The Runners: Chapter 13
Chapter 13
The main access of the VTT building was primarily utilized by the travelers. The employees of the VTT, its associates, or anyone not traveling, but needed access to the building to tend to other business matters must go around towards the rear of the building. Reminiscent of a moat surrounding a castle in the medieval times, there was a clean paved road that encircled the VTT building at one mile radius from the center of the building. The initial access into the campus was a mile long straight way that directly led to the passenger access gate. This road intersected the large circular drive at the midpoint. To get onto the moat drive, all vehicles must make a right turn at the intersection and immediately pass thru a manned security gate. As a vehicle traveled deeper into the circle, additional security check points must be crossed, depending on how far one needed to go.
Each security check point was associated with the level of clearance of an individual. The check points were associated with Level-1, Level-2, Level-3 and Level-4 clearances. Level-1 was reserved for simple laborers who were associated with building maintenance, food service, grounds keeping, etc. Level-2 was associated with departments such as finance, sales, marketing, and customer support. Level-3 was associated with the security and armed guards, who man the inside and outside perimeters of the VTT HQ. Finally, Level-4 required the ultimate security clearance that was reserved for the chairman, his elite body guard unit, which controlled all the security, key VTT technology operations personnel, their respective directors, a few department heads, and their assistants.
The ground between the moat drive and the area of the Level-4 security section stiffly dropped down to a fall at all sides, except, the section towards the building past the check points. This effectively sealed off all accesses to the building by a person or a vehicle without proper authentication. Every individual must have proper and active level of clearance or permission from the pertinent department and security office in order to gain access. There were only one hundred twenty individuals worldwide, who had attained the necessary Level-4 clearance at VTT who were allowed into the secret, protective, and confined area of the compound.
A midsized black SUV drove into the main road. Then, at the moat intersection, the vehicle took a quick right turn. At the 1st security check point, the guard seemed to recognize the vehicle or the person driving as the heavy tall metal gate opened prior to the vehicle coming near. Without having to stop, the black SUV passed the gate. As soon as it passed the first access point, the SUV picked up speed and reached 65MPH in 30MPH zone. As he neared the Level-2 check point, its gate opened when the SUV came to within fifty yards from the gate, ensuring that the vehicle could maintain its speed when heading towards the next checkpoint.
The gate at the Level-3 section opened as well and the SUV reached 75MPH. Level-4 was not an exception. The gates opened and closed as soon as the vehicle had passed the respective check points.
The SUV then took a sharp left turn into the poke towards the building, traveling the last one mile of straight way at 100MPH before coming to a screeching stop at the parking gate. The parking gate was two stories tall with couple of ft thick metal doors that opened towards either side. A number of security cameras were mounted with sensors that were programmed to read the vehicle’s ID. From the control room, the security agents were monitoring the vehicle as it approached the gate.
Four agents in black leather suits looked down a large circular table. The table had low dim lights along the perimeter and intense light beamed up from the surface of the table. On top of the table was an exact replica of the VTT HQ compound in 3D image projected along with every object, both moving and inanimate, which surrounded it. Every object was being tracked and displayed in relative size and scale to the VTT HQ building. They were able to monitor every activity that was taking place outside the complex in real time.
All along, all four were watching the black SUV approaching the Level-4 security area. Their commanding agent, who was in his late 40’s seemed to be staring deeper into the SUV, gave an approving nod to the one agent who was adjacent to his right. That agent then stretched his hands out to where the parking gate was and used his fingers to pull open the virtual garage door. As the virtual image of the garage gate opened at the agent’s control, the physical parking gate opened in synchronization. They saw the SUV entering and disappearing into the walls of the VTT HQ’s highest security section. Then, with a press of a button, a new projection appeared, this time showing the inside space of the garage, where the SUV had just entered.
