by S. K. Holder
He tore up the escalator and finally arrived outside the station. He walked down the street, his fists clenched in his pockets, his jaw hard. He tugged off his school tie and blazer and stuffed them inside his bag. Luke was ten steps ahead of him. If he had turned around, he would have seen Connor tracking him. But he didn’t. Luke was in a hurry to get somewhere and it didn’t take Connor long to see where.
He watched Luke march purposefully through the revolving doors of Tridan Entertainment’s glass-walled office tower, watched him brush past the smartly dressed men and women streaming into the lobby.
Luke stood out like a cat in a pond. He hadn’t combed his hair. His clothes were all wrinkly. He had only managed to do up one of his shoelaces, leaving the other trailing.
Connor hovered outside a set of push doors and watched his brother stride up to a huge reception desk. Luke stooped down for a moment. It looked as if he was writing something. He then disappeared around the corner.
Connor shoved and jostled the revolving doors until he was inside. He marched up to the reception desk as purposefully as his brother had done, trusting that no one would stop him to ask why he wasn’t in school.
He heard a male voice. ‘Excuse me?’
He sped up. He could see a figure in a dark uniform out of the corner of his eye, racing to catch up with him. It was a security guard. By the time the guard had reached him, Connor was at the reception desk, his chest hammering.
The guard stood beside him with his arms folded. He smelt of heavy cologne and had saturated his hair with gel. He watched Connor with stony eyes.
‘I’m looking for my brother,’ Connor told the receptionist. ‘He was just in here.’
‘Oh you must be Luke’s brother,’ said the chestnut-haired woman behind the desk. ‘Goodness you look so alike. Are you twins?’
‘No we’re not,’ said Connor. He didn’t welcome the comparison. In his eyes, he and his brother looked nothing alike.
‘Are you here to see your uncle? Can I ask what it’s regarding?’
Connor noticed that her eyes had gone all buggy-looking.
My uncle? So Kane Brailey was his uncle. He couldn’t believe Luke hadn’t told him. ‘It’s a private family matter,’ he said, trying to sound unenthused. His brother had got past the nosey receptionist quickly and he wanted to do the same.
She hissed through her teeth. ‘Okay. You’ll need to sign in.’ She used her pen to direct him to an open book on the desk.
He hastily wrote his first name and the time.
‘You know which floor he’s on?’
He shook his head.
‘He’s on the twenty-fifth.’
‘Where on the twenty-fifth please?’
The phone rang. ‘He has the whole floor.’ She held up one finger. ‘Wait one second. I’ll get someone to take you up.’
While the receptionist attended to her phone call, Connor slipped around the corner, where he was confronted with four lifts and a queue of people waiting to board them. He was glad they didn’t pay him much attention. His hands were all sweaty. His heart still hammered wildly. He was going to meet his uncle. His new found relative. He would tell him where he could find his dad. They were going to be reunited!
Connor was the only one to exit the lift on the twenty-fifth floor, the last floor before the rooftop. He wondered what position Kane held in the company. If he was on the top floor, he had to be important.
When he exited the lift, he met a willowy woman with fleshy lips and a head of black hair. ‘Good morning,’ she croaked. ‘Are you looking for your brother?’
Connor scowled. She said, ‘Are you looking for your brother,’ in a voice reserved for toddlers. He wasn’t that short. He had planned to burst through Kane Brailey’s office doors. He imagined his brother would be so stunned to see him that he would collapse from shock, and the uncle he had never met would embrace him and chastise Luke for keeping Connor from him. But now that he was here, in this monstrosity of a building, he thought it was better to speak to Luke first, one to one.
‘Yes please,’ he said in the politest voice he could muster. ‘I’ll wait for him.’
He sat down on the curved lounge chair, reserved for visitors, with his bag on his lap. He stared at the metallic art work on the wall in front of him while his uncle’s assistant tapped at her keyboard.
He didn’t have to wait long. Fifteen minutes later, Luke came storming out, his eyes all blood-shot and crazy. He didn’t even notice him. Connor lurched from his seat ready to follow him and then changed his mind. He didn’t want to confront his brother when he was mad. He would get the full backlash. He stole a quick glance at Kane’s assistant. She had buried her head in an office binder.
