Reading Between the Lines

Chapter 18: Puzzles

Is this a forensic science ward or a castle? Because I don't know what I'm looking at right now.

"Ready to go in?" Vinnie asks me as she gets her stuff out of the car. "Yup, I'm good," I reply.

"Cool. Take some time to admire the view," she teases with a smirk, probably from seeing me gawk at the building. She wasn't joking about Diamond Falls architecture being gorgeous; this is Prague-level stunning!

"You come to this place every week?" I keep ogling at her giant workplace.

I was thinking that this building was going to be this simple, medium-sized building just like the other places. But that's clearly wrong because I forgot that I'm in this giant wonderland where everything is scaled to "mind-blowing-crazy".

The area that we're in has more old-fashioned architecture compared to the glassy architecture of the city, so the building looks a little more castle-like than I expected it to. The top of the building is a giant dome with ivory pillars holding it upright. On the dome, bold black letters read, "National Bureau of Investigation and Hospital" and pan across the top of the building. Right below it, smaller styled letters read, "Forensics and Genealogy Institute". I see a large American flag blowing in the breeze as it stands at the tip of the building, followed by another flag below it, a black flag with "NBIH" written across it with the scales of justice shadowed behind the letters.

This place must be affiliated with the NBIH. Maybe they do their criminology stuff here and send it to the actual bureau for evidence or something. Dang, Vinnie is really working with the FBI for her internship and acts as if it's the most normal thing.

We both go inside the building together after Vinnie laughs at my reaction to the entire place. As she opens the wood-rimmed glass doors, my eyes scan the place a bit more. This place is huge! It's about 10 floors tall, and every floor looks really spacious. The sun peers through the clouds again, making its rays pierce through the windows and add an orange glow to every corner of the area.

As we walk towards the elevators, people left and right say hi to Vinnie and ask how she's doing. Some even glance over at me a bit just to see if they know the weird girl walking with her, but unlike how social Vinnie is, let's just say I internally crawled in a hole and didn't come out when people saw me. All I did was give awkward smiles. So they probably think I'm either rude as hell or that I hate talking to people.

While she tells me more about her job, I notice some dark metal tracks that run around the area, going in all sorts of directions. Some up, some down, some diagonal, some sideways. It looked like an indoor rollercoaster, which got me thinking if people here were physicists too. In the corner, I see a transparent glass Christmas ornament appearing contraption with 3D designs. Someone steps out of it, and within 2 seconds, the chamber starts going diagonally until it goes so high that I can't see it anymore.

Wait. Hold on, is this what I think it is? Are these the elevators?

Oh my gosh, my intellectual side is doing cartwheels right now.

"Someone's excited," she taunts me. "You saw the elevators?"

Cartwheels. Now.

"These are the ELEVATORS?! Those beautiful ornament things?" I point childishly to the tracks and the circles. Maybe it's because I'm still not adjusted to the flamboyancy of the Netherworld or this is a scientific marvel and I love science, but I'm smiling like an idiot seeing these things. What's wrong with me?

"They were built around 2 years ago. I normally hate taking the elevator, but I always take them here. You get a 360° view of the entire place, and you don't have to worry about people seeing you because it's a one-way mirror. Come on! My boss's office is on the last floor, so we have all the time in the world to admire the view."