Walls

20

Circling the same block like a lost tourist was not doing any good. Nathan was convinced that he was going to find Elias' beat-up car if he looked enough. But it has been more than ten minutes and he still could not find it.

The frustration brimming in his stomach was pushing up towards his chest in short bursts where he felt like he could shoot his own damn windshield off.

If only he had taken an extra minute to puncture the tires in their car before he walked into the motel. It had crossed his mind but he had not wanted to delay his mission even for that short minute.

To top everything off, the pain in his arm from the bullet wound was intensifying. He had popped some pain meds but the dull throbbing was nowhere near going away. And him having to drive and shoot out the window at the same time - when he was chasing Elias - was not doing any good for him.

He knew that Elias did own a gun - but it was just a prop to carry around ever since Elias' father passed away and left the company to him. He did not know how to use it.

Or so Nathan had assumed.

Clearly, he had been wrong. Although Elias was a total noob, he did know how to fire a shot. It wouldn't have bothered him too much if one such shot had not been directed at his own arm.

Nathan ground his teeth. He was coming to an intersection that he had circled around for the fourth time. He brought the car to a halt and killed the engine.

"Damn it!" his bulky arm slapped on the horn, scaring the crap out of him.

He did not want to call his boss and mention that he lost Elias and Abbie for a second time. But he also had to find them before it became apparent that he messed up the job.

Just as he powered up the engine, his phone rang in his pocket. He did not have to look at the Caller ID to know that it was his boss. Ignoring the call was not a choice.

Heaving a loud sigh, he swiped the screen to answer it.

"You lost them? Again?"

"Not intentionally! I did not-"

"They are in Angelora at some gas station. Get yourself there as fast as possible!"

"Well it might take hours," Nathan ran a palm along his neck.

"Take the helicopter that I told you about."

"You mean, Elias Castaldo's helicopter?"

"Yes. I arranged it to be in Weeper's Creek. I'll send you the address."

The call disconnected.

Nathan laughed at how ironic it was that he was using a helicopter to outrun its owner.

**********

Intimidating. The building that loomed over their heads can only be described as intimidating - probably because Abbie was out of words. She could imagine herself probably freaking the hell out when she came for her first interview.

It made her dizzy to count the number of floors. The compound was empty and there was no one to be seen through the glass doors.

Elias and Abbie climbed out of their car - what was left of it anyway, and sprinted to the doors. Abbie felt the weight of both the laptops pressing against her arms, and her heart pounded in her ears.

A skinny man with tired eyes in an oversized sweater ran down the hallway towards them. Abbie guessed it was Suresh.

And sure enough, the familiar voice from the phone calls resonated in the empty front lobby as Suresh opened the door for them.

He ran a huge pair of bulging eyes up and down Elias and Abbie's destroyed attire, "Oh gosh, I'm so sorry this has happened to you-"

"Let's talk about that later. Can we get to the server room?" Abbie cut him off. They only had limited time to fix the whole mess with the hacked software for the brain chip.

"Sure, this way," Suresh immediately waved towards an elevator that pinged open for them.

Once they had rushed inside, Abbie pushed herself against the wall, feeling the cool metal against her skin, trying to calm her nerves down. What if there is a server failure? What if she had made a mistake in the reengineering. She was only a cybersecurity person after all - the software was more complex than that.

Suresh pressed a button to the 9th floor, and the door drew shut.

Abbie felt Elias' palm slip into hers. She turned to look at him, only to find his eyes locked into hers. He had a serene look about him. She immediately felt safe and less anxious.

Elias looked like everything was going according to plan and that it was all going to be alright. Maybe it was. Abbie took a deep breath and gave his fingers a soft squeeze.

He smiled - it was gorgeous and contagious. Abbie found herself smiling back at him.

The elevator doors pinged open to a room of blue and purple. Suresh stepped into the room full of aisles and aisles of computer servers blinking in blue and purple. Abbie was fascinated by the sheer size of the room. It was enormous - she had never seen anything like it before. Although, technically she had seen it before and still could not recall.

She stepped into the maze walking behind Suresh, who dashed to the center of the room. There was a terminal set up for her with a chair.

"There you go," Suresh waved at the desk it was set up on, "I think that would do."

"Thank you, Suresh."

Abbie slipped into the chair and took a deep breath. Elias and Suresh loomed behind her, and she felt like all of her keystrokes were being monitored.

She accessed the company database to pull her authentication details. It was then that it hit her in full force. She had pulled up the firewall, and there at the top of the program was a set of numbers that she had seen her whole life.

She gulped, "Oh my gosh!"

"What is it? Don't tell me you can't get through the firewall, because that would be really unfortunate for a lot of people," said Elias pinching the bridge of his nose.

Abbie could feel her heart starting to pound harder and harder in her ears. The whole world around her felt like one loud broken record. This is all my fault. This is all my fault. Oh my gosh, this is all my fault.

"What are you saying?"

Abbie couldn't speak for a moment. She felt like a huge hand was suffocating her. She rubbed her neck trying to make the feeling go away.

"This is all my fault," Abbie finally got it out.

"What do you mean?"

"It's my fault that we lost our memory. And it's my fault that a whole Engineering team is going to die!"