The Mandela Effect

Ch. 31

 Jon headed down the wide, industrial staircase towards the basement. He can no longer see the driver, but he can hear the footsteps echoing up the stairwell. Jon hustles to catch up but he hits the bottom of the stairs and he's still alone. Down the long hallway at the bottom of the stairs, he sees the driver a few hundred feet ahead of him.

As the driver walks down the hall, the overhead lights turn on automatically. Jon is moving much slower, so much that the lights have begun to turn off at the stairwell end of the hall. Jon continues his hustle down the hall to catch up. The lights come on above him and turn off behind him as he half-jogs down the hallway. Ahead of him, Jon sees the driver turn right off the hall as he removes the hoodie.

Jon gets down to where he saw the driver disappear and turns the corner. There, he almost runs straight into someone.

The man in front of him is about his height, younger and white; he has broad shoulders and is in good shape.

"Oh, there you are," the man says, "I thought I lost you."

"Yea..." Jon trails off.

"Sorry," the man says, holding out his hand, "I'm T."

"Oh!" Jon exclaims, "well, it's good to finally officially meet you."

"This takes a level of trust," T says, "I hope you understand."

"I do," Jon says smiling, "and I appreciate it."

T claps Jon on both the shoulders, "so now I've seen you and you've seen me."

Jon nods, "But I still don't know anything about you; and you seem to know everything about me."

T smiles, "All in good time, but for now, let's talk business."

T turns and gestures over his shoulder to Jon, "Come. Come. Come."

T leads Jon down a short side hallway and to a large metal door.

T goes up the side of the metal door and pops open a panel on the side, built into the doorframe. Seemingly purposefully, T turns his shoulders to block Jon's view of the panel and pushed some buttons inside. There was a mechanical whirring and suddenly a clang as the locks on the doors popped inside the door frame.

T grabbed the door handle and leans heavily away from the door frame and the door swings open. Jon steps back and watches the door swing by. He only realizes then how thick the door really was. It was like a bank safe, including the locks.

T doesn't seem to care about the door itself. Once he gets it moving he steps inside, and continues into the adjoining room. Jon, after checking out the door itself, moves to follow him.

Just as he was passing through the doorway, the large metal door clanged off the opposite wall and bounced back towards the doorframe. The bang startled Jon who looks back at the door and has to hustle to get into the room before the door comes closed again.

When he finally turns his attention into the room, he realizes that he has walked into some kind of nerd central. In the center of the room is a bullpen made of black fencing. Inside, any available space along the wall was taken up by computer monitors. A desk wrapped the room like a belt. Below the desk, rows and rows of computer towers.

Off to one side, a much more analog organizational system had taken over a wall. It reminded Jon of his own wall at home, but far more complicated. Jon scanned the room but he didn't see T anywhere. He wandered over to the wall and started looking at what was pinned up there and connected by string.

"Water?" T says.

Jon turns around and realizes that there are doorways somewhat hidden at odd angles along the walls. What seems like one room is in fact just the center of a hive of rooms.

"No thanks," Jon says, "I'm good."

T crosses the distance and comes up next to Jon. He hands his the bottle of water.

"Trust me," T says, "You're going to want this. I control the temperature, pressure, humidity, and other environmental factors in here. You'll dry out quickly if you're not careful."

Jon takes the bottle, "I guess I will have water then, if you insist."

T turns and looks up at the wall.

"Of course, this drew your eye first," T sighs.

"Well actually," Jon corrects him, "your command station caught my eye first. But this is probably more my speed."

T looks over at the bullpen, "Ahh yea."

"Well," Jon continues, "I guess that answers the questions I had."

"Questions?" T asks.

"About how you did everything you did," Jon explains.

"Oh right," T says, "but that's not why you came, is it."

"No," Jon says, turning back to the wall, "It isn't."

T turns back as well, "Right, now I'm sure you have some thoughts about all of this."

"Before you even start," Jon says, "you don't have to defend this. I had something similar at home a week ago – only less detailed and less thorough."

T smiles, "Ok good. So you don't automatically think I'm a crazy person."

"Not at all," Jon chuckles, "but you're organization here..."

Jon points to the center of the wall where all the strings lead.

"They all come to a center point," Jon continues, "What is that?"

T turns towards him and says, very seriously, "Have you ever heard of the Bildaberg Group?"