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He counted to five Then ten Twenty

Nothing save for dust and the distant sound of a terrible h

Skyler pursed his lips and drew himself up on one knee Maybe the sub couldn’t scale the fence after all Experience told hi Old expectations couldn’t be trusted anye entry room Marble, everywhere he looked A series of pillars lined the walls, impressionistic takes on the classic Roular

Piles of labeled boxes and filing cabinets filled the corners of the space Skyler vaguely recalled Neil’s words froated to long-tere From the chained door to the thick coat of dust on every flat surface, Skyler guessed no one had been in here in months, maybe years

A stairway opposite the double doors led halfway to a second floor, before splitting into two stairways that went east and west

Upstairs didn’t matter Platz said the covert entrance to the Elevator silo was in the baseined a vast wine cellar concealing the way in He pictured twisting a gargoyle statue to reveal the secret entrance behind a faux wall of vintage bottles The vision brought a laugh to his lips "How very supervillain of you, Platz," he n of the subhuman Maybe she’d found sohtcliff’s yard had ed to quell the bizarre attack Whatever the case, ti until the last second to aim his rifle away from the hole he’d made on entry The stale air reeked of mildew Shards of wood crunched under his boots

He crept through a grand dining rooth A chandelier had fallen on the polished wood surface at some point and toppled off to one side Skyler stepped around it and continued into a kitchen beyond

Big enough to service a large restaurant, the kitchen had four rows of counters Coth of each Or parts did, at least Much of the equip faucet heads, a stove with no door or control panel The scavenger in Skyler noted these on instinct What was , as useful

He went to the far wall, fixated on the idea of a wine cellar But a search of the kitchen turned up nothing He looked through a walk-in freezer, a pantry ten tiar, and lastly a s room where he assumed the staff used to take theirarea, Skyler took the first hallway leading out of it Other than the occasional hint of light sneaking past a boarded-up , the only illuun-mounted bulb

The hall had once featured a plush carpet Now the fabric sluiced away under his boots like dead skin Rectangular patches on the walls ht switch he passed None worked For the best, he thought The lack of power had probably led to the home’s abandoned state, and that suited him

Each door he passed opened to reveal simple bedrooms, and one small recreational area with bookshelves and even a chessboard, game frozen in mid-play

At the end of the hall, he came to a door different froe metal handle and a key card panel on the wall beside it

Skyler tried the handle and found it to be broken Deliberately, from the scuff marks The door pushed open with ease and he stepped inside

Stairs led below Skyler sighed with relief and trotted down them two at a time At the bottom he found another door, just like the previous, also forced open long ago

Inside he found an office A wide space, one side lined with cubicles, the other with a collaborative area--couches facing a large bank of panel screens that went fro Every screen had been shattered, left to rot In his ht and alive with news from the world’s financialto Neil news of high-profile ers

A massive circular door dominated the far wall A safe, suitable for any bank vault Scorch marks stretched out from theby frayed wires

Despite the daht Skyler stared at it for a long moment He racked his mind to recall Neil’s words He’d used the word secret in describing the entrance No, Skyler thought, it was "hidden" A giant vault door did not equate to hidden

Froone as quick as it had arrived He stood very still and listened

Dozens of times in the past he’d found hier lurking ahead or behind He’d never deliberately scoured through such a place alone, though The lack of Samantha’s presence only furthered his unease

Total silence followed A phantoainst hi to the center of the rooht It felt right that the hidden entrance would be here Over and over his attention returned to the massive safe door A voice inside hie and teet tunnel vision the moment they saw it

Skyler put it to his back and looked at the rest of the roo about it

The cubicles Maybe they could be concealing sout said no

Last choice, the bank of destroyed video screens It looked like so to do in a world where such devices were always needed, especially in orbit

Their arrange Almost like a--

Door

Eyes locked on the s over the couch between him and the wall and stood in front of the devices They were mounted flush to the wall He stepped to one side and looked at thee of one screen He could just detect a ridge there A sliver of space just before the point where the ht Thethem off A clever trick, he had to adht open the panel He ran his hand along the botto the buttons on eachworked

"Fuck it," he said aloud No time for caution and decorum Platz could hire a crew to cos

He set his rifle on a desk near the entrance, pointing its light at the bank of screens Then he swung the bag Pruiven him onto the floor and re caps inserted, Skyler selected a detonator With no e would have to do He ith a twenty-second fuse, h the hall, under the big table in the dining roo were knocked loose<ins class="adsbygoogle" style="display:block" data-ad-client="ca-pub-7451196230453695" data-ad-slot="9930101810" data-ad-format="auto" data-full-width-responsive="true"></ins>