Airline reminisced the past — a nonexistent past. A world of black and white, of noir and dusk. Three by four, or was it four by three? Perhaps smaller, 16mm, 8mm. Maybe those were three by four too. An entire world in a small strip, though that was the case for the real world as well.

INT. DARK OFFICE: Empty. Unlighted for weeks. However, Airline does not turn on the light. He does not wish to scare the ghosts.

The history of movies is fascinating, for it stood as a fairly ‘modern’ invention, and by ‘modern’ meaning that the human race had begun to enter its transformative phase, blooming into something closer to today’s world. Copyrights and spectacles, technology and such.

On his investigations, Airline — a codename of course, for even his mother didn’t hate him that much — wished to work alone. It was the subtle sounds of critters and dust, the yet undisturbed spirits of murder and the still frame that ultimately brought him victory. Just like in detective films — just one more piece and everything falls into place.

“Just one more piece…”

Airline loved speaking to himself, in fact, he was speaking to himself right now. Of course, it was strange — using third person pronouns, past tense, etc. etc. At some point, the past and the present would mix together, but Airline stopped caring altogether. If one focused too much on the conventions, they would lose the flow of the text, of the plot.

All works needed a sense of spontaneity, for that was what allowed miracles to happen. The moment of birth, the moment of synthesis, the moment of…

“...Solution.”

Bingo, a clue. Third column, fourth row — a generic cubicle, but something caught his eye.

“Now what do we have here…?”

Perhaps this was the final piece that closed this entire case. Of course, Airline was not thrilled at the idea of the game ending so soon, but this was what the people needed, and whenever he helped the people, he could afford steak for dinner for at least a month straight. Yum…

This entire “Everybody’s Tower Massacre/Mass kidnapping/Crime against humanity/etc.” case had been a pretty leisurely stroll for Airline. It had been a while since he was given such a big case — hell, any case — so this was a nice change of pace.

Thankfully, the company responsible for the development of the… game, Toosoft, had been cooperative so far, obviously trying their hardest to stop the massacre as well. From the look of things, the current “Everybody’s Tower” was being run by a rogue party, supposedly with their own servers. They must’ve spent all their budget on security because for now, it was impossible to locate or breach them.

This narrowed the list of suspects. Someone with an internal connection. Someone rich. Perhaps they were one and the same, perhaps they were two. A perpetrator and a sponsor.

At the moment, out of the hundreds of employees, ten key figures were missing. They could’ve been kidnapped, or perhaps they are the perpetrators of the disaster themselves. They would obviously need a developer familiar with the architecture of the Occult Rift. Since the device was fairly new, it’d be nearly impossible to comprehend its mechanics — if you weren’t the head VR integration developer, of course.

Kiwami Satoru. Age 43. One daughter, no divorces. Current status: missing.

Since his daughter was trapped within Everybody’s Tower as a tester, either as an accident or deliberate planning, it would be a solid explanation if he were to be found working with the ‘enemy’; ‘they forced me to work for them for the safety of my daughter’. Of course, this was an explanation, not an excuse.

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There was the other option that he accidentally trapper his daughter. However, this was unlikely as the investigation team, created by UN — which he forgot the name of at the moment — held his daughter in custody at the moment, and she seemed to be still trapped within the game instead of being freed. As a head developer, you’d expect him to have some authority, but maybe not.

The last and least likely possibility was that Kiwami is intentionally keeping his daughter within the simulation for… some unknown reason. From the profile, he didn’t seem to be the type to scheme or hurt others. Kiwami seemed like a normal dude, and so this was the unlikeliest option by far. But then again, if the chances aren’t 0%...

INT. WHATCHAMACALLIT HEADQUARTERS OFFICE: Three people. One at the water dispenser. One in the office chair. Airline in the guest chair. It is a spacious office. Though barren of books, the drawers and shelves are filled to the brim.

“...What is this?” asked the woman in the office chair.

“It’s an early Christmas present.”

A small piece of elementary computer hardware. An Errduino Ichi with a small LCD display attached to it. Packaged nicely — with electrical tape.

“I thought that the tech guys should look into it.”

The woman carefully analyzed the Errduino, looking for any indication of age. From the look of things, the electrical tape at least was brand new. No scratch marks, no sign of use. How did they not find this before?

“Do you remember which cubicle you found it in?”

“Uh… I can tell you if you bring me there again.”

Airliine wasn’t a particularly great detective. However, he had been a part of numerous national and international cases for a single quality: luck. Of course, she did not believe in superstition — no one did, but once something is repeatable in any condition, there is no reason to deny it.

Again, the ‘Airline good luck charm’ worked like a charm.

“Joseph,”

“Yes, Ms…?”

“Dubois.”

“S-sorry, names aren’t my strong suit,” said the man at the water dispenser, “what do you need?”

Joseph was a larger man, both horizontally and vertically and… in the third axis. It wasn’t too bad that he couldn’t fit through doors, but repeated entrances and exits would definitely wear the wood down. He was dressed in a well-groomed beard and a tidy black suit. In fact, everyone was except Airline, who believed that being comfortable was important in getting things done. For him, it was either he wears a suit, or the case gets solved.

“You’re returning to America tomorrow, correct?” asked Dubois, “Then take this with you.”

“You want me to show it to my friends or something?”

“Exactly,”

“Well, that I can do.” said Joseph as he accepted the trinket, “Hopefully it doesn’t install a virus!”

“I doubt that’ll be the case. It has a display on it, meaning that it’s most likely a hidden message.” said Dubois, “Get it done as quickly as possible. This could be important,”

“Ah… Yes, Ma’am.”

Joseph quickly headed to his room to check the device himself first. Thankfully, the door lived to see another day.

“...You do know that he was joking, right?”

“In the battlefield, you can’t afford a drop of misunderstanding,” said Dubois, ‘Don’t say anything that could possibly be understood as genuine if you don’t mean it.

“A battlefield…? I don’t know if that’s—”

“Right now, over a thousand innocent civilians worldwide have been murdered by this single ‘game’.” said Dubois, “Just because we’re not at the risk of dying, doesn’t mean that it’s not a battlefield.”

“...Yeah, sorry.”

Airline soon walked out of the office as well. Things were heading up at least. Perhaps he wasn’t taking this seriously enough, but he found that being unserious actually helped him work better. It meant that he didn’t have to think about the victims. It meant that he didn’t have to think about the human evil. He was just here to find puzzle pieces and put them together.

Sometimes, he would recall back to the films he watched. One film in particular, Autumm Five (1977), struck him the hardest, leaving a scar on his mind. In that film, the only thing that mattered was the villain. It was not about his origin or his downfall but rather an exploration of his evil and the wicked forces that drove him to commit the crimes he did in the fall of 1977.

Perhaps he would reminisce a bit more later, but for now, he had more work to do. The steaks wouldn’t earn themselves after all.