A Day Of Faces by Simon K Jones Read Free Book Online Page A

curious glances but was mostly ignored. The handy thing of being squamata is that a lot of people weren’t really sure where to look - some idiots even believed that we could turn people to stone if they stared in our eyes for too long. Not at all true, but that was one lie I’d always rather enjoyed.
    Marv had recommended going in just after lunch, because everybody would be in their mid-afternoon slump and less likely to risk their necks. So it was about half two when the alarms started to ring out. People started pouring out of the huge, glass front doors, spilling into the park. Even as they began to form orderly groups for head counting I was on my feet and heading in the opposite direction.
    As I neared the entrance there was a distant but loud sound of smashing glass. Fire ripped out of the side of the building a long way up, sending a desk and assorted office detritus flying into the air, where it tumbled down and down before crunching into a sculpture a few feet away.
    Amid cries of bomb warnings I ducked into the foyer, a grand, double-height chamber with an enormously long reception desk and a row of elevators on the far side. The crowd was pushing still to get out with increasing frenzy, and security guards were occupied either with that or with the escalating issue upstairs.
    “Is it a fire or is it a bomb? What are we talking about here?” I heard one of the guards shout, as he waved his gun wildly in the air, as if desperately hunting for something to shoot.
    I kept a wide berth and headed for the bank of elevators. Right on cue the middle one opened. Fifteen harassed-looking office workers ran out, squinting blearily against the light. As they cleared the elevator they left one man inside: it was Marv, with his cleaning cart.
    “Need a ride?” he said, grinning.
    “Cheesy,” I replied, stepping in beside him.
    He flashed his ID card and the doors closed. The elevator began to rise.
    “Here we go.”
    Marv grimaced. “You know you’re on camera now, right? They’ve got your face.”
    “I don’t care.”
    “You might.”
    The floor lights lit one by one as we ascended the spire. Marv stared around us, his eyes focused on something more distant than the walls around us.
    “The building is emptying,” he said. “Hardly anybody left.”
    There were still several floors left on the elevator’s display but it came to a halt. “This is far as my clearance goes,” Marv said, waving his card. “And I doubt it’s going to take me even this far again.” He had his finger on the door-close button. “There’s four guys out there. Two have guns. Pointed at us.”
    I put my ear to the doors but couldn’t hear anything. “Show me where,” I said, pushing in the door button myself.
    Marv kneeled on the floor and took a dirty rag from his cart. Pushing the cart out the way, he smeared oily marks onto the floor with the rag, drawing out a plan view of the hallway. “This is us,” he said, pointing, “and the corridor splits immediately into a t-junction. The two armed guys are straight ahead, and the unarmed dudes are either side of the doors.”
    I memorised all their positions, nodding to myself as I did so.
    “OK,” I said, “sounds doable.”
    “Really?”
    “I dunno, might as well try to live up to my reputation, though, right?”
    I opened my mouth, letting my tongue flick out. It was the most sensitive part of my body and could detect creatures far better than, say, my hearing. I pulled my lips back, letting the fangs show.
    Then I paused, withdrew the fangs, and grabbed Marv by the back of his neck with my free hand. It was a pretty good kiss. Seemed like one of those things you were supposed to do before doing something stupidly risky.
    “Ready now?”
    I shrugged. “Ah, whatever.”
    I let go of the door button.
    The elevator let out a polite chime and the doors slid open. As soon as they were wide enough for me to pass through I was moving, dropping down low and darting forwards,