08 The Armageddon File by Stephen Coonts

Author:Stephen Coonts [Coonts, Stephen]
Format: epub
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

The elevator going down the shaft alerted me. The elevators weren’t particularly noisy, but the wire ropes hummed and the huge counter-weights disturbed the air. The big box fell into the gloom, causing the shaft safety lights to blink as it passed on its journey down.

Finally it reached bottom, and then it was rising and the counterweight fell away. The journey upward seemed quick. I didn’t time it, but it couldn’t have taken more than a minute for the elevator to reach the penthouse, slow, then coast to a stop without a jolt on the top floor. I heard the door open then close. Two minutes later it started down again.

At twelve-fifteen, the elevator started down with its last load. This would be the off-going security dudes, I hoped. The elevator stayed at the bottom of the shaft.

I settled back to wait.

One o’clock came and went. The gas should be released by now. Fifteen minutes should be enough. I rooted in my backpack and got the gas mask out, checked it, and put it on. Made sure I had a good air seal. Rearranged my miner’s light upon my brow. Sat there in the gloom breathing softly and waiting. I must have looked like the creature from the black lagoon. Put on latex gloves so that I’d leave no fingerprints.

At twenty after one, I worked my way around the shaft to the ladder beside the door to the floor. I reached up and tried to trip the switch that the elevator activated when it arrived, enabling the doors to open. The arm of the thing seemed frozen.

I got out my Kimber and pushed hard on it. No luck. Finally I hauled off and smacked it as hard as I could. The arm moved to the up position.

The door opened slowly and the interior lights of the floor filled the shaft.

There was no way to tell if anyone was waiting on me.

No guts, no glory.

I swung myself over and stepped through the opening while the empty shaft yawned below me. The floor looked empty. I found that I had the Kimber in my hand. Sure enough, I saw a security camera looking at the elevator door.

I went exploring. Found the guards in an office with a computer and five monitors mounted on the wall. The men were asleep. A black guy and a white guy, short haircuts, obviously fit, in their thirties. I recognized both of them from the photos I had studied. The monitors displayed video from various security cameras throughout the complex, cycling between cameras.

I patted them down. Yep, they were armed. I thought about taking the weapons in case they woke up with me in the penthouse but decided against it.

The only way to ensure they didn’t find me on a computer video tomorrow morning was to disable the equipment. I got busy on that. Playing with the computer, I went back to 1:00 a.m. and erased everything after that. Then I shut the computer down so it would cease recording.

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