Unwanted Policy and Laboratory Puzzle

After sending two of the security officers upstairs with their VIP, the other four were into pairs to guard the stairs around the laboratory.

The 495th floor was right in front of them and the trio returned to the closed emergency door that would lead them inside their objective.

“Hey, Amy, now that I think about it... Entering there doesn’t mean leaving the emergency stairs open or sealing ourselves inside?”

“You are right with your supposition, Lily. This one floor has a secondary seal system similar to the one on the top floor, but it is only for the inner room. I cannot be sure if it is still working, so the moment we enter, it is either hoping nothing leaves or getting stuck inside.”

“Isn’t that a bad idea?” Asked Richard from a few steps ahead.

“I had a reason to want to enter alone, you see?”

“I already said you won’t. Just open the damn thing and all we have to do is seal the door behind us, so…”

“We won’t!”

“We are not doing it!”

Both the security chief and the idol strongly protested Lily’s proposition without even hearing it to the end.

They both knew what she was going to say and wouldn’t accept something so risky for similar but different reasons.

“But only the stairs are safe, right? If we leave them open, then…”

“Even then, you being here is already way too risky, ok? I’m not letting a VIP, two actually, end up locked into a hostile area.”

Richard had an expression that signaled how much against the whole idea of locking two of his targets inside that floor, even if doing so was a risk.

“If something goes wrong, then we flee through whatever took over this place and think about it later. Needed be, we charge down and leave this building, no matter the cost.”

“I agree with our buff friend. I prefer to avoid risking the lives of the civilians trapped inside, but if needed be…”

While both the big man and the small pink thing were agreeing though, Lilianna expression was full of displeasure.

It was almost scary, even if none of the two other people around cared a single bit about her glare in this situation.

“You two are starting to piss me off, you know?”

“Sorry, Lilianna, but it’s my job.”

“I shall avoid commentary.”

“Sigh… Fine! If it doesn’t work, we force an exit and bring reinforcements. Even I can understand that dying inside there won’t bring much.”

Keeping a safe corridor such as the emergency stairs for the eventual police invasion would be good, but more than two hours had passed by already.

If the blue droids, be it the light humanoid ones or the heavier assault models and their flying versions, were still to show any signs of appearing, they should be there already.

By now, it could very well mean that no reinforcements wouldn't arrive unless Lily contacted the outside world and asked for them somehow.

“Good,” Answered the idol while nodding pleased “I will now open the door, so get ready you two.”

With the signal received and hearing the small clicks of the lock system, the safe door was swung open by the armed members of the trio.

As usual, they entered and started to scan the room in search of any moving objects, in special crazy robots.

Neither of the three managed to find anything though since the ruined lab facilities right in front of them were empty.

“The place seems safe, but...” Reported Lily while looking around the deserted room with three sealed doors.

“I believe the main computer is in that room going forwards, but this place is creeping me... Stay on guard, Lilianna, and stay behind us, Ms. Amy.”

"Ay, ay, captain!"

Ignoring the abnormal words of the idol, Lilianna and Richard went one to each side.

They went to check on the many computer tables, research desks, and other remains that filled most of the room while Amy started to wander again.

She eventually stopped in what seemed like a lobby and took a sit in one of the less destroyed circular sofas in the rest area.

Other than the ruins though, the big central room that surrounded the pillar with the emergency stairs was a very big generic laboratory.

From what they could see from the signs and clues, it wasn't expected to be more than such.

Two of the sealed doors were signaled as research labs while the central one was the main computers, so this one was just a lobby.

There was also a path leading to the elevator area, but that was also sealed with shuttles for now.

"This eerie feeling is quite bad..." Commented the detective while trying to find any signal of the missing occupants of the room.

"I thought we would need to deal with the droids the guys around here like to use as assistants, but I can't even see signs of them around." Said Richard while toppling a huge cabinet that was blocking his way.

"Maybe they're hidden in the debris..."

"Do not worry, you both, all the secondary seals on the doors are active already, so we are safe here unless you hear an elevator opening."

"I can see this much, but..." Lily commented as she looked at the locked shuttles blocking the doors to each one of the three labs while Amy seemed much less panicky.

“Yes, something is wrong here indeed. The reasons are hard to grasp though.”

Differently from the moving duo, Amy was just poking the beverage machine while still laying on the somewhat usable sofa.

