Olympus

Chapter 12

The elevator came to a stop after what seemed like an eternity but was actually only thirty minutes of flight- Megan checked to be sure- and she stepped out of it.

She looked up and all her breath ceased in her throat once again. God, how does one even think to create something like this? she wondered at the sight of the most incredible space she had ever seen.

As it turned out, Astrodomo's giant dome was a six-floor glass mansion on the inside, but it was unlike any type Megan had knowledge of before.

Thing is, while the building did have six floors, they actually only extended from the wall to stop a quarter-way across its almost stadium size length in a semicircle that held what looked like three sitting rooms, three receiving rooms, bedrooms too numerous to count, a giant study connected to four smaller studies, an in-house office, and other rooms that she couldn't identify their purpose.

All the floors led to curved, hardwood-panel staircases at the edges. Well, all of them except for the last floor which housed the in-house office and was only accessible by a private elevator. Probably Ricardo's way of ensuring that his secret things remained secret, Megan thought and shook her head at the irony that her job that night specifically required that she ensured the opposite.

But the six floors, curved stairs, and private elevator aside, what Megan found to be the true intrigue of Astrodomo de DiSanto was actually what occupied the remaining three fourths of its area.

Thing is, Ricardo DiSanto had decided to do something with the space that she figured no other rich man in the world would do: nothing. The space contained no discernable feature of any kind, or ornament, or anything really that would point to what he designated it as. It was almost as if he wanted it to just exist there and nothing else.

That night though- the sun had fully set by the time Megan reached the dome- the space was the heart of the party.

The building's dome ceiling opened directly to the sky to provide a full view of the stars from the floor. Presumably to appreciate this effect, a giant disco ball was hung in the centre of the ceiling, bathing the entire area in changing multicolured light as it rotated in sync with four other rotating bulbs at the corners of the room to create some ethereal light show of sort.

At the far edge of the room, just beside the right curved stairs, a DJ booth stood on a makeshift elevation. The DJ- a man in his mid-thirties with an Afro- strung out Latin pop mix on loudspeakers that resonated through the floor and glass walls with such a strong effect that Megan found herself wondering more than once as she looked if they wouldn't be finding themselves plunging to the ground before the night was done.

Anyway, far from the dome but still in its direct view, she saw the Christ the Redeemer statue shining with its lights to add an almost a divine feel to the height they were at above the ground. She actually extrapolated that that feel was why Ricardo DiSanto had chosen to have his residence far above the ground and in the way it was.

Thing is, on a different night without a party, the lights from the statue would be directly reflected in the space; and perhaps even its shadow too. The space is a temple, she figured out finally, a somewhat dedication from an acclaimed god to another.

However, Megan didn't allow herself to dwell too much on the sights and returned her attention to the mission at hand. Work, not watch, Megan, is the mission of Rio, she reminded herself.

Looking around to be sure she wasn't watched, she suddenly whispered, "Swarms activate."

Immediately, her earrings, a lotus-shaped diamond piece, turned a shade of purple and the petals on them dislodged to fly in different directions around the house. The diamond on the right earring opened up and a small black metal extended itself out to place itself in her ear just as an AI voice announced, "Connection established."