Panel Graphic Novels & Stories

“No.” “That’s the number they gave us this morning.” “No.” “There’s an option.” Derek crossed his arms. I immediately disliked it. “Tell me.” “We’ve got stock panels with almost the same coating at an LA distributor. Dimensions are smaller, but we can split those two bays.” I looked at him. “Split them how?” “Add a mullion.” I went quiet. Derek pulled up the shop drawing and drew an extra vertical line through the two corner bays. There were people who damaged things by accident. Then there were people who looked at something beautiful and proposed a crime with a red marker.

He muttered something about looking ridiculous, a statement everyone ignored. From his seat, Elias hit a shiny silver button on the panel embedded in the table before him, causing the lights to dim and the blinds to shut out the overcast sky. Daniel typed into a tablet and seconds later a virtual 3D model of a fifteen-story building appeared. It turned slowly around giving them every angle, every nook. The men were quiet, impressed with the hologram-like display. Ever the performer, Darius explained, “These panels you see on the sides atop floors thirteen through eighteen aren’t cosmetic. They’re solar panels.

I pressed the upper right corner. The panel released. The space behind it was empty. I stood very still. I pressed the panel closed and opened it again — the involuntary repetition of a person whose mind refuses the first delivery of information and requires a second confirmation. The space was empty the second time. It had been empty the first time. Nothing about that was going to change regardless of how many times I pressed the corner and waited for the panel to release. I stepped back from the shelf.

Specifically, the dull gray panel behind it, uninteresting, load conduit marker almost invisible unless you knew grid language. I drove my blade into the seam and twisted. Nothing happened. Vale chuckled. “That’s structural plating.” “Yes,” I said, and triggered the micro-charge already palmed under my thumb. The panel blew inward, not outward, collapsing into the conduit channel behind it. Sparks, bright, violent, immediate. The halo rig flickered. Observer One grinned. “There it is.” Vale didn’t move, but his eyes sharpened. “Partial disruption only.” “Correct,” I said. “Partial is enough.”

CHAPTER 19: EXERTING CONTROL JORDAN: Walking into my office, the first thing most people noticed was my fancy huge glass desk. But this desk was much more than a piece of furniture. It's literally a tech gadget. This desk had a built-in multi-screen setup, a hidden dashboard and under the desk was a biometric panel. The glass surface changes into a touchscreen table so that I could swipe through camera feeds like I was going through photos.

I was guessing this was touchscreen. I touched the panel. The screen lit up like an iPad. I heard the sound of water and then I felt a trickle of cold droplets against my skin. I looked up to the ceiling and saw a chrome square panel in the middle with water holes and LED lights. I looked at the screen in front of me again to find the control buttons. There were four presets. I realized now what Nicholas was talking about.

“How do you know that?” “I’ve been in his chambers before, years ago. Saw him retrieve it once when he thought no one was watching.” Julius pulled out a piece of parchment and sketched a rough layout, his lines quick and confident. “Here. This is where the panel is. You’ll need to press here and here simultaneously to open it. The mechanism is designed to prevent accidental discovery.”

Hayden stopped beside the primary security panel mounted against the wall. “Don’t touch anything.” Lyra stayed two paces back, her pulse hammering against her ribs. “Can you access the cameras?” “I’m trying.” He pulled a compact diagnostic unit from his jacket and connected the ribbon cable directly into the panel’s maintenance interface. The small screen came alive, and everything looked normal. Lyra’s brow furrowed. “There’s no one.”

It did not restrict my movements and it doesn't even block air. I was laying down on my bed as I scrolled through the holographic control panel. The thing thing that I am amazed is that you can add a one way window to your room. The concept is similar to a one-way mirror, where you can see the view on one side, but not on the opposite side. I started scanning through other furnitures and frowned when I saw some weird decorations. My brow furrowed as I was about to scroll down when the control panel suddenly beeped.

I stand in front of the cartridge dispenser and make myself not look at it. The child has not forgiven me for stepping back. Good. Let it be angry. Angry is alive. The far wall splits, less like a door than a reveal. The panels peel back so smoothly that the dust on the floor does not move. White panels slide away to expose a black circular console sunk into the floor. Two handplates rest on either side of it, separated by a strip of glass. One plate is silver-veined. The other is matte black. Above them, a transparent cylinder drops from the ceiling.