It was right at the back, but I was able to hook it out with my metal slider and now I swung it around the room, aiming it at the panel beside the door.
A green knob. Unmarked, but it had to be a quick release, didn’t it? Fire regulations surely meant that locking employees into rooms filled with masses of electronic equipment was a big no-no.
Before I pressed it, I glanced at the ceiling. There were two panels missing: one dislodged, the other snapped in half. Damaging fixtures and furnishings hadn’t been part of the plan, but accidents couldn’t be helped—everyone knew that. Perhaps I should climb up again via the men’s loos to replace the panel I’d moved across, though.
I was considering this when Gabe’s voice crackled over my earpiece, a new note in his tone.
“Babe? You still there?”
“I’m just leaving. What is it?”
“They’re onto you. I’ve just got access to their cameras. There’s a guard coming up the back stairs and another by the main lift. They’re leaving the third floor now.”
“How much time have I got?”
“Two minutes, tops. Maybe less.”
“Should I stay put?”
“No, they’re searching rooms. Someone must have heard the noise.”
“Okay. I’m going for it.”
With a frisson of trepidation and excitement, I pressed the green button. For a moment nothing happened and my stomach lurched. Had the guards somehow disabled the override? I pulled the handle—and the door swung inwards.
“Where are they?” I whispered as I ducked into the corridor. The lights flickered on as I retripped the motion sensors. As soon as they came into the lobby, the guards would know that someone was on this floor.
“Think it’s the fourth.” Gabe’s voice was terse. He must be hunched over the monitors, trying to match the layout of the building to the camera views he was seeing. This was the stuff I sucked at—blueprints and tech gobbledegook—and that he lived for. “Hey, I can see you.”
I glanced up, and sure enough there was the unblinking black eye of a security camera. I blew Gabe a kiss and pictured him grinning back, then wondered whether some puzzled guard in the back office was watching this same camera.
Gabe’s voice broke into my thoughts with a new urgency.
“Nope, scrap that. You’ve got a guard directly ahead, about to go into the fifth-floor lobby. Turn around, head for the back stairs; you may be able to get down before the guy below finishes on the fourth. Don’t run—he’s right underneath you, he’ll hear the noise.”
Silently, obediently, I began speed walking in the other direction, thankful for the rubber soles of my shoes. I was almost at the stairs when Gabe spoke, sharp and peremptory.
“Abort! He’s on the stairs.”
Fuck. I couldn’t say anything, and Gabe knew it. He could see his wife on the monitors, caught like a mouse between two cats. There was no way out. I would have to hide.
“Duck in an office,” he ordered, but I was way ahead of him, already trying door after door. One locked. Two locked. Who were these people? Didn’t they trust their colleagues? A third one locked. Frantically I dug in my backpack for my lockpicks and stuck them in the keyhole, digging around with a force that was as likely to break the picks as trip the lock. But luck was on my side, and with a heart-quickening click, the lock gave. I slid inside, wrenched the locking mechanism shut, and stood with my back to the wooden door, trying to quell my thumping heart.
“I can see you,” Gabe said urgently in my ear. Craning my head to one side, I realized he was right. Even flat against the door, I was visible through the office window, and the guards were getting closer. Gabe had muted his mic so that I could listen better, and now I could hear their footsteps in the corridor, their voices getting louder.
I had only seconds to decide what to do.
They’re searching rooms, Gabe’s warning came into my head. If they opened the door, I was sunk.
I flung myself onto the floor, rolled sideways under a sofa, and lay there, my face pressed to the carpet, my heart thudding in my ears. For a moment I had a sudden, surreal image of my imaginary office worker, Jen, and what she would make of this, and I had to suppress a hysterical urge to laugh.
Instead I lay, holding my breath, twisting the ring on my left hand round and round with my thumb. It was my usual tic in moments of stress—a habit somewhere between biting my nails and crossing my fingers, only one that involved Gabe. It made sense; at least half the time, my fate was in my husband’s hands.
