Chapter 1 - The Ticket
Michael Turner stood in a room on the twentieth floor of a corporate building, looking at his reflection.
"I should get a haircut." - he thought, running his fingers through his long, dark brown hair. He reached into the pocket of his red blazer, took out a small stress ball of the same colour, and started throwing it around in his hands, and occasionally up into the air. At one point, he threw the ball so high that it rebounded off the ceiling, and rolled around the room for a bit before he finally managed to catch it, after which he placed it back in his pocket, and sat down on the couch that faced away from the stunning view of the city, and waited for someone to come through the door. Not soon after, a woman walked into the room, and wasted no time in asking questions.
"Do you know why I'm here?" - she asked.
"For the same reason I am, I presume." - Michael replied.
"And that is?"
"I don't know."
She reached into the inside pocket of her black jacket, and took out an envelope with a company logo on it, containing a small rectangular piece of paper.
"Did you get one of these?" - she waved the letter around. Michael nodded in response.
"They said they require my assistance." - he said, forming air quotes with his hands while saying the latter three words - "But they never explained why."
"So, let me get this right: You receive a letter from Tetra where they don't even tell you what they need, and you just show up, no questions asked?" - she said, then stopped pacing around the room and finally sat on a couch opposite Michael. He nodded again.
"I live a boring life." - he explained his entire reason for being here in five words. Once the woman finally sat down and stopped, he finally managed to look at her. She looked at best a year older than him, so around nineteen or twenty years old. Her emerald-coloured eyes were going back and forth, as she reread the letter to make sure she hadn't missed anything. Her dark blue hair was a bit shorter than Michael's, going down to her shoulders, and was asymmetrical, the left half being slightly longer than the right.
"So, why are you here?" - Michael asked. She finished reading the letter, and looked up at him.
"What do you mean?"
"Well, you received the same letter as me. You don't know why they invited you either, yet you're here anyways. So, why?"
"My mom used to work here as a researcher. A year and a half ago, she disappeared while conducting some fieldwork. We never found out what happened to her, and Tetra just sent us a massive cheque, as if that was supposed to fix anything."
"And you're here because…"
"Because I thought this invitation might mean that they'll finally tell me what happened." - she finished the sentence instead of him - "Though I doubt it's going to happen now."
The door behind her opened once again. A man walked in, wearing a suit with a small metallic badge on it in the shape of the company's logo.
"Oh good, you're both here!" - he exclaimed - "I'll try to be as brief as possible, as I'm sure you're both busy."
He sat down on the last remaining couch in the room, and the three of them formed a triangle around a single sad plant.
"Our researchers have recently located the locations of four powerful sources of energy, but we need the help of two duelists to retrieve them. Your help, to be specific."
"Not happening." - the girl replied, as if she knew what to say from the moment the suit walked into the room, then got up from her seat after she made her point, and headed for the door.
"Miss Baxter, I recommend that you cooperate." - the man said. She turned around, and walked back towards him.
"Or what?" - she asked.
"Or we'll find a way to make you cooperate." - the man replied.
"You've already ruined my family's life once." - she leaned forward so that she was now face to face with the man - "Do whatever you want, but I'm not helping you."
She stormed out of the room, slamming the door in the process.
"And, what about you?" - the man turned to Michael, completely ignoring the unpleasant exchange that just took place, disregarding it as a minor inconvenience. Michael paused for a second, trying to process what happened.
"Why do you need a duelist?" - he asked.
"The four locations have doors sealed by some sort of locking mechanism, seemingly only openable via duels, which is why we need someone who's really good, and you fit the bill."
"You're being a bit vague." - Michael noted - "What kind of mechanism is it?"
"That's the thing, we're not sure. We have extremely limited information on it, which is why we need someone like you."
"Why aren't you sending someone from your company? Surely they'd be better suited for the task."
"We did send out a couple of expeditions to the first location in the past year and a half, but both were unsuccessful, which is why we have practically no information regarding the lock."
"So, why her?" - Michael continued with the questions, referring to the girl that stormed out of the room a couple minutes ago - "I realize, sort of, why you need me, but why is she necessary to this plan of yours? Why do you need both of us?"
"At least two people are required so we can conduct the missions effectively." - the man gave a very vague answer.
"So, why can't you just find someone else?" - Michael asked
"We specifically need her."
"Why?"
"That's classified information I'm afraid."
Michael wasn't entirely satisfied with the answer he got, but realized he won't get any information on the mystery girl.
"So, does the plan fall through now that she's given up?"
"Let us worry about that." - the man looked at the watch on his wrist, then got up from the couch and handed Michael a business card.
