Chapter 4

Thursday morning, 8:03am. Enzo Lessico got into his car, drove out of the garage, then wrapped around the maze of alleys and driveways connecting the block of townhouses before reaching Carver Boulevard. As he reached the first stoplight, he at last removed the silver purity ring he'd put on that very morning, having just bought it the week before and (entirely for the sales clerk's benefit) claimed it to be a birthday gift for his daughter.

He then made his way onto the freeway, only to get snarled in one of the most epic traffic jams he had ever seen. And now I remember - this is exactly why I chose not to move to L.A., he cursed himself. Listening to the radio, he quickly found out that virtually every single road in and out of Santa Marina had been hit hard by the fatal freeway collapse during the previous day's earthquake experiment, as almost all of the one million drivers in the city were forced to block up every single alternate route available. A commute that ought to take no more than 45 minutes on a good day instead took twice as long, and then once he got to NemoConTech headquarters he found out, much to his dismay, that the building's underground parking garage (along with most of the multilevel garages sprinkled throughout the downtown area) was closed while teams worked to repair earthquake damage. It took another half an hour just to find a lot with even a single free space.

Fuming and swearing under his breath, Enzo got out of his car, crossed to the other side of the surface parking lot, exited onto the street, crossed the street, and entered the building. The lobby greeter smiled politely to him as he came in. "Mr. Lessico. This is quite a surprise. Since when do you come in through the front door?"

Enzo frowned. "Since the main parking garage is closed."

"Well, that's a shame," said the man. "Because of the quake yesterday, right? Did you have trouble getting in this morning? I heard the freeway was knocked down."

Shaking his head, Enzo lied, "Not the freeway I take. Good thing, too, otherwise I wouldn't be coming in for another hour at least. Traffic jams, no parking, what next?" He slid his ID card through the scanner, then provided a sample of spit for the DNA reader to disable the second lock on the inner door. The greeter nodded as Enzo passed through, and called out, "Enjoy your day, sir," as he silently disappeared into the elevator.

Normally, Enzo would ride only as high as the fifth floor, where his office was located. However, today he had an appointment with Ansem to discuss the plans for the opening of the In-Between. All the rest of the inner circle would be attending the meeting as well, of course. Provided they all remembered to wear their silver, that is, Enzo thought to himself as the elevator re-opened on the top floor.

He walked into the office, where as usual he was the last to arrive. Ansem was already seated at the head of the table in the building's finest boardroom - furnished with a skyline view, sleek Scandinavian-style black-wood-and-chrome-metal furniture, and recessed low-glow LED lights for environmental law compliance. Braig and Linda sat on one side of the table, facing the panoramic window and also Vexen and Alexis, who faced them and the blank inner wall behind them. Enzo discreetly took his seat at the foot of the table (which was actually about two inches lower than the head; the thirteen-foot-long table had been built at a very slight angle to achieve this.)

"Six," said Ansem. "At last. I understand you were having trouble finding parking?"

Enzo nodded. "My apologies, Superior."

"No need for that," said Ansem. "Although I feel Five may owe us some after his slight mishap yesterday morning." He looked at Alexis sternly, as if daring him to say, Yes, I killed people by accident because I left my axe-sword in the dirt too long. Punish me as much as you like.

Ansem then steepled his fingers. "Well, now that we are all here, let's get down to business. I trust you all have your files with you?" Everyone removed their Diamond Steles from their briefcases, and flicked the screens on so they could open the files Ansem was referring to. "Good," he said once everyone, including himself, had the files open on their tablets. "Let's begin."


This seems like a random place to put it, but: R&R please?