AncilChapter 34: In The Belly Of The Whale
My eyes opened to white. Just white. The entire room was plain white with no shades of any other color. There was an anomaly though. A plate of food laid on the floor looking at me with its big beady peas-like eyes. Peas and rice, topped with macaroni pie arranged to look like a smiley face. The peas were pilled up to form two eyes, the macaroni pie scrunched to form a nose and the rice was spread into a smile. There was a note at the bottom of the plate but I couldn’t really make out the words.
It was only when I actually tried to get up did I realize just how incredibly weak I was. Getting up was so hard to do that I felt like I exerted every little bit of energy in every part of my body just to sit upright. I carried myself closer to the plate which was prepared with a knife and fork. The food seemed freshly made because it was smoking like it had just come off the stove. I took the knife, shoved it in my pocket and used the fork to quickly ram the food down my throat. I was starving.
“No drink!” I said after I finished eating.
A hole quickly opened up in the white floor and up from it a cold beverage popped out. It looked and smelled like apple juice. I looked around thinking that someone had heard me but the room was still as empty as it had been before. I picked up the drink keeping my eyes darting on every corner of the room.
“Thanks,” I said before I placed the drink to my mouth.
“You’re welcome,” a robotic voice from the room said. The voice surprised me so much that it caused me to spill my drink all over the floor before I was even able to drink it. There was no visible evidence of the spill on the floor though. The area where the drink spilled was still as white as it was before. But up from the spilled area another drink popped up, this time it was banana flavored.
“Thanks again,” I said, expecting to hear the same robotic voice again but this time there was nothing. I wasn’t sure where the voice had come from but it sounded just like the voice that came from the jetpack I wore when I was falling from the hovercraft: Siri-us Maximus?
“Siri-us Maximus. Where am I?” I asked the open air.
“You are in the Smart Room on the 30th floor below the surface of Port of Spain, Twin Republic in the Red House,” The robotic voice said.
“Smart room?” I heard about Smart Rooms before but I couldn’t remember what they were. “What’s a Smart Room?”
“A Smart Room is a room designed to adapt to the needs of the individual or individuals within,” Siri-us Maximus said.
“So if I needed a Doubles with slight pepper then…….” Before I was able to finish my sentence a Doubles wrapped in oil-proof paper popped up from the floor.
“Thanks,” I said.
“You’re welcome…Jedakiah Balfour,” Siri-us Maximus said.
“How do you know my name?” I asked.
“I scanned your facial features and was able to match it to an internet social profile created five years ago.”
“You could have at least ask permission first before scanning my facial features,” I said.
“Sorry.”
I got up from the floor and was about to inspect the room before Siri-us Maximus said, “Don’t forget your letter. It is located below the first plate you ate from.”
I had completely forgotten about the note that I saw below the plate. I obediently picked it up and began to read. “When your energy is up, meet me in my office.” At the bottom it was signed by Jeremy Duncan, The Prime Minister of The Twin Republic. I knew Jeremy Duncan but more familiarly by his other name, The Midnight Robber. I assumed that it wasn’t anywhere near midnight but just to make sure I asked Siri-us Maximus the time and in his rather human-like robotic voice he responded that it was 6:10 am. I breathed a sigh of relief.
“Where’s the office of the Prime Minister?”
“Just follow me,” Siri-us Maximus said. A door, which didn’t appear to be there all along, then opened.
