The Asylum
looked even scarier in the dark. Its
tall, imposing walls looked even more tall and imposing in the limited light of
night. The darkness itself was made even
greater by the giant lights that ringed the top of the walls and the towers. Which made it that much easier for Deborah to
creep along the wall.
“It's along
the north wall, located halfway between the third and fourth towers.” The image of the ghost of David Engera
appeared in a small corner of the glasses, his voice as clear as crystal as the
recording of their conversation earlier that evening. It was odd that the ghost's voice and image
seemed to ease her fears as she found the giant “block of stone” that Engera
had directed her to.
“There are
six stones shaped like small crosses around the perimeter of the stone,” the
ghost said. The stones were there, one
directly over the center of the stone, one
directly underneath it, one to the left of center and one to the right,
with the last two at the bottom left and bottom right corners “Press them in this order:”
She pressed
the top one twice, bottom one twice, then the left and right ones twice in
sequence, followed by the bottom right then bottom left. There was no noise as the massive stone moved
out almost an inch, then slowly rolled up and out of the way. “It won't be open for long, so get through it
quickly.”
Deborah
obeyed and was inside just as the stone door lowered back into place. Looking back, she could see through the fake
stone, confirming that it was just a fancy, but very secure, vent covering. “The ventilation system was reinforced,
supposedly to prevent excess sound, but instead it should allow you to crawl
through the ducts without being detected, for the most part. Just don't say much or they will hear you.”
She slowly
began her crawl into the depths of the Asylum, taking care not to say much of
anything, but fearing her every movement was being telegraphed right to just
the wrong people. Within a few meters
she stopped at an intersection and mentally told the glasses to continue the
playback.
“The first
intersection you come to is the main part of the security net. You can't see them, but hundreds of lasers
crisscross the intersection, waiting for someone to break them. Do so and the entire building will lock up
tight. Just to make it more difficult,
the system pulses in random patterns, so you can't simply deflect it with a
sequence of mirrors.”
“Show me
the lasers,” Deborah whispered as quietly as she dared. The glasses obeyed and soon the pulsing
movement of the lasers became visible.
The show was neat, in and of itself, but she wasn't there to watch.
“Now
there's a keypad located to your right.
Punch in 6186320320 into the pad and it will deactivate the lasers for a
few moments. It will also disable the
automatic locks for the doors, so if you do trip the alarm, you'll still be
able to move through the facility.”
Sounded
easy enough, but there was no keypad on the right hand wall of the duct. Nor was it on the left. Deborah began to get a bit frantic, and began
looking around desperately. A moment or two
passed before she spotted the pad, on the other side of the wildly flashing
lasers. “Crap.”
End of the
line. Nowhere else to go without
alerting everyone within 50 miles of her presence. Deborah laid up against the wall of the duct
and sighed. Back to the house was
looking to be her only option. She
couldn't imagine going back, waiting for L’lorne to come back, if she came
back, and being alone during it. Really
alone now that Engera had moved on to where it is he was heading. She wondered about that while watching the
lasers and their seemingly random flashing patterns.
Random
patterns. Almost as random as the data
stream she had looked into. No, she
couldn't do it again, could she? They
wouldn't leave a hole in the pattern, that would be ridiculous. But then, having someone capable of
predicting when the hole would form is pretty ridiculous. So maybe, perhaps, she could.
Quickly
moving into a crouch, she began watching the lasers. She relaxed her eyes and let them wander over
the bouncing light beams. The thought
that perhaps a hole wouldn't form for hours, or even years, were pushed to the
back of her mind, and she focused on just the lasers. Minutes passed, her legs began to cramp, her
eyes began to bug and get tired, but she held firm. Any moment now, any moment.
NOW! She didn't even have time to think about what
she was doing, her muscles simply acted as she jumped forward. The lasers flashed around her for a moment,
then ceased for the briefest of moments as her body flew through the
intersection. Her body landed with a
dull thud on the other side and she froze, sure that the alarm would flash,
that she hadn't made it.
Nothing. The lasers continued to bounce between their
various emitters and receivers, as if she had never been there before. Deborah allowed herself a slight chuckle and
she keyed in Engera's code, shutting down the lasers for good. She had done it, this time without any
prompting from L’lorne or anyone. She
crawled away from the intersection and followed the rest of the instructions as
Engera's recording directed, more than pleased with herself.
The room
beyond the vent plate at the end of her journey was so brightly lit, she barely
moved to enter it. There had to be
someone inside if it was this bright in there, yet there was hardly any sign of
them. She strained her ears listening
for even the slightest sound of a person working inside or a joking guard, or
something, but nothing. How could it be
so bright and no one inside?
As Deborah
went to scratch her own head in a bit of frustration, her fingers tapped
against the glasses, and she suddenly remembered she was still wearing
them. Only a few days ago she had never
worn glasses, and now she was so used to these, she forgot she was wearing
them. Didn't help that they did
everything possible to make themselves so easy to use. With a smile, she pulled them off and stuffed
them in her pocket.
The room
was, as she suspected, actually nearly pitch dark. The only lights were those of the machinery
and that wasn't likely to give her away.
With a solid kick, she knocked out the vent cover and stepped into the
room.
“Deborah?”
Deborah
looked up. “L’lorne!”
---------
Questions
1. What kind of person is Lcorn Llorne? What does she look like (in your mind)?
2. What kind of person is the Deborah Ignigus? What does she look like (in your mind)?
3. Does the setting seem fitting? Would you like to know more?
4. Does the time line for this sequence, from Deborah waking up to this meeting make sense?
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