Page 17 of Arrivals & Assets

“Can I see the tech room before we head upstairs?” I asked as she waited for me to praise a vault that was worthless to me.

“O-ok,” she replied, catching on that I was not as enthusiastic as she was.

She led me to a large closet, and any remaining hope that I had for the building evaporated. A single coax cable dangled from where it came through the wall. Below it was a patch panel sporting thick cables.

A T3 line? Really? Is it even connected, or just a relic?

“Shall we head upstairs?” she asked with a forced, hopeful tone.

“Sure.”

The upstairs was only marginally better because it at least had carpet to reduce the noise, though it would need to be replaced. The exterior offices were decent, but I couldn’t imagine the poor people stuck in the interior ones. There weren’t even skylights to bring in natural light.

I’d rather send Linden an email saying we’d have to wait for more office options than put my people in there. Morale would plummet from the building alone, and that was before I touched any renovation costs.

“Well?” she asked as we finished our tour of the upstairs offices.

I shook my head. “Thanks, but I don’t think this will work for us. Let’s check out the next place.”

Her smile was forced as she nodded. “Ok.”

She gave me the address and parking information for the next location, and fifteen minutes later, she was holding a large chain aside so I could pull into the vacant lot.

As opposed to the bank, the parking was an immediate plus. And while the seventies-style boxy building wasn’t ideal… I felt better about it than I had the other building.

It was ugly; there was no denying that. But I’d take ugly if I could make it functional.

“Now, the city did asbestos abatement about fifteen years ago,” she said as she opened the door. “So you won’t have to worry about that.”

“The city?”

“Oh, yes. These were the old city offices. They moved to their new space several years ago. They used it for some temporary workspaces after that, while other buildings were renovated. Then there was some agreement where it was used by another government agency for about six months. The current landlord bought it after that, and it’s been empty for about eighteen months.”

My heart sank; empty for eighteen months in a tight market was bad news.

The scents of old carpet, dust, and an ancient air conditioning system were strong. But it could have been worse.

The lobby slash reception area was nice. The tiles were worn, and the desk would need to be replaced sooner than later, but those were relatively easy fixes.

“Is there any way we can start in the tech room?” I asked.

She nodded. “Sure. It’s right back here.”

I blinked and followed her to one side of the lobby—to the shallower side of the building. She rounded a corner and opened the door.

It was larger than the bank’s tech closet, but not by much. I could almost taste the ionized dust and degrading rubber.

The connection situation was bad, but it gave me hope. It looked like they’d used a last-mile copper setup, which meant there was fiber close, even if it didn’t come directly to the building. It would still be expensive to bring the rest of the way in, but there could be options.

I nodded. “Ok. Let’s move on.”

“Great!” she chirped. “Since we’re on this side, I’ll show you the maintenance offices.”

“Ok.”

The long windowless hallway was soul-sucking, and I felt bad for the building maintenance and janitorial staff who’d once been forced to occupy the offices along it. But I was hoping that I could use the demeaning architecture to my advantage. I waited until I spotted an abandoned wood and fabric guest chair in one of the tiny rooms.

“May I?” I asked, motioning to the chair.