blanket high on her body, tucked just under her arms.
'You take the drawers; I'll take the cabinets,' she said.
'There's nothing interesting in here or they wouldn't have left us alone. It's a storage area for research equipment and supplies.'
'So what, then?'
'So we're going through there.'
Dan pointed at a vent grate.
'You'll never fit.' Her tone betrayed a hopelessness.
'I can try. You'd clearly make it.'
'Oh yeah. Right.'
Dan began rummaging through the cupboards and drawers. ''We need a screwdriver.'' He found nothing resembling the necessary tool. He did find a spackling knife of the sort Sheetrockers use and immediately stood on his bed, loosening the screws. It was remarkably easy.
With the grating removed, he considered how he would get up into the duct. By putting a chair on the bed, he was able to stick his head in the metal passageway. The metal appeared thin and it was supported by little more than flimsy brackets and the Sheetrock. Even if he could fit, he would fall through the ceiling.
'You might have better luck over here,' Maria said.
She had opened a big walk-in closet and had pulled aside a rack of brand-new lab coats. Behind the coats was a wall with an old pass-through door, probably used to access papers or supplies.
'Unless you like falling through the ceiling.'
He got down quickly. It looked much more promising.
Taking the putty knife, they pried the drab green door. The flimsy metal bent.
'I'm sure this is a modular unit just set here. The pass-through was probably for another place and another time. I think it's painted shut. We need something stronger to pry with,' he said.
Maria began rummaging in the drawers. Dan did the same. He found a first-aid kit with a pair of heavy scissors inside.
'These might do,' he said, thrusting them under the sliding door. At first it moved a half inch, enabling him to get his fingers underneath. He needed leverage, so he jumped up on the sill in front of the pass-through, losing his blanket in the process. Maria retained a solemn expression, keeping her eyes fixed on her fingers that were now also thrust under the stubborn door.
They both lifted, straining as hard as they could. Instantly it gave way, sliding up into the wall. He noticed her biting her cheeks and staring straight ahead as if struggling not to smile. Dropping to the floor, he picked up the blanket.
'If you'll allow me,' he said, hefting himself over the lip and through the wall. Inside was more storage and one solitary door in the middle of the wall, a sturdy door set on heavy hinges similar to those found on a bank vault. At eye level there was a small window made of very heavy plate glass that allowed visual inspection of the room.
To open the door, one would grab a large metal handle and pull it down. At the moment it was held in place by a heavy combination lock.
'What's in there, I wonder?'
Maria was intent on the door as well. 'Let's look.'
But neither moved for a moment while they took in their surroundings. Stark white walls with pastel green cabinets brought to mind a medical clinic. The floor was speckled green vinyl, probably laid over a wooden sub-floor, up to an area about a foot from the door of the special room, where the floor turned to concrete slab. Stacked to either side of the door were boxes of vermiculite, a growing medium for plants. Down the hall on the opposite side was a more normal-looking door. At either end of the hall were doors that appeared to be interior to the complex, one of which looked composite and economy driven, the other heavy wood with multiple panels.
They approached the double-plated window, looking inside. It was a room about twenty by fifteen. There were two desks, numerous cabinets, and a microfiche reader. In a far corner of the room hung a television camera behind a heavy wire-mesh grid.
'What do you make of that?' Dan said.
'It's a secured document room. The sort of place you'd keep highly confidential information.'
'What do you suppose is through that door?' Dan said, nodding to the right to the end of the hall and the economy door.
'I don't know, but I doubt we're meant to find out,' she said. He began walking. 'Young, let's discuss this.' She moved in front of him with one hand on his chest.
'You talk and I'll listen,' he said as he reached around her for the knob and began slowly turning it.
'All balls, no brain,' she muttered as she stepped from between him and the door.
He peeked through the crack at 3,000 square feet of modern laboratory, packed with all sorts of equipment that looked electrical and chemical. There were at least a dozen people in casual attire, concentrating on then' work. In the middle of the lab were two huge vats with a lot of tubing running around them and apparently in them. He guessed they were under pressure.
'What do you see?' she asked.
'Take a look.'
She stepped around him and put her eye to the crack.
'What are they doing?'
'Something they obviously don't want us to know about. What if we just walk out there in our blankets and introduce ourselves-maybe they're not all bad guys,' he said.
'Dumb idea. We'd never leave with anything.'
He put a hand gently on her head, moving her down the crack so that he could hunch over the top of her and get a better view. After a minute or two a couple of technicians began walking toward the door.
'Close the door, they're coming.'
'In here,' he said, opening a storage-room door. It was a room perhaps twenty feet long and fifteen feet wide, lined floor to ceiling with large shelves stacked with ordinary-looking supplies. Mostly it appeared to be paper products. On the floor in front of a large bottom shelf was a row of five-gallon cans of industrial cleaner. Behind the small aluminum drums the shelf appeared empty.
'Come on,' Maria said, moving a couple of cans and crawling onto the shelf.
'Are you crazy?'
'Hurry, damn it.'
Dan crawled in backward, only to discover that there wasn't enough room.
'I'll get on top,' Maria said, sliding over him. He stayed prone underneath Maria, who lay facedown on his back.
With considerable effort he pulled the cans in front of the shelf.
'If they were coming, they'd already be here,' Dan said.
Then a woman's voice.
'I think the file folders are in the big locker.'
''You can look, but I think they took them all out of there and I think we've run out. We go through those damn things like bugs on a chicken farm.' Male voice.
The door opened.
'Somebody keeps leaving the lights on.'
Dan held his breath. Fortunately, Maria was a small person. Neither of them made a sound. He could see the woman's legs in navy blue slacks. She wore cheap white tennis shoes that squeaked over the floor as she rummaged through the shelves. She was working her way back and would surely see them if she began moving cans or looked just over the tops. It was inconceivable that she would miss them. Glancing back, he noticed Maria's petite white thigh on top of his meatier, even paler version, the blankets scrunched to the side. He liked her taste in panties-bikini style but not thong. It surprised him; he would have had her pegged for more matronly briefs. Unfortunately, nothing else in this place was the flesh white of their untanned thighs or the ivory white of Maria's underwear.
One shelf back the lady was searching too thoroughly. They were going to be found.
