"This is a big deal for InTeque Enterprises, Aeris," urged my boss.
I fidgeted in the leather chair in front of his desk. The brilliant afternoon light trickled in from the skylights above and illuminated his excited face even more.
"I don't know, Ivan," I moaned. "You know how I feel about this. I didn't come to this company to create death machines."
Ivan looked at me sympathetically. "Believe me, I know. That's not what we will be doing. We will be protecting lives. Remember it's defense, Aeris."
I stared at the floating holographic image on his desk. It showed the blueprint of several satellites that would be circling the Earth.
"And what's so special about these satellites?" I asked with an arched eyebrow. I didn't understand why these satellites warranted such a large investment in our company.
Ivan chuckled, giddy with excitement that I asked.
"They are nearly impossible to detect! They're the first-ever satellites created using InTeque Invisicores. They produce no frequency detectable by current security protocols."
I looked at him skeptically. "You know we haven't perfected that yet. No one has even developed the software yet since you just tore me out the Clean Energy Department yesterday and Lana was suppose to be starting it, but no one has seen her in weeks," I grumbled.
Lana was one of our newer programmers. The new department left a lot of room for growth so we had hired several new employees, but they weren't cut out for it, it seemed. Lana wasn't the only one who had left without a word, there was a handful before her. It was strange but no doubt this work wasn't for the weak minded.
Ivan grinned at me even wider.
"What?" I asked with a hint of dread.
"What if I told you I handled it?" Ivan replied, tapping the floating screen on his desk to talk to his secretary.
"Lulu, be a dear and send him in now."
"Of course, Mr. Noir," she chirped back happily.
As soon as she said it, the frosted french glass doors slid open and a man with pink hair and a cocky smile walked in.
"Tobias," I muttered.
Tobias was eccentric but brilliant. It was this asset that made most of us look past his unusual pink hair and trendy clothes. He was a newer addition to the company, functioning as a Bio-programmer, filling my former position in the BioTeque Replacement department. I had only needed to mentor him briefly as he caught on almost immediately. He was very self-confident for a newbie. His ego needed to be fed more than his desire to help others.
"It's good to see you again, Aeris," he said smugly.
"Always a pleasure, Tobias," I replied monotonously.
"The teams back together!" Ivan cooed happily.
I looked at Ivan inquisitively. "Will Tobias be joining the Global Defense R&D Department?"
"A temporary addition," Ivan corrected and nodded to Tobias.
"It seems your little project is in need of some special programming," Tobias commented, tapping his wristband that showed 5 glowing little files. The wristband was a new InTeque device. The technology was brand new, having been created by our Tech division. No one outside of InTeque Enterprises had anything of the sort, seeing as Tobias had been directly involved in its creation.
His finger pressed to one and dragged it over to the hologram screen, replacing the image of satellites with a foreign command script.
I sat up straight in my chair. "What the hell is that?" I asked.
"X," Tobias stated blankly. "A programming language the world has never seen," he said with a dubious grin.
"And you're going to develop the software with it," Ivan added excitedly. "There's no one else I would trust with this. I've been speaking with Victor and this was his brainchild. He said the Invisicores are powerful hardware that should be used with a powerful program. He put the project in Tobias's hands and provided him the necessary parameters, but as it stands now, it is incomplete. It needs the Aeris charm."
Tobias looked at me with a smirk. "You're quite familiar with Victor, aren't you Aeris?"
It took all my might not to roll my eyes as I forced all my energy to focus them on Tobias without obvious irritation. Victor and I were seeing each other and it was no secret. The comment was no doubt just to let me know that he knew.
"Yes, I am," I answered quickly, analyzing the screen. "Why is this necessary? Why are we using a language like this to develop the software? It doesn't really make any sense to me."
Ivan shrugged. "This is what Victor wants. He said he's worried about traitors within the company and doesn't want anything leaked. He wants this developed in this language with no one other than you and Tobias seeing it."
I crossed my arms. Ivan was a careless executive who relied too much on conceptual skills and completely missed the note on technical skills. He was leaving Victor fully in charge of this, which considering his level of intellect, it wasn't surprising. Victor was the new director of the Global Defense R&D Department, coming to the company after we performed a limb replacement on his arm after I found him floating in the lake wounded.
