by H. Duke
April’s eyes widened. “You wouldn’t bring back Mom and Dad if you could?”
“That’s a hard question to answer. Luckily, I’ll never be in that position. I can say for sure that what I lost was replaced by something new: you. I only saw you at Christmas before the accident, and now I’ve seen you every day for the past twenty years.” She nodded to herself. “Things happen, and suddenly our lives take a completely different path than what we had planned. That’s life. You can spend your time wading through the brambles and thickets, trying to find your way back to your original path, or you can accept that maybe it never existed at all and forge ahead.”
Had she been running? In a way she had, but… “What am I supposed to do without you?” she asked.
Gram reached over and squeezed her hand. “That’s what we have to figure out over the next few months.”
Was Gram right? Even if she was, it didn’t matter, did it? She’d already made her decision. She couldn’t do anything to change it. She rose from her chair, wiping the tears from her face. “I have to get ready for work.”
~~~
Everything at the library seemed normal. She half expected to find that a “meteorite” had hit the library, or the Werner Room had been vandalized, or… something. But everything in her office was as she’d left it, except for the note on her desk.
We need to talk. Stay after tonight. Please.
-D
So whatever Thaddeus was planning, it hadn’t happened yet. Or at least it didn’t seem like it had happened. Would she even know? Did she even want to know?
No, she decided. She didn’t. She had her own things to worry about–like keeping her job. Thaddeus had promised to pay Gram’s medical bills, but they still had other expenses to take care of. She couldn’t afford to lose this job if she could help it.
She crumpled up the note and tossed it into the trash can, then logged into her computer. She had an hour before she and Janet were supposed to continue with their assessing duties, and she was going to use that entire time to study.
As soon as she logged into the computer, though, she saw that one of the messages in her inbox was marked urgent. She scanned the message and groaned—it was from Barbara. The subject line was “meeting Monday re: test.” She opened it. Barbara would be in on Monday at two to administer the exam.
Damn it. She wasn’t ready. Well, wasn’t that even more of a reason to start studying? She opened her notes and all the webpages she’d bookmarked and got to work.
At five minutes to the hour, Janet knocked on the door. “Hey,” she said. They were supposed to continue assessing the collection.
“Hey,” April replied, quickly minimizing the browser even though Janet was on the other side of the monitor and couldn’t see it. “I was about to come out, I promise.”
Janet laughed. The sound sounded strange coming from Janet’s lips, and did it sound a little… guilty? “Becky came up to watch the desk early. I think she likes it better up here than down there.”
April snorted. “That’s for sure.”
“Well, I thought we should get started early… you know, to make up some time.” She paused. “Unless you have something to do. I can wait.”
April glanced at the computer and sighed. Who was she kidding? She’d never be able to learn all this stuff by Monday. “That’s fine. I don’t have anything too pressing.”
Janet fixed her with a level gaze. “Are you okay?”
April widened her eyes. “Would you prefer to hear that I’m fine, or that I’m stressed up to my eyeballs?”
Janet winced. “I guess I’ve been pretty hard on you,” she said. “I wanted to have someone to blame. I guess the truth is that Mae just didn’t think I could do the job. That’s not your fault. You just applied for a job and interviewed well.”
“I’m sure that wasn’t it,” April said. “Were you and Mae close?”
Janet shrugged. “As far as Mae goes, yeah. We would talk whenever we worked together. Well, I talked, mostly. She never really opened up to anyone, let alone me. But I would tell her about the archaeological sites I wanted to go to. Sometimes she’d look sad. I don’t think she ever went anywhere. I don’t remember her taking a vacation even once.”
April nodded. That made sense—Mae would have known that if Janet got her “job,” she’d never be able to go to any of those places. It made April sympathize with Mae for only a moment. She reminded herself that Mae hadn’t even bothered to see if she had any hopes or dreams before dropping the library in her lap.
She wanted to let Janet know her theory but couldn’t think of a way to do so without telling her about the gate, so she didn’t. Instead, she stood up and said, “Let’s go.”
~~~
April went out on the reference desk after she and Janet finished assessing the collection for the day. She mostly took notes as Janet spoke, but she found that most of the tension between them had disappeared. At least one of her problems had resolved.
Around seven thirty, she glanced out into the library, wishing that Randall was there. She hadn’t seen him at all that day, to her disappointment. She could have used someone to talk to.
She sensed motion in the library, and when she looked up, Andre was walking towards her, a worried look on his face.
“Is everything all right?” she asked.
He shook his head. “We just got word that there’s a possible gas leak in the building. We have to evacuate the library.”
“A gas leak?”
Andre nodded. “The first floor reeks of it, but no one’s sure where it’s coming from.”
“Could it be something else?”
“Maybe, but it’s best not to risk it. All it takes is a little static electricity and—” he brought his hands together and then spread them out, fanning his fingers to mimic an explosion. “We have to keep everyone calm. I’ll make the announcement.”
