Chapter 42

Jean walked into the building and was greeted by the receptionist. "Hi, what is your purpose for visiting today?" she politely asked her with a smile.

"Um... I-" Jean didn't know what to say to the woman. In the first place, had she always been here? The last few times that she had been here, there wasn't a receptionist in the lobby to greet her. Or maybe there was always one here and she had forgotten.

"Cough three times. She's one of us," a voice buzzed in her ear. It startled Jean and she almost screamed out in surprise but she caught herself and as she remembered that she had a radio in her ear. Jean curled her hand into a ball and brought it to her mouth. She coughed three times like the men told her to.

The woman's smile disappeared and was replace by a look of confusion. "Sorry, are you unwell? The medical floor is-" Jean coughed again in the same pattern to show the woman that it wasn't a coincidence. "Oh my lord... I would've never expected for them to send someone so... young."

"Sorry, but I'm in a hurry," Jean told the woman. They didn't have the time here to be standing here acting surrpised.

"Got it. Take the the elevator to the 100th floor. You have five minutes. Be fast." The woman pressed some buttons behind her desk and pointed at the elevator. "What are you doing!? Go!"

Jean ran to the elevator like she was told and called the it. It came a minute later and she hopped in. She looked around the button to go to the 100th floor but couldn't find it. The pannel only showed floors from 2 to 90, and it didn't show anything higher than that. "Um..."

"It's behind you," the men told her through the earpiece.

"What?" Jean turned around to see what they were talking about but didn't find anything other than a flat and empty metal wall.

"It's on the left near the corner. You'll find a hidden button." Jean looked at the left side and sure enough, after looking long enough, she found the hidden button the men were talking about. It was the same color as the metal and also extremely small. It looked like a random bump on the wall and didn't seem like much. The average person wouldn't notice it unless they were actively looking for it.

"Can you see or something?" Jean asked. How did the two know which way she was facing and knew how to direct her to the button?

"No. It'd be nice if we could."

"Then how?"

"Do you think it's that hard to know where you're looking when you enter the elevator? Unless you know where the secret pannel is, you won't look there."

"Oh." The men were right. A normal person wouldn't know about the secret pannel and would be looking at the obvious one. Jean pressed the button and a small section of the wall slid open to reveal the secret pannel. "Now what?"

"Insert the keycard." Jean looked around the pannel and found a small slit where the keycard went. She inserted it into it and something else slid open on the pannel. "Am I supposed to put my eye there?" Jean asked the two men while looking at the retinal scanner.

"I mean, if you want to set an alarm off and jeapordize the entire mission, then sure, stick your eye into it. Or, you can give us a minute and we can handle it." In other words, all she needed to do is wait and they'll do something about the retinal scanner.

Jean stood there for a minute and waited for whatever that is suppose to happen to happen. There was a long buzz and then the retinal scanner retracted and the buttons on the pannel all lit up. Jean pressed the button to go the 100th floor. The elevator shook before it started moving. It began to move down which confused her.

"Why is it going down?"

"Don't worry. The 100th floor is underground. It might sound weird, but the place has an underground facility."

"It does?"

"Yes. It's kept a secret. They do a bunch of disgusting stuff down there."

So Josh and the others weren't lying when they said that I.C.E. had a secret area underground. I.C.E. did really have something they were hiding from the public. "What disgusting things are they doing down here?" Jean asked. She was scared of finding out the answer, but she had to know what they are doing. What kind of experiments were they carrying out?

"You don't want to know. Trust me, if you want to still sleep at night, you do not want to find out."

The rest of the elevator ride was quiet, and when it finally stopped, Jean watched anxiously as the door opened. The first thing that she saw when the doors opened was a black hallway. There were barely any lights and it was hard to see anything.

"Leave the elevator. You got less than a minute before the camera comes back on."

Jean left the elevator and stepped into the creepy hallway. The doors closed behind her the second her body was out of it. There was no going back.

---

Grammar errors, story errors, other errors, and advice, email flightless05@gmail.com

Thanks!