Here's another chapter for those of you who are chafing under the cliffhanger! I'm not getting very many reviews… are you enjoying the story so far? The idea is it's about the length and pacing of an actual TV episode so I'm not trying for a lot of additional depth, just some fun.
Chapter 9
1:13 PM
Auggie raced up the concrete steps in the echoing service hallway. Thirteen steps, then turn on the landing, thirteen steps, turn. Auggie rarely counted his steps when walking, preferring instead to use echoes, air currents; facial vision, as the experts called it. But on a stairway as tall and regular as this one, numbers worked too.
Annie pounded after him. The more they moved around the building the higher the risk they ran of getting caught. Auggie wished he wore a bullet-proof vest. So far the echoing hallways had been eerily silent. Melkin must not have quite enough goons to go around. Auggie figured they'd be guarding the roof pretty heavily though or the cops would have busted in by now.
"Do you see anyone?" Auggie asked urgently as Annie peered through the window onto the hallway. They stood outside a carpeted hallway lined with doors leading into offices.
"Nope, clear," she said, pushing open the door. The hallway sounded muted and still to Auggie. He pictured a non-descript color on the walls and brass name plates on each door.
Auggie's shoulder hit the door frame and he winced, wishing he had his cane. He sure could use it when he was trying to hurry.
"You're sure we're on the south side of the building?" he asked.
"Yeah, why?"
"The sun. Curtains. Come on." He knew he was being cryptic, but at the moment did not care.
"How many people are still going to be in their offices? It's the middle of the work day after all," whispered Annie.
"None. They were all called down to the Hostage Holding Tank downstairs," Auggie responded. "And hopefully a few left their doors unlocked."
"No problem there, I nabbed this," said Annie triumphantly.
"Nabbed what?" asked Auggie, aware that they were standing, very exposed in the middle of an open hallway.
"Oh, I forgot," Annie said. "A janitor's key card, from the closet downstairs." She placed it in his hand.
He felt the smooth plastic. "I hate these things." At hotels, they give these damn things to you and it's impossible to figure out which way to stick them in the door. There's nothing to mark them unless I stick a piece of tape on them… "You use it," he finished, handing it back.
The first door was unlocked. They ducked inside, just as a guard came around the corner and sauntered down the hallway. Auggie hadn't heard him, but he knew what it was the minute Annie grabbed his arm in a panic and jerked him down next to the wall inside the office. They sat motionless.
The clock on the wall ticked agonizingly slow seconds. The impression of the office to Auggie was an tangled jumble of smells: leather chairs, stale coffee, copier paper. A fly buzzed on the window sill, frantically fighting to release itself from the space behind the window blind.
At last Annie dared to peer around the corner. "He's gone," she breathed.
Auggie, meanwhile was thinking hard. Floor seven, first door.
"Open the blind," he ordered.
Annie did so, raising the curtain with a snap of the cord. Auggie let the way out into the still, silent hallway, closing the door carefully behind them.
They ducked into the next office. "Lower the blind." Auggie said.
Auggie was concentrating so hard he almost wasn't breathing. Annie used the key card, opened doors and raised and lowered blinds. Open. Closed. Open. Closed. Open. Open. Open. Closed.
They reached the end of that hallway and descended the stairs. Closed. Closed. Closed. Closed. Open…
Twice they had to duck into a room while the kid who was supposed to be guarding the hallways sauntered past. Evidently he was getting bored as evidenced by the meandering gait. He'd seen no action for the past twelve hours and he was probably envying the guys who had to merely stand still and watch a door.
Another hallway. Auggie checked his watch, brushing his fingers over the hands which read 1:40.
Another hallway. And another, working their way downward. As Auggie predicted, many of the doors were unlocked, their owners hurried away by the guns and the loudspeakers. Some were locked by occupants who had never made it in to work that morning. Annie's key card opened them all.
Snap. Open. Snap. Closed. Open, Open, Closed. Auggie pictured the pattern in his mind. One mistake and this would not work. He rubbed a hand over his eyes, dry and sandy from lack of sleep. His stomach protested the shortage of nourishment. Was this room open or closed? Open, yes, this one was Open.
Annie snapped the blind.
