Breaking Step (Dungeon Runner 3)

Breaking Step, Chapter 56

An ear to the door to confirm the people he sensed walking by. No one in the building had an element.

He let go of his, as the corridor emptied, opened the door, and walked out.

The Brokerage was filled with what Archer called bureaucrats. Clerks with illusions of grandeurs. Which was why Tibs had spent more on the clothing that he'd liked. They handled more money, so imagined they had more power.

He didn't acknowledge the people he passed, and they didn't him. He wore the same preoccupied expression they did. Even this late, there were a lot of them in the building.

The Brokerage never slept, Archer said. Tibs had taken that to mean they were always on their guard, but he'd quickly realized, as he cased the building, that it was literal. Day and night, bureaucrats came and went; people dressed richly enough, or too suspicious looking, entered and left.

He walked by guards. Some stood at attention by a door, not the one holding his contracts, he was relieved to see. He sensed people inside, metal boxes with weaves thought them, but didn't have the time to get details. Other guards walked around, although they seemed to be going places, rather than patrolling. Tibs avoided anyone who looked like they belonged on a harsher version of his Street, as did any of the clerks.

The ground floor was the same set of corridors and rooms, only differed in that it had a door at one end of the central hall, with an entryway where customer sat, and a less impressive door at the other. That one opened onto an alley, by the sense of the other side.

The other difference was that behind one door in the central halls, a guarded door closer to the front than back, were stairs going down. The only set of them. It also had a lock on top of being guarded. The guard had the key, and Tibs watched as a man offered a paper for the guard to read before he unlocked the door and let them in. He couldn't know what the paper said, so that was not how he'd get down.

As with the other corridors, it was well lit, and the oil lamps were protected from tempering by a glass chimney. It wouldn't prevent him from dousing them and plunging the hall into darkness, but all it would do was raise the alert.

Unless he could provide a justification for it. Such as an exceedingly powerful gust of wind. He was in a straight hall with a door at each end, after all. And there was a storm raging outside. The wind hadn't bothered him since he had air, but it had been strong.

Not strong enough to extinguish lamps, but Tibs could make what moved through the hall strong enough it could be believed it had.

All he needed was for both doors to open at the same, and the right time, and he would have his justification. The back door had a metal bolt, currently latched, but that wouldn't slow him, and since no one was paying it attention as they walked by, they might not even know if it was or wasn't latched after the fact.

To avoid drawing attention while he waited for someone to need to go down, he walked along the other corridors on the floor. He sensed everyone moving, and it was simple to be heading toward the door each time someone slowed as they reached it.

Too many people did so. Enough Tibs was sure someone would notice how often he came by. Each time he tense, ready to open the bolt, shove the doors open and bowl over everyone with storm wind.

Once he'd nearly done it, but the man had stopped as he looked through the papers he held, then turned around.

When the woman approached, he was already in the hall, from the circuit he walked, so he saw her holding the paper as she slowed and offered it to the guard, who looked it over and handed it back. As the key went in the lock, Tibs forced the bolt to unlatch and grabbed hold of both doors. The key turned and the lock click.