by Erin Rickman
I noticed the time and realised I needed to get back to the lab as lunch was drawing to an end. I said goodbye to Atlas and Kenji. The rest of the day went agonisingly slow. All I wanted was to be done with work, to spend my time feeling sorry for myself, and mull over the danger of Atlas’ scheme. Today was one of those days where no matter how much energy I tried to collate I just simply couldn’t be bothered.
✽✽✽
I walked to my beat-up Fiesta, my satchel banging against my leg as it hung on my shoulder. I started reading the mountain of texts on my phone from Andy.
From: Andrea
OMG Blaire wot happened?
Did u 2 break up?
Y did u break up?
R u crazy u 2 have been 2gether for so looong!
Is there another guy?
Was it bcos of the fit guy at the bar? The guy that’s named after a book that has all the world maps n stuff in it?
I had decided that I couldn’t be bothered to reply, I wasn’t ready to start spilling stuff to Andy about my feelings for Atlas, which would no-doubly get back to Jai a day after the break-up. There was no need to rub salt in a wound. When I looked up, Atlas was sitting on the bonnet of my car.
“Don’t do that,” I yelped walking towards my car. “The duct tape is struggling to hold the car together as it is; it doesn’t need the weight of your fat ass on it too.”
Atlas sprung off of the bonnet, looking to the car and back me. “Must be a scrap job, surely?”
“You’re a scrap job,” I retorted, offended at his remarks.
Sure, my car was not a lot to look at with its many dents, growing rust and plethora of duct tape, but it still got me from A to B and ran well in the process.
“Anyway, what do you want?” I asked as I stood in front of him.
“Do I have to want something to talk to you now?” he teased with a roll of his eyes.
“No,” I confirmed, “but you do, I know you too well, Mr Bracksworth.”
“I like it when you call me that.” He wiggled his eyebrows. “C’mon,” he said with urgency. Atlas grabbed my hand and tugged me towards his car. I was offended that, to him, mine simply wouldn't do.
His hold on my hand turned into an intertwining of our fingers. I went to pull my hand away out of habit, which would naturally kick in after he touched me for longer than naught point two seconds. Then I remembered, I no longer had to shy away from his affection, if I wanted to let him hold my hand I now could. So, I allowed him to maintain the touch as his tug towards his car became a walk. I felt a warm sensation travel from my stomach to my cheeks, internally feeling awkward. The awkwardness came from not being sure how this all worked. Sure, I had just been in a relationship for a long time, so long, in fact, these actions had become normality. Instead with Atlas, it was new and exciting, which pushed me out of my comfort zone, so in turn, came my awkward feelings.
Atlas always kept his car keys in his back right pocket, which happened to be the side of him where our hands were locked. When we stopped at his car, I expected him to let go. Instead, as if the thought hadn’t even crossed his mind, he awkwardly reached around his back with his left hand, fishing out the keys.
“I appreciate the gesture,” I laughed, raising our hands, “but, I’m going to have to let go to get in your car anyway.”
A smile pulled at one side of his mouth. “Yeah, it was a lot smoother in my head.”
He glanced at me, the setting sunlight reflecting in his green eyes showed off the brown birthmark in his right eye. He pressed the button on his keys, the click of his car showed it was now unlocked. Reluctantly he let go of my hand. At that moment, I couldn’t do anything but smile at him.
✽✽✽
Atlas held out his hand, and I took it as I climbed over a tree root. The sound of leaves crunched under my feet as they slowly started to shed from the trees. We had just approached the pond, and now the sun was nearly set, bringing slight darkness over the area. I walked over to the large oak, since my last visit a large branch had fallen but not wholly snapped away from the main trunk. I pressed on it harshly, checking to see how sturdy it was, I had decided it was strong enough to take my weight and perched on it. I sat, admiring the beauty of the secluded area.
“So, tell me more, how did it go with Alina today?” Atlas asked.
I explained to Atlas that she had said Hector was fired for misconduct but didn’t tell me what. He sat on the branch with me; it creaked with the additional weight, and my heart skipped a beat in fright.
“That doesn’t explain why he wouldn’t be home, or why he lied about being at mine,” Atlas acknowledged.
I nodded in agreement. “How sure are you that he wouldn’t run away because he’s embarrassed about a job loss?”
“Pretty sure,” Atlas confirmed with a nod. “Plus, you know Hector, like he would ever get fired for misconduct.”
“But what if it was an honest mistake?” I reasoned.
Atlas shrugged before saying, “Hector would have told us before he even knew his job was on the line. He overthinks a lot.”
I knew something wasn’t right. He was correct in that I did know Hector, not as well as him mind you. However, if I couldn’t imagine Hector stepping a foot wrong, someone who knew him better most certainly wouldn’t. If there was no logical explanation around his job loss linking to his disappearance, then, maybe, the police had found some leads. Atlas has been in contact with Hector’s mother, so perhaps he knew something else.
“You said his mother had reported it to the police, have you heard anything else?”
