The Pulse Series (Book 1): Pulse (24 page)

Upon thinking of Sarah I frowned and turned to her.

"How are you going to go getting up the side of the building?" I asked. "Aren't you afraid of heights."

Sarah grimaced and little, but shook her head. "I'll be fine. It will be night, right? I can just pretend that it's not high."

"I don't think that's how it—"

"I'll be fine, okay?" Her tone left little room for argument.

I shrugged and looked away from her tense position looking over the plans. I could tell this was something she wanted to do to help her to get over her fear. I just wasn't sure that this was the best time to be pushing it. It would be risky enough without adding more danger to it. I looked up at her to try to get her to change her mind, but something about her expression told me not to. This was something she wanted to do — no, needed to do — to get over her fear. I wasn't going to be the one to tell her no. Not after all the ways in which she had helped me.

"So do you think Sunday is good?"

"What is the weather forecast?"

I raised an eyebrow at her. "How the heck should I know?

She shook her head at me. "So you're telling me you're good to go climbing up a five story vertical wall—with no safety equipment, mind—even if it's in the middle of a thunderstorm?"

I sighed. There were a lot more conditions you had to consider in this type of thing than I thought. I had only thought of the people and the direct place involved. I hadn't even stopped to consider the environment.

I tried to consider anything else I may have missed. "Perhaps we should go on a walk around the building. That way we can scope the area without it being suspicious."

Sarah grinned at me. "Now you're thinking like a true soldier." I smiled at the compliment and the two of us talked more into the night about our plans.

There wasn't much that set my blood racing like knowing I was going to be doing something I wasn't supposed to. In the past it had only hit me in the moments before I was about to steal something, but thanks to the planning aspect of this I was already feeling it now. It was going to be a rough wait for the time to come, but I was also excited about the research and reconnaissance aspects. They were things I didn't think I would be doing for years yet.

I let the enjoyment bubble up in me as I lay in the darkness listening to Sarah's snores from above me. For the first time in forever, I was excited about something.

TWENTY-NINE

Sarah and I stood below the awning of the first window in our climb to the top of the mansion. We had decided to wait two weeks instead of just one. Above us now was the moonless sky that we had planned on for reduced visibility. It worked against us a little, but the benefit of cover outweighed any danger.

I turned to look at Sarah. "You ready?"

She grimaced, but nodded. I turned away from her and took one last look around. We had waited in the woods nearby for a few hours and seen no-one, but it was better to be safe than sorry.

Sarah stepped forward and placed her hands together for me to stand on. With her help I went up into the air and grabbed on to the edge of the first window. I pulled myself up and onto my feet. There wasn't a large amount of room on top of each window—less than a foot of depth—but enough for our purposes. Once I had my balance I reached down for Sarah.

She hesitated grabbing my hand.

"You don't have to come if you don't want to."

Her eyes hardened. She took a step and jumped up to grab me around the wrist. I locked on to her wrist and helped her climb up on the awning. When she got the the top she pressed herself flat to the wall. Her breathing fast.

"Are you okay?"

"Shut up." She looked at me with a wince. "Sorry, just… don't talk okay? Let's get this over with."

I looked up to the base of the next window. It was a simple climb from here on out, but I was an experienced climber and Sarah wasn't. I peeked through each window before pulling myself up. It would suck to come face to face with a random staff member halfway up the building. The halls within the mansion appeared empty, so we kept climbing. Every now and then I would glance down at Sarah to make sure she was alright. Her breathing was heavy, and her face coated with sweat, but she was doing well.

We were one floor away from the roof, and I was about to pull myself up when something gave me pause. Each window before had been latched from the inside, but the one I was standing in front of now appeared to be unlocked. I could see the latch unhinged through the glass.

A grin split my face as I realized we wouldn't have to go through the trouble of getting down through the roof. It raised the risk of running into someone a little, but decreased the danger of falling by a lot more. I looked down at Sarah and helped her up to the ledge I was standing on.

