No. 6

CHAPTER 3 - The Arms Of Reason

. . . but he who, provoked and nettled to the quick by an offence, should fortify himself with the arms of reason against the furious appetite of revenge, and after a great conflict, master his own passion, would certainly do a great deal more.
-Montaigne, Essays Book 2 Chapter XI

***  

The shutters closed.

Shion sprang up, and took in his surroundings. Teal walls and a teal hallway stretched out before him. The floor was made of a smooth, glossy material polished to a spotless sheen, and reminded him of the cleanliness of a hospital.

However, unlike a hospital, there were no windows or doors.

He felt like he had been shut into a durable box. No, it wasn't like a box―this was a box, a sealed box. There were three barriers between where he stood now and the prisoners' wing up ahead. Once all of them came down, the box would further seal itself into multiple compartments.

These were spaces designed to capture escaped prisoners, if not execute them on the spot.

The barriers, far from being just walls, were also designed to release high-voltage current. This beautiful colour, close to indigo dye, was the colour of the execution grounds.

The alarm went off.

The barriers began to roll down.

"Nezumi, run. We have to make it through."

Nezumi kicked off the ground. They ducked past the first barrier. The second one was halfway down; the third one was already two-thirds of the way down.

"Why?"

Shion and Nezumi had reached the end of the hallway by the time the third barrier had closed completely.

"Why, Shion?" Nezumi asked. "Why are the barriers so slow? Getting through them is easy, at the speed they're going."

"It might be... easy... for you..." Shion gasped. His heart was straining in protest from running through the hallway in a single dash. He couldn't breathe. It was far from easy for him―he was almost at his limit. If the barriers had fallen a second earlier, Shion would have been caught between the barrier and the floor, his back snapped in half.

"But this speed doesn't make sense. Why is it?"

"That accident... it's thanks to... the commotion about the smell..."

"What do you mean?"

"I copied and sent... the emergency signal that the third-floor computer recorded... to the fourth-floor monitoring system. Along with a deactivation signal, too. Right afterwards, the sensors would register us... and then notify the system of an emergency again. Activation, deactivation, and reactivation..."

"I see. And that took up a bit of time. But I don't know how you could have done it in such a short while. The third and fourth floors operate on different systems, don't they?"

"...Yeah, well, I managed." Shion had not expected it to go this well. He had figured it was all or nothing and given it a try, but he himself was surprised that such a simple deception tactic would work against a leading, cutting-edge defence system.

It's almost like God's hand had a part in it.
God's hand?
Did someone send us help?
That's absurd, that would never happen. But...

Shion.

I heard a voice call my name. Only for a moment. This voice...
Safu?
No way, I'm hearing things.

Nezumi narrowed his eyes. The sharp glint in them condensed.