The EMT’s took me to the campus medical center and turned me over to one of the nurses. She checked me out and gave me a clean bill of health; no signs of concussion and no lasting damage. When she asked what had happened to me I decided to keep the details to a minimum. I told her that I fell and bumped my head. She couldn’t identify the marks from the ropes around my arms and wrists and I didn’t offer any explanations for the minor abrasions. My injuries were superficial so she didn’t push the issue. I managed to smear the red ink on my abdomen before she examined me so that the “No Talking” message was obscured and unreadable; I didn’t offer an explanation for that either. The nurse was extremely attentive and very curious about the obviously mysterious circumstances surrounding my injuries, but she respected my privacy and didn’t pry. She said that her name was Audrey and she complimented me quite frequently as she thoroughly examined my body for signs of injury while keeping my under observation for several hours at her office. I’m fairly certain that she was flirting with me, but I can never be certain about such things. Eventually Audrey allowed me to leave, so long as I promised to return for a follow up appointment in three days. She provided me with temporary clothing and by noon I was released from the medical center and sent on my way.
I was completely exhausted and would have liked to have gone home for the day, but I wanted to keep an eye on the library to make sure that nothing suspicious occurred. I walked back to the library and grabbed the spare outfit that I keep in my office, then I headed for the campus athletics center to use their shower and to change. It felt refreshing to be clean again and to slip into a new blouse, skirt and underclothes. I was ready for work… and ready for my rendezvous with Amanda Jones later that evening.
I thought about trying to break into the Regional Manager’s office all by myself, but I didn’t really know how to accomplish that without drawing attention to myself. Better for me to keep an eye on things and to wait for Amanda.
Fortunately it was an uneventful afternoon; the students and patrons were well-behaved and no one unusual went anywhere near the library’s administrative wing. By the time the library closed up for the day I was extremely tired, but eager to begin my sleuthing adventure. After making my final rounds and locking up the facility, I went back to my office, set my cell phone alarm for 1:45am and laid my head on my desk to take a quick nap before Amanda arrived. It felt a little strange to be taking a nap with my head down on the exact same spot where I had been chloroformed and molested the previous evening. I felt a little freaked out by the sense of déjà vu, but I was too tired at that point to let it keep me awake.
I awoke to the alarm, freshed up a bit, ate a power bar and then made my way to the south entrance door where I had promised to meet up with Amanda. To my surprise she was already inside the library door waiting innocently for me to arrive. I jokingly scolded her.
“You broke into my library again? It’s becoming a habit, Ms. Jones.”
“Ha. Yeah… sorry about that. It was a little cold outside for this particular outfit. Plus I decided to dust off my lockpicking skills to make sure they were up to tonight’s challenge.”
“Well… you certainly look like you are ready for action.”
Amanda Jones was wearing a white shirt tied off just below her breasts, denim shorts, dark stockings and a pair of converse shoes. She carried a small leather tool bag that I assumed must contain the tools that she used to break into the library. I wondered what else she might have brought along with her. Amanda smelled wonderful, looked amazing and she certainly carried herself as if she knew what she was doing. Her confidence was extremely attractive, but she seemed completely unaware of it. Somehow that only made her even more alluring. I didn’t want to make her uncomfortable so I tried not to stare.
“Your outfit is much more practical than mine. I suddenly feel ridiculous wearing a blouse, skirt and high heels to a break-in. I’d make a terrible adventure heroine.”
“Don’t worry, Ms. Kent. You look beautiful and I’m fairly certain that we won’t be running into any trouble here tonight. We’re just breaking into a simple office room inside of a building that we know to be empty and locked up tight already, so if anything I’m probably over-prepared.”
I led Amanda upstairs to the administrative wing, trying not to dwell too much on the fact that she said that I was “beautiful”. The Regional Manager’s door was right down the hall from my office. I imagined that we would find her office room filled with the large shipping crates that Amanda observed the previous night, but what would we find inside the crates? I imagined old paintings in gilded frames, chests of gold, ancient jewelry, mysterious scrolls… or perhaps the Lost Ark of the Covenant!
That last one seemed highly unlikely, but it was exciting to fantasize.
I tested the knob and confirmed that it was locked up tight. Amanda immediately went to work. She took a small leather roll out of her tool bag that contained several slivers of metal in various shapes and sizes. She selected two of the strips and poked them into the lock. I had no idea what she was doing, but within a few seconds there was a soft click. Amanda turned the knob and just like that… we were in!
“Amazing! Where did you learn to do that?”
“I travel a lot and meet some, well, let’s just say “interesting” people. Picking locks is a skill that comes in handy more often than you might think.”
Amanda returned her lockpicking set to her tool bag as I pushed open the door and turned on the lights.
The Regional Manager’s office was absolutely empty.
