Surprisingly the group made it up the wall and to the panel in about forty-five minutes and all of them waited under Samine and Shelly as they cut the lock and slowly opened it. The elevator was up on one of the upper floors as they pushed it open it all the way and pulled themselves in and helped Cindy in. Cole rigged up a hanging system and attached it to his harness allowing him to hang midair and work on his laptop while staying out of the way of the elevator if it came down. The three women stood on the cement and looked up the shaft before looking at each other.
"The room we want is on the third floor but I want to get to the fourth floor and go in by the ceiling. Fewer problems that way. The police can't hold onto the tape because it has other NSA conversations on it so it's going to still be in the security room," Samine said as she pulled out a little gadget from her bag.
She attached it to the rail on the wall usually used by the elevators and tightened her grip on the handle and pushed the button. It lifted her up the railing as the other two did the same thing with theirs and the three moved up the shaft as quickly as they could. Samine watched the bottom of the elevator above her in case it started to move down which once she thought of it the elevator actually did move, towards them. She sent word down the line and she swung her body to the side and pressed her hands and feet to the sides of the railing before pulling off her device and held it in her hand. Holding her breath she flattened her body against the wall and watched as she watched the elevator move closer to her. It skimmed right down her front and stopped just past her feet directly in front of Shelly and she smiled when she heard Shelly softly swear.
"Of course it had to stop in front of me. The bitch just has to stop in front of the jackass, of freakin course," she muttered and both Samine and Cindy chuckled.
While Samine was on top of the elevator she pulled out a new gadget and aimed it towards the ceiling before firing it. The tip buried itself into the ceiling and out popped some hooks to hold it in as she clipped the cable to her harness and started to rappel herself up. A bit later she heard the elevator move down further and the other two fires up their cables to reach her. Stopping at the fourth floor doors she pressed her ear piece in closer and radioed Cole.
"Cole check the security cameras and see if anyone is within sight of the elevator and open the door if they aren't," she said as the other two reached her and hung next to her after locking the cable into the carabineer.
"Doors opening."
The doors silently slid open to reveal a brightly lit hallway as the three of the pulled on their black masks before starting to swing towards the door. Reaching a good distance Samine unclipped her carabineer and dropped into the hallway and quickly scanned the hall for anyone. Motioning for the others she slow walked down the hall and glanced around the corner and saw no one at the place she wanted. Waving to the others they crept to a corner of the hallway and knelt to the ground. Searching for the seam Samine pulled up a tile and gently set it aside to reveal a small opening between the cement wall and a steel beam; it was barely big enough for a slim woman to fit through.
"I can't believe you talked me into this," Cindy muttered as she went first to move under the floors and quickly disappeared.
Shelly went next then Samine who brought the tile piece after her to fit snuggly in the gap and none the wiser would have known what just happened. The gap between floors was just enough for someone to crawl through and make significant progress; they were actually crawling through the air-conditioning system. Samine lead the way as they crawled down different passages and eventually stopped at a vent that looked down at the main room in the American room of the NSA. There were about twenty people in there working on the evening stuff before leaving for home as Samine turned back to Cindy.
"Go back to where we came in and toss the smoke grenade into the hallway and remember to stay hidden until the hall clears out. Then hightail it back down the elevator shaft to chill with Cole." She pressed the ear piece closer and radioed Cole. "Get ready to see all hell break loose. When the first fire alarm pops up activate a few others around the building so they don't know where it's coming from. Cindy will be heading back towards you so keep an eye out for her."
"Got ya Samine, we'll be ready to boogy when you get here with your tape."
Samine and Shelly waited a few minutes until they suddenly heard the fire alarm go off and everyone below jump to their feet and start moving towards the exit. When the room was empty Shelly punched out the screen and dropped her feet out first and pushed herself out of the air vent. A second later Samine followed suit and landed next to her as she looked around the room and quickly zoomed in on the locked door at the far edge of the room. Pointing it out to Shelly they went to it as Samine pulled her pack off her back and dropped it on the floor in front of the door. Unzipping it she pulled out a few items and set to work on the lock as Shelly kept a look out for anyone who decided to venture back into the building. Sliding in a thin tool she lifted the lock cover and unscrewed the cap to a small tube of paste with her teeth before putting the long nose into the lock. Squirting it in she pulled all the stuff back out as wisps of a mist or something drifted up from the lock. Reaching up, the door handle opened easily and she pushed it open all the way and looked up at Shelly before standing up. Shelly stayed outside as Samine went into the room and looked at the rows upon rows of video tapes from all around the complex looking for the exact one from Gibbons's office.
