T-23PM

That night, I preferred not to use the elevator in the park.

When I arrived at the agreed place, after having gotten rid of the operative's clothes and with the briefcase in my hand, my only concern was to go see who would pick up the package. I didn't know how much time I had until everyone in the central node realized that "something" was missing and that, oddly enough, that "something" had disappeared during a brief blackout of the entire node and surrounding area.

"The interference only disabled the sensors in the center of the city. The rest of the nodes, including this one could still be under the control of..."

As I reached the elevator and stood next to a group that wanted to go up as well, I was struck by its appearance. It was too new and very clean. When its doors opened, inside I saw that no one was talking. Everyone kept neutral faces as people entered one after another, passing me. By the time I noticed, the doors had closed and the elevator was already on its way to the next floor. I stared at its dark metallic base as I listened to the scraping of the metal of its structure as it moved. The frustration of not being able to go up was replaced with a tranquility that I could not explain at the time. I took the stairs.

The meeting point was the fifth floor of one of the city's multi-platform parks. The path was long. The floors were almost ten meters apart; however, the adrenaline rush with every second I remembered how important the package in my hands was made me forget the fatigue.

"Floor 5."

The change was abrupt. As I climbed the last step I noticed a change. The lights of the city did not fully illuminate the place, whose only lights came from a few poles scattered along a main road. Nor could I hear the bustle of the lower floors. It could be heard, but from a distance. There was only one person there. A dark silhouette in the distance, leaning on a railing. The place where that person was standing was my destination. I moved forward without hesitation.

I stopped, turned to the sides to check that it was not a trap. The silhouette suddenly turned and looked at me, I also looked at her. It was a girl. Her hair was violet, purple or blue, I couldn't see because of the darkness. She stopped looking at me. I waited several seconds, alert. Finally I resumed walking.

Something seemed strange to me. Why was this girl ignoring me? If she was the one who would pick up the package, she seemed very indifferent to what was going on around her, indeed, in a situation like this, where the fate of the country is at stake, I would say that this girl was being negligent. The closer I got, the angrier and more tense I became.  I stopped about ten feet away from her and inspected her with my eyes. At that distance I could see her clearly despite the lack of light. She looked young, let's say about fifteen years old, that is, ten years younger than me. Her attire was black and she wore a white sweater under her jacket. His hair was pink.

-Are you expecting a package? -I said.
-Yes.

His voice didn't give me many clues as to his age, but his face did. I confirmed my suspicions when she turned toward me fully and looked at me with her yellow eyes. Her face showed a neutral expression like the environment around her.

I approached with the briefcase and placed it in front of her, then stepped back. She was silent.

-I would recommend that you take it with you immediately.

Shortly after hearing me, she picked up the briefcase and placed it beside her. She looked at it for a moment and her pupils glowed with a faint sky-blue light that quickly disappeared.

-Finally..." she said with a sigh. Then she stretched out her arms and leaned against the railing behind her.
-It's not safe to be here. Come on, you need to leave.
-What's the point? It's all over now. I just saw what will happen tomorrow.

An uneasiness came over me. I remembered something one of the team told me years ago.

-Wait...," I said. That light in your pupils... are they Eyes of Logos?

The girl didn't answer or move.

-Who knows, for now I just want to see a little bit of the world we will have tomorrow.

She, with her gaze fixed on the night landscape behind, caused me some curiosity. It was true that the operation had been a success and that what was in that briefcase would undoubtedly cause a stir perhaps all over the world; however, to say that this landscape would be the new world, caught my attention and I placed myself next to her with my eyes fixed on what she was observing. It was only the city, almost a hundred meters below. It was there that I realized. Something peculiar was making me unable to take my eyes off the nightscape now in front of me. Perhaps the beauty of the lights in the distance, the feeling of being far away from the chaos I had to travel daily, the strange sensation of being in front of a mysterious entity, impossible to understand, that was playing to show me distant places and to hide others from me, some of them, all of them or maybe another was the reason that made me stay watching the darkness full of tiny lights. Absorbed in the hypnotizing calm of that enigmatic landscape I understood what that young girl meant and I felt part of the tranquility that she emanated. Truly, this time we had succeeded.