He had warned me of similar things. He said there were people in the company that couldn't be trusted, though Tobias wasn't striking me as particularly trustworthy. But Victor had chosen him for this and I had to respect his decision. He always knew what he was doing and somehow he always alleviated my concerns.
"And what exactly are we putting in these satellites?" I asked Ivan, glancing at Tobias. "Why do you want two Bio-Programmers on this?"
"Isn't it obvious, Aeris?" Tobias answered with a knowing grin.
It was, I just wanted to hear someone say it out loud.
"They're biological weapons," Tobias answered, his voice trailing off now with the sight of him fading.
"Aeris..."
My head was throbbing and everything suddenly felt so hot.
"Aeris... wake up," I heard a whispered voice urging.
I forced my eyes open and saw Xan, Neron and Trish sitting against a steel wall. I felt delirious as I weakly pushed myself off the ground. I focused, trying to steady the haze of my vision. Xan was barely conscious, urging me towards him with a pained expression.
I struggled to crawl over to him. His eyes were bright orange from substance that had overtaken him and his body trembled. He was weak and barely able to stay conscious.
"Aeris," he wheezed desperately and I searched for his hands. They were behind his back, held by thick platinum looking handcuffs that were bound with a magnetic blue beam. There was no way I could get him out of those. My eyes drew to Neron and Trish who were both unconscious still and restrained the same way.
"My chest," he strained in a whisper.
My eyes drew to his chest and I now noticed his shirt was torn. I pulled it apart to reveal a strange rectangular box filled with an orange fluid being pumped into Xan's heart.
"The... neutralizer," he breathed. "It's pumping into my heart... and the rest... of my body."
I frowned, disgusted by the measure these beings had taken to incapacitate my comrades.
"Th-there should be a way... to shut it off," he informed.
I could hear a soft beeping, seemingly beeping to the pace of which it was pumping into him accompanied by a red light that matched the rhythm. I reached out and skimmed it gently with my fingers, searching the device and discovering a button. I tapped it and a hologram slide scale appeared. It was set to Max capacity.
Cautiously, I tap the scale and slid it all the way down with both the beeping and light dissipating before stopping all together.
"C-cover it," he urged. He didn't want them to know I had disabled their device.
I quickly pulled his shirt over it to keep it hidden.
"I'm going to disable Neron's and Trish's as well. Teo knows everything. He's coming for us."
He nodded, clenching his eyes closed in pain. I hated seeing him like that.
I crawled over to Neron and Trish and performed the same procedure on each of their devices. Neither of them were stirring yet, which was concerning. How were we going to get out of here? I didn't even know where we were anymore or how Teo would find us.
"Aeris," Xan murmured, eyes still closed. I returned to his side and touched his face gently.
His eyes barely opened, but it seemed like he was using every ounce of his strength to stay conscious for me.
"I'm sorry," he whispered weakly. "I failed you."
His words felt like a knife to my heart. Did he really think that? Did he not know that he was the only reason I was alive? How could he think like that?
"No you didn't," I sniffled, hating that he blamed himself. I cupped his face in my hands.
"Don't you give up," I urged with tears in my eyes as I looked straight into his. "We will get out of here. I don't care how bad it looks right now but we will all get out of here."
He was taken back by my words before a small smile crept across his face. "Y-you Earthlings are stronger...than we ever gave you credit for."
I returned his smile. "Don't you forget it, either."
Suddenly I heard the beeping of a keypad outside of the large steel door.
"Pretend to be unconscious," I urged quickly. "We can't let them know."
Xan nodded just as the door slid open and he let his head hang limp with his eyes closed.
Footsteps entered and I pretended to be trying to stir Xan.
"He can't help you now," Jedric's voice sounded behind me and I turned to face him with a glare. "No one can now," he chuckled looking behind him. "She's ready for you, boss."
From behind him another being stepped forward and I gasped recognizing the pink hair and the face looking down at me.
"Tobias..." I muttered in realization.
The cocky smirk I knew so well spread across his face.
"Actually," he began darkly, "Around these parts, people call me Raeland."
Author's Note
Hey, everybody! Hope you enjoyed the chapter! What are your thoughts on Tobias being Raeland? And what was Aeris working on? How can they get out of this? Thanks for reading and commenting! I love seeing your thoughts! You guys are the best! ☺️