Chapter Fifty-six
Out of the block
Neu-Techstadt, Germany. 6:10 AM. 125 S.A
The afternoon and evening hours had passed slowly in the main ZAIEN building.
On the one hand everyone had breathed a sigh of relief on the upper floors as the threat seemed to have vanished. The infectious code that was holding the other information blocks hostage had been disappearing as quickly as it had appeared, leaving the technicians stunned.
But the truth was that the other divisions were worried about something else. The news had not been spread, because it would be a scandal for the company's reputation, but they had assembled a group of specialists to carry out the mission of rescuing Thor from that chamber in the basement. The bad news came when a detailed analysis of the structure was made, and it was found that the section had a force field. Any attempt to penetrate the place could be a threat to the upper floors if it was not carefully deactivated.
The force field generator must have been well hidden throughout the structure and perhaps, from the penetration analysis, there was even a possibility that the generator was mobile and could move throughout the structure.
The technicians and engineers had set to work to try to reach it from below without success, even though they had deactivated the traps around the entire block.
They had spent more than twelve hours down there and had rotated personnel but there was someone who had not retired to rest.
It was a fey woman. She had traded in her white suit for a safety overall and, like the others in the underground, had donned a safety helmet to be on site. Her black hair, always tied up in a bun, had now changed position because of the helmet and had been pulled into a ponytail at the nape of her neck. Her dark eyes looked uneasy behind her safety goggles. Although she could do nothing at that time and place, she wanted to be aware of what was going on.
Thor's secretary, Roseline, was a woman who took her job seriously.
She had come to ZAIEN more than ten years ago and in fey terms could be considered a young woman, as she was barely in her thirties.
She didn't have an ability like the special feys, she couldn't use magic either, and even her regeneration ability was a bit below that of the normal feys. Yet, it had been Thor himself who had put her in charge of his affairs while he was away investigating cases for the SID.
The truth was that Thor might not show up in the building for months, but she always kept everything in order and with daily reports of what was going on in the board of directors and shares of the company. Thor would always check them and let her know if she needed to pass on any messages or errands, but she was almost always the one who took care of it.
There were many women who applied for the position, but out of all of them she was the one who had been selected.
Her resume was average.
A Polish fey who had come from the Other Side. She had received primary and secondary education over a three-year period through the acclimatization program. Presenting no threat or interest to the world's security forces, she had been released into the world to integrate into society. As was the case with most feys.
The conditions of the fey in society were equal to human ones. They could even live quite well doing absolutely nothing with the basic help provided by the states. She had a lot of freedom with what she could do with her life.
Yet she had decided to study a career of at least a couple of years to decide what she would do with her life. What she didn't know was that those two years would turn into five. Five years in which she could not yet choose what to do with her life. Management, accounting, self-defense teacher, Ancient Era data mining. So many careers, but there were so many possibilities that it was difficult to choose.
Although she didn't possess any of the feys' qualities with abilities, she did have something else. It was that curse that feys had of clinging to life by doing something. Do something and don't think, many called it. It didn't matter if a fey took his personal life slowly and in his own time, that need to do something was always there.
She finally opted for a career in management at a mining complex on the moon for a few years. That mining complex belonged to one of ZAIEN's divisions, and so she was surprised one day when she saw that they were looking for an assistant secretary for a big position in the company on Earth.
She knew Thor only by hearsay and while most spoke well of him, others not so much.
He had a reputation as a seducer and womanizer. So when she sent her resume for the position she was surprised that she was one of those selected for a personal interview with him.
There were several applicants for the position and some of them were attractive women. But that day, after an hour-long interview, Roseline was the one Thor had chosen for the position of secretary and personal assistant for company matters.
She started two days after that interview. Her job was not much at the beginning and, considering that Thor was not present most of the time, it made her feel strange but, as the days went by, she got used to it. ZAIEN was too big and there were too many things to keep track of. Finance, development areas, board meetings and investment departments.