The walls were barren white and the floor was covered from wall to wall by beige carpeting. There was no desk, no chair, no decorations of any kind, none of the furnishings that one might expect in a manager’s office… and there were definitely no large shipping crates bearing the Lost Ark of the Covenant.
I shrugged my shoulders: “Well… this is… disappointing.”
Amanda grinned: “Sleuthing usually is... Were you expecting to uncover some sort of ancient mystery or something like that?”
“I was hoping to find The Lost Ark, actually… Ms. Jones.”
“Ha. You’ve got the wrong Jones. Unfortunately investigating is rarely that interesting. It usually involves a lot of reading and the occasional Google search. However… a completely empty room is not quite what I was expecting either.”
“Exactly! Where are the shipping crates?”
Amanda crouched down on the floor and ran her fingers over the carpeting.
“This is brand new. There are hardly any treadmarks and it’s absolutely clean… Hmmm... Ms. Kent, help me with the corners.”
Amanda pointed to one corner of the room while she approached the corner on the wall opposite from mine. She began to pull up the carpeting on her side, so I knelt to do the same. The carpeting wasn’t glued or stapled down and it rolled away from the wall easily. Between the two of us we managed to roll the carpet edge towards the center of the room. It didn’t take long before Amanda’s hunch paid off. As the carpet rolled back we discovered a square seam on the floor right in the middle of the room. The square was perhaps six feet by six feet… large enough for a shipping crate to fit inside. There was a sliding plate set just outside of the seam. Amanda pressed on the plate and it slide back to reveal two large buttons.
Amanda looked up at me and smiled: “I’m guessing one button for up and one button for down. This is some sort of hidden lift!”
“Of course! This must lead to the basement! But… I don’t think the basement extends this far under the administrative wing.”
“Well, then perhaps your Regional Manager has managed to install her own little private storage chamber hidden right here under the library. I’m sure we’ll find the crates down there, and perhaps a clue as to where Rachel Fox might have gone next.”
“And I want to know exactly what Ms. Pryor has been up to... What could possibly be worth all of this trouble?”
Amanda shrugged and retrieved a flashlight and a coil of rope from her toolbag: ”I guess we’re about to find out. Do you want to push the buttons, or go down first?”
I wasn’t exactly excited about the idea of descending into a mysterious hole that went who-knows-where with who-knows-what inside… but I felt responsible for Amanda and I didn’t want to get her into danger, so I decided that I should go first to make sure that it was safe.
Amanda handed me the flashlight and I took my place in the center of room, standing directly in the center of the square seam. I nodded at Amanda and she pressed one of the buttons.
Immediately the square that I was standing on began to drop slowly into the floor. I stumbled a bit with the sudden movement but managed to keep my footing even with my high heels. I decided that I would need a more practical adventuring outfit of my own if I were to ever do anything like this in the future.
Amanda continued to hold down the button as I descended lower and lower on the platform. I could feel a draft swirling from below around my legs. I could smell dust and mildew and the familiar scent of old paper and books. There was definitely a large chamber of some sort under the Regional Manager’s office. It was dark and I couldn’t really see what was down there, but I was eager to find out.
I crouched down as the lift slowly descended and I tried to use the flashlight to penetrate the darkness. The lift continued to drop as I looked around, but I couldn’t see anything other than blank cement walls that extended into the darkness. For a brief moment I thought I saw a distant light from within the chamber… but then it was gone again.
I realized that I was about 15 feet below the office floor now. I heard Amanda’s voice calling down to me and echoing off of the distant chamber walls.
“Do you see anything, Ms. Kent?”
“I think this is a tunnel leading into a larger chamber. For a moment I thought I saw a light down here… but... now it’s gone.”
“Maybe it was your flashlight beam reflecting off of something mirrored?”
I shrugged. That was one possibility. I pointed the beam down and I could see that the lift had almost reached the chamber floor. I stepped off of the platform as it came to a stop and looked around for a set of controls on this end so that I could raise it back up if I needed to leave in a hurry, but I didn’t see any recessed panels. Stumbling around in the dark made my search more difficult. I was hoping to locate a lightswitch, but I couldn’t find that either. Before I could stray far from the lift, Amanda’s rope dropped through the hatch and coiled up on the floor.
“I have the rope tied off around the door up here. It seems pretty sturdy… I’m coming down.”
I thought about protesting, but I was feeling vulnerable in the dark and I decided that I wouldn’t mind having a bit of company down here with me. There didn’t seem to be any obvious danger, but the entire situation was creepy. Amanda expertly slithered down the rope and stood beside me in a matter of seconds.
“Ready to find out what’s at the other end of this chamber, Ms. Kent?”
Amanda didn’t seem to be frightened at all; either that or she hid it very well. Her confidence gave me strength… and I had come way too far to turn back now.
I shined the flashlight beam into the distance as we took yet another step into the unknown.
Amanda Jones and Rachel Fox are the OC's of
and are used with permission.
No comments:
Post a Comment