DUALITY /#Wattys 2021

Chapter 12

Ridley glanced around the freight elevator, panicked. She couldn't just ride to wherever the food server was going and get off there. Fifty gray-suited guards would meet her there, and that would be that. A control panel full of buttons lit the area next to the doors, but when Ridley pressed them, nothing happened. Frantic, she pounded the buttons harder.

Then she noticed a little flash reflecting off the elevator wall every time she pressed a button. On the side of the food vendor, she noticed a little square, about elbow height, with a few buttons and flashing lights. Every time she pressed an elevator button, a light on the panel flashed, and the elevator ignored her.

The food vendor robot had control of the elevator.

Ridley took off one of her moccasins and folded it, using it to cushion her elbow. She jammed her elbow into the panel on the food vendor. With a satisfying crunch, the panel broke. She put her shoe back on and tried the elevator buttons again, holding her breath as she selected a floor.

The button turned yellow, the elevator slowed and stopped, and the doors opened.

Ridley stuck her head out and looked up and down a polished dark corridor. Golden sconces lit the ceiling at intervals, and the light bounced off the dark, gleaming walls and floor. Ridley jumped out and raced down the corridor. Her moccasins muffled her footsteps as she looked for a place she could hide, or something she could use as a weapon.

A door slid open behind her. Ridley spun around. A businessman strode out, carrying a briefcase, so intent on a communicator in his other hand that he didn't even notice her. Ridley stood there in the hallway, ice running through her veins, certain that any minute he'd look up and summon guards.

Instead he frowned down at the device in his palm. "I told you I couldn't be on time tonight," he snapped. "There's a meeting of the board first thing and we had to prepare."

Ridley heard a female voice squawking from the communicator. She couldn't make out the words.

She noticed how short he was, and her mind whirred with an idea. She got a good running start and slammed smack into him, knocking him down. He didn't hear or even notice her coming.

He hit the floor with a grunt and an "Ow!" His device spun across the floor, and Ridley heard, "Honey, what happened? Honey?"

His briefcase was the hard kind. Ridley grabbed it and clubbed him in the head with it as hard as she could. His eyelids fluttered, and she grabbed his hand and aimed it at a reader beside the door. The reader was too high on the wall for the man's hand to reach. She got a fresh grip on his shoulder and, panting, struggled to lift his arm high enough. She pressed his palm to the reader and the door slid open.

Ridley looked into a mid-size office with paneling, a computer, and a few plants. She grabbed the man under his shoulders and heaved, dragging him from the slick floor onto plush carpet that resisted her as she pulled him along.

She unbuckled his belt, yanked his pants off, and pulled off his jacket. When she got to his shirt, he shook his head, jolted awake, and struggled. "What are you doing?" he managed in a thick mutter.

Ridley grabbed the nearest plant on the desk, huge green leaves in a big orange ceramic planter. She hit him across the forehead with a loud crack, and he slumped to the floor. Water and mud flew everywhere, and the plant slid from the pot with a mushy flop.

She unbuttoned his shirt, slipped off her own clothes, and in a moment she stood there in his business suit. She tamed her hair with one of his shoelaces, tying it back in a tight ponytail and tucking it under her collar. The clothes hung a little big, and she had to roll the pants up at the cuffs, but at least she didn't look like Ridley at first glance. It would give her a chance to find another disguise, to think of something else.