Argent Glass

Chapter 12 - Tango - Robin

Robin counted to ten and stood up. The hallway in the Security Department was empty and the door to the Technology Director's office was closed. She imagined Michael seated at his desk eating the rest of his box of donuts, white powder covering everything.

Resisting the temptation to knock on his door, she turned down the hall and walked past a set of stairs leading to the science labs. Instead, she went down to the dome's small infirmary. Not used often, the clinic was empty and dark, though some ambient light came from the hospital-style rooms. It was the only part of the building construction on this side of the dome with rooms that had views that looked into the inner dome.

Mechanicals was also on the ground level, but it was shielded behind the natural stone face of the mountain. Carved deep into the stone, Mechanicals not only housed the energy converters for the solar arrays on the dome, it also maintained the water pumps, filtration system, and reclamation units. Large pumps pulled crisp clean water from a deep underground well, while the reclamation units collected wastewater from the housing units and cafeteria for the filtration system to treat and recycle. Minjun had taken great pride in providing Robin with all the details.

Exiting the building through a door in the clinic, Robin walked a well-worn path across the fields to the cafeteria. The cafeteria was open to the fields, beams spaced evenly at regular intervals and opening to a common area. She passed through the community space and waved to Jordan wiping down the tables.

Past the kitchen was one set of stairs that led up to the living quarters and a second set that went down to supplies and the vegetable cooler. The normal temperatures deep in the mountains provided natural refrigeration for the stored fruits and vegetables.

Robin skipped up the stairs two at a time to the second-floor landing and walked down a long hallway lined with doors that entered each of the living quarters on that floor. At apartment 216, she stopped and spun on her heel to face the door. She glanced down the hall in both directions and rapped lightly. Without waiting for a response, she swiftly opened the door and let herself in.

It was dark inside. The lights were off in the apartment, and the blinds between the panes of glass at the front of the room were shuttered. With the blinds closed, no sunlight filtered into the room from the outer dome. She smiled and shut the door, then immediately squatted down. Submerged in complete darkness, her eyes could not adjust and she unlaced her boots by touch. Slipping them off, she found the floor felt cool through her stockinged feet.

She took a flashlight out of a pocket on her utility belt and flipped it on, flashing it quickly around the room. The light touched on a small table and chairs and the back of a couch. A camouflaged cap sat alone on the table. When the light reflected off the panes of glass at the front of the room, she flashed herself in the eyes and had to hold her hand over the end of the flashlight until she had blinked away the spots.

Staying low, she crept forward and listened for any rustle of sound around her. At the table, she unhooked her belt and set it down lightly on the table, missing the reassuring weight of the Beretta at her side the moment it was gone.

The couch was empty and she moved to the bathroom. Nothing in the closet or behind the shower curtain. Outside the bathroom door, she held her breath and listened hard.

Nothing. Not a single sound from the apartment.

She flipped off the light but kept her finger on the switch and moved to the bedroom door. All the apartments, including the one she had been assigned to for her occasional stay-overs, were essentially the same. The floorplan was familiar and she could maneuver blindly into the room. Inside the door, she stopped to listen again.