THIRTEEN

“Did you put something on those elbows after your fall yesterday?” Jaisen asked, putting his phone back in his pocket.

“No. I’m fine. They’re just a little bruised is all.”

“I’ve got something for that,” one hand on the wheel he reached into his pack and pulled out a little medicine kit. What kind of a guy carries his own medicine kit around? I suppose that this spying thing being new to him and all, he thought that he needed to be prepared for every contingency. He pulled out a small jar with a blue cap and handed it to me. I squinted down at it in the dim light coming off of the dashboard. Written all in German, great.

“Keep it, I have more at home,” Jaisen said, smiling and zipping his pack back up and putting his right hand back on the wheel.

I opened the jar and took a big whiff, immediately wishing that I hadn’t. It was stronger than Vick’s Vapor Rub and I think that it burnt the whole inside of my nose out.

Jaisen saw the look on my face and laughed. “It does smell a little strong. Don’t worry, you won’t be able to smell it after a while.”

We pulled up to “lookout” hill and Jaisen put the car into park. We had a scant hour to finish this mission and get me dressed and home before curfew. I got into the back of the car again to change. Before slipping on my spandex cat burglar outfit, yet another disguise that the spy car held, I opened the jar and slapped some miracle ointment on my elbows. If the stuff really worked it would be nice to have fully functioning elbows rappelling into and out of the building.

Jaisen was waiting for me outside the car–a wraith in the half moonlight.

We made our way carefully down the hill–this time my sneakered feet gripped the trail and soon we were at the bottom. I couldn’t help but glance at the bushes that we had crouched in before. There wouldn’t be any kissing tonight and there was absolutely no reason why I should be saddened in any way by that idea. Keeping a lookout for any people, we made our way to the building. Our plan was to follow the same roof to air vent route from my previous visit, though this time, of course, it would go smoothly.

We fired off and secured our rappelling hooks to make our ascent to the roof. My bruises made themselves known as I pulled myself up, but I think that the salve may have started working. It wasn’t nearly as bad as I thought that it would be.

Up on the roof, we detached our rappelling hooks and crunched over side by side to the air vent.

“I’ll go first,” Jaisen whispered. I didn’t argue. If it made him feel better then fine. He could go first. Even if he was the rookie.

He attached his rappelling hook, put on his cool sunglasses that were really night vision glasses and levered himself into the air vent. I put my glasses on too and watched from the top while he made his way down the cable. At the bottom he looked up and pushed the button that automatically detached his rappelling hook. I attached mine and made my way down, the walls of the air vent on either side of me. I didn’t look down the fourteen stories to where Jaisen was standing or up to the entrance that I had come through. I focused on my hands and the rope until I felt Jaisen’s warm hands behind me grasp my waist and lower me to the ground in front of him. For a second we stood still, Jaisen behind me, his hands on my waist, in the air vent that was only slightly bigger around then the two of us. Heat emanated from his body and his breath tickled the back of my neck.

Then his hands were gone. I clicked the automatic button on my rappelling hook and detached it from my waist, tucking it safely away into my pack. I would not be forgetting it this time. I turned to him and he gestured to a side shoot for air going into individual parts of the building. I followed him into the side air vent and crawled along horizontally. We went through the labyrinth of tunnels, following the projected map that my wristwatch still held of the ONC Corp. building, until we came to what the map had described as the heart of the building. Here was where most of the important staff worked–including the President Franklin Culpepper, before he had been fired, where we thought there would be a good chance of finding files on exports to China.

We dropped down into a hallway, our feet landing softly on the linoleum beneath us. Red exit signs glowed at either end of the hall. We followed the map and Franklin Culpepper’s door. The name was still visible behind the paper that someone had taped over the plaque outside his door.

I pulled my lock pick’s kit out of my pack and got to work, Jaisen on lookout. The metal of my tools in my hand, my mind working through the problem to unlock the door, I jumped at the feel of Jaisen’s urgent hand on my back. Then I heard it too. The elevator was awake and moving. I focused my mind back in on the lock. Finally, the lock clicked and I pushed it open. Quietly, we pulled ourselves into the slightly disheveled office and relocked the door behind us.

The elevator at the end of the hall made a loud and all too familiar “BING,” signaling an exit on our floor. Then the hall lights flicked on, sending a faint wash of light through the frosted glass window of the door.

Heart beating wildly, I looked around and assessed the room. There was a large supply closet, filing cabinets, a desk and chairs. There was no way that Jaisen and I would both fit under the desk together. There was only one option. I turned to Jaisen and saw that he was thinking the same thing. We went for the supply closet and opened the door. The closet was tall enough to hold full-length coats on one side. We could hear two pairs of footsteps clicking closer. We pushed ourselves in and pulled the door shut behind us.

The sound of the office door it had taken me precious minutes to meticulously unlock with my lock pick’s tools opened. We stood with our heads bowed slightly under the empty coat rod. I looked at Jaisen’s face inches from my own. He was listening intently. I tapped on my mic. If nothing else when the U.E. came to claim my dead body maybe they would find it and be able to persecute the killer.

“I hate sneaking around the office at night like a thief in my own house Veronica,” came Mrs. Patent’s voice. “It was bad enough sneaking around my own ship to get an idea of its layout. I just don’t want to cause a panic by searching while employees are here. I want everyone to think that I have things under control. You are absolutely certain that you cannot get a hold of Franklin?”

