Blood Hunt (Blue Blood Babies sequel!)

Chapter Seventeen

Chapter Seventeen

Most of the buildings in the facility were manned – in daylight hours at least – by security guards with serious expressions and tasers tucked in to the belts around their waists.  We’d hoped that that protocol might be a little more relaxed today; after all, all of the blue blood babies were supposed to be tucked up in bed, recovering.  And if the doctors and researchers were down for teh count, maybe the security guards were too.  If the building had turned out to be manned, we’d come up with a plan no cleverer than winging it and trying to blag our way in.  I was counting on Connor or Maggie for that, because I was absolutely hopeless at lying – I tied myself in knots with the simplest deceptions.

Luck was on our side, though.  Though I glimpsed a little reception area just inside the entrance, nobody was there.  We discovered the reason why a second later: the door refused to budge when Connor rattled it.

“Locked,” he said needlessly.

“What do we do?” I asked.  Standing here, we were very conspicuous.  “Can you pick the lock?”

Connor made a dubious face.

“Move over,” Maggie elbowed her brother out of the way and tapped the plate beside the lock with a little black bullet-shaped object. 

“What are you doing?” I hissed at her.

The door clicked, then opened in her hand and she shot me a look.  I was still gobsmacked, though.

“Maggie!” I mouthed.  “They’ll know we’re here!”

She shook her head as she stepped inside, holding the door open for Connor and I to follow.  I did, but reluctantly.  Connor, too, looked thunderstruck.

“They’ll be able to trace that, he told his sister in a low voice.

She made a dismissive sound at the back of her throat.

“This isn’t a Bond film,” she said.  “I doubt they can tell who’s opening what doors.”

“Are you sure?” I demanded.

“Well, no,” she made a face, but then smiled. “But they won’t know it’s us anyway.”

“Maggie, you just used your fob,” Connor reminded her.

She raised her eyebrows at us both.

“Did I?”  With no more explanation, she continued in the building, pausing at the back of the foyer where the lift and the stairs waited.  That, and a huge board outlining what we could find on each floor.  “Where should we start, do you think?” She asked, eyes scanning the different departments.  “Admin?”  And before we could say anything, she was off, trainers making no sound as she jogged lightly up the stairs.  Connor and I exchanged a confused look before pounding after her, our much heavier tread echoing off the walls. 

We caught up with her as she was pulling wide a pair of double swing doors two floors up.  I grabbed the door before it swung closed behind her, then ran the last few steps to close the distance between us.  Maggie had paused, eyes raking across the room, which was huge, laid out like an open plan office.  Terminal after terminal of desks, each topped with a computer and wire baskets piled high with paperwork.  A few personal items like photo frames and coffee mugs littered the area, but for the most part the place was sparse, clinical. 

“Check the desks for pass keys,” she said, before starting towards the first row of desks.  “And look in the drawers as well,” she called, bending over the first terminal. 

I made for the back of the room and Connor cut across to the wall of windows, then we methodically checked each desk.  Most of the drawers were locked, but I tried each one before moving on to the next.  I came up empty time after time.