City of Blood and Iron

The Counter-Suit

The heavy metal door of Sub-Basement 4 blew inward with a loud crash, sending chunks of concrete and twisted iron flying across the room.

Smoke filled the air instantly. Through the thick grey haze, a figure stepped over the broken door frame, holding a smoking laser rifle. It was not Director Thorne, and it was not one of the faceless guards from the upper floors.

It was Elena.

She did not look like the trapped asset we had seen on the red holographic screen a moment ago. Her eyes burned with a bright amber light, and her dark obsidian wings spread wide, filling the narrow basement with a fierce, pulsing energy. She walked into the room with absolute confidence, her boots clicking sharply against the concrete floor.

"You took your time," I said, letting out a breath I did not realize I had been holding as I stood up from my desk.

"I had to clear the lobby security first," Elena replied, a sharp, cold smile touching her lips. She tossed a heavy silver keycard onto my desk. "The upper management left their back door wide open. They think control contracts make them untouchable, but they forgot what happens when someone rewrites the terms from the inside."

Before I could answer, the red holographic screen on my desk flashed violently. The digital face of Director Thorne appeared on the display, his smooth corporate expression twisted into a mask of pure panic.

"Vance! What did you just do?" Thorne shouted through the terminal, his voice cracking with anger. "The master ledger in the executive suite is dissolving! You cannot change the corporate bylaws without board approval!"

I walked over to the desk, picked up my heavy wooden stamp, and pressed it firmly against the edge of the screen.

"I did not change your bylaws, Thorne," I said, my voice low and steady. "I filed a counter-suit for breach of contract. You used my family as collateral without full disclosure. Under section four of the municipal code, that voids every single operational right you hold in this sector."

Thorne slammed his fist against a desk on his end of the feed. "You are just a municipal worker! You cannot sue the system!"

"Watch me," Elena stepped forward, leaning directly over the holographic screen. Her amber eyes flashed with bright light. "You wanted a puppet queen for your new reality grid, Thorne. But you forgot that the best schemes always start from within. We didn't come here to play your game. We came to take your desk."

With a quick flick of her hand, Elena grabbed my cheap plastic pen and drove the tip straight into the center of the holographic projection.

A blinding flash of golden light shot through the terminal. Thorne let out a sharp cry as the screen shattered into a million tiny red sparks that vanished into the air. The intercom speakers hissed loudly and then went completely dead.

Silence fell over Sub-Basement 4. The heavy red energy cage around my chair dissolved into harmless grey dust.

"Is it over?" I asked, looking down at my hands.

"No," Elena answered, her wings folding tightly against her back as the amber glow in her eyes faded back to a warm, familiar brown. She looked toward the blown-out doorway, where the dark hallway stretched upward toward the main levels of the city hall. "That was just the local branch. Thorne is going to call the high board. If we want to finish this, we have to go up to the executive penthouse and rewrite the master file once and for all."

I picked up my heavy wooden stamp, slipped it into my coat pocket, and grabbed my iron gun from the desk drawer. The fear I had felt on my first day in this dark room was completely gone. Now, there was only the cold, clear drive to finish what our father had started twenty years ago.

"Then let us go update our job descriptions," I said.

We turned toward the hallway and started walking up the stairs.

We reached the ground floor lobby in minutes. But instead of the normal busy crowd of people buying coffee and rushing to work, the entire lobby was completely frozen.

Every single person- the security guards at the front desk, the office workers holding coffee cups, the people waiting by the elevators, was standing perfectly still like stone statues. Their eyes were wide and blank, staring straight ahead at nothing.

Floating in the exact center of the open lobby was a massive, glowing golden envelope twice the size of a car. It hovered in the air without any strings, pulsing with a deep, heavy heartbeat sound that echoed through the quiet room.

THUMP. THUMP. THUMP.

Written across the front of the giant envelope in sharp, glowing letters was my own name, followed by a formal legal notice.

NOTICE OF FINAL AUDIT

From: The Board of Directors.

Status: Mandatory attendance required.

"Kyle," Elena whispered, her hand gripping my arm tightly as she stared at the giant envelope. "That is not a corporate summons. That is a direct challenge from the Higher-Ups."

Before I could take a step forward, the front doors of the lobby slammed shut on their own, and the giant golden envelope cracked open.