Avatara

They were outside Sheldrake that night at one in the morning in their vans. Snow Globe's men dressed head to toe in black with bullet proof vests, were mobilised and awaiting orders. They had Snow Globe on video and audio link. The old man hadn't left his private offices in Tokyo, but he was still keen to have a say in the operation. Despite Grace being the one who called for the meeting, he decided to take over the execution of the plan with Pixel as his representative. He joked about it, with his classic nature of auspicious airs and graces, assuming that his authority was the natural course of things. He said it was important for him that Pixel learns to demonstrate leadership as she is an heir of Kawakami and would be its chairman one day. Pixel blushed at his revelation; clearly she heard it for the first time. Grace met his words with a renewed skepticism that she kept to herself.

Although, Snow Globe had shown her Byzantium and touched her emotions by sharing a virtual meal with her in his recreation of childhood memories in his father's restaurant, Grace's paranoia returned. Since her Byzantium visit Jazz had been hurt and Knightmare-Grimm had left the country without any explanation. The level of complication had gone up a notch yet Snow Globe's countenance remained the same. 'Did he notice these things? Did he even care? Even the way he talks, it's like he doesn't have a worry in the world. He's up in the clouds. He seems so oblivious to problems at ground level. It's either he is an idealistic buffon or he is hiding something.'

His men were taking up guns and jacking the magazines into them. Seeing this put Grace on edge. The kids seemed cool with it, including Pixel. The situation felt unreal.

"How are you holding up?' said Jazz

"I'm fine, it's just cold out here," replied Grace.

"You're shaking like a leaf," said Jazz. "And you look scared."

"I'm wearing a bulletproof vest and people could get shot and killed, of course I'm scared," said Grace.

"Ok, sorry for being pushy. But please just stay behind the men," said Jazz. "I've been in these kinds of situations before and it could get nasty." His voice quivered suggesting he was not as confident as he implied he was.

Pixel spoke to some of the men in Japanese. They seemed to hang onto her every word suggesting she had a high degree of authority.

Pixel finally spoke to Snow Globe. He gave a quick single syllable answer and that was the end of the conversation. Pixel then addressed the group.

"The soldiers will go in first," she said. There were twelve of Snow Globes's men present in the long van- he wasn't taking any chances. The space in the vehicle though big was tight for seventeen people and so the men were eager to get out.

"The rest of us will follow behind," said Pixel. "Be very cautious. The steps down to Q-division are very narrow. We must be dynamic and move quickly." Pixel's decisive stance impressed Grace a little bit - though she was not aware of it.

"Jazz of course you will be our eyes and ears while we are down there. Takeshi, Kurosaki and I will have earpieces," said Pixel. Takeshi and Kurosaki were two of Snow Globe's men. And from the way they carried themselves, they were two of his most trusted ones. Grace recognised Takeshi immediately. He was the chauffeur when she met Snow Globe for the first time.

"You'll be communicating with us three," she continued.

"Do they speak English?" said Jazz.

"Yes," said Kurosaki in a stout accent."We do speak English." Jazz felt embarrassed and shifted his eyes.

"Good," said Pixel. "Now that we know what we are doing, we can get going."

Jazz adjusted the monitor screen in the van and loaded up the module, setting up links with the Sheldrake cameras.

"These are sharper visuals than I got before," he said. "Hopefully no one will notice the infiltration. But I can't notice any activity on the infrared sensors. There must be no one there."

"Still we shouldn't take any chances," said Pixel. "Is everyone clear?"

"Yes," everyone said as a mumble.

"I said is everyone clear?" said Pixel.

"Yes," everyone said with a bit more gusto.

"Remember this is a chance to end the problems with Avatara, allowing us to create space for Byzantium, a much better and safer virtual world. That's the goal."

Grace noticed Byte rolled his eyes as Pixel said this. It seemed he did not really believe the hype either.

"Well done Pixel," said Snow Globe from the screen. "You are showing yourself to be a good leader." Pixel appeared quite pleased with herself.

They disembarked from the van quietly. Snow Globe's men ran ahead swiftly and almost imperceptibly, like leopards. The others followed.

"Grace, are you okay?" said Pixel.

"Why is everyone asking me that?" said Grace. "I'm okay, I've got to be."

"Cool, I'm going ahead," said Pixel. And she joined Snow Globe's men in front.

"She's naive," said Byte. "She's my friend but I thinks she follows Snow Globe's word too much. The only reason he wants to stop Avatara is so he can start Byzantium. Do you realise how much money he could make? I would tell her but she never listens to me; and she's fifteen, I'm only thirteen, so of course she'll never listen to me anyhow."

The men ahead were at the front door of Sheldrake attempting to open the front automatic door without breaking it. There were the revolving doors but they were more difficult to unlock.

Grace dwelled on Byte's words for a moment. His opinion was the same as hers? 'How could Pixel not see Snow Globe's manipulation? He must be a manipulator.'

