Chapter 24 - Leo #2
Sure enough, she was right. Chains and large padlocks secured the large metal doors. Humans would need tools to break it, but Ricky and I could use our strength.
My beta must have been thinking the same thing, because he clapped his hands together. “All right, let’s do this.”
With our combined strength, it took less than five minutes for us to get in, with Ven keeping watch for us the entire time. Once the locks and chains were taken care of, we quietly slid the door open high enough for us to get under.
Huh, it really could be just that easy I supposed.
“Here is where we’re pretty much in the dark,” Ven said as she straightened and turned the flashlight on in her phone.
“And I do mean that both literally and figuratively. There aren’t going to be any lights on, and I have no idea what the inside of this building looks like.
I couldn’t find a tour, I couldn’t find any sort of PR, not even staged pictures for a feel-good article.
Honestly, I wouldn’t be surprised if this thing was a giant, empty box. ”
“Hey, what you did find was amazing,” I assured her, pressing a kiss to the top of her head. “Let’s look around.”
Because we weren’t idiots from a horror movie, we didn’t split up.
Instead, we moved in a loose cluster, with Ricky and I taking turns between the front and rear position, and Ven always somewhere around the middle.
We started off in the loading area, then quickly progressed into the most banal, office-like setting I’d ever been in.
When we reached the lobby, I held up my hand, signaling for us to stop. I could hear the faintest heartbeat barely on the edge of my senses, but on the other side of the door. There was something else with it. A slow, but rhythmic scraping, almost like the cutting of wood.
Wait a minute.
Was I hearing snoring?
I couldn’t believe it. There was at least one guard on the other side of the door, but he was fast asleep, metaphorically sawing logs on the job.
I sank into the slowest shift I’d had in a long time, trying to keep the steam and heat that came from the transformation at a minimum. Ricky followed suit, which would allow us to communicate without verbally speaking.
“Is that guy sleeping?” he asked in the mental language shifters often could use to communicate. It took a lot of practice to understand another species, but as pack Ricky and I could speak as easily as we did in our human forms.
“Seems like it,” I answered, more amused than I ever expected to be during a stealth mission.
“Wait, I think I hear two more. Each on opposite ends of what sounds like a very big room.”
Ricky was right, and I nodded my large head. Ven, to her credit, crouched a bit away from us behind the empty receptionist desk, watching keenly. “I’ll take the sleeping one and the one to the right. You take the farther one to the left?”
“Sounds like a plan. On your count?”
“Three, two, one!”
We burst through the doors, and I was on the sleeping guard in a second.
Since I didn’t know if he was an innocent man or the brothers’ evil co-conspirator, I only knocked him out.
Still probably wasn’t great for his health to have his head bounced off the wall, but it was better than the alternative.
Ricky and I made quick work of the others, then paused, waiting for an alarm or reinforcement, but after nearly a minute, there was only silence.
Ricky and I shifted back, then fetched Ven. Just like the reception area, it was the most milquetoast, corporate space I’d ever had the discomfort of being in.
Granted, it wasn’t like I’d ever been a corporate wolf, but the entire place was completely lacking in any sort of personal detail. The cubicles were all completely identical. The vending machines were all full, the kitchen was perfectly organized, and the fridge was empty.
“This is kind of giving me the spooks,” Vanessa said after a while, and honestly, I couldn’t blame her. There was something very uncanny about the building, and it wasn’t just because it was a liminal space.
“Isn’t this supposed to be a medical testing facility?
” Ricky said eventually, sounding like he was growing a bit frustrated.
Quite frankly, me too. While, sure, I liked that it wasn’t a knockdown, drag-out fight at the moment, I hadn’t really expected our possible encounter with the brothers and their property to be so. .. boring.
“I mean, I’m no expert,” Ven murmured, “but this really isn’t what should be here at all.”
“These are warlocks we’re dealing with. Perhaps we should assume that we’re being tricked in some way,” I said. As the seconds ticked on, it seemed more and more likely.
Ricky let out a frustrated groan. “We’re missing something; I know it! These brothers may be arrogant, but they’re not stupid. This building has to be some sort of decoy or red herring, and we’ve fallen right into it.”
“I suppose there are worse things that could have happened,” Ven said calmly. “We can still use this as a jumping-off point to try to find another cluster of your pack.”
