The Life of Gaia

CHAPTER 9: Nepton

The world whirled and stirred below us, lights shining and fading with the speed of shooting stars. The CURE building had shrunk to a white pinpoint in the distance, and with it we had left the wealthy part of the city behind. Below us, small, square, dark houses had appeared, connected by even narrower streets and lit by tiny streetlights that didn't work or only worked intermittently. 

Although I was concentrating on the landscape, looking for any clue that would help us find the phantom office the director had told us about, a pungent smell of detergent invaded my nostrils and nearly suffocated me. After caressing the elbow of my arm, I looked down. The streets were filled with dark figures cleaning, scraping, sweeping, and collecting.

"Zantas, there are so many people around," I commented shyly.

°I saw. It seems they are busy with cleaning.°

"It's late at night, how is it possible that all these people are not sleeping?"

My companion had said nothing since we left the Organization's headquarters, limiting himself to dragging me by the arm over every square inch of ground where what we were looking for might be found. I also thought about asking him if he thought we could defeat Iatros' guards, but I immediately rejected that option. I had tried to break the ice with that remark - when he didn't answer, I realized I had failed and decided to keep my mouth shut. 

After a quarter of an hour of circling, a dark shadow appeared on the horizon: a black dome rising between the dark houses. It wasn't very big, but it looked gigantic compared to the surrounding buildings. Zantas reached it with a dash, and in the white trail he left behind, as if hidden by the fog, a red writing could be glimpsed: CURE, DEPARTMENT N.

Doing our best not to be seen by anyone, we descended towards the building and reached what must have been the entrance - a large black door, shiny and square. 

A red lamp and a small sign hanging from the doorknob clearly indicated that the facility was closed and would not open for five hours. I opened my mouth to ask him what to do, when Zantas approached the door and passed like a ghost through the door. With a creak or two, the panel that formed it swung aside. As I entered, I picked up the sign that had fallen to the ground and placed it on a red table next to the entrance.

"I thought you had abandoned me again."

° I already promised you that I would never do it again,° he limited himself to emphasizing. °Now let's try to understand what this place is.°

Our words echoed in the silence of the room. A red carpet covered the floor, and a flight of black stairs flanked by an elevator led upwards. Under an unlit chandelier, a large desk very similar to those in the other building loomed in the middle of the room. Above a row of red chairs and matching tables against the walls hung a detailed map showing what was above their heads. Only four floors and one underground: it was doable.

"I would leave the basement alone, it says here that it serves only as a warehouse and as a room for the cleaning people", I explained, reading the legend, "while on the fourth floor there are the administration offices. If we are looking for any type of information, we should find it there." 

Zantas gave me a smug look of approval. His body began to emit a small white light, a kind of dim aura that illuminated what was nearby and contrasted with the darkness in which we were immersed; at that time, that flying sign never ceased to surprise me with all its tricks. 

We cautiously climbed the bare and black stairs until we reached the fourth floor, where the railing turned on itself and ended in the wall. Wherever I looked, I had the unsettling feeling that the corners of the rooms were too wide, the walls were crooked, or the ceiling might collapse on our heads at any moment. Everything in this structure screamed instability, and I hoped that what we had to do was fast enough to get us back to Aries as soon as possible.