Byzantium might be a controlled environment without the problem of mind control by an entity like Knightmare-Grimm. But it was still about control. Users will have to pay to get on it and if they don't have to pay then it must be data that Kawakami corporation is after. This is the same problem people experienced with social media platforms but with Byzantium that issue would be on steroids.

Twenty seconds elapsed and the men were inside. Grace did not know how they did it but they were in. The security cameras on the street and the front entrance had been overridden and so were not active. They were in the lobby. It was dark as their lifts were off, which was not typical of a large corporate building.

There were no interest in the upper floors, only the bas.e.m.e.nt. Only Q division. Then men moved ahead down the deliberate narrow steps. It was incredible how all the equipment and tech in the bas.e.m.e.nt ever existed. Every instrument piece of paraphernalia made it to the bas.e.m.e.nt via these steps, including the fabled gamma weapon. There was no other way in. Still this was not the time to ponder and Grace remembering this was her first time returning to Q-division, since her escape the year before, focused on the task ahead. Albeit nervously--.

Everyone was fully armoured, with bulletproof vests and headgear. Pixel made a hand signal and four of the men switched the lights on their headgear. No one else did, to avoid excessive exposure.

They were in front of the main heavy metal door to Q-division. Grace randomly thought about the lack of fire safety in the place, though she remembered they did have sprinklers in the ceilings.

"Jazz," whispered Pixel. "Do you have a visual?" Garbled noise of his voice made it back to Pixel through her receiver. "Good there is no one on the other side of the door," she said to the others. "Ok have you got the anti-lock mechanism for this door?," she said to the men. They waved it up. "Good, " she said. "Open it now."

Takeshi and Kurosaki were the two men in front. They put on a crank system around the lock of the front door and after ten seconds the lock broke. Cautiously, they pushed the door open. It was heavy, so two of them pushed hard to force it back as it was a sliding door.

"Jazz the visuals?" said Pixel, pressing her fingers on the earpiece. "Cool," she said, after getting confirmation from Jazz that it was safe.

Byte noticed something. A flashing control unit just by the door that flashed differently once the door was opened.

"I swear I have something like this before," he said.

"Byte stop causing trouble," said Pixel. "Focus."

Byte shrugged and moved on. Grace also looked at the control unit, not finding anything unique about it at all. But she was not familiar with hardware module of security systems; that was a very different proposition from the codes for their software.

She spoke in Japanese to Takeshi and Kurosaki. They nodded in agreement.

"Hai," they said, which Grace recognised as meaning yes. They and four other men entered the foyer of Q-division. This left six men behind along with Grace, Pixel, Byte and Qwerty. Grace had a little peek inside and noticed the landing area was much different to how she remembered it. The carpets appeared to have been stripped and left with exposed b.a.r.e concrete. The plain ordinary ceiling had been replaced with a panel ceiling with some of panels being LED panel lights. Grace didn't really notice these but the light reflection off the concrete floor gave her a chill.

While they waited ahead of the door, the six men advanced in with their guns c.o.c.ked and ready. The atmosphere was tense. One of the LED lights above flickered for one second and the one who must have been Takeshi- it was difficult to make out in the poor lighting- pointed his gun upward. But their appeared to be nothing to fear. The other five advanced in behind him. The foyer was actually a narrow corridor. The men faced a corridor and at the end of it was a door with a left and right corridor, either side making the passageway form a t-junction.

Takeshi got to this door and after quickly scanning both channels turned around. "Jazz is it clear?" he said. Then he gave a thumbs up. "There's no one here," Takeshi said triumphantly. "It's clear! come in!"

And at this point several ceiling panels opened. It must have happened in under half-a-second but it felt like ages. Several automatic rifles descended from the panel and pummeled down with a rain of bullets. The noise sounded like thunder.

"Oh no, take cover!" said Grace. Grace, Pixel, Byte, Qwerty and the six other men fell back flailing around. The six men inside though got battered with bullets and buckled in agony. A collective sound of 'arrgh' their screams of horror, pain and surrender were muted by the front door of Q-division sliding shut automatically.

Behind, the shut door they could still hear gunfire, the muted sounds of the men screaming, as the ranged weaponry rattled down on them inside.

And then the firing stopped. There was silence.

Pixel picked herself up from the ground appearing in shock, disbelief and terror. Her eyes widened and her breath sounding panicked. Her earpiece dangling off her shoulder transmitted muffled sounds; probably Jazz shouting frantically.

Grace felt rattled herself. 'What the hell has happened?' Her ears were ringing and she could hear her heart beating in her c.h.e.s.t. Everything seemed to be happening weirdly slow.

"Takeshi? Kurosaki?" said Pixel.

"We've gotta get out of here," said Qwerty.

"Takeshi!" cried Pixel. Then she shouted wildly in Japanese. But there was no reply. Byte grabbed her to pull her back, as did the other men as well. PIxel resisted, kicking and screaming in resistance, having to be dragged away back up the stairs.