Chapter 11

CaliaCorp Headquarters was a slick, but wholly imposing building. Its scale seemed unfathomable. A monument to the utter dominance of the company in everything it did. The entrance sat atop a set of enormous marble steps. The facade exuded the impression of wealth and power, all sharp angles and glass and gold.

“You got the emails?” Theo asked.

Marc nodded.

“We’re really going to do this?” asked Sam.

“Yeah, we’re doing this,” replied Trish.

The four were standing at the front door. They looked utterly out of place. People in suits tailored to fit them perfectly strode about confidently, rushing to and fro. The four Circuiters were in poorly-fitting, dirty, old clothes. Their heads hung low; shoulders slumped. It looked like they’d gotten lost going somewhere entirely different.

Theo walked in first. The marble of the steps continued into the lobby. Trish followed, marveling at the scale of the place. The lobby looked huge, and the reception desk looked like a ship adrift in a sea of luxury design. Marc and Sam slunk in last. Together, they approached the lone woman at the reception desk. Marc felt surprised to see no security guards. Sam was impressed by the chandeliers above her. Each one probably cost ten times what she made in a year. This was just a lobby.

“Hey, we’re here to see Ben Wheeler,” Theo said to the receptionist.

She looked up at him with a beaming smile and adjusted her black dress.

“Certainly, do you have an appointment?”

“No, but we need to–”

“I’m sorry,” the receptionist said, “but without an appointment I’m afraid I’ll have to ask you to leave. Thank you for visiting CaliaCorp.”

Theo stood stunned for a moment. Trish stepped forward.

“Listen, we just want to find our friend, he hasn’t contacted us in days.”

“I’m terribly sorry to hear that. Have you reported him missing?”

“Well, no, not yet but–”

“That should be your next action I would think. Thank you for visiting CaliaCorp.”

“Wait just a minute,” Marc said, “his last emails were from here. He came for an interview. You probably even saw him. We just want to talk to him, ok? Help us out?”

Marc held his phone up, email to Ben open. The receptionist regarded it with disinterest and offered her smile to Marc.

“I’m afraid I wouldn’t remember an individual. We have so many visitors. Thank you for visiting CaliaCorp.”

“For fuck’s sake!” roared Theo, slamming his fist on the reception desk. “We’re asking to talk to someone, not meet the fucking CEO. Just check your computer or whatever and tell us where to find him.”

The receptionist didn’t flinch. She turned her head to face Theo and tilted it slightly to the side in a robotic motion.

“You must not have understood. Without an appointment, you cannot meet a member of the CaliaCorp family.”

“Oh, I fucking understood, and I’m telling you to be a human, not some fucking robot.”

“Thank you for visiting CaliaCorp,” the receptionist said.

Theo bristled with rage. His face shone red. His hands balled into fists. Sam grabbed his arm.

“Hey, it’s ok, let me try.”

Theo calmed a little, just about containing his anger.

“Hi,” said Sam, “sorry about him, we’re just really, really worried about our friend. He’s always in touch with us, he never ignores calls or messages, and we went to his place, and it was deserted. We’re scared. Please help us however you can.”

The receptionist turned to Sam, still smiling.

“I’m afraid without an appointment, you cannot meet a member of the CaliaCorp family. Thank you for visiting Ca–”

“Oh fuck this,” Theo shouted and leapt over the desk.

He pushed past the receptionist and looked at her computer screen, expecting to see a directory or staff list. Instead, playing on the screen was a video of a spiral. A screensaver of some sort. He felt himself captivated by it, but clicked on the mouse hoping to get rid of it. It didn’t work. The spiral kept spinning and Theo became too dazed to notice the receptionist calling security. It felt as if the spiral drowned out the noise around him as his friends were grabbed by a team of eight burly people in black riot gear and dragged out of the building, writhing and kicking in protest and shouting for Theo to help.

Theo couldn’t hear them. Theo could faintly hear the sound of a woman speaking to him through the screen. The faintest hint of a voice speaking very important words that he couldn’t quite make out. He felt relaxed, horny, empty, and it felt good. Then his arms were grabbed by a pair of security guards, and they dragged him away from the video, away from the reception desk, and out into the street. The security guards stopped at the top of the steps, let him go, and walked back into the building. Theo simply stood, dazed and confused, back to the CaliaCorp lobby. Sam, Marc, and Trish were sitting on the steps, and Theo joined them, plonking himself down and resting his head in his hands.

“What just happened?” he asked.

“I could ask you the same thing,” said Trish.

“What do you mean? I went to get into their system.”

“Dude, you stood there like you were in a trance,” said Marc.

“It was super weird,” Sam added.

“There was something on the screen. Like a screensaver or something. I couldn’t focus on anything else.”

“Something fucked up is going on in that building,” Trish said.

“And they’ve got Ben,” said Sam.

The click of high heels approached the foursome, and a woman in a business suit walked toward the group. She looked down at Theo, and he looked up at her. She was tall, with long, firmly toned legs in stockings, a short pencil skirt, white blouse, and black jacket. Her long hair a shade of copper and her green eyes glowed above deep red lips.

“I can help you,” she said.

Theo noticed her perfume. She smelled like roses, a wonderful floral scent that filled his nostrils and made him instantly warm to her.

“How?” asked Trish.

The woman tipped her head to one side. “There’s a bar, Zenith, two blocks away. Meet me there in thirty minutes. I’ll have a table for us. Don’t talk to anyone else.”

Before anyone could question her, she strode into CaliaCorp Headquarters and vanished. Sam looked at her friends, wondering what to do. Marc looked confused. Trish was suspicious.

“We’re going, right?” said Theo.

Trish sighed. Marc shrugged.

“Nothing else we can do, is there?” said Sam. “Let’s see what she has to say.”