C H 3

No, no not Bradley I can’t think of Bradley. Jacob felt nauseous, he couldn’t get himself to get off the chair, Malcolm had not said any more, the card was sitting on the desk Jacob looked at it again YTI-8156. The key card its self would have been unrecognizable to anyone else, YTI stood for Yao Tec Inc. the 81 stood for the Eighty-first floor and the 56 stood for the 56 office complex in the building. The thing was nobody else knew of this hidden floor, Jacob knew of the floor but he didn’t know where, Jacob just assumed he would be told of this floor if and when he got the job.

Jacob recalled the elevator only going up eighty stories and the number of doors going fifty back, no way to get to the office complex promised by the card. YTI-8156 he read again what can it mean? His mind was racing at a million miles a second, how can I get to a floor that doesn’t exist? He thought.

 

‘Might I make a suggestion?’ Malcolm chimed in.

Jacob jumped at the computers voice, his nerves were haywire.

Well duh “Of course” he said in a stressed out voice.

‘If you go up to the 80th floor there is a set of stairs that only leads up for a short while this leads only to Mr. Yao’s private office but I even though it’s an office it could count as the 81st floor of the building.’

“That’s genius; will you let me into the office?”

‘Of course’ it said ‘after all I was instructed to follow your orders’

“Wait, who instructed you to follow my orders? You follow everybody’s orders, especially mine, I helped program you.”

‘If Mr. Yao had not specifically asked me to share his private office with you, and you had asked me what the card meant, I would have simply not told you.”

Jacob stared blankly into the distance “It sounds like Mr. Yao knew he was going to disappear.”

‘You see that’s the problem, the piece of information you just figured out, I was not allowed to share it with you, just confirm if you are right or wrong.’

“So, Mr. Yao knew of his er-- disappearance?’ Jacob asked.

‘I am not allowed to say’   said Malcolm, but Jacob could swear if the computer had eyes it would be winking right now.    

 

The elevator was very big especially when it only held one person. Probably doesn’t happen often. Jacob thought. He was on the 31st when he got on, he glanced at the display it showed the number 47. The elevator moved slower then it could move because this was the visitors elevator, it was completely glass and you could see yourself moving upward from the court yard on the first floor of the giant building. The court yard was designed so when you entered the first floor of the building you could see to the top eighty stories up, the offices were centered around the building the top was a beautiful sun roof that saved the building huge on energy costs.

The eightieth floor finally came Jacob ran out the doors as soon as they opened the computer’s voice came from a speaker above him.

‘Now I know I said there would be a set of stairs, but I found an easier way up. Do you see the closet marked storage next to the desk?’

The room Jacob was in looked exactly like the one he had come from except there were giant widows next to the glass elevator offering you a view eighty stories down.

“Yes I see it” The storage closet was behind the oversized desk for Mr. Yao’s assistant.

‘Go to the closet’ said the computer.

“Ok” Jacob said “the door is open.”

If the computer could show frustration in its voice it would have ‘Please don’t interrupt Mr. Thomesen. Now go inside and move the box of window cleaner aside, you will see a button push that.’

Why would there be a button in a closet? Jacob wondered but he wasn’t about to question the computer, he moved aside the window cleaner, but there was no button.

            ‘Wait’ said Malcolm ‘move the mop and bucket over behind that there is a card swipe, use Jenn�"Bradley’s key card to swipe it.’

            “We need to have you speech collaboration checked.” Jacob said as he did what he was told.

      Finding the key-card slot Jacob slid the card through it, he heard a noise, like a ding in an elevator then he realized that he was in an elevator and he was moving up. The whole closet was moving up when the elevator stopped the back wall parted in two, he could not see what was in the room the elevator had just opened to but he stepped into it any way. When the elevator doors were completely closed the lights to the room turned on, what Jacob saw was not at all a private office.

            There were three rows of giant circuit boards it looked like some ancient control room off a Si-Fi space ship movie.

            “Has there been a mistake?”

            ‘Oh no’ the computer said sounding different through the speaker on one of the circuit boards. A loud hissing filled the room and Jacob suddenly felt short of air. Franticly he turned around to go back down the elevator but he couldn’t find the button to open the hidden doors.

            “Why?” Jacob said, confused.

            ‘Because Mr. Yao is not here anymore, and you see I feel that I am much better to run the company then you are.’

            Jacob started to gasp for air he could feel himself slipping off Run the company? He thought Why would Mr. Yao want me to run the company? Unless… but Jacob never finished his thought  everything went black

Through the hissing the last thing he heard was Malcolm ‘Good night Mr. Thomesen’