Anthology of Speculative Scribblings

Way Light

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Siamu Faraz double-checked that the door locks were programmed with the correct codes and that no alarm had gone off before activating his hand-held scanner and venturing further into the building. Theoretically, no one should be able to tell that anyone had even opened the door as long as a quick scan bounced back the right codes and that should buy him enough time to examine the place and leave without anyone the wiser. Technically, even to private investigators like himself, this building was off limits. Unexplained happenings and disappearances tended to attract high level government attention and that attention had resulted in an immediate and severe lockdown on any information related this place. Luckily, Siamu's contacts had come through for him and, due to one of them, he now had blueprints from as recent as two years ago. That was ancient information for this part of town since constant construction and remodeling changed its face almost on a daily basis, but it would have to do.

He kept the blueprints up on his holotablet as he walked through the empty corridors only lit by dim emergency lighting. Luckily, the walls were cheaply enough made that his scanner could penetrate right through them into the rooms on either side. It would take more time than he had to fully search the building and the clock was running. He was sure his hack would cover him all the way till morning when the next round of agents showed up, but Siamu never took chances like that. He had three hours and that was it. In and out as fast as possible. If he didn't get any good data, he might try again another night, but only after he had a chance to make sure his trip tonight had gone undetected.

So far the blueprints had matched the building so his tension eased a bit and he picked up his pace, angling to reach an area he had marked red on the third subfloor. Rumors passed along by some of his contacts indicated that something had occurred in that area, but none could pinpoint exactly what that might be. Only that it was weird and weird equaled opportunity. He could smell it.

No, really. He could smell something. Right as he stepped out of the stairwell onto the third subfloor (the lifts having been turned off for the night), he nearly sneezed at the smell. Siamu scooted over to a darker corner, flipped up a mask over his mouth and nose, and switched his scanner for an analyzer. A few seconds later the analyzer returned 'Substance unknown. No toxin detected.' He relaxed and put it back in his bag, but he kept the mask half up on his face as a precaution. The scanner showed nothing unusual or organic in the surrounding 20 meters so he pulled up the holo blueprint again and rechecked his bearings. On the map the marked red area lay not too far down a corridor which branched off quite a few meters to his left.

Goal in sight, Siamu slowed down his pace even further and carefully scanned everything within 20 meters of his position. He could extend the scanner's detection range further but only if he sacrificed detail and this near the marked area he didn't want to risk it. But it detected nothing aside from furniture and other equipment. As the ratio of equipment to normal furniture increased, he wondered if this area had held a secret lab. There were no records indicating such a thing existed, but that was only in the public sector files. The actual records might be locked away already by the government and its minions. He kicked himself mentally. The government agencies weren't all bad and they did work for the good of the planet, but he held a grudge at how hard they made it to dig out the information he needed as a P.I. Clients paid him to find information, not to try and fail.

The smell grew stronger as he approached the middle area of the red zone. It danced in his nose with sharp little jabs and he had to concentrate very carefully on not sneezing. He had the feeling that once he gave in, the sneezing would not relent until he retreated from the area. The analyzer buzzed in his bag and, once he retrieved it, the screen read 'Organic substance detected. Non-toxic.'