Lockdown...
Whipping around, I stare at the TV with my mouth uncharacteristically falling open. The news reporter's eyes are bulging as she struggles to get the words out. A fire engine red header and footer shoots across the top and bottom of the screen with the word lockdown emblazoned in a neon yellow.
"Due to the unprecedented times we find ourselves in and pursuant to the emergency measures rushed through Congress late last night... the state of Seattle has been declared to be in a state of immediate and emergency lockdown. An end date for this lockdown has not been announced and it will be effective from five o'clock sharp this evening. Any workers who are not frontline staff and who are still at their places of employment are urged to leave for home immediately ... there will be a grace period of one hour from five o'clock to facilitate citizens returning home. After this grace period, both police and military officials have been granted the full power to arrest and detain any person or persons who are non-compliant with the lockdown. Details of how citizens can obtain grocery and medical supplies are expected to be announced shortly. For now, the message is clear. All citizens are to return and remain at home. This has been an emergency broadcast."
With my jaw still hanging open, I glance down at my watch.
It's three thirty in the afternoon. Slight relief trickles through me. All of my staff have already left the building, save for Mrs Jones who was going to be taking up residence anyway. Taylor should make it back comfortably within the time allowable and all I need to do is slouch upstairs to bed when I'm ready. All that I need to do in the immediate future is to get rid of this snarky ass Doctor and-
A grinding, squeaking noise breaks my concentration.
The natural light that usually floods GEH HQ due to the (admittedly) ostentatious glass design is suddenly removed. Thick, gray panels of steel creep down over the windows cutting out the sunshine. On all levels, I know this is being replicated and that in a mere fifty two more seconds GEH HQ will be completely encased in a steel shell. I know this because the security consultant I paid an obscene amount of money to five years ago assured me that this would be the case. The systems name is SecureCore14. With one press of a button, I can protect my crown jewel in a metal box that can withstand most garden variety explosions and terrorist attacks. I was going through a paranoid stage when I bought SecureCore14 and had nearly forgotten all about it. The button that kicks off the emergency measures is located upstairs, on the suite level. Before I can even pick up a phone, Mrs Jones bursts into the room.
"Mr Grey! I'm so sorry! I panicked when i saw the news and saw the button and remember you telling me about it ... and... and ... well, I just pushed it!"
She looks positively demented and so I swallow my wave of irritation down with difficulty.
I really do like Mrs Jones after all.
"No matter," I tell her graciously. "If you could just go back up and press the reserve button on SecureCore14's system... the green one, so that I might be in a position to let... this Doctor out, that would be fine."
Mrs Jones nods furiously and turns to bustle from the room. I watch her go and thank God that I'm not the kind of weak man who would be relieved to have her here with him in this kind of situation. I turn to look at the unfriendly medic, realizing that she hasn't opened her mouth since the announcement a mere minute ago and reel at the scathing look in her eyes. The scathing look that is directed solely, squarely at me. What is this wagon's problem? I'm trying to get her out of here and all she can do is look at me like I'm shit on the bottom of her shoe. Surely she was briefed as to who I am? Surely... I mean surely she knows that I'm Christian Grey?
It's all very confusing.
I tend to respond to confusion with sarcasm.
"What's up, Doc?"
She gestures to the steel cage that now encloses us, and raises a dark, pointed brow.
"Are you particularly hypochondriacal, Christian?"
"Mr Grey," I immediately correct, feeling my hackles rise. "In answer to your question, no, I am not. I am the CEO of a Fortune 500 company... these precautions are somewhat necessary and could, in times of difficulty, prove crucial in keeping thousands of people in jobs. Is that ok with you?"
She rolls her eyes.
This bitch.
"Yes..." she murmurs dryly, the derisiveness of her tone not in the least muted by her mask. "You are, at heart, a humanitarian. Whilst we await your employee's reversal of your Armageddon provisions... do you wish to be tested or do you not? It's just that there are hundreds of other people out there who need to be tested that don't have a Doomsday bunker and I really need to get going."
My teeth grind together.
"You know, Doctor, for one with such an obvious abhorrence for the capitalist society she finds herself in... I find it rather unusual that you would both work at an elite private practice and further, that you would volunteer for a house call of this nature. Surely someone of your morals should be set up in a medics tent in Kolkata?"
The medical mask does nothing to hide her sarcastic smirk.
"I have no intention of justifying why I work where I work to you. As for my volunteering for this call... I can assure you, there was no such tribute on my part. Your reputation proceeds you and my boss felt this would be a fitting..."
Her voice trails off and I realize I am beginning to shake with anger.
"A fitting, what?" I snap, "privilege?"
"No, not privilege... punishment."
"I beg your pardon?" I splutter. "How in the name of whatever God you pray to is meeting me a punishment? A punishment for what?"
She looks me up and down like she's picking me out a line up.
"Like I said, your reputation precedes you and my boss is somewhat akin to you. He doesn't like the poor to get less poor while the rich stay only rich. You'd like him. You could have chats over a round of golf about which neighborhood is ripe for gentrification... which population you think would put up the least resistance."
This... this woman... she's got to go.
She's all kinds of crazy.
And judgy.
"Mrs Jones will be back momentarily at which point you will take your immediate leave, and take your damned test with you. I wouldn't let you swab me for all the tea in China... and by the way, China's a lucrative market when it comes to tea. Does that offend you? The idea of a lucrative market? It probably does. Anyway, the main takeaway here is that I will be writing to your boss and letting him know what you think of him and how you have conducted yourself here today. Best of luck with that."
She laughs.
At me.
Me.
"Okay, suit yourself. One less entitled CEO using a test that he doesn't need means that there is one more for Joe Soap who does. Suits me fine. As for your threat of telling on me to my boss... its rather moot. Today's my last day anyway."
Damn.
"Whatever. The sooner you get of here the better. You are rude, unprofessional and-"
Mrs Jones is back and she's pale, panicked and profusely apologizing. Placing a hand on her shoulder, I instantly stop the babbling and ask her what's wrong. I see the Doctor look at me in surprise and know its due to the change in my tone. I suitably ignore her. Mrs Jones doesn't get snapped at like Dr Steele because Mrs Jones isn't a giant pain in my ass.
She finally gets the words out.
"I've accidentally put SecureCore14 into an irreversible and secure lock down for fourteen days!"
My stomach contracts and falls straight out of my ass. When I bought the system, I knew it came with a blue button. The blue button was only ever to be pressed in circumstances where a defined period of emergency was afoot. Once the blue button is pressed, it cannot be unpressed. From inside or outside. Once the blue button is pressed... there is no getting in or getting out for fourteen days."
I'm sure Mrs Jones has just made a mistake.
I'm sure she pressed the green button, just like I asked.
Dr Steele opens her mouth, presumably to shriek, but she falls silent under my glare.
I file that victory away for later.
"Mrs Jones, calm down. I am quite sure you're mistaken. I asked you to press the green button, which would reverse SecureCore14's initiation. What color button did you press? It was the green one wasn't it? It takes a few minutes to kick in... but you did press the green one, didn't you?"
She pales and shakes her head.
"I pressed a blue button... I am so sorry Mr Grey!"
The silence that spreads throughout the room is thick and heavy. Dr Steele breaks it and Mrs Jones and I turn to face her, to take in her horrified expression and panic stricken eyes.
"I am not staying here with you for fourteen days. I am NOT."
...
TBC