Chapter 93

Chapter 93: 93 A chill went down my spine as we went down the steps of the walkway and onto the large paved courtyard just outside the building. There were a few ornamental trees dotting the area and a few seats around the perimeter, but it was otherwise a strangely cold feeling place. Even with the crowd out front by the main doors, I felt a foreboding as I followed Helen and Ah-Boon through the large glass doors, into the lobby, and up to the reception. I found it impossible to pay attention to what everyone was saying and I couldn’t help continually looking around, like I was searching for something. What was it? I couldn’t tell, or maybe I couldn’t remember. All I knew was that something wasn’t just about to go wrong, but that something had already gone wrong. It was like there was something sharp poking into me but every time I tried to grab it to find out what, it would vanish. "Hey! Why do they get to go in?" shouted a shrill voice from across the lobby. The receptionist talking to Helen faltered and began to try to say something to the beautiful woman striding towards her. It was Haayi in full human appearance but still as charming. With such an important mission as this, naturally the SSD and council would send more than just three people. Haayi flicked at her hair and looked down at Helen, Ah-Boon and me. I’d been surprised to discover earlier that she was actually a prominent internet personality until I realised it made perfect sense for someone with her looks and personality to take up the profession. "No, that does not make sense," said Haayi to the unfortunate receptionist. "It’s completely unfair for them to be able to go in when I can’t." The receptionist tried to make some kind of plea to her but the huli-jing was having none of it and she instead turned to fix Helen with a sharp gaze. "What’s your click-through rate?" she asked. "Our newspaper has-" "Newspaper, okay, that’s the perfect answer. That means you definitely get only a fraction of my viewers." There was another flick of the hair. Haayi turned back to the reception. "Go tell your boss that if he wants actual reach for his product, he’ll give me an interview podcast, not this newspaper." The receptionist began to protest again. "Fine, I won’t even make him sign an exclusivity deal," added Haayi with a dismissive wave of her hand. The receptionist frowned then I saw something sparkle in the air near her face. Immediately her attitude change and she nodded, said something that sounded congenial, then got on the phone. I looked to Helen who gave me a subtle nod. In the end, a whole group from the lobby got permission to head into The Unity’s offices for interviews. There were a few people who I recognised from the earlier meeting in the Under City but most were new to me. Were there more people undercover than just me group and Haayi’s, I really couldn’t say, but it at least helped counter that feeling of dread that had started since we entered the building. There wasn’t anything wrong, per se, about the building but I got the distinct sense that it was larger than it should be and that the curved ridges of its exterior were at too sharp an angle outwards. Anything that sloped should really fall down yet here it was, just floating above in the air. But no one else seemed to share this worry and so I decided to tentatively go along with it. There were a bunch of us in the lift and I pushed at the pair of fake glasses on my nose rather self-consciously. As a compromise, the technical team at the SSD had put a mild appearance changing spell on the frames just in case I ran into anyone I knew, or rather, anyone who knew me. The more I thought about it, the stranger my father’s change in attitude seemed so I figured it wouldn’t be too strange if he’d shown his colleagues a picture of me. After what seemed like an age, we all spilled out onto a different floor. The sign on the wall said ’fifteen’ but with all the UGs and mezzanine floors I couldn’t really be sure how high up we were so I found myself drawn to the large, ceiling to floor windows on one side. "Everyone please wait here while I get someone to help organise the meetings," said the receptionist who’d come up with us. She gave a quick polite nod then escaped out a side door. There were only us non-employees here in the lift area so I took a look around to see if this was a good time for me to start my own mission. Unfortunately, there were not just one, but two cameras set up in opposite corners to cover each other’s blind spot. Perhaps security would be lighter once we got into the employee areas and eventually the receptionist returned and to let us in, though it was only one group at a time and each group would be defined by the number of people, so smaller groups would have to end up being bundled together. Naturally, Haayi’s group of herself, two personal assistants, and four camera people went first and as there were a good number of them, they went alone. I felt the space become charged with energy as the rest of us furiously tried to figure out how to pair up to maximise just how much time they had to ask their own questions. Of course, the receptionist tried to run again but before she managed to, Ah-Boon stopped her to ask her where the bathroom was. She told him, then quickly left. "You really think that trick’s going to work?" Helen murmured to him as he quickly stripped off all the bags he was carrying and heaved them over to me. "What trick? I’m about to explode!" Oh. And with that Ah-Boon sped off. A few of our interviewing compatriots chuckled and after a while we got talking. My cover was as a fresh intern at a small news outlet but even though I don’t know much about the industry, I quickly realised that most of the people here were genuine news people or internet influencers. News about The Unity and their ’physical computing’ had spread further and more fervently than I’d realised. "Just think about the potential of this technology," said one guy who was clearly very into this kind of stuff. He even had on a tight black t-shirt and denim jeans. "And what about all the jobs this is going to replace? All that knowledge and expertise that’s just going to end up being thrown aside." This was the annoyed argument of a woman who looked like she also came from a small news outlet. Based on her business card, she was into psychology, the workplace, and the mental impacts of caring for animals. "What I want to know," said a rather serious looking older woman who, out of all of us, looked the most like a serious reporter, "is how this works. Everyone always talks about the benefits, but what are the costs?" Ah-Boon returned just as the debate on whose questions had precedence was reaching new, angry heights and I was ready to give him a quick rundown. "Later," he said in a low voice. "Right now, you need to go to the bathroom." "But I don’t need-" "Second last stall. Quick before all this dies down." I shot a look at Helen who gave a small twitch of the fingers to indicate she’d heard, then handed all the camera bags back to Ah-Boon. The bathroom wasn’t far from the lobby area, just a few turns and I was there, but there was, shockingly, a line so I had to wait a bit. I’d heard there are often lines for women’s bathrooms cos of design flaws but it was the first time for me to see one for the men’s, so I was curious what the hold up was (though, also not that curious cos of the subject matter, you know?). When I finally got in, I realised that while all the urinals were going full blast, three of the stalls had been blocked with ’cleaning’ signs, including the one second to the end. After a bit more waiting it was finally my turn and I, with as much nonchalant as I could muster, walked right past the yellow sign and went into the second last stall, shut the door, and was greeted with a giant hole in the wall on turning around. This was going to take more than just a bit of cleaning to get fixed, I thought to myself as I closed the lid and hopped up on it. The hole was dark but putting a hand in showed me it wasn’t just a pointless dead end. I could feel a breeze on my fingers. So, without any hesitation, I squeezed myself into the hole, shimmied forward, then fell... ... and landed knee deep in snow.