The Catalyst

"Where are you taking me?" Ms. Armstrong yelled at Adam. Apparently, whatever or whoever resided inside of her had already left, "what did you do to me?"

"Relax, Miss. It's hard to explain. You fell unconscious on the APD this morning. I was going to take you to the hospital," Adam tried to come with an excuse. The circumstances were so out of the ordinary, he expected that she wouldn't believe anything he said. She's a reporter. Being skeptical was part of the job.

"This is the longest goddessdamned time to take me from the APD to the hospital," she stated. She's right, it was already dark outside. Adam could hear her effort to emulate calmness.

"Look," Adam decided to cut the chase, "my name is Adam Williams. I'm one of the APD investigators. I know that you're using a basic skill of manipulative defensiveness, which I also learned at the academy. I can tell that you're not using it very well because of a lack of training. Your anxiety is still shining through."

Adam could feel the heat of her eyes on him, through his peripheral vision. She was trying to assess her situation. She needed all the luck in the world attempting that, nervous as she was.

"Look around you. This is the police department issued car," he convinced her more, "and that is my ID hanging from the rearview display," he gestured with his head towards the upper middle part of his car and gave commands so that his helmet could be snapped open and folded into the back of his protective suit's collar area.

Ms. Armstrong leaned over to study the card he was showing her. Her heartbeat slowly started to slow down as she was trying to compare the photo on it with his face.

Huh. It was funny how he could sense her heartbeat. Must be his protective suit.

"You could use a body modification," she said.

That was an amateur mistake, letting her inner doubt known through her statement. Adam wondered how could she climb the ladder of a journalistic career with such incompetency.

"Look, Mam…" Adam decided to cut the chase. He wanted this girl to be out of his car as much as she did, "I'm going to let you off the vehicle. Just tell me where you want to be off, where you can feel safe. I have things to do. You realized that our city is now deep in shit as we speak. I don't have much time."

"I know. Just let me off at the Mayor's Office. I have some complaints to make," she threatened.

Mayor's Office. That was brilliant.

"Sure," he said. The rest of their journey was filled with silence. The Mayor's Office was a huge gated complex, with several layers of the literal gate. He let Ms. Armstrong go on the side of the road in front of the first gate, from which she instantly darted away without saying anything to him. She must have tried to call some of her contacts to let her into the complex. Adam wished that she would just stay inside the car because police vehicles got an instant grant to enter the complex. But he guessed that she was too horrified to spend another time with a man in a car, that she couldn't remember how and why she was ended there.

He drove forward to the first gate, and a blaze of purple light moved to scan his vehicle. He was granted access, and the first gate rolled open. The gate was made with an old-timey design, to look like a palace from ancient times, but Adam knew that it was made with an industrial-grade plastic compound which was also used to create his protective suit.

The second gate was now looked more modern. The design was less frilly and more functional: it was just two huge blocks of grey nothingness, which slid sideways to open and close. Another scanning purple light swiped over his vehicle and face but now followed with direct contact to his vehicle's computer.

"Detective Adam Williams?" the voice from the complex' security boomed inside his car. It was a man's voice.

"Affirmative," Adam answered.

"Good," the voice said, "the Leaders are waiting for you. You were gone."

The Leaders? Who are they? Why are they waiting for him? It was like fate, he was being expected by the people who were in the place he was just thought of as a probable good idea to go to. The suspicion that his life was not entirely in his hands were creeping back into the back of his head. He took a deep breath.

"Okay," he decided not to press the issue further. He was going to find out anyway.

He continued to the next two gates without further hiccups. The façade of the Mayor's building loomed slowly into view. It was a huge pentagonal pyramid, blocking the sky more and more the closer he got. The front yard was quiet and looked like it was not populated, although the maze-like gardens on each side of the gravel road obviously tended carefully. He could only see two meters high chrome poles, stood unassumingly every five meters or so, with blue lights on their tops. They were discreet cameras and scanners, which could change into turrets if it detected any suspicious item. The faint double beeps sounded every time he passed one indicated that he was given special access, he had nothing to worry about.

He didn't know where to park, so he stopped his car in front of the stairs to the main door. He could see two ladies there, both in red dresses. They looked like they were mirroring each other: one's hair was dropped to her left side while the other was to her right side. Their dress's shoulder was opened only on one side, but one was on her left shoulder and the other was on her left shoulder. It was the most peculiar. The ladies just looking at him quietly, with their glowing yellow eyes. Androids?

Adam pushed the button in the middle of his suit which made the thing folded back into the compartment on the sides of his seat. He stepped out of his car.

"Hello?" he addressed the seemingly twin ladies, "I'm Adam Williams, APD Investigator…"

"We know who you are," one of the ladies said.

"You are being expected," the other one said.

"Yeah, I assume so," he started to climb the marble stairs, "Any idea why?" he asked.

"You are the catalyst of the Fifth Decimation," now it was back to the first lady.

"The fifth what now?"

"The fifth sacrifice," the other one answered.