Tale of The Broken Sword

Chapter Twenty Six : A New Assignment

12th February, AD 2057

Advanced Research and Development Commission Headquarters

Downtown District, Detroit

“Kelson!” Warren cried out from behind, running profusely. “The chief wants an emergency meeting.”

“What?” I flipped my e-pad and looked straight onto him. “An emergency meeting?”

“Yeah,” He stopped and breathed in heavily. I recognized the schematics on the paper that he was carrying. It’s the airship that he was blabbering about for the past two months. Full-investigation regarding that craft has been discontinued since December but Warren was adamant that he would prove something out of it.

Perhaps this time’s discovery of his got the attention of the Overseer Department?

“You’re still studying that fake ‘airship’ again?” I smirked. “You know nobody’s gonna believe about that entire thing.”

“That was the past.” Warren frowned. “Now, Simmons and the rest of the people in the Overseer Department had to rethink about it too. Come with me now to the Department’s Control Room, Simmons wants all of us to be there.”

Sighing heavily, I reluctantly followed him. “Quick,” He waved his hand, urging me to quicken my pace. “Some of them are already there.”

“What’s so important about it?” I asked, following him from behind by a few inches. “I thought that the airship is already a lost cause.”

“The airship’s control panel,” Warren stopped, looking around the corner before entering another hallway. “It has a beacon installed in it and its still transmitting radio signals even after the airship is shot down. We’ve tapped into its transmission and found several others locations that have this similar beacon.”

“It’s still working?” I asked. “I thought that all of its communication equipments have been destroyed the moment it crashed?”

“All except one,” Warren clarified. “The beacon. It’s like their version of the black box, indestructible and reliable. They possibly used it for SOS signals or for the rescue team to pinpoint the crashed airship’s location.”

“I’ve only managed to find it after cracking the last layer of metal that encased the beacon.” Warren continued. “It was hard. I had to use four diamond drills and three weeks of constant drilling just to take out a piece of it.”

Our footsteps echoed along the hallway as he walked and in front of us, there is an elevator that leads directly into the Overseer Control Room. It’s the heart of the ARDC Building, containing the main servers and supercomputers that control every US-owned satellites still orbiting around the planet.

Entering inside the elevator, Warren punched the input code for the elevator to function ­–the fact that only authorized personnel are allowed into the Control Room­– and looked towards the screen.

Pure silence filled the elevator, the whirring of gears above us the only sound. Minutes later, the elevator came to a stop and the doors pulled open. We marched along another hallway before arriving at the large brown doors of the Control Room.

Warren swiped his card on the feed and keyed in his code on the panel. With a loud hiss, the circular doors pulled open, revealing a magnificent view of a hundred of computers scattered all over the enormous room. I had never ventured into this part of the building before ­–I had neither code nor authorisation to enter, sadly­– and this was my first time. Warren noticed my awed expression and proudly stated: “Magnificent, isn’t it? The pride of America and the ARDC Building, our country’s ‘national treasure’, stood before your eyes.”