Suspicion is contagious, a poisoned apple in one farm can cause fear with another farmer's cattle, even if there are no connections. Monitor the exposure of corruption in competitors. Do not let their downfall incite doubt in employees. –Management Code 1232
"Act confident." Alyx tapped Cole's spine, reminding him to fix his posture. They had been creeping around the shadows, and Cole had assumed a hunch. After Alyx's words, Cole quickly understood the plan.
The two strolled out into the boisterous room, standing tall. Their appearance did little to change the atmosphere of the room. People were too engrossed with what they were doing, and those that did look at the pair, could find nothing wrong with the duo.
There was no uniform in Harbor, and Cole suspected that its members were not familiar with everyone who walked through their halls. Cole carefully tugged on his sleeves, making sure they completely covered his arms. He did not want his bare arms to be exposed. The absence of the tattoo was likely the main thing that would cause animosity, among the people in the room.
Alyx swatted Cole's hand away from his sleeve, leading him towards another hallway. There were no guards to be seen, meaning there was no one to impede their path.
"Hey. You two. Did you just come from the newbie area?" A man called over to them. "I thought that it was night time for them." As Alyx pulled Cole towards the man, he could see that the man had a broad smile across his face.
"We mixed up the time. You know how it is." Alyx said, once they were close to man. "Oh yeah, it is so annoying to take a shift in that area. The time distortion really messes with your head." Cole felt the hairs on his arm rise at the man's words. What exactly did he mean?
"I don't think I have met y'all before. I am Cooper." Cooper did not offer his hand to shake as he introduced himself. "Yeah we don't come to the headquarters often, but we both got a promotion a few days ago, so we showed up recently." Alyx responded smoothly, and Cole almost believed her statement.
"Oh congratulations. Well I'll get out of your hair. You will have to come back here anyway, since you screwed up your start time. I know it sucks, but we got to get newbies up to speed without jeopardizing their work." Cooper waved them off, and returned to eating the pastry in front of him.
As they walked off, Cole hoped that Cooper was just a nosy person, and not one of the higher ups in Harbor. Alyx did not seem worried, so Cole turned his mind to what he had learned from Cooper. Apparently he had no way of knowing how long he and Alyx had actually been in Harbor.
There had to be better ways to educate new members. Yet, Cole was sure that time distortion was used to keep them in the building, therefore giving Harbor full control.
Cole and Alyx were not stopped again, and they found themselves wandering through hallways that were a good deal more cheerful than the grayness of the newbie area. Everything was well lit, and there were a variety of colors used in decorating the space.
Every now and again, they would pass other people in the halls, but no one was very interested in them. After a good thirty minutes, Cole and Alyx had not found anything significant. They had been walking deeper into the building, yet the halls felt like a maze, and they did not have a map.
"Do we ask someone?" Cole spoke up, interrupting the silence that had fallen over them. They couldn't be sure that there wasn't some sort of strange technology in the area, after learning about the time distortion.
"We could use force to make them comply." Alyx thoughtfully tapped her bracelet. Her casual demeanor gave off the aura of complete seriousness.
"That would ruin the secrecy of our excursion. Someone would know we were here, doing something harmful to Harbor" Cole protested.
"There's one way to avoid that." Alyx leaned towards Cole, and he understood that she was joking, when she opened her eyes wide.
"So are we going to go with my idea?" Cole rolled his eyes. "I don't think it is a good idea, someone who is authorized to enter the servers should know where they are." Alyx pointed out the major flaw in Cole's idea, without offering a solution.
As Cole was about to point out her lack of help, she smugly spoke up. "Instead you should just follow me." Alyx turned down a hallway that looked different from the others. It was not decorated, and there were no people treading its carpet. Down the hall there was a thick door with a sign reading /SERVER/ above it.
"You already asked someone, didn't you?" Cole said dully. He had thought they had no idea where they were going, but apparently they had not been exploring randomly.
"Yup, I asked in the virtual. They are way too open to questions in vr. All I had to do was hide the fact that I was a new member." In a reality that one mold to fit their needs, Cole could imagine that Alyx was very convincing.
"Ok miss super genius, how do we get in?" Cole half expected Alyx to reach over and input the code to the door, in a flash.
"This is where it might get messy." Alyx turned towards the door, and Cole flinched as he heard two loud bangs. "Let's hurry." The gun in Alyx's hand slithered back around her wrist, and she grinned.
Cole had not expected the method, but he quickly recovered, they had to hurry. There was no way of knowing if the gunshots had been heard. Alyx forced the door open, and since she disabled the locking mechanism with her gun, the barrier could only comply.
Once they were inside the room, bright white lights flashed on, washing over them with overbearing clarity. The room was cramped, there was only enough room for about four people to stand side by side. Cole quickly realized that the reason for the lack of space was not because the room was small.
What he had initially thought was a wall, was a massive piece of machinery, completely dominating the space in the room. It looked like a wall, but light sporadically pulsed through slits, lighting up artificially sharp angles.
Cole stood back, making it clear that he was leaving it up to Alyx. He felt completely lost looking at the hunk of technology. Alyx reached out and hesitantly touched the server. She gritted her teeth, and a few seconds later she collapsed to the ground.
Cole rushed over, and saw a pale face with labored breathing. "We need to get out of here. I managed to delete it, but they know we are in here." Alyx gasped out.
When Alyx did not move after her declaration, Cole quickly scooped her onto his back. Making sure she would not fall out of the piggyback, Cole rushed out of the room.
"Are you okay?" Cole asked worriedly as he hurried down the hall. "I will be fine. The server just had good defenses, and it nearly took over my body." Alyx tiredly laid her head on Cole's shoulder.
"If I didn't have a defense implant from the company, I probably wouldn't exist anymore." Cole wanted to place Alyx onto the ground to yell at her for being too reckless. Instead, he picked up the pace, screwing up his face to hold back his emotions. He needed to focus on getting Alyx out of the building, not on the carelessness of her actions.
He didn't fully comprehend what had happened, but he was sure that Alyx had faced incredible suffering to delete their contracts.
Once they reached the more populated part of the inner layer, they started drawing more attention. The people of Harbor were not used to seeing an adult woman getting a piggyback ride, in the ordinary world. However, no one stopped them, allowing Cole to hurry past them before they could stop him.
Eventually Cole made it back to the room that housed the entrance to the new member area. Unlike when they had first seen it, the room was not full of life, it was eerily empty.
"All right, I have a lot of questions. Don't think about running." Cooper stood up from a chair, facing Cole with heavy focus. "Question one. How did you manage to enter the hall leading to the server room? Not even normal members' tattoos give them that sort of access."
Cole did not answer. Cooper's words revealed that they had some way of limiting the access to the hall. It also meant that the green orb that was in Cole's ring offered higher access. 'They must have some way of limiting the access given by the orbs, when they implant them.'
"Come on, I don't have all day." Cooper snapped his fingers and two guards burst into the room, training their guns on Cole.