touched another wooden staircase.
My knees were shaking so I sat down for a moment atop the staircase and shone my flashlight around.
This room was identical to the one above it. An open vent at my back, but otherwise no exit. Floor powdered with drywall dust. Though I couldn't see it, I assumed under this staircase was another trap door, this one leading to Level A, which had two sections inaccessible to one another: the dark, moldy utility area where Clifton lived in isolation, and the section with the Showcase Hall, my office, Bob's office, and the elevator leading to Your Favorite Gem.
The elevator.
The exit.
I felt exalted just to consider the unlikely prospect of escape, and it was enough to shed my fear of the dark for a few minutes while I daydreamed of making it out of here and taking Flora and Judy with me.
And Patton.
But in the interest of making that fantasy a reality, exploring Level A would have to wait for another day. Tonight my time was limited. I was already tired, and I wanted to know more about what Patton and Brian were planning before I made the bold decision to venture into Clifton's territory and risk being discovered.
I turned around and stuck my head in the open vent shaft behind me. It looked the same as the other two floors, with a fan to the right and darkness to the left.
Yawning, I wiggled my way into the wall.
Crawling in the dark gave me plenty of time to think. The first few vent covers I came across led to pitch-black, silent rooms. Pretty soon I had to force myself to think about other things just to abate my fear.
There was so much to process , so many events of late I hadn't even fully absorbed that I had to mull them over one at a time.
Mr. Shriver wa s trying to take over the world, for starters.
Okay.
Probably a good idea to skip that particular nugget of information. The weight of it might send me crashing through the air duct into some dark crevice from which I would never escape.
The third drug. Brian had confirmed it existed with a nod and a smile. Libido, Love, and what? What could he have invented--or discovered--that was more intriguing than synthetic bliss and synthetic adoration? What could be so worthy of secrecy?
Why didn't Patton want me to know?
Brian wanted to tell me, but Patton had stopped him. This was where I got confused. It was also where I started to fear something terrible, something much more dangerous than the Libido Drug. If Patton didn't want me to know, he must think my feelings for him would change. I hoped like hell that wasn't the case, but I had to know, one way or another.
Maybe I would see Brian in the morning as I passed through his apartment to go to work. In Patton's absence, he might spill the beans.
As I made my way past another da rk vent cover I thought of Judy and the bruises on her back. With Mr. Shriver gone, maybe Brian would let me see her. I wanted to know who was hurting her and I wanted to make it stop. If I could manage that, maybe Judy could answer some of the questions Brian or Patton refused to answer. After all, it was Brian who said she was "essential to the research."
What research he meant, I had no idea. He might very well have been bullshitting Mr. Shriver just to save Judy.
Then there was the one-legged soldier to consider. I'd meant to ask about him at dinner, but the conversation had gotten so heavy I completely forgot. Who did the soldier work for? The FBI? The military? Did anyone have a clue?
It didn't make sense. The lives of potential clients were investigated at length . This company had proven itself capable of nearly anything. In one fell swoop, Sean had found Flora and me over a hundred miles from home, murdered two police officers, disappeared my husband's body, and still made it back to headquarters in time to slit a few throats. If Sean could do all that in a day, how could he have let a spy in the building?
I was exhausted,
My knees were shaking so I sat down for a moment atop the staircase and shone my flashlight around.
This room was identical to the one above it. An open vent at my back, but otherwise no exit. Floor powdered with drywall dust. Though I couldn't see it, I assumed under this staircase was another trap door, this one leading to Level A, which had two sections inaccessible to one another: the dark, moldy utility area where Clifton lived in isolation, and the section with the Showcase Hall, my office, Bob's office, and the elevator leading to Your Favorite Gem.
The elevator.
The exit.
I felt exalted just to consider the unlikely prospect of escape, and it was enough to shed my fear of the dark for a few minutes while I daydreamed of making it out of here and taking Flora and Judy with me.
And Patton.
But in the interest of making that fantasy a reality, exploring Level A would have to wait for another day. Tonight my time was limited. I was already tired, and I wanted to know more about what Patton and Brian were planning before I made the bold decision to venture into Clifton's territory and risk being discovered.
I turned around and stuck my head in the open vent shaft behind me. It looked the same as the other two floors, with a fan to the right and darkness to the left.
Yawning, I wiggled my way into the wall.
Crawling in the dark gave me plenty of time to think. The first few vent covers I came across led to pitch-black, silent rooms. Pretty soon I had to force myself to think about other things just to abate my fear.
There was so much to process , so many events of late I hadn't even fully absorbed that I had to mull them over one at a time.
Mr. Shriver wa s trying to take over the world, for starters.
Okay.
Probably a good idea to skip that particular nugget of information. The weight of it might send me crashing through the air duct into some dark crevice from which I would never escape.
The third drug. Brian had confirmed it existed with a nod and a smile. Libido, Love, and what? What could he have invented--or discovered--that was more intriguing than synthetic bliss and synthetic adoration? What could be so worthy of secrecy?
Why didn't Patton want me to know?
Brian wanted to tell me, but Patton had stopped him. This was where I got confused. It was also where I started to fear something terrible, something much more dangerous than the Libido Drug. If Patton didn't want me to know, he must think my feelings for him would change. I hoped like hell that wasn't the case, but I had to know, one way or another.
Maybe I would see Brian in the morning as I passed through his apartment to go to work. In Patton's absence, he might spill the beans.
As I made my way past another da rk vent cover I thought of Judy and the bruises on her back. With Mr. Shriver gone, maybe Brian would let me see her. I wanted to know who was hurting her and I wanted to make it stop. If I could manage that, maybe Judy could answer some of the questions Brian or Patton refused to answer. After all, it was Brian who said she was "essential to the research."
What research he meant, I had no idea. He might very well have been bullshitting Mr. Shriver just to save Judy.
Then there was the one-legged soldier to consider. I'd meant to ask about him at dinner, but the conversation had gotten so heavy I completely forgot. Who did the soldier work for? The FBI? The military? Did anyone have a clue?
It didn't make sense. The lives of potential clients were investigated at length . This company had proven itself capable of nearly anything. In one fell swoop, Sean had found Flora and me over a hundred miles from home, murdered two police officers, disappeared my husband's body, and still made it back to headquarters in time to slit a few throats. If Sean could do all that in a day, how could he have let a spy in the building?
I was exhausted,
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