Christmas 7
Skye was frustrated. Although she had managed to stretch her ties enough to move them up and down the small pipe they were wrapped around, thanks to the tight tape around her ankles and the big pipeline on which she was forced to lean, she could not stand up. That in turn caused a constant numb pain in her back and a somewhat sleepy feeling in her legs, as well as a sharp stinging feeling in different parts of her body, depending on what nerve she was lying on.
Apart from that, she was horribly bored. The room didn't have much to look at and by now she thought she knew every flock of dust, every cobweb and every spider in the room well enough that she could actually have given them names. And, what made it more frustrating, by now she was sure that in the whole of the room there was nothing that could have helped her. She didn't even have her hairpins anymore, her captors had made sure of that. So even if she managed to find a way to cut through the tape that was keeping her in place, she was still dependent on someone coming by to let her out. And by now she wasn't sure there would ever be anyone coming in.
Just as she thought that, a key turned in the lock,and slowly the heavy metal door opened. A man came in, dressed in the uniform of a maintenance technician. He switched on the light, and the light-bulb hanging from the ceiling in the middle of the room actually started to glow in a dim, orange light, without actually increasing the lighting situation. Without even looking at her, he headed over to one of the machines, and started typing around on a keypad.
"Excuse me?" Skye asked, her voice sounding dry and raspy. The technician did not turn around, nor showed with any other reaction that he had actually heard her.
"Hey!" she added a little louder, but still the man didn't look at her, even less tell her the time. Most likely he simply ignored her. Instead he finished his work, then turned back to the door.
She called after him, nearly shouting, which didn't do her voice any good, but the only reply she got was a flick of the light-switch and a bang of the door.
\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/
"We still don't know for sure where Skye is, but it's a good guess that she's being held in the basement," Benji explained, standing in front of different schematics of the building that were projected against the wall. While Brandt had picked him up in Lambeth, Luther had already downloaded what he had earlier stored on one of the IMF servers. "However that's more of a minor concern, because to get anywhere but the entrance hall, we have to get through the elevator that is secured by swipe-card, which we could copy easily, and by a hand-print-scanner, which we can't copy. The only way for one of us then to gain access to anywhere is to enter a new profile in the security server, which, again, is located in a locked room in the basement."
"So basically what you are saying is, we can't get in," Brandt commented in his usual cynical, end-of-the-world way.
Ethan, who was standing next to him, was more hopeful. "That is, of course, unless you have a plan?"
Benji's face beamed as he replied: "Indeed, I have! There are ventilation shafts running through the building, used for heating and air-condition. Each floor has their own sealed system, with small, high pressure pipes supplying the usual, larger vent-shafts. However, as the air-intake is on the ground floor, and the heating system in the basement, the systems of those two levels are connected through a pipeline large enough for a person to go through.
"That means," he continued, "if we assume that I am the one going in to find Skye, someone else could go in beforehand, entering the ventilation system through the ground floor bathroom and climb to the server room, where he could then access the server to enter the fake profile so that I can use the elevator. Getting out of the server room should be no problem with a skeleton key, and as the elevators are not locked on the ground floor, getting out through the entrance hall should be even easier. Especially if we're working with masks, since anyone looking like me shouldn't get any attention. Now, the best person for the climbing part logically would be Ethan."
"I'm flattered, Benji," the senior agent interrupted him. "However there's one tiny problem: I'm about three inches smaller than you, and I'm pretty sure that somebody would notice."
Clenching his teeth, the technician sharply pulled in the air. "Right," he stated and looked at the others.
"Well, I'm never going to fit through that pipeline," Luther commented, while Brandt demonstratively looked up to the ceiling and sighed.
"I don't like where this is going."
"Oh, come on," Benji chaffed him. "It's only about ten feet from the ground floor air-shaft to the basement system, end even less from there to the floor of the server room. Nothing hot, nothing sharp and you can just walk out, when you're done. Mine is the hard part."
Brandt sighed sarcastically. "Yeah, only a narrow shaft with rats and spiders and god-knows-what," he muttered, but then came back on topic. "OK, so when I'm there, how do I install the profile?"
