The Mina Marz Incident

CHAPTER FOUR

"Where's Melinda, Ziggy? Wasn't she with you?" asked Mina, not taking her eyes off of the digital mystery displayed down the street.

"I'm here," she said, moving to join the rest of the group.

"Seriously, what do you think is going on?" asked Gus again. Gus wasn't good with unknowns and an unexpected event of this magnitude was shaking his organized foundation of daily routine.

"Could be a prank," offered Titus. "Maybe some college kid with mad skills got bored?"

"Could be political," countered Kenzie. "If they don't regain control, gonna really mess up the rally tomorrow."

"We need to get photos of this," said Melinda, hopping to her desk to retrieve her phone, forgetting Charles's inference of every device.

"Won't work unless you had both tower and wi-fi disabled. Whatever this is, it locked up all connections. All of ours are stuck on the same thing as those streaming billboards. Can't even take a screenshot," said Mina.

"My word, what could do such a thing? I can't even comprehend what it would take to pull off such a feat. Any of you have any ideas, technologically speaking?" asked Dean.

"Maybe it's aliens," laughed Porter, eating another slice of pizza and watching the whole thing go down like a source of entertainment. Unlike Gus, Porter was spontaneous and thrived on the unexpected.

"What did Charles say, Melinda? And where is he anyway?" asked Dean, scanning the room as she returned to the windows with a pad of paper and several pencils.

Melinda shrugged and shook her head in response to both questions as she began to sketch the scene before her.

"Charles who?" asked Kenzie absentmindedly.

"Charles Malone. You know, THE Charles Malone. The guy who founded the company, Charles Malone," responded Dean.

"What? Really? He was here?" Kenzie gaffed, looking at Dean with disbelief.

"Yep, he let us out of the basement. Lockdown protocol. Long story."

"Wow, Charlie Malone," said Porter who had been working the front desk and reception area long enough to remember when the eccentric man had an office in the building. "Hmmm, if you asked me the probability of seeing proof of aliens, or Charlie Malone tonight... I probably would have gone with the aliens."

"Aliens, really?" said Mina, not letting the reference slide a second time. "If there were aliens, doubtful this is how they would make their presence known."

"Well, you geniuses haven't come up with anything and that's all that comes to my mind," laughed Porter good naturedly.

"I would have said the probability of both options was zero," said Melinda, continuing to draw, "And yet, here we are. Charles did show up tonight and the other is a real possibility."

"You mean, you agree it could be aliens?" asked Kenzie with an intrigued look on her face.

"Well, I can't say that it isn't. Can you?"

No one responded verbally, but shook their heads as they realized the truth of Melinda's logic.

"Oh my, God! What is that?" exclaimed Kenzie, putting her hands over her ears as the others followed suit.

Melinda continued to scribble with focus, despite the intense squealing noise that made her ears feel like they were imploding. Her peripheral vision caught her friends dropping. One by one they fell to the floor where she joined them seconds later.

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