Chapter 16

The trek up the stairs takes almost thirty minutes. There are no other doors connected to the stairway except for the one at the top. A wave of relief courses through them when Samantha and Spencer reach the top—not only because the climb is over, but because no lights come on and no guards appear.

“This is almost too easy,” Samantha 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,” she 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 won’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 his partner 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 Samantha 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 his partner. 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 as they stand by the last door at the end of the hallway.

“We split up to cover more ground.” Samantha 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.”

Samantha 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. Ideas of it being the cause 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 Samantha 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.