“There’s only one entrance with a rotating camera. Other cameras might have caught the door opening, so this has to be the way the thief used. And I think I know how they didn’t trip any alarms.”
It was the ‘think’ part that worried Andrew, but he trusted Ford, more so with this than with anything else.
“Twenty seconds. Starting… now!” Ford dashed across the alleyway to their entrance of choice, and Andrew followed, with Luke right behind him. They were not as inconspicuous as a single thief would be, even in the dark, all in black, but the smug smile Ford graced Andrew with as they reached their destination was a comfort.
Until it couldn’t be anything but annoying when the high-tech tool Andrew expected Ford to pull out was nothing more than a can of compressed air. After spraying the air through the lock, the sensor blinked from red to green, admitting them into the building before the camera could return their direction.
No alarms. No forced entry.
But it was just so...
“Amateur?” Ford answered his incredulous expression. “I agree. Vallancourt needs to upgrade her egress doors to—”
“Electro-magnetic, I know,” Andrew said. He knew the tricks too. He just hadn’t expected the answer for this entry to be so simple. The passive infrared sensors on the inside of the door had reacted to the compressed air the same way they would if a person on the other side was trying to get out, a safety precaution, and any evidence left behind would swiftly evaporate.
The thief must have done the exact same thing.
Inside, the normal elevators weren’t an option. That would be far too suspicious, but there was a freight elevator outside the view of security. They just needed to reach it, take it up, exit without the guards noticing them, and make it across the floor to Dalton’s lab. With the blueprints and security guard schedule, it should be easy.
Assuming the mystery thief had done the same with similar intel, gloves would have prevented fingerprints but didn'texplain the lack of fibers. Latex gloves wouldn't leave fibers, but what about the rest of their clothes?
Andrew tried to stay focused on his own pending ‘heist’. “I just have to think of this like a Metal Gear Solid VR Mission,” he muttered, waiting for Ford’s signal to move down the next corridor.
“Video games, Andrew?” Ford teased with a derisive cluck of his tongue.
“You’d love this one, Ford. I’ll have to show you sometime.”
“Asking for another date?” He smirked, looking practically ethereal in the dim lighting of Avalon after hours.
Did he want a date? Wasthisa date?
“Can you stow the moon eyes, lover boys?” Luke growled. “We’ve got company.”
A guard had stepped into view at the end of the hallway. A simple glance to the right would give him a clean line of sight to all three of them.
But he wasn’t part of the schedule. They were waiting for the guard scheduled to come down the corridor in front of them before they continued onward. Meaning they were trapped between one guard inevitably headed their direction and one that only needed to turn his head to see them.
Andrew pushed from the wall toward an unplanned corridor, trusting Ford and Luke to follow. They did, and once safely in the empty hall, Andrew slammed his hand against the wall as hard as he could.
“Are you crazy!?” Ford said in a furious whisper.
Andrew swung a finger up to his mouth to shush him.
They waited, Ford scowling as two sets of footsteps sounded, getting closer and closer until the guards stumbled intoeach other, not visible from their vantage point but still audible.
“Johnson? What are you doing down here? Shouldn’t you be on fifth?”
“I am. I’m on break and was heading for the vending machines.”
“There’s one upstairs.”
“It never has what I like. Plus, I think I dropped a quarter somewhere. Don’t suppose you got one?”
“Whatever, man, sure. Just get your snack and head back to your floor. Vallancourt would have our asses if she knew we strayed from the course after that break-in.”
“Five minutes, I swear. Then I’m right back up there.”
There was some mild grumbling, and then continued footsteps away from their hiding spot. Once the sound of clicking soles faded, Andrew looked at Ford and grinned.