I wasn’t quite convinced. “Let’s hold off on throwing the towel in just yet. I just feel like there’s something we’re missing.”
“It’s not like we’re in a rush,” Ricky said. “Let’s do a full search of the place again. Start with a walk around the perimeter and just slowly work our way inward.”
“Sounds like a plan to me.”
We were halfway back to where we’d started, about to begin our more thorough search, when Ven paused and frowned at the restrooms.
“You can go if you need to,” I said, hoping I sounded assuring. Some people could get a little bladder shy. “Ricky and I will guard the door for you.”
“No, it’s not that. It’s just… do the proportions of this area seem weird to you? And aren’t bathrooms almost always up against the wall? I’ve never seen a place with them just smack dab in the middle of a floor plan like their own rooms. Not that I’ve worked in many offices.”
I hadn’t either, but now that she mentioned it, it did seem a little odd.
“Hold on, let me check it out.”
Carefully, in case it was some sort of trap, I slowly walked toward the dimly lit entrance of the restrooms. As I approached, I realized there was indeed something wrong.
Even if a bathroom was just cleaned, it should smell like a bathroom. That meant standing water, hand soap, and the strangely distinct scent of toilet paper, but I couldn’t pick up on any of that. In fact, the whole area smelled a bit like stale air and…
Oil?
That didn’t make any sense. But we were dealing with warlocks and magical creatures, after all, so was it really surprising that something might not be quite as it appeared?
“I think there’s some sort of glamour here,” I said.
Ven had, once again, saved our rears. Maybe Ricky and I were stupid, but I didn’t think either of us would come up with the idea that the office itself could potentially be glamoured. We did need to get better about that stuff.
“What, really?” Ricky asked, striding past me. I heard him sniff around, which I let him do without interruption—his nose was better than mine. It was one of the reasons why he made such an excellent scout. “You’re right! I don’t know what’s past these doors, but it ain’t no bathroom.”
“I suppose there’s only one way to find out.”
“Wait!” Ven called. “What if it’s dangerous?”
But I was already moving forward, walking right through the custodial door between the two bathroom entrances. Sure enough, I didn’t even have to open it. It brushed past my skin like no more than the suggestion of a breeze, and I found myself staring at a glass and gold, overly wrought elevator.
“Guys,” I called softly. Although we were supposed to be alone, there was no reason to be reckless. “You’re not going to believe what I found.”
I enjoyed the shock playing over Ven’s gorgeous face. Ricky seemed surprised too, but less so. Likely because he’d had way more exposure to magic users over his life than Ven had.
“Oh, my God, it’s been an elevator the entire time! Where do you think it goes?” Ven asked.
“Not to repeat myself,” I said, “but there’s really only one way to find out.
“Do you think it’s safe?”
“I’m pretty sure most experts wouldn’t recommend taking an elevator down into an unknown area of an enemy that’s shown themselves not to care about decency or what’s right, but I don’t think we have much of a choice.
If we want to know what’s going on here, we have to use it.
And if any of our pack being held prisoner or being tested on, if they’re going to be held anywhere, it’s in some sort of secret layer with a glamoured elevator shaft. ”
Ven grimaced but nodded along. “When you’re right, you’re right.”
“It does happen from time to time.”
“Don’t get used to it,” Ricky said, slapping me on the back.
“Hey, it’s not too late to fire you as beta.”
It was an empty threat, and my best friend knew it. “As if you could survive without me.”
“As much as I appreciate the banter, if we’re going to do this, we should get a move on,” Ven interjected.
She had a point, and without much more fanfare, the three of us got into the elevator and pressed the singular button.
Down, down, down we went, far longer than any elevator ride should go. I would have thought there’d be some sort of security cameras along the sides of the shaft or even in the elevator, but no, and I didn’t really know if that was a good thing.
The elevator lurched to a sudden stop and opened into a large room that wouldn’t have looked out of place in a sci-fi movie.
It was a glaringly white space, with all sorts of machines and a reception desk facing us. The lights were so dim, they looked more like emergency flashers, but as soon as the elevator doors opened, the overhead lights flashed on to full power, turning the room nearly blinding.
“Now, this is freaky,” Ven said as we entered.
I had to agree with her. It felt like we were intruding on a space that didn’t belong to us. Probably because we were.