Chapter 3 - File Not Found

Rikriel sat in front of his computer, his heart feeling light and beating fast. He spared a quick glance at the laboratory around him. Familiar figures, his faceless colleagues, but just his colleagues. Rikriel rubbed his face and wiped the beading sweat onto his stained lab coat. His work was before him, but he paid no attention to it. He would enter the room any moment, Rikriel was sure. He knew about it already. He would call his name, fire him on the spot. Rikriel stood up and went to the water dispenser. He shouldn't have been nervous. Perhaps it was because he was alone. There was no team this time.

The day pulled itself onward slowly, the sun crawling and eventually sinking in the sky. It hadn't been a productive day, but Rikriel wasn't quite finished yet. His lips flicked upwards at each departing co-worker; they said their usual jovial goodbyes and Rikriel simply nodded in his usual reply. His skin prickled and became cold. The sterile room sat silent, save for the gentle whirring of Rikriel's computer. He turned it off and hung up his coat. For a while he simply stood there.

'You were asking for it, and now you're in the deep end.'

Rikriel turned, paused, and left the room.

He had been in Westin Ode's office on numerous occasions: failed interviews, successful reprimands; he knew his way to and around with relative ease. Yet he traced his steps as if it were unknown territory. Rikriel considered every hallway for longer than he should have and he made his way carefully through the now dimly lit corridors. Every passage he faced was unrecognisable from the others – a square, featureless tunnel softened under amber light – but he kept reminding himself of which way to turn. The ceiling opened up suddenly to a glass roof and the walls became adorned with paintings and portraits of smiling men. At the end of this large room was an equally large door, lit now only by moonlight. A plaque of gold reflected from the wooden door. The office of Mr. Ode, CEO of the Belhelmel Medical Research Foundation. Rikriel kept on moving, his harsh breath betraying his every step. He reached out for the door handle and let his hand rest there for a moment. Search his computer, find the file; it would take only a few minutes. This sort of operation wasn't new to him. A sharp intake of breath, which Rikriel held as he pushed through into the office.

There was no alarm, nobody waiting for him inside. The office was peaceful. Exhaling deeply, a small smile escaped his lips and he went straight for the computer sat in the middle of the room. The screen flickered into life and Rikriel opened the documents folder. Not a single password blocked his progress; no doubt a symbol of his superior's arrogance. He searched every file he could find to be met only with rudimentary reports on medical procedures and equipment development. The file wasn't there. Rikriel's head jerked back and he scowled as he looked to the door. At that moment, a moment far too late, he realised he had made a complete mistake.

"…behind your head!"

"…what? What?"

"Hands behind your head, now!"

Two large, fully outfitted men burst through the door; their rifles quickly shifting to point at him. Laser dots danced around his chest. Their armour was almost excessive, as if they were more soldiers than security. One of them stayed by the door as the other rapidly approached Rikriel and shoved him onto the desk.

"Stop being so damn forceful." A voice rang from the darkness beyond the doorway. It was quickly met by the sight of a uniformed man, his face wrinkled with age and past emotion. His greying hair was gelled into a parting and his rimless glasses reflected the light which now flooded his office.

"You're of my employees? I didn't take any of you to being so bold."

Westin glided into the room and stopped to pull Rikriel's face so it could regard him personally.

"Why did you have to insult me? Wasn't it obvious that my own damn office would be guarded? Huh? Because it would have been the first thing to cross my mind."

Rikriel looked up, not saying a word, not even thinking to say a word. His chest heaved and for a moment it was as though he were a child again. His eyes grew a watery film, and his lips drew into a thin line. If his instructors could have seen him now he knew they would have laughed. In his lust for a return to excitement he got careless; careless enough to have made a junior classman blush with embarrassment.

"Trespassing is an offence and you will be duly punished for it." Westin dropped Rikriel's head and pointed at the man that held him down.

"Do whatever you have to, but see to it that he realises the severity of his actions."

Rikriel shook as his body was slammed against the desk a second time, his eyes lolling upwards behind his eyelids.

"Not here you idiot!" Came a blurred shout. "Wait until you get outside!"

The world moved and shuddered around him in streams, and there was an unbearable pain. It couldn't have been too long before Rikriel blacked out.

Estharian prisons were quite unlike any other; not that Rikriel had seen any other, but in Esthar nothing was quite like anything else. The cell that he had woken up in was surprisingly large, furnished with a stiff bed, a chair and an oddly clean toilet. The exit to the walkway was clear, and Rikriel stumbled towards it. His fingers touched a flash of bluish energy and he fell on to his back with a thud.

What must have been the warden looked down at him without expression, his arms crossed.

"You're Rikriel Rezier, right? Funny name, even around here. Got quite a ring to it though, I suppose."

This man sounded too young to be the warden, he came across as almost uneasy. Probably new to his job. Rikriel got to his feet with difficulty and sat at the head of his mattress.

"We don't get many prisoners around here. Maybe they're just too scared to do anything, normal people I mean. You're my first."

The officer looked down for a moment.

"If you don't mind, could I ask why they put you in here?"

Rikriel turned to him, got up and approached the boundary of the cell. The man didn't flinch and stood still. Rikriel's mouth tightened in a poorly executed smile, and his rubbed his nose before wiping back his hair.

"I was caught stealing."

"What?"

"Food."

The man's eyes fixed on Rikriel's own and he frowned slightly.

"The name's Guy." He remarked with a renewed sense of cheerfulness, straightening his hat with a quiet smile.

"Recreation time is tomorrow at oh-eight-hundred, just after breakfast. I hope you're good at pool, because I've had quite a bit of practice."

Rikriel did his best to return the smile. He nodded his head in silent thanks before retreating back to his bed. In classes he remembered his Diplomacy instructor's very clear words about how to get through a prison sentence. Skipping through the part that told them never to end up in prison, he recalled that she said how rare it was to find such easy prey in prison guards, that any of her techniques in social engineering would actually work. Rikriel turned on his side and closed his eyes, and for the second consecutive night he considered himself lucky.