Kess unclipped herself from the harness, aided by Sam. When she was free of him she crawled out from under the chute and pulled it off of Sam.
"Thanks," he said, standing up and brushing himself off. "I hope the landing wasn't too rough on ya."
"I'm good," Kess said. She folded up the chute into a compact square bundle and handed it to Sam. He slipped it into his backpack, then surveyed their surroundings. Kess looked around as well. It was beginning to get a little lighter, but everything on the roof was still a mass of deep blue shapes. Kess remembered her goggles and flipped them down over her eyes, and with a click of the switch details jumped out with glowing greenish clarity. To the left of them was a small structure with a door, which was more than likely the pump house.
Sam approached the door and jiggled the knob – which was locked, of course. "Oh darn, I forgot my keys," he quipped. He reached into one of his side pockets and pulled out a lockpick, which he inserted into the keyhole and manipulated slowly, feeling for the pins. After a moment the lock clicked and Sam turned the knob, and the door creaked open. He stepped in and found the light switch, flipping it on. "Home sweet home," he said.
Kess entered behind him, looking around. It was a typical sort of pump house – there was some large cylindrical machinery that she had no idea what it did, with pipes leading to and from them. There were meters with lazily swaying needles stuck to various areas of the machines, and a panel with buttons on the wall. The place was dusty and smelled like oil and metal, and there was a constant hum as the machinery worked.
Sam closed and locked the door, then touched a spot behind his ear which activated the speaker in his OPSAT. "Lambert? We're in."
"Good," Lambert's voice said in both Sam and Kess's ears. "First thing I need you two to do is get inside and find a computer, preferably one in an office, so you can be as secluded as possible. Hack into the company's email server and do a search to see if you can find anything on the dead employee. Last name Howard, first name Gavin. Employee ID number, 3966. Grim is sending further details to your OPSATS now."
Kess lifted her wrist and looked at her PDA, and sure enough, in a moment some words appeared on the screen: 1 New Message: Howard Info. She pulled the stylus out of its receptacle on the device and selected the message. The name and number that Lambert had stated appeared on the screen, along with a small picture of a smiling young man that looked like it had been scanned from an ID card. Man, he was probably only a couple years younger than me….poor guy, Kess thought.
"How rough am I allowed to be?" Sam asked.
"Don't kill anyone. Not yet," Lambert answered. "Same goes for you too, Kestrel. If it turns out they really are clean and we have fatalities on our hands, that will look very bad."
"Alright," Sam said, with a hint of reluctance in his voice.
"That being said, I realize you may have to resort to bopping a few heads. But don't do that unless absolutely necessary. And Kess, leave that job as exclusively to Sam as you can. I know you are capable of putting a man out of order, but I need you to focus on the more technical aspects of this mission. Try not to use force unless Sam needs help."
"Understood," Kess acknowledged.
"Good. Report back to me once you've located a terminal," Lambert said.
Sam checked his info on his OPSAT and then looked up at Kess. "Well, if you need to take a piss or have a drink, now's the time to do it."
"I should be fine for awhile," Kess assured him.
"Hope so." Sam said. "I saw a vent grating while we were out there – we can use that as our ticket in. How quiet are you?"
"I managed to sneak up on you, didn't I?" Kess reminded him.
Sam smirked. "Hmmm. Yeah. Alright then, let's go…follow my lead." He opened the door and exited the pump house, with Kess following. Sam walked over to a large grate on the ground, from which a cool air was blowing. There was about a 3 foot drop down into a metal hollow, which had an opening in one wall that the air was coming from. He examined it – there was a large screw in two of the corners holding it in its bracket, and it was hinged on the other side. Sam drew his Swiss Army knife out of his backpack and used the screwdriver on the screws, then slowly lifted the grate back. The rusty hinge groaned a little. He climbed in and then motioned to Kess. She hopped into his arms and he set her down. He pulled the grate shut and then crouched, beckoning for Kess to come closer. She squatted beside him.
"We'll have to keep our voices down while in the ducts," he whispered. "The metal resonates and we don't want anyone hearing us talking in there. Now, select "Map" from the menu on your OPSAT, and when that comes up, select "Guide." There's a GPS built in there that'll follow our position as we go along, so we'll have an idea of where's a good place to exit."
Kess nodded and did as he said. The little map that Grim had showed them yesterday popped up on her screen. There were two blinking dots in one area, one red and one blue.
"Red is me, blue is you," Sam stated before she could ask. He then turned to face the dark opening that led into the duct and got down on his belly, crawling forward into it on his elbows. Kess took his posture and followed him into the darkness.
Chapter 11 coming soon!