Her laidback being still could see that something abnormal had happened here though.

She just wasn't that focused on that.

“I don’t think you’re talking about how we don’t see any enemies around a destroyed room, right, Amy?” Asked the detective after failing to figure out by herself the answer she was looking for.

“No enemies…? Oh, you are right, it is indeed weird that we see no enemies in this room. I had not thought about it.”

The girl in pink paused her probing around as the realization finally reached her, which only caused Lilianna to facepalm and gained her some dry laughter from Richard.

They both still failed to understand how the hells the idol’s brain worked.

“You can’t be serious…”

“Well… Would it be too much to ask for some explanation, Ms. Amy? I think we’re losing you here.”

“I do not mind,” She answered while sitting on the remains of the sofa. “This one room seems to be where the researchers returned during their breaks and worked on less 'secure' projects, right?”

Suspicion had returned to Lily’s eyes and she was now thinking once again, so her reaction to the questions wasn’t much more than a small nod.

Richard still kept most of his focus on the girl’s words as her way of talking was enough to draw his curiosity.

“Go on, please.”

“It is terrifically simple, you see? This place has nothing of value and is the only room with a food supply, but no one is here and no one seems to have died here... That is weird, is it not?”

“If you put it like that, then…”

“Then it’s not! I can see the answer already."

In a shout that took the idol and the focused security officer by surprise, Lily suddenly stowed her pistol and started to hurry around the room.

She then started to throw objects around and move all piles of scraps without much reason.

“What is it, Lily?” A perplexed idol asked her friend who seemed to be going crazy.

“There are no enemies around because they didn’t break these things.” Concluded the detective while still hurrying across the room. “Someone noticed that this one place was the only one where they could stay for long, but also noticed that it was exactly where whoever locked them here would prefer them to stay.”

“Close to the elevators?!”

Richard’s understanding prompted him to start playing around the remains of the lobby too, even if he was unsure of what he should be looking for.

Only Amy stood out of their small treasure hunt and conversation as she was instead watching them while sitting on the sofa.

“Exactly! This place is safer in theory, but they have no way to defend themselves here. The person with control over the tower could use their computers too, so the scientists broke them all and locked themselves inside one of the labs.”

In a hurry, the two of them moved back to the entrance of the emergency stairs and then to an area of the room that seemed neatly organized.

It was still ruined, but in an unnatural way, so Lily started to rummage around there first.

“But the main computer…?”

“They should have sealed the main computer too since it was already compromised and is too big to be destroyed, but if they’re inside one of the other rooms, then...”

“Then they should have left some sort of communicator!” The handsome mercenary shouted while raising an antique box-like communication device.

Smiling and hurrying towards Richard’s position, the detective took the fruits of her mental workout and started to fiddle with it.

It eventually caught the idol’s attention as she looked puzzled at the small handheld device.

“I thought it would be a walkie-talkie and not an old cellphone...” The idol commented from a good distance away from them both, bringing confusion to the high-spirited duo.

“A what?”

“Nothing.” Continued the idol with a small lack of energy in her voice. “Do not mind me.”

“What’s happening with…?”

Before Lily could finish her question, the old cellphone started to vibrate with an incoming call.

Without waiting, the dark-haired woman hurried to answer the call, which in turn gave way to a mature female voice.

“Hello, cuties. How was solving my little puzzle?”

“I think you’re lucky someone managed to get it.”

“Don’t worry, my dark-haired beauty, solving the puzzle was just a secondary objective and it isn't as if there were only one of these phones around... Relying on the muscle-brained hunks who work with security to solve it before I would open the door would be stupid, wouldn’t it?”

“I know you have some way to see us, ok? You also wouldn’t be able to call at the right moment too if you couldn’t.”

“Ow…”

Silence followed the somewhat disappointing groan that last left the other side of the line.

Lily started to wonder if she had answered badly to the person as it stood silent for a while, but her worries were dispelled in due time.

And the volume of the answer went up some good notches in the next moment.

“Hahahahaha! A smart rose carrying a Mr. Handsome and a small frilly cutie pie around... You’re welcome to save us, milady!”

The hearty laugh and flirty words of the female watching them from inside her lab was almost instantly followed by a myriad of loud mechanisms.

And with a depressurization noise, the blockers on the door detached from their sockets and fell to the ground as the lockdown on the room was undone.