Chapter 2
The Labyrinth

"How did you know it would be big enough to crawl through?" Kimiko asked, when they were finally on the other side. Spicer did his techno-magic and after awhile, they were free. Kind of. Not really, but on their way. Anyway, they managed to get out of that empty room, because universe decided for once to be nice to Jack.

"Seemed logical?" he shrugged. "You have small shafts when there's window somewhere. If not, you need something bigger, especially if you need to hide it behind pretty solid padding."

"So you guessed!" Kimiko stared at him. Just what he was thinking? What he did just few moments ago was really dangerous and if he screwed something he could set the whole place on fire or even die himself because of electrocution. And he didn't even know if id had any meaning at all!

"Better that than doing nothing?"

"I think you're right." She decided with heavy sigh. Indeed, there was no other choice than waiting. And Kimiko really, really wasn't a patient person. "What now?"

"Now I need put the grating back on, letting anybody know we're out is bad idea." Jack said. To get out the ventilation shaft Kimiko had to kick that thing out of their way, but it seemed to not be in terrible condition because of that. At least good enough to try to hide their track of a while.

"Aren't here any cameras...?" Kimiko looked around, suddenly feeling worried. It would be a shame to lose precious time on things like that, just to found out later they were observed anyway. She didn't spotted anything that looked like it might be a camera, no tiny red lights either, so she managed to relax a little.

It seemed like they little prison was part of some sort of complex. It looked like quite a big building, whatever it was. Decorum was pretty similar to what they saw already – nasty colors on the walls, silence and emptiness under cold light of flat lamps. For all she know, it could be even stage of some sort of horror movie, that kind with alien or monsters in scientific facility, murdering people who were running around completely pointless. And she didn't think getting eaten alive would be such a good idea.

"Hey!" Jack protested to her last comment.." Try to remember about that 'genius' part in 'evil genius'?"

"Did you just said you're used to break in and out of building with high security?" Kimiko smirked at Jack. The boy blushed slightly, but this time he did not protested. Huh. "And where do you plan go now?"

"Now we're looking for my shoes."

"Your priorities amaze me, Jack" she said dryly, putting her hands on hips. "Seriously, shoes?"

"Where my shoes are, there should be rest of our stuff," Jack muttered.

"Fair point" Kimiko agreed after moment of consideration. She might not had any kind of Shen Gong Wu among her things, but she would still feel safer with all of her stuff on hand. And if she actually had an ancient artifact somewhere among all things in her purse… "But we need to hurry."

"No running shoeless in the strange places!" Jack protested quickly in high pitched voice, panicking a little. "Its loud, we don't need loud!"

"Afraid, aren't we?" Kimiko smirked. She really, really should not toy with him like that, especially not now, but it was hard to stop herself. Spicer was astonishing as a target and his hilarious reactions were definitely making her day a little better. She was an awful person, truly a bully, but he was pretty much shooting his own foot, trying to explain his point.

"Look, if somebody managed to kidnap you once, he would be able to recapture you anytime..."

Now Kimiko just looked at him sourly and pursed her lips. He blinked and laughed nervously, probably remembering that once he managed to do exactly what he was talking about. And just told her that he could do it again.

"Okay, bad example, but you get my point, right? No stuff, no information, no idea where a way out is."

"I guess I do." She tilted her head to the side. "So... any idea about what direction is the right one? You're the one with right experience here."

"Haven't slightest idea." He admitted with rather stupid smile stuck on his face.

"Great." Kimiko rolled her eyes. But she was walking beside Jack anyway. He at least got some sort of a plan. And idea what the hell was going on with him being evil and all. Takes one to know one and all that stuff.

The corridors were rather gloomy, without any windows at all, painted in dark green colors, long, narrow and many enough to make quite a labyrinth. Besides sound of their steps on cold floor, and quite loud hum of electricity it was really silent.

"What the hell is with this place?!" Kimiko felt more than just irritated when they were in the yet another crossroads. "There aren't even any kind of doors!"

"There were a few, just closed." Jack corrected her. "And I doubt there was something interesting in there anyway. And we turn right on this one."

"How do you know?"

"Just a hunch?"

Kimiko narrowed eyebrows. Jack definitely knew something and didn't want to share it. Besides, he wasn't babbling. Silent Jack wasn't a good sign, that she knew for sure. His silence was actually creeping her out much more than this place and not knowing anything at all. It was just so… unnatural. Wrong.

Finally they found a door they were able to open. With a hairpin, but still. Not much was inside. Just desk with computer on it and a chair by it and several heavy looking cabinets with a lot of drawers. Everything looked like made out of metal and then painted.

