Theodore let out a burst of air, slowly coughing up an hour’s worth of smoke. Mick had pulled the limo over to the quarry across from a large concrete facility. The building was wide, taking up three blocks. The building’s color was solid tan. The wind of the wasteland whipped the dirt and soil into the building. If not for the solid edges of the building it would disappear into the brownish tan of the wilderness. Glimmering on the edge of the property was a large twenty-foot chain-link fence. At the top of the fence were several layers of razor wire that was the graveyard to many birds and a few rodents. Theodore thought it looked daunting though there was nothing inherently sinister about it. Derek cracked the champagne bottle on the side of the limo denting the metal.

“Doc, lez go. Clock iz a tikn,” he gurgled.

Theodore took another breath and made his way back into the limo. Trying not his hardest not breathe. He tried to calm down. Hoping Chester was not nosy and left Eollx where she was. He knew that was unlikely given Chester’s inherent curiosity. He knew once Chester lifted that blanket his life was over. He would be court-martialed, found guilty, and sent to the chair. It would be a small punishment to the fate Eollx would receive. She would likely to be returned to her cell on closer guard digging deeper into her skull and scaring deep into her bones. He wanted to weep knowing he had let her down. The Widow had made it clear it was up to him to get her away, to Texas, or possibly Minnesota. He felt foolish thinking he could just slip away in the night. Traveling down the highway away from these men, he should have known he would have never gotten away. Now sandwiched in a limo rolling further and further away from her, he was at a loss of what to do. The best he could hope for was a miracle.

Derek was on the last leg of his cigar, biting and chewing the paper till there was just a stub of wet paper and ash pressed in his fingertips. He crushed the nub in his hands, sending ash all over the seat. Lifting his closed fist over to Duncan he opened his hand and dropped all of the ash and little bits of ember on Duncan’s head. Duncan frantically brushed his head as Derek roared with laughter in his seat. Duncan picked up some of the embers and began throwing them at his brother. Derek swatted each one as if they were bees.

“Na Duncan dontcha be burnz me,” Derek mumbled in-between laughs.

“No,” Duncan respond in his usual monotone.

Theodore clutched the handle, hoping the door would break off its hinge and he would be thrown from the limo. He guessed he would likely sustain a good portion of scrapes and bruises, but it would free him from this prison of juvenile behavior. The ash and smoke became a larger mess as the brothers continued to fight. Theodore believed it could not get any worse as Derek stood from his seat with a handful of ash ready to throw it on Duncan when the limo came to screeching halt, tripping Derek forward, spinning out of control landing him directly onto Theodore, covering them both in ash. Theodore pressed hard against Derek’s sweaty stomach, trying to grab a few breaths of air. Derek stood up, catching his belt buckle on Theodore’s chin. He waddled over to window, slowly punching it with his ash covered hand.

“Mick ya dum bastard watcha doin jerkin us around fir?”

“We are at the gate sir,” Mick said in a yawn.

“Awz rite rite,” Derek gurgled.

The side window rolled down and Derek flashed his badge. The gate clicked open and rolled over the dirt mixing with the cloud of smoke leaving the limo, creating a deep haze, making it nearly impossible to see. Theodore pulled himself back onto the seat, brushing the ash and debris of his suit and hat. They rolled to a stop and Duncan motioned for Theodore to open the door. As he did, Derek leaned forward and caught his arm.

“Ya know ware ya goen?” He coughed.

“Yes. I recognize the place,” Theodore responded softly.

“Goodz mez n Duncan don’t want to walkz aroundz if we dont has ta. Anit dat rite Duncan?”

“Yes,” Duncan mumbled, closing his eyes, and sliding back in his chair.

Theodore wasted no time exiting the limo. The clean air outside the building was a welcome refresher he never knew he wanted. Derek stuck his fat hand out the window in a final wave. Mick pulled away from the building. Theodore looked up at it, the size looked taller from a distance. As Theodore approached the main door, he noticed that its size came from its width, not its height. The foundation dug deep into the ground, suggesting levels of underground passages.

He pushed the main door open. The fresh, clean tile and the perfectly symmetrical chairs felt more familiar to him than he had experienced in the last week. The weak lighting helped as did the empty smell of recently used cleaners. Where the smell wasn’t pleasant, anything apart from cigar smoke and stale alcohol was appealing to him at this moment. The lobby was longer than he had expected. The distance between the door and the main reception desk felt like an eternity to walk.

