Adaxia

Chapter 7: Lalonde

Mallory Lalonde stood in front of her window inspecting the city below her, she didn't choose the Montgomery Building for its look, she chose it for the view, after all, she could always alter how it looked. As she looked out over the city she wondered what people were doing, sure she could look at her monitors but it was much more fun to guess. She turned away from the window to see her assistant, Vicki standing there awkwardly.

“Yes?” Mallory responded feeling rather annoyed, she made a note to herself to have Vicki killed and replaced, she was much too shy to do such an important job and she also knew too much.

“Oh.. Miss Lalonde.. The Fugitives, they're on their way to the dome, they were sighted coming out of Undercity Entrance 8B and I..” She stuttered out.

“Clear the skies then Vicki! Gosh! It's like you've never captured fugitives before, make sure you re-route them here too, I'd like a word with them.” Mallory said in an authoritative tone. Vicki stood there for a moment.

“NOW! I'm not getting any younger, girl!” Mallory screamed at the poor girl, Vicki quickly slunk out of the office and Mallory sighed, silly girl. Mallory turned back to face out of her window, dare she give the order? Mallory chuckled to herself, the base was somewhat expendable.

In the distance she noticed a small Skyline whizzing towards the base, no doubt it was the fugitive and his female companion. She watched as it changed directions towards the Montgomery Building before lurching away from it. She watched as one of her Civil Protection Drones turrets mounted on the building fired an EMP blast at the Skyline causing it to fall into a nosedive. She grinned, please with herself as she turned away from her window once again, now that she had that dealt with it was time for lunch.

***

“Ever been to Staten Island before?” David asked as they cruised along in the stolen Skyline.

“Not really.. I've never been outside of The Sprawl.” Luna replied, the Sprawl was home to all the working class of the city, the homes were dirt cheap and dirty. There was no such thing as middle class in this city, you either had money or you didn't.

“Ah.. I remember as a kid my parents would take me on the ferry across-” 

“How old are you exactly?” Luna cut in.

“Oh a few hundred years, I don't look a day over 30, do I?” David replied with a cheeky grin on his face, “I get cloned every few decades.” David stated blankly, Luna blinked for a few moments.

“Oh..” She didn't really have the energy to question David, it had been a long and confusing night. She leant on the side of the window and watched the maze of skyscrapers disappear behind as they descended through the clouds only to reveal an industrial island surrounded by smog.

“So.. Where's the Spaceport?” Luna questioned, David used his free hand and pointed to something tall in the distance, Luna squinted to make it out, it simply looked like a large black pillar but as they got closer it all became clear.

***

Mallory Lalonde stepped out of the elevator with a dissatisfied look on her face, her heels clopped as she made her way down the sterile hall and made a left into a room guarded by a red door. Inside was a bank of monitors staffed by two men, they turned to look at her, upon seeing her they got up and left in a hurry. Mallory made her way over to the bank of monitors and cracked her knuckles, 'Ah, they're in the base,' she thought to herself, 'Good to se-..' Mallory was abruptly cut off by static consuming screen after screen. Mallory hastily leant forward and pushed a button on the control panel.

“Centrotrasen Dome Cameras one through to thirteen are down, what's going on?!” She demanded.

“Err.. Miss Lalonde, the Fugitives appear to be lose, one of them is sabotaging the reactor and releasing the Husks as we speak.” A meek voice responded, Mallory slammed her fists on the control panel. She sighed and stormed  out of the room, she then proceeded to clomp back down the hallway and entered the elevator once again, she was much too old for this but she didn't trust anyone other than herself to run Centrotrasen. After all, someone had to supply overpriced pharmaceuticals, weapons, clothes, appliances and food to the masses.

Mallory emerged from the elevator only to be greeted by the sight of Vicki running up to her in a rather panicked fashion, why hadn't she been killed yet? Mallory sighed.

“Miss Lalonde! Come with me! Quickly!” Vicki rushed in the opposite direction and Mallory sluggishly followed her. They came to the end of the hallway where a small crowd of workers were gathered ranging from Scientists to Cleaners, they had all gathered around the window which overlooked the Central Dome of the Military Base. Mallory pushed her way to the front and stood there for a moment.

“Well?!” She demanded, “What am I looking out?” 

“Wait for it, Miss Lalonde..” Vicki said sounding both eager and anxious at the same time, before Mallory could respond with a witty comeback about Vicki waiting all her life for something light filled the hall sending many of the workers stumbling back whilst covering their eyes, upon looking back through the window Mallory saw it. Her trillion dollar Military Installation now had a rather large hole in the top of it and much of the surrounding base had been put under the cover of darkness, Mallory was furious.

“Send a CPS clean-up crew in.” She said calmly, “I'm going to go have lunch.”

“Oh wait, Miss Lalonde!” Vicki said catching up to Mallory, she shoved her tablet in Mallory's face.

“We're getting reports that the blast hit one of our Research Outposts!” Vicki stated pointing to a block of text on her tablet. Mallory groaned and gestured for Vicki to follow her into her office. Upon entering the office Mallory proceeded to grab the incredibly sharp antique letter opener from her desk and cut into Vicki's jugular ensuring a quick, painful and messy death. Mallory sighed yet again.

“Damnit, that rug was from Persia.”