Taking a breath, Brian pushed seven and the doors closed. The typical lurch of movement made Brian waver slightly, and did nothing for the nervousness he was feeling in his stomach. He watched the numbers above the door ascend and took another breath when they approached the seven.
"Here goes nothing."
With a light chime, the doors opened to reveal a stark room with sterile flourescent lights. He walked out of the elevator, and looked around.
There were the three other elevator doors, a door marked "Stairs," a small table with a chair at either side, and a heavy, green security door on the far left wall. On the wall there was a sign which read "700's" with an arrow pointing to the green door.
Just above the sign there was also a security camera.
Brian walked towards the green door, opened it and walked in.
Inside the door, Brian found himself in a small white room with a small plastic box on the left wall, and another security camera in the top right corner above another large green security door.
With a heavy click, the door behind him locked.
"Please state your name," a woman's voice stated.
Brian looked all around for the source of the voice. After a moment he concluded it had to be the camera. He looked directly at the black lenses.
"Mr. Goodwin, Brian."
"Please state your name," the voice returned.
He looked over to the blue plastic box to his left and noticed seven slits in its face. He then came to the conclusion that it was a speaker, and therefor the origin of the voice.
Brian walked over to the little box, which he now observed more carefully. It was slightly slanted, had a small screen, a card slot and two lights which glowed an ominous red. He thought it looked like a small electronic bank teller. The screen displayed a square labelled "talk".
Brian pushed the square on the screen and held it down.
"Mr. Goodwin, Brian," he let go.
"Please swipe your keycard, and enter your personal security code."
Things were starting to come together, the card was a keycard, and the string of numbers on the letter much be his personal security code. He opened his briefcase and took out the letter, then reached in his pocket to get the keycard. He swiped the keycard. One of the lights turned green and made an electronic chime much like the elevator did. The screen had changed and now displayed a keypad. Looking at the letter, he carefully punched in each number saying them aloud as he went.
"Six. Three. Five. Seven. Two. Eight. One."
The other light turned green and the chime rang out again.
"Authorized."
"Eric Summers and Delphi."
"Delphi sir?" she said as she punched the names in.
He pointed down. She looked up then, leaned over the oak counter, and looked at him.
"Is that a...?"
"Yes ma'am, he's a wolf."
Her computer beeped at her.
"Oh, um, it looks like there's a memo for you and uh, Mr. Wolf here sir. Let me fetch it." as she walked off she mumbled. "Mondays..."
Delphi looked up at Eric and gave a low whine.
"I know, I don't make much sense of this either," he reached down to give the wolf a small pat as the woman returned.
"Here you are, have a good day."
"Thank you."
"You're welcome sir," she smiled.