Super

Chapter 70: Dragnet

"Right," Kate said, grabbing the handful of zip ties that Lakshmi had handed to her. "We'll just call the rest of you in when we know everything's safe."

With a grim look, Kate shoved the plastic ties into her hip pocket before stalking towards the building. After a look at the rest of the small group, Lex turned to Lou with a shrug and gestured with her head in the direction Kate had taken. She heard Lou exhale in a way that might have been a sigh or a small ironic laugh before she felt him fall into step beside her.

They followed Kate as she snaked her way to the left of the building after leaving the parking lot, following what Lex's eye could now pick out, an area where the high grass lay pressed down. The route took them around the corner of the building to the rear. They dodged a now-rusty roll of wire fencing and a small pile of faded, crushed drink cans as they made their way behind the building, then they all spread out as Kate stopped, looking around with her nostrils flaring.

Lex watched as her friend closed her eyes, tilting her head as if listening to some faraway music, and continuing to sniff the air, taking deep breaths. After a moment, Kate opened her eyes, crouching and turning halfway around, as if she'd seen something run past. Lex continued to study her friend, while Kate walked forward another yard or so, her pace slackening, until she reached a boxwood growing in uneven, lumped shapes and sunk down into the dirt beside it, on her knees. Lou started forward then, but stopped next to Lex as he saw Kate's head pop up on the other side of the bush.

"It's here," she said, and the rest of the group hurried over to see what she'd found.

Lex stopped behind Kate, nodding as she spotted what Kate had. Just behind the bush, the sheet metal that made up the side of the building had been pulled back, leaving a gap big enough for most adults to crawl through. Lex crouched to see over her friend's shoulder and caught a glimpse of a half-lit room inside. Standing again, Lex glanced at Lou to see him considering the opening.

"I'll need to enlarge it for all of us to fit through," he offered. Kate stood and then stepped back as Lou shouldered the bush to one side, hesitating for a moment. "It's likely to make noise, plus we're not staying away from property damage if we do this."

Lex shrugged after considering for a moment. "We need to keep the group together," she reasoned. "Besides, the property is already damaged. I don't see that enlarging the hole that's already there would make things much worse."

After glancing at the rest of the group to see if anyone would offer any arguments and receiving none, Lou turned back to the task in front of him. As Lex watched, he put his hands on the sharp edge of the metal that had been turned up, and folded all of the sharp edges back with a resulting few creaks. Then Lou put his thumbs along the bottom of the fold of metal that edged the impromptu entrance into the building and wrenched it upwards. A couple of pops and a shriek broke the relative silence of the afternoon, only to be followed by an uneasy silence. As a breeze tickled the back of Lex's neck some seconds later, she realized she'd been holding her breath, and exhaled.

"Ready?" Lex asked as she looked over at Kate.

Kate nodded and crouched as Lou stood back from the enlarged hole and glanced inside. "Give me five seconds, then follow," Kate murmured to Lex before disappearing inside.

A few nervous breaths later, Lex ducked inside herself, and then moved into the darkest shadow she could see in order to get her bearings in the room. It looked to have been some sort of workshop for the business that used to own the building. Lex could see the marks of what had likely been tables indented in the concrete floor, and a pulley and chain hung from high above. The room took up about a third of the place, occupying all of the space from ground floor to roof, one story above.