Chapter 5

• Opening the door, he stepped into a bright room with walls that were polished steel, reflecting the light from the open door. There were no other doors except the one they stood in. ‘I’d say it’s a refrigeration unit, except there are no fans.”
• Tess moved past him and went over to the wall. Touching the surface, she ran her hand over it. “Too warm.”
• Frowning, Brody let the door close quietly and went over to touch it also. It was warm, not something he expected from a metal. “The weirdness of this just keeps increasing.”
• “Yeah, it’s really . . .”
• A loud humming noise filed the room suddenly. Looking at each other for a second, they both came to the same conclusion and headed back over to the door. When Brody grasped the handle, the lock clicked. “Shit.”
• “Someone else is here.” Tess stared at the door. “Did Gray happen to mention how to bypass the lock from the other side of the door?”
• “Not that I recall.” His tone expressed what he was thinking. They were sitting ducks in here. No way out and if anyone came through the one and only door, there was nowhere to hide. “Try the mic again.” Flipping his phone open, he waited for the signal bars to register; only there weren’t any.
• “Mics are still static.”
• “Phone has no signal either.”
• He watched Tess close her eyes and when they popped open he could see the worry in them. “We’ll just . . .”
• “It’s gone.” Panic and shock vibrated in her voice.
• “What is?” Flipping the phone closed he tucked it in his pocket.
• “What I can do – I can’t feel it.”
• Moving over, he ran his hand over the wall again. He could feel the vibrations of whatever was humming vibrating. What is this room made of? “How do you know?’
• “I just do.”
• The panic in her voice unnerved him in the same way it did when she overdid it and almost collapsed. “Try it.” Going over, he stood behind her and wrapped one arm lightly around her waist. Trying to ignore the way his body liked having her close, he lowered his voice. “Just try.”
• Letting out a loud breath, she grasped his hand and squeezed it. He stood there waiting for that strange lightened feeling to fill him like it did when she took him from one place to another.
• “Nothing,” Tess whispered with a defeated tone.
• Aside from the fact that it bothered him to hear her sound that way, it suddenly dawned on him that they were stuck in the shiny room. “Well—that’s going to complicate things a bit.”
• “No kidding.” She moved out of his arm and walked around the room. Putting the earpiece back in, she depressed the switch on the unit attached to her vest. “Nothing but dead air.”
• Brody pulled his phone back out and walked around the room holding it out in front of him. “Dead zone.” Stuffing it back in his pocket he stood there with his hands on his hips and looked at the floor. Even the floor was the polished metal. “They’ll come looking for us if too much time passes and they haven’t heard from us.”
• “That won’t help them find us.” Moving over to the wall, she started walking along it sideways feeling over it.
• “What are you looking for?”
• “There has to be a seam—or something.” She looked up at the ceiling. “Metal doesn’t come in pieces this large or in the shape of rooms.”
• “Good point.” Squatting down, he began moving along and looking at the floor. “There’s not even a light or anything in here but it’s still bright enough for us to see.”
• “What the hell could this room be for?” Tess continued along the wall.
• Pulling out his flashlight, he shone it across the floor. “I’m pretty sure whatever it is, we won’t like it.” Deciding there were no possible seams on the floor, he moved down to the far wall. “That humming is fairly steady.”
• “Ventilation unit possibly?”
• Shrugging he moved his hand down over the wall. “Could be, the fact that this room is metal could just make it seem louder than it is.”
• “So where are the vents in this room?”
• Stopping, he looked over at her. Both of them looked up at the ceiling. Shining the light up at it, he grinned. There was a vent. Now if they only had a twenty-foot ladder they could reach it. “Don’t suppose your part acrobat?”
• “Not the last time I checked.”
• “Okay.” Lowering the light, he switched it off and patted his pockets. “Did you bring any cable or cord?”
• “Not enough to reach up there.”
• Sighing, he looked back at the floor. “Let me work on it for a few. Keep checking the walls, there has to be a flaw somewhere we can use to our advantage.”
• If they’d brought full packs, cord wouldn’t have been a problem, but this was just supposed to be recon they weren’t expecting to do anything but look and leave. So now they were inside a steel room, with one door—they couldn’t open. Stopping he looked over at the door. Going over he grasped the handle and tried to turn it. It turned, but the door still didn’t open. Why would a room have a doorknob that only worked from the outside? A door with a coded keypad on the outside?
• “I think I’ve found something.”
• Releasing the door slowly, he backed away and then turned to see what Tess had found.
• “I think there’s something behind this panel, it’s the only one with screws in it.” She held the flashlight on one. “They’re embedded deep into the metal.” Pulling out her knife, she started to pry at it.
• “Those aren’t screws, they’re rivets.”
• “Whatever, we need to get them out.”
• He agreed. Taking out his own knife, he found a second one and started trying to jamb the knife under the edge of it.