Garth released the door and rushed to Tara’s side. “Are you okay?”
“I…I don’t know.”
With the guard’s focus on Tara, Valerie dashed toward the door, grabbing it just before it shut, and slipped inside the warm lobby. The camera would capture her, but by the time anyone realized what she’d done, she’d be long gone. After that, it wouldn’t matter.
Assuming all went to plan.
“I ruined your potatoes. I’m so sor—” Tara’s voice was cut off when the door shut.
Heat blasted from an overhead vent as Valerie raced toward the turnstile and used the cabinets on either side of the entrance to vault her legs over the retractable gates and hit the ground running. She didn’t break her stride until she reached the stairwell at the end of the hall.
Once inside, she held the door until it closed, forcing it to shut slowly and quietly. Then she hauled ass to the first landing beyond the second floor and pressed herself flat to the wall out of sight. Her heart threatened to beat right out of her chest, and her breath was loud as a buzz saw in the echoey chamber.
Holy shit, I’m in!Her knees turned to jelly, and she sat hard on the lowest step, holding her arms above her head like a runner after a race in an attempt to slow her breathing.
Within minutes, the access door below her opened and heavy footsteps sounded on the stairs. Valerie held still, certain that her pulse would give her away like in that Poe story she’d read in high school.
“Second floor,” Roger muttered. The first-floor door clicked shut.
“Copy,” Greg said, his voice tinny through the radio. “I’m out front. The delivery girl tripped and fell. The potatoes are down.”
Roger grunted in what could have been irritation or amusement. “Stay alert. I’ll make this a quick run.”
“Will do.”
The second-floor door opened with a soft swoosh and a click from the auto-close mechanism, and then shut a few seconds later with aclang.
Valerie exhaled hard, her limbs shaky, and started counting the seconds on her watch as the large hand stuttered in a circle. Now came the hard part. She and Scott hadn’t been able to reconnoiter the guard’s inside routine, so she had to make an educated guess and hope her luck held out.
After a minute, she descended the half flight of stairs and took a deep breath before carefully turning the handle and opening the door just enough to see through the crack.
The long corridor led to the accounting department’s offices on one side, and the computer operators and hackers’ desks on the other. Her stomach was tied into knots, and she forced herself to focus so she wouldn’t hyperventilate.
Two minutes later, Roger exited the doorway on her right and ambled across the hall. Without looking her way, he entered the accounting section.Perfect.
She opened the door just enough to slip through and pressed her foot and hands against it until it closed with a softthud. Not waiting to see if Roger noticed, she sprinted along the corridor, running on her toes for maximum quiet, and veered into the computer room.
A camera overhead was trained directly at the doorway. She could only hope Tara had managed to keep Garth distracted long enough that he wouldn’t see her on his monitor.
Valerie’s body was in a steady state of hyper vigilance, heart running on overdrive, limbs shaky. She usually controlled her nerves better, but the stakes had never been so high before. If she were caught…
Shaking off the fear, she ducked to the right and circumnavigated the outer ring of cubicles that blocked the Fish Bowl and Harry’s workstation from view. She’d stashed the USB drive just outside the Fish Bowl, hoping that even if Duncan had every desk in the building searched, he’d never look inside the cubicle wall.
Coming around the far side, she emerged behind and to the left of Harry, her steps silent on the tan Berber carpet. She avoided getting directly behind him so he wouldn’t catch sight of her reflection in his monitor.
The graying operator bobbed his head in time to the music that must be coming through his headphones, lazily moving his mouse in small gestures as colorful tiles dropped from the top of the screen. Since computer operators were mainly there to monitor systems and handle issues, the job could be slow. They were allowed to surf the Internet as long as they didn’t visit porn or other inappropriate sites.
Keeping him in her peripheral vision, Valerie moved into the cubicle where she’d hidden the drive and pried the cap off the fabric screen’s metal support. The small USB device was taped to the inside of the tube, right where she’d left it.
Relief made her tremble.Don’t let down your guard yet.
Tucking the drive into the back pocket of her jeans, she pressed the cap into place and peeked around the corner. Harry sat, oblivious, tapping his foot on the base of his rolling desk chair.
She closed her eyes for a split second, and then reopened them and crept around the corner, briefly visible if the computer operator turned around. Within seconds, she was shielded from view and racing back toward the stairs.
Now all she had to do was get out of the building.
Sitting on the sidelines while Valerie entered Aggressor was one of the hardest things Scott had ever done. Once she was inside, so many things could go wrong and he wouldn’t be there to help. What if the other guard caught her? Or the computer operator on duty?
