AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“A full-fat Coke would be amazing. I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but all the vending machines in the building are diet soda and water. It sucks.”
“Sure. One Coke, coming up.” I move to the elevator.
When the doors open, I realize I should take the stairs.
I don’t want to get trapped in the elevator if I end up stuck in there for too long.
I go into the stairwell and move quickly up to the sixth floor.
Everyone in this place must use the elevator. I don’t run into a single soul.
I check the time before I step out into the sixth-floor hallway.
A woman is headed to the elevator, and another just rounded the corner going the other way.
I take my time walking down the hall, pretending to be checking my phone.
I step into the men’s bathroom as soon as the elevator woman is gone.
It’s empty. I slip into a stall in case I need to hide anyway.
It’s the longest sixty seconds of my life, and that includes the minute Joan spent telling me about the monthly reports I’m thankfully never going to have to do.
When the fire alarm starts going off, it’s louder than I expect, but it makes me smile so brightly.
Finally. I keep my phone in my hand, waiting for Victor to send me the all-clear.
I’m ready to dart back to the stairwell and get up to the fifteen floor where Victor should be ready to pick that lock and get us into the stairwell that leads to Harlan’s office.
Minutes tick by, and I get anxious to start making my way up those stairs.
No one was using the stairwell before.
Right, but also the elevators were working before.
Come on, come on.
A couple more minutes pass and Victor tells me to get moving.
I leave the bathroom, running to the stairwell and pelting up the stairs like I’m running for my life.
I basically am. We only have so much time to get the office checked and get the hell out of here.
Nine flights of stairs is nothing. The next five will be less than nothing.
I get to the fifteenth floor and dart out into the hallway.
Victor looks up at me from across the hall. He’s picking the lock. I catch my breath as I walk over to where he’s standing.
“Almost,” he murmurs, before he moves his fingers, and the sound of a lock opening makes him smile. “And there we go.”
He holds the door open, and I step inside, rushing up the stairs ahead of him.
I stop dead when I hear something strange.
Victor stops, and cringes.
I mouth the word, “what?” at him.
