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Athena Investigation pt. 3
by Lorekeep
Contact the author at lorekeep@phuze.com
Other Stories by Lorekeep
Case File, "The Athena Investigation"
Section 3
A pale moon shined brightly in the midnight sky as a lone car proceeded down the streets of the city. It headed past skyscrapers and apartment buildings, the car making it's way towards the large glass building at the end of the street. It pulled to a stop in a parking lane and turned itself off. Honor Guard member Tim Daniels pulled himself from the driver seat and looked up at the building.
The glass wasn't really glass at all, but some sort of new plastic that was probably researched at one of the millionaire's private corporations. It could withstand wind and rain, and was almost self-cleaning, in a way. Just add sunlight and the stains would just disappear. However, making an entire building out of the stuff was highly expensive. Lucas must have been really rich to had made this building.
Tim proceeded past the front door, located beneath the large sign displaying the name "Lucas Enterprises" for the world to see. His trench coat trailed in the wind slightly as he pushed his way through the revolving doors of the entrance.
The interior of Lucas's building was quite impressive. It was made almost entirely of marble, and gaped before time for a vast distance, maybe a hundred yards? A staircase at one end lead up the upper levels, while a steel pillar was off to one side for the elevators. A large desk was before the elevators and desk, possibly secretaries and security. He made his way over to the desk by the elevators.
An officer in a black and blue suit, common for a police trooper of the day, stood up as he approached. For a security officer, this one seemed heavily equipped. He was handling a I-41 Blaster and wearing heavy body armor with a hidden helmet. This guy could probably hold Tim off if he tried. That Blaster could cut through marble that surrounded the hall if need be! Tim had on his own armor protection, but it was less protective for easier concealment. After all, he was an investigative police man of sorts, not a soldier in the army.
"Can I help you sir?" asked the guard as Tim approached, his right hand limp at his side near his gun. Did Tim look THAT suspicious as to promote a possible gun assault? He didn't want to keep the impression up else he might have a big hole in him. Tim reached into his jacket for his Honor Guard ID. All security personal knew the ID and had to respect it as a pact signed by all known prominent figures on the plane. Not everyone was covered, but Lucas should have been one of them.
As Tim got his hands on the ID, the guard drawed his gun as a small whirring sound announced the power-up of the Blaster. He aimed it right at Tim's head and stopped. "We've had too many problems of late to be any less cautious Sir. Please take whatever you have in your hands slowly out of your coat."
Another guard stood up on the first guard's side, reaching for his weapon. Tim slowly pulled out the ID and showed it to the guard's face. The guard's expression went from suspicion and anger to complete surprise, as he lowered his weapon and powered it down. "I'm sorry Sir! I didn't know who you were. I wouldn't have shot you, I swear. It's just standard procedure around here."
Tim put the ID away. "No problem, but what kind of problems have you been having here?"
"Well we've had three security breaches of late. Technology was stolen as a result. We've also had 3 guards blown away when some guy just walks up, pulls out a gun, and blows a hole into him. All three were killed but the reason behind the murder wasn't known."
"That's terrible. Hasn't Lucas increased security?"
"Lucas hasn't done a damn thing! He just sits up there and does whatever the hell he wants. It's his aide who takes care of all the business deals.
"Well I'm here to see Lucas, if possible," said Tim, as he figured he'd be directed to the secretary. If a secretary was involved, he was always going to see him/her first, no matter what.
"Well Sir, Lucas isn't to be disturbed right now, but I can direct you to his secretary. Hank, open the door for him, Floor 66."
The other guard nodded and got up, making his way to the door as Tim stepped behind the desk. The guard stopped him with his hand. "Standard procedure sir, regardless of your position. I need your weapon."
Tim frowned, reaching into his holster and pulling out the F-4 Stryker he carried. He handed to the guard, who in turn let him pass. The elevator door was open by this time while Hank waited by the elevator buttons.
Tim stepped into the elevator and stood towards the back. The doors closed as Hank pressed "66" on the elevator control. The whirring of the elevator movement echoed slightly through the chamber as they proceeded upwards. "So what kind of technologies do you research here? I'm sure someone as involved as you would know?" asked Tim, hoping to pry some answers about this place.
The guard seemed to pause, having some sort of internal struggle as to what to do. Then, he turned his face slightly towards Tim, not exactly facing him. "Lucas likes to keep that secret. Besides, I would know really myself. I may be a guard but guards don't have too much access to the facilities if you know what I mean. One of the upstairs guards might know."
Tim frowned. Very secretive place they had here.
The elevator came to a halt on the 66th floor and opened up to a small office. The office contained a female sitting behind a desk doing some work, along with a fuzzy glass back and a door leading into another room. Tim couldn't see too much behind the glass, but he did detect movement.
"Excuse me, can I help you?'
The question of the secretary snapped Tim back to her, as she looked at him nicely. She had blond hair down to her shoulders, blue eyes, and an average blue suit on her. She looked pretty nice to him. Tim reached in and flashed her his ID. "Are you Lucas's secretary?"
She shook her head. "No, I'm the assistant to the secretary. Currently she's out right now. Would you like to leave a message?"
She almost sounded like an answering machine. "Actually, I was wondering if I could get in to see Lucas. It's important."
