Free Behold a Dark Mirror by Theophilus Axxe

nobody could get to work.  Do you have any idea what happened to the frameposts at the lab?"
    "Monday... You 're right.  Today is Tuesday.  The frameposts?  Tell me:  What's going on at the lab?"
    "Nobody could get there.  The frameposts were out of order."
    "All three of them?"
    "Yes."
    "Did anybody try to make it there any other way?"
    "Not that I know of."
    "Did you call maintenance?"
    "Not yet–I was going to if I couldn’t find you today."
    "Thanks, Gus."  Jenus turned away.
    "Hey, Jenus!  Wait!  What am I supposed—"
    Jenus cut him off, he needed to go to the lab.  The closest neighbor was maybe four kilometers away.  He dialed Montgomery Data Acquisition Systems's framepost.  Ray Montgomery's kernel was not part of the main facility, so Jenus exchanged just a few words with security personnel there.  There was no aircar to borrow, nor any road to his lab, which was sitting on the top of a nearby hill.  The lab was clearly visible–the only remaining unshakable reference in his life was only a short walk away.
    *
    Mud squished around Jenus's shoes.  The undergrowth bent and snapped against his jacket.  The lab sat across a stretch of grounds with no marked paths, on the top of the ridge named after his family.  The exercise would have been  pleasant under other circumstances;  yet now, he still refused to admit the possibility of becoming a pariah.  The thought always bounced off an armor of denial.
    Janet had been kidnapped–that had to have an easy solution, but what solution?  Jenus hadn't yet allowed himself to speculate on the attempt to his own life.  And what happened to the frameposts at the lab was a mystery.  Adrenaline kept him going.  He didn't feel tired, although he thought he should–there would be time for that later.  His head ached, the pain was dull and persistent, but the wound didn't bleed any more.
    Step by step he negotiated the thicket leading to the lawn around his property;  he could see the lab through the trees, unblemished.  Jenus approached the phantom fence marking the property line and clenched his jaws as he sprinted through it.  A sharp fit of pain ran through his muscles, rippled up his spine, flashed into his brain until it wavered and disappeared.  Momentum, not his muscles, had carried him through.  He collapsed on the well-groomed lawn as a dead weight though fully conscious.  The purpose of the fence was to keep wildlife off the property, or so he was told:  wild animals, and all people without a compelling reason.
    He pushed himself up, sat on the ground, crossed his legs.  His nerves transmitted the raw feeling of a mild burn, even if the fence was allegedly innocuous.  His dull headache had become a sharp pang, almost unbearable:  He held his head in his hands, waiting for it to recede.  Jenus wondered whether crossing the fence had been another unnecessary sacrifice;  he should've tried the main entrance first.
    Birds chirped, leaves rustled;  all was normal, even the smell of mowed grass.  The back lobby was straight ahead.  Jenus stood up and rested with his hands on his thighs before setting off to the rear entrance.
    "Voice tag:  Jenus Dorato," he said to the microphone.
    The lock opened with a clank.  When he shut the door behind him the noises of life disappeared, silence took over.  The trash basket in the lobby was turned upside down;  a lazy janitor's fault?  Wait–he heard a whisper, like a moan;  or maybe he didn't.  His imagination was playing tricks, ears still roaring from crossing the fence.
    He didn't want to enter the lab;  he knew that was silly, but couldn't help it.  So he checked the restrooms, flushed a toilet just to do something, and then felt very stupid.  Now he knew that the toilet worked, and anybody in the building would know that someone was here. 
    He stepped into the canteen.  The room was a total mess:  Tables, chairs and broken china lay all over.
    In the warehouse bottled chemicals,