Chapter 2
The room was remarkable only for what was not present. It was a small white walled room with one door and a bright fluorescent light in the ceiling. The room looked quite empty and plain apart from a metallic grey desk in the centre. On the desk there were only two items; a small semi-circular shaped black object at the back of the desk and an untitled closed envelope in front. However these were the only things present. No pictures, no computer, no files, no pens or other stationary. This gave the room a sinister impression and one might think it could be used for interrogation or detention.
Presently the door opened. In stepped a man in a blue-grey suit carrying a briefcase. He seemed to be in his fifties, had short cut dark hair, sunken eyes and a sallow skin complexion. He exuded an air of calm confidence that typically belongs to those in a high position of power. He closed the door behind him, walked behind the desk and put his briefcase down. He looked down onto the desk and studied the letter. Opening a drawer of the desk, he took out what appeared to be a letter-opener and opened the letter. After scanning the letter, he put the letter-opener back into the drawer, put his briefcase on the table, opened it and put the letter inside.
After a short pause he moved his hand towards the black object on the desk and pressed an invisible button on it. Suddenly, three prongs extended out from the object and the room darkened automatically. Each prong then fired a beam projecting a screen of light displaying information that seemed to form in mid-air. One screen formed in front of the man and the other two screens formed on either side. The screen in the centre showed a picture of Earth in incredible detail. All the continents, topography, oceans and weather patterns were there. The screen to left showed graphs of data constantly changing. Most of it was unintelligible and could have represented something like stock prices. The screen on the right showed what looked like news articles together with videos, which were being updated now and again. The man looked at the picture of Earth and seemed to come to a decision. He stretched out his hand towards the screen and moved his fingers deliberately. The screen reacted to his movements by enlarging the picture of Earth. The zooming in process was centred on the North American continent and continued towards a southern state of the United States of America. The image eventually resolved on an area of desert with large rivers that had etched out canyons into the landscape. A green cross-hair superimposed on the image marked out a small cluster of small black shapes. Words above the cross-hair labelled this point "Black Mesa". The man looked to the left screen which now showed a picture of a bearded man with thick rimmed spectacles. The man stared at the picture for a while, then meaningfully pressed some buttons on the black object which turned off the screens.
The room was dark for a while. Suddenly a large ball of coloured light appeared beyond the desk floating about a foot above the floor. It was vivid green on the outside and orange in the centre The ball of coloured light emitted a strange humming sound that came in phases, creating a mesmerising effect. The man picked up his briefcase, straightened his tie and walked purposefully towards the ball of light. When the man reached the ball, there was a flash of green light after which the man and the ball of coloured light disappeared. Presently, the overhead light turned on and the room returned to normal.