Before We Jump

Prologue

I felt as if I were standing on the edge of a steep fall. Although I knew the only way foreward was to jump. The step over the threshhold of the entry hall was the chasm that I dropped into. Now there was no hope of going back.

The most frightening thing about my current position was that it was all somebody else’s problem, from here on out I only had any control at all in that I could walk out, I could leave. But leaving wasn’t an option, the job wouldn’t get done, and I would have no hope at all of escape. I had checked my watch before I entered, Ten twenty seven AM, and though I knew that mere seconds had passed I was afraid to look again.

I adjusted the strap that was weighing heavily upon my shoulder due to the canvas sack it held, and noticed briefly the ornate marble flooring and the high arched ceiling. This was new. Not many people got to enter this place, and I had only ever before seen stolen images. The fact was that the interior had been replaced many times, and the building everyone knew was only a shell of patriotism and hatred protecting whatever dwelled within… Though even the original feelings invoked by this impressive tower were gone by now. The difference from the photos worried me, what if something had changed? But Svanberg had told me that the basic layout was the same, and however untrustworthy he may have been, he wanted this to go well, that was plain.

I passed the empty reception desk, walking briskly now. I could not be late, that would probably be the end of me. My allies would leave without giving me a second thought, as they should. There was a reason none of us had met. Now that I had passed the main hall things looked more familiar, like the photos I had seen.

The tall ceilinged and yet cramped hallways were now with me. What the photos had failed to present was the overwhelming feeling that one was trapped within a labyrinth… and that these floors too had been re-done in marble.  Once again I adjusted the strap on my shoulder, the weight was becoming more painful.

I neared the first staircase and realized that I must have taken a wrong turn. There was a large metal pillar nearby that was extensively rusted, that needed no help to fall. I was supposed to be near a support beam of some sort, but not this one. A strong new one, one of those that truly kept this building together. If the one I was looking for alone was removed, the building would still stand. That is why there were three of us. I stood for a moment to look my watch, then turned and began to jog back down the corridor.

It was ten thirty nine. It didn’t take me long to see where I had veered off course, but I had still wasted precious time. The sameness that ran through every hall in this building was daunting, had I, in fact turned the wrong way? Was I moving down a path that I had taken already? I broke into a full run. The bag over my shoulder bounced repeatedly into my side, a sharp piece of its contents stabbing into me, this causing a dull repetitive pain that seeped into my consciousness amongst the many other things I had to worry about.

There was nothing to affirm that I was going in the right direction, nor anything to say that I was not. Once again I looked at my watch, ten forty four, approximately sixteen minutes to find where I was going let pass any other unforeseen difficulties. I turned two more corners and looked down the hall where it should have been.

For a second I thought it wasn’t there for it was the same color and pattern as the wall behind it. Then it came into full view, the tall thick pillar that was one of the four which truly held the building in place… I had been told, however, that only three needed to fall. I had no real idea about anything involving architecture (or anything else academic outside of my small field of study for that matter), but it seemed logical enough for me. Though the ceiling blocked my view, it supposedly went straight to the top of the building. I ran to it and placed the bag beside it. My job was now done, all I had to do now was make sure that I got out alive.

I pressed the up button for the elevator which lit momentarily before shutting off as one of the doors to my right slid open. Relieved that an elevator had been there waiting, I rushed in and pressed the button for floor seventy two, that was where we were supposed to meet.

The elevator was moving at an agonizing pace, floor twelve, thirteen. they flitted by and yet I seemed no closer to my destination. The minutes were ticking away on my watch. It was ten fifty six by the time I had reached floor fifty. I knew that we needed a high floor, but why not one floor lower? maybe then I’d be more likely to make it. sixty five, sixty six. The wait was agonizing, and though I was truly almost there each floor we went up made the trip feel even slower. seventy, seventy one...

I reached floor seventy two and sprinted out into the hall before the elevator doors were fully open. Dashing between office cubicles I knew my way now, this was exactly like the images had shown me. Running ever faster I reached the door I was looking for. My watch read ten fifty nine. I pulled the handle with all my might and swung it open causing it to bang against the wall. I then quickly stepped into an empty room.

They must have left already, and I must die, at least knowing that I did so in the creation of a better world. Here I stand in an office high in the upper levels of a doomed building wondering at how it was I came to be here.