The driver of the SUV parked his vehicle in a reserved spot right next to the only elevator. The driver side door, operated by hydraulics, slowly opened. The door pushed out about a foot from the body of the vehicle. The front of the door towards the engine was rounded while the other end of the door was shaped like the end of an eagle’s wing when the wings were fully spanned. The only difference from the tip of the eagle’s wings and this SUV’s door was that the SUV’s end was rounded. The door was lifted from the end towards the top of the hood, fully exposing the driver’s side which allowed easy access in and out of the vehicle.
A man stepped out of the SUV and briefly stood next to his vehicle. He was wearing a black trench coat with a waist belt tied around it. He wore his coat collar up to his ear lobes, a pair of dark sunglasses, and sported a fedora hat that was reminiscent of the 1920’s fashion. He had black pants, black boots, and black gloves. The only exposed part of the man was his nose and mouth for the obvious reasons.
He stood about 6 ft 2 in and looked to be in good physical shape. He straightened his coat from possible crinkles then put his gloved hands into the trench coat pockets as he walked around the car towards the elevator. With laser precision, his car door closed behind him. He walked past the 1st protective synthetic glass door, then 2nd, and finally the 3rd one before entering the elevator. All along, one of the four agents tracked and anticipated the man’s movements by timely opening and shutting the glass doors in his path.
He got into the elevator which was made out of a transparent material that was shaped like an old beer barrel. He then commanded, “Top floor” and took off his sunglasses which he held at the tip of his nose. Getting closer to a part of the elevator door, he stared at it with his eyes open wide. A thin layer on the inside of the elevator door peeled open, exposing a circular monitoring device that had been embedded inside the clear elevator door.
“Reading iris and bio-electronic chip information,” a computerized female voice came on as a beam of light appeared and moved about just like the one at the security check point where the VTT passengers were subjected to.
“Validation successful, visitor logged: 11:30, July 1, 2189.” The female voice said again and the elevator began its ascent to the top floor.
The man fixed his sunglasses, crossed his arms then stared straight at the door as the elevator was carrying him up. Series of LED lights passed and at about the height of five stories, the elevator exited lower part of the building, providing the passenger with a full panoramic view of the area around the VTT complex. He stared out afar. The visibility wasn’t usually very good, but, today was an exception. He was able to see close to twenty miles of flat landscape with red, yellow and brown colored grounds, and occasional patches of dirt mounds that were randomly spread out.
He looked down to the right and saw several vehicles being cleared at the Level-2 security area. Surrounding the security area was the vast emptiness of the moat compound which was encircled by the driveway. He put on a brief sly smile and turned his head to look towards the direction of the tallest mound located a couple of miles away. It was his favorite view whenever he was paying a visit to this complex.
As the elevator rose to the top floor, he felt bigger than life or at least privileged whenever he stared down at the top of that mound. The elevator came to a halt as the door opened to a long suspension bridge which served as the lone access corridor to the top of the dome from the outside. He stepped out of the elevator into the hallway and cautiously walked towards the dome.
Although he’s had a resume full of laurels and accommodations for bravery, the final fifty yard walk inside this transparent, suspension bridge still gave him the butterflies in his stomach. With each step, he felt the vibration on the floor as he came to abrupt stop before taking the next step. Furthermore, when he looked down below, he felt he saw the bottom of the valley instantly rise up to his feet and fall right back down into the dark endless pit. He couldn’t help, but feel agitated inside the tunnel. This walk across this bridge was the only part of the visits here that he did not look forward to. Even with the proper Level-4 security clearance, he was forced to walk thru this treacherous part of the complex. For this, he resented the CEO very much.
“Bastard!” taking slow steps towards the main complex, he swore quietly.
He entered thru the door at the end of the bridge. Then, he walked towards a large desk several tens of feet away from the entrance. A very attractive secretary greeted him with a friendly smile.
“Hello, director! Dr. Chandler’s been waiting for you.” She was wearing a low cut blouse exposing better part of her cleavage. Her hair was meticulously maintained giving off silky shine as it bounced gently at the slightest movements which she had made when she looked up to find the man’s eyes behind the sun glasses.
