There was a point just over halfway along the building where it widened making the alley narrower between the Omnitech building and the back of the neighboring one. A door was positioned facing across the alley and it was covered by a pair of security cameras. Fortunately the way the building widened created a blind spot in the recess and this was where Sara planned to make her climb. She told Carla to wait for her at the bottom. The younger woman knew to keep herself pressed back against the wall as much as possible to avoid being seen while Sara was busy higher up. She also knew that if there was any trouble, if Sara triggered any alarms when Carla was still waiting, that she was to start running and not look back. Sara had given her a rendezvous point and time where they could link back up if they got separated. If either one of them failed to show for the rendezvous the other would know that they weren't coming. That they had been captured or killed.
Sara studied the point where the wall jutted outwards for a couple of meters. The right angle join was not a perfect match. Sara placed her fingers into the gap where the two walls met. It was a tight fit and the rough walls started cutting into her skin even before she put any strain on them. She forced her fingers in deeply to grip the wall and then stepped up to put her feet on the walls as well. Her fingers strained to keep her supported. Steadily she moved one hand up followed by the other then she stepped her feet up and repeated the movements. By the time she reached the ledge outside the nearest first floor window her fingers were torn, bloodied and starting to go numb.
Sara released her grip in the gap with one hand and reached across to grasp the ledge. Next she let go of the gap with her other hand and moved that alongside her other. She pulled herself up by the fingertips to get a look inside the window.
There wasn't much to see. The inside of the room was dark and Sara couldn't make out anything any distance inside. It wasn't occupied though and there was no open door leading off to a hallway where people could look through and see her.
Sara then turned her attention to the window and its frame. The ledge of the window wasn't wide enough for her to pull herself up onto it so she had to perform her study while dangling several meters off the floor. Sara let go of the ledge and reached into the pocket on her backpack. Just like on an operation for ECSIS Sara had arranged all of the equipment in her pack in the order she was likely to need it. She knew where every piece was so that she could get exactly wanted without having to rummage around. She brought out a pair of glasses and closed the pocket on the pack, she didn't want things to start dropping out.
With the glasses on her face Sara could see the infrared beams cutting across inside the window. Sara reached back into her pack for some glass cutters. Her hand and arm was starting to feel the strain of supporting her but she shut it out of her mind. She had to concentrate. The infrared beams were positioned inside the window but the only way to get at them or the boxes they came out of would be by opening the window which would break the beams and all hell would break loose. Sara used the glass cutters to cut out a small section of the pane close to each of the infrared boxes. It was a laborious process but Sara had to take her time otherwise the glass she cut free could easily fall inwards and break one of the beams.
Sara's arm was in a lot of pain from holding her up for so long and Sara took a break with all of the glass holes cut to hang from both hands. She only gave herself a few moments rest and then she moved back into her previous one armed position and started to bypass the infrared boxes. They weren't linked so she got to work on them one at a time being sure to keep her omni-tool from moving in front of any of the beams.
It took another few minutes to bypass each beam and her left arm that was supporting her was starting to throb. When she was done Sara easily defeated the lock on the window and pushed it open. She pulled herself fully up and the over the window sill and into what turned out to be a small office.
Sara went back into her pack and pulled out a length of thin rope. It wasn't as thin or as strong as the type of rope she would have been able to get had she still been working with the division but it should be more that strong enough to hold Carla.
When the rope was lowered down the younger woman wrapped it around her body and under her arms as Sara had demonstrated she should. Sara leaned back with her feet pushing against the wall and started to pull Carla up. The other woman would also be walking her feet up the wall to take some of the effort out of getting her up.
Soon after both women were standing in the Omnitech regional headquarters preparing to start a search to clear their names. Neither one of them had any idea where such proof could be found nor even if there would be any to be had.
Chapter Twenty-six
They had started by taking a quick look through the office they first found themselves in. Sara hadn't expected to find anything, that would be too much of a coincidence, but since they were already there it made a good place to start. It turned out that there wasn't anything much to find, the office belonged to one of Omnitech's team of accountants and most of what she found meant little to Sara, all she knew was that it wasn't what they were looking for.
"Come on."
Sara listened at the door from the office to the hallway. It didn't sound as though there was anybody out there so she pulled the door open and looked outside. The hallway was as dark as the office. It stretched for about fifty meters total, with the office Sara was in three quarters of the way to one end. Other doors opened off the hallway. At either end there were doors to elevators and at the far end a door beside the elevator was marked as a fire escape. There were no internal security cameras in the hallway. It was dark but not difficult to see. The carpeted floor should help to reduce any noise they made when moving around.