Roseline was surprised that her boss had chosen a life of danger, instead of living solely on the profits generated by the company and his personal holdings. But hey, she wasn't going to complain about that either. After all, for feys like Thor it wasn't as if they could detach themselves from the obligations that came with having an ability. In Thor's case it was precisely his power that made him part of Nevermore's special agents. A vocation of service to civilization. From time to time rumors of the missions he was carrying out came in, and that had made her understand him a little better.
Thor was a fey who lived up to the saying Do something and don't think. He had decided to do something with his life and take it to the extreme of putting his life at risk by investigating Dark Events.
That was something she would never have imagined of herself.
As for the second rumor of being a womanizer. The truth is usually more simple and mundane. Thor was just looking for someone to share his life with. He had a long list of love affairs that had not ended well. And, much to her regret, Roseline had to admit that even she had been one of the causes of one of those relationships ending.
It happened one day when Thor was investigating a Dark Event in the vicinity of Neu-Techstadt, three years ago.
Roseline had received a call from Thor asking if she could help him with something personal. She had gone to the site. It was an apartment that was not among his possessions. Beyond her suspicion, she was terrified to find Thor with three gunshot wounds lying on a couch.
Her intention to take him to a hospital was denied by him. Saying that he would bring trouble to the company since he was nearby, and that what he was investigating was a case of technology smuggling using OOPArts and he was working undercover. Asking Nevermore for help would not help because what he had been shot with was an ammunition that had disabled his Neurowire and agent first aid system.
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Roseline had to swallow hard and help extract the bullets herself with a pair of tweezers while Thor drank a bottle of tequila. Once those bullets were out of his body his wounds began to heal in a matter of seconds.
It was then that Roseline realized why that apartment was not among Thor's possessions. It wasn't his. It belonged to the woman he was dating. A woman who arrived at that moment, alerted by the security system that an intruder had entered the place.
What the woman saw was Roseline, who had sweated from nervousness and had taken off her shirt and was wearing a sleeveless sports shirt. Roseline next to Thor, who was bare-chested and a little drunk from the tequila.
It ended with the woman hitting him with a frozen fish she had taken from the refrigerator.
The next day Roseline had tried to talk to the woman and apologize, explaining the situation, but the relationship was over. For her boss things were clear, if someone attacks you without listening to reason, it is not worth trying any more.
That woman could have seen the scene better before starting a tantrum, but then they both found out that the problem was the expensive furniture where Roseline had been removing Thor's bullets.
Roseline sighed remembering that and would have drawn a smile on her lips remembering the absurdity of the situation, had it not been for the situation Thor was in at that moment.
He had been trapped in there for too many hours. What could have been inside?
She was wondering when a sound alerted everyone in the place.
The doors of that block were finally opening.
Roseline was surprised. Given the general surprise, it didn't look like it was the work of the technicians at play. No, it wasn't. That trap had opened on its own again.
They all looked at Thor who walked out of the place with a firm step. But even though he was there, he didn't look like he had suffered any harm. In fact, he looked just as he had entered.
Except for one detail that Roseline noticed as soon as she saw him leave.
It was Thor's face. He had a face that was hard to describe. He looked calm but angry at the same time.
Thor walked past the technicians, who gathered around him to check on him, but Thor seemed to have other plans in mind. They peppered him with questions about his condition but he simply replied with terse words.
"I'm fine, no problem. If you'll excuse me I have a matter to attend now."
"But, Mr. Thor. Allow me to at least have you checked out by the medical wing tea," said one of men.
"I'm fine. There's nothing to worry about. You've all done a good job. Now if you'll excuse me."
The technicians doubted they had done a good job, since they had not been able to open the block. Roseline couldn't exactly put it into words and she didn't know why, but she understood something. Thor was in more than a hurry to get out of the place. He was trying to be polite to the employees, but she could tell from his tone of voice that he was not in the mood.
Thor walked past the last two technicians who were looking at him in amazement. He didn't even look tired from being locked up.
