FIFTEEN
Building
2005
Arizona
Sally woke up with a start and nearly flung herself onto the rugged industrial floor. Her eyes stung and her mouth was stale, sticky with paste-like saliva. With her nerves shot and her mind distracted by the events of the past days, one hour of sleep was all she could manage. The sleep was welcome but the fact that she had awakened on her own was very disappointing. She had given orders to be wakened should Tom, David or Roberts return. But she was alone in the room and no one had come to give her good news, which meant the worst possible news. Something had gone wrong in the past. It had been hours since Captain Robert’s left the present. Had he succeeded, Roberts would have returned to within an hour of his departure. She knew he was either dead or had gone rogue. And she knew what that meant for Tom and David.
Sally stood and stretched. Her back ached. The sturdy loveseat in her office wasn’t designed with comfortable snoozing in mind. Her cream-colored office was expansive, meagerly decorated and full of space, but had become cluttered overnight. Sally spent most of the previous evening riffling through schematics, studying notes and memorizing the functions of the watch, which she now knew to be more intricate then anyone had previously conceived. If only David knew what she knew now. Then again, maybe he did.
Sally dressed quickly, though not in her typical power suit and high heels. She finished the knot on her black running shoes, tightened the belt on her skin-hugging, charcoal pants and straightened her raven hued turtleneck, which showed the curves of her body in a way no one at LightTech had ever seen. She felt silly, dressing like this, like some kind of spy or ninja, black from head to toe, but she knew the main lights would be out for another hour and she would need to be stealthy if she was going to make it in and out of George’s office in one piece.
Sally tied a black scarf around her mouth, nose and then forehead. She looked in the mirror. Her reflection looked like an obsidian sculpture, whose eyes had been colored with a burning brown paint. Ridiculous. She strapped a dark backpack to her shoulders, peeked out her office door and crept out into the dark hallway.
It was a ten-minute trek from Sally’s office on the lower level to George’s office, five floors up. She couldn’t use the elevator; there was an armed doorman, even at this time of night. She could have easily walked past him and ordered him to leave his position, but she hoped anonymity would allow her to keep her job, and her life, when this was all over.
She broke a sweat by the fifth floor. She ran every day and she was in perfect shape, but the nervous tension gripping her muscles made every movement a struggle. It was exhausting. She crept to the stairwell door. George’s office was just down the hall, but Sally knew this would be the most difficult portion of her covert operation. George, ever the paranoid, had two guards posted outside his office at all times. But Sally knew George wasn’t just being paranoid, he was being cautious. No one puts two armed guards outside a room unless they have something inside to protect. This is why Sally believed the office would contain the robot insects Jake had so proudly described. She would steal the little bugs and make it look like corporate espionage. They had plenty of tough competition that wouldn’t be above such a stunt. Hell, even LightTech had engaged in theft and espionage before.
Security was impregnable from the outside in. Getting into the LightTech facility was pretty much impossible. But once inside, security was lax. Though from Sally’s perspective, security was downright impervious. She peered down the hallway. Damn. The guards were wide-awake and ready for action. She felt sure she could outrun Chuck, the chubbier of the two guards but the other man, Sean, looked to be in Herculean shape. Probably took his job too seriously. He might be a problem. The only weapon Sally had brought was a five-year-old stun gun she took when she went running, and it could only fire once.
The sound of approaching footsteps from the right caught her attention and Sally quickly and silently closed the hallway door so that only a sliver of space remained to peer through. She glanced at her watch. Damn again! The building would be flooded with employees in a half hour. She ducked back as a body moved past the door, toward George’s office and the guards.
Sally watched through the small opening. It was Jake…and he was waving the guards away.
“Chuck, Sean, you guys can take off. Go get a coffee or something. I’ll only be a few minutes,” Jake said.
Chuck looked confused. “But Director Dwight ordered us to stay until he-”
“Yes, yes, but who delivered the order?” Jake asked with a raised eyebrow.
“Well, technically, you did, sir.”
Sean crossed his buff arms, trying to look like an authority figure and said, “Sir, may I remind you that it’s against regulations to-”
“And now I’m telling you to go. Consider it an executive order. Take a walk. Come back in a few minutes. I won’t be long.”
“But-”
“Now,” Jake insisted with a cold gaze.
“Yes, sir,” Chuck said. “But just for a few minutes.”
Chuck and Sean turned and headed toward the opposite end of the hallway, away from Sally. Thank you, Jake! Sally was thrilled by Jake’s advantageous appearance, but wasn’t thrilled with how he so easily issued orders with executive power. What else could Jake be doing without LightTech knowledge? Jake entered the office and the door slowly moved toward the closed position. This was Sally’s chance! The two guards were nearing the end of the hallway, which turned left, but if she waited, the door might close and lock. She had to risk it.
Sally opened the door and breezed into the hallway, mixing with the shadows and moving like a cat. The guards didn’t hear or sense a thing as they rounded the corner and disappeared into the adjacent hallway.
The door, still ten feet away, was only three inches from closing, and it was moving swiftly. Sally bolted forward and dove to the slick linoleum floor. She hit hard and the air was thrust from her lungs, but she slid quickly. She reached out as the last shard of light from inside the office began to shrink away. The door bounced gently, without a sound and began to reopen. Sally rolled onto her back and caught her breath; she caught the door with her index finger only a centimeter before it closed.
Sally returned to her feet and entered the room silently, stun gun armed and ready for a fight. But the office was empty! Jake was nowhere to be seen. The room was pristine and nearly barren. A large desk sat in the center of the room, one chair behind it and two chairs in front. That was it. Sally didn’t know where Jake had gone, but she didn’t have time to figure it out. She launched into the desk drawers. Empty. Empty. Empty! Where the hell did George keep his secrets? He’d want them within sight of his place behind the desk. He’d want them hidden, but easily accessible. Sally pulled out the plush leather desk chair, which seemed heavier and sturdier than most, and sat down. There was nothing to look at! Just three bare walls and a door!
She was about to give up when she instinctively reached down and pulled a lever, which allowed the black leather office chair to recline. Sally stared at the chrome light fixture on the ceiling. It was very plain, but it was something else about the ceiling that caught her attention. The light in the room was changing. It was getting brighter. Sally leaned forward and snapped her head to the right. The wall had opened up without a noise!
Sally stood and gawked at the newly discovered chamber. She felt a moment of envy: I don’t have a secret room! But this wasn’t any ordinary room-far from it. Sally stepped into the alcove and after absorbing its contents, came to the startling conclusion: George has a secret lab! The laboratory was forty feet long and lined with robotic equipment, carefully labeled vials of liquid and even more carefully stored computer components. Jake was at the rear of the room with his back to Sally. He hadn’t heard a thing. Sally tiptoed toward him, stun gun in hand.
She walked to within four feet of Jake’s back. She didn’t want to miss. She felt her face turning purple as she held her breath, frightened to make even the slightest sound. If he moved, she might miss. Even if only one of the electrodes that would launch from the stun gun missed its mark, she would be done. Sally thumbed the stun gun’s
