The security guard already has an expression of anger stamped on his face as he tilts his head slightly to the right. Then he shakes it negatively and turns toward the glass door.

  “Come with me!” he orders all the security guards and guards there.

  “Hey? Why are you abandoning the masks?” one of the guards questions them. Three security guards have already entered the pillar.

  “That gas is from a fire extinguisher set at the foot of the stairs.” The last security guard throws himself inside as he finishes speaking.

  The six guards look at one another with expressions shifting from doubt to conviction. They ignite with courage and begin running in with the last security guard. They split among the three stairways, and with pistols and rifles prepared to fire, they begin climbing.

  When they reach the third floor, they notice that all the monitoring security guards are unconscious and surrounded by smoke. Covering their mouths and noses with their shirts, they retreat to the floor below. When they return, they observe that the smoke that previously filled the white hall has almost completely disappeared through the doors that were left open, so they run outside in search of the masks again.

  “Wait! You four! Grab the masks and start going up. Go! Go! Go!” the chief security guard shouts to the guards, who pick up the masks from the ground and run into the hall while putting them on their heads.

  “Sir! There are the masks that were left in the lower hall, maybe we can use them,” one of the guards throws the idea into the air.

  “No! They are punctured and covered in blood. Not to mention that there is still some sleeping gas mixed down there.”

  At that instant.

  Parts of gas capsules fall over them.

  Almost at the same moment they bounce on the ground.

  A tremendous explosion erupts from the rings outside, shaking everything down there.

  The receptionists scream as they run into the pillar. The guards and security guards look in disbelief and fear at all that fire and destruction.

  In the pillar, the guards who are already climbing one of the stairways stop for a moment, frightened by the tremor and the hysterical screaming of the women who arrive throwing themselves behind the counter.

  They look toward the doors and see an intense light coming from the other side. Next the guards and security guards arrive running through a door that is already being taken over by smoke from the fire.

  “What happened?” one of the guards, standing on one of the steps of the staircase, asks the chief security guard who approaches.

  “I don’t know! I don’t understand anything anymore!” He stops for a second while looking at the masks on their heads. “Go! Go!” he orders them again.

  When they reach the monitoring hall, the scene is still the same. They continue advancing to the second floor. When they arrive, their eyes focus on three white spiral staircases, extended and surrounded by smoke. However, there is no one in sight. One of the guards grabs the radio at his waist.

  “Sir…” With a trembling voice he begins to speak. “The white stairs… they are lowered!”

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  “….” The chief guard becomes even more astonished at what he hears.

  He places the radio on the counter, takes his cellphone from the right pocket of his pants, and dials a contact named Lúcio. Several calls and no response. He picks up the radio and swallows his own saliva before speaking.

  “Whoever invaded the upper floors must have reached the bosses. Climb the stairs, but be very careful not to hurt anyone on those floors.”

  The security guard turns off the radio and places it on the counter along with his two hands. With his head lowered, he loses himself in thoughts and questions.

  One of the guards who heads toward one of the white stairs notices that the rest of the capsules they abandoned are no longer there. When they finish climbing, they come across several women wearing white social dresses and red high heels. All of them collapsed and unconscious beside large long white tables. Banknotes pile up over them, and they are also in red counting machines. Around them, more gas is spread throughout the room.

  “Hello? Chief?” the guard calls again over the radio.

  “Speak!”

  “On the administration floor, they are all unconscious, but it’s strange… the money is all in place. And the white stairs that lead to floor zero are raised. Whoever invaded is hiding on one of the floors below.”

  “No, wait!” the security guard interrupts him. “Is there a way to retract the stairs from floor zero?”

  After a moment of silence, the guard with his eyes wide behind the mask prepares to answer while carefully observing the ceiling, the places where the stairs descend.

  “Yes there is! The unique key on floor zero, it retracts only the stairs themselves. In that case, we can lower them from the monitoring hall. I’ll go down there and activate them.”

  Turning off the radio, he runs to the third floor. When he arrives, he finds on one of the panels a white button. He presses it and begins running back.

  While climbing one of the stairs that leads to the second floor, he hears a pistol shot coming from above. Stopping halfway up the stairs, he grabs his radio.

  “What was that?”

  The security guards and guards also heard it from hall four. However, since the question was already asked, everyone remains silent waiting for some answer.

  “It came from floor zero, sir!” one of the guards on the first floor answers while looking upward. “The staircase started descending and a sh—”

  At that moment a second gunshot echoes again from floor zero and interrupts the guard’s speech.

  “I’m going up!” the chief security guard shouts into the radio while grabbing his pistol and beginning to climb the red stairs. The others there quickly follow him. Only the receptionists remain behind.

  On floor zero

  There are two bodies with a gunshot to the head each. The masked security guard who was the first to return from floor five A is now holding the mask in his right hand, which curiously is entirely wrapped with black cloth.

  In his other hand the same arrangement of cloth wrapped around it. His suit is sleeveless. His brown gaze focuses on a large monitor on the wall that is divided into twelve small screens.

  While he observes each of the screens that shows the view of a camera from the floors below, his long black hair sways with the warm breeze entering through the window.

  There is a rounded table entirely dark gray behind him. On top of the table in one corner there is a square opening slightly larger than a hand. Inside there is a red button.

  In front of the opening, on a gray chair, lies the slumped body of a man wearing an entirely white suit, with his head thrown back. His long blond hair has fallen and is stained with the blue liquid that comes from the hole in his forehead and runs down, ending in drops that fall onto the gray floor.

  He stands still in front of the screen, looking specifically at the cameras on floors one and three. At the same time the security guards step onto floor three and the guard steps onto floor one. Then he puts on the mask and runs to the table. Without stopping, he presses the red button that begins to glow. Running, he jumps through the window, holding firmly onto a rope.

  Hanging, he alternates his descent with a few quick pauses while looking downward. All that can be seen is the white smoke on the ground and the fire that has taken over the place. Looking upward, he sees dark smoke derived from the fire accumulating above. Soon that entire environment will be suffocated.

  Carefully, he releases his left hand from the rope and begins to remove the suit. He switches the hand that holds the rope and removes the rest, leaving only the black top.

  He grabs the suit and wraps it around the rope near his thighs, then begins to release the rope with more speed and, using his legs as an extra brake, controls his descent.

  After a few seconds, his feet touch the ground.