“I have tried numerous times. Apparently, he went on vacation and didn’t give anyone his number,” Veronica’s voice was sharp.

The crack between the two doors let in a tiny sliver of light. I squinted, but couldn’t see out of it.

“Where could he possibly have kept the shipping information? I know he reviewed it, but I have no idea where he kept it. Look in that file cabinet again. We must have missed something last time,” Mrs. Patent said.

“And you asked Hank if he had the shipping report?” Veronica said.

“Hank is a useless individual, Veronica. If it weren’t for his family connections, I never would have promoted him to Head of Shipping. Now I am having serious doubts about that decision. There must be a job that he could do that wouldn’t involve any actual responsibility? Look into it.”

I felt Jaisen shift the tiniest of bits beside me. My own legs were falling asleep and I want to run around, loosen them up. I held myself still.

“At any rate, Hank claimed that Franklin never gave the shipping report back to him.” The sound of files being opened and the rustling of papers accompanied Mrs. Patent’s voice. “I know that there was a weight discrepancy on the report that Franklin was worried about, but there was something else that I hadn’t gotten an opportunity to discuss with him yet and I want to know what it is.” In the small space of the closet the sound of our breathing seemed magnified.

“Do you smell something?” Veronica asked. “Like eucalyptus or mint?” My heart went cold, for while I couldn’t smell anything, my nose having gone numb seconds after applying the stuff, she was certainly describing the ointment that I had rubbed all over my arms.

“At my age, my sense of smell is almost completely gone,” Mrs. Patent said. “Perhaps there are some mints or cough drops in one of Franklin’s drawers that you smell.” Yes, Mrs. Patent, good thinking. I was beginning to like her more by the minute.

“But I’m sure that the smell wasn’t here last time,” Veronica said. I could hear her giant nose sniffing around the office. My heart beat faster and faster.

“Maybe one of the cleaning people brought something in to freshen the air?” Mrs. Patent said.

“Why would they do that?” Veronica’s voice and sniffing got closer and closer to our closet. The woman’s bloodhound nose was fast on our scent. “It smells likes it’s coming from this closet.”

The rookie had made a classic mistake in giving me the ointment–spies should never wear anything strongly scented and I had fallen right into it.

I thought my heart was going to burst out of my chest. We were going to get caught. We were so going to get caught. By crazy people. Crazy drug company people. For all we knew they had a human trafficking trade going alongside their drug business and they would just ship us right off to become slaves in parts unknown. Or worse, they would expose us. We would be all over the news. Two spy failures. Oh my god, I was going to end up like Crandall the Desk Guy.

The tiny stripe of light where the closet doors met darkened. Veronica.

Please don’t let me end up like Crandall the Desk Guy. Please don’t let me end up like Crandall the Desk Guy. His pasty white face, his flabby arms–

The door in front of me pulled out a centimeter and a slash of light came into our hiding place. I held my breath and shut my eyes as though that would keep her from seeing me when the closet door swung all of the way open. But somehow the door didn’t swing all of the way open. The door stayed open just that centimeter and then fell shut.

“The door is locked. I didn’t think these closets had a lock,” Veronica’s voice took on a higher, whinier pitch.

“Veronica, get away from there and help me look. Really. I don’t want to snoop around here all night.”

When next I heard Veronica’s voice it was further away. “I’m not finding anything.” I tried to let out my breath as slowly and quietly as possible. What had kept the door from opening? I turned to see that Jaisen was holding a coat hanger in his hand, one end jammed into the hinges of the door to keep it from opening.

“Well, we’re just going to have to trust that you will be able to figure out the cause of the discrepancy and discover anything else that might be amiss on our overseas shipment. With you and Hank accompanying the shipment, you will get first hand information about anything strange that is going on onboard.” File doors slammed closed.

“Now I’m trusting you, Veronica, not to mention that I have suspicions that Hank has a hand in the whaling industry and might not be altogether trustworthy. Keep your eyes open. Interrogate the captain of the ship every chance you get. It is highly doubtful Hank could pull something off on his own, but Stan is another matter altogether.” As she said this last bit the door clicked shut. Once again we heard shoes clicking down the hall, the elevator coming to life, binging, and then humming again. Then it was quiet.

I sucked in a huge amount of air and let it back out. Jaisen hung the clothes hanger back up and I cautiously opened the door. The room was again dark.

“Why did you give me that god forsaken ointment?” I demanded in a whisper.

“I didn’t think that you would put it on right now. If you recall, I gave it to you to take home. Said that I had more, don’t worry about it. I assumed you would put it on before going to bed. Wake up feeling better.”

“Well,” I said, huffing. “You could have picked a more opportune moment to give it to me.”

“You could have picked a more opportune moment to put it on.”

Was he trying to blame me for this? Because it sounded like he was trying to blame me.

“Look, just forget it. Next time, don’t try to pull any crazy stunts like that. I’ll take responsibility. I am the one in charge here and I should have just said no thank you I don’t want any stink cream.”

Jaisen shook his head. “I’ll try to remember not to offer help next time.”

“Fine.”

“Fine.” Jaisen glared at me.

I glared back. “I’ve worked really hard to get this far at the U.E. and I don’t appreciate you screwing things up for me.”

Jaisen’s lips tightened. He turned away from me and began searching the room.

That was just fine with me. I didn’t have anything more to say to him either.