The Liberation Paradox

Interloper

Sky

19:19

Sky was desperate to tell his side of the story, lest he be falsely labeled Marcio's accomplice. He needed to talk to Mr. Daniau right away. But his security card didn't allow him access to the 17th floor. Only Mr. Daniau and his security staff could access the top floor. That meant that Sky needed to get Mr. Miles to let him up there, but Mr. Miles's office was empty.

After finding Mr. Miles's office on the 16th floor empty, Sky had not hesitated. There was no time to hesitate. He saw a security access card on Mr. Miles's desk for one of the enforcers named "Chisel." He grabbed the card and went straight up to the 17th floor. He used Chisel's card to get past the electronic door lock's AI and went straight to Mr. Daniau's office. He was surprised to find the door to the boss's office standing open.

"Mr. Daniau?" he said to the empty room as he tentatively entered. Something didn't feel right here. The desk chair had been rolled off to one side of the room and away from the kneehole at the center of the desk. A trashcan was overturned beside the desk. They were just here a minute ago when Sky had called from the server room. Where had they gone? Sky shouldn't be in here all alone. He shouldn't even be on this floor.

Something had happened in this room only recently. Imagining that Mr. Daniau may be on the floor behind the desk, possibly in need of assistance, Sky forgot propriety and stepped around the desk. "Mr. Daniau?" Sky repeated.

He found nothing behind the desk except a whiskey tumbler on the floor next to the bookcase. He glanced into the kneehole, checking to see if anybody (Marcio, perhaps?) may be hiding there, but found nothing. It was then that he noticed what was up on Mr. Daniau's terminal display.

The display was covered with a collage of small windows, each showing the feed of a hidden camera. On one of the small windows, Sky saw this very office, but he couldn't see himself on the display. The camera in this room was angled so that it didn't reveal the area behind Mr. Daniau's desk, where Sky now stood.

He shouldn't be standing here.

But he was intrigued by the hidden camera system. He looked to the wall where he estimated the camera must be, but he could see no trace of it. He looked at other windows on the display. He saw one showing the server room. On that one, Camilla and Ivan seemed to be working with the recovered accounting data. Vice leaned against the wall by the door, still reading his trashy novel.

On other camera feeds Sky saw countless corridors, elevators, hotel rooms, and even bathrooms. He was just thinking to check if he could see into his own room when he noticed one feed showing the front stairwell. In the image, Sky saw Mr. Daniau himself running up the stairs. Mr. Daniau was followed closely behind by Mr. Miles and two other enforcers. Sky suddenly remembered where he was and that he shouldn't be in here. It would be hard to explain if he were caught in here.

He ran around the desk, tripped on the overturned trashcan, and fell to the floor. The impact hurt, but nothing was broken. He scrambled to his feet as quickly as he could and continued his retreat from the boss's inner sanctum. He rushed out into the hallway just in time to collide with Mr. Daniau himself.