Connor strode in the direction from which he had seen Luke leave.
He came to a set of doors with curved handles. His uncle’s name was written on the door plate: Mr Kane Brailey. C.E.O. One of the doors stood slightly ajar. Connor gave it a light tap.
‘Not now Isha. I’m busy,’ a voice called from inside.
Connor pushed the door open, announcing himself as he went in. ‘Hi, I’m Connor, Luke’s brother. I wondered if I could talk−’
Kane Brailey was a hulk of a man, almost brute-like in appearance. In his late forties, he had a deep ridge in the centre of his nose and bristly dark brown hair. He sat across his sprawling executive desk. The backdrop of pale blue sky and a host of other city buildings were visible behind him.
They gaped at each other.
From where Connor stood, the C.E.O. appeared to be squirming in his chair. His face and neck had come up in a bumpy rash. He yanked the knot in his tie free and took a gulp of water from the glass on his desk. He gave a weak smile. ‘Connor, of course, of course. I’ve not met you have I? Shut the door. Come and sit down.’
Connor shut the door. He fumbled with the strap on his bag. He didn’t see any resemblance in this man to himself, Luke and certainly not the dead man he had seen in his past-telling. For a start, Kane’s skin was more red than brown and his face was as square as a block, not round like his own, or chiselled like his brother’s.
Connor moved into the room. He saw a cabinet laden with jugs of fruit juices, a coffee machine, a toaster, bowls filled with little cartons of jam, marmalade, butter and milk. There were plates of food: pastries, bread rolls and cereals.
Luke’s laptop sat on Kane’s desk.
‘Did you come here with Luke?’ said Kane.
‘No. I found your number at home. Are you my dad’s brother?’
‘Yes, I am your dad’s brother. He got up and walked around his desk. He shook Connor’s hand. ‘I’m Kane. Sit down. I don’t bite.’
He went over to the cabinet and set about pouring Connor a glass of orange juice.
Connor sat on one of the office chairs staring at the laptop. The charger sat on top of it. It definitely belonged to Luke. It had his football sticker on it.
‘Do you want something to eat?’ said Kane. He placed the glass of orange juice in front of Connor. ‘If you want something hot, I can get one of the kitchen staff to bring it up.’
‘No thanks.’ He drank the orange juice. Despite his hunger pangs, he was too on edge to eat anything. If Kane had the potential to make his brother mad, he guessed he could be both nasty and pleasant. This wasn’t how he envisaged it. Kane didn’t seem in any hurry to bring out the old family album. There were no joyous hugs. No jubilation.
Kane returned to his high back chair. He clasped his chin. ‘Do you know why your brother came to see me?’
Kane had a different look on his face than he had worn when Connor walked in. Connor knew that look. It was a look you gave someone when you were trying to figure out if they had heard something about you from someone else, but were afraid to ask, in case you hadn’t.
‘No. He doesn’t tell me anything. I didn’t even know I had an uncle until today.’
Kane nodded and gave a shudder of relief.
‘Why did he le
ave his laptop here?’ asked Connor.
‘Because he’s a hot head. You’re not a hot head are you?’
‘He’s not a hot head and neither am I.’ Although he thought he could be, if someone really pushed him. ‘Why did he come to see you? Was it about our dad?’
Kane cleared his throat with another gulp of water. He shook his tie loose and flung it on the floor. ‘It wasn’t about your father. I haven’t seen him in years. It was about the laptop actually. Your mum was a bit short of money, so she asked me to help out with the purchase. That’s all. Luke wasn’t too happy about it.’
‘You talk to my mum? She’s never mentioned you.’
‘Your dad and I never got on. Your mum doesn’t want to complicate things by bringing me into your lives. Luke found out about me by accident. I’d seen him once, years ago, when I came to the house. You were asleep I think, but Luke remembers me.’
‘That doesn’t make any sense. If my dad’s not around, I don’t see why you can’t be. Mum gets along with you. I don’t understand why Luke doesn’t. I’d like to get to know you.’
