Room 317

P.
P.
Aug 9, 2017 · 10 min read

*Today

When she looked up, 300 eyes were staring at her through a glass wall as she undressed in the cold room. They crowded around the glass compartment with notepads and pens, ready to observe her, not a friendly face in sight. She closed her eyes and sighed. The contact lenses she wore were beginning to dry out, a discomfort she could not wait to be rid of. She’d always hated what had been a necessity when she arrived at Ax R&D. The freedom of finally taking them off would a small reward for this new level of discomfort she felt at that moment.

*Two months earlier

“Are you lost?”

Nibe turned gratefully to the voice and nodded. She’d walked around for half an hour searching for Room 317 and everyone she’d asked had looked at her like she was crazy, not bothering to answer. They simply averted their eyes and hurried away. If she hadn’t known better, she could have sworn their faces stretched with fear when they heard the room number. Out of confusion, she simply stood clutching her briefcase, watching the 15th person scurry away. She’d dressed very nicely for the first day; the cowl neck of a soft white blouse peeked out of a tailored ox-blood suit, cinched at the waist with a dark brown belt, which matched her briefcase and shoes. When she’d looked in the mirror on her way out that morning, she felt powerful. The ox-blood was an intentional choice to feed her confidence and put her on the right footing for her first day that the largest research and development firm in the world.

Between pushing her way onto a crowded bus and wandering the halls of Ax, she’d lost a little bit of her polish. Her braids had loosened from the bun at the back of her head, her contact lenses were sticking uncomfortably to her eyeballs and the cowl neck no longer lay elegantly in place. She was a bit of a mess. So, when the voice called out to her, she wanted to sing for joy. She ran up to the tall woman leaning against a desk at the end of the hall. The only other person Nibe had seen that was as tall as her was Nibe’s mother.

“Yes! Yes, I am. I am looking for Room 317… and, now, a bathroom to freshen up. I’m almost 15 minutes late for my briefing and I can’t seem to locate it or anyone who can help me find it. Till now.”

“Ok, relax. Room 317? Are you sure?”

“Positive. It’s on my appointment note.” She pulled out a sheet from her briefcase and brandished it, tapping on the portion

“So it is, you’d think I’d recognize my own writing by now.

“You- You’re Dr. Kwofi”

“Correct. I am going to take a wild guess and say you’re Dr. Ambra. You’re late.”

“Oh, yes! Like I said, I’ve been looking- “

“I’m late too. But this will be the only time. For me and for you.” She gestured for them to walk towards an elevator, “Room 317 is this way.”

The elevator took them 12 floors down, which was surprising to Nibe. Ax R&D headquarters was a 3-story building. When they stopped, they stepped into a large circular room, with one door on the side opposite the elevator. Dr. Kwofi walked briskly towards door. It was labeled BIT.

“Is this room 317?”

“No dear. This is BIT, your new home.”

“But…”

“317 is a code. Technically, this part of Ax operations is need to know for only a few people in the company. You were meant to wait for me at the main reception. Didn’t you see that in the letter?”

“No. I didn’t. There were no further instructions.”

“Hmm…” Dr. Kwofi mumbled “maybe I was wrong. I hope not.”

*Today

“Ms. Ambra, the rest of it?” a voice cut through her reverie, belonging to Dr. Safo, the head of Oil and Gas research and managing director of Ax R&D.

“Dr. Ambra, sir.”

She was stark naked in front of her colleagues, yet titles were important. Even then.

He raised his hand in admission and gestured for her to continue. She could have stopped then, she could have grabbed her clothes, announcing that she had changed her mind and that she wanted to go home, shower and rest for the next day of work. However, the 12 persons standing silently at each pillar, dressed in quarantine suits and clutching guns told her otherwise. Her presence there would not voluntary, if she chose to back out of the examination.

She reached up to the braids on her head and pulled down.

*One month earlier

She stared at the sheet in her hand. It looked a lot different from the day she had pulled it out of its embossed envelope. It was worn and smudged with makeup, dirt and a little of the chocolate she often had at lunch. She’d read it a million times and, still, the words had not changed. In fact, she knew them by heart. But, every time she picked it up, she whispered the contents to herself.

“We are pleased to offer you…”

“Your specialized skills…”

“Here at Ax R&D…”

“You will report on Monday…”

And when she reached the end of the letter, her eyes did not glaze over the silvery writing just below Dr. Kwofi’s signature.

“If you can read this, do not disclose your identity to anyone. Meet me in the reception…”

She’d walked into that building and let everyone she met know that she was Dr. Ambra, new hire, looking for Room 317, where she was meant to attend orientation. She’d done as she was told and not disclosed her identity, her real identity, to anyone. Including Dr. Kwofi.

*Today

The gasp was collective and swept the entire observation. Nibe’s once brown skin shone oily black before them where she stood, her skinsuit pooled around her feet. Her skin was alive and pulsing in a smooth rhythm up and down her arms and legs. The crowd stood mesmerized and she watched them with equal attention. At some point, she expected the natural human fear to overtake them, causing a riot and the inevitable violence.

“Ladies and gentlemen. The being that stands before is a special one.” Dr. Safo boomed. “50 years ago, after the discovery of oil on the shores of Cape Three Points, the Government of Ghana also uncovered a dark secret of our newly found resources. For centuries, everyone, from the early kingdoms of the gold coast, the violent western settlers, to our modern leaders, had futilely sought black gold on our shores. Their failure, thought to be a result of poor technology and skill, was actually caused by the valiant sabotage of a colony found deep within the depths of our oil fields. The Aximas were a well-oiled war-machine that did not take kindly to being invaded every decade and took no mercy in their quest to protect their home.”