The desk was black, contrasting the white floor and the cream-colored walls and ceiling. It stood there like a daunting stone in the desert. On either side of the desk were two glass doors reaching to the ceiling. The one on the left said “Laboratories.” The one on the right said “Administration.” The woman sitting behind the desk had dark black hair wound tightly into a bun. Her lipstick looked mismatched. Her top lip looked pink and her bottom lip looked red. She was dressed in a polka dot shirt buttoned up to the top of her neck. Pinned to the tip of her nose was a pair of dark horned rim glasses. Theodore approached her desk, trying to make sure all the ash was brushed off his person. Before he could speak, she cut him off.

“Appointment number?” She bleated.

“See here is the thing-” he stated

“Appointment number?” She said again, seeming not to notice him.

“I don’t have one but-”

“No appointment number, no access. Please vacate the building per the door you entered,” she said pointing to the main door.

“I’m sorry I just-” he began again.

“No appointment number, no access. Please vacate the building per the door you entered,” she repeated without a beat.

“Please! I need to meet with a doctor in the labs,” he pleaded.

“No appointment number, no access. Please vacate the building per the door you entered,” she repeated.

Her redundant mockingbird mentality began to grate on Theodore. He wanted to yell at her, but he knew she would just throw him out. Reluctantly he sighed.

“I need access per the request of Derek and Duncan Twillmen,” he said, trying his best to not throw up the words as they left his mouth.

She looked up from her desk and blinked twice at him but didn’t say anything. She reached under her desk and buzzed open the “Laboratories” door.

“Follow the hallway down to the staircase on the right. Travel down the staircase case for exactly four flights. From there travel down the floor past three office doors and one janitor closet. Enter the door on the left and follow that hallway all the way down to the elevator. Board the elevator and press -6. Wait on the elevator till you arrive. Upon arrival take a right then a left, two more rights and then down another staircase for two floors. Walk out of that staircase all the way down the hallway to a door on your right. Knock twice and you will be where you should be,” she said, not even stopping to take a breath.

She gave a plastic smile and looked back to her desk. Theodore only understood half of her directions but was not about to ask her to repeat it. He gave her a weak wave and walked through the glass doors. He was not fully through the doors when they started to close, and he had to duck through them to get in.

He started down the hall. The walls were whiter than the floor. Their sheer brightness appeared as if the walls themselves were lighting up. He expected to see doors leading to offices but there was nothing but pale white hallways leading to a black wall at the far end. Reaching the end of the hallway he turned to the right to go down the staircase but there was nothing there. He placed his hand on the wall. The smoothness and the warmth made Theodore uncertain what material they were made of. He looked back at the glass doors. The hallways appeared to triple in length. He was about to make the trip back to the glass door when the soft click of a door echoed behind him. Surprised by this, as he had not seen any doors on his travel down the hallway, he turned his shoulder to see a young woman peering out of a door in the black wall. He was certain it was not there the last time he looked.

“Can I help you?” She asked, in a mousy little voice.

Her hair was thin blonde, still golden but seeming like it was fading. She was young, perhaps fresh out of college, and yet she had large bags under her eyes. She wore a white lab coat that hung on her large as the base was just above the floor. Her eyes were blue and green the exact placement of the eyes was exactly linear it seemed if someone has spliced two face to create one. Theodore found himself staring too much.

“Um yes…I was looking for a doctor. I was told by the Twillmen brothers that my presence was requested,” he said attempting to break his focus.

“Doctor Piller?” She asked with faint smile.

He nodded quickly.

“Hi! I’m Doctor Crown. I made the request for you. Please come in,” she said joyfully.

Theodore was shocked but followed her behind the door. Behind it was another white hallway like the first, but this one the floor had changed from a bright white tile to a mesh stainless steel grid that showed the floors beneath it. Theodore could easily spot every technician working hard at their own stainless-steel tables. Midway down the hallway the walls shifted from bright white to perfectly clean and clear windows overlooking a three-story atrium full of scientists. Each one working frantically. Theodore stared hard at the facility. The fast movement of each scientist seemed as if they were concerned for some fast approaching deadline but what exactly they were working on was unclear.

