BAD WINE CRAPPY CHOCOLATE

CHAPTER TWELVE-1

As Cori struggled to overcome her anxiety, Brandon Cane had already mastered his.  He worked with determination at Daniel Foster's desk for several hours.  The scientist had devised a plan to escape from the executive wing of the Allisours building, but as with all such endeavors the devil was in the details. If Brandon had not been instrumental in creating the software that protected the company's most confidential information, he would have had no chance of succeeding. Only his intricate knowledge of this system could provide the means for his flight.

The desk's data station responded to the brain waves of Daniel Foster alone. Using the maintenance porthole, Brandon carefully reprogrammed its computer.  He was obligated to move slowly after gaining access to the system, despite his concern about Cori; in the time since he had worked with the people at Allisours, there had been many changes made. If the information Brandon fed into the computer was rejected an alarm would be set off, alerting the security personal to his presence. After an hour's work, it responded to Brandon's commands. He then ventured inside the machine's gray matter using his Mibil, carefully wandering through the intricate pathways of the operating system before finding the area that controlled the laboratories.

His plan was to recreate an incident that had occurred several years before. The white lab rats used by the company's scientists were kept in cages that opened in response to the computer's instructions. On one particular day, this arrangement produced a very undesirable result. Due to a glitch in the software, all the cages opened at once. The door to the lab was ajar, and some 1,500 rats were released into the corridors of the Allisours building. The employees, many of whom possessed an innate fear of such creatures, were sent into a frenzy.  Order could not be immediately restored, so the office closed early. To many this was inadequate compensation for their harrowing experience.   

Brandon gave the order for the cages to open. He watched on the monitor as they did so. The rats eagerly abandoned their cages, making their way toward the door. He gave the command to open it, which released the animals into the corridor leading to the executive offices.  As Brandon had anticipated, the heat sensors detected their presence. As the alarm sounded, he donned his invisibility suit and opened the door to Foster's office. The imperceptible intruder stepped into the hallway, the warmth from his body setting off another siren. The ruckus created by the rats rendered this second warning mute to the security guards who were now chasing a multitude of white vermin. Brandon ran swiftly down the corridor and past the harried guards. He made his exit, leaving the grounds without anyone becoming aware of him.

Brandon stopped for a moment and collected his thoughts. He was hours away from the senator's house. The coasters did not run at this late hour, so he would have to walk there. Contacting Cybil with his Mibil was out of the question, given Foster's revelation about the authorities' ability to monitor those conversations. Fortunately, Jesse lived nearby.

He entered her apartment, and found the woman he loved fast asleep. She was using the dream mode on her Mibil, replaying a wonderful fantasy from several years before. Jesse was walking through a meadow by herself and came upon a shimmering stairway leading far up into the sky. She was hesitant to use it at first, but gradually gathered the confidence to ascend into the heavens. The world below stretched out before her in all its breathtaking beauty and, as Jesse climbed higher, stars began to appear in the sky above. A feeling of peace that the young woman had never experienced before came over her.

Suddenly, Brandon was standing on the step in front of her.

"This isn't in my dream!" Jesse told him. "But I'm glad you're here."

"Wake up, Jess," Brandon said as he gently shook her. "You've got to help me."

Jesse grudgingly deactivated her Mibil.