The murmuring began to vibrate from the walls.

He raised his hand.

“There’s more. After unearthing confidential documents which detailed the various attempts to neutralize the Aximas, the current government sought a treaty with the people, offering protection, conservation of their home and peace, in exchange for oil.”

He turned to face Nibe.

“It appears the Aximas would like to renege on the treaty and have sent a spy to gather intel on the governments weakness through Ax R&D’s confidential oil and defense research. We have found her.”

*One week ago

“Dr. Kwofi?” Nibe knocked on the office door. “Dr. Kwofi, are you there?”

She waited a beat and pushed the handle down. The office looked like it had been swept by a tornado. Papers were strewn everywhere, the chair knocked over, showing signs of a struggle. Nibe reached for her phone and started dialing, “1–9-…”. She paused when she saw, for the second time since she started working at Ax R&D, the silver writing. This time it splashed against wall behind her.

“They will come for you. It’s time to act.”

How had she known? She went straight home after that.

The next day, she was back in BIT. She sat in the lab, testing oil samples and recording results, like any other day. Her heart, well the diamond that lay in her chest, pulsed with apprehension, knowing that they would soon come for her. The wait caused her eyes to react to the contact lenses even more. She wanted so badly to rip her eyes out. For 3 days, she waited.

On Friday morning she strolled into lobby and, as she neared the reception, a large group of security personnel advanced and circled her. Dr. Safo stepped in the middle of the gathering and pointed to her.

“Here she is. I think she knows what to do.”

“What do you think I know?”

“We’ll all find out.”

*Today

“You lie!!!” She exclaimed. Her skin pulsed further to match her fury. “You dare open your mouth to besmirch the name of a people who have given your useless nation everything?”

The contacts felt like building blocks at this point. She could barely see. She could, hear the sentries cocking their guns in anticipation of what she might do.

“We gave you everything you ever needed.” Her voice deepened to its original roar as her fury grew. “But your greed. You wanted more, always more.”

She reached up and pulled out the contacts, with a satisfying sigh, and revealed eyes like two fiery lights, which illuminated the entire room, blinding a few of the spectators who were rooted to the spot.

Dr. Safo gasped.

“They didn’t tell you, did they? All your intel, they didn’t you about the Mahwebis. Foolish humans. It looks like it’s my turn for a history lesson.” Her eyes brightened, shooting beams of light onto the walls.

Images formed on the walls showing Aximas, with their telltale skin, running for their lives as a fire swept after them.

“I am a Mahwebi, a keeper of history for the great kingdom of Aximas. We are blessed with the gift of recollection, allowing us to reveal the truth in every story told on this earth, ours and others. When your leaders came to our kingdom, begging for oil, we had pity and shared our life source with you. We lived among you, taught you the secrets of the oil and how to preserve your home during its use. All you could think about was the money and power that came with its use. You wanted all of our reserves.”

She started to slowly stalk the room

“You see my people suffering? You sat in this building and dreamt up wild ways to destroy us. The activated bauxite that you’re testing, I know what it will do. I came to warn you, to reason with you. But, you took my presence as an opportunity to legitimize your genocide. Now, I’m here in this room to tell you one thing.”

She paused

“Thank you.”

*Two days before

3 days of waiting had kept Nibe busy. The last day, she ventured into Dr. Kwofi’s office. She searched high and low, rifling through drawers, scanning her computer, and found nothing. She had almost given up, when she spotted a ream of papers by the printer. The packaging had been torn off, yet the paper, though new, looked slightly rumpled, as though it had been used. She pulled out a sheet and, when she looked at it, almost sighed with relief. Each document was a journal entry, signed by Pesa, in the silvery script in which Aximas recorded secrets. Pesa was the Axima leader who had long ago sacrificed herself as a tribute, to dismantle the evil plans of the Ghanaian Government.

“Dr. Kwofi is Pesa…was Pesa”

Pesa had documented all that she had discovered in the course of 20 years working undercover at Ax R&D. She had discovered the weaponized bauxite that the government had produced to wipe out the entire population of Axima.

Nibe knew what she needed to do.

*Today

Dr. Safo found his voice. “For what”

She smiled as the light subsided. “You see, the Mahwebi are not just glorified video recorders. We have the honorable role as warriors of the Aximas. We are born to die for our kingdom, if that is the only way to save it. Your guards over there, they don’t scare me. No one told you guns don’t harm us?”

She turned to the guards, “Put those toys away.”

“You already know what “kills” us. We’re oil, we burn away.”

She reached into her chest, pulled out her heart and raised a finger to strike it. A blue flame bounced to life on her fingertip.

“You see, when we burn, we explode and take everything with us in our wake. We rise into the air as smoke and transcend to a new universe where we continue to live forever as Maximas. You and your research, on the other hand,” She touched her forehead, “do not.”

Dr. Safo lunged at her.

“No!”

___

“This is Kyerewa Bony, reporting live from one of the most devastating scenes the country has ever witness. An explosion from within Ax R&D headquarters has demolished the entire building and everything within a five-meter radius. The is no salvageable scrap left of the largest research block in the world. Rescue teams are surveying the area. However, it is clear that there are no survivors.”

Nowi stared at the smoke billowing from the carnage, face hidden by a baseball caps. Its silver tint had gone unnoticed by the news and rescue teams but, for him, it was a signal.

“Rise in Power, ancestor.” He whispered, catching a glimpse of his reflection in a window, as his eyes changed briefly from black to silver. “I’m a Mahwebi now? Mama would be so proud.”

He sighed, “I guess I need to find contacts now,” and disappeared into the crowd.

P.
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