“How was your journey here,” she said with genuine interest.

“Fine,” he said

“The Twillmen brothers can be quite crass I know. I am sorry if they caused you any problems.”

Her pleasant dementor and soft voice were like a drink of water to Theodore.

“No, no problems,” he said doing his best to lie. “Forgive me Doctor Crown. I was a bit surprised to be meeting with, I guess what I am saying, I was expecting someone more-”

“Masculine? One could make similar judgements about you Doctor,” she said sharply, yet not losing the pleasantness of her voice.

Theodore smiled to himself at her quickness.

“I was going to say older. I didn’t know they employed people so young,” he said attempting to save face.

“You met Chester, he is rather young,” she responded half-jokingly.

“Yes, but I didn’t think Chester was a scientist,” he quipped back.

“Ah now I see you were expecting all the scientists here to be older,” she smiled.

“Well the that is traditional,” he said, still trying to save face.

“We’re not exactly traditional here,” she said sliding her badge through the sliding door that led out to the atrium.”

Theodore nodded as they walked out. The facility stretched out the length of the building. Standing in the atrium Theodore noticed all the scientists hugged the walls, not a single one walking into the center of the room. He turned to Doctor Crown.

“Wouldn’t it be wiser to have the scientists work in the center of the room. It just seems like wasted space?”

“I agree it does seem like that,” she said with soft laugh.

She waved him over to her small stainless-steel table that was covered in papers and few test tubes as well as a crystal ashtray, which Theodore thought was poorly placed to next to the tubes.

“I am sorry. For earlier,” he said sheepishly.

She shrugged, continuing to hold her half smile as she pulled a long cigarette filter out of her lab coat.

“It’s not like you were entirely wrong. I am only here because my father made it happen. Who do you know?” She said sternly.

Theodore shifted uneasily.

“I’d rather not say.”

She nodded, lighting a cigarette and handed him a ledger.

“You’re a surveyor, right? I think they did their math wrong when they were testing the ground.”

Theodore scanned the pages. The usual 0.8 grams of igneous and .13 grams of volcanic. He read over the ledger. He hadn’t noticed when he first entered the atrium, but the room began to slowly rise in heat. Paging over each conclusion the numbers seemed to be odd. 1.6lbs of igneous and 5.3lbs of volcanic which was much larger than usual samples. He was concerned when he noticed every mention of radiation was initialed by Chester. He closed the ledger and handed it back to her.

“The math seems fine, but their sample size is too large. If they are shipping the samples in that large of quantities, it could be damaged in transit. Tell them to cut their portions and your numbers won’t seem off.”

“Thank you. Perhaps you can help me with a little bit of chemistry. While you are here,” she said with a hint of flirtation.

Theodore shrugged.

“I am not a chemist, but I will gladly take a look at the math.”

She grinned again, tapping the ash of her cigarette lightly in the crystal ashtray. She reached under her table and pulled out a small metal box no bigger than a music box. She clicked it open. Inside was a tube of blue liquid and a formula sheet. Theodore recognized the liquid in the tube immediately. Eollx was draining the liquid from her veins not more than twelve hour ago. He did his best to mask his knowledge but the swirl of thin smoke that danced around Doctor Crown’s face made him feel he was not convincing. She handed him the formula page.

“Do you think these need changes Doctor?

He took the page from her and read over it. His heart sank as he saw the experiment. The slow mixture of iron and calcium into this liquid. The result seemed to be a deuteriation reaction to the liquid that eventually fizzed into nothing. Theodore clutched the page tight knowing full well that Eollx had have been subject to these tortures and he wondered if her torturer was standing right in front of him.

“Doctor?” She inquired again.

“No, it seems to be doing what it was designed for, I believe,” he said hoarsely

She placed the page back in the box. As she closed the lid, the echo of the lid clasping down mirrored the loud sound of a door being slammed. The click of perfectly waxed shoes on the floor, plus the unmistakable rhythm of each click made Theodore know who it was without turning. Before he knew, he could feel gust of smoke against his neck as Chester clasped his hands hard on Theodore’s shoulders.

“Oh Teddy, Teddy, Teddy have you gotta some splaning to do,” He said with an ear to ear grin.