Fluorescents flicker on, all but one. The proctor waves us inward, and we file into the room, our footsteps loud on the polished concrete. It is medium sized, and holds roughly a dozen costly looking office chairs. They are arranged in a haphazard semicircle in front of a slender metal podium. Behind that, three sealed portals are set equidistant from one another in the wall opposite the door.
The proctor moves behind the podium and gestures at the chairs. By unspoken agreement, the six of us settle in as far from one another as possible, separated by the empty chairs. The proctor takes no special notice of this, he simply waits for the last of us to be seated.
"You are," he says, his voice soft but incredibly deep for his slight frame, "what remains. Your peers, in their thousands, have either taken the offers for lesser positions that the Company has proposed to them over the course of these tests, or they failed, because they reached a level in the testing that was beyond them.
"Everyone sitting here has turned down at least two offers of lesser employment. One of you has turned down seven, the last of which I made personally five minutes ago in the hopes of preserving someone who could be an excellent asset at the penultimate level of the hierarchy."
We glance at one another, each wondering who the prodigy is. All of us, that is, except a tall, slender black woman in a cream-and-white business suit. She calmly watches the proctor, waiting for him to continue. The other candidate''s glances settle on her, the implication clear in their predatory gazes.
"And so, all that remains is what lies in the doors behind me. Each of you who succeeds, ascends. That is the only possible offer remaining to you. If you fail, none of your previous offers will be valid.
"So saying, here is your final chance. Leave this room and remain in the reception area until I collect you, and the previous offers each of you received will remain open for you to choose from. Any of you would be excellent assets at any of the other levels within the Company."
This time, there is no shuffling, no glances. All of us watch the proctor, silently and attentively.
"So be it."
He turns to his left and walks across the room to a small panel inset in the wall. He places his face against it, putting his eye to a scanner. After a moment, and with a colossal rumble, all three portals begin to roll open, almost too slowly to observe. I can feel the vibrations through my heels and through the chair. Minutes pass as the proctor stands still, staring into the scanner, waiting on cycle to complete.
Finally, the barriers have rolled completely into the surprisingly thick walls. It's almost disconcerting when the noise stops; the sudden silence feels eerie. A light on the scanner above the proctor's head flicks from red to green.
The proctor returns to the podium to address us. "That was precisely five minutes. The test will consist of a series of rooms, each of which contains two such portals, and entrance and an exit. I have opened the first for you.
"You will open the rest, one room at a time. Unlike many of the other obstacles you have overcome, this is not a competition, or rather, it is a competition with yourself. You will be paired with one another, and each pair will enter," he waves to indicate the portals, "one of these rooms.
"You will find a two scanners, one on either side of each exit portal. Each scanner must be used for five consecutive minutes. Failure to keep your eye to a scanner for any amount of time longer than an eyeblink will reset the timer. When a scanner has been cleared, the indicator will switch from red to green.
"Both scanners must be green for the portal to activate. While a pair of examinees is still whole, both scanners must be used concurrently. If one examinee has faltered, both scanners must still be activated to open a portal, but the remaining candidate will be allowed to activate them consecutively.
"You will not be told how many rooms there are. All you must do is continue to open portals until there are no more to open. You will know if you complete the examination successfully.
"That you stand here demonstrates... ambition, at least. On average, a single candidate every decade completes this interview. Are there any questions?"
None of us speak. We've had far less concrete instruction than this for other tests in the previous weeks. None of us are foolish enough to think that this will be as simple as it seems, walking through a room five minutes at a time. There will be surprises in store.
Very well then. Ladies, the two of you will take the portal on the left. You, and you, the middle, and the last pair to the right. The test begins when you cross the threshold.
The prodigy and I glance at one another, and stand to make our way to the portal. We stop just before the entrance, as do the other teams. All of us look at one another for a moment, and then, by unspoken agreement, we all walk through.
----
The moment I and my partner clear the entrance, the barrier crashes back into place with thunderous force, surprising us so much that both of us start, and I actually stumble to my knees. Flushing, I accept the black woman's extended hand and stand up.
"My name is Veronica." she says. "Please call me Ron."
I nod. despite all of the time we've spent in proximity, this is the first time we've spoken.
"Samantha. Sam."
We share a wry grin at the masculine nicknames.
"So," she says, "five offers?"
"It seemed wise to conceal, when this was a competition."
She nods. "It seemed wise to claim, for related reasons."
"How did you know it was me?"
"I didn't, for sure, until just now, but none of the boys seemed to merit quite so much attention. It appears you and I are not in competition here."
I watch her silently for a moment. "Appears. Yes. Shall we find out what the test actually is?"
"Certainly."
We look around the room. As the proctor had claimed, there were two portals, the one we entered, and the one we were expected to leave through, which was bracketed by the scanners, one to a side. The only other feature in the room was the bright lights, and a black dome in the middle of the ceiling, from which cameras presumably recorded the testing.