"What in the hell is that?" Mackie asked when the fire alarm went off as he stood in Gibbons's office looking for more clues.
"Fire alarm, in five different areas. We need to evacuate," a security guard said listening to his radio.
Grumbling he walked out and followed the guard and Xander along with a few other officers. Half way down the hall he stopped and slowly looked at the guard.
"Did you say in five different areas?" he asked slowly making sure that he heard right.
"Yes sir," and he named off the specific areas.
"Does something sound fishy to you?" he asked looking at Xander.
"None of the alarms went off near the place where the security tapes are."
Everyone froze for a second until Xander spun on his heel and went running down the hallway. Mackie went running after him but someone stopped him with reasons that he can't o running around without supervision. Instead one of the security guards went running off after Xander to lend any aid needed. Carefully pushing open the door Xander spotted a black clad person with a mask on who was looking in the other direction and he slowly and quietly crept through the doors and up behind the person. Just as they turned a bit he reared back and punched them directly across the jaw and knocked them to the floor. Reaching down to the person they kicked out and jumped to their feet as Xander grabbed the arms and tried to pin the person's arms down. The security guard just decided to come in there with his gun drawn and pointed it towards the intruder just as they caught of the gun and twisted away from Xander to barely miss the bullet that zinged by them. Getting free from Xander's grip they ran towards the guard and pushed them to the side knocking his head against one of the desk effectively knocking him out of commission.
"He didn't have a tape," he murmured knowing he didn't fell anything plastic like a cassette tape.
Spinning towards the security door he froze as a gun was pressed against his throat and cocked. Quickly swallowing he glanced down at the black clad figure holding the gun with their finger resting on the trigger and a tape in their other hand before looking back up. He slowly backed up at their prodding and stepped away from them as they held the gun leveled at him.
"You do know that you're not going to be able to get out with that tape in your hands? They have cops and fire marshals waiting outside not to mention one very pissed off police detective," he said as the person shrugged their shoulders.
Slowly they dropped their arm before tossing the tape into the air towards Xander. Like an amateur Xander moved to catch the tape and didn't notice the foot that flew towards him and knocked him back a few feet and onto his back. The figure caught the tape easily and spun before running out into the hallway with Xander soon after them at a full out run. Samine radioed to Cole to open the elevator doors before she got there but had to quickly change that plan. A bullet zinged by her head and she ducked before falling to the ground and turned to see Mackie pointing his gun at her from the other end of the hall. Scrambling to her feet more bullets buried into the wall beside her as she plowed directly into Xander and knocked him clear off his feet before running past him. Reaching the far end of the hall she banged through the doors to the stairwell and flew down the stairs knowing that Xander was right on her heels chasing after her.
"Cole what do you have control to?" she asked holding onto the railing as she swung around the corners.
"What do you need?"
"Floor two is equipped with bullet proof blast doors at all doorways. When I call it I need you to shut all of them down and I mean all. So that they'll need a few hours to disable the system and get the doors open. Once you do that then get out of there and meet me back at the bar we were at earlier. Lock the door to the cave on your way out and change back to street clothes before meeting with me in case you get stopped," she said and exploded out of the door onto the floor.
"Got it, just say when."
Rushing past an alcove a broad arm reached out and snatched the mask of her face and pulled her back forcibly. She gasped in shock as she struggled to get some air in her lungs. Looking beside her she was shocked to see Xander standing there with her mask and he was just as shocked to see it was her that he had been chasing. Before he could register what just happened Samine grabbed his shirt and pulled him towards him and slammed her head into his. It dazed him momentarily as she started to run down the hall way eying the window at the end of the hallway. She suddenly heard gunfire behind her and glanced over her shoulder to see Mackie firing at her again but Xander blocked his line of fire with his broad body as he ran after Samine.
"Samine stop!"
"Now! Close them now!" she yelled into her set just as she went through a door way.
She heard the resounding bang as the clear doors slid into place behind her and she started to slow. It was her in one block then Xander in the one beside her and then Mackie and the rest of the officers in the last one. She slowly walked up to the glass where Xander was standing and looked at him as he rested his forehead against the glass and watched her with a sad look. Slowly reaching up with her hand she slowly ran in down the glass right where Xander's face was and sadly smiled at him before tucking the tape into a safe place. Turning her back to him she ran towards the glass and leaped towards it as Xander yelled at her from behind as the window shattered when she hit it and disappeared from sight.