Book I: Part 6: Alison

    ‘Miss Amberginnegan?’
     A voice was calling her.  She had been looking down for what seemed like hours now.  She wasn’t quite aware of the time.
    At 8:00 am she woke up.  There was a light rain, set to end at 8:35.  She engaged the VAST until 8:40, felt uneasy about spending time in an apartment she wasn’t earning rent for, left for the 8:45 cablecar to Legacy Corps Tower 1.
    The two Legacy Corps Towers rose high above the teeming mass of Section 49-FF.  They stood side by side, identical in appearance, except Tower 1 was black and Tower 2 was white.  They reminded Alison of giant chess pieces facing off against each other. 
    The Towers had four main sides that met at sanded off corners, making them octagons.  At various heights were sets of crystal-clear windows terminating in arched points, with ornate gilded frames that glinted in the sunlight, laying bare mazes of cubicles and scurrying office workers.  
    Level 1848 was a maze of offices, with employees rushing about in chaos.  She wandered her way to a central map, which shifted at the touch, adds playing in the corners.  She studied the map a few seconds, then took the shortest route possible to the Legacy Corps office.
    The first door she walked in came upon a spacious office room, outfitted in expensive furniture.  Sitting behind a desk placed to the right sat an a slender, fair-skinned man, with short purplish hair, the color of the woman’s on the holographone and slicked straight back. 
    ‘Hello!  I’m Janus!’ he said, waving towards a triangular stick on the desk with ‘JANUS TIRESIAS, Receiver’  emblazoned on the front.  ‘How may I help you?’ 
    ‘Yes?  I’m Alison Amberginnegin?  I’m here for an 11:30 appointment?’  She looked at the clock on the wall: 9:09. 
    ‘Oh, you are?’  The man typed something into a database.  ‘Oh! You are! Oh, you are quite early aren’t you?’ 
    ‘Yes, I....’
    ‘Well, you have almost two and a half hours.  Are you sure you don’t want to look around some stores?  The next level down, there are some lovely stores,  I could give you some suggestions...’
    ‘Uh, no thank you,’ she said.  ‘Is there a waiting room, I could sit in?  Or something?’
    Janus frowned.  ‘Well, I didn’t mean to be unfriendly,’ he said.  ‘It’s just that it’s an awful long time….  Well, I suppose….’
    ‘Well, look,’ he said, scooting his chair and leaning forward.  ‘Go down the hall, to the end, where there is an elevator.  Go up three stories, only three, not four—you can’t actually wait outside Messer  Meddleson’s office on the fourth, in fact most people don’t remember to come to this level, they try to go all the way up to the top office, but you can’t get a meeting with the director without going through the levels….  Oh, I’m sorry, I’m digressing.’
    Alison smiled meekly. ‘That’s ok.’
    ‘Oh, neat.  Hey, you should probably write this down.  There is a lot to remember.’
    ‘No. No, I’m fine.’
    ‘Ok, well...what was I saying? Uh, go to the fourth level, the third up, and when you get off, come back the way you came, this way.  At the end, there will be a fork in the hallway.  Go left and enter the door on the right.  This will be…’ Janus tapped something on his console.  ‘1851-08.  Do you need to write that down?’
    ‘No, no, I’m fine.’
    ‘You sure? It’s a very long number.’
    ‘No, no, I have It.  I’ll remember.  1851-08.’
    ‘Miss Amberginnegan?’
    Alison looked up.  No one was in the room.  ‘Yes?’ she asked meekly.
    ‘I am sorry to hear of the long wait you had.  Messer Meddleson is ready to see you now.’   
    Alison stood up and looked around, looked at the clock on the wall.  11:30.  The voice seemed to come from nowhere.  ‘Wh-where do I go?’ she asked.
    ‘Just walk through the door to your right, please.’
    Alison saw no cameras in the room.  Slowly she walked over to the door she had not entered from.  The wood swirls resembled satellite images of superstorms she had seen on the news last month. 
    She opened the door into a large, large room.  Doors were centered in three of the walls.  On the fourth, the one to her left, was a massive window.  Not all-encompassing like the one in the room she had left, but centered.  Its square gilded frame eventually curved inward as it approached the ceiling, coming to a single point, mirroring the massive dimensions of the room.  An enclosure that suggested infinity. 
    Near the window was a large wooden desk, much nicer than the beaten antique she had gotten from her mother.  Sitting at the desk was a man, dressed in a simple, plain black suit, suggesting a street ascetic instead of a businessman.  His face was identical to the face on the card.  As Alison entered, he jumped up and began walking quickly across the room. 
    ‘Ah! My dear, how lovely to see you! Hello! Hello!’
    ‘What?  How, are you?’ said Alison, confused. 
    ‘Oh, please, forgive.  How rude of me.  I am Mosses Meddleson.’
    ‘Aren’t you on the next floor up?’
    ‘The next floor up?  I’m sorry,’ said Mosses, his voice giving off great waves of anguish. ‘I don’t get your meaning.’
    ‘From that room,’ said Alison flatly, then cringed inside.  She was supposed to introduce herself.
