3. Citing my predecessor would be inappropriate

Number of upper managers that arrived into his small office was inversly proportional to the space available, in Mani's humble opinion. But no one asked him, so he kept it to himself and moved his chair into a corner next to his desk. Not that it helped, but this way no one was breathing down his neck while turning around his papers and sketches, as they compared entry values with liquid levels displayed in transparent tubes carved into the wall. As if they could understand their meaning or equations he had to use in those calculations.

"There is no mistake in the steps made there" he finally said to no one in particular. "It is either a malfunction within equipment room or..." He trailed off trying to think of a different expression from shitfuck that would confer the meaning of calculations if readings are authentic.

"Yes, we understand that" said one of the personnel with "Jone" written on his name tag. "My boss went up to treasury room to find the access key stored there."

He gestured to his team to step out and continue their search outside. There was nothing in this room that would indicate tampering, nor was there a way for them to evaluate equations used. They will go and check other spaces around this central office, then spread around to see if there are any leaks or other damage. Maintenance was not exactly kept to the standards for a while now. Even with majority of space being sealed off, corridors and utility rooms on this bottom level were still huge, and their cleaning crew was pitifully small since like seven cycles ago.

Jone leaned on the wall and carefully examined cleric in front of him. No, not a cleric, they were called clerks now. Officials in charge of monitoring fluctuations in energy transfer and geothermal readings. Though he still might be chanting prayers while calculating.

He seemed short? Or was it just because of his posture, slouching in that chair as if trying to be invisible. His eyes were too bright though for that attempt to be successful.

"Except you, who can access this basement area?" He asked even while knowing the answer. "Were there any changes in routines recently?"

Mani blinked and shrugged. "There are only Blaise and me down here on daily basis. Cleaning crew comes down only once a month. They are scheduled on the first, and they never break their schedule." He liked cleaners, unlike Blaise they were not fans of chitchat. They come, they clean, they go away.

Jone frowned "Blaise? Who is that?"

Now it was Mani's turn to move his eyebrows. "Mech-tech. The guy in that workshop down the hallway, next to the break room." He was sure that they saw Blaise as they had to pass next to his workshop on their way to this office.

Jone scrunched his face as he looked at Mani with confusion "His name is Blaze, not Blaise." He knew the guy from school days, he was stationed down here since they all graduated, being on he special forces team and all.

Mani simply shrugged and looked away from Jone, "Be it either way, no one else comes here."

While Jone pondered how someone can work for a full decade at same place and not learn the only co-workers name, sound of relentless beeping aproched them and soon doors behind him opened again.

Ivory entered the office, holding swirly gem pendant firmly between his fingers. "Right, where are the access doors of equipment room? Perhaps jamming this inside will silence it."

Mani's eyes drank the sight of the red gem. For a second he had a feeling of falling into vortex or was it a cyclone? His thoughts jumbled, he pointed to the hallway. "To the left, then left again at next junction." He blinked to clear his mind then added as afterthought "Get Blaise to show you, he is the tech-mech in charge."

"Who?" Ivory started to ask, but Jone cut in "Blaze. You remember that guy?" Patting Ivory's shoulder he guided him outside while whispering in his ear. "This clerk seems a bit out of it. Maybe we should do some medical tests on him before opening equipment room, who knows what's up in his head."

Ivory did not even give it a thought "No, you hear this thing? It activated on its own sometime during last night." He saw Blaze standing in front of his workshop and beckoned him to follow.

"Yax took it out of treasury yesterday so we know it was silent untill today. Unfortunately, Yax was out most of the night due holy potion abuse" he saw Jone stifling a laugh "What, you heard already? Do you guys do nothing but gossip?" His cheeks threatened to go dark again due anger so he changed the topic back to current emergency. "We are not sure when exactly it started to.." he cut himself in mid sentence as they arrived to the doors, elaborately painted and carved out of stone, depicting floral shapes, trees and leaves, and other such natural crap. Ancient designs that used to be popular back in the days.

"What's this? Where is a keyhole?"

He looked at Jone, then at Blaze, both of them staring at the shallow carvings and marking of the doors.

After a while a discreet cough attracted their attention through neverending beeping. Mani had no idea why he followed them. It was totally unlike his usual tendencies. But he skimmed his eyes over them then pointed at some random spot on the doors.

"The key is called the Eye of Great Serpent, right? It should probably go into the eye socket of that snake there."

He froze under three firm set of eyes staring at him. Even Blaise did not say anything. Did he say something wrong?

In the next moment, Ivory snapped his fingers "A cleric, right. Here." He stretched his arm towards Mani, offering the beeping swirling gem laying on his white elegant palm.

There was only one word in Mani's mind at that moment, and to his utter horror he heard himself saying it out loud.