Legend of the Sphere

Writing based independent math project for my Geometry class. Please pardon the indents. Wrote it on a Google Doc for school first and couldn't figure out how to make them go away.

She sat, hunched over her meticulous plans. The blueprint was out, along with several painstakingly drawn diagrams. Her laptop was open next to her, showing her any changes in guard schedules there were. Everything was falling in line.

The team walked in for their final briefing still having little to know understanding of the enigma that was their boss, or probably the word enigma for that matter. As much as a shame as that was, they had not been hired for the intelligence measured best in the classroom, but rather for years of experience with the more unsavory aspects of life.They did notice the slight abnormalities to her, such as the blood-red eyes coupled with the short black hair that clearly stated she was not albino. Her childlike stature combined with intelligence and knowing and clear signs of a much greater mental age. The unreal ease with which she conducted herself. But they simply were not the sort to ask or care about such things.

Had they been the sort to ask or care about such things, or the sort to understand words like enigma, the first clue would be her name. Phi. The Golden Ratio. The recurring number dictates ordered patterns to life. Ironic, considering her goal was complete order and anarchy. But perhaps not as ironic as one might think, considering life was simply ordered chaos. They also may possibly have noticed (providing they were the out-of-the-box type of thinkers that they’re not) That her unreal qualities were due to the fact that she was not entirely real.

Phi was an apparition, a manifestation created by the combined power of the loathsome thoughts of millions of math-hating students across the globe. She was pure math, not necessarily as it really was, but how millions of math-hating students everywhere saw it. Phi was a pure, intelligent, deadly form of evil. And chaos was her only goal.

Cautiously, the guns for hire gathered around their current boss. Normally she was a calm quiet evil, but every so often she would become volatile, and it was never a good idea to be around her when that happened. Unexplainable things happened when Phi was upset. The only person that understood was Phi herself, and she had no intention of explaining.

At the moment she was calm. She beckoned them closer, and they gathered around her. “Here’s the plan.”

She turned back to the plans on her desk, more for their benefit than hers, and the followed her gaze. She flipped through her notebook, past the pages explaining what they were going to find. That was information they didn’t need to  know. She would show them the  pictures when the time came. For now she went to the plans of the building they were infiltrating. Warehouse 31. “Here’s the building. The perimeter around the fence is thirty miles. You’ll need to cut in through the back and make your way to the building, perimeter eighteen miles, and go to the entrance from there...

The team crept along through the cover of night. The fence came into sight, perimeter thirty miles. Phi tended to spew our mathematical figures. They weren’t always necessary, but they were as much a part of her thinking process as words were to that of a normal human. The math certainly didn’t hurt anything, so no one mentioned it. They just waited it out and listened for the pieces that mattered.

Matt pulled up front and beckoned Ricky forward. With a nod of understanding, he came up to the fence and hefted the wire cutters. Each removed link made a distinct metallic sound. The group waited, but no one came. Secure in the thought that no one was coming for them, they stole silently through the whole in the gate and right through the front door...

“After that you’ll be on Security Level One, volume fifty four miles, perimeter eighteen miles.” Phi pointed to another drawing, showing three levels. Two of them were under ground. She flipped through some more papers. “I’ve drawn up a map of all three levels. Focus on the map for level one. You will follow the exact path I’ve drawn. The Warehouse is a labyrinth full of tricks and traps. If you deviate from the path I’ve drawn you you’ll probably die...”

They snuck to the front door. Matt waved Cindy forward. She examined the door momentarily before going for the lock. She picked it in seconds and they went in. Matt pulled out a copy of the map Phi had drawn. he led them down the blessedly empty halls, a left, a right, another right, and a left down the first staircase.

“Level Two, volume three hundred twenty four miles, perimeter thirty miles.” Phi flipped through her diagrams for a minute before catching herself and getting back on track. “Level Two will be more dangerous. There are guards on this level, and you’ll have to split up. Team Alpha will  follow the solid line, and Team Beta will follow the dotted line. I want Colby and his technical knowledge on Team Alpha, and Matt on Team Beta. Beyond that I don’t care. Team Alpha will have to disable the security system around the target...”

Matt handed a map to Cindy. They had made it to level two and now they had to split up. “I’m putting you in charge, Cindy. Bill, Bob, go with them. Good luck.”

Cindy squared her shoulders and prepared herself. This would be the first major mission she was in charge of. It had to be. They had to split up. But she was still proud that she was chosen. She nodded at Matt, the person she looked up to most in the world, and prayed they would see each other again. She nodded at him. “Same to you.”

The teams split and nothing else was said. They knew their job. They to disable the security system, and for that they needed Colby. Their mission became to protect him. Four guards. Three expendables. Not the worst odds they had ever faced. The shooting began as soon as Cindy opened the door. The four guards went down almost immediately. Bill was the team’s sharp shooter. The three of them made a protective barrier around Colby while he typed.

Matt sighed. The one guard had been easy, but the trap was a bit more difficult. The metal jaw opening and closing over the staircase was another story. It wouldn’t turn off, even when Colby succeeded.  It would take timing. Timing and a lot of faith. He nodded to the men around him, and they ran...

“If you survive the second staircase, it’ll bring you to Level Three, volume one hundred eight miles, perimeter thirty miles...” Phi’s eyes seemed to go blank, and she flipped through the diagrams again. She started rocking back and forth, mumbling mathematics in a weird chanty way. “Six to three and nine to six equals three to one and three to one. That’s similar. Six to three to three, nine to six to six, and twelve to three to three equal two to one to one, three to two to two, and four to one to one. Similar, whole thing’s built similar... Numbers... Beautiful shining similar golden numbers...”

She was shaking now, and all they could make out was the occasional whispered numbers. The hauntingly familiar vortex opened in her forehead and the swirling mass of chaos began. Matt put a hand on her shoulder and with a gasp from Phi, it stopped. Matt was a little more curious, a little more intelligent, and he had found her the night she was created, a lost child alone in the dark. He was the closest thing she had known to family, and the only one who could get close enough to stop her when the chaos started.

“Right...” Phi continued on as if nothing had happened, and her minions knew well enough to do the same. “You’ll be at level three. That level doesn’t have nearly as many traps, mainly because the agency doesn’t expect anyone to get down there. It’s very heavily guarded though. Good luck, and be careful.”  She locked eyes with Matt, who nodded back at her before they moved out.

Matt lost one man to the grisly teeth of the iron staircase. He was a good man, and the blood-curdling scream that had been wrenched from his throat in his last agonizing terrifying seconds still echoed through the minds of all who could hear it. But there was no time to mourn him. They had to keep going. Their mission was almost complete.

They hurried nervously down the deserted halls of the final level of Warehouse 31. Five guards met them at the door, and Matt lost his last two men to the sound of gunfire and the sulfur-scented smoke. Eight more guards were waiting for him behind the heavy metal door, but that did not phase him.  They had a plan for this part. Colby, still typing furiously at the warehouse's main console, opened the door just a crack.  Matt rolled a grenade under the door, and eight more good men died.

When they were sure the room was clear, Colby raised the door up again and released the defenses around the target. Matt walked over to the podium and reached out to take what so many had already died for...

A quick mental calculation told Phi that twenty five percent of the mercenaries she sent out had died. Sad to one with a full capacity for emotion, but all Phi cared about was that they had succeeded, and Matt was within the seventy five percent to return home. “Did you get it?”

Matt reached out to place the Sphere in the palm of her hand, and Phi smiled.