Aram was minding his business, as usual, in an unusual day for the post office. It was all so calm and quiet, too calm and quiet, he would say. Truth was that Director Ressler had put him in a special task of monitoring the cube cage 24 hours. It was all calm and quiet there. Its occupant was very calm. She was sitting on the bed, looking out, probably thinking. It was all she could do.
The vital signs and technical information were all ok, so Aram turned his attention to something else. He had some old reports still to be done, so he thought he would use that time for them.
A few hours later, he turned to the monitor showing the cube data again. And something was wrong. Something was very wrong. He ran upstairs to the director's office and stormed into the room without knocking, startling the man behind the desk.
"Agent Ressler, we have a problem."
"What kind of problem, Aram?" Ressler stood up and went to the front of the desk, leaning on it while observing the man nearly hyperventilating in front of him. "Calm down, breathe and tell me"
"The cube… Liz…"
"What?" His senses activated immediately, and he was almost as nervous as Aram now.
"Something is wrong with the vitals, there must have been a cyber attack, I don't understand…"
"Aram! Tell me, what's going on?"
"The oxygen levels, in there, they are dropping. Fast"
He ran as fast as he could towards the room where the cage was, stumbling onto people in the way and not bothering to apologize. It wasn't important. Only she was.
He got there to see her starting to pant, scared.
"What's going on?" she asked as he stopped next to the palm reader that opened the cage and put his hand on it. Nothing. Denied. He pull out his phone.
"Aram, I can't open it!" he screamed at the phone, and heard the man typing fast on his computers.
"It's been overwritten, I don't understand. It's locked. No one can open it."
"Aram! Open it, now" and he hung up before he could hear an answer, running towards the cube. She was now starting to feel the consequences of poor oxygen.
"Ressler. What….I can't…. what's going on?"
"Calm down, Liz. Don't waste the air."
"What?" it only caused her to panic more. "What do you mean, air? What…." She had more and more difficulty to breathe, and was starting to cough.
"Ressler, why…?"
"I don't know. Someone hacked into the system. Aram is sorting it, calm down, you'll be okay."
She fell to her knees, and was coughing badly. His heart was hammering on his chest so hard it seemed it could come out at any second. He kneeled together with her, palms on the glass, trying to touch her, hold her.
"Aram!" he screamed, not knowing if the tech agent could actually hear him from down there. she had tears falling from her eyes now, as it became more and more difficult to breathe. She was coughing and going down to the ground, and Ressler didn't know what to do. He wanted to break that glass, he needed to. He stood up and went to the other side, drawing his gun and shooting at the impenetrable glass. Nothing. Not even a dent. He knew that, he had been inside there while people tried to shoot it open. But now it was her there, and it wasn't safe. She was lying on the ground now, holding to her chest as air faltered, and he ran to her as she put a hand on the glass. He put his hand on hers through the glass, and they both looked at each other. He could see her desperation as she lost her breath.
"Liz! Liz, stay with me, Liz, don't….please!" he was tapping hard on the glass, and when she lost conscience, he stood up and started banging on it, trying to break it with his own hands. He was crying, looking at her there lying on the ground. He did everything to keep her safe, and now she was dying on his watch, in his safe place. That wasn't right. He tried to knock it down, trowing his body against the glass.
A loud beep announced that the cube was about to be opened. Aram did it. he only wished it wasn't too late. He stepped back as it opened, and then entered quickly to take her in his arms. She wasn't breathing.
"Liz! Liz, please wake up, please!" He turned her over so she would be on her back and started pounding on her heart, trying to make it stronger. Her pulse was so weak it was nearly gone. He put his mouth over hers and blew air into her lungs, then going back to her heart, in a synchronized rhythm.
He did this a few more times, with no response. One last time he blew air into her lungs and then remained there, his lips on hers, giving her their first and what seemed to be last kiss. He stood back holding her in his arms, tucking her hair behind her ears when her lifeless body started to move, and she started coughing. He held her head up so she could breathe again.
"OK, ok, you're ok, just breathe, just breathe." He said, relieved, as she regained conscience and air filled her lungs again. She was taking deep breaths and coughing as she came to her senses and noticed she was lying on the ground with him holding her on his knees.
"What happened?" she asked, her voice rough and weak.
"Nothing. You're fine now" he lied, and wondered if Aram was already investigating who had invaded the system and shut down the live supply in the cube. He heard steps coming into the room and noticed paramedics had arrived to take her to the hospital. He allowed them to take her from him, and stood up giving orders and observing as they did their job. When she was already secured in the stretcher, he went to her.
"You'll be alright, Liz. We'll find out what happened" she took his hand on hers and squeezed, and then turned her head to face him.
"You already know what happened, who did it." he nodded, annoyed that she was right. It had to be the Cabal. It had to be The Director. He knew that she would no longer be safe there.
"I'll go to the hospital in a minute, ok? We'll figure this out." She held his hand while the paramedics took her until it was no longer possible to hold without him moving, and he watched as she was taken away, again. Then, he turned on his feet and moved upstairs to figure out what the hell had happened, and what was his next move.