“Apparently, they’ve put it down to his case being a cold case. There is not enough risk to Hector and no new evidence. He’s an adult male, so I suppose that’s less risk than an adult female going missing,” Atlas voice was harsh. He clearly thought the idea of brushing aside Hector’s case was ridiculous, as did I, to be honest. This entire situation was totally out of character for Hector.
“Shit,” I mumbled. “What has Hector’s mother said?”
“She’s furious, devastated—he’s her firstborn after all. She has taken to posting all over social media, going out looking every evening and simply trying to push the case herself, but I don’t think she’s having much luck.” Atlas paused. “This is why we need to look for them ourselves, clearly, the company has their hands in the police. Otherwise, the police would have still been looking and would have interviewed his friends. The facility paying the police not to investigate is the only logical way they can stop suspicions. No search, no evidence, no court case. We cannot rely on the police or anyone else for that matter.”
I sat in silence. My resilience to Atlas’ wormhole was starting to wear thin; maybe in this crazy world, he was beginning to make sense. Still, understanding what we might be facing was paramount. For one thing, there were not any hard facts; everything was assumptions. Plus, Atlas’ theory had several (albeit small) holes. However, with the way things were linking up, I wasn’t sure how much longer I could deny that the facility was at the centre of the issue, whatever that issue may be.
“So, what’s our next steps?” I asked wearily. “How do you plan on finding the restricted floors and stealing a fob?”
“The restricted floors should be easy.”
Suddenly, an idea around the restricted floors clicked, “Atlas, do you remember when Kenji said about the rumours? They’re not rumours. When you clicked the wrong button in the elevator this morning, it wouldn’t take us there because we needed a fob to do so. So we just need to go in and note which floors require fobs.”
“Miss Mayres, you are a genius,” Atlas cheered, smacking his hand on the branch, shaking it. My arms flew out to grab something as I felt my body weight shift backwards, out of my control. I settled for grabbing the trunk of the oak.
“Okay, and what about getting a fob then?” I asked, already sure he was going to tell me that it was my role. I had closer access to both Alina and Van Wick. Atlas confirmed that I was to
become the kleptomaniac. “Why do I have to steal the fob?” I grunted, knowing full well if we got caught it would be my job on the line. It was logical, but I didn’t want to risk anything.
“You’re a lab rat and spend your days with Van Wick. Plus, your ex’s aunt is high up in the company, so you have every excuse to be close enough to either of them to steal it.”
“What makes you so sure either of them would have access to the dodgy floor, if there is one?” I asked, needing further convincing. Alina, as I said before, wouldn't hurt a fly.
“They’ve both lied, and they are both high up in the company, so, if anything was going on, I’m sure they would be in on it,” Atlas explained as if I should already have worked that out myself.
My close connection to the woman could have been what was causing a bias in my opinion of her involvement. I also know Atlas said Van Wick oversees much of the research in the building, but surely he wouldn't be overseeing kidnapping? I remained quiet, I still wasn't sure what to think.
“Look, I’ll help you figure out a scheme to distract Van Wick as he is probably the easiest target. There is less risk of you getting caught if it is him. We need to catch him when he takes his lab coat off as he keeps the fob in his pocket.”
I sighed, reluctantly agreeing. Although I wasn’t happy about the idea, it was logical I did it. However, stealing the fob from Van Wick was going to be hard; he kept it on him at all times. I said this to Atlas.
“Can you swap your lab coats and play it off as an honest mistake?”
I snorted. “No way, he’s tall, and I’m short. The minute either of us puts on the lab coat, it will be obvious we have the wrong one. I can steal the fob fine; it’s just getting him to take off the lab coat to actually retrive it.”
I shocked myself a little with my words, how could I believe anything Atlas was saying, let alone join in? Maybe, (very, very, very) deep down, I knew he was right.
“The thermostat in the lab is often dodgy, has it been fixed?” Atlas questioned.
I huffed, remembering some of the times the lab became sweltering, unbearable even. However, Van Wick was strict on his rules—PPE on, at all times—so he never took his jacket off. Convincing him to take it off would be where the suspicion would occur and issues would arise. I found it very difficult to be sly and was worried that I would come off as pushy; however, I didn’t have much choice. If it led us to Maze and Hector, then I had to do it.
“No, the thermostat is not fixed.”
“Then crank the temperature up so high he has no choice but to remove his lab coat, he shouldn’t need convincing then. Play it off as the broken thermostat,” he said.
However the issue was still convincing him to take off the lab coat. Van Wick never parted from it. Though I suppose Atlas was right, if it’s hot then make it even hotter. If I made it so unbearably warm, then Van Wick’s natural instincts would kick in. I was sure Van Wick would rather remove his lab coat than leave the lab as there was so much work to do.
“Alright, then what do we do when we’re on the floors? Surely if we check every room, we’re going to bump into people, and it will be suspicious.”
“We need to see through walls, you know, see the things a human eye can’t,” Atlas announced.
“We’re not in a comic book, Atlas. We don’t have x-ray vision,” I said exasperated.
Atlas hummed in concentration. “We need something like a blacklight.”
I looked at him, raising my left eyebrow. “A blacklight will not help us here.”
