Immediately Forgettable

Chapter 14

As part of my "Welcome Package," the King organization was nice enough to give me a King Industries polo shirt — the same one I saw many of the employees wearing around campus. This gift was now going to help sneak into areas well beyond any tour they had planned for me. Mind you, I don't need any help blending in, but it sure couldn't hurt.

I had awoken early and, unable to get back to sleep, prepared for my day. I had a many emotions competing for attention — fear was a big one, and in the lead, but excitement wasn't far behind. Yes, excitement.

Whether or not King was up to no good or not, I was about to use my power for a truly useful reason. A reason that, for once, I knew about. My previous missions had given me even more confidence in the fact that I was completely invisible to the world at-large.

I headed out of my room and down to the lobby at 7. Figured I would scope out the scene and find a good spot to watch the entrance and make my approach. A normal spy would have to worry about being made by security. I was not a normal spy. Well, I'm a really normal spy, but still not normal. You know what I mean.

I hit the cafeteria for a cup of coffee, which was surprisingly good for institutional brew, and found a comfortable bench in the atrium, a location that was a good distance from the secret entrance, but offered a good view of it.

I wondered if Jen was awake yet.

I didn't have long to wonder, as a few early risers came into the building. Most headed toward the left, away from the secret entrance, but one or two headed to right, down the mysterious hallway. I didn't see any extra security checks from where I was, and they were all dressed differently in "civilian" clothes. No paramilitary black-op uniforms to be seen.

A group of well-built men came in together. They were all wearing some form of t-shirt and sweatpants, carrying large gym bags with them. If they headed toward the right, they'd be perfect — big enough numbers to hide me and big enough bodies to...well, hide me.

They walked past me and down the main thoroughfare. C'mon guys, head right! I stared intently, trying to will them to turn right.

And it worked! Either that or they were turning right anyway. I quickly got off the bench and power walked my way into their group.

The small entrance led to a very long hallway, empty except for the obligatory King images every twenty feet or so. At the end were two large double doors that the group stopped at while one of them pulled out an ID card that was hanging around his neck and down the front of his very tight tank top. There was no physical guard, but two cameras gave a good view of the hallway.

Nothing to see here, folks. Just a bunch of regular dudes about to get their workout on.

A loud popping noise let one of my other fit camouflage buddies know he could open the door, which he did, and we all went through. We followed the path down a small incline, like you find at a large sports stadium, which led to a main walkway. The workout squad turned to the right and continued on to what I could only image was a very well-stocked gym, but I had to pause at the bottom of the ramp and take it all in. It was amazing.

The main walkway snaked around the outside of an enormous circle. I walked over to the edge to take a look at how big this section was and, like everything else at King Industries, it was impressive — and astoundingly big. It resembled a missile silo and, initially, I thought perhaps that what it was. Either an old missile silo he took over or a new one he built himself, ready to inflict some natural equivalent of a nuclear bomb upon the world.

But that idea was as dumb as it sounded in my head. Looking down at the center of the circle I could see a huge command center straight out of NASA. Rows of desks with huge monitors adorning all sides. Even from up here I could see King's visage on more than a few of them.

Looking up, I saw the ramp rise a few more floors then stop, although the walls continued up to a fantastic skylight that somehow kept all the concrete from looking dank. Some doorways and windows peaked out from the other side of the ramp on each floor. I assumed these were offices for personnel too nefarious to remain on the other side of the secret door.

It was still early, and there did not seem to be many people on the ramp or scuttling down below. And since it looked like the action took place down below, that's where I headed.

Heading down, the pattern kept repeating itself for each floor — the ramp would level off a bit, there was an office door, office window, King picture, office door, office window, King picture...and so on. Then the floor dipped down again on the ramp to the next level. The offices seemed large, only six per floor. All were empty, most had the door closed and blinds drawn, but a few were open for viewing and looked pretty innocuous. No maps with big red X's on the wall, no skulls and crossbones. A little disappointing, really.

I met King's eyes as I passed image number 12. What are you up to you sneaky forgettable bastard?

It took some time, and I figured there had to be an express elevator somewhere, but I was within four floors of bottom of the silo. There was some staff on duty down there, not many, but I could hear them talking. A few phrases that I probably would have understood if I were an engineer, and much dialogue about one of the crew's new smartphone.

Coming around the corner to floor 3 I saw an unusual sight — an office with the blinds up, door closed, and light coming from it. We've got an early riser folks. I figured my power should protect me, but I was the only other person on the floor right now so it was possible to get noticed due to lack of contrast.

I approached carefully. I slid past the door and slowly peeked through the window. This office looked nothing like the others. It had nothing that I would classify as office furniture expert perhaps the wastebasket. Inside was little more than a cot, a few magazines, a few bottles of water, and Special Agent Jonathan Dagger.