They soon had to look away. Once Thor had exited the doors of the block, they were closing again. One of the technicians present began to type something into a device he had. He had been trying for hours to log into the system of that block. But to no avail. They could not stop the lockdown again. The door's reader device was venting in front of their eyes and a corrosion began to appear in the metal around the door.
"Don't bother. That block is self-destructing," Thor said. "If you go in later, you'll only find silicon dust and other components, but nothing else. It was programmed to destroy itself once I left."
"But... what was inside?"
"A message for me," Thor said only and continued on his way down the corridor.
Roseline had started toward him when she had seen him coming out, but when she reached him she stopped.
"Sir. Are you all right?"
"Yes. I'm fine. Is my transport ready?"
"It's been there since yesterday."
"I'll go then."
"Don't you want to eat anything?"
"No, I'm fine. I'm not hungry."
Thor continued on his way to the elevator and then Roseline noticed something as she walked behind him. There was something Thor hadn't walked in with. In his right hand Thor carried a square metal suitcase.
"Sir, what is that?"
Thor didn't answer but, for some reason, it seemed to Roseline that his movements had stiffened and he had gripped that box even tighter.
"Excuse me," Roseline said. She wasn't sure if she was being indiscreet about anything, but given the aura of discomfort that seemed to emanate from her boss, she wanted to apologize. The whole thing had been so weird from the start.
Had the previous owner really left a message for Thor?
They both got into the elevator and once it closed Thor took a sigh. "You don't have to apologize, Roseline. But, believe me, the less you know about this the better."
"It's okay, I understand…"
Roseline glanced sideways at the box. It looked like a simple container case. But if it really was something Gehirn had left behind it had made Thor nervous. She could only speculate what it might be. Yes, maybe it was better not to know.
From what Thor had just asked it was clear that he wanted to get out of the building as quickly as possible.
"May I ask where you are going? Edinburgh again?"
The elevator opened and Thor and Roseline walked to the leaf-shaped platform where his personal transport was in the same place he had left it when he arrived.
"No. I'm not going to Edinburgh. I need to speak to the Director of SID Operations."
"Miss Mai?" Roseline didn't know her, but she knew that she was the one behind Nevermore's investigative branch and that to Thor the agents closest to Mai were almost like family to each other.
"Yes," Thor nodded curtly and walked towards his transport. Halfway there he stopped and looked at Roseline. He had been in such a hurry that when he got out he had hardly noticed that she had changed her clothes and had a tired look on her face.
"Roseline?"
"Yes sir?"
"Take a break for the rest of the week."
"I have quite a backlog."
"That's an order. Then you can catch up on Monday. Go home and get some rest."
"...I will. Thank you, sir." Roseline said smiling slightly, as she bowed her head.
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"Thanks to you too," Thor said as he climbed up the small unfolded ramp of the vehicle.
"..." Roseline didn't have time to respond, nor did she know what to say to him, though she knew that was for having stayed overtime waiting for him to get out of that block.
Thor's transport was lifting off again and in a few seconds it was heading southwest, leaving Roseline on the landing leaf watching as it was lost in the city's sky among other vehicles.
Thor inside the vehicle looked at the city that was already beginning to move. He certainly didn't feel physically tired. But he did have a bit of a headache.
He looked at the box and then reached into his pants pocket. He pulled out a small black rectangle and looked at it, then looked back at the box.
"That bastard, what a mess he left me…"
Thor snorted as he looked back at the city. He would have a lot of explaining to do later.
He wasn't sure what was going on between France and Switzerland at the moment, because he couldn't make calls to the team and he couldn't get through to Mai either. That was strange. He would have liked to tell her beforehand that he would be arriving but well, the trip wouldn't take too long.
He had to deliver that suitcase to Mai or Zi.
"Really, how much trouble have you given us these last few days?"
The suitcase didn't matter too much. It was the time bomb in his pocket that worried him most. What it would contain was an enigma since Gehirn had not revealed that to him, although he had explained other things that had made his hair stand on end.
At least that black device had Gehirn's simulation as well, so at least Thor wouldn't have to explain everything himself.