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Gesturing for the rest of them to stay there, I tugged on Menol y's arm, and we bent low, crossing to the right-side door. The lock on this one was oiled and rust-free. Yep, this was the door they used to enter the building. I'd bet the bank on it. Once again, we crossed back to the left, and I hurriedly whispered my thoughts to the others.
"If we go in here, they won't necessarily be expecting us. If we take the lesser-used route, we may buy ourselves time to root around without being caught. And while I expect we're going to have a fight on our hands, I'd prefer to get in, grab Amber and the guys, and get out again before anybody catches us."
It wasn't entirely true--I real y wanted to pound the crap out of them, but hey, the less stress, the better. Why make waves that might attract Stacia if we could be sneaky? Granted, we weren't good at sneaky, but we'd give it the old col ege try once again. Why I thought this time would be any different than usual, I didn't know, but then again, I was always being accused of being an optimist.
Camil e nodded. "Good thought. Spring the lock."
I pul ed out my picks and began mucking around with the lock. It was simple, no big-assed deadbolt, and it looked like the original that had come with the building. I took out my tension wrench, inserted it in the lock, then slid in the pick as I pressed my ear to the door and began working the pins.
Click. Click. Click. The pins fel into place.
Yeah, I was good at this. It occurred to me that between my glamour and my ability to pick locks, I might do better as a thief rather than a private investigator. Gods knew, I had few enough cases lately. Of course, if I spent more time advertising and hunting for clients, I'd be pul ing in more work. Then I'd have to find the time to do it. Content to leave matters as they were, I finished jimmying the lock, and the latch sprang.
"We're good to go," I whispered. "Just try to keep the noise level down." I turned off my penlight and sucked in a deep breath.
And then we headed inside.
The door opened into a long passage that was dimly lit by flickering florescent tubes that ran the length of the hal way. We wouldn't be able to hide in this light, but considering that the corridor was empty, right now it wasn't a worry. I edged through the door, looking for traps, but the place was deserted.
Motioning the others in, I glanced down the hal to make sure that we wouldn't be surprised if somebody came around the bend. The corridor ended, turning to the right, but between the turn and us were three doors to worry about--two on the left side and one on the right.
As Morio closed the door behind us, I sucked in a deep breath and did my best to softly creep along the tiled floor. The tile hadn't seen the end of a mop in a long, long time, and the dirt was ground in, years old by the look of it.
When we came to the first door, this one on the left, I pressed my ear against the wood and listened.
Nothing.
I tried the knob, but the door was locked. Thinking that maybe one of these might lead to our missing Weres, I pul ed out my pick set again. Two minutes later, the door was open, and we were staring into a room that had a desk and not much else. Except for one hel of a dust bunny problem.
We moved on to the middle door on the right. This one was unlocked, so we listened careful y again, then I cracked it, ever so slightly, and paused.
Nothing. No sound, no indication there was anybody in there. I eased the door open another few inches and peeked around the corner. The room was dark but ful . Motioning for everybody else to wait outside, I tapped Menol y on the shoulder to fol ow me.
Deciding to chance it, I pul ed out my penlight and sent the narrow beam around the room. It was jammed ful of boxes and bags of al sizes. Hmm . . .
stockroom? I slid through two stacks of boxes and stopped to examine the lettering on one. It was ful y sealed and was marked as containing canned peaches.
"Peaches?" A quick gander around showed the rest of the boxes to be fil ed with tinned fruits, vegetables, tuna, peanut butter, and a number of other goods. "What, are they planning on this becoming their fal out shelter?"
Menol y poked me in the ribs. "Shush. Who knows what they're up to? But seriously, there's enough food in this room to feed a family of four for a year."
She frowned. "They believe in some post-apocalyptic future or something?"
"I don't know." I opened another box that wasn't marked as food and had simply been shut by tucking the corners of the flaps under one another. Holy crap! I jumped back before I could stop myself.
"What?" Menol y leaned in past me to take a look. "Motherfucking pus bucket. What the hel are they planning?"
Staring at us from the depths of the box were sticks of dynamite. Plural. As in, I had no idea how many, but too many to count offhand.
"I have no idea, but I sure don't like the way that looks. They aren't primed for use--the blasting caps must be in a different box, but fuck, this stuff goes bad." I'd already been whispering, but I lowered my voice again. "We don't know how long this has been here. Dynamite degrades. I don't know just how much I trust being in a building ful of this crap."
"There's a door on the other side of the room." Menol y nodded in the direction of the opposite wal . "I'l take a quick listen, and then we'l get out of here." She silently glided over to the other door and pressed her ear against it. Then, just as silently, she backed up without opening it and motioned toward the hal way where the others waited.
As she shut the door behind us, I leaned against the wal --the opposite wal , considering that the room we'd just vacated held enough dynamite to take half this building out of commission--and let myself breathe.
"We have to be very careful. The Koyanni apparently like to play with things that go boom. As in dynamite. As in at least one ful box in that room. They also have enough food to stock a corner grocery store--looks like they're stockpiling. I have no idea why, but consider them armed and dangerous. And for the sake of the gods, do not send anything that explodes into that room. No lightning bolts, no energy bal s, or we could blow this joint sky high."
"There's a door on the other side of the room," Menol y added. "And I heard someone on the other side. I suggest we very quietly make our way down the hal and see what's around the corner."
