Her reward was half the grate swinging down toward the floor. The other side where the rope was tied still hung in place by a couple of screws.
On her last trip down, she tied the jacket around her waist before starting back up the rope. She hauled herself over the lip of the hole and lay in the air duct, trying to get her strength back. She was exhausted and she hadn’t even gotten into the base yet.
Shit, this breaking and entering was hard work.
She pulled the rope up through the hole and then pulled the grate back into place. She had to replace the screws on the inside. Hopefully no one would look at the ceiling and notice the grate screws were in backward.
Writhing on her belly like a snake, Rain inched her way through the air duct. It was hot, sticky work. It felt like she’d been in the duct for hours before she finally came to another grate.
She peered into some kind of office. There was a large desk and some filing cabinets. A man sat at the desk working on a strange-looking machine. His fingers flew over the buttons, his eyes fixed firmly on the flat, upright part of the machine.
Rain frowned. She’d seen those before, in old electronic stores. Padre Pedro said they were called “computers” and people had used them before the Wars for all sorts of clever things. Like writing letters and listening to music and finding out how to make bread. Rain had a feeling the man below wasn’t trying to find out how to make bread.
She scooted further down the duct. The next grate opened into what looked like a locker room. It appeared empty. Even better, it was only a short drop to the top of the nearest locker.
Rain frowned at the grate. The screws were on the outside, which did no good, however it did seem a little loose. Someone had even stuck nuts on the duct side. Perhaps to keep it from falling open?
She smiled and loosened the nuts with nimble fingers. Sure enough, the grate pushed out easily.
Lowering it carefully to the top of the locker, Rain followed it down. Then she hopped to the floor. There was no way to replace the grate, so she tucked it behind a bank of lockers. She could only pray nobody decided they needed a shower and discovered the gaping hole in the ceiling.
Cautiously moving toward the door, Rain peered out into the hallway. She was definitely inside the base, but the walls were still that god-awful gray. Back at the compound most of the walls were painted in bright murals or plastered with pages from old magazines and calendars. Anything to add color to the place and keep the gloom of living mostly underground at bay. Apparently, the Marines lived for depression.
There were several doors along the hall, each one with a narrow window in it. Since there wasn’t a soul in sight, Rain headed to the nearest door and peered in the window. The room was empty, but it looked like some kind of gathering room. Lots of chairs faced a large blackboard at the front of the room, not unlike the classroom back at Sanctuary. But why would Marines need a classroom? They weren’t children.
The next door led into a storage room filled to bursting with canned goods. She’d bet most of the stuff was confiscated from civilian compounds. How many people had starved to death so the Marines had plenty?
Further down the hall there were a couple of offices and what looked like a recreational room, all empty. Still, Rain didn’t let down her guard. There had to be somebody around here somewhere.
She finally found a door that led into yet another gloomy gray hall. More doors lined either side with their narrow little windows gleaming in the dim light. The place was spotless. Every inch scrubbed clean. Damn, the Marines were clean-freaks.
She finally found a door that led to what was obviously some sort of lab. The knob turned easily and she slid into the deserted room.
The lights were mostly off, probably to preserve energy. A couple very dim bulbs illuminated the place just enough so Rain could see where she was going. Everywhere was stainless steel polished to a shine. Worth more than gold nowadays. She figured if the Marines really were experimenting on dead bodies, this would be just the place to find them, and hopefully Sutter.
She frowned. There didn’t seem to be any place to hide a body. All the cupboards had glass fronts so she could see the bottles and beakers inside. Even the cold storage units which hummed gently in the corner of the room had clear glass doors. Nothing even remotely body-like inside.
Then Rain noticed another door at the back of the room. She hurried over and slowly pushed it open, aware that anything could be lurking on the other side.
The room was pitch black. Not even a nightlight to give off ambient illumination. There was a switch on the wall, so Rain stepped into the room, quietly closing the door behind her.
The switch turned on the overhead lights. Unlike the ones in the hallway, these were a bright, hard white, sending shadows scurrying away.
Rain sucked in a breath. It was a morgue.
Rows of stainless-steel doors lined two of the walls. She knew they’d hold drawers for dead bodies. She’d seen similar rooms during her tracking expeditions with Sutter. Some of them had been empty. Some of them were filled with the bones of the dead, the flesh long-since rotted away.
In the center of the room was an examination table along with a couple of strange contraptions. One looked like it belonged in a shower stall. The other appeared to have large light bulbs inside.
The table was empty, so Rain headed straight for the drawers. She slid out the nearest one. It came easily, revealing an empty slab.
One by one she slid the drawers out of the wall.