‘I’m respecting your mum’s decision and as for your brother, he hates anything that reminds him of your dad, I guess. I mean, I don’t know. I can’t figure him out.’ He coughed and reached for his water. He took a swallow. ‘Urm…well, I only talk to your mum a few times a year. If she says it’s okay for us to keep in touch, I suppose we can. Just don’t talk to me about your dad. So – urm − anyway is everything okay at home?’
‘Yeah. It’s all right.’ An uncomfortable silence followed. If he couldn’t talk to Kane about his dad, what was there to talk about? Then he remembered what had brought him to Tridan Entertainment in the first place: his LUKE RECON PLAN. He had been thrown by his new found uncle, an uncle who coincidentally worked for the company who had created The Quest of Narrigh. ‘I like your games.’
Kane took a handkerchief from his pocket and mopped up some of the sweat streaming down his face. ‘Which ones?’
Conner tried to think of the Tridan Entertainment games that he was old enough to play. ‘Alien Space Centre,’ he said eventually. He hadn’t played it in years.
More silence followed.
‘How’s school?’ Kane said at last. ‘Actually, talking of school, shouldn’t you be−’
‘I’ve got a free period.’ There were no free periods for his grade. ‘I don’t want you to tell Mum I’ve been here. I’ll talk to her when I’m ready.’
Kane nodded. ‘Understood.’
‘And don’t tell Luke,’ he added as an afterthought. ‘He’ll flip out if he knew I’d been here.’ He rose from the chair wondering if he should take Luke’s laptop with him. Well if he didn’t want it−
Kane stayed seated. ‘It’s good to meet you, Connor. You can ask my assistant, Isha, for a Tridan Entertainment gift bag on your way out.’ He flipped a business card across the desk. ‘You know we offer a summer internship, if you’re interested and if your mum’s okay with it.’
‘Aren’t I too young for an internship?’
‘Not if you’re the nephew of the C.E.O. My personal contact details are on there.’
Connor took the card and thanked him. He left with Luke’s laptop and charger tucked in his school bag. He didn’t know what C.E.O. stood for. He knew it was high up − as high up as his uncle’s office. Did his uncle own the whole company? Or was he just managing it for someone else?
Kane can’t know about Narrigh, thought Connor. Either that or he was a good liar. He wondered why he had bothered coming. He should have phoned, and then he could have avoided all the horrid awkwardness. He would definitely take his uncle up on the offer of an internship. But the summer holidays were months away. He wanted to learn about Tridan Entertainment now. He would have liked to tell Kane about Narrigh, Odisiris, and his Gift, if only to see his reaction. If others had gone missing while they had been playing The Quest of Narrigh, surely his uncle would know about it.
He glanced up and down the corridor. Kane’s assistant looked up from her diary when he approached the desk.
He gave her a stiff smile. ‘My uncle told me I could get a gift bag.’
‘Of course,’ she said. She put down the diary. Her head disappeared under her desk.
He heard a lot of rustling. He thought of Riley. ‘Can you make it two?’
‘Okay,’ she said in a muffled voice.
Conner turned his attention to the open diary. What if coming here wasn’t a waste of time after all? All of Kane’s appointments would be in it. His contacts. He found himself leaning forward, pivoting the diary in his direction. Kane had two meetings with someone called Steve Lepton over the weekend. He slid a finger in between the pages and was about to flick to the next page when Isha re-emerged with two fully stocked Tridan Entertainment bags.
Connor almost forgot the reason for his visit. He was pleased to see the bags weren’t the cheap plastic kind. They were made from fabric, had chrome handles, and were emblazoned with the Tridan Entertainment logo. The bags were heavy, bulging with goodies. Riley was not going to be disappointed. Connor took them from her and made his way down the corridor. He saw the back of someone in a dark suit, his chin-length hair was tied back in a knot, but there was something in his walk that made Connor follow him all the way to the end of the corridor and pass the set of doors he originally came through. He drew suspicious glances from other Tridan Entertainment employees he met along the way. He wasn’t sure if he could pull this off. He didn’t have a staff ID pass or a visitor’s badge. Tridan Entertainment headquarters was a twenty-five storey building and he was at the top of it. If he started wandering around unescorted, people were going to ask questions.