“Ms. Diamond. Looking as beautiful as ever!” Cordially, he complimented her as he walked past her and turned left to the direction of yet, another elevator. Discreetly, however, he kept his eyes on the secretary’s cleavage as long as he could. Then, he traveled up slowly, few additional seconds, in the elevator before finally arriving at Chandler’s office.
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Shaped in a round dome from the outside, the VTT chairman’s office was located at the top of the VTT HQ. Eight tall and round wooden beams came down to the edge of the floor from the ceiling. They perfectly divided the room into eight equal sections when looking out and around from the center of the room. The room was enclosed by high strength clear wall to wall windows, providing great views of the landscape outside. A Bohemian crystal chandelier from the 1900’s was boastfully hanging down at the center of the room. The chandelier that was 20 ft wide, 20 ft high, with over 20000 lights and thousands of crystals, was gloriously reflecting even a minute amount of light. It seemed to magnify the brightness of any light that was directed at it.
The floor was laid with smooth travertine tiles that were made to look like a single round piece, covering the entire floor space. The center of the floor was inlaid with the word VTT and the VTT logo in platinum and gold occupied an area of about 20 ft in diameter. The chandelier and the logo gave the room a sense of great opulence and excess.
The cylinder shaped elevator shaft rose up high off the floor of the chairman’s office and was placed between the outside edge of the inlaid logo and the glass wall. There was a large mahogany desk about the size of a dining room table that could fit twenty guests comfortably. However, there were only two guest chairs at the front of the desk.
The desk was shaped like a larger version of waxing crescent moon and the top of the desk was fitted with the latest technological communications, 3D visual, and computer systems. A spot light shined upon the desk from the top of the ceiling to ostensibly display its grand presence. The desk area was raised over ten steps or more than ten feet, forcing the people entering the room to look up to the chairman.
Further, there were rich dark red leather couches at the right side of the room where people could engage in high powered conversations with all the creature comforts. Overall, the room gave an ambiance of a harmony created by mixing the current era and the style of the early 2000’s.
This was the working room of the chairman of the VTT. He has certainly raised himself above the rest when it came to the office décor, the director thought as he approached the chairman.
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“What have you gotten for me today?” Looking down from a large comfortable leather chair, at his mighty place above, the chairman addressed the man behind the dark sunglasses.
“Please, come up and sit!” He had a slight husky voice that conveyed enormous authority.
The man walked across the VTT logo and up the steps and sat himself down in one of the two chairs.
“You know, every time I visit this place, I feel like I own the world.” He said with admiration, even forgetting about the dreaded walk across the suspension bridge. He took off his fedora hat and gloves. However, he kept his sunglasses on, not as an attempt to be rude, but the room was just too bright for his taste. Besides, it was difficult to look at the chairman’s face during conversations when the chrome metallic wall behind him reflected so much light from back of Dr. Chandler. It made his eyes cringe and he learned to keep his visors on from his first visit. He leaned comfortably back deep into the guest chair, placing his hands on the arms of the chair and swung his right leg over his left knee.
“You are being handsomely compensated for your services, which I must say have been flawless. For that, I can certainly make a place for you in this company when you decide to retire.” The chairman smiled and said purposefully with an intention to convey that his performance was at the top and that he was very satisfied as far as the way his operations went.
“Appreciate the offer Mr. Chairman, but, my retirement will be a non-working one.” The man kindly refused not lowering himself to the powerful CEO.
“Suit yourself director. So, what good news do you have for me today? Certainly you have the recruits in shape?”
“Your, rather our concern will be addressed shortly. I have recruited three prospects all consistent with the DNA profiles that were specified. I had tough time finding the descendants with the right qualifications. We are running out of candidates. At any rate, two of them are currently undergoing the identity transformation phases while one has completed that process and is ready to take on practice runs—”
“Good to hear!” Chandler cut the director off, but realizing that the director was not done speaking, he said “please continue.”
