Córdoba, Argentina
The
trek up the stairs takes almost thirty minutes to scale. There are no other doors connected to the stairway except for the one at the top. A wave of relief courses through them when Sam and Spencer reach the top—not only because the climb was over but because no lights came on and no guards appeared.
"This is almost too easy," Sam says as they stand outside the lone door.
"I agree. It's almost as if we are walking into a trap."
"Well with all the shit we've been through, they better have an army waiting for us," Sam states, pumping herself up for a confrontation. Neither one of them wishes for a fight, hoping for an easy in and easy out for once, but if one presents itself then they don't have much of a choice.
They go through the same process with this new door as they did with the previous one. This time the door opens to a darkened hallway. Wall sconces line the length of the wall but the lights are dimmed low enough to light the hall slightly.
Spencer takes the lead as Sam keeps an eye on their backs as she follows. Within the first fifteen feet they come to a door on the right. Spencer reaches out with his hand to try the knob and finds it is locked.
"Cover me," he says pulling out a lock pick set. In less than thirty seconds he has the lock picked and the door open.
He looks at Sam and she gives him a nod then he steps through the door. The room is a typical office with a desk and a computer sitting on top. He goes over to the computer and turns it on. After a few minutes the computer loads up. Spencer spends a few minutes searching through files not turning up anything out of the ordinary. Giving up on the search he begins filtering through the desk drawers with the same outcome—nothing.
He slips back out into the hall shaking his head at Sam. She gives a nod and Spencer heads to the next door. They repeat the process with each door they come to and each time the search turns up nothing.
"I'm guessing these are just regular administrative offices," he says to Sam as they stand by the last door at the end of the hallway.
"We split up to cover more ground." Sam offers.
"No," Spencer says sternly. "If this is a trap it better we're together and not divided. If we don't get through everything tonight we can always come back."
Sam gives a curt nod. She knows he is right and has a feeling the night is only going to get a little more festive. Spencer is surprised to find the door locked, more because the door from the maintenance and stairwell were unlocked. Thoughts of a forgetful employee springs up in his head, but he quickly brushes them away. Thoughts like that lead to mistakes and mistakes lead often too many times to death. That is a road he cares not to travel.
The lock on this door proves to be a little tougher than the offices, but in just over a minute and a half he has it taken care of. Pushing the door open slightly shows him a dimly lit light in the center of the room.
Taking a quick assessment of the shadows playing off the light, Spencer sees the doorway is engrossed in the shadows. He pushes the door open just a little more—enough to stick his head through—and discovers the room is a lobby for the company. In the center sits a large reception desk with television monitors relaying images from cameras. Behind the desk sits a security guard.
Maybe there is nothing out of the ordinary here.
He ducks back into the hall and signals to Sam about the single guard and that they will wait and see if he has a partner. The two agents sit watching the guard for a half hour as he sits in his chair flipping through a magazine. There are no radio calls to or from anyone and the guard seems to not be on any kind of schedule to patrol anything.
There is always the possibility of an hourly schedule but Spencer doesn't want to wait another half hour on a possibility. It is time to move.
He pushes the door open as far as he dared as to not allow any of the light to shine in from the wall sconces and alerting the guard. He has just enough room to slip through the door and allowing Sam ample room to follow. Sam remains at the door, her rifle trained on the man ready in case he became alerted to their presence. Meanwhile, Spencer slips around behind and creeps up placing his arm around the man's throat cutting off the air to his head. Within seconds the man's body goes slack.
Spencer positions the guard in the chair with the magazine on his chest to stage it as the guard fell asleep while reading. He feels a tinge of pain for the man in regards of the headache he would have when he woke up.
"Let's hope he doesn't have a buddy," Sam remarks sliding up beside him.
Spencer nods an agreement as he studies the three monitors in front of him. The first shows an image of the front entrance leading into the room they now stood in. The second of what looks like a laboratory and the third—which interests the agents the most—shows a room full of computers and equipment.
Spencer points to the third monitor. "That's where we need to be. If we can destroy or shut down that equipment it will delay whatever it is they are doing here."
"At least until we can stop Avyanna."
"Exactly."
Spencer turns back to the guard. Snores come out softly from the man assuring them he is asleep. Spencer begins digging lightly through the guards pockets careful to not disturb his sleep.
"What are you doing?"
"We still don't know what this place looks like or what kind of security it has the deeper we go. He has to have some kind of keys or a key card."
"Something like this?" she asks holding up a card.
"Yeah, where did you find it?"
"On the desk," she says smiling. "I guess he doesn't leave the desk very often."
"I guess not."
They look around the room using the night vision goggles and discover a door opposite of the one leading to the offices. This one contains just a standard lock.
Once again the door requires Spencer's lock picking skills. He spends nearly the same amount of time of the door as the last and this door leads to yet another hallway. The only difference between them is this one lacks any doors except one at the other end.
The door this time requires a card key. Sam slips up next to him and slides the card she found on the guard's desk through the device. The light goes from red to green instantly. A low popping sound emits from the device a second later and the door pops opened a few inches.
Both agents step back a couple feet bringing their rifles up at the door. When the door doesn't move they let out a sigh of relief. Spencer reaches for the door when Sam touches his shoulder stopping him. "Whatever happened to ladies first?"
He lets out a short chuckle and says, "After you."
Sam gladly steps forward. She feels compelled to take the lead and is glad for it. Spencer has been acting a little more protective of her ever since he found out she was pregnant with his child and it is beginning to annoy her. She pushes the door open to a darkened room. Scanning the room using her goggles shows nothing out of the ordinary. It is circular with five doors set apart about every fifteen feet or so. There is no furniture or anything except the bare floor.
She signals Spencer and steps into the room. The moment her foot hits the floor a feeling of danger shoots through her body like nails across a chalk board. Lights shoot on instantly blinding both agents. They reach up and pull off their goggles tossing them to the side. Blind, neither of the two see the room fill with creatures.
