Chpt 4
Duo parked his car in the underground parking area with a screech of tires. He slammed the door shut and ran toward the elevator with his tie streaming behind him. Pushing the up button at least fifty times, he looked at his watch and begged the elevator to come faster.
"Come on!! Come on!"
With a pleasant ding, the doors opened ponderously. Duo hopped in and pounded on the 6th button. His watch read 9:09 am. He tapped his foot in annoyance at the slowness of the machine. As the doors rolled open, he ran through them without even looking at who tried to enter. Dorothy Catalonia was reading the paper and sipping tea, waiting patiently for the elevator to open when hurricane Duo slammed into her. She spilt tea down the length of her new suit and onto the copy of New York Times she was reading.
"Hey!" she yelled, surprised.
Duo didn't stop to look back or even apologize; he was in too much of a hurry.
// Prick! // Dorothy thought as she tried to wipe the tea off her shirt. A co–worker handed her a napkin and she put down the paper to try and clean up the stain. The paper, free from the confines of Dorothy's hands, unrolled to the front page.
Quatre heard the sound of Duo's approach. His feet were always loud when he ran on the tile floors. Looking up from his computer, but not slowing his typing, the blonde watched his friend run right past him without a word. Looking to the clock that read 9:15, Quatre R. Winner looked pointedly to the other secretary working beside him. Ralph cursed something, and then smacked a twenty on the Arabians desk. Quatre's smile widened.
Chpt 5Duo was standing in his superior's office. His boss had a copy of the employee's folder contents on his desk. There were many, many papers in that pile. Mr. Ridley slowly looked over each one, giving Duos body time to work itself up into a state of high nervousness.
He was sweating, both from the effort of getting to work, and from his fear of his boss. Mr. Ridley's office had an amazing panoramic view of the downtown area of New York City, through the huge glass windows that comprised 2 walls of the corner office. These always made Duo nauseas, as he was terribly afraid of heights. Watching the little figures of people on the streets made Duo wonder what each of them was up to, where they were going, who they were.
He was pulled out of his thoughts by Mr. Ridley's cough. Duo glanced up to him, then back to his feet.
"Now, Mr. Maxwell, you have quite a record here"
Duo shifted his feet with embarrassment and nervousness.
"You've been late, or absent many times just this year. More then many other employees combined."
Duo's thoughts went to the reason why he was late or never showed up for work, and he blushed. // Don't think about those moments with Hilde, Maxwell! This is the last place that you want to call attention to certain body parts!//
"Unless you can get your act together Sonny, I'm going to have to let you go"
Duo cringed slightly. If he lost his job, he would have a hard time getting another, there was high unemployment in the City at this time.
"I will try extremely hard to get to work on time from now on sir!"
Mr. Jason Ridley looked over the tops of his spectacles at the young man before him. Judging whether or not he should give him another chance. But before he could speak, a loud crash rent the air, followed by what sounded like thunder.
"What the he-"
Looking out the window, Duo saw a huge cloud of black acrylic smoke pouring from the far side of town. He heard sirens in the distance. If Duo had even been in the office before, or been able to take his bearings through the window, hw would have noticed that the smoke was coming from the area where he lived. But the young man had miscalculated where he lived, and thought that his soon to be wife and himself resided in a complex that was to the left of where he now stood, not the right.
"Well, I'll be damned"
Mr. Ridley said, going closer to stand by the window. The smoke was rising very high, pushed up quickly by the awesome heat that was being generated from the fire below it.
Chpt 6Duo stood beside his friend a few hours later, mimicking his boss to a close friend.
"I may to let you go!"
Duo said in a deep voice. Quatre giggled slightly, covering the microphone in front of his mouth. The secretary was wearing a handless phone item. A very new invention for the 1980's. It consisted of a headphone over one ear, with a microphone on the front so he could hear and talk to customers without using his hands. A very smart invention too.
Suddenly, his mouth tweaked up at the corners.
"Duo, someone actually wants to talk to you, they're on line 5. Maybe that foxy girlfriend of yours phoning to say she hates you and I can have her. Sounds like you Hilde."
Playfully swatting his friend behind the head, he picked up the phone in the empty commons/cafeteria room, giving a pretend growl of seduction to who he thought was his girlfriend. It wasn't. It was her Mother, phoning in a moment of panic.
"Duo! Thank god! Is Hilde with you! Was she in the house when it happened! Duo!"
"Whoa! Calm down there. Tell me slowly, what is wrong."
Taking several deep breaths, Hilde's mom told him to turn on the TV to channel 9. Perturbed, Duo clicked on the overhead set. A wall of flame rose behind the reporter on the TV. The cackle of fire came over the speaker, followed by the reporter's voice.
"…NY firefighters can't even get close to this blaze, there is just too much heat, and flames are jumping stories high in the air here at 1256 west Blockers Street. The police are demanding that the area be immediately evacuated in case this monster of a fire jumps buildings. As you can see behind me nearby residents are…"
The camera changed angles, showing a group of people running away from the fire, bags of belongings on their backs. By now several other workers were watching the TV screen, Duo's hand dropped the phone. It hit the floor before it could catch itself on the cord and smashed to pieces on the floor.
"1256 Blocker Street, that's where I live, where Hilde is. My god! That's where Hilde is!! Hilde!"
Jumping up, Duo Maxwell threw himself through the crowd and sprinted faster then anyone thought he could for the elevator. Quatre was coming to see what the big crowd was for around the commons when he saw Duo run by. Looking over in puzzlement at his friend, he then looked to the TV. And saw Duos house collapse into a pile of rubble.
Duo was at the elevator, slamming the button.
"Hurry up! Fuck you Hurry up!"
He screamed, looking around for the emergency stairs. He saw the paper that Dorothy had left on the desk, open to the front page, where the headlines seemed to mock at him.
TERRORIST LINKED TO NY CITY
The Washington and Virginia police have both agreed that a radical terrorist has been traced to NY City, they are recommending that all available police and Special Forces be deployed in a massive hunt for the fugitive. NY city police are going over the evidence provided to see if such a manhunt is eligible for such…
Duo ignored the elevator and took to the emergency stairs, as he opened the door to them, the fire alarm was triggered and it started it wail. Duo ran down the stairs, taking them 3 or 4 at a time. As he got to the under ground parking lot, The sound of sirens, fire alarms and the smell of fire and ash all swirled around in his head. Screams of people of echoed around.
Duo thought he had gone mad.