Iron Empire

Twenty-Four: Old Sins

I folded the piece of paper into a more manageable shape and tucked it into the chest pocket of my jumpsuit. I would have to show it to Mallet when I returned to the Firmament—this was the start of something big, I just knew it.

The only exit to the crumbling stairwell was a half-buried metal door, similar to the one I had thrown myself through about three storeys upstairs.

I gave the door a solid push, and when it didn't budge I was ready to hammer against it before I noticed the handle. The door had to be pulled inwards, but its usual path was filled with bits of stone and debris.

Clearing the rubble away from the door was simple but stressful—with every stone I moved I became more aware of the huge amount of rock just barely suspended above my head.

Eventually, I managed to clear enough of a path for the door to swing inwards a bit. I darted out of the stairwell the instant I could fit through the gap.

I found myself in a dingy basement—clearly I had fallen farther than I had anticipated. For the most part, the contents of the basement resembled the office space upstairs, though this room was much more intact.

Old wooden desks with monitors were pushed against the grey concrete walls, and a drab, dusty carpet lined the floor. Surprisingly, I could still see—as I entered, an overhead LED strip flickered to life, blinking on and off at random. The light had been triggered by a motion sensor, no doubt, but the effect was still unsettling.

The fact that the building still had power was a miracle—most of the facility had been powered by the nearby dam.

The flickering light cast a strobing shadow on the walls, making my shadow dance as if it were alive.

I entered the room cautiously, using what light I had to search for a door. If this basement had no other exit, I was pretty much stuck—trapped until my squad came to excavate me.

Did they even know I was alive?

A hot flash of panic coursed through my veins and I fought to keep it contained, forcing myself to think logically.

To my delight, a rusted set of elevator doors occupied the far wall of the room, their red-speckled reflective surface shining faintly in the flickering light.

As I marched across the room towards the elevator doors, something else caught my eye.

A narrow window occupied the wall adjacent to the elevator, placed perfectly at eye level. I'd seen enough movies to know what it was—it wasn't for looking outside, but rather for looking in.

It was difficult to see what lay beyond the window in the near-dark of the basement, but I imagined it was an interrogation room of some sort. Try as I might, I couldn't find a door into the room beyond the window—the entrance had to be somewhere else in the building.

As I turned away from the window, a particularly inconvenient flash of the LED above my head caused me to stumble, bashing my knee against one of the many wooden desks that lined the walls. A computer mouse toppled off of its surface and was caught by its cord, left suspended a few centimetres above the carpeted floor.

To my utter astonishment, the dusty monitor atop the desk burst to life, the movement of its mouse having been enough to bring it out of hibernation.

However, the computer's activated state quickly became the least interesting thing about it.

As I gazed at the computer screen in awe, the face of my father stared back.

***

"Please state your full name for the record," grunted a heavily-accented voice.