CODE RED

CHAPTER THREE

The White Tower

Kai stood in front of the tall building, looking at the card he held so tightly in his hand that had his name on it. With a deep exhale he entered the front door.

"Kai! Welcome! Follow me please. I will show you around." Doctor Jeong was awaiting him at the reception and immediately shook Kai's hand, squeezing just so very lightly. The boy was clearly in awe from the surroundings, looking around like a child in disneyland.
Everything looked neat and clean, all the walls were lit by long LED stripes and even the floor looked like no one ever stepped on it. They passed a tall figure near the reception and that was the first time Kai saw a White Knight in real life. It stood there, gun in hands scanning the unusual human presence in the building. It looked friendly, yet deadly. He always respected them although his friends from Black Dragons would probably try to either damage them or completely destroy them. He heard them talk about the Knights. Mostly just making up theories how they will one day try to enslave humanity, or how their creator wants to take over the world...
The doctor showed him a Lab where they made ciphers for each Knight, Jeong mentioned that it was something to prevent them from misbehaving.

"It is like a 'turn off' button. Safety is our first priority after all and we can't have them running around the city, shooting anything that moves." Jeong explained.
He led him to the main production with few human workers in it, but overall everything was operated by robots.

"Those guys are called operators. They control all the machines here. Except that one." The doctor pointed at a massive machine that stood there and watched over the workers.

No gun in hand.

"It doesn't need a weapon. That thing is called 3i0s. It is a weapon." Jeong chuckled.

Kai looked at the man, surprised by his words.

Is he reading my fucking mind or what?!

"Uh... aren't they in danger?" the boy asked, cold sweat covering his back. Is this place safe? How many accidents did they already have?

"You don't need to be scared. 3i0s is not programmed to kill. He has heart rate sensors of all operators and he is only watching after them. If they would try to do anything unusual, it would notify me and Mister Xu and it would only seize the culprit." Jeong said calmly as they both stepped into an elevator, his thumb pressing one of the buttons on the panel.

"Mister Xu?" Kai asked. He already heard that name a few times. The founder of the White Tower. Of Prime-Tech Inc.

"You're curious aren't you?" His smirk made Kai shiver.

"I would be sad if you weren't. But I have to disappoint you. Mister Xu is a very busy person. He doesn't like people. He hardly likes me!" Jeong sighed and ran his fingers through his neatly brushed hair.

The elevator stopped at the seventh floor. Kai exited and looked around, seeing few of the available rooms there. Each door had a nametag and as they walked around, his eyes stumbled across one name.

Jonathan Rhys.

He thought of the news report almost immediately.
Disappeared without a trail. No one knows anything. No one remembers anything. He knew that the security tape was cut off, perhaps some people in here saw what happened to him.

Jeong noticed how he stared at the door, clearing his throat.

"That office is locked due to the investigation. No one has access to it except the police and the person holding the keys." He started walking again and looked over at the younger one who was still lost in his thoughts.

"We all miss him. He was a good man..." Kai could hear the pain in Jeong's voice when he mentioned Professor Rhys. An uneasy feeling filled his heart. Maybe he shouldn't talk about Rhys in front of him.

"Here's my office. If you'll need anything you're more than welcome to come in. I am inside most of the time even after my work hours." He quickly changed his expression and led Kai to another room.

"Here's your little office. There are two other programmers that will teach you how to work in our program, but I will show you the basics." He waited for Kai to enter and sat down at one of the desks, standing next to him and softly tapping on the screen, opening the first file.