Carter dropped the magazine he was reading to his desk as he heard the door to the atrium squeak open. He knew who it was before he even saw her. The familiar clicking of smart heels on marble floor echoing into the rafters. Dr. Kendra Saunders. She was always the first one through the doors on a morning and the last one out in the evening. The clock had just ticked over past 10pm as Carter looked up and smiled.
"Another late night Dr. Saunders?" he asked.
Dr. Saunders returned the smile as she began fumbling in her handbag for something.
"You know me Carter, live for the job".
Carter grinned and picked at an unseen spot on his desk.
"You not hitting the town tonight then?"
She found what she was looking for, pulling a set of car keys from her bag triumphantly.
"Nope, I don't have the time or any company. A glass of wine and a chick flick for me this evening. Sometimes I think the only two places I ever see are my bed and my lab".
A small chuckle escaped his lips,
"Well maybe we'll have to see about changing that!" he exclaimed.
Dr. Saunders looked at him and blushed,
"Well umm..." she stammered, pushing a lock of loose hair nervously behind her ear.
Carter looked at her, realising the insinuation in his last words. The shock hit home like a lead weight.
"Oh! Dr. Saunders, I'm sorry! I didn't mean... Y'know? I uhh..."
"It's okay Carter" she smiled,
"Don't worry about it. Oh, and call me Kendra". She turned from him and made her way to the exit. Carter slapped his forehead in frustration at his blunder. She stopped in the doorway and turned her back to him.
"Carter, I'm free on sunday night" she called over, before turning and heading out into the night before Carter fully registered her words.
****
"Whose the man?" Carter asked his grinning reflection in the bathroom mirror. He fixed his tie straight and smoothed down his security guards uniform. He clicked his fingers and shot an imaginary bullet at his reflection.
"You da man, Carter" he replied to his own question. He already had a plan laid out for sunday night. Dinner at the Blue Dolphin, the smartest restaurant in town. It'd cost him most of his meagre security guard wages but the sway of Kendra Saunders hips was bright in his mind and he knew she was worth it.
Carter left the bathroom and collected his flashlight from his desk in the main atrium. As he turned and considered making one last patrol for the night, he heard a whisper behind him. Carter spun on his heel, seeking the source, but the huge atrium was empty. Ninth Corp had invested millions into this building and its state of the art technology. It was so good that Carter often thought he was only there to to turn the lights out in the evening.
He shook his head and clipped his flashlight to his belt. As his own footsteps echoed around him, the lights went out. The whole building being lunged into blackness. Carter froze and unhooked his flashlight, swinging around and trying to see what had happened.
The eerie silence shook him to his core. He was so used to the gentle hum of electricity that powered the massive complex that now it was gone, it seemed... soulless.
Carter made his way to the front doors. There was nothing outside other than a silent street. He turned from the glass and back into the building. A hand grasped his own and twisted it, forcing him to drop the light. Carter struggled but a hard fist rocked his jaw and knocked him for six. Carter fell to the floor, tasting the sweet mettalic taint of his own blood in his mouth. Rough hands dragged him to his feet and across the atrium. Carter, still dazed and confused made out at least four figures surrounding him.
They tied him to his chair, binding and gagging him. All four men were dressed from head to toe in black outfits, like some kind of military black-ops team. All four of them had their back to him. Carter tried to struggle, fumbling at the ropes that held his wrists together. One of them en infront touched a hand to his ear.
"Yeah, I'll send two of them up" he grunted to what Carter assumed must have been a radio. He man turned to two of his comrades.
"Rico, Bean, get yourself to the labs. The boss thinks he's found Project Thanagar. Me and Koslov will watch the guard".
The two men nodded and disappeared, leaving Carter in the company of just the two.
"What the hell is Project Thana-whatever?" the other man, Koslov, asked.
The leader shrugged his shoulders.
"I dunno, we don't get paid to know, just to do the job".
Koslov grunted a response and both men fell silent once more.
Behind them, Carter had managed to work free an arm from hs bonds and was feverishly working the other free. With a final tug, he pulled free of the rope and rose silently. Withdrawing his baton and his tazer from his belt Carter swung as hard as he could at the back of the leaders head.
THUNK!
The leader went down in a heap. Before Koslov could move, Carter had jabbed his tazer into the mans neck, drooping him to the ground too. Carter searched them for weapons and their radios, before tying their arms together. He hit the emergency button under his desk that would alert the Police before heading towards the stairs himself. No one was going to be stealing anything, especially on his watch.
****
Cater reached the top floor of the building with little resistance. He'd taken three guards by surprise, taking down each of them with his baton and tazer. Their guns had been siezed and he hid all five weapons in an old air conditioning vent. Project Thanagar was something that Kendra Saunders had been working on for the past eighteen months and so Carter made a bee-line for her labs. When he got there he could see the doors had been blown through and the remaining intruders were stood with their backs to him, their attention focused on something laid out in front of them.
Carter crept in and skirted around the lab, keeping low behind work surfaces and units. As he moved into position, he saw another man in dark robes and a black mask with his hands over what appeared to be a golden casket. The casket was laid with intricate patterns, shining jewels all centered on a shinng circle of black jewels in the middle of the casket.
"Hmm, the locks upon this are strong indeed. Soon, I will not only be in the grace of Osiris but will also control the power of Horus. Then the Gods themselves will bow to me!" the dark shape growled.
Carter watched as thick black smoke billowed from the mans hands and covered the casket. Carter had seen enough. Leaping from his hiding place, Carter tackled the man to the ground. Before he could react, bodies had piled onto him and were dragging him to his feet.
"Hold him!" the smoke man barked.
"He'll be the first to spill his blood for me when I ascend to God-hood!"
The soldiers held him tight.
"You are an idiot coming and thinking you can take us on", one of the soldiers growled.
"Hath-Set will eat your heart".
Carter watched as the man, Hath-Set began to work once more on the casket, his white eyes gleaming. The black jewels began to pop and slide on the surface of the casket, moving into a new shape. The lid popped and hissed, and slid open. Hath-Set grinned, black smoky tendrils slid under the lid and lifted it free. As the lid moved white light screamed from the casket, pouring into the labs. Men fell back and cried. Carter couldn't see for the white brilliance. The light burned his flesh, piercing his flesh like sharp needles. His mind screamed in agony as the light washed through him. Carter fell to his knees, his fingers clawing at burning temples. Images flashed in front of his blinded eyes. Warriors doing battle, sand and blood kicking up into the air. Horses screaming and weapons ringing, steel on steel. Carter cried out in agony as he saw wings, huge and thick and feathered. A mace crashed down on a skull splintering it. Blood sprayed across a golden helm. He saw sky and clouds and the darkness of death.
Carter collapsed and everything went black.
When he awoke, he was stood. In the distance he could hear police sirens. He blinked, his blurred vision regaining focus. As Carter looked around, he saw blood everywhere. Up the walls and on the floor across his bare arms and chest. Dead bodies were strewn around him, those of the men who had held him. The dark man, Hath-Set was nowhere to be seen.
Carter staggered back, his eyes wide with horror. His back felt heavy and sore. Carter glanced across, a glass partition showing him a fractured image of himself, huge feathered wings sprouted from his back. Carter screamed and reached around, grasping at feathers.
The door to the labs burst open and a platoon of SWAT officers burst in, levelling their weapons at him.
"FREEZE! GET DOWN ON THE GROUND!" they bellowed, as they moved foraward. Carter took a step back, his mind reeling, unable to even speak. Instinctively he turned and ran, bursting through a large window and into the night sky.