He soon lost sight of the man he had been following. He loitered by the lift doors, planning his next move.
He couldn’t go to school now. He had only just got here. In fact, somewhere between leaving his uncle’s office and walking up the corridor he had convinced himself that his, uncle, Kane Brailey C.E.O., wanted to spend more time with him and show him around. And if he hung around long enough, he would take him to lunch. He was thinking about what was on the company’s lunch menu when a man strode up to him. He wore the Tridan’s signature white shirt and dark tie. His nose looked as if it had been broken a few times. He could have been in his late twenties; the thick stubble on his chin and dark circles under his eyes made him look much older.
He thrust out his hand. ‘You must be Connor, Kane’s nephew.’ He had a mild southern American accent. ‘I’m Ted Carthy, one of the lead games developers here.’
Connor shook his hand. ‘How do you know my name?’
‘Saw your name in the visitor’s book and you look like a mini-me of your brother, Luke.’
Connor felt his face grow hot. ‘You know Luke?’
‘Not to talk to, but he’s been here a couple of times. You heading out?’ He stared at the gift bags in Connor’s hand.
‘No. I was kind of hoping to take a look around. I’m thinking of doing an internship in the summer. I have a free school period.’
Ted crossed his arms. ‘Really? Any particular field of interest?’
‘Games development.’ He hoped Ted wasn’t going to ask him any questions. He had done a bit of programming at school, but he was more interested in playing games than writing them. ‘And medicine,’ he added, in case Ted wanted to wheel him in front of the nearest computer. ‘I’d ask my uncle but he’s busy.’
‘Yes, busy man Mr Brailey.’ Ted flashed his coffee-stained teeth and his staff identity card. ‘I can show you around. No problem.’
‘Thanks.’ He felt apprehensive. If Ted were to tell Kane he had spent his morning showing his newly-found nephew around, Connor would lose Kane’s trust and he’d get Ted into trouble.
‘That okay?’
‘Yeah.’ He would have to think of a subtle way to tell Ted to keep quiet about the showing around thing. Especially, if it turned out that his uncle did have something to hide.
>
Ted led him away from the lift and along a series of corridors until they came to a set of glass doors. He looked over his shoulder before swiping his key card through an electronic reader secured to the side of the wall. Another set of doors stood in front of them. They automatically slid open. They went through the doors. A beeping sound came from within the panel and the second set of doors opened, bringing them to another lift. They stepped inside. There were twenty-five floors, however, Connor only saw three buttons inside the lift: 25, 7, and one with the initial ‘B’, which he suspected led to the basement.
Ted swiped his security card through another electronic reader on the wall of the lift. He then pressed the ‘B’ button.
The lift started to descend at an alarmingly fast rate. Faster than the lift he had gone up in.
‘Where does this go?’ he asked Ted.
‘Somewhere exciting,’ replied the games developer.
SIX
The lift slowed and creaked to a halt. The doors parted.
Connor wasn’t sure if he could call the place he had entered a room. The vast circular space he saw before him was ten times the size of Kane’s office.
He recognised the raised platform at once, the glossy black floor, the four regularly spaced pillars, the throbbing blue light coming from the fathomless ceiling.
‘One of our other projects,’ said Ted. He put his finger to his lips despite it being evident no one else was around. ‘It’s a teleportation platform.’
Ted frowned, misconstruing Connor’s reaction for a lack of interest. ‘You’ve watched Star Trek right? Beam me up Scotty?’
‘Is it real?’ The question sounded ridiculous even to him. Of course it was real. It was a replica of the inside of the Citizen airship, which held the computer that had transported him home.
‘No.’ Ted sighed and propped one bent knee up on the platform. ‘But wouldn’t that be neat? We’re trying to recreate some of the levels from our games. We hope to open the rooms up to the public, on a pay-per-membership basis. We’re going to have a four tier level. We’ve got the space for it. Platinum members will have access to more than just games. Tridan’s got big plans for expansion. I expect your uncle will have told you.’