"Look, we're not expecting a decision right away, so take your time." - he said, highlighting the fact that Michael had enough time to make a decision, despite sounding fairly urgent earlier - "I'm sure you'll make the right decision. Besides, there's a large sum of money involved if you do decide to take us up on the offer."
Michael stood around in the room for a few more minutes, repeatedly squeezing the red stress ball in his pocket, before a secretary walked into the room, and told him that he can, and probably should leave.
Emilia Baxter exited Tetra's headquarters, and started quickly heading for the city's main train station, as if she wanted to get away from the skyscraper as soon as possible.
"What a waste of time. Then again, I don't know why I thought that anyone working in that place could think about anyone other than themselves for a few minutes. What a bunch of…" - her thought process stopped when she realized she almost crossed a red light and ran into oncoming traffic.
"And now I have a god damn two-hour train ride home as well." - she thought after she successfully crossed the street - "I'm such an idiot. Dad told me not to go, but I didn't listen to him. I thought they might tell me what happened to her, but no, they want me to do them a favour, as if my mom hadn't done enough for them already." - she rolled her eyes and continued arguing with herself, as she swiftly made her way over to the train station.
"I haven't dueled in over five years, I don't know why they even want me." - she entered the train station, walking beneath the grand archway into an echo-filled hall. She walked straight towards the other door, and exited onto the main platform, then pulled out her ticket to check exactly where her train's departing from, turned left, and walked for another minute before finally arriving to the platform, which had no train next to it. Confused, she walked back to the main building, and headed for the information desk.
"Excuse me, why is my train not where it should be?" - she asked.
"Which train line?" - the man behind the desk asked in a drab, monotone voice, and Emilia handed her ticket over to him. He glanced at the ticket, and replied in an equally dull voice.
"That train's been cancelled." - he said.
"Why?"
The clerk briefly paused and looked at Emilia as if she was the first person to ask that question. He got out of his chair, and waddled over to the desks behind him, and asked a couple questions before returning to his work station.
"We're not sure." - he replied, confused - "But I've been told we're working on resolving the delay."
Emilia walked away from the helpdesk as quickly as she arrived to it.
"You're welcome!" - the clerk said, watching her walk off, and looked back at his computer screen.
"What do they even pay these people for?" - she thought, and walked out of the station. The city, which she was so eager to leave, greeted her, as every building in the city centre rocketed to the sky, accompanied by a warm background of a spring sunset, making the whole skyline appear more picturesque than it usually is. She took out her phone in such a rush that she almost dropped it to the floor, and sent her father a text about the train delays, before heading back into the city.
"So, what do I do now?" - she looked at her watch - "There's four hours until the next train leaves, if they even fix the problem until then."
She turned left from the train station, and walked along the city's main street, unsure of where to go. The lights slowly turned on around her, and the streets were filled with people once more as another working day was drawing to a close. After a ten-minute walk, she made the decision to enter one of the nearby bars and think about what she'll do in the next three and a bit hours. She walked up to the counter, ordered a cup of tea, and sat down on one of the stools, at which point a man sitting to her left recognized her.
"Hi." - he said after a sip of coffee - "What a coincidence."
"Oh, it's you." - Emilia didn't sound overly pleased with running into Michael again, and stared directly at a point in front of her instead of looking at him.
"So, you caused Tetra a bit of a problem." - Michael continued.
"Good."
Michael couldn't think of anything else to say, and a couple of minutes of silence followed. Emilia grew tired of the quiet, and despite her initial hesitance, decided to continue the conversation.
"So, did you accept the offer?" - she asked.
"I'm not entirely sold, to be honest." - Michael blurted out as if he was eager to talk, then his speech slowed down.
"Tetra will find a way to make you do whatever they want you to do, believe me." - Emilia remarked.
"Well, it doesn't matter anyways."
"What do you mean?"
"Well, they can't go ahead with the plan now that you've walked out on it."
"Surely, they can get anyone else." - she said, then thanked the waiter as he brought her a cup of tea.
"The guy said that they specifically need you." - Michael explained.
"Why?"
"I asked him the same thing, but apparently, that's classified information." - Michael said, forming air quotes with his fingers, and changing his tone of voice to try and mimic the man who said it, but just coming off as silly.
"Everything's classified information to them." - Emilia said, then took a sip of tea - "My mother's disappearance is classified information."
"What happened to your mom anyways?"
"I thought I already told you that, why are you asking again?"
"Because the guy told me that they sent out two expeditions in the last year and a half, so I thought she might have been part of one of them."
"I mean, she might have been." - Emilia said - "She only ever told us she was going to Zambia."