Outside the door I heard the footsteps stop and the rattle of a handle.
“This one’s locked as well.”
“They’re all locked on this floor,” said another voice. “Here, I’ve got the master.”
I heard the jangle of keys being thrown and stifled a laugh as the catcher missed and they fell to the floor.
“Do me a favor and just hand it to me next time?” I heard, and then the scratch of a key in the lock and the door opening. A torch swung around the space and I held my breath, praying they wouldn’t direct the beam under the sofa. There was the sound of a roller chair being moved… then the shhhhhh of a door closing.
I let out a trembling breath as quietly as I could.
“Nothing in there,” I heard from outside. “What about the bogs?”
“Empty.” The second speaker’s voice had an echoing quality, as though he was speaking from inside the bathroom itself. There was a pause and then, “Wait, hang on a sec…”
From my position under the sofa I could see nothing, and very carefully I raised my hand and touched my headset.
“Talk to me,” I mouthed, the words barely above a breath.
“They’ve discovered the ceiling panel,” Gabe whispered back.
Shit.
“Have a look at this,” the second guard said.
I listened to the sound of footsteps as the first guard, the one who had searched the office I was in, made his way up the corridor. There was a creak as the bathroom door swung open… then a gentle thump as it soft-closed behind him.
I was slithering out from under the sofa when Gabe’s voice crackled to life in my ear, a low scream of urgency.
“Go, go, go. Now!”
I didn’t need to be told. I was already on my feet, wrenching open the door, looking up and down the corridor, unsure which way to go.
“Opposite way from the lifts!” Gabe said, and I took off, pounding down the corridor, careening round the corner, where I would have face-planted into another set of security doors had Gabe not already triggered them. They stood open, waiting for me as I skidded through into a little lobby.
“Fire door to your right,” Gabe said, and I slammed through, finding myself in a vertiginous stairwell, spiraling down into darkness. The heavy fire door banged shut behind me, but I didn’t care. I’d already blown my chances of a stealthy exit. Nothing mattered now except getting away.
Down one flight. Down two. My heart was hammering in my ears.
“You’re nearly there.” Gabe’s voice in my ear. “You can do this—three more flights and then hang a sharp left and you’re at another fire door.”
“Wh-what if there’s an a-alarm?” I panted. Another flight. One more to go after this.
“Fuck the alarm. The other door wasn’t alarmed. But if there is I’ll override it. You got this, you hear me? You’ve got this.”
“Kay.” I was too out of breath to talk now. Last flight and I staggered left, ducking back under the stairs. Sure enough, there was the fire door—and outside lay freedom.
I banged on the bar, wincing preemptively for the sound of a siren—but again, none came. I made a mental note for the report, but that could wait. For the moment, I was outside, in the blessed fresh air.
“Fuck!” Gabe howled in my ear, laughing now, the shaky, half-hysterical laugh of someone watching a movie with their heart in their mouth. “Jesus. You were incredible. I didn’t think you were going to make it.”
“I didn’t either.” My heart was banging in my chest, but I forced myself to slow to a walk as I crossed the car park. If there were more guards out here, no point in making it obvious who they were looking for. “Oh fuck me, I did not enjoy that.”
Gabe laughed, that chest-deep dirty rumble that I loved.
“A, I most definitely will, and B, we both know that’s a lie. You loved every minute of it.”
I felt a grin spread over my face.
“Okay… I did enjoy it a little bit.”
“A little bit? You looked like you were having the time of your life.”
“Are they still searching for me inside?”
“Yeah, they’re still poking around on the fifth floor. One of them’s opened up the server room, but they haven’t noticed the drives. You did brilliantly, babe.”
“I know,” I said modestly, and heard Gabe’s answering laugh.
“Have you got it from here? I need to get inside the network before they figure out what’s going on.”
“Yeah, I’m almost at the car. See you in…” I glanced at my phone. “Forty minutes? Traffic should be clear this time of night.”
“You want me to order some food?”