“No, but the concept will. A blacklight shows you things that you can't usually see, right?” he asked, and I nodded. “So, it’s given me an idea. As we need to see through walls...” He paused, as he thought. “How expensive are thermal imaging cameras?” Before I could reply with a witty comment, he had whipped out his phone and started typing.
“Surely there is just a phone app for it?” I suggested.
“There might be, but we need a proper camera, this has to work. Our phones will not have the correct heat sensing techology.”
He was right; it wasn’t like we were doing this for fun. There was a purpose to our antics. Therefore, we couldn’t risk the imaging not working and had to get the proper thing.
I lent over, watching him search on his phone, cameras ranged from around £130 up into the thousands, “That’s not as bad as I expected.” I gestured to the phone, hinting at the cheaper camera.
“It’s not a bad price to pay to get our friends back,” Atlas agreed. “So, I’ll get that ordered. Here’s what we’re going to do: I will find the restricted floors, and you steal the pass from Van Wick or Alina, then we explore together with the gun. If they are holding someone somewhere, it will pick up their heat signature.”
We decided our plan would take action once the gun had arrived. Ideally it would all happen on the same day, we would check out the elevator and note all floors out of bounds in the morning, then we would distract Van Wick to get his fob, and finally, make up an excuse to stay late that night to investigate. If the plan runs smoothly, this should allow us to return the fob the next day, hopefully undetected. I wasn’t sure if Atlas’ crazy was now rubbing off on me, but one thing was for sure, if Hector and Maze were in that building, we would find them.
Chapter Eleven
October 14th 2024
The aggressive buzz of my phone rudely awoke me. I looked at the time; it was six thirty. I had received a text from Atlas last night saying that the delivery had arrived over the weekend, and that the plan needed to start rolling today. When my eyes could focus, I realised I had a missed call from the devil himself. At that, I dialled him back, and he answered.
“I was just checking you were awake,” he announced. “When you didn’t answer, I was getting ready to come and drag you out of bed myself.”
“I’m awake,” I said, my voice groggy.
“Barely,” he chortled.
I huffed. “I swear to god, Atlas, we better get something out of this or I will kick you right where the sun doesn’t shine.”
“Woah,” he laughed. “If I bring you a coffee, will you stop bitching?”
I pondered for a moment before replying with, “Yes, and, by now, I take it that you know how I have my coffee?”
“Two sugars, milk and hot.”
I nodded, then realised he couldn’t see it. “Good lad, see you in an hour.”
At that, he muttered a quick goodbye, and the phone call ended. I rolled over and placed the phone back on my nightstand. The picture of my brother and I caught my eye. I was about ten, and he was around fifteen. I was on his shoulders. My curly brown hair pulled into pigtails atop of my head. My brown eyes lit up with joy, and I wore a smile from ear to ear, looking down at him. He was grinning at the camera; he received similar genetic traits to me. The main feature we shared was the curly brown hair which on him was long, nearly covering his brown eyes and sat as a light afro on his head. However, he had my father’s lips, small and thin, whereas I had my mother’s round and plump ones. Also, he had my father's wider, slightly broader nose, whereas my mother and I had a thin nose, forming a somewhat upturned button at the end. I couldn’t pinpoint exactly when he stopped being my best friend; I assume it was when I realised how successful he was.
I had really started to miss him. I had grown up a lot in the last few months, causing the jealousy I had of his success to fade. Our distanced relationship was all my fault, really; I had come to realise I couldn’t be jealous of him just because he could be bothered to do something with his brain when I couldn’t. Although he equally could have made an effort too, his job held far more responsibility and was his entire life; he had worked hard enough for it. I had decided that after work today, I would give him a call and arrange a time to go and see him.
Then my thoughts jumped to Jai. I had been so busy this week, and I was glad, Atlas was a good distraction. However, when I did have moments to think, Jai’s hurt often consumed my thoughts. I still
felt awful for how much I had hurt him. It was odd not to receive his good morning texts. I hadn’t heard from Andy either, not since she messaged me and I didn’t reply. I now wondered if she was angry at me too, or giving me space as she hadn't reached out again. Either way, I knew she would be supporting Jai, and I was glad. He deserved so much more than what I could give him. I really hoped we could rekindle a friendship when he was ready, but right now, I needed to give him space.
✽✽✽
I parked my car, ready to start another week at work. I was here much earlier than I would usually be, a whole hour and a half to be precise. The early arrival meant that Atlas and I could study the elevator and make notes without it being too suspicious. I would be lying if I said I didn’t feel uneasy about the plans ahead. I heard a knock on my car window as I was gathering my things. I jumped, looked up and saw Atlas grinning while holding two cups of coffee. He stepped back as I opened my door and got out.
“Good morning,” he greeted in his usual bubbly fashion, handing me a coffee. “I know how much you cherish your sleep and what an effort it would have been to get up this early, so as agreed—caffeine.”
I let out an amused grunt, thanking him. The coffee was warm, sweet and just what I needed to give myself a buzz at seven thirty in the morning.
