Chapter 38: Office

We both crawled through the window carefully.

The edge along the wire had been...less than unpleasant. The wire had shaken several times with the wind, which had seemed to pick up.

Talk about pathetic fallacy eh?

So when climbing into the inviting window, we were both pleasantly surprised to find it was empty.

"Talk about a lucky break." I said, helping the 'young' girl through.

"Yeah! But that wind was hectic!" She exclaimed, correcting her hair which had been blown furiously out of proportion to how she had so gladly kept it before.

The buzzing had returned. Slight scratches accompanied its monotone sound, adding a sense of irritation to it.

This was seriously worrying. What was causing it?

"Come on, let's move." I urged, glancing left and right at the two intersecting doors. We seemed to be in some sort of work closet, with mops leant against walls and empty buckets scattered across the floor.

"You really think its a good idea to just go out into the corridor." At that very instance, I heard several muffled voices followed by clinks of some sort of gear walk past.

"You got a better plan?"

"Well, what about that vent?" she pointed towards the vent on the roof.

"And how do you suppose we get up there?"

The little tsundere began shuffling the shelves very slowly across the room, so to not make any noise.

Soon a neat little 'ladder' had been formed, allowing access.

"And what about me? I won't fit!"

"Well, I'm sure such a...brave...strong soldier can think of something." With that, she scurried up the vent.

"Wait!" Her head popped out.

"What?" I tossed up a walkie-talkie, which she caught with precision. "Keep in contact okay."

I connected the wire to my earpiece I had put in.

"Testing. 1...2...3?" No response. Was her's not working?

"Helloooo?" Come on Naegt5o9ijku8hr, where are you?

"Sorry yeah, I can hear you. Just had to get the earpiece in. God these things are just so fiddly." She began making sounds of struggling before her voice came through clearly. "There we go."

"Sir, the targets just entered the building."

"Good. Form your men in the subject's room. Prepare the men for an ambush."

"Yes, sir!" The young officer darted out of the room.

He adjusted his glasses, smiling grimly.

They wouldn't know what hit them.

"Right! Now!" I quickly swerved into the office to my right, closing the door as two gunmen walked around the corner.

The baker and I had devised a tactic: she would look through the vents and guide me to where she could feel the sensation. I would follow and occasionally have to quickly duck into a room when she decided to shout "LEFT" down the earpiece.

It was miraculous she hadn't been heard yet.

The buildings swerving corridors and immaculate floors had been painfully boring. Walls were mainly white, not many paintings were on show and even I felt the lack of plant pots disturbing. In addition, offices were scattered all over the place in random locations, some with no names on them. A lot of them contained cardboard boxes with personal items.

I slowly opened the door, peeking around to check for guards.

"You're good. Keep moving." Some bangs in the vents told me my partner had started moving, and I followed suit.

.

We had been going at this for fifteen minutes. Obviously, she had continued to say that we were getting closer and to "Stop complaining." but I was getting more impatient by the second.

"You know you sound like a five-year-old right now. That's what...the fifth time?"

"Well, are you really surprised."

"Haha, when it comes to men, not really."

"What's that supposed to mean?" A chuckle replied.

"I'm sure you can figure it out." She said slyly. "We are close though. I can feel it." NHYU9I8Oder£$w had sounded a lot more...mature recently. Grown up and adultlike. I decided to tell her this, in which she replied with confusion, wondering "How can that be true? I haven't changed a bit!". However, I could tell she was smiling.

At last, we finally broke free of the maze-like offices that we had been trudging through, which had felt like forever.

Where we had arrived seemed to represent a foyer, with large glass windows reflecting the heavy moonlight and curtains draped down. There also seemed to be a party of sorts going on, with a large number of people dressed in dinner-wear, open back dresses and pristine suits made by the latest brands. Background music served its purpose and the floor was littered with tables containing drinks and the occasional wedding sized cake...or two.

"Holy shit," I muttered, looking at the scene.

A clang from a room to my left signified my accomplice had left the vents. This was followed by a thud of shoes onto the carpet and a rapid open and closure of the door as she joined me to my left side. She was covered in dust.

"You might want to brush yourself down before we go in there."

"Yeah." She smiled gleefully up at me, before quickly patting down her chest, and then her legs.

"Right, we go in, we move as quickly as possible to that elevator over there." I pointed towards the two condescending doors that lay to the left of where we were standing. It was frequently opening and closing, letting guests in and out. A large cheap banner in the middle of the room read "Good luck Robert!" with sparkles and stars surrounding the words.

Funny, that's my name.

"Right, let's go."

"Nice touch Jess. Real subtle." A gruff cough followed his words, as he brought the handkerchief up to his face just in time for anyone to see the slight red that was now becoming more frequent with every passing day.

They cannot see.

Of course, he could be treated, and he had considered it many a time for the past several months. But it would never fix him.

He would probably just be taken off the project, his most exciting one that he had led. Someone who wasn't as qualified would take over and ruin everything, most likely.

The handkerchief was swiftly thrown into the disperser, as he stumbled towards his room. It was getting late.

Suddenly a voice.

"Sir! Sir I was just wanting to say how...hey sir are you okay?" His coughing spree had returned. Of course.

He was out of handkerchief's.

At once, his body began to collapse, as he gripped the wall in hopes of support. His vision became blurred and distored. Brief shouts echoed across the corridor.

"Someone get a medkit!", "The commander collapsed!". Maybe.

Maybe it was time to move on. To accept his inevitability. His eventual demise.

He had kept it hidden too long. He had lied to the crew. He had lied to his once chance of hope.

Maybe this is what he deserved.

Authors note: Oof. Sorry for another late upload but as I write more chapters, I am struggling to keep on with this, not gonna lie (Similar to last year sadly.) Don't worry though, I am determined to get this done, even it means chapters don't go up everyday!

Stay frosty ya'll

Jordan