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knock, knock

"bob, can you bring up orders for the golden route?"

Toril thought the AI assistant might come back once she logged in. Again, no answer.

As Toril looked at the 3D map in front of her, she noticed it projected controls on her table. She was trying to highlight one of the packages to find out more information, but with no success. When she lifted her hands in dismay, the 3D map reacted.

The badger reappeared and started moving like a cartoon character. After a few moments, it approached her and started speaking.

"Where's Xileh?" it said in a surprised tone.

"bob?" asked Toril, thinking he was back.

"Xileh, where is he?" asked the badger again.

"bob, are you bob?" said Toril as the badger walked from side to side on a loading state, as if pondering what was happening.

Then the 3D map started shifting. The badger tapped on the clock tower and a menu popped up with a red dot notification on the messages category. A large play button appeared.

Toril, hesitant, slowly moved her hand close to the button and tapped to play. The latest message started. It was a hologram recording of Xileh. He was in miniature size, standing in an abandoned section of Rigmor. He grew taller and began speaking.

"Toril, I see you've found your way here." A smile showed on Xileh's holographic face, as if he knew she would figure it out. He returned to a serious demeanor and said, "It is likely they will try to stop shipments today. They want people to complain so they can have an excuse to come knocking, not that they need one. I think they want to take over the warehouse. Sorry to give you so little time and much less information. I think I'm being watched, your..." Xileh's voice trailed off, "protection is weakening as trouble arises. I'm going to try to distract them.

"Listen, not all that seems secretive is negative, information should be protected in case anyone abuses their power. Sadly, what's ethical isn't always allowed to be free under the rule of law.

"You are now the protector of this route. You should know you have a choice, as always, but please give it time to find the answers you seek before making up your mind. I believe that when you know what you're protecting, your heart will let you continue.

"If you're looking for bob, he'll be gone whenever this system is on. I've programmed him but cannot be sure there is not a backdoor. He hasn't been on for the entire day, but once he wakes up he'll have filler information taken from previous days and from what the other map shows. It's a little script that runs whenever he's shut down. I hope it's enough cover for you, if needed.

"You've probably talked to eDAN, he's there shall you need him, which you will. He's a more progressive AI model, a little protective of the system itself, so, be patient. I think you'll find him much more intriguing than bob.

"This map is also on your watch, but you must enter 080117 to access it." Xileh repeated the numbers 080117"

She tapped the screen to pause, going back to her desk, repeating those numbers in a whisper. She couldn't remember the last time she wrote something down on paper. Not finding any nearby, she sat on her desk ready to type.

eDAN reacted, "No! Don't type it into your computer. It's not safe."

eDAN startled her. She needed to keep listening to Xileh's words, so she made a mental note for now.

She hit play again. Xileh's deep voice restarted, "To avoid onlookers, use your glasses. Have you found them yet?"

"Glasses?" wondered Toril as she looked around the room.

Xileh continued speaking, "Both your smartwatch and glasses carry the keys that give you access to this map.

"If you need to hide the badg3rground map, just enter your old PIN, it will show the 2D map. You can switch back and forth. However,"

Toril stopped looking about and focused on Xileh's words.

"...if either of them are in danger of being taken, enter 000000, remember it as black on CSS, it will erase the 3D map from the watch or glasses.

"If you were to ever need another backup key to access the map, know that it is always with you. Please keep this map safe from prying eyes, regardless of who it is.

"Be careful out there, and listen to your heart."

Xileh's hologram disappeared.

A message deleted pop up displayed.

"Deleted?" thought Toril, feeling sick to her stomach. A lot of unusual things may have happened throughout her lifetime, but nothing quite like this. In the past, whenever she needed to clear her head, she'd head out to the forest surrounding the warehouse, today was unusual on so many levels, she wanted to make sure everything was running smoothly.

She stepped out of the office, still repeating those numbers in her head (080117), passing mindlessly through an automatic door toward a staircase that opened up to the Dispatch area of the warehouse, where orders were packed and sent out to people's homes. She grabbed a hard hat that hung on the wall and went down to the main floor.

Packages were moving along, unencumbered, on shipping lines that seemed to be taken out of an amusement park, as they occupied various heights on that tall warehouse.

She stared at the largest wall. It was a map of routes, similar to an airport board displaying flight information, except it also had doorways for packages to move in and out of the warehouse. Whenever there was a problem, the lights above each door would turn on, signaling where there were issues. It was like Santa Claus' workshop, except the elves were robots, and instead of reindeer they had tracks carrying carts with packages, often to people's kitchens instead of fireplaces. They were not in the north pole, but its temperature was kept cool.

This was the only home Toril knew, and the warehouse seemed so normal to her, in spite of the constant movement and odd architecture.

She looked down at her smartwatch as it vibrated. It had a blinking orange light, which warned her of any issues. She looked up at the map on that wall, but it did not display any warnings. None of the door warning lights came on. She looked at the shipping lines and they seemed to be moving smoothly.

She tapped on her smartwatch, entering her old PIN out of habit. Nothing unusual, same map. She turned off the display. It asked for her PIN, she tried to remember what Xileh said, still thinking she might be dreaming or that it was all a riddle outside of her reality. She entered 080117. The Rigmor holographic map displayed above her smartwatch as a hologram. It showed an error code 59, unexpected network error.

"Error code 59?" Toril was puzzled.

She started going back to her office. At the top of the stairs, she looked back to double check the map on the wall. It still seemed normal, as if the unexpected wasn't knocking.

Except, it was.