Virus

Tracking down a person was hard- which, in hindsight, is obvious, but still- it is much harder than it seems. Therefore, it was no large surprise when we could not find anything on Hyngritch. Still, the failure did sting. The only lead we had was his job at Quikk programing, and even that wasn’t a large one. Eventually, I decided to visit the site of the old building, now dominated by Lumiinate- a lamp production company. It was surprisingly easy to break in- I won’t even go over the details. Finally, I was inside. It seemed like a regular building, and naturally all that remained of Quikk would be gone. I didn’t know why exactly I should go here, but it was the only lead I had. Perhaps… what if Quikk had been more than it seemed? The company had shut down due to large financial drains a couple of decades ago. They were untraceable… just like A.V.A’s memory loss. This had to be connected… Anyways, the hallways were mostly empty, and I wandered the buildings with the false credentials A.V.A had secured for me. There was so trace of anything, and eventually I began to feel discouraged.

We should try data storage. Maybe there’s an old server or two… A.V.A commented. However, it was pointless. The one thing I did acquire that could be useful were the blueprints of the building- for reconstruction in case of an emergency. Studying them closely, I noticed something strange. There was something… off about the measurements. In the north wing, walls became thicker, rooms smaller- substantially. As if there was something inside… Scanning further, I noticed that there was an overlay with another page- and then everything came into focus. Suddenly, the walls were hollow, and various hidden rooms were revealed, scattered throughout campus. Indeed- Quikk had something more going on- something that was kept from the public. There was a conspiracy here…

A.V.A downloaded the blueprints- it really wasn’t quite hard, apparently, and proceeded to direct me to the nearest entrance to this web of secrets. Quikk most likely had no time to clear these areas- otherwise they could have made a comeback and kept the building. Therefore, the abandoned technology was most likely still there, waiting to be found. I turned another corner, and, instead of continuing down the corridor, tapped a sequence into the wall (labeled as dimensions- apparently the company didn’t want to forget anything and quickly stepped through the doorway this created, just before it shut behind me. A.V.A had wiped the camera feed, making it seem like a blackout, so there was no chance of me being found.

The inside of the room was gray and drab- just like the Amalgamation’s base, there was no décor. In fact- there was no space for décor. The walls were padded with shelves full of files on various things. Riffling through a few, I saw nothing important, and decided to leave that for later. Continuing, I saw nothing out of order- until I turned down the final hallway and came face to face with a room. There was no label, so I pushed open the door to reveal yet another door. This one was labeled- Synthetics 2540-2596 it read. I didn’t see any other doors with synthetic on it, so I pushed it open. Inside… was my past.