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For once, h the hallways Eventually, I wound up in the baseet's office After that, it was just athe service elevator up to the second floor, above the guards in the lobby Then I leisurely walked the rest of the way up the eency stairs until I reached the top floor
Cracking open the stairway door, I looked out over a sea of cubicles divided by clear, plastic walls I'd gotten here right at quitting ti to wrap up their work for the day so they could be out the door by five sharp, get their kids, get dinner, and get home Everyone was hunched over their phones and coes, so no one noticed me slip out of the stairway, softly pull the door shut behind me, and stroll into their midst
I kept to the edge of the cubicle area and walked down a hallway until I ca trip I'dused to store supplies The door was open, and I stepped inside like I had every right to be there I looked over lanced in my direction, so I went into the attached private bathroom and closed the door behind me
I stood behind the door, counted off the seconds in my head, and waited, just waited, to see if anyone had spotted me and alerted security Tentwentythirtyforty-fiveAfter the three-h to move on to the next part of my plan Now that I was on the appropriate floor, all that was left to do was get to et's office
I re, climbed up onto the bathroorates on an air duct high up on the wall Of course, I could have gotten into the air ducts down in the rates were all wired into the security system The second I popped one open, an alar with their guns drawn and plugged me full of bullets
But rates up here in the rarefied corporate air Few people thought to properly secure the doors, s, and air ducts on the upper levels of their ho inside on the ground floor was good enough
Not when it came to the Spider
Once the grate was open, I clilasses, reached into o pants, a long-sleeved T-shirt, a vest, and boots All in black, of course Yeah, wearing head-to-toe black ht be a little cliche for an assassin, but you hat worked - and best hid the bloodstains
I put the suit, glasses, and heels into the bag, looped it around my chest, climbed onto the counter, and hoistedsure to reach back and close up the grate behind s in Ashland, the ducts here were iant maintenance worker ever had to squeeze inside, so I didn't have any probleh theh the air ducts until I reached the office I wanted Then I eased up to the grate there and peered down through the slats
My target certainly had an ie desk made out of polished ebony stood in the back of the room Pens, papers, a monitor, two phones The usual office detritus covered the surface, while two black leather chairs crouched in front of the desk Matching furniture in varying shades of black and gray filled the rest of the roo with metal sculptures, while a fully stocked wet bar took up the better part of one wall Behind the desk, floor-to-ceiling s offered a sweeping view of don Ashland and the green-gray sed the city
The office was empty, just like I'd anticipated, so I didn't have to be quite so quiet as I used rate on this duct and put the loose screws into a pocket on rate fro any noise, then I slid it back into place I also reached into un made out of plastic
Normally, I carried five silverstone knives on ainst the small of my back, and two tucked into the sides of my boots I liked my knives, and they were the weapons I used on the et had an elemental talent for metal, which meant he could sense whenever the element was near, just like I could the stone around me In fact, metal was an offshoot of Stone
Since I didn't want to give et advance notice that I was here, I'd decided to leave un as I ith a blade, but the one I'd brought along would get the job done in the office's confined space
As a final touch, I reached intosure the thin leather covered the spider rune scars embedded in my palms The scars were really silverstone that had been o by a particularly vicious Fire eleet would be able to sense the loves offered another s to take any chances
With the grate and un in position, all that was left to do was settle down and wait