Collateral

The silver drone was still in its original packaging. But maybe today would be the perfect moment to try it out. Rose carefully unboxes it. It comes in two pieces, one is a square-looking drone with four helicopter blades on it. Its surface is made from reflective mirrors, making it almost invisible against any background.

Next to the drone was a large tablet, that probably was for controlling the drone.

She presses the large “boot” button, and the drone hums to life. Its hum is quite audible up close, but certainly not loud. Rose opens the side of the van, and carefully releases it outside.

She uses the tablet to fly the drone upwards. It keeps rising until it hovers right next to an upper-floor window. Rose looks a bit around. Of course, she can’t see the inside of the labs, but she can see people walking through the hallways and in the breakrooms. There are quite a lot of people still in the building, given that this is a Saturday night.

In one of the breakrooms, two people are arguing. One of them seems rather agitated. They are both drinking cups of coffee.

Rose used to be a fan of coffee when she was a teenager, it helped her through the sleepless night when Ellie was a newborn. She doesn’t like modern coffee tho. The coffee bean went extinct a few years ago, and modern coffee is made from burned soybean with chemically made caffeine. It really isn’t the same.

The people keep arguing, and Rose is trying to make out what they say. Then she has an epiphany. She rummages through her van and finds a USB stick with a lip-reading program. She plugs it into the side of her tablet. Cybertech might have its problems, but it is great that literally everything is compatible.

The moment it finished installing, subtitles appeared on the screen.

“She should have been here by now. Why can’t I trust you to arrange anything? Now the project is set back for days. I came to work here on a Saturday. All for nothing.”

“I can’t help it. She didn’t show up. Do you expect a street rat like her to be punctual or reliable?”

“Have you even told her the right time and place? Have you confirmed verbally she was gonna be here? Have you seen her write it down?”

“I haven’t seen her write it down. I haven’t met her in person yet.”

“You haven’t met her in person? Are you kidding me? The procedure says you have to.”

“I didn’t have time. You wanted a test subject fast.”

“Exactly. And do I have a test subject fast? Didn’t think so.”

“What do you expect me to do.”

“It was your job to ensure we found a test subject for the Selenial Disruptor. We don’t have one. So you failed. This is on you, Mark.”

“I’ll try calling her and hear where she is.”

“Put her on speaker please.”

Both men stare at the phone for a while.

“Great. Voicemail.”

“Maybe I accidentally dialled the wrong number.”

“And accidentally ended up with another woman named Sidney Kelly?”

“It is a common name.”

“Ah, give me a break. I am gonna tell you, Mark. If the test subject is not here in one hour, I am gonna fire your ass. You hear me.”

“But –”

“No buts. I clearly cannot trust you to do your actual job.”

Rose presses the homing button on her tablet, and the drone comes flying back and enters the van when she opens the door. She rummages around a bit and finds a fake idea. She connects it to the rigging deck and overwriters the name. It was a rush job but would withstand a quick inspection. She then gathers her stuff and walks into the building.

The inside of the building looks very decadent. The floor is made of marble tiles. The hall is three meters high, and the ceiling is also made from marble. The ground floor is covered with expensive-looking couches and tables. In the back, there is a spiral staircase, running around a glass elevator shaft.

In front of this is an enormous black desk, the edges of the desk are adorned with gold. Two receptionists sit behind the desk. Both of them are young women. They have their hair in a need bun and wear a blue uniform. They are both wearing headsets.

When Rose exits the revolving door, one of the receptionists spots her and gestures for her to come closer. Rose moves closer. She notices that the headset the receptionist is wearing is actually an implant. It replaces part of her ear and is ingrained in her cheek.

“Hello, Ma’am. What can I do for you.”

She looks uncomfortable, speaking as if the headset does not help. Rose spots scar tissue around it and wonders why they aren’t wearing regular headsets. Why go to the effort of implanting something that works less well than the traditional device?

“Ma’am?”

Rose notices she is staring at the girl and composes her. “Excuse me, is this the building for of Cortex-Tech research?”

“Yes, Ma’am, that is one of the companies in this building. Do you have an appointment?”

“I do. I am in fact late.”

“No problem Ma’am. What is your name.”

“My name is Sidney Kelly.”