IT - Blue Angel Knight

The Office

He couldn't quite remember how he had managed to get there, but Sam was now standing alone on the grey pavement of a city street facing towards the revolving glass doors of a giant glass fronted office building.

It was grey and cold outside, with light rain in the air, and it was all very indistinct. He was smartly dressed in a black suit, and was holding something in his hand, which was probably a folder or briefcase, Yes - that must be it.

I must be here for something he thought, but he couldn't remember what, a meeting perhaps? Yes, that had to be it, otherwise why would he be here? His mind felt vague, lost, uncertain.

He turned around and looked up and down the pedestrianised street, but it was misty, wet with rain and unwelcoming, and the few people who were walking around the pavements looked indistinct, shapeless, and unhelpful.

So with no other logical option, he turned and walked through one of the revolving doors, and into the ground floor of the large open plan, high-ceilinged reception area of the office building.

It was one of those imposing places; plush carpets, polished floors, expensive wooden trimmings, and fabric and marble lined walls. This exclusive décor was all finished off with polished brass and gold fittings, grand architectural statement structures, and leather furniture, which although expensive, was more decorative and designed to impress rather than to be comfortable or functional.

It was all presented to the outside world via a two storey high floor-to-ceiling glass panelled wall, showing off its interior like a styled exclusive shop window. One which kept the sanitised air-conditioned atmosphere in, and the undesirable cold zombie-filled grey masses out. The glass and the doors both providing a defining line to 'the other side' of the protective corporate bubble.

At the back of the Reception area and about sixty feet away was a wall, which was set with a row of three polished solid silver metal elevator doors, above which were three old-fashioned rotary brass dials, indicating the positions of the lifts somewhere on the 30 floors above, or down to several levels below ground.

To the left and right of these, further back, were two sets of marble stairs, and then further either side of those were doors to corridors that linked up with other buildings in the complex.

There was a waiting area to the far right of the foyer that looked out from glass walls on two sides, with square angular leather sofas and chairs bolted to the carpet floor. When seated in these you would be positioned in such a way as to be presented with several overly large LED flat panel video display screens, carefully arranged along the right hand and rear walls all showing various news channels and stock market reports and company marketing material in streaming video presentations.

To the left side of the foyer, and set against the far left wall, was a 20ft long carved wood, marble, and metal Reception desk, which arched out several feet from it in a thrusting display of authority.

Along the top of the desk hiding behind the front façade could be seen the backs of several LCD monitors, that were visible just above the rim of wood trimmed marble and behind the desk were two smartly suited, young, immaculately presented, women with straight blonde hair.

On the walls high up all around the foyer, were some very large and expensive pieces of artwork; there were oil canvases, Modern Art, and large sculptures either suspended from the ceiling or positioned along the walls or mounted on plinths in the corners. There were also several security cameras in the corners of the ceiling, from which blinked tiny red LED lights, and the lenses of which seemed to follow his every move.