A Hero's Legacy

Chapter Six

Ryder kept his head down and his steps soundless. He'd taken something of a risk in following this man through the passage-ways and laboratories of ECO's first floor, and he'd only opted to trail his movements due to the equitability of the folder he carried and the one he'd studied before his arrival - keeping to plan and questioning Levi would have been the smarter and more logical choice, but something unidentifiable was keeping him in pursuit of this particular executive. He had a look about him, a sultry, secretive look that made the teen feel as though he needed to resolve the man and his connection to the file before he did anything else.

He wasn't taking the decision lightly, either. If he were to be discovered he would lose his footing in this conglomerate of science and space exploration, and even worse than seeing the only lead on the whereabouts of his elusive father fade away, Ryder might be directly responsible for it if Riley was put in trouble. She, likely one of the most famous young women on the planet had stood there and listened, laughed as he churned out whatever he believed passed for talking, and that was after she'd rescued him from Cole's bloody knuckles and kept his lacklustre excuse for a cover under wraps. He owed her more than his inexpressible feelings, and certainly more than Levi's scorn for entertaining the whims of an intruder in his place of work. 

The man soon arrived at an advanced elevator-like contraption, and Ryder stopped in his tracks to observe the following motions; he looked from left to right as if he were making some discreet judgment, drawing his fingers in a unique pattern across the holographic biometrics panel to the right of the lift and watching in satisfaction as it slid to the wayside and allowed him passage into it's interior. He was aware at once, signified by the distance from the other building inhabitants and relative secrecy, that this area of ECO was restricted, or at least closed off to wandering members of the public - and, Ryder theorized, for good reason. The suited operative he was following actually had one of those folders his family had been tasked with keeping safe, and he wanted to know why. He needed to.

"Crap," the boy cursed under his breath, working the system as the lift arose to meet him after carrying the executive to his destination. His own digits met the surface of the panel, and they pushed themselves along the glass as Ryder attempted to remember the exact motions used by the last person to enter the enclosure. His success was represented through the alignment of the holographic link pattern turning green from it's usual white, and with one last sidelong glance to the emptiness of his surroundings and the low noise of the doors widening to sanction his entry into the elevator, Ryder stepped inside, awkwardly looking around and awkwardly careful of himself as the space between the telescopic stainless steel narrowed to nothingness.

So far, so good.

Ryder then became aware of the right side panel with more buttons allocated to more floors than any lift he'd ever been on in his life, and he'd also become aware of the fact that he hadn't the slightest inkling as to which one his subject of interest would have travelled to. Eyes of golden brown met each individual button, confusion rife in his irises, before one drew his attention with pinpoint focus. In any elevator Ryder had been on, the floor keys had been characterized by numbers; but one, seperated from it's peers, stood out amongst the others. It was colored black, and at it's centre lay a numerical digit.

"Floor 10."

It was a bout of one-track thinking that would spur on the following events, and Ryder couldn't see past the familiarity and importance of that unique symbol. Before he could press the button however, he was met with complete and utter silence; his trainers creaked the ground beneath him as he paced, half-nervous and half-confident, before the lights illuminating the area of the elevator dimmed and allowed the shadows free reign in his space before returning to fruition. Freezing at the intermittent flickering, Ryder's only prerogative was to remain very, very, still. He didn't need a degree in engineering to understand that certain things weren't meant to happen on an elevator, and the rumbling underneath his feet cemented his growing suspicions and instilled the beginnings of fear in the pit of his stomach.