Sara had no idea how they were supposed to search a building this size for any information that related to herself or Carla. She was used to being told exactly where she was supposed to go in a mission briefing, before she ended up in a place like this she would have studied floor plans and would have a list of target locations and objectives. Sara had had no idea of where they ought to start looking, she had concentrated at first on simply getting this far, she had sort of hoped that inspiration would strike once she was on site.
"So, where do we go from here?" Carla asked following Sara out into the hallway.
Sara turned to face the younger woman. She tried to look as though she knew what she was doing. This was the kind of stuff she was used to and if she didn't look sure of herself the younger woman, who was in this for the first time, would be unlikely to have any confidence in her.
"This building is too large for us to search it methodically, office by office, room by room," Sara said, stalling for time as she tried to come up with a plan of action.
Carla nodded. "And anything that implicates them in our situation isn't likely to be left around just anywhere. Every Omnitech employee can't be in on it."
Sara nodded as an idea came to her. "Whatever they are up to they will want to keep it secret. That means security. We need to search through the building until we come to areas that they are trying to keep secret and secure, and then we look through them for information on what they are up to and how it connects to you."
They didn't know whether what they were after would be found above or below them. Sara decided to give the choice to Carla, the younger woman had proved to have more than her fair share of luck, enough to cause Sara to be suspicious of her on occasion, and while Sara didn't like to trust to luck she figured that on this occasion they could use all the help they could get.
"Down," Carla replied after thinking seriously for a moment. "There is less to search below us. It would be awful to spend hours making our way up through the building and all the time it be taking us further and further away from where we need to be."
Sara nodded. "If it turns out that there isn't anything down below then we can start searching up through the rest of this place."
They approached the fire escape and another plan came to S
ara. A way that the searching process could be accelerated greatly. The trouble was the plan entailed a high degree of risk. It would involve using Carla and placing her in harm’s way. A part of Sara, the most clinical no nonsense part of her that took control on operations, would do it in an instant. But that part of her wasn't the only part that had a contribution to make in this. Over the course of their time together Sara had started to think of Carla as more than just the object she viewed most people as. Somehow Carla had slipped past her defenses and Sara no thought of her as something like a friend. Carla was easily the closest thing Sara had had to a proper friend in a number of years, perhaps ever, could she really bring herself to do this act of betrayal?
Carla stopped walking and regarded Sara. As the younger woman's eyes scrutinized her face she got the feeling that she knew something was the matter.
"I have a bad feeling about this."
Sara managed to keep her tone even as she replied. "It's just nerves."
Carla continued to regard her. Years of training helped Sara to keep her face from giving anything away but still she got the feeling that Carla somehow saw through her. The younger woman held her in her gaze for a couple more heartbeats and then nodded and turned back to the fire escape door.
"I guess so."
Carla brought her hand to the bar running across the fire escape door. Sara had to choose now. In the end her indecision decided for her. Carla pushed on the bar to open the door and the fire alarm started blaring.
Carla released the bar and stepped away from the door but the damage was done. The younger woman was white with shock, all of the blood drained away from her skin as she listened to the alarm. She was frozen in place having no idea what to do now.
With her mind made up for her because of the initiation of the alarm Sara was ready to act. She grabbed Carla's arm and pulled her away from the fire door. She dragged the younger woman to the elevator and hit the call button.
Carla stared at Sara. "You knew that would happen." It wasn't a question.
Sara knew that they had only moments before a security team came to investigate. She should ditch Carla and get herself out of the way.
"Yes, I knew." Sara grabbed Carla's shoulders and turned her to face her, she spoke quickly and sternly. "Listen, I'm sorry but this is the best way. Any second now a security team is going to come up here. They're going to find you and they're going to take you and they won't be gentle. They aren't going to find me. You have to pretend that you are alone."
Carla couldn't believe it and it almost broke Sara's heart to see the hurt and betrayal on the younger woman's face. She shut her emotions off, she had to think clearly to get them out of this.
"Why?"
Sara continued, "When they take you it will be to whoever wants you. It will save us a lot of time. I'll always be watching you. You have to trust me, I will get you out of this."
Tears formed in the corners of her eyes but Carla blinked them back. "Bitch."
"I will get you out of this," Sara repeated.
Carla was still in too much shock to fully comprehend what was going on around her. The elevator doors opened in front of her and Sara pushed her inside. Sara stepped in behind her and hit some random buttons on the elevator control. She jumped up to open the hatch in the roof of the elevator as the doors closed behind them. She jumped up again catching a hold of the edge and pulling herself up into the shaft. Cables and motors beside her came into motion as the elevator started to move upwards. Sara maneuvered herself around the equipment and started to put the hatch back in place. Carla looked up through the hole, looking into her eyes Sara felt as though she had just shot the other woman in the heart.
"Trust me, this will work. You'll be taken to whoever is behind all of this. I'll be right behind you the whole time. You won't see me they won't see me but I'll be there watching over you. But they have to think you're alone for this to work."