Jack was already by the computer, tapping at the keyboard with admirable speed.

Kimiko cooked over his shoulder, to check, what he was doing, but long strings of bare code made a little sense to her. She was able to hack pretty decently, but she needed her stuff and programs to do so. It was doing most of coding by itself and this old piece of garbage was forcing user to do all of the work. She felt a little bit stupid, because Jack seems to perfectly knew what he was doing. Kimiko was supposed to be better than people like Spicer. On the other hand, the temple wasn't into training their hacking skills. Hacking was somewhat immoral.

"Ha!" Jack grinned happily after a short moment, and she could see a map of the complex on the screen. "Gotcha!"

"Great, now we know where we are," she agreed. The map was rather complicated. It was showing at least two levels at once, like in those really old games, where the longer you were staring on the map of the area, the more lost you were feeling. If she was reading this thing right, there was several other sheets, which was rather scary perspective. The complex was really huge. Being imprisoned in huge place was rather bad news. "Kind of? Anyway, did you find why we are here at all?"

"Not yet." Jack shook his head then put a finger on part of the map. "But here is our stuff. At least should be."

"I could check it out" Kimiko proposed.

"Yeah, because splitting up is the best idea ever!" Jack protested in more Spicer-like manner, waving hands in irritation and making faces. His voice even got into his usual high-pitched tones. Most of the time that was unbearable annoying, but right now Kimiko found comfort in it. Jack was something she knew, something familiar in this odd and unwelcoming place. "Don't you watch any horror movies?"

"I can't just sit here waiting for you to finish whatever you're doing. Anytime now somebody might check our cell..." And she really wanted to do something. It was just wrong to fell useless, while people like Jack Spicer were actually doing something. It just wasn't right, not in her book. She was supposed to be hero around here.

"I know, I know! Just let me find where the exit is!"

"Around here, maybe?" Kimiko pointed at another spot in the map. "At least it is way... up?"

"Yeah, we're kind of underground." Jack agreed with a sigh. "But we can't just go there, I'm sure somebody is going to guard it."

"So? How else we get there?"

"Um... ventilator shaft?" Evil Boy Genius scratched his head.

"We can't climb up in the ventilator shaft." This time it was Kimiko, who protested.

"Why not?" Jack blinked. "Seriously, doable, did it before."

"Several floors up too?" she asked with doubt in her voice.

"Okay, maybe not." he mumbled. "But look, we might get to the elevator shaft, there should be a ladder or something."

"Now it sounds better," she nodded. "Only we need to watch out for incoming elevator."

"Meh, easy enough to block on the spot." Jack decided after moment of toying with the whole idea. "The most tricky part is going to be getting out of the building. No chance we won't be seen."

"Maybe we should go back to the ventilation shaft..."

"And then what, go through the garage?" he shook his head in disapproval. Then blinked. "Actually this is a good idea."

"So let's go." Kimiko grinned. She felt already better, knowing at least a little bit more than moment before. If someone like Jack was saying that it was possible, then they would be definitely able to get out of here. "Cannot wait to get my shoes back on."

"Yeah" he smiled back. "It kind of cold in here."

In the next few minutes Jack made sure no one would be able to tell that they used the computer at all. Then they walked. Even crawled some distance, when they actually heard somebody else on this level. Through they didn't actually saw anybody at all, the whole time it took them to get to the room, where their stuff was supposed to be. And it was there, without anybody else around. There wasn't even any kind of alarm on the doors. Just a lock, and that was more than just easy.

"I love your hairpins!" Jack said with rather sassy smile on his face.

"You can keep them, don't want to get between the bunch of you…" Kimiko commented dryly.

"Oh, haha." He grumbled under his nose, but kept the hairpins anyway.

Putting shoes back on was really, really great experience. Kimiko never through she would be so happy about something like that. Besides only now she could actually tell how cold she was before. She was still shaking a little. It took Jack a little more time to get his stuff.

"Good Heavens, how many thrash you're carrying around?" she stared, as he still was collecting various items and stuffing them into many pockets of his cloak and trousers.

"Hey!" he protested. "It's no thrash! Everything's important!"

"How in the hell you're even able to fly around dragging all that stuff along?"

"I'm light build?"

"Yeah, right. Are you done? We really need to go now." Kimiko eyed the doors. Not that she was scared – at least not much – but she really didn't wanted anybody to just walk on them, while Jack was still sorting his trash. And why he was carrying several screwdrivers with him was beyond her.

"I'm all right." He put the goggles on top of his head. "Let's crawl back!"

"That didn't sound inspiring, but whatever."