"This should do the trick," the technician explained, holding up a plain black USB flash drive, or what looked like it. "This is not a storage device, but actually a high-power sender and receiver. With that we can interface the server with any computer, which will not only allow us to add any profiles we wish, but, if we're lucky, also to gain at least partial control over the security systems, cameras, doors, et cetera, and maybe also search through the server for useful information."
"What about the structure? Earlier you said it obstructed all kinds of radio signals," Ethan asked curiously.
"Not quite right," Luther put in. "It's obstructing all of the usual frequencies. But I've analyzed the signals going out and the structure seems to swallow the middle and some of the upper part of the spectrum. Now, if we move our carrier wave into the extreme low frequency band, it should get through without a problem."
"And that should also enable our usual radio communication," Benji concluded and looked at each of the others in turn.
"Sounds like a plan," Ethan replied and looked over to Brandt who was turning the slim black stick in his fingers.
Finally the analyst stood up, slipping the small device into his pocket. "Let's do this."
\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/
With a last effort, Skye pushed herself up onto the pipeline. Ever since the maintenance technician had come by, she had tried to find a way to make herself more comfortable. At some point she had noted that, although her legs were tied together, she could still push herself up a little, and maybe even sit on the big pipe that had made her back ache for so long. It had been hard work, several times she had slipped on the wet stone floor or off the round metal pipe and as she couldn't move as she would have liked to, every try had been a massive effort, after which she had had to catch her breath again, but slowly she had worked her way up.
Now she was very much finished off, breathing heavily, her shirt sweaty through and through, which she was sure she was going to regret once she was cooling down again, but at least more comfortable. With a relieved sigh, she arched her back against the small pipe behind her and with some delight felt her stiff muscles stretch. There was an audible cracking sound, when she carefully rolled her shoulders as far as her ties would permit.
Then she looked around. From her now more elevated position, she could see a little more of the room, but as she had thought there was nothing there that could have been useful to her. The light from outside that had grown somewhat brighter in the meantime helped a little, but also didn't reveal anything previously unseen. As she knew it couldn't have been night already, she guessed that most likely the weather outside had just cleared up. Also it was a safe bet that the sun was slowly setting and the windows in the wall were facing west. Which meant that soon enough she might not have any light at all.
That in mind, Skye took a second and third sweep of the room, but didn't find anything she wouldn't have seen before. When the light indeed started to fade again soon, she decided it would be better to concentrate on what might actually be in her reach. With her legs taped together and no way to get out of her boots, she could rule out anything on the floor. Not that anything would have been lying around.
With that she started feeling around in the vicinity of her hands, and soon scolded herself for not thinking about that earlier. On the small pipe she was tied to there was a connection, that, now that she was sitting, was right above her hands. When she carefully leaned forward, she was just able to stretch her hands up far enough to rub her tape binds against the sharp lower edge of the clamps. If she would manage to cut through a few fibers on every layer, she would be able to rip the tape apart. And then she would only need to find a way to get out of the room. By now the small, dirty windows looked pretty promising.
\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/
"Copycat going in," Brandt announced as he entered the entrance hall. The marble room was brightly lit, a contrast to the street outside where it was growing dark, the street-lamps switching on at every corner. He blinked a moment until his eyes had adjusted to the sudden change, then headed straight for the bathroom door to his right, exactly where Benji had said it would be. The only people in the room were two security guards standing at the information desk, talking to the three staff members sitting there. No one took any notice of him.
Entering the bathroom, he made sure that all the cabins were empty and he was alone before he looked for the access to the ventilation system. Standing on the toilet right underneath it, he pushed up the grid that covered the air-shaft and pulled himself inside. Closing the access point again, he looked around. Right in front of him, the shaft parted left and right. "Numbercruncher, this is Copycat. I'm in the system. Do you read?"
"Read you loud and clear, signal is strong. Directions coming up," Luther announced, overlaying Brandt's position with the map of the ventilation system on his computer. "Take the next one left, then a right, and then straight ahead for three turns," he instructed the other agent. "Another right on the fourth and then it should be straight down."
