, oblivious to the
camera's and the windows.....click....click....click.....
A shadowed figure emerged from the darkness...step by step in moved, graceful, almost as though it were floating. The bottom of its cloak seemed to move in full flow of the figures hips, and steps. Click....click.....click....It was defiantly the sound of a pair of high heels stepping firmly on the tiled floor, and it was moving closer and closer to the lift.
The Lights at the lift sent a glow over her Cloak, and she came to a full stop next to the security console which controlled the lift. In one slow but commanding motion she extended her arm forward, and swiped a card through the terminal. There was a small buzz, and then the lifts doors opened wide, revealing nothing but
space. She stepped inside, and moved her arm again, to swipe the card in the lift control. "Investigations" She said softly to the system. The doors closed, and as though it was only a large breath of air, the lift moved quickly up the side of the building.
It stopped on the 43rd floor, of the Omni-Com office, and the doors opened swiftly revealing a brightly lit hall. It was empty like the other floors, but lit up, giving away the presence of someone else on the floor. The figure slowly moved out
of the lift and lifted its head, only enough to see forward, and then began its haunting steps again. Click..click....click..
At the far end of the hall, Mandi Love was going through the previous days files, looking for inconsistencies, and incompetence. As director of the investigations department, she was ruthless in her attention to detail, and had no time for the
idiots of the company. She was determined to have the most functional, and Disciplined division, and would stomp over anyone who tried to stop her. She was a tyrant, but a hidden tyrant, for on the surface she was all about Glamour. She could charm anyone out of their pocketbook, and she knew it...and loved it..Her good looks had been a asset in her career, and she knew every way to use it. It wasn't enough that she was pretty...she was Opifex pretty...which with her sly smile she was able to bring some of the most powerful men to her knees..
It was her fantasy world for certain...but the scary thing was that she was in reality living in it....and she had no intention of ever losing it....It would be her way or death.....or worse....and tonight she was in a exceptionally evil mood. She wanted very much to hurt someone....she didn't care why...she had the urge to flex her power, and was now looking for her victim.....still. unaware...that she was about to become the victim.
She heard the steps coming down the hall, but at first didn't think anything of it. A janitor perhaps......but when she heard the slow steps move closre to her office she started to wonder. "Who is there" She said in her usual commanding voice.
Click...click....click...the steps got closer. Mandi reached into a drawer and rested her hand upon a small energy weapon. "Who is there!" she said again, just as confident and commanding as before. Click....click....click.....silence. The steps no longer came, but Mandi was clear the stopped right outside. Pulling
the weapon out of the drawer she slowly got up from her seat and inched around the desk.
With a sudden jolt the doors came flying open. Mandi began shooting towards it on impulse, although even she knew she was better with her fists that with weapons, she was still determined to hit something with her gun...and hit something she did.
The sound of metal and that unmistakable sound of a Bot moving quickly towards her. She fired...and fired again, each shot practically reflecting off the bot and shooting back into the walls. Another shot...a window shatters....another shot...a bookcase falls.
She moved quickly trying to avoid each strike coming from the Bot, which she was able to now identify as a standard bodyguard issue, more and more common among staff these days for protection. She jumped, and ducked, but still this thing came
at her. For a moment she could see a shadow in the door. The owner....she thought to herself..and took aim at it. Before she could squeeze the shot off, a thousand nano bots screamed towards her like lighting, hitting her square on the chest and
knocking her into the far wall.
She fell to the floor and tried to reach again to shoot, but the weapon had now left her hands, and she was helpless. The bot came at her with amazing speed. She could see it's arm move to strike her and then heard "Pet Wait!!!" From behind. The voice from the cloaked figure, commanding and powerful.....and familiar....
The Bot stopped dead in its tracks, and turned back towards its owner, having a little trouble moving around the tables and fallen shelves. The cloaked figure stepped towards Mandi, who still lay on the floor, in pain from the strength the nano program had hit her with. She moved her head to see the figure standing
above. The Woman behind the Cloak pulled back her hood and looked down to the lump of Mandi on the floor. "Hi Mandi…...surprised to see me?"
The voice was immediately familiar to Mandi Love....a voice she was certain she would never hear again, except maybe behind the walls of a Cell somewhere, yet here she was...standing over her. "No....No....you....how?..." She managed to get
out of her bruised lips. "You.....we did everything to stop you...." She continued. The figure kneeled on the floor next to her, her face for the first time seem among the dust and debris. "yeah you did..." Mandi heard.."But it looks to me...like you failed"
Mandi felt a soft hand touch her face, and then slightly tap her cheek. "To think you went through all that trouble...framing me...getting the press behind it... and now here we are....I am where you wanted to be...and you are where you wanted
me to be...." The cloaked woman chuckled and stood up again. "wait...maybe we can cut a deal..." Mandi Began, but then stopped herself as she said the words she knew were meaningless.
Jesska Rhees pulled out her pistol and aimed at Mandi Love, who lay helpless on the ground. Mandi Closed her eyes and slowly nodded. "well. get it over with then" she whispered. Jesska walked around the desk, still keeping the pistol on her
victim, and slid her access card into the computer terminal. After hearing the successful entrance into the system, she loaded a data disk and pressed a key to begin the download of information. "Mandi...you have just been bought out..." She
said with a smirk.
From the ground, Mandi love opened her eyes, and looked up again, still staring into the barrel of the pistol. "wha....?" She started to say, and Jesska interrupted. "It seems, as though according to this system...you are in my office, and trespassing on private property...." Jesska put the pistol down and started
walking to the door. Her bot began to follow and she again commanded "Pet wait!!" She stopped at the door and looked back at Mandi. "Good day Ms. Love" and walked down the hall back towards the lift.
Mandi sighed and started to try moving herself up. She heard the lift doors open as she was sitting upright...She looked at the bot a moment and glared at it. The glare turned from anger to fear however as she heard the last sound she ever heard, "Yes Let me kill it for you Master".
