building.
They’d
fed the watch dogs meat laden with something to make them sleep. She sincerely
hoped they could get in and out before the damned dogs woke up. One thing she
didn’t need to top her evening was a Rottweiler chewing up her ass.
When
they’d reached the kitchen door, which, in Nariko’s time was often left
unlocked because the mechanism was so old it was hard to turn, they discovered
a bright, shiny new one had been installed.
Nariko
stared at it in dismay, but Dr. Savage merely pulled something from his pants
pocket and began working on it. In a few minutes, he had the door open. She
looked at him with a mixture of surprise, doubt, and … respect. "How did
you do that?" she whispered.
"An
old trick I learned in my misspent youth."
When
they were inside, they closed the door quietly and locked it behind them. The
orphanage only had a couple of security guards that patrolled the interior of
the building, but they didn’t want to take the chance that the unlocked door
would be discovered and alert them to an intruder.
Waiting
until their eyes adjusted, they set off through the kitchen to the corridor.
After peering both ways, they left the kitchen and moved quickly down to the
stairs at the end, staying close to the wall as they ascended. The stairs
creaked anyway. Every time one let out a noise, both of them paused, holding
their breath.
One of
the security guards passed the stairwell as they reached the second floor. They
waited, listening as his steps came closer and closer and then began to
diminish once more as he passed the stairwell and disappeared down the hallway.
"Midnight rounds," Nariko whispered when he’d passed beyond hearing.
"He’s supposed to come every half hour, but he probably won’t be back
before one."
Savage
glanced at her. "Probably?"
"When
I was here, their rounds took forty-five minutes … because he’d usually stop
for a smoke or a cup of coffee. I don’t know if it’s the same guys … or even
the same schedule … but it is midnight and he just passed."
Savage
studied her a moment. "If we should happen to run up on the guards, just
do as I say."
Nariko
stared at him wide-eyed a moment, wondering what she’d gotten herself in to, but finally nodded.
Opening
the stairwell, he glanced in both directions. When he saw it was clear, he
motioned for Nariko to show him the way and they moved quickly but quietly to
the door to the main office. Again, Savage picked the lock. Moving across the
office, Nariko headed toward the records room and went in. Savage pulled a
small flashlight from his pocket and flicked the light over the filing
cabinets.
Ten
minutes later, they’d located Nariko’s file. To Nariko’s horror, Savage pulled
the contents out, replaced the papers with part of several other files and
stuffed the contents of her file into his shirt.
"You’re
taking it?" she said on a breath of sound.
He put
his fingers to his lips, shut the drawer and turned off the flashlight.
Nariko
had already grabbed the doorknob when they heard the office door slam open and
heels clicking briskly across the floor. She turned to Savage wide-eyed with
horror. Grabbing her arm, he hauled her to the back of the tiny room, pushed
her up against the wall and pressed up against her. "Not a sound," he whispered, his lips against her ear.
A shiver
skated through her as the heat of his breath touched her ear.
Nariko
heard the doorknob creak as it was turned. "Sh--"
Savage
grabbed her upper arms, pressing her tightly against the wall with his body,
covered her lips with his and thrust his tongue into her mouth. The jolt that
went through her was fifty percent pure physical reaction to Savage’s rough
caress and fifty percent sheer terror when the light abruptly came
Learning to Kill: Stories