The Transaction Room

"Please come," I say to response the knock on my door while my hand is putting my black mask back.

"Excuse me, Sir," A man with black tunic and sarong say politely after opening the door. "It's time for you to finalize your transaction."

"Okay," I reply before standing up.

"Can I come ?" Miss Lee asks to either me or the man. I turn my head to the man, requiring him to answer the question.

"Hmmm... pardon me, Madam. But only the owner of account can go to the transaction room," the man says, bowing a little to show his regret.

"Oh, okay.." Miss Lee says with a little pout to show her disappointment. Still, she stands up from her seat. "I am allowed to go to the rest room, right ?" She asks rhetorically.

"Of course, Madam," the man says.

Miss Lee smiles before slipping her hand and taking my upper arm. I touch her hand and led her to leave the room.

Led by a big man in front of us and followed by a big man behind us, we walk through corridor. When we are about to reach end of the corridor, the big man in front of us stop after talking to his two ways radio. Not long, a door about ten steps in front of us is opened. It is the door of the first balcony room, Room A.

I can feel Miss Lee's hand is holding my upper arm a little bit tighter. Without an effort to see her face, I can tell that Miss Lee gets tensed or maybe excited when the man who stayed in Room A comes out.

The man has average weight with a too much fat than necessary on his belly area. But I believe he had a great body when he was young. From his grey hair and how he moves, I'm guessing he is about 50 to 60 years old. He wears some kind of uniform, whether from army or government of a country. He has a lot of award pins on his uniform. His face is covered with plain white mask, similar to the color of his uniform. I believe he is an important person in his country.

After the man, also with two big men, disappear by stepping down the stairs, the big man in front of us turns his body and bow apologetically, "Pardon us for the inconvenient, Sir. According to the order of transaction, we were supposed to go after that man," He explains the reason we stopped.

"That's okay," I say unchantantly.

"Thank you for your understanding, Sir," the man says. "Shall we continue our journey, Sir ?"

Receiving my agreement, the man then starts his step to lead us down the stairs.

"Where's the rest room ?" Miss Lee asks the man when we arrive at the ground floor.

"Right before the transaction room, Madam," the man answers her.

"That's great. I better wait for you after and we could go back together," Miss Lee says to me, deliberately in English. "What do you think, Honey ?" She asks my opinion, once again in English.

"Sure," I reply, approving her request.

We walk in to am opened door that leads us to an aisle. The aisle is considered modest compared to the whole glamorous ballroom. Its floor is still covered with thick black carpet and its ceiling is also still decorated with chandeliers, but its wall is plain grey with no decoration on it.

"Here is the restroom, Madam," Once again the big man in front f us raises his voice when we almost pass a closed door with a woman icon on it at the left of our side.

"Oh, thank you," Miss Lee says before releasing her hand from my arm and walks to enter the door. Once she is inside, we continue our walk.

Merely twenty more meters, we stop in front of a tinted-glass door. The door has no sign on it, but I recognise it from the blueprint showed by King before that it is the door to the transaction room.

"You may enter the room now, Sir," the big man says to me after coordinating my arrival with his colleague. I nod then push the door before step in it.

Behind the door is a short blind corridor, merely few meters away before ended with a white wall. On both sides of the corridor's walls, there are two doors accross each other. On top of each door there is lamp. When the lamp is on, it means someone is inside the room, so ones outside are forbidden to enter the room. One may only enter the room when the lamp is off. The right door has "Billing Room" signage while the left one has "Handover Room" signage. The lamp on top of the Billing room is off while one on top of the Handover room is on. So I enter the Billing room.

"Good evening, Sir," A man behind a desk greets me. "Room E for item number 12. Am I correct, Sir ?" He asks my confirmation.

"Yes," I shortly reply while my hand groping my jacket's inner pocket to take ablack card that has been there all along.

Once receiving the card, the man swipe it through an EDC machine. "Your finger print please, Sir," the man asks me while handing a dmall finger print sensor.

I touch my index finger on it. A second later a beep is heard, signaling that the authorization has been aproved and my transaction is succeed.

"Congratulation, Sir," the man says while handing me two identical receipts. "Please go to the room across. You shall give one of these receipts to the seller, then they shall handover your product," the man give me the next instruction.

"Oh.. okay," I say, quickly receive the receipts then walk out of the room.

When I am out of the room, I see the man in room A has stood in front of the door. He must have been waiting to pay his second item. His hand has grabbed a small plain black paper bag. It must be his first item.

With few steps I have reached the Handover room. Once I open the door, once again I am greeted by a man, "Good evening, Sir."

"Evening," I greet him back then handing one of the receipts that are on my hand.

The man check on my receipt then, once again, ask me to touch my index finger onto a finger print sensor to confirm my self. After another beep sound is heard, the man smiles widely while opening a box lined with a navy blue velvet. Inside the box lies the stolen necklace I just bought.

handing me a medium-size plain black paper bag with Galliluere logo embossed on one of its face before handing it to me. "Congratulation, sir. The necklace is officially yours."

I respon with another nod while receiving the bag. I then walk out of the room from the front door while the man gets out of the room from the rear door. He should leave the room to make room for the next item's seller.

When I walk down the aisle, my watch makes a single beep sound. I immediately fasten my walk an open the tinted-glass door. there, I see Miss Lee and the tow big men, also two big men of the Room A are standing infront of the door.

I give the bag to Miss Lee who receives it happily then rounding her arm into my arm. But before I walk, someone opens the tinted-glass door and calls me. "Excuse me, Sir. You left your card!"

I hit my forehead to express my forgetfullness. "Stupid!" I curse my self then says regretfully to Miss Lee. "You should go to the room first."

"It's okay. I will wait" Miss Lee rejects me.

I don't debate her. I quickly walk through the door and follwing the man back to the Billing room. Inside the room, I need to confirm my identity as the card owner, by once again having the ma to check my finger print. After it is confirmed, he gives me the black card tha I left.

My watch makes another beep when I say thank you to the man then get out of the room. Once I am out of the room, the man in Room A is just walking a couple of steps from the Handover room, I turn my speed into fighter Jet mode then enter the Handover room. 

There he is. The seller of the nuclear core is freezing in front of the rear door. His hand is grabbing the door's knob. When I turn my speed back to normal speed, he is so shock to see my sudden appearance.

"Hey! What. ?! who.. who are you ? How can you suddenly here ?!"

Instead of answering his many question, I take one of pears on my mask. "This is the payment you have to take for your betrayal to the organization," I says clamly but loud enough to be heard by the man.

My words shock him even more. His face is instantly pale and full of fear. I flick the black pearl toward him. It flies with speding bullet speed. I blink once. The man doesn't realize what my blink meant, but actually it triggers the pearl to start morphing. The front of the pearl is no longer dull. Instead it becomes pointed. The pearl then start spinning like drill. a few mili seconds later, it is actually drilling the man's forehead. I can hear the man's short shout of pain before he drops down to the floor. Lifeless. The pearl must had reached its brain then exploded itsself.