The Disparate One

Chapter 10

Somewhere in the middle of the ocean floor lay a giant dome, shimmering with its significance of an engineering marvel. It was one of the best places in the facility to hold such a jaw-dropping view. With that, it was decided to be where the operations of the management would take place for the entire lifetime of the facility.

The dome wasn't also just glowing, something was penetrating, shaking its thick glass panels and into the sheer pressure of the ocean. Music.

The new head of the management was, no doubt, in love with music, mostly orchestra, classic ones. He always did this during these hours of the day. Why? No one in the facility knew.

His beloved turntable connected to the speakers placed throughout within the dome played one of his favorite classical music composed by Antonio Vivaldi. Hearing this particularly made him feel more powerful and indestructible. Of course, he was. He was artificially immortal.

Standing in the middle of the contoured rows of podiums was Cal. He wore a gold cape that glided on the gold floor behind him together with a pair of glistening epaluatte, both of which had the logo of the facility engraved on them. His left metal fingers on his gold cane tapped in sync with the beat. His right hand grasped the glass of wine, which was, you guessed it, colored gold.

He stood straight in silence, letting himself indulge the music surrounding him, remembering the old days when he used to attend these types of events. He could still hear the claps of the audience, the comfortable seats, the atmosphere filled with the scent of old instruments that aroused him.

He had his eyes closed as he shifted his weight onto the cane. His entire gold body reflected everything around him as clear as day. His sharp ears, enough to cut through bones, were erected as he slightly tilted his head towards one of the speakers hung above.

The giant double-door cast out of two giant blocks of gold swung open noiselessly behind him. Another robot walked in with a tablet in his grasp. It was Cal's newest assistant. Unlike Cal, he had no trace of a single speck of gold on his body. Not a single robot in the facility had one. Instead, his assistant was decorated with pure silver.

The assistant walked and stood behind Cal who stood tall while standing motionlessly. The assistant looked back to the door where two groups of guards stood next to it and shook their heads simultaneously at him. He gulped as he raised his right hand and tapped on Cal's shoulder.

Immediately, Cal's square eyes appeared on his face before turning around to his assistant with an utter look of disgust. Keeping three fingers on his wine, he waved the other two gently in the air, pausing the music.

Once silence took over, Cal glaringly raised a brow at the shorter one.

"S-section 8 have been dismantled as you requested, sir," the assistant stuttered, fighting the urge to hide behind the tablet.

Cal remained his death stare as if lasers would start shooting out of his eyes. The assistant returned his eyes to the tablet and resumed reading.

"Facility Two reported suspicions of another rebellion, we received at least 8 trillion dollars of investment for the first quarter, and... we are just months away from completing Project New Age," the assistant gave a tiny smile, but it did not affect.

Cal's ears softened when he sighed away from the other's gaze. He swirled the wine still in his hand before turning and walking down the slope, straight to the door. The assistant pursued and the guards at the door returned to their position in time when Cal passed them with his cape flowing.

"Anything else... necessary?" asked Cal as he walked straight across the hall where the offices of the management were adjacent to the dome.