Chapter 1

The uniformed aged retainer sat on the stool beside the imposing entrance doors as he always did. He appeared half-asleep, eyes drooping, only rousing occasionally to direct the odd lost soul in the right direction or to look furtively at his watch as if he was only remaining awake so he could finish his shift and go home. To most of the office personnel whom pass him day after day the elderly gentleman was part of the furniture much similar to the stool he was seated on or the door or even the wall behind him, drab, unremarkable. He had been sitting on this stool for as long as anyone remembers, seven days a week, his back ramrod straight, shoulders at military attention, the sole portion of his anatomy which seemed to move was his head watching with seeming disinterest the world go meandering by. No one ever saw him come to work or leave, he was just always there, semi-somnolent expression on his face like a mask, few spoke to him or even acknowledged his existence.

In reality there were twelve of them, young ex-commandos made-up to resemble this innocuous ex-soldier with a shift change every six hours unnoticed by anyone except by those who were supposed to notice. The watch he perpetually examined and actually took up a goodly proportion of his wrist gave out security messages, showed views from the assorted security cameras. They were hidden in the false ceilings over the complete ground floor area and the thirty exterior both light and heat sensitive cameras trained on a three hundred and sixty degree panorama sited on both sides of the busy road and completely surrounding the sealed building. Written information continuously flowed across this screen with warnings and readings from the many instruments watching, feeling and sensing for what his senses and the senses of the eighteen other security personnel on duty at any time of the day or night could not. Two O'clock in the morning and he was still there, the only one to be worried about.

It appeared to be a normal ten-year-old Holden sedan, a little rust in the driver's door, a bent side mirror and an old wire coat hanger for an aerial. It was filmed by five of the thirty or so exterior cameras breaking down in the 'No Parking' zone outside, directly opposed to the massive front doors and a security alert raised. A teenage girl, not immediately recognised by the company's facial recognition data banks, hopped out giving it a vicious kick in the door right in the middle of the rust. At the moment of the original report it was not known what type of explosive was used but the explosion caused all cameras viewing the scene to burn out. The two most relevant questions, who was the girl and why did all thirty exterior cameras burn out was asked but one was not researched deeply enough and the other disregarded as irrelevant.