Shouting in the Silence by Malcolm Rhodes Page B

override code wouldn’t work.”
     
                  “That’s impossible.  You must have entered it incorrectly.”
     
                  “I did it twice.”
     
                  “Then you did it twice incorrectly.”  Reginald said as he walked over to the door and entered the override code.  He looked at Olivia as the door opened immediately.
     
                  “It wasn’t working before.”  Olivia said.  Nothing seemed right.
     
                  “These things don’t just come and go.”
     
                  “I agree.”
     
                  “Do you have an explanation?”
     
                  “None.”
     
                  “You must leave this facility immediately.”
     
                  Olivia thought to challenge the order, but decided that it was probably to her advantage.  She needed to go someplace where she could think and figure out what was going on. 
     
                  “Of course.  I’m sorry to have bothered you.”
     
                  Olivia turned to leave, but as she did Reginald asked, “You came in response to an emergency alert?”
     
                  Olivia looked back and responded, “Yes.”
     
                  “Who sent the alert?”
     
                  “I don’t know.  All I received was an address.”
     
                  “Has that ever happened before?”
     
                  “No.”
     
                  “Then why did you come?”
     
                  “I couldn’t reach my superiors.  I didn’t know what else to do.”
     
                  “Okay.  You may go now.”
     
                  “Thank you.”  Olivia left the room and then the facility.  She felt like a child being dismissed by a guardian.  This day was getting off to a very weird start and she doubted that it would get any better.
     
     
     
     
     
     
     

Investigating a murder
     
                  Olivia felt as though she needed to get as far away as quickly as possible.  She mounted her air transport and rather than enter a specific address she put it on manual and lifted high above the city lights.  She needed to find a safe place.  She needed answers.  There was only one place for both.  She didn’t dare use her guidance system since it would be stored in the memory of the air transport.  She was going to have to do it all manually.  She took a deep breath and headed for the deepest center of the city.  She took a looping path to avoid going near security headquarters.  Suddenly her display unit came to life and her supervisor’s face appeared on the screen.
     
                  “Hernandez, where are you?”
     
                  Kyle Singleton had managed to maintain his youthful good looks as he worked his way up the chain of command.  He and Olivia had spent a few months together, but nothing had come of it.  She never felt completely comfortable around him and that hadn’t changed over the years.
     
                  “I can’t tell you, Kyle.”
     
                  “What?”
     
                  “You heard me.”
     
                  Olivia was carefully looking around her and searching for her destination as she spoke to Kyle.
     
                  “You are putting your job on the line, Olivia.”
     
                  “I know that.”
     
                  “Why are you doing it?”
     
                  “I can’t tell you.”
     
                  Suddenly she spotted the factory sign she was looking for and simultaneously turned off her display system and made a quick move downward.  She barely missed a billboard sign and almost took out a line of people waiting outside a