Page 23 of Facade

They talked for a bit longer about inconsequential things, just enjoying each other’s company. Eventually, they reluctantly returned to their own dorms.

Jace had just stepped over the threshold of the common room when a large grey wolf leapt at him from behind a couch. Jace dropped, rolled out of the way, and came up in a crouch, shaking his head. “Nice try, Brad,” he said.

The wolf transformed into an annoyed student. “Damn it!” Brad exclaimed. “I should have had you.”

Jace chuckled. “I’d be a piss poor combat teacher if you could take me that easily.”

Wanting to channel the frequent pranks into a healthy activity that would test their mettle, Jace had offered extra credit points to any of his students who could successfully ambush him. It motivated them to work on their physical skills regardless of career ambitions.

The exercise was proving to be entertaining. It also served to distract him from the fruitless search for clues.

The rest of the afternoon was quiet. Jace popped in and out of the common room to check on his students between doing loads of laundry and tidying his apartment.

In the early evening, shortly after eating his dinner, Jace’s phone chimed with a text. It was Clarke, saying that she’d had a vision. Attached was a picture of a sketch showing a door in a wall of what appeared to be a mechanical room.

Hope blossomed as Jace scrutinized the photo, taking in every detail. He wanted to check this out immediately, and knew that Clarke did as well. This door might not lead directly to Charlie, but they had a clue.

Instead of replying to the text, Jace called her. “It looks like a basement room,” he said. “I don’t want you to get discouraged, but every building here, to my knowledge, has a basement. We should come up with a plan to find this particular door around our daily routines.”

“For all I know, the mechanical rooms could be identical, but it looks like the basement under my dorm,” Clarke said. “I searched the basement my first day here before meeting you in the training center. There was nothing, so I brushed it off. I assumed the door was a tool closet, since it’s on an outside wall facing the caster dorm. I’m kicking myself now for not investigating further. From the paint color and other characteristics, it looks like the same door.”

“Then we’ll start there,” Jace said. “I’ll be over in about a half an hour.”

“Are you sure you can swing that without any problems?” Clarke asked.

“Yeah, don’t worry about me,” he said.

After ending the call, Jace texted his junior and senior prefects, telling them that he would be out for a bit, but would have his phone if they needed him. They told him to take some time to himself, and that they would handle things at the dorm in his absence.

Clarke was waiting for him at the back door of the powered dorm. A few students were in the common room watching TV or studying at tables, but most were elsewhere. None of them paid attention to him and Clarke as they walked to the staircase and opened the basement-access door.

“I should have checked this out over a week ago,” Clarke said irritably. “Focusing on the staff made sense to me at the time, but the door was right here, and I didn’t bother to open it.”

“Don’t beat yourself up. We’re checking now. If there is something here, I’d rather be with you than have you discover it on your own,” he said. “Maintenance personnel are in the mechanical rooms frequently. I wouldn’t have considered that a likely spot to find evidence either.”

The basement was huge. It was also loud from the sound of machinery, water running through pipes, and the whooshing of the blowers pushing air into the vents. Rodents scurried for cover as Clarke led him to the door on the far wall. It did look like the same one in the sketch.

“Damn, we need to get some cats down here before the mice take over the whole building,” Clarke said.

“Yeah, rodents tend to stay away from the shifter dorm out of self-preservation, but you definitely need a deterrent here,” Jace agreed.

They both felt a keen sense of anticipation as the latch clicked, and Clarke opened the door. It wasn’t a closet. Overhead lighting illuminated a large room with concrete walls and floors.

“Holy shit! Is this a mining tunnel?” Clarke wondered.

Metal tracks were inlaid on the right side. What appeared to be a wagon with metal wheels that fitted to the track sat on it. The front had a single seat and controls. To the left were storage shelves along that wall filled with labeled boxes.

“This has to be for moving supplies,” Jace guessed. “But how far does it go?”

Taking one of her hands in his, he and Clarke started following the tracks in unspoken agreement. Just being able to touch her freely settled something inside him.

The cleanliness and organization here meant that maintenance knew about, and used this tunnel. That didn’t mean that there wasn’t something else here, however.

The tunnel narrowed with occasional wider spaces for more supplies. Everything from furnace filters to plastic-wrapped mattresses seemed to be kept down here. Up ahead was a wide, sliding door that the tracks ran under. Black block letters read, Caster Boilers and Mechanicals.

“This access tunnel runs under all the dorms, and probably ends with yours,” Clarke said.

She was right. With increasing excitement, they scoured every inch of the walls finding nothing but more colonies of startled mice. There were no hidden doors or passageways. When they reached the basement of the shifter dorm, Clarke heaved a shuddering sigh.