He faced the tables. “May I have your attention please?” He called. “We have received word that there may be a gas leak somewhere in the building. For your safety, we are evacuating the library. Please remain calm and make your way to the nearest exit. If you have a phone or laptop plugged into the wall, do not unplug it. I repeat, do not unplug anything from the outlets.”
Most of the people in the room were students studying for finals. They looked at their laptops and phones as though they were poisonous snakes. The room filled with nervous chattering.
“I repeat: please remain calm. Walk, do not run, to the exit. Please be careful as you walk down the stairs.”
“What can I do?” April asked.
Andre nodded to the stacks. “Do a round and make sure there are no stragglers. We don’t want to leave anyone behind because they were listening to their headphones and didn’t hear the announcement. Take the walkie talkie with you.”
She nodded and grabbed the walkie talkie, and he turned around and repeated the announcement. After the last person had walked down the stairs (April double-checked the restrooms just in case) she and Andre followed suit.
The first and second floors were still crowded with people. Andre stopped on the second floor and April went to the first floor to help Becky. She found her in the story time room, checking the storage closets.
“What are you doing?” she asked.
“I want to make sure there aren’t any kids in here. You’d be surprised the places they can get into.”
“We should help do rounds,” April said.
Becky nodded, and they both walked back out. As they did, April saw a familiar face swimming in the crowd.
“Randall!” she called, patting Becky on the shoulder in farewell as she pushed through the crowd to get to him. He was holding Rex in his arms; the dog looked unfazed by the commotion.
“April!” he said. “What’s going on? They’re not telling us anything. Some of the people are saying it’s some kind of attack, or—”
She shook her head. “Nothing like that. They’re claiming it’s a gas
leak.”
“Gas leak?” Randall said. “Do you think it’s the collectors?”
She bit her lip, she’d been thinking the same thing. Before she could answer, she saw men in helmets and bright yellow firefighter gear push into the building. The lead one turned towards her, and his icy blue eyes met hers. Thaddeus.
“I’d say so,” she said. “That’s him. That’s Thaddeus.”
Thaddeus smiled a sinister, triumphant smile that made her stomach drop.
Randall sized the man up. “So you took the deal.”
“Yeah, I did,” she said, watching Thaddeus even after he turned away.
“Isn’t this what you wanted?”
“I guess so. I don’t know.” She pressed her palms to her forehead. “Damn it! This is so hard.”
“Hey,” Randall said, placing a hand on her shoulder. “Just breathe.”
She did. “Thanks,” she said, once her heartrate had slowed. “I think I made the wrong decision. God, why was I so selfish? I had a weak moment and that jerk took advantage of it.”
“What do you want to do?” he asked.
She smiled weakly. “I think I have to make it right. Or at least try.” She glanced at him. “It might be dangerous,” she said. “I couldn’t ask you to stay.”
“You don’t have to.”
Thaddeus began yelling. “Ladies and gentlemen—please make your way to the exit in an orderly fashion so that we may locate the source of the leak.”
“How long will this take?” a disgruntled library patron shouted. Other patrons began yelling similar sentiments.
“Until we know for certain that the area is safe.”
Everyone begun shuffling towards the main doors. One of the men dressed in firefighter gear directed them outside. “Please make your way to the exit.” Judging by the sneer he gave her he knew exactly who she was.
When they didn’t move, the man said, “Is there a problem?”
“No problem at all, sir,” Randall said. He turned to April. “Come on,” and he began walking away.
“What are we doing?” she said, following him. “We need to tell them that I changed my mind!”
“It’s too late for that,” Randall said. “You already gave up your one bargaining chip.”
“So we’re just going to give up?”
“Hush,” Randall said, and when she looked up, she saw why. They were approaching Thaddeus.
As they passed, she and Thaddeus locked eyes, and he nodded. It made her feel sick to her stomach. What had she done?
When they were clear of the doors, she turned to Randall. “What are you doing?” she hissed. “Now we’re even worse off than before!”
“Whoah, calm down. We can’t make a scene. The element of surprise is the only advantage we have at this point. We want them to think you’re still on their side, okay?”
“Okay,” she said. He was right.
“Did you drive here?” Randall asked.
“What does that have to do with anything?”
“Your car can’t be in the parking lot, otherwise they’ll know you’re here.”
Shit. “Okay,” she said. “But how do we get back in the building?”
“You got your badge?”
“Yeah.”
“Don’t worry, I have an idea. Make an excuse, park your car somewhere no one will see it, and then meet me at the Southeast corner.”
“Okay,” she said, hoping he knew what he was talking about. It wasn’t like she had much to lose.
She walked over towards Andre and Becky, working out what she was going to say. She lifted her cell phone to her ear, pretending to be talking. When she got close enough for them to be able to hear, she said loudly, “I’ll be there as soon as I can.”
Becky looked concerned. “Is everything all right?”
