The Downtown Houston Plaza was one of those huge, intentionally imposing buildings built just after the Rising, when they still hadn?t figured out how to walk the fine architectural line between ?elegance? and ?security.? It looked like a prison coated in pink stucco and gingerbread icing. Palm trees were planted around the exterior, where they utterly failed to blunt the building?s harsh angles. There were no windows at ground level, and the windows higher up the building were the dull matte of steel-reinforced security glass. The infected could batter on them for years without breaking through. Assuming they somehow made the intellectual leap necessary to figure out how to use a ladder.
Shaun eyed the building as we circled. It wasn?t until the car pulled off at the parking garage entrance that he offered his professional opinion: ?Death trap.?
?Many of the early ?zombie-proof? buildings were.? I adjusted my sunglasses. The garage doors creaked open as Steve waved a white plastic fob in front of the sensors, and we drove on into relative darkness. ?What makes this one so deadly??
?All that froufrou crap on the front of the building??
?You mean the trim??
?Right, the trim. It?s supposed to be ornamental, right? Doesn?t matter. I bet it would bear my weight. So if I get infected but I haven?t converted, I can use the trim to climb the building looking for shelter. There are plenty of handholds. So I can get to the roof. And if this place followed the standard floor plan for the time period, there?s a helicopter pad up there, and multiple doors connecting it to the interior, so any survivors could use it to evacuate during an outbreak.? Shaun shook his head. ?Run for the roof, it?s covered in the people who ran there before you. And they?re not looking for a rescue. They?re looking for a snack.?
?Charming,? I said. The car pulled into a parking space and the engine cut off. ?I guess we?re here.?
The front driver?s-side door opened. Steve emerged, heading across the garage floor to the air lock. I tried my own door, but it was still locked; the safety latches hadn?t disengaged.
?The hell?? Shaun, try your door.?
He did, and scowled. ?It?s locked.?
The car intercom clicked on. Andres?s voice, distorted by the speakers, said, ?Ms. Mason, Mr. Mason, if you could be patient for a moment. My colleague is going to pass through the air lock and will wait for you on the other side. The lock on the right will be disengaged as soon as he?s tested clean, and Ms. Mason will be permitted to proceed. Once Ms. Mason has passed through the air lock, Mr. Mason will be permitted to go.?
Shaun groaned. ?Oh, you have got to be kidding me.?
The intercom clicked again. ?Standard safety precautions.?
?You can take those safety precautions and shove ?em sideways up your?? Shaun began, pleasantly. I put a hand on his arm. He stopped.
?Mr. Rodriguez, it looks like Steve?s made it through,? I said, keeping my voice level. ?If you?d unlock my door now, please??
?Very well.? My door unlocked. ?Mr. Mason, please remain seated. Ms. Mason, please proceed toward the?hey! What are you doing? You can?t do that!?
Ignoring the shouts from the intercom, Shaun finished sliding out of the car, blowing a kiss back toward the agitated shape of Andres before slamming the door and following me to the air lock. True to expectations, Andres remained seated, mouth moving as he swore at us through the glass.
?Nobody who cares that much about security is going to come out into the open with a possible infection,? I said, taking Shaun?s hand in my left, swinging Lois?s carrier in my right. She yowled, punctuating the statement. ?We?re dangerous.?
?Man thought he could make us do this separately,? said Shaun. Taking the still-yowling Lois from me, he slid the carrier into the luggage hatch. The sensors would record the fact that the box contained a living thing, but they would also record its weight. Lois was too small for amplification and would slide straight through. ?Man?s an idiot.?
?No, he?s an amateur,? I said, moving into position in front of the blood testing panel. I raised my right hand. Shaun stepped into position next to me and raised his left. ?One??
?Two.?
We pressed our palms flat.
Steve was waiting on the other side of the air lock, shaking his head. ?You probably just scared Agent Rodriguez out of a year of his life,? he scolded, without conviction.
?Given that Agent Rodriguez just annoyed me out of a year of my life, I?d say we?re even,? I said, retrieving Lois from the luggage bin. ?Do we need to wait on him, or can you show us to our rooms??
?And our van,? Shaun said. ?You promised me our van.?
?Your van is in the parking garage, along with Georgia?s bike,? Steve said. Fishing two small plastic rectangles out of his jacket pocket, he passed them to us. ?Shaun, you?re in room two-fourteen. Georgia, you?re in room two-seventeen.?
We exchanged a look. ?Those don?t sound adjoining,? I said.