The Tour Guide

[Kaelan]

Middle of the day. As it was just after lunch, Kaelan dropped a used food wrapper into the trash can on the way out of his office. He noted the time as he retrieved his personal Wallet from the oversized pocket of his lab coat then hung it neatly on a hook before locking up the office. It was one of several in his office, but many more were nearby. A series of technical clean-coats and another series of soiled-coats were stored in the laboratory, waiting in lockers near the front door and kept within the confines of their respective spaces to prevent cross-contamination.

An exchange of one coat meant he shrugged on another. A suit jacket, it was black, simple and still clean given he’d barely worn it the last two days. He’d not been home in 72 hours, and despite on-site employee bunks and showers, he was ready to venture to his actual apartment. The most recent experiment was at a natural lull. The data was being analyzed by AI on a massive cloud-database to run against other known codes. Which meant he had several hours to escape home, use his own facilities, trade clothes, and be back by nightfall.

He frowned to himself as the elevator doors opened on the lobby level. The space seemed to be brimming with bodies. Normally he wouldn’t mind. Scanners were taking biometrics even on their visitors but for the fact it wasn’t a straight shot to the exit. Normally he wouldn't mind except today they were blocking a speedy exit.

He was half-way spun through the revolving door when the epiphany hit him.

“Shit,” was all he said. A child on the other side of the glass who had been spinning the revolving door on endless loops gasped at the swearing. She then shook her head as though he was going to get in trouble once she told their teacher. First, that was when he realized that many of the bodies that blocked the lobby were short, loud and bouncy. Children.. great. And as he walked in a circle and emerged back into the lobby he’d just escaped, his gaze swept across those little heads to identify a series of adults with placards and signs. Teachers.. worse. Second, he realized he was going to have to traipse through the crowd all the way back to his office. Having just battled his way through them to leave, he was none too pleased at the prospect of doing so two more times. Less so now that he realized they were children and not merely short obstacles.

So he wasn’t going to.

He’d forgotten his computer bag in the office. It was small and fit across his body, but the device inside was necessary. As soon as the data was done computing he wanted to see the results. He had similar devices at home and he could possibly log into the accounts from there, but the program was powerful and the computer upstairs was the newest model. It would be slow as hell to attempt it on the older system, and he wanted to see the data the moment it was ready. Even if it meant walking out of the shower in nothing but a towel and soap dripping down his face. He had to see.

So he threaded around the edge of the milling bodies for a short-cut. Management frowned on their scientists using the staffer routes. It had something to do with.. well, he didn’t know exactly.. nor did he care. He had to cut through the museum, but there was a service corridor that the museum gift shop used to stock inventory - drinks, snacks, magnets that read |BUILD A BETTER YOU| for your refrigerator. He was swiping his badge on the key card when he heard his name.

“And this, boys and girls, is one of our most important scientists! Dr. Müller would you have a moment to say hello?”

He slowly looked over one shoulder, badge in hand, to behold the beaming smile of one of the museum tour guides. About thirty pairs of eyes were looking back at him.

Shit.