    ‘From the…?  Oh! Oh, yes, I see what you mean.  It’s a portal.’
    ‘A portal?’
    ‘Yes.  You see, this door goes between the two floors, bringing you directly from one level to the next.  It’s a space knot.   I enjoy having easy access to more locations than I have doors.’  He laughed slightly as he said this.  
    ‘Oh, I see,’ said Alison.  Then remembering her mistake, ‘uh, my name is Alison Amberginnegan?’
    ‘Oh, of course!  I knew you from the first.  Excellent!  Wonderful to see you, my dear.  My!  What a pretty flower you are!  Your voice, it is as sweet, as a dulcimer.’
    ‘Uh, why, thank you?’ replied Alison, having no idea was a dulcimer was.  ‘Thank you for seeing me, too.  I mean, I am sorry if I am wasting your time.’
    ‘What? Oh, no!  My dear, the pleasure is mine.  Besides,’ he said, a twinkle in his eye, ‘I have all the time I can afford, and believe you me, I can afford quite a bit.’
    ‘Oh, ok.’
    ‘Come, come!’ he said, walking towards his large desk.  ‘Let us sit.’ 
    Alison followed wondering about the portals.  Mosses Meddleson seemed friendly enough, so she decided to ask.  ‘Um, with the portals?  What happens if people tried to entered the same room from different doors?  Would  their particles collide or something?’
    ‘Oh, gracious, no, nothing like that could happen.’  He gestured towards a console on his desk.   ‘The portals run on a switch, you see.  Only one door every actually opens up to my room.  The rest of the time the doors just open on the next room over.  Or a blank wall, depending on what’s there.’  He sat down in his chair, motioning for Alison to take a seat at one of the five plush chairs arrayed before his desk.  In the center of them was a small café table, much nicer than any she had ever seen before .  ‘Comfortable?’
    ‘Uh, yes, thank you.’  The chair was likely the most comfortable Alison had ever sat in. 
    ‘I pray your journey here was not too tasking?’ asked Mosses Meddleson, still getting comfortable.
    “Oh, no,’ said Alison, biting her lip.  Her mind once again replayed the events from yesterday.
    ‘So, what do you think of our buildings, yes?’
    ‘Very impressive,’ said Alison nodding, looking up.  The ceiling went up and up into darkness.  The room was lit only by the light from the window. 
    ‘They used to be temples, you know.  Religious centers.  Not for any particular religion, mind you, but all of them.  Many of the levels used to be church centers.  That’s why the ceilings are so high on so many levels.  Of course, the churches were all forced to flee to the lower sections during the first light age.  So we own them now.’  Mosses Meddleson stared wistfully at the ceiling.  ‘I think there is nothing quite like temples for setting up an office complex, don’t you?’   
    Alison spoke before she could stop herself.  ‘Oh, I was wondering about that.’ 
    Mosses Meddleson blinked.  ‘About what, dear?’
    ‘Uh, well,’ she started, staring at the floor.  ‘If the buildings are called Legacy Corps, and you guys are Legacy Corps, why are there other, I mean…?’
    ‘Oh, I think I see what you are getting at.  Yes, we own both buildings, and actually operate from several different areas on both, divided by department.  I think we take about 44 levels in all.  We rent out the rest.’
    ‘But, how can you afford two buildings?’
    Mosses Meddleson smiled smugly.  ‘Executing is a very profitable business, my dear.  All those contracts and wills to oversee, and the estates we run?  Yes, we take care of fortunes too, in fact we are planning on expanding that division.  Why, we have more than enough profits to purchase our own buildings.  Oh, have you eaten?  Would you like some tea, or scones?
    ‘No, no, that’s all right, I don’t want to trouble you.’
    ‘Oh, it’s no trouble at all, dear.’ Mosses Meddleson fiddled with something out of Alison’s line of sight.  A tray of scones, teapot, and teacup appeared upon the café table.  Hand-painted swans swam along the teacup’s base, looking much like the birds kept at the indoor pool on the top level of her apartment complex.
    ‘Oh, uh, well, thank you,’ said Alison.  She helped herself to a scone.  ‘I, uh, actually haven’t eaten yet today.’
    ‘Oh, you poor thing! Please eat up! Eat up! Why, you must be famished!  And let me know if you need anything more.  I can have anything sent for.’ 
    Mosses Meddleson leaned back in his chair.  ‘Yes, my dear, this company is very profitable.  But I try not to let it get to my head.  I like to think of myself as a, a humble shepherd, guiding my people’s property from one generation to the next.  How are the scones?’
    ‘Uh, very good, thank you.’
    Mosses Meddleson smiled.  ‘Orange and cranberry flavored.  Try the tea.’
    ‘Ok.’  She took a sip, a light one, afraid of the heat.  It made her think of the color green, of herbs ripening in the sun: stiff, yet covered in a fine layer of dew.  She had no real idea what it tasted like, though, no specific plant came to mind, but it felt warm, and calming.  ‘It’s very good.’ 
    Mosses Meddleson smiled.