It’s late at night, the streets are empty as Rachel slowly drives on the road, next to her is Peter who’s looking around while in the back, Jamar, John, and Ben wait quietly dressed in security outfits, Jamar seems to play with his as he tries to make it more comfortable.
Coming to a stop in a familiar location, Rachel looks in the rear view mirror.
John looks at her as Jamar opens the door to get out.
“Stay on the radio and stay out of sight.” John says as Rachel nods.
Getting out of the car last, John shuts the door.
They walk over towards the research institution as Jamar looks over at him.
“They said the back entrance, right?”
“Yeah.”
Walking past the plaza they make their way along the institute as they make it to the back entryway, looking at it, John takes his card and scans it on the RFID read. It buzzes as the doors begin to open.
They head inside.
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Inside they look around, almost nobody is around, empty tables and seats as a few maintenance workers can be seen sitting around. There’s a security guard receptionist waiting for them as she waves at them, looking at each other as they walk towards her.
“You’re the new security contractors, right?” She asks.
“Yeah, that’s us.” John replies.
“Great, head on through. They’re waiting for you on the third level.”
“Got it.” Jamar says.
Scanning their cards on the secured entryway, they pass through it without a hitch. Directly in front of them they come across a corridor of elevators as they stare at it. Jamar whispers to John.
“What do you think? Should we do this or check out the stairs first?”
“Stair, gotta see what our exit route looks like.”
Walking past the elevators, they head into the stairway. It’s mostly concrete with metallic railing to support it. With the letter 4 painted on the wall in front of them. They stop and look around at it, the stairs are wide to support a large amount of people using them, with a wide space in the middle.
Ben walks towards the edge as he looks down, it goes down several floors as he watches in shock. Jamar and John walk towards him. John notices headlamps on each of the floors to illuminate the stairs as Jamar seems to be looking at a net a few floors down.
“Ah, that’s depressing.” Jamar comments.
“What is?” Ben asks.
Jamar looks over at John who shakes his head at him.
“Nothing. Just- how far it goes down, that’s all.” He replies.
John looks to his side and notices a camera.
“Come on, they’re waiting for us on the third level, let’s head down.” John says as he begins to walk down the flight of stairs in front of him. The others follow along carefully.
Reaching the third level, the stairs stop as they open the door as they look around. It’s a checkpoint. John holds the doors for the others as they head on through.
“Oi, you’re the new guys right?”
“Yeah, that’s us.” Jamar replies as he walks over.
“Great, was wondering when I’d be able to go home. Welcome to hell, you already know how to use the systems here, right? Great.” The security guard that looks over at them seems already done for the day as he begins to call an elevator.
The other security guards look over at them as they walk through.
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“For fucks sake, just follow protocol.” One of them calls out.
“Nah, I’m done for today.” The guard says.
“It’s not your ass that’s going to be roasted-” the security guard stops talking as he looks over at John who walks up to his position.
“We can take it from here, just have a rest.” John says with a smile.
“Haha, see? I love these new guys already.”
The security guard sighs.
“Rough day?”
“You don’t know the half of it. Protocol’s simple, if a researcher comes by, which they shouldn’t. Check facial id and have them go through the scanner. Got it?”
“Seems simple enough.” John responds.
“Good.” The security guard says.
The security guards look over at them as they begin to head into the elevator.
“Oh and good music can help, this shift is usually the quietest. But your kids will hate it, so transfer out as quick as you can.” A guard says.
“Thanks for the tip!” Jamar says.
The guards chuckle as the elevator door closes.
Looking around the place, Jamar looks over at John who’s now sitting in front of a monitor.
“So, what now?”
“Now, we wait. Get comfy.” John says as he leans on his chair.
Clicking his tongue, Jamar walks around.
“Ah, man. Looks like you already got the best seat in town.” Jamar jokes.
John laughs as Ben just stands around.
“Hey, Ben come here.” John calls.
Ben walks over.
“What’s up?”
“Can you connect to this and figure out how many people we still have inside?”
“Yea, sounds easy enough. Let me grab my cyberdeck.”
Opening up a briefcase, Ben takes out his cyberdeck as he takes a cord out from it he tries to connect it to the machine.
“Ah, can never figure out which connector it takes.””
Messing around with it a bit more he stops.
“Wait, I think I got it.”
His cyberdeck boots up.
“Looks like they’re scanning it already. I’ll just disguise it as an mp3 player for now.” Ben says moving towards the front of the monitor, John gets up from the seat.
“Here.”
“Thanks.” Ben says sitting down. He begins to tap on the monitor.
“We’ve gotta make the request look like it’s been made by the computer.” He begins to scroll through a list of faces as his cyberdeck seems to update in realtime along with it.
“Got it.”
“Now for some basic filters based on existing metadata…”
“There’s about 23 people who haven’t checked out yet from the third floor or lower.”
John thinks to himself as he looks back.
“Is that a lot or little?”
“Depends, there’s ten floors in total I think. The numbering on this is a bit weird.”
“Alright, good job. Jamar, you stay here and stand guard while Ben and I go look around.”
“Before that I wanted to ask you something, John. One to one.”
Jamar looks around as he calls John over.
“Uhh, okay?”
John walks over.
“What’s up?” John asks.
Jamar sighs.
“Are you sure you still want to do this?” He asks.
“Having second thoughts?” John replies.
Jamar looks at the ground as he shakes his head then looks back at him.
“No, it’s not that. Just. I don’t know, living to an old age doing something like this, it doesn’t seem that bad does it?” Jamar stops John as he’s about to speak.
“Listen, every time you do this there’s a chance everybody here isn’t going to come back out alive. And I’ve been thinking. The whole reason we’re doing this is because of the insurance… Do you know what the Yasuda clan’s motto is? Loyalty is rewarded.”
“If the Triad finds out about it we’re dead either way.”
“The Yasuda’s are everywhere, we could find a job as a low level security guard anywhere.”
He sighs then looks over at Ben.
“And what about the others? It’s not just you and me, anymore. Their lives and opportunities, this is just as important to me as it is to them.”
“Really? Is it? Cause the way I see it, you’re the only one who's going to die if they don’t.”
John shakes his head.
“There are things that are worse than death. To experience things in life.”
“There’s always a way out.” Jamar continues.
“Sometimes, this is the only way out. I know you come from a stable environment but just talking with some of the others, I can see what you meant when you said they were desperate.” John finishes.
“No amount of money is worth dying for.”
“It is when you have nowhere else to go and nothing else to lose. To never have the option to choose, it’s what you don’t get because you’ve never been that poor. Choice is a luxury.”
John starts to walk away.
“Hey Ben, let’s go look around, it doesn't look like anyone is coming out.”
Turning around he looks towards Jamar who just stares at him.
“Jamar, you stay here and look out for anything.”
Jamar nods.
“Got it.” He replies.
John and Ben begin to walk away together as Jamar walks towards the monitor, taking a seat in the chair he watches as a grin begins to form on his face.
“Looks like he’s shaping up to be the leader I thought we was going to be.” Jamar says to himself as they walk out of earshot range.