1 THE STORY BEGINS

"Today is the launch of the new transport tube around the city. Kindly get my clothes ready and place two bottles of water in the green room before the official ceremony begins," I said sitting back in my chair.

"Will do sir," Patrick, my assistant said "Anything else sir ?"He asked politely.

"I told you Patrick you don't have to call me sir all the time just call me Cy or if it's too much for you just call me Cyrus."

"I think sir is more suiting for your position," He said

"Okay, suit yourself, "I said hanging up.

Patrick was my trusted assistant at work, just your average medium-sized Caucasian 20-year old man and neat orderly assistant who keeps everything in my life in order. He was originally an intern at the company but his work ethic and trustworthiness prompted me to make him my assistant. The only thing that I could not change was his excessive formality around me, which I found unnecessary considering I was only three years older than him.

I rose from my white marble desk and wore my jacket that I always placed at the hooks at the entrance of my office and headed out for the elevator, which I designated to be right outside my office. It was a glass design that allowed me to admire the other floors of my ten-story building. It kept me at peace going down and at that time most of the employees were already at the launch party. I went to the parking basement and entered my white Tesla model Y to head out for the launch which I pulled some strings to be held at the town's center.

As I drove I was pleasantly looking out at the beautiful techno hub of Paradise City with the bright nightlife, well-organized streets, skyscrapers, and people all around enjoying the peaceful atmosphere. The best part of Paradise was all the screen boards with a similar design to New York's times tower together with all the advanced devices with people holding concept phones and the youth skating around with the new hyper boards together with young people holding their cameras of all types filming their daily events something that became the new normal here.

The sound of the instrumental version of Alan Walker's faded made my whole mood change. It was the ringtone on my phone. I checked the caller ID to find Glenn was calling me and I ignored it. Unfortunately for me, Glenn was a persistent person and even when I put on my do not disturb mode on he started calling my other phones and I knew it started that way until he would call my mom something I was not prepared to deal with.

"Yes, Glenn," I said irritated answering his calls.

"Cy, are you seriously not going to come for Miranda's memorial service ?" he asked concerned

I hesitated a bit before answering his question to steady my voice

"No, I am going for the launch of the new transport tubes that we have been working on for two good years ."

"Cy,c' mon it has been five years. She is a big part of who you are now. "

"Well maybe going for the launch is honoring her."

"Well maybe going for her memorial is better."

"Glenn I have ....."

"Cy, You have never been to her memorial I know it's hard since you loved....."

I did not let him finish his statement

"Glenn it was five years ago.we can talk about this another day. I have something else to execute."

I hung up and sighed just thinking of Miranda's memorial made me sick to my stomach. Honestly, I never wanted to sound like a dick but when it came to that topic it was better left untouched. I purposely planned the launch on that day so I could forget about the memorial and have a good excuse not to go.

Eventually, I reached the site of the launch of the new transport tubes which was I project I had been working on for two years, to enable the transport of physical objects to the person it is purposed for within minutes instead of using other forms of transportation with the main aim of reducing the number of delivery vehicles which has destructive effects to the environment but at the same time the delivery men and women were the first people who received training to handle these deliveries so that we could avoid any inconveniences caused to the people who used to do the manual deliveries.

I was the founder and CEO of Digicliff industries, a technology company that I had built up myself after I left high school and by what I believed was sheer luck the devices made and projects we planned gained a lot of profits which made me a young millionaire. A job I never expected to get but I accepted my position since it served as a good distraction for me and helped to combat the problems I faced.

I was welcomed by flashing lights and cameras all around with some journalists with their notepads and phones prepared to ask me all their questions. I had to be Cyrus Mayday a successful and ambitious entrepreneur.

*******************************

It was six hours later after the successful launch of my transport tubes and I was dog tired. After talking to an inconceivable amount of people, answering so many questions and stressing over the success of the entire event I was done for the day, but as always I had to pass by the office to check out other important matters.

