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"The passage isn’t warded," Bella said, watching the map "Can your little minions take pictures?"
"I wish," Elyssa said She noticed the rown in a few seconds and realized why "The doors below ht because the roaches haven’t mapped the area beyond"
"What a bloody conundrum," Stacey said, hand on hip
Elyssa checked the status of her spy-bots and saw the hallway reuy with the broken printer would probably be back at anyfor a vent or anything else that ht lead down into the baseht down, but the h to be anywhere close to the botto the roaches before they made it very far
Elyssa checked the time Ten minutes left
Her eyes wandered back to the ht her eye "Followthe others left, down the hallway, and to the door of a supply closet tucked into the back The door was locked
Elyssa jerked hard on the handle and felt the lock snap She was sick of every little thing in this place blocking access
"I kno you feel," Stacey said with a s boxes of blank parchainst the back wall "Help me move those out of the way," Elyssa said
"What exactly are we doing?" Bella asked
"Getting into the shaft"
It took two minutes to clear the boxes Elyssa tested the ith her knuckles, rapping lightly Ordinary drywall "Can you cut this open, Bella?"
The other dhampyr nodded, withdrew her wand A thin purple beam intersected the wall She flicked her wrist in an approxi a black line With a jerk of her wand, the section of drywall fell to the floor A concrete wall confronted them Stacey stowed the sheet of drywall to the side
"It appears to be norer across it "Reinforcing everything with diamond fiber would have been prohibitively expensive"
Bella dug into her satchel and withdrew several vials of liquid She held up a pink one, shaking it "I believe this potion will do the trick" After uncorking the vial, she screwed a nozzle to the top, and sprayed fluid all along the concrete The surface bubbled An odor not unlike burnt popcorn filled the supply closet
"I hope that guard doesn’t come back," Stacey said "Because he’ll smell this from a bloody mile away"
It took less than a raythe back of the levitator car On this side, however, a gap wide enough to squeeze through presented itself"That’s not going eat through the floor, is it?" Stacey pointed at the puddle of concrete on the floor
Bella poured a vial of blue liquid into it "Not anymore" She produced another vial and sprayed the air with it The popcorn odor faded "Much better"
Elyssa looked down the shaft, flicking on her night vision
Only seven lowball she dropped down the shaft fell for at least three stories before stopping Too far to ju noaround as the palm of her hand from her satchel, and pressed it to the inside of the shaft It sent a spike into the concrete with a distinct thunk, locking it in place A hook protruded from a hole in the side of the device She pulled on it, unspooling a foot or so of diao first," Elyssa said "Hopefully I can force the doors open at the bottoet down there after you?" Stacey asked
"When I signal the all clear, just touch the button in the center," Elyssa said, pointing at it "Or, if I can’t get the doors open, it can pull me back up"
"Good luck," Bella said as Elyssa slid into the narrow gap between the shaft wall and the levitator car
Soot on her hands She hoped it didn’t e and pushed out, feeling her hair brush the botto her to rappel her way down the shaft wall until she reached the bottoht Reaching down, she unsheathed a thin dagger froed the doors open a fraction She quickly grabbed a very short but wide bar fro, then pressed the center
"Five thened, pushing the doors open a little at a ti her nerves No tilowball she’d tossed down earlier, flashed a signal to the other women The rope retracted Seconds later, Stacey dropped down beside her and signaled for Bella to follow
By now, the wedge had opened the levitator doors e rooonal tiles spaced evenly in the floor drew Elyssa’s attention She looked at the diagraram and realized they must be the nodes But hoas she supposed to interact with them if they were in the floor?
Only three more minutes