Chapter 73 THE MAZE
Vivienne ran down the hallway.
Left or right? She couldn't remember which way she'd come. She tried following the blackmailer's directions backwards. But it was still impossible to get out of the maze she'd found herself in.
The corridors all looked identical. The same gray walls. Numbered doors. Pipes running overhead.
She chose left, pushed through a door into another hallway. This one had a different smell. Laundry detergent and steam. Industrial machines hummed behind closed doors.
Wrong way.
She backtracked, tried the other direction. Found herself in a storage area filled with stacked chairs and folded tables. A dead end.
Her phone vibrated.
"Still searching? You're running late for your speech."
Vivienne wanted to throw the phone against the wall. Instead, she tried to think logically. She'd come down stairs. So she needed to find stairs going up.
She retraced her steps again, looking for the stairwell she'd used. But every door she tried led somewhere new. A break room with vending machines and a TV playing the news. A maintenance closet smelling of chemicals. Another storage room, this one full of linens.
How big was this basement?
Time was slipping away. She'd been down here for what? Ten minutes? Fifteen?
The speeches had started. Alexander had taken the stage.
Without her.
Vivienne found another stairwell finally. Different from the one she'd used before, but stairs were stairs. She climbed quickly, nearly tripping on her dress.
The door at the top opened into another corridor. But this one had carpet. Wallpaper. Guest rooms on either side.
The wrong floor. She was on the hotel's residential level, not the ballroom level.
A couple emerged from a room, dressed for dinner. They looked at her strangely. A woman in an evening gown, alone, breathing hard, makeup probably smeared.
"Are you alright?" the woman asked.
"I'm lost." Vivienne tried to smile. "Which way to the ballroom?"
"The Plaza ballroom?" The man pointed down the hall. "Elevators are that way. Take them to the lobby level, then follow the signs."
"Thank you."
She hurried to the elevators. Pressed the button. Waited.
The elevator took forever. When it finally arrived, it was full of hotel guests. Vivienne squeezed in, stood in the back, tried not to notice people glancing at her.
The elevator stopped on three more floors before reaching the lobby.
By the time Vivienne stepped out, she'd been gone at least twenty minutes.
The lobby was mostly empty now. Everyone was in the ballroom. She could hear applause through the closed doors. Someone speaking over the sound system.
Alexander. That was Alexander's voice.
Vivienne moved toward the ballroom entrance. A server blocked her path politely.
"I'm sorry, miss. The program has started. We can't allow..."
"I'm supposed to be up there. I'm part of the presentation. The name is Vivienne Cross."
The server's eyes widened. "Oh. You're Ms. Cross?"
"Yes."
"They've been looking for you. Mr. Hunt asked several times..." The server opened the door just enough for Vivienne to slip through.
The ballroom was dark except for stage lights. Hundreds of faces turned toward the stage where Alexander stood at the podium.
"...and what makes Tyranny special isn't just the technology or the gameplay. It's the heart of the story. The characters who fight against impossible odds and refuse to give up."
Vivienne stood at the back, trying to be invisible. Trying to figure out how to get to her seat without everyone seeing her.
Alexander paused, took a breath. He looked tired. Stressed.
"I want to introduce someone who's been integral to bringing this vision to life. Someone who understood Athena in ways I couldn't have imagined. Vivienne Cross."
He looked out at the crowd, searching.
Vivienne's feet wouldn't move.
"Vivienne?" Alexander's voice held uncertainty now. "Are you..."
He scanned the room. People started whispering. Turning in their seats. Looking around.
Victoria sat at the head table, a small smile playing at her lips.
"It seems Ms. Cross has stepped away," Alexander said, recovering quickly. "So I'll continue. Athena represents..."
Vivienne couldn't listen to the rest. She slipped back out the door before anyone could spot her.
The server looked at her with confusion. "You're not going in?"
"I need a minute."
She walked away from the ballroom and the disaster she'd just witnessed.
Her phone vibrated.
"Your speech was lovely, by the way. Oh wait. You missed it."
Another message.
"Alexander looked so disappointed. Did you see his face?"
Vivienne stopped walking. Found herself in a side corridor near the hotel's business center. Empty offices. Conference rooms with their lights off.
She leaned against the wall and closed her eyes.
This was what they wanted. To humiliate her, make her miss the most important moment of the project and look unreliable in front of investors, press, everyone who mattered.
Another message appeared.
"You should go home, Elara. There's nothing left for you here."
Home. Right. Except her purse was still at the table. Her wallet. Her keys.
And she had no idea how to get to the main entrance from here. The Plaza was massive. Corridors branched off in every direction.
Vivienne pushed off the wall and started walking. She needed some air.
She turned a corner and found herself in another unfamiliar hallway. Windows on one side showed the street below. Shops on the other side were closed, metal gates pulled down.
She kept walking. The hallway ended at a glass door leading outside. Not the red carpet entrance with cameras and lights. A service door. The one staff probably used to take smoke breaks.
Vivienne pushed it open.
Cold air hit her immediately. The dress that had felt perfect in the ballroom was useless out here. She wrapped her arms around herself and looked around.
She was on a side street.
Where was she exactly?
Vivienne pulled out her phone, tried to open a map. But her hands were shaking from cold and adrenaline and she kept hitting the wrong icons.
A final message appeared from the unknown number.
"Enjoy the walk home."
And that was the last text.
Vivienne looked up and down the street, trying to orient herself. The Plaza took up an entire block. If she walked around to the front... but which direction was front?
She picked a direction and started walking. A group of men smoking outside a restaurant watched her pass. One whistled. She ignored them.
The street curved. She found herself at an intersection she didn't recognize. The buildings all looked the same in the dark. Expensive shops with barred windows. Restaurants with their lights dimming.
She'd lived in New York for years. She knew this city. But right now, in this dress, in this state of mind, everything looked strange.
Vivienne turned another corner, hoping to see something familiar. The Plaza's main entrance. Central Park. Anything.
Instead, she found another side street. Narrower than the last. Fewer lights.
This was stupid. She should go back to the hotel. Face the humiliation. Get her purse. Call a car.
But the thought of walking back into that ballroom, of seeing Alexander's disappointed face, of Victoria's satisfied smile...
She couldn't.
Vivienne kept walking. Past closed shops. Past apartment buildings with lit windows. Past a small park where homeless people slept on benches.
Then her phone died.
Of course it did. Battery at zero. The screen went black.
Now she had no map. No way to call anyone. Just herself and the dark streets and the cold seeping through her dress.
She stopped walking and looked around. She'd gotten herself completely lost.
A laugh bubbled up in her throat. Hysterical.
Why did she even leave the hotel? What on earth was she looking for? Now she was lost. Lost in her own city. Missing the moment that could have changed everything.
Footsteps echoed behind her.
Vivienne turned.
A figure walked toward her from the direction she'd come.