When Vanessa Winthrop arrived at The House of The Federation for the second time that day, she was greeted by a stampede whose cause somehow eluded her.
Her eyes searched through the cluster of people, looking for an explanation for the chaos in the house but there was none ready to offer her one.
In her hurry to get past the crowd, Vanessa brushed past Carlo Kennedy, one of the leaders of The House of The Federation and the duo stopped to talk.
He did not look as confused as Vanessa was. That was a good sign.
"What's going on?" Vanessa asked amidst the awkward stare he was giving her.
"Didn't you hear?" Carlo shot back at her.
"Hear what?"
Now, it was Carlo's turn to be surprised. "I don't understand. Did you not vote for him too?"
Then, it all began to make sense to Vanessa. The uproars in the house, the stampede, and the chaos that was ongoing. It all went on to prove that something was not right.
She turned back to Carlo and said in a voice that was barely a whisper. "Vlad has been elected to run for mayor, hasn't he?"
"Yes," Carlo muttered, his voice filled with disappointment. And was that fear too?
"You sound surprised," Carlo noted almost immediately. "Were you not there when he was elected?"
Vanessa rubbed a hand over her forehead, trying to wipe off the beads of sweat that had gathered on it.
"No, Carlo. I stepped out for a moment," Her eyes betrayed her thoughts at once.
"I don't understand," Vanessa mumbled. "This wasn't the plan."
Carlo Kennedy was not a man of many words but he was a man given to much thinking before he uttered a word from his lips. And even as he stood before Vanessa, a thousand thoughts were running through his mind every minute.
It was driving him crazy. The steering of control had been snatched from Vanessa's hand and if something wasn't done fast, he knew they would all be done for. What would become of his kind then?
"Vlad will never win!" Vanessa announced after a long pause.
"Why do you think so?" Carlo asked, sounding unconvinced.
Vanessa had a devious smirk on her face.
"Because I know something I think it's high time I should tell him about."
*****
The security guard scanned the beautiful lady in an all-white suit mumbling to himself the whole time. This was not the kind of lady to carry any dangerous items with her, he thought to himself.
But his glorified job required that he treated every traveler equally. Bullshit!
His eyes danced with boredom as he got ready to allow the attractive-looking lady to pass through the checkpoint into the next area of the airport but just then, a sharp beeping sound from the machine alerted all his senses forcing him to become serious about the job instantly.
He took a careful look at the lady again, convinced this was a mistake. But it wasn't. The beeping sound continued, blaring relentlessly as if calling upon the whole world to witness what was happening.
The security guard could no longer ignore the warning, not with the long queue of people standing behind the lady. He figured this was the point where he switched to due process.
"Please, step aside, ma'am," He said calmly. "We need to run some more checks on you."
The lady who had seemed warm and sweet all along suddenly switched into a less friendly look. She gave him a pointed stare before she responded.
"I don't have time to waste here talking to you, you know. And if you knew who I was, you wouldn't waste my time either."
Here we go again! One of the hassles of the job.
Outwardly, the security guard said. "I'm sorry, ma'am. But we must follow standard protocol. You are not allowed to leave here until a female guard searches you and ensures that you're clean," He added a tight-lipped smile at the end to spice up his speech.
It happened quickly, too quickly for him to notice. The lady slipped underneath his huge frame and was headed toward the terminal area when he realized what had happened.
The guard suddenly grew panicky. His hand ran through his waistline at once grabbing his walkie-talkie. He held it close to his mouth and pressed a button on it while he spoke quickly into it.
"Mayday! Mayday! We have a situation here!" His eyes darted in all directions as of that was going to make him to somehow catch a glimpse of the woman that had just escaped from the security checkpoint.
He could not see any sign of her. It was amazing how she was able to slip through his hands on such short notice.
The security guard was speaking into the walkie-talkie again. "A woman just escaped the security checkpoint. She's white, with black hair, and brown eyes, and dressed in a white suit. Do the security cameras have anything on her?"
He listened for a moment to the gruff voice on the other side of the line. It was shocking how the men watching the CCTV cameras did not find anything surprising about what had just happened.
*****
Vanessa Winthrop was having a bad day. She was pacing to and fro the ends of her private library like her life was on the line. She could not remember a time when she was this restless, not until a few days ago when her world had started to be shaken by the arrival of an assassin in her house.
As if that was not enough, she now had a high-ranking enemy to contend with. It was like everyone was going crazy and she was not sane enough to get to the root of the problem and solve it.
The whirring sound from her AI assistant, Travis interrupted her thoughts every now and then. She had ignored him the whole time but now, the noise from his system was beginning to rip her mind apart.
"Travis!" She called. "Will you keep that quiet, please? I'm trying to think here."
"Yes ma'am," The mechanical voice responded. "In my opinion, I think you've done enough thinking for today. Maybe it's time to start acting, ma'am."