Olivia moved to the side in a flash.
Swooshh!
The moment the door unlocked and cracked open by an inch, a palm-sized, spear-like object flew through that crack. It went past the place Olivia was standing a second ago, and pierced into the wall on the opposite side, driving inside completely. If she was even a millisecond late it would have gone right through her head.
The next second, hundreds of similar sharp objects shot out from the side walls, raining for a minute or so. If anyone got caught in-between, not only would the person be dead but their body would be full of holes like a strainer.
But Olivia deftly dodged all of them, not letting a single one make a scratch on her.
Right after, a ball dropped from the ceiling. At a glance, it seemed to be made of metal, and instinctively anyone would like to duck to avoid getting hit on the head. But it was just its coating that gave it such an appearance. Mid-air, the ball seemed to vanish.
Olivia's eyes narrowed at the sight. An amused glint flashed past her blue-green orbs.
The ball actually did not vanish, rather it contained a colourless, odourless, deadly poisonous gas. The moment the shell dissipated, the lethal gas filled the entire place. But being colourless, it was invisible, making the ball apparently vanish in the air. As a lack of odour made its presence undetectable, sniffing it unknowingly was enough to kill a healthy adult in seconds. Another dangerous fact was that it could also kill by coming into skin contact.
However, its presence did not escape Olivia's keen senses; it neither scared her nor affected her. Rather, such silly tricks just made her roll her eyes. She stepped closer to the door in a relaxed manner and opened it, as if she had not just dodged death by an ear. Nothing happened.
'They really spared no effort in safeguarding this room, huh. Well, now there's no doubt this room has whatever I'm looking for.' Olivia scoffed.
Actually, those traps were enough to prevent even most trained people from entering. Even if they somehow managed to dodge the spears, they would either not have any energy left to get past the poisonous gas or would die before realising its presence. As a result, anyone trying to enter would ultimately die, be it from fatal injuries or from the deadly gas. But every situation has exceptions, like in case of Olivia, it was akin to playing with toys.
Stepping into the room, Olivia started her habitual inspection of her surroundings. Nothing surprising, like outside, everything there was also extravagant.
The spacious room had a fancy wall shelf with some books and a few decorative items, a recliner and a Board.
Board was a device set on the top flat surface of a study-table, operated using a smartpen. It was a digital screen with holographic projectors. It possessed combined features of a phone and TV, like it had biometric lock systems, could be used to create documents, run complex softwares, play games, FaceTime, watch series and so on. These features could also be customised according to the Board's place of use, like those used in schools by students, only had N.B. while those used by teachers, had some additional features. Similarly, those used in offices, banks, hospitals, etc. had their own required functions.
Olivia went near the Board and turned it on. Because of Abhirup, she had no problem accessing anything, even protected or hidden files. In a few minutes, she was done checking everything but nothing suspicious was found. Closing the hologram, she went to the shelf.
Frisking through every single page of each book was easy as there were only eight books, each barely an inch thick. But nothing noteworthy was found. Olivia moved to examine the sliding shelf. Still nothing. She checked every nook and cranny of the room, the wall, decorations, carpet, nothing was left unturned. Yet, the result was as disappointing as the previous ones.
Olivia looked at her watch. This time, using it just for its basic purpose, knowing the time. Only fifteen minutes had passed since entering that room. There was still plenty of time to finish her work.
The basic scrutiny was followed by a detailed observation of the room; from the wallpaper to the shape of the leaves on the little potted plants. Suddenly remembering something, she trudged towards the shelf and slid it from side to side. Once, twice, thrice, sometimes slow, sometimes fast. Several repetitions later, she pulled back, but her eyes stayed glued to the shelf. After thinking for some time, Olivia flashed a yellow light on the shelf.
With a faint smirk, she stared at the ultrasonic image of the shelf, 'The mystery has started to unravel.'
Then, her gaze moved onto the stack of books she had kept aside. Seemingly ordinary, one book in particular caught her attention, and immediately ended up in her hands. Only after a thorough investigation was it kept back, but not without leaving an impression. Thereafter, similar ultrasonic image of each flower pot was collected. The glint in her eyes grew stronger after coming to a certain pot, but it gave way to vivid amusement as she took notice of the peculiar design on the wall behind the flower pot shelf.
A scenery was painted. It depicted a village by a linn, whose water was flowing by the houses in a stream. Villagers were collecting water in earthen pots, cleaning their huts, and drawing alpana on the floors and walls. While the children were busy playing, the adults were occupied with the preparation for Laxmi Puja.
The odd thing about it was not the scenery, which depicted a remote Indian village from the twenty-first century, but the method of painting. The entire picture was painted using various geometric shapes and symbols. However, they were too small and finely blended to be noticed. Thus, creating an impression that it was like any regular digital painting. However, thanks to her artist sister, Olivia was familiar with such art style and spotted it right away.
The corner of her lips curled up in a smirk, 'Ooh!?'
She pressed something on her watch, and a lens appeared at one end.
Click.
The watch reverted to normal state after saving the photo. Throwing one final look to confirm that everything was put back in place, she strode toward the door. Just before touching the doorknob, her hand stopped midway. Footsteps sounded from the other side. Faint at first — then slowly becoming prominent.