“Not really. That was my neighbor. My grandma fell. She’s being taken to the hospital.” She gestured around at the chaos. “Some timing.”
“Damn,” Andre said. “You go take care of that. We’ll take care of this. There’s not much you can do, anyway.”
“Really?” she said, as though she wasn’t convinced. “Are you sure? She’s already on her way to the hospital…”
“Yeah. Get out of here.”
“Okay,” she said. “Hopefully I’ll see you guys tomorrow.”
“I don’t know about that,” Andre said. “The head firefighter said that it could take days in a building like this to find the source of the leak.”
She parked her car up a side street, thankful for its bland silver color—it blended in just fine with all the other cars. She barely felt the night’s chill as she crept back towards the library.
She found Randall behind some bushes near the southeast wall. She crouched next to him, watching the traffic jam of patrons spill out into the usually quiet street. She couldn’t see the parking lot, but she imagined Andre was directing traffic, making sure everyone was getting home safely.
There were no windows in the ground floor where they were standing, which meant that Thaddeus and his friends couldn’t see them, but that they also couldn’t see what was going on inside, either.
Randall pointed to a metal door. “That’s our entry point,” he said. “It’s the entrance the maintenance staff use in the morning. It used to be the servant entrance, back when this building was still a residential home. I only know because I looked over the original blueprints one day when I got bored. According to the blueprints, there are separate staff hallways that lead throughout the building.”
April remembered something Mae had told her during training. “The back rooms near the vault room used to be staff quarters,” she said.
“Good. That will be our target. We need your badge to open the door.”
“I wonder if they know about this.”
Randall shrugged. “It’s not on any of the layouts for the remodel they have in the map room.”
“Well, I guess it’s worth a shot,” April said. She nodded to Rex. “What about him?”
“Oh, he won’t be any trouble. He’ll probably be the quietest of us all. Once we get inside I’ll stick him someplace safe and tell him to sit.”
“And he’ll just stay there?”
“Yep.”
April scratched Rex’s ears. He really was a good dog. “Okay. I guess we should go.”
Randall glanced at her once more. “Are you sure this is what you want to do?”
She thought for a moment. It would be so easy to just go home and pretend like this wasn’t happening… but then she’d have to live with it for the rest of her life.
“I can’t keep running away.”
Randall nodded. “Okay. It’s now or never.”
She swiped the badge over the reader. The lock disengaged with a beep. If the maintenance workers used it every day, it was hard to tell by how it scraped against the concrete when it opened. They closed it behind them carefully.
They waited for their eyes to adjust to the new darkness. The only light came from the red glow of an exit sign hanging over the door.
“Okay,” April said when her eyes had adjusted. “Where’s this staircase?”
Randall looked around, pointing to a section of the wall. “It should be here,” he said.
“Are you sure?”
“Yeah. I have a photographic memory.” He swore. “They must have walled it up while they remodeled the library. Sorry.”
“It’s not your fault. It was a good plan.” She patted his shoulder. “I’m going to go see what it looks like inside.”
She crept along the back hallway to the door to the main part of the hallway. There was a tall, thin window above the doorknob. She glanced through it, hoping it was dark enough that anyone on the other side wouldn’t see her.
There were several people in the lobby. Most of them were posted near the bottom of the main staircase, but she could see at least two flashlight beams moving around between the stacks.
She was about to call back
to Randall when she heard a man’s voice on the other side of the door. “Hold on—there’s a door back here.”
She ducked down, pressing herself as close to the door as possible, hoping the speaker couldn’t see her.
He must have been talking into a cell phone or a walkie talkie, because he paused as though listening to someone reply.
“Rodger that. I’ll secure the area.”
The doorknob jiggled. April’s heart jumped into her throat.
“The door is locked,” the man said. “I need to get the key from Broker.”
Pause.
“I don’t know. There’s a window here.” April bit her lip to stop herself from squealing as the beam of his flashlight shone through the window and onto the floor, only inches from the toes of her shoes, which were drawn so close to her chest that they were starting to cramp up.
“Doesn’t appear to be anything of note on the other side. We’ll secure it later.”
The flashlight beam lingered a few more seconds, then withdrew. The man’s footsteps retreated away from the door. She didn’t dare move until the static of his walkie talkie faded. Then she scrambled to her feet, her legs feeling like jelly, and hurried back to Randall.
“What took you so long?” Randall said when he saw her, relief flooding his features. “I was starting to get worried.”
“I had a close call,” she said. “But it’s not important. What matters is that there is no way we’re getting up the main stairwell without being seen. The first floor is crawling with Thaddeus’ goons.”
“Shit.”
April glanced around, looking for something, anything that could help them. She spied what looked like a small laundry chute door in the wall. Why would a library need a laundry chute?
“What’s that?” she asked, pointing.
“Hold on,” Randall said, perking up. “I think this is good.” He opened the door to reveal what looked like a small elevator. “It’s a dumb waiter.”