Honestly, I thought being millionaire and CEO of my tech-company at twenty-three would have been more interesting but it just became one long overbearing cycle at times, especially at the events and press conferences and interactions with much more experienced people in the industry just took a toll on me with others waiting for me to fail.

Immediately I entered the office, I greeted those working the night shift with a simple wave and went to the front desk.

"Hey, Ellie I will be here all night long could you kindly tell people I don't want any disturbances as usual."

"Yeah of course Cyrus."

"Thank you," I said

I headed to the elevators and pressed on the tenth floor which was the top floor of Digicliff and entered my office which unlocked the door using my fingerprint and facial recognition. I locked the door and any other person allowed was Glenn, even Patrick knew he could not enter. I headed straight to my desk and under the desk, which had a scan that scanned my hands and opened the back of my office to reveal a lift I had installed which I named DL short for digital lift.

"X-floor, "I said entering the lift

"yes, Cyrus"the digital lift (DL ) answered.

The lift went down straight towards the level three underground space which I specially designed for my privacy away from everyone else. I know it is a hustle to go all the way up to the office then go down again but I felt it was better placing the lift at a place where I was all the time and build an excuse that I was working in there.

I walked to the wide-open office floor space which was a bit darker than my office with a longer curving table in the middle of the space facing large screens with two different rooms on the sides which were separated from the main space with a simple hard cardboard material. It was the most guarded area that I had ever designed and developed. Immediately under the screens was a large computer fixed with various servers near it and storage devices with a swivel chair near it. I knew all that was not necessary but I thought it was cool and one of my dream offices.

I sat on the chair which was automatically connected to the screen and computer and made them turn on immediately. A body scan was taken to verify that it was me.

"Cyrus Mayday, brown eyes, dark curly colored hair held back, with a olive tone, a slim body... I see someone has not been lifting. Good evening Cy"

"DC, you don't have to mention my features every time you take the scan and make that lifting joke every time, any way any report on strange activities ?" I asked my digital computer which I named DC similar to DL I was too lazy to be creative at that time.

"No, Amazon is still on top, Apple is still adding cameras to its new devices, and equality is still an issue ."It answered,

"Not that kind of a report DC. The report on the state of Gendwall."

"The civil war is still ongoing with no signs of stopping as usual ."

"Are you sure? sometimes you seem out of it. Run a play by play of the situation on every video feed we got."

I looked at the screen with the fallen down building and various sand features with random objects lying on the ground. Another screen showing refugee camps and people struggling to live. It was a terrible scene to see every time and I always felt sick to my stomach looking at it together with splatters of blood everywhere

A moment later my whole facial expression changed and I could not believe what I was seeing. There was a loop of activities taking place considering I noticed that one of the items of the ground is blown by the wind and is curious goes back to its original state every time.

"This is wrong, all wrong the video feed is wrong," I said typing away on the keyboard

"Cy ..."

"Not now DC we have a situation on our hands that has been hacked. that means these live feeds have been on loops this whole time may not be the right ones how long has this been happening?." I said opening up more and more files in panic mode

"Cyrus ....."

"Not now DC this is a crisis ."

Suddenly I heard a sound of familiar laughter and a female's voice ringing in my ear at a high pitch.

"Did you notice now? Cy, you have gotten slow" She said and suddenly the lights went off.

I was tackled to the ground and felt as if my internal organs were crashing in the process and chained up next to the edge of one of the table legs near the computer and I struggled with no avail. And the lights came back on.

"Cyrus there is an unauthorized person in the room ."DC finally said

"Yeah, I kinda noticed !" I said struggling and failing to get off the chains

I looked up and I caught the glance of the intruder. She had her hair in a loose bun with some strands falling off the side of her face. She looked well-built by her lean body. She had a milk-chocolate complexion and was short around five foot three. Once she showed me her devious smile with her white teeth brilliantly shining, I could tell immediately who she was.

"Miranda? What the hell are you doing here ?" I asked shocked

"it's been five years Cy and that's how you greet me," she said smirking and putting her hands across her chest.

"Well, I think I should ask the same about tackling me and chaining me up," I said

"I was trying to make an appearance."She said shrugging