I walk up to the scanner on the left and examine it. An indicator light, a chin rest, and a sort of binocular hole where eyes were meant to peer inside. On the whole, it looked much like every corporate security scanner I've ever seen. My partner was completing a similar examination, and had come to the same conclusion. Smoothing my skirts, I lean forward to activate my scanner, while she does the same.
As soon as my eyes settle in front of the viewer, twin laser lights strike my retina. Immediately, the ground begins to rumble, just as when the proctor opened the first three gates. Suddenly, my scanner cuts off.
There is irritated embarrassment in Ron's voice. "I forgot about the rumble. Starting again."
In a moment, presumably when she put her eyes back to her scanner, laser light once more enter my eyes. The floor resumes rumbling. A normal retinal scan like this takes only moments, but this is sustained. I can only hope that the Company in all its wisdom knows enough about the tolerance levels of the human eye that successful candidates aren't permanently blind by the time they finish the test.
In any event, the light doesn't hurt, it just keeps drawing its pattern across my eye over and over. The proctor indicated that we could blink, and I do, on purpose, just to make sure. The light stutters for a split second, and then simply continues the pattern. Over and over. I imagine it drawing on my eyes, slowly wearing a scene of unutterable beauty to a machine across the field of my vision. Over and over. The the sound and even the feel of the rumbling eventually fade to white background sensation as I become accustomed to their constant presence. Over and over. I imagine every molecule in my body slowly becoming attuned to the sound, learning to move with it, until balance has been achieved.
Suddenly, the lights wink out, and the rumbling stops. I pull my face back, assuming that my partner has broken contact prematurely again, when I see that the indicator on my scanner has gone green, and the portal to the next room stands open. Blinking incredibly dry eyes, I say, "That seemed really fast."
"I know." she replies, rubbing her eyes with her palms. "Did you notice anything?"
It takes me a moment to realize that she means 'out of the ordinary'.
"No, I don't think I did. This one seemed straightforward, but I doubt the rest of them are."
She nods, and we walk into the next chamber together.
----
I'm prepared this time, and when the barrier crashes shut, I don't fall over.
"Do you need a break before the next one?" I ask her.
"Hang on." She's rummaging in her purse. The proctor hadn't directed us to leave our personal items behind, but I hadn't even brought mine in, so common was the prohibition during the other tests. I had my ID clipped to my blouse and nothing else.
"Here we go." She pulls out a small bottle, and quickly squeezes a drop of liquid out of it into either eye. Blinking rapidly, she says, "Ah, that's better."
She looks at me for a second, perhaps making some mental calculation. Apparently, I still fall under the list marked 'Assets', because she offers the bottle of eyedrops to me. "Here."
The relief is welcome. I'm not sure I actually blinked at all during that last scan, except for the intentional one. I hand the bottle back to her and we take our places in front of the scanners. Nodding to one another, we put our eyes to the machine.
The lights and the rumble are immediate, and it only takes moments for me to reach the zen I'd had in the previous room. I don't know if it happens for everyone, or if it's just an advantage I have on this particular test. Regardless, I relax into it, and let the vibrations hold me while the lights trace their dance on my exposed eyes. Over and over. Over and over. Over and over.
Except this time, there's a difference. I first notice when a drop of sweat rolling down my forehead threatens to interrupt my view of the lights. Carefully wiping it away, I devote enough attention to the rest of my body to notice that the room has grown uncomfortably warm. Half a minute later, I'm certain the temperature is still increasing as the test progresses. Carefully, carefully, I rest one of my forearms just above where my eyes are watching the scanner. The cloth on the arm of my blouse immediately begins to soak up sweat. With a little luck, no more will get into my eyes. I do my best to find zen again, but the discomfort is extreme. The remainder of the time seems to crawl by as I feel sweat begin to really pour out of me. Finally, just before the temperature crosses the line from uncomfortable to unbearable, the lights wink out, the rumbling ceases, and the indicator goes green.
The moment I pull back from the scanner the room seems to drop back to the correct temperature immediately, leaving me panting as blessedly cool air helps my sweat chill me. When I glance over at Ron, though, she's crumpled onto the floor and is hugging herself in the fetal position. I rush to her side.
"Are you ok?" I don't see a drop of sweat on her, and I worry that she has some sort of medical condition that the Company doctors missed. She might be broiling alive in her own skin. I put the back of my fingers to her cheek to see if she feels hotter than I do, and I almost yelp when they make contact with her skin. She's as cold as an ice cube! Her eyes snap open at my touch, her head swivels to look at me, and I realize her teeth are actually chattering. Suddenly, she lurches up and throws herself at me, hugging my body to her own and knocking me off of my knees onto the ground.. She's ice all over, and after a moment, I hold her tightly to me, letting my excess body heat help bring her temperature up.
We remain clutching one another for several minutes, until her shivers stop and my sweat has cooled on my skin.
"Thank you." she says, clearly a little ashamed. "I assume you didn't get cold during the test?"