“A female, in her early twenties, her new name is Jane Sanchez. She is booked on a trip to California and Mexico next few weeks for the first trial runs.” Then, he took out a small tablet from the inside pocket of his trench coat, activated the screen, keyed in an access code, then set the tablet on top in the middle of the desk. Then, a 3D holographic image of Jane appeared at full scale from the tablet, looking incredibly alive. Standing up, the chairman examined the subject from head to toe.
“Um, a beautiful young girl, is she prepared?”
“Have I ever failed in this regard?” Offended by the chairman’s question, the director leered at the chairman from behind the dark visors.
“Let me retract that question.” The chairman said non-apologetically.
“She is different than the recruits from the past. She is intelligent and as you can see beautiful. She is not a lost soul, unlike many of our past recruits. She has a family member that she loves dearly and that is her strongest incentive to do well.” The director said confidently
“Um.., Sounds like you are experimenting with new profiles. Even though, it is understandable that the candidate pool of direct descendants is ever more becoming limited…” Chandler showed concern over Sanchez as the latest recruit. But, as she was the direct descendant with the DNA profile that fits the mission’s requirements, he had to approve, but with some reservations.
“You can say that. However, it is a safe experiment. You see, in the past, our recruits became careless because they had nothing to lose. As a result, they became undependable as time went on, attracting unnecessary attention.”
“I give you that director. I was extremely concerned with gambling habits of one of your recruits and had to take care—”
“Yes, so,” the director continued, “we had to make sure that the recruits had something to lose. Continued carelessness and taking the same path could attract unnecessary attention from the authorities. They may already be suspicious. We needed to change our ways. Twist some things along the way, if you will.”
“I see. But, what if the new subjects become unreliable? Them being highly intelligent, we could face a tougher challenge in closing off the trails later.”
“I’ve thought about that. That’s where their loved ones come in to play. Knowing that more than one person’s life is at stake, I’ll bet my money on the new subjects to come through for us, much better than the old ones have had. This one has a family member, who she loves dearly and will do anything for her. She is also the reason that she had willingly accepted my offer. And, having observed her for the past 1.5 years, I assure you, James, you can relax and reap the powers that you seek when you reach your objective.”
The director began calling the chairman by his first name with an air of arrogance.
Having heard this explanation, Chandler nodded his head in approval.
“Well, I think you have the situation under control. Let’s move forward, shall we?” Chandler raised his hand and a 3D object appeared. He manipulated the objects in the screen and opened one of the directories. There were several objects and he pushed a sphere shaped item with a couple of camera icons on it. The object jumped out and floated up stopping in mid air at the top of Sanchez’s 3D image. A bright green light appeared and shone at Sanchez’s image. Then, it gyrated down from head to toe, shining light onto the image, not missing even a minute part of her physical attributes.
When it reached all the way down, the image of Sanchez was sucked up into the camera as if a black hole would gradually suck up a nearby star along with any trace of it. The camera then levitated higher and returned to its original position in the virtual directory.
“New bio-digital signature created!” A computer voice announced. With it, the directory closed and the 3D computer file system disappeared.
“We have her in our system now. She can bypass the VTT and the UN’s security check points without any incidents, thanks to Darren’s good work. I’m counting on you director to prove your argument about your experiment to be the correct one.” Chandler said looking deep behind the director’s visors as he placed a thick envelope filled with large denomination bills onto the top of the desk. The director stood up, moved closer to the desk, and reached out to pick up his tablet along with the envelope. He then stuffed them deep into his trench coat pockets.
Straightening himself up and putting back on his fedora, he reassured Chandler.
“Relax, James. She will be just fine. Now, I am thirsty.” The director moved to take a seat in the leather couch by the window as Chandler joined him. Soon Ms. Diamond appeared from the elevator carrying two glasses of cold Miller for the two men. She walked slowly towards the sitting area, all the while showing off her dizzying assets in low cut blouse, body hugging mini skirt, and in pair of high heels as the director took full advantage of the views.