"How do I know you won't just abandon me?"
Sara shook her head. "You don't, and nothing I can say will convince you. Maybe before I would have just let them take you and cut my losses but not now. You are the only friend I've got and I don't plan on loosing you."
The two women regarded each other until the lift came to a stop. Carla looked away at the doors as they started to open and Sara quickly, but quietly, moved the hatch back into place.
The elevator shaft was in complete darkness the only light came through the holes in the access hatch from the elevator itself. Sara kept away from those small points of light but made sure that she could just about see down into the elevator.
Carla backed away from the doors as they came fully open. She looked even more frightened than she had done before. Again feelings of guilt over this treatment of her threatened to close in on Sara but she forced them aside so that she could act with a professional detachment. She hadn't been lying when she told Carla that this was probably the best way they had to get at the people who were behind the attacks on her.
A pair of armed security men, their weapons up and pointed at Carla, entered the elevator. One kept his weapon on Carla the whole time when the other swept his around the box in case she wasn't alone. Carla raised her hands and stood staring at the men.
"Turn around now." One of the security men barked instructions at her. "Hands, give me your hands."
One man covered the other when he grabbed Carla and roughly put restraints around her wrists. A third security man dressed in a slightly different uniform to the others entered the elevator as Carla was turned back around.
The newcomer regarded Carla and nodded. "This is one of the ones we were after," he addressed Carla. "Where is the other one? Where is Fox?"
Carla didn't respond. Sara's hand was on the grip of the tactical pistol under her jacket in case Carla decided to give her away. She found that she was holding her breath and forced herself to start breathing normally. If she had to act she would need the oxygen.
The newer security man, obviously the man in charge, took a step closer to Carla. He reached up to take a hold of her face under the chin. He tilted her head back so that she was looking directly at his face. "Where is she? You wouldn't have come here alone, you couldn't have got inside without setting off our alarms but she could have. Answer me, you won't like it if I have to persuade you to co-operate."
There was another moment of silence and then Carla spoke, "She left me. We came here to try and find out what you want with us. She got us inside but when I opened the fire door and the alarms started to go off she called me a stupid bitch and she abandoned me. She went back out of the window where we came in but it was too high for me to get down after her. She abandoned me."
Carla's words had the ring of truth to them, no doubt because she found it easy to believe that Sara truly had abandoned her. The security man in charge regarded the young woman for a long moment and Carla didn't flinch or look away.
"Very well." He turned to some of the men behind him who Sara couldn't see. "You, you and you join the team searching the first floor in case Fox is still there or returns." He addressed the two men in the elevator with him, "You two will escort Ms. Swift here with me." He addressed Carla, "You wanted to know who is after you and why, I'll take you where you might get some answers before you die."
With that the security man turned and left the elevator. One of the security men followed immediately behind the other grabbed Carla and shoved her out after them. As soon as they were out of sight Sara took her hand away from the grip of her machine pistol and started to remove the access hatch. She set it aside and dropped back down through the hole. She landed as silently as a sure footed cat and moved out of sight of the open doorway. Coming down so soon after they left was a calculated risk, she couldn't follow too closely in case they spotted her but she also couldn't let them get too far out of the way in case she lost them.
Three of the security men entered the elevator at the far end of the corridor. Sara caught a glimpse of one of the others, wh
o must have been one of Carla's escorts, as he left the corridor through a nondescript door on the right hand side of the corridor.
Sara hid back in the elevator until the doors on its counterpart closed on the three security men who were going to help the team looking for Sara on the first floor. She left the shelter of the elevator as soon as they were out of sight and headed off after Carla. She meant to keep her promise to get the younger woman out of this before anything happened to her. On her way she pulled each of her weapons making sure they all had rounds chambered that would fire the instant she wanted them to. She had prepared each of the weapons before they set off and several times since but it soothed her to check them again.
***************
"We have located the intruder, it is Swift."
The communication from the chief of his internal security team was short and to the point as always.
"We discussed this possibility. Swift can be dangerous but she has nowhere near the level of physical skills that Fox possesses. Swift could not have made it this far without Fox."
The security chief replied, "She doesn't claim to have, sir. She claims that when the alarm was initiated Fox cut her losses and left her behind."
"You believe her?"
"I do, sir. Fox is a pragmatist. Her training would urge her to leave Swift behind in order to ensure that she herself would be able to make a clean escape."
"I know all about her training. She has demonstrated that she can go beyond her training."
"I left a team searching the area where the alarm was initiated and investigating the point of entry. Further teams are conducting a search of the surrounding areas. If she is lying and Fox remains in the building we will find her."
As always the security chief had anticipated his needs. "Good. Make sure they are fully alert, Fox is very good at what she does we need to be better."
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