[GAME: Alpha Game : 3] The Escape

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Source: flickr

Praise to the God who has blessed with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, even as he chose us in Him before the Foundation of the World, that we should be holy and blameless before Him.
- Ephesians 1:3

Artemis was in his office at the heart of World Trade One. He held his head in his hands. “Run that simulation again, please.” He strained to be polite to the analyst at the terminal before him. The few minutes of silence spent crunching numbers was a blessing to Artemis’s swelling headache. The intelligence swarming in from the dig site had him working late hours with his handpicked team.

His smart watch’s alarm broke his rest with a short alarm. A call from the Corporation. He touched the flashing red square and answered the call.

“Artemis, do you know anything about an encrypted transmission coming from your apartment?” said the voice of one of his superiors wasting no time with formalities.

His blood pressure surged at the accusation. “No, I’m at WT1 right now.” He replied clawing at his collar. Despite the adrenaline kicking in at his panic and the intensifying headache that clouded his vision, his mind was sharp enough to make the connection. “Colette” he said in disbelief.
“This is serious, handle it.” Said the voice and the glow of the watch faded.
“FUCK! FUCK FUCK…” Artemis shouted abruptly standing to his feet. His anger echoed around the small office as he grabbed his coat and headed for the door.
“Sir, about this data?...”
“Not now!” His voice was heavy with the barely contained rage and was running down the hallway before the shocked analyst could continue “It’s gone. Someone deleted it” he said to no himself.

---

Several blocks away, and a few minutes ago Colette Waymire was receiving a call on her burner cellphone. The privacy spell being broadcast by the little golden bot was hopefully strong enough to distort the prying eyes and ears of the Corporation.

“This is Vanguard Captain Tecarhai Vaidluas. I am authorized by Elven Guilds to contact Colette Waymire. I hear you are in need of my services? What’s the problem, werewolves, kidnapping?"
“Thank you Captain Vaidluas, this is Collette.” she answered weakly, stumbling over elven names. She realized that there was no time for pleasantries. “I assume you’ve been briefed about the information I’m carrying.”
“World shattering, they said.”
“You’re not far off.... I need to get it to the Elven Council as soon as possible. The Corporation will realize the files are missing any minute now. How close are you to North Broadway and Varick?”
“Corporation extraction? Hmm… better not get closer than the tunnel. I’m in Newport right now, can’t you just swim across the Hudson?”

Her panic and the emotional reaction at the Elves joking tone sent a cascade through the aether. The privacy spell began to fade from the surface of the bot. “Captian! Please, this is serious. I think I just lost the privacy screen…”
“I need to know what kind of resistance I’m going to expect.”
“Hopefully none, if you hurry.”
“Fine, I’ll meet you outside the main lobby” he finally told her. “That’s not too far a walk, for you Miss? Call me if you run into trouble.”

---

“I’ll meet you outside the main lobby” transmitted the smartwatch. Corporation Security had managed to intercept the last of the call and transmit it to his device. He squeezed his large frame behind the wheel of the company car and navigated his way out of the WT1 garage. Curses and threats of violence against his wife filled the car as he raced down Church Street. It was late and the streets were all but empty. Trucks delivering goods to the closed stores that lined the street were easily dodged by the nimble sedan. He didn’t even both to park once he made his way into the subterranean garage beneath the silver tower.

---

“Godspeed.” The Elf Captain told her before he hung up.
“Servo!” Colette shouted at the bot, not in anger but terror. “Tell me you were able to encrypt that.”
“Negative. Scrambler node malfunction, I did attempt to… ”

She ran a hand over her face, feeling the flush that had overtaken her. “Let’s go we don’t have any time. Who knows who picked that transmission up?!” Collette had no time for sentiment now and made for the door leaving all her worldly goods behind. The bot hovered behind her. “Keep your stun field ready.” She said before she opened the door. The hallway had not filled with soldiers all pointing their guns at her, like her imagination had summoned up. It was the middle of the night and the hallways were quiet.

She reached the elevator without cause for concern and waiting impatiently for the doors to open. No soldiers with their guns pointing at her. In fact as the descended to the lobby she allowed herself a fleeting thought that perhaps she might get away unnoticed. The lift slowed it’s descent the doors opened to the looming shape of her husband. He seemed as surprised to see her as she must have looked to him. She could not help but gasp. “Artemis!”

Colette began, weaving some lie, but the back of his hand silenced her with a slap that sent her stumbling backwards. Servo‘s stun field emitter was tucked into a compact panel on his side which sprung open as the bot moved to protect it's mistress. Artemis snatched the little arm before it could discharge and flung him from the elevator. It bounced off the marble floor and the bot’s magic sputtered at the impact. Collette could see the aging droid try to right itself but not before the elevator doors closed. Leaving the couple alone in the tiny space.

“Artemis, I don’t…” she tried again. He had remained impassive and quiet. His only response to her protest was to wrap his hand around her upper arm and pull her to her feet.
“We don’t want to make a scene.” He punctuated his message with a crushing grip that was sure to leave a bruise on pale flesh of her arm. “That call, who was it to?”
“I don’t know what you are talking about.” She answered. His hand came up, the web between his thumb and forefinger wrapping itself around her throat, his brutal strength pulling her head up and back. One hand came up to tear at his forearm; the other found its slender fingers clawing at his hand around her neck. Both were immobile.
“Don’t fuck with me.” Colette's eyes burned and ears roared at the building pain and oxygen deprivation."Who are you colluding with?"
“Elves…” she struggled with the words.

Artemis had never considered killing his wife before the words struck his ear. His grip on her throat tightened further. She would not cost him his promotion. The only reason both of them were not in custody at the moment was because he hushed the transmission at its source. He glanced up at the camera in the corner of the elevator, its red light peering out from the glossy shell. His security teams were being dispatched as he stood there squeezing the life out of her. It would be inappropriate he realized to do it here, so he released her.

Colette dropped to the floor coughing and sputtering. Her world was encroached with purple shadows, the precursors of passing out. “You stupid woman, I won’t let you ruin everything I’ve worked for. The Corporation has kept you in luxury. I have kept you in luxury and this is how you thank me!” His voice shook with rage and echoed in the confined space.

"I know what you're planning, you will kill millions. It's immoral!"

“You shouldn’t care about the masses. They mean nothing to the new alliance. People are expendable cogs in this great rising machine.” He leaned over her and took her throat again in his hand. “But you won’t be around to witness that glory. He gazed down at her darkening face and added. “Good bye, dear wife.”

Source: Wikipedia

Behind him the elevator doors opened, still at the lobby. Servo had rebooted and righted himself and flung his dense metal body at Artemis’s head. Artemis was driven from his own sense of self by the pain. Too distracted by the concussion of the blow he was a stranger to his body until the sensation of falling stirred the animal instinct of survival and pulled his ego back onto the sharp light above the pain. He fell forward slumping against the wall of the elevator, as his wife scrambled to her feet to avoid being pinned under his collapse into unconsciousness. She selected a number at random and hurried out of the elevator before it began its ascent.

Just beyond the plate glass windows of the lobby she could see a car idling in the street. The elf!