บท 14: JERRY STRINGER

The wailing noise of the alarm was steadily bouncing off the walls of the room I was in and into my ears, causing me to panic more and more with every passing second. Meanwhile, directly above me and with a distance of couple hundreds of meters. In the monitor room of the fourth security floor, Greg and Mathew panicked as well.

"What's going on Greg, what's that alarm for?-- What did you do?!" Mathew asked as he stood up abrasively, pushing his entire weight on the dashboard as he supported himself with his hands which were placed around the blinking alarm light.

*Tsk* Greg clicked his tongue.

Mathew's accusing words caused Greg to become distracted from his previous panicking state. They had both forgotten their Workers handbook at home. As a fact, Mathew had asked Greg to pack his for him before they came to work today, but Greg, not really seeing the value in the handbook because there hasn't been a need for it until now, willfully left them at home.

"Typical Mathew, here we go again. You always find a way in any situation to blame me as the cause. It must really be a talent of yours, while you forget that you're just as messed up as you make me out to be. Although in different ways" Greg retorted, rolling his eyes at his partner.

"!!" Mathew didn't utter a single word in return but glared back at Greg with stern and commanding eyes.

"Ahh!" Greg exhaled in annoyance "I knew that this might happen which is why I was hesitant in agreeing to taking this job with you. Well, whatever I guess. What's done is done" he mumbled, lowering his head a bit to sniff sharply and then continued out loud as he raised his head back up.

"The heck would I know about what caused that alarm to go off. You were the one who got me this gig remember? And amongst the both of us, only one has actually read that stupid handbook so if there's anyone who should know what's going on here, then it should be you" Greg frowned.

Mathew took a quick pause without making any movement for five seconds before slowly turning his head to Greg once more. "Let's call the chief again, he might have an idea about this too" Mathew suggested, taking his eyes from the alarm and looked at Greg then finally back at the monitor

"Call the chief to do what exactly?" Said someone from behind the both of them, who was standing by the now opened door.

"SIR!"

"CHIEF!"

Both Mathew and Greg cried out in unison after turning around to see who had just spoken with Greg's voice climbing over Mathew's, who then went on to say more but by himself this time "Thank God you're here"

"Yes I'm here, so what's all this I'm hearing about the cameras being faulty?" The man said as he walked in.

Jerry Stringer, the Chief Security Officer in charge of all things GHA security related. While taking his first step into the room, he felt something buzzing inside his trouser pocket which he brought out and it was revealed to be his communicator designed like a pen.

The alarm light continued to flash on. The wailing usually stops after the first couple seconds of being activated but the flashing usually continues.

"What the— This can't be!" Jerry said then rushed to the dashboard, pushing Greg and Mathew to the sides "Move it you two!"

"The Blackroom!" he exclaimed.

""The black room?"" Both Mathew and Greg whispered, looking at each other in pure confusion.

Meanwhile, Jerry who had his focus planted on what was on the monitor pressed a couple of buttons on the keyboard and twisted a couple of knobs which then changed the current displaying feed to feeds from the sub level floor.

This spectacle made Greg to whisper "What type of James Bond level shit was that?"

"Hmm, I don't get it. The alarms are going off but nothing appears to be wrong on the monitors" said Jerry with a sceptical look on his face.

This statement prompted Mathew to reply based on previous discovery "That's why we called you here for assistance Sir. It seems that we are watching old camera footage and we wanted you to check it out"

"Old camera footage? What makes you say that and with what evidence?" Jerry spoke out with stern voice

Greg netted his fingers together and replied corkily "Well chief, for one thing if you squint your eyes very very well, it appears that you are just coming out of the bathroom and what is that?" He leaned in closer to the monitor "You seem to have toilet paper stuck to the bottom of your very expensive leather boots"

When Jerry changed the view of the feed from the normal perimeter camera feeds to the feed from the sub level floor, the perimeter feed just minimized in scale and adjusted themselves to the sides and corners of the monitor while the sublevel feed was placed in the middle.

*SCOFF*

Greg let out a little laugh but Mathew on the other hand frowned, thinking that Greg was being disrespectful and acting inappropriate for what was happening.

"What the—" Muttered Jerry when he saw himself on the monitor too.