Insider X by Dave Buschi

closed the cabinet.  On the counter was an earthen tea set with bamboo handles.  It was resting on a polished block of teak.  It looked like something you’d find in Renhe Spring at one of those crazy expensive stores.
    My place?  Okay, she could play this game.  She opened drawers.  Looked at all her stuff.   There was cutlery, fancy chopsticks, openers, and other things, some of which she’d never seen before.  Oh this is nice.  Mine!  Mine, mine, mine!
    She opened more cupboards.  Inside was more of her stuff!  Boxes of noodles, spices, and different types of tea.
    I have good taste.
    She got bored and went to the living room.  On a side table wasa TV remote.  There was a flat screen TV mounted on the wall.  Was this her TV too?
    She turned it on.  The screen blinked and a menu came on.   It was in English.  Hmm? 
    Several items were listed: Cinema, Elite Store, Gym, Housekeeping, Laundry Service, Map, Pool, Restaurants, Room Service, Schedule, Spa, and Games.
    She clicked on ‘Restaurants’.  It pulled up another menu, which showed photos of various restaurants and the hours they were open.  Their names were unusual and unique: BB House, Salsaville, Chun Chun, Sand Bar, 3Squared, Bistro, Blue Diner, and a few others.  She clicked on Sand Bar .  A video came on that showed a themed restaurant that looked like a tropical beach.  There were diners, all young people, sitting in groups.
    She clicked on other items, navigating through the menu.  She tried Pool, Gym and Spa.  More videos began to play of happy people enjoying those places.  They were swimming, working out, or having massages.  Everyone was young in the videos; no one looked older than twenty-five.  All those places had addresses that started with a color (either Yellow, Blue or Green) and then a letter and a number.  She clicked on ‘Map’ and it pulled up what looked like a grid of a small city.  Buildings were shown, a park, a lake…
    Wait!  That was the view outside her balcony!  The map had colored sections.  Four colors were shown: red, yellow, blue and green.  The grid had letters on the top and numbers on the side.  Almost like the board game Battleship she had played one time on her phone.  Ah ha!  She could find the places now.  The ‘Pool’ (Yellow L9) was in the yellow zone, and she could use the grid to find where L and 9 intersected.  Same went for the other addresses.  The spa, gym, all of them could be found using the grid on the map.
    She clicked ‘Schedule’.
    The time was shown at the top.  It was 15:42:21.  Which was… she did the math: 3:42 PM.  She checked her watch.  Her watch showed the same exact time; it was just seconds off, in fact.  It wasn’t one minute slow like it had been when she started work at 3 AM this morning when bossman said she was late.
    Beneath the time and date was the following schedule:
    Roll call: 02:30:00
    Duty: 03:00:00 – 15:00:00
    Play: 15:01:00 – 20:30:00
    Roll call: 20:35:00
    Quarters: 20:35:00 – 02:30:00
    Hmm?
    She set down the remote and left the TV on.  She walked back into the bedroom to finish inventorying.  To see what she had, and see what she didn’t have.  She hadn’t seen her iPhone, laptop, or several other things.  She pulled open drawers on the dresser.  More clothes.  New clothes.  Were these hers too?
    She pulled out a white shirt.  It looked like a shirt for a uniform.
    There was a gong sound, low and muted.  It startled her.  She looked around and noticed by her bed there was now a flashing red light on some sort of console.  The soft gong sounded again.  Was that a phone?  There didn’t appear to be a headset, but there was a speaker and some buttons.
    She pressed the button on the console.
    “Hello?” Na said.
    “Oh!” a voice said; a female voice.  “You are there.  You’re early.  Wait there, I’ll be right up.”  The line clicked dead.

 
     
    15
     
    MINUTES AFTER THE call came a knock on