RED AND WHITE

With a single command all the alarms and their wailing went off and the flashing red light stopped too then all the doors that had locked themselves before in order to trap me and prevent my escape became unlocked once again.

Jerry walked back out and passed the motion sensors with body rhythm measurement room which because everything had been turned on was measuring his readings as he moved along and into the white room he went into next where on his way to the door, because of the white background he's sight was reflexively forced down to where be found a brightly red coloured ribbon on the floor which couldn't help itself but to stand out.

*STOP*

The man quickly halted his gait.

"Huh? What is this?" He bent down, extending his left hand forward to pick it up and because the first time he had opened the door to walk through the ribbon fabric which was on the other side had made it all the way through to the white room and folded on itself.

"Is this a ribbon? And what this on it?" He rubbed his fingers together as he felt the white powdery consistency of whatever was on the ribbon when he held on to it and was now transferred to his hand "What is this?" he repeated.

*SNIFF*

He sniffed it and also tasted the particles on his fingers. Because of where it was found he knew that it was definitely not going to be some sort of poison "Is this chalk?"

"How did this get in here?" He stood up, thinking of all the possible use of powdery chalk in relation to the place he found it when he's mind made the connection and he immediately tuned his head to take a good look at the panel.

"Could it possibly be?" He questioned, knowing that he had already placed his thumb on the panel in order to gain access to the next room earlier and he didn't really notice any powdery substance on it and even if there was he would have already cleaned it, although unintentionally when he used the panel so there really wasn't any need of him going up to it to investigate, wasting precious time. He was going to let that be handled by someone more suited for the job.

Feeling pressure for a lack of time but still wanting to do his job as Chief Security Officer Jerry Stringer took a quick look around with eyes planted on the floor as he moved one slow step at a time. The floor was white, the same colour as the chalk so he needed to focus in order to see if there were remnants on it elsewhere.

This was something he knew that he could handle on his own and using his wits while the panel would be handled by someone a lot more tech savvy.

He walked around the white room slowly moving from corner to corner until he got close to the security panel and found more chalk powder on the floor and a piece of broken chalk as well.

"This!" He went down on one knee and picked up the piece of chalk then rolled it in-between fingers.

He scrunched his forehead as he looked up to the panel with his right index fingertips abrasively rubbing against the sides of his thumb just under the nail

"What exactly happened here?!" He pondered then stood back up and walked out of the white room and into the room with Mathew and Greg in it with the ribbon wrapped in between his handkerchief along with the chalk and firmly held in his left hand and a scowl on his face which made Greg and Mathew to know that he wasn't to be joked with at this point, Greg most especially.

*CLICK*

On his way to the door they opened automatically because of sensors they had then he spoke once more into his communicator with a distasteful expression on his face 

"Security code command, Flood the rooms" He said then stepped out and the door closed behind him.

[CODE COMMAND APPROVED, ROOMS FLOODING IN 10, 9, 8...] The speaker in the white room and previous rooms said and started to count down but not in the room they were in with the boxes. However, the countdown was being represented by the tip of his pen like communicator flashing at matching intervals with the countdown.

"Did you guys see anything?" Jerry asked rhetorically the moment he came in view of Greg and Mathew

""No Chief(Sir)"" Both Mathew and Greg replied with Greg's voice covering over Mathew's.

"Did you need help with searching the other rooms as well Sir?" Mathew asked not knowing what Jerry was actually up to with the flooding of the rooms

"No need, I've already done that while you two were busy looking at boxes and besides you don't have clearance to enter into the other rooms"

"If we don't have clearance then why bring us down here in the first place Chief" Greg sighed and whispered under a breath.

"What did you say boy? I couldn't quite hear you!" Jerry responded in a threatening tone

"Nothing... So umm, what are we gonna do now Chief?" Greg asked in a rather dissatisfied but yet relieved tone.

"We are going to do what we were instructed to do" Jerry said and a part of the red ribbon which was in Jerry's white handkerchief came to the notice of Greg and Mathew.

"What's that you got there Sir?" Mathew asked pointing at the handkerchief, to be exact the red part of the ribbon that was able to show from it.

"This?" He raised the ribbon up to his chest level "I found this in the next room and I'm going to get it examined for DNA, I'm also going to check the cloud camera feed for anyone who had this on them" he said then dropped his hand.

"That means that there really was an intruder! What are we going to do about it Sir?" Mathew asked 

"I checked but was unable to find anyone which would mean that they must have left before we came down here and used the lack of recording footage to conceal their escape but I've already done as instructed, just in case I missed something" 

"And what is it that you did Sir?"

"I'm filling all the rooms including the Backroom, apart from this one we're in with a nauseous gas that makes whoever inhales it to pass out for eighteen hours. That should be enough time for a team of more cleared agents to come investigate"

""!!"" Jerry's answer caused Mathew and Greg to just stand looking both speechless and dumbfounded meanwhile in Jerry's mind he couldn't help but think

'Maybe we can't see them or sense them but me of all people should be one to know that that doesn't mean that someone might be here and hiding' he thought with a scrunched forehead.