“Did you see where she went?” he asked.
“Under the display, I think,” Hallie said. It was the only thing that made sense. She moved forward and reached down to pick up the length of chain, to pull it aside, hissing in surprise and dropping the chain as an electric charge ran up her arm. “It’s live,” she warned Girard, and looked around for a power source.
“And some of these silver ribbons have razor edges,” Girard added, holding up his hand to show narrow lines of blood across his palm. With his fast healing, the cuts wouldn’t bother him for long, but she could imagine that they stung and were unpleasant. More than enough to put someone off trying to grab hold of the streamers again.
“I think we’re in the right place, then,” Hallie concluded. She couldn’t see where the power source was for the live wire, so instead grabbed one of the nearest articles of clothing and wrapped it around her hand for protection before grabbing hold of the streamers and pulling the whole display aside. It was far heavier than it had looked. The chain that ran through it must be actual metal, and now that she was examining it more closely, she could see the thin wire twisted along the chain that must carry the electric current.
As she dragged the display out of the way, Girard made a quiet, pleased sound of discovery. Where the display had been lying there were faint lines on the carpet outlining what might be a trapdoor, and a dull metal ring embedded into the floor. Girard took hold of the ring and pulled. The section of floor lifted up smoothly and silently, revealing a dark opening.
Hallie and Girard exchanged glances, then drew their guns. Girard added his torch to a clip on his gun and flicked it on, aiming the beam down.
“There are wooden stairs. Narrow. I’ll go first,” he said, and headed down, not leaving Hallie any time to argue. He was the one with the body armour, she reminded herself, and made a mental note to ask Girard where she could get some of her own. She didn’t like the fact that he always felt he had to go first into possible danger. And now she was working among thehochlen, facing down firearms was becoming more common.
Setting that aside, she held her gun with the muzzle pointing at the ground and headed down the stairs after him.
The stairs led to a low-ceilinged, narrow tunnel that stretched into darkness ahead of them. Girard was moving forward even before Hallie got to the end of the steps and she kept pace with him until they reached another set of steps leading up to another trapdoor, which was firmly closed.
Girard shone the narrow beam of the torch all around the edge of the trapdoor, but there was no bolt or other opening mechanism. He holstered his gun and set his shoulder against the wood, grunting with effort.
“Blocked from above. Is the other end still open?” he asked.
“One moment.” Hallie turned and headed back along the short passage and up the steps, finding the trapdoor still open and, from a quick look around, the shop still empty. She ducked back into the tunnel. “We can get out this way,” she confirmed.
“We’ll need to follow her above ground,” Girard said, moving to join her.
When they were back in the shop, Hallie looked around again, seeking some clue as to where Zurine might have gone.
“Stockroom,” she guessed. The shop floor covered a large area, but stores of every kind always had a loading and storage area behind the shop front. She headed around the cash registertowards the back of the building. “I think this is the direction the tunnel went.”
“Yes,” Girard agreed.
Tucked between racks of the most stylish weatherproof coats Hallie had ever seen was a door markedEmployees Only. It opened easily under her hand and she went through first, gun ready.
While the shop had possessed an air of refined elegance that had made Hallie self-conscious, she was at her ease in the stockroom. It was a functional space with no extra decoration. Floor-to-ceiling shelves held plastic-wrapped bundles of clothes, all neatly labelled. What little wall that was visible was painted plain, bright white, as was the ceiling. The overhead lighting was harsh strip lighting, designed for maximum efficiency rather than aesthetics. A small filing cabinet in the middle of the floor was the only thing out of place. Looking at the area around it, Hallie saw that it had been dragged across the plain concrete floor and left on top of what looked like the trapdoor Girard had been trying to break out of.
“That explains why it wouldn’t open,” Girard commented. He sounded irritated. “I don’t think she’ll be in here, but we should check anyway.”
Hallie agreed and followed him as he made his way along the shelves, ensuring that the whole storage space was empty of other people.
As well as the door back into the shop, there were two other exits. One led to a set of stairs to the upper floors, the other out the back of the building. Both were unlocked, and from the wear on the floor, both were well-used, which didn’t give Hallie any help choosing a direction.
“Any idea which way she went?” Hallie asked. Girard’s magic might save them a great deal of time, if he could pinpoint the forger’s location.
“I’m not getting anything useful,” Girard said, shaking his head. “I don’t have a good sense of her.”
“Let’s clear the building before we head outside,” Hallie suggested. “There might be something here that would help.”
“Right,” Girard agreed.
As they headed up the wooden stairs, Hallie took a quick glance behind them, just making sure they hadn’t missed anything.
“No cameras,” she noted. “None at the back door, and none in the shop.”
“I suppose she wouldn’t want her, er, other customers to be caught on film,” Girard suggested.
“True,” Hallie said, “but it makes me wonder what other security she might have in place.”
“Let’s be careful, then.” Girard slowed his progress up the steps, eyeing each tread before he set foot on it. It made their progress upstairs excruciatingly slow, but Hallie didn’t complain. If Zurine was the master forger they suspected, she would have the means and the motive to keep her space secure. And that could mean anything from explosives to tripwires.