"Got it," Brandt acknowledged, half of which was swallowed in a sneeze. "God, someone should clean up here," he muttered, crawling forward as quickly as the limited space permitted him. He soon found the creases that ran across the surface in certain intervals where two pieces of pipe were connected and managed to use them as hand- and footrests to push himself forward. It did not take him five minutes until he crossed the last bend and just managed to stop short, without falling face-first down the pipeline. Carefully he stretched himself to find a grip on the opposite side of the vertical shaft, then pulled his body out underneath him and finally let himself fall the few meters down feet-first into the lower level vent shaft.
"Alright, where to now?" he asked, eager to get out. If crawling in a space that allowed just enough room to move was uncomfortable, standing in one was even more so.
"Turn back the way you came, then the second to your left and the first opening you come across should be yours," Luther instructed.
"Great," Brandt muttered and thought about how to proceed. He decided to turn around now, as opposed to going in lying on his back and turning then, which was already hard enough in his enclosed surroundings. Then he somehow managed to first kneel down, then crouch and finally lie flat in the pipe, not without bumping his head, back and elbows several times.
Proceeding on, he found his exit point after a few more minutes. Carefully, he pulled up the cover grid and placed it on the other side of the hole. Looking down once to confirm it was indeed the server room he would drop into, he somehow managed to move into a sitting position at the edge of the hole. Carefully he tied a thin but strong string to the grid, before he jumped to the floor. Once he had secured his surroundings, he pulled the grid back in its normal position with the string, then ripped it off with a sharp tug.
"Copycat here, I'm in the server room," he reported to the others, while he took a look around. Several workplaces with screens and keyboards were scattered around the room between the massive server-towers. Plugging the transmitter into the main computer array, he chose an access point in a corner that was not immediately visible from the door, just in case. Switching on the monitor he worked his way through the different menus. "Sender-receiver hooked up and working."
"Got you, Copycat. New profile in place, your turn, Deadringer," Luther commented his steps as he worked himself through the servers from his own end. The connection was working perfectly and within a few minutes he had access to everything he could possibly want. With a satisfied smile he sat back and stretched his fingers.
Benji, who had entered after Brandt and waited in the lobby meanwhile folded down his newspaper and turned towards the elevators. Although he knew it was only Brandt, he still found it creepy to hear someone else talk in his own voice, especially as the other agent didn't bother to use his fake British accent as long as no one else was listening.
"I'm in the elevator," he stated as he pressed the basement button and a moment later the doors revealed another swipe-card lock. Taking a deep breath, he took out his blank card and pulled it through the sensor. After a moment's hesitation, a light glowed green and as before the glowing pad came up. More nervous now, he wiped his left hand dry on his trousers before pressing it firmly onto the sensor-pad. Obediently the doors slid open and Benji left the cabin. "Deadringer moving into the corridor."
"I see you, Deadringer," Luther confirmed, but also kept working on his own task. "We've got camera feed, but only partial control over the elevators. The doors run on a separate cycle, all we can do is feed in profiles or cut the power, no way to open them remotely. However we have full access to the database. Nest-egg, take the cameras for a moment, I'd like to have a closer look into this."
"I got the cameras, Numbercruncher," Ethan acknowledged. He was sitting in the van, parked in a side-road near the Roman Tower as a second observer and nearby backup if needed. "For your information, Deadringer: We've got eyes in and in front of all the elevators on every level, but nothing further down any corridor."
"Understood, Nest-egg. I'll proceed with my search, starting with the second door to the right," Benji announced as he headed down the hallway. It was a maintenance corridor with raw walls, lined with pipes and cables and only few doors, all unpainted metal doors with crude plastic signs. The door at the very end of the corridor he knew to be the server room Brandt was currently in, so he could scratch that. Another door obviously led to a walk-in fridge and he hoped that would not be the one he was looking for. Discarding the one door that led to the emergency exit, he had three doors left, each leading to maintenance rooms for water-supply, heating and electricity, and the question was only which to start with. Choosing the one he was nearest to, he pulled out his skeleton key and within seconds the door opened for him.