The assistant looked behind Tim. The only thing behind him was the closed elevator door, so what would she be looking for? She turned back to Tim and looked up at him, her smile lessening to a neutral face. "As the guards told you, Lucas isn't available for seeing."
"Could I ask why?"
"Now that the guards have left, I can tell you that Lucas hasn't been in the office since last night, and has left a message from an unknown location to save all his messages."
"Unknown location? Do you trace all your calls?"
"As a matter of fact we do. Any number that previously called and was traced could be instantly identified. The call Lucas made wasn't one he had called from before so we wouldn't know."
"Has Lucas called from his house?"
"Sir, this IS his house."
Fancy accommodations. "Well, you mind if I take a look around?"
"Actually sir, we do mind. We have some very important things going on and we've been instructed to let no one allowed in. Even Honor Guard."
Tim sighed. This place was too tight for it's own good. "Could you at least tell me what you research here?"
She frowned, thinking. "I can't really say. I just work for the secretary and pick up what I can. I believe we're a company that dabbles in everything though."
That helped. "Well, thank you for your time, Miss?"
"You can call me Angela."
Obviously she was delighted to see him for OTHER reasons. "Well, Angela, I'll be sending a few requests over communications and hope you'll comply."
Angela nodded. "I'm sure we wouldn't have any problem taking care of those. Is that all?"
"Yes, I guess that's it. Thank you for your time."
Tim turned around and made his way to the elevator as it opened up, empty. Hank must have dropped himself off downstairs for backup. This lead had turned into a dead end. He'd have to find more information or look somewhere else.
As Tim turned around in the elevator, facing out, Angela placed her finger on a control panel. A rather loud male voice came out of the panel. "Angela, your daughter is acting up again in the nursery."
Tim put his hand in the door, stopping it from closing. The secretary was quickly trying to fidget with the device to lower the volume of the male's voice. It worked almost immediately as Tim couldn't hear anymore of the conversation, but he heard enough. "You have a nursery here?"
Angela looked up, very surprised. She smiled shakily, and nodded. "13th floor. It was installed with the building. Lucas says he likes to take care of his employees."
Bingo!
"Well I'm headed down there... care to check up on your daughter?"
She considered it for a moment, as her hand slipped under the desk. She brought it back up and stood, making her way over to the elevator. As soon as she was in, another woman from the back room opened the door and came out to the front, sitting in Angela's place. Tim could see some desks and people working at them from the elevator, but not much more as the door and elevator shut in front of his eyes.
To Tim's surprise, Angela surpassed him in height. She was wearing heels that gave her a couple inches, but she was about equal with Tim in height naturally. She also had a nicer body than he gave credit for earlier. Long legs, round breasts, and a nice ass. Tim thought about dinner and a movie as Angela stood shakily. His thoughts quickly returned back to work. Was she nervous? Only time would tell as the elevator whirred towards the 13th floor.
A ball hit Tim in the face as the door opened up to the nursery. It didn't hurt, since it was one of those new lighter-than-air rubber balls, but it certainly gave Tim a nice surprise. A female in plain clothes approached a three-year-old boy in child's clothes and bent down next to him, whispering in his ear. The child was smiling at Tim as the female stopped whispering, said a quiet sorry, grabbed the ball and took the kid back into the main nursery.
And what a nursery it was! There must have been 30 kids romping around in this large area (about 392 shy of what Tim was looking for). Lucas had set up play sets and kid tables and all sorts of things appealing to children for day care. What baffled Tim is how it looked like he spared no expense to make this area grand. Maybe he took too much care of his employee's children. A couple of kids were playing by themselves in a corner while several of the adults taking care of them were relaxing and getting some coffee. Angela broke out ahead of him and made her way over to one of the children, holding her up and smiling at her. This obviously relaxed her as she held the child and made her way over to a corner to sit down.
Tim noticed two doors to the area in back as he walked over to a desk by the elevator. This was probably the only area he was going to get information from as a man in casual clothes addressed him. "May I help you sir?"
Tim identified himself and asked about the nursery. "Do you service a lot of kids here?"
"Not really, just the ones that the employees bring in for us to take care of. We have a ratio of 2 to 1 of children to adults. "Have you had any more children than you usually have? Say, a dozen or so more at once?"
"Not really. Just the usual amount."
Tim frowned. This was a nice thing to note but it certainly wasn't getting himself anywhere. "Well thank you for your time."
Tim headed back over to the elevator as it was called off and waited. He idly turned around to look back in the area when he noticed the shoes of Angela. They were blue pumps, with a 3" chunky heel...
Tim made his way back over to Angela, as she was playing with her daughter. "Oh Cindy, we can't play horsey any more, you're getting much too big for that now!"
It hit Tim that Cindy was a lot bigger than she was about 2 minutes ago. He could tell that the child's hair was a bit longer and the clothes had a new edge of tightness, along with less baby fat on the child's figure.
Tim stood right by Angela, as she looked at him surprised and stood up. Her skirt slipped slightly as she was now looking Tim straight in the eye, with heels. She looked down at her shoes then back at Tim. "Weren't you shorter?"
Tim frowned. He wasn't the one getting shorter. As he looked around, he suddenly realized that a blast from the device must have hit this area, as the babies started to grow and the parents started to shrink. Tim thought only one thing at this moment.
Oh shit!
continued in Athena Investigation pt. 4
Contact the author at lorekeep@phuze.com
Other Stories by Lorekeep
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