As his eyes adjusted to the darkness before him, he saw a long corridor snaking away into the belly of the building. Thankfully for him, being naturally curious always seemed to override any doubt or apprehension he may have felt, so taking a deep breath he stepped cautiously into the corridor, into the unknown. The corridor was not only pitch-black but also deathly silent, which seemed to accentuate the sound of his breathing and footsteps. The corridor seemed endless with no doors or adjoining corridors to be seen anywhere. Suddenly without realizing he entered another corridor activating the motion sensitive strip-lights along the wall. After blinking several times to allow his eyes to adjust to the bright lighting he continued on down into this strange building. After walking a few hundred feet Michael started seeing signs of occupation; four lifts, two on one side of the corridor and two on the other. Michael entered the lift, looked at the panel of buttons leading to the various floors, and looked around the lift itself.
Instead of pushing any of the buttons he leant up and opened the hatch in the roof, he'd had bad experiences in lifts before and didn't want to relive them. Shooting his webbing up into the dark expanse above him, he climbed up and replaced the hatch. Obviously, he assumed, anything important would either be at the top or the bottom and, seeing as he was facing upwards, he went up. After several laborious minutes he saw the ceiling above him, he had reached the top of the building. Peering through the grate he saw he was looking into another corridor, much the same as the one he had just come from only this one had a carpet, and CCTV.
"Damn" he cursed out loud, if they had CCTV here what was stopping them from having it down in the alley, or by the door, or even in the lift. He cursed again and hit himself for being so flipping naïve. OK, he was alright for now, so long as he kept out of view of the rest. Plus, if they did know he was there they would possibly be jumpy which could work in his favor, although they may have had time to increase security where it was necessary or even conceal what was going on. Oh well at least he had guessed he needed to go up, some conciliation at least. As he went to put his hand through the grate to take it off, he heard voices coming in his direction and quickly withdrew his fingers. Two well-built thuggish looking men came into view, both dressed in black jackets and trousers, and both carrying vicious looking AK-47's. Michael's sharp vision also spotted a knife strapped to their boots and a small handheld pistol on their belts. One was pale-skinned and smoking a foul-smelling cigarette, the other vaguely tanned with thick, dark bushy eyebrows and an equally thick and bushy beard covering most of his lower face. When the former opened his mouth Michael saw a row of yellowish teeth, well a half row anyway as most were missing leaving gaping black holes in his mouth.
"Boss says we gotta be on the lookout for that Spider-guy" the smoker said to his heavily-haired companion.
"Hmm" the second mumbled as a half-hearted attempt at conversing.
"And during my lunch-break, what is it with this place the police last month now him this month" the first carried on, spitting and blowing out disgusting grey smoke as he did so.
'So the police have been here' Michael thought too himself. The two thugs carried on walking down the corridor and Michael decided to rethink his next actions. Looking up he saw another grate a few feet up, so he climbed up to it and saw it led into a ventilation shaft. Reasoning that this would be a safer option than trying to dodge CCTV and trigger-happy thugs.