"Why Zambia?"
"I don't know, I don't think she was allowed to say much more."
"And she just… disappeared?"
"Yeah. Tetra kept everything a secret, the news of their failure didn't reach the media, not that I'm surprised, and then they gave us a large sum of money as compensation. We used that money to get out of here as quickly as possible.
"Wait, so you don't live in the city?"
"My family moved to a small mountain village, not that it stopped Tetra from finding us."
"So, why are you here?" - Michael asked as he finished his coffee - "Shouldn't you be on your way home or something?"
"The train's been cancelled, and I have three hours until the next one is supposed to leave."
"What are you going to do until then?"
"I'll manage."
Michael got up, told Emilia to take care, and headed for the exit. He set off on a brisk walk through the busy streets under the night sky. The walk took slightly longer than it usually does, since he had to make his way through massive crowds of people, most of whom were walking the other way, towards the city centre. After fifteen minutes, when he finally arrived at the front door of the building he lived in, he glanced at his apartment, and noticed the light was on.
"I don't remember leaving that on." - he noted, but didn't think much of it. He walked up three flights of stairs to reach his apartment, but something stood out as soon as he opened the door.
"Why are the lights off now?" - he asked himself in a barely audible whisper. He thought that someone might have broken into his apartment, so didn't turn on the lights again, and started sneaking around all the rooms to check if he was right or just paranoid. He looked into the bathroom, which was right in the hallway as he entered the apartment but it was empty. He stealthily continued towards the living room. Not only was it empty, but the white carpet didn't contain any stains to indicate someone had walked over it. The kitchen to the right of the living room also had nobody in it, so the last room to check was Michael's bedroom, which was locked, just as he left it.
"Am I going crazy?" - he mumbled once he made sure nobody entered his apartment while he was gone. He finally turned on the lights again, briefly walked through all the rooms once more to see if anything had been stolen, but everything looked fine on that front as well. Just as he sat down on the couch in front of the TV, he noticed a small envelope sitting on the coffee table in front of it.
"So, I'm not insane." - he thought and went to pick the letter up - "Why would someone break into my apartment to give me a letter?"
He turned the envelope around, and noticed a small Tetra logo in its upper right corner.
"Of course." - he said as he ripped through the surprisingly thick paper to get to the letter - "I guess just delivering things through the mailbox like everyone else does is too inconspicuous for them."
He finally managed to get to the letter after shredding the envelope to pieces, and started reading it.
"Dear Mr. Turner
We believe you held a meeting with one of our representatives today. While this letter is not intended to influence your decision, we wanted to inform you that all resources for the mission, should you accept it, have already been prepared. Enclosed in this envelope is a cheque you can choose to withdraw whenever you please, regardless of whether you accept our offer or not. Also attached to this letter is a ticket for a plane leaving in nine days, which is supposed to take you to the location of your first mission. As with the money, you are allowed to use this plane ticket regardless of your decision regarding our offer. For your information, this same letter has been sent to Ms. Baxter, whom we are sure you met today.
Sincerely,
Christine Wallach, Tetra public relations
Michael finished reading the letter, and tossed it aside to look for the two things that were supposed to be attached to it, as he must have missed them at first. He grabbed the shredded envelope, and noticed a small plastic bag containing two pieces of paper in it. It opened fairly easily, and he grabbed the cheque first, stunned at what he saw.
"Fifteen grand?" - he exclaimed in shock - "They're giving me fifteen grand, and I don't even have to do anything. Fantastic."
He carefully put the cheque aside, and grabbed the plane ticket.
"Where do they want to send me?" - he turned the ticket around to look at the destination - "Livingstone via London."
He put the ticket back down, and arranged all the things he received neatly on the table, so they wouldn't get lost later, then took out his phone.
"Where the hell is Livingstone?" - he opened up the map, and typed the city name into the search bar - "They probably don't mean that one." - he said as a Scottish town popped up as the first result. He changed his search to "Livingstone Airport", and a different result immediately came up.
"It's in…" - Michael started saying, but paused to give himself enough time to zoom out and see what country he was in - "…Zambia."
He looked straight ahead, and remembered Emilia saying how her mother was sent to the same country that Tetra now wanted to send them to.
"That can't be a coincidence, right?" - the empty room didn't reply - "It can't be." - he repeated the words one more time for emphasis. It was quite late, so he decided to turn on the TV and stop worrying for now. He got up from the couch and went to the kitchen to get some food, accompanied by the drone of a news reporter he wasn't paying attention to. He grabbed some leftovers from earlier today, then went back into the living room and decided to call it a day.