"Let's go in here."

She looked in through the window and nodded, and the two of us pushed against the window. It opened without a sound and we stepped off the ledge and into the dark building.

I made my way into the black with Sarah on my heels. After a few seconds my eyes adjusted enough to give the hallway less of a sense of doom. We made our way along the hall on our tiptoes being careful to make as little sound as possible. I had no idea what was beyond any of the doors we were walking passed. Knowing my luck they'd be sleeping quarters packed with people. As we came up to a corner I motioned for Sarah to stop.

I stepped forward and peeked around the corner. Everything looked clear. I turned back to Sarah to let her know we were good to go when a door behind her opened. Yellow light spilled out onto the hallway. My instincts kicked in and I grabbed Sarah's hand. In an instant I was pulling her with me around the corner and pressing the two of us up against the wall. I heard a cough followed by footsteps. They were coming toward us.

I pointed to the door next to Sarah who turned and opened it with a little sound as she could. I slipped in after her and, to my relief, found us located inside a broom closet. I pulled the door shut behind us and held the handle down tight. I didn't want the click of the lock to give us away. I listened hard as the footsteps crossed in front of the door I was holding.

From behind me came a long creak.

I spun my head to stare at Sarah who was looking at her back leg in mortification. She had frozen in an awkward position as she didn't dare to take the pressure off her foot. It was at that moment I noticed the footsteps had stopped.

"Is someone there?"

I winced at the sound of the voice from outside the door. It was female. I couldn't be sure where she was, but it sure as hell sounded like she was right in front of us.

"If you jump out and scare me again, Bill, I'm going to Taser you."

I felt the handle that was still gripped in my hand shudder. With a grimace I leaned back as hard as I could, putting all my might into keeping the door closed. I felt a few light tugs on the door from the other side, but at once the pressure was gone. I could hear footsteps walking away.

"Stupid house giving an old lady a fright."

When the sound of footsteps receded I gave a sigh of relief and let go of the handle. The deafening click of the door mechanism made my heart jump into my throat.

I turned to stare at Sarah who still hadn't moved. We stayed that way for a full minute before I dared take another breath. Sarah took the weight off her leg, which sent another creak through the cupboard.

Sarah looked up at me. "I'm so sorry."

I shook my head. "It's not your fault."

"That was some quick thinking getting around the corner and into this cupboard."

I felt my cheeks warm. "It was nothing. Instinct I guess."

"Well keep it up."

"I'll try, but to be honest I had no idea what was behind that door. Could have been the General's quarters for all I knew."

I opened the door and the two of us continued down the hallway. We made it to the far end on the east side and looked out the window to the inner courtyard. It was empty, but for some reason the outside lights were still on.

I turned to Sarah. "Why the hell are they on now?"

She frowned. "I don't know, but climbing down that way is out now. We're going to have to take the stairs."

"Won't there be security patrols in the building?"

Sarah winced but gave me a look that said we didn't have any other choice. "I guess we'll see?"

I sighed. All that planning and it had turned sour not ten minutes into the mission. This is why I liked doing things on the fly. I gave Sarah a nod and the two of us turned back down the hall.

Using the servant's stairwell we made our way down to the second floor. I was about to open the door when I heard voices on the other side. The thick accent was distinguishable right away as Doctor Vorboyov. I felt my mouth press into a line as I heard him talk.

"Right this way, right this way."

"This had better not be another false alarm, Bogdon."

I recognized that voice too. It was General Walker. What were the two of them doing up this late? I looked to Sarah, but she just frowned and shrugged. I pressed my ear closer to the door.

"Not this time, Harrison. You'll see. You'll be impressed I think."

The general responded, but they were too far down the hall to hear anything else. I put my hand on the door handle, but Sarah grabbed my arm.

"Are you sure we should be doing this? With them up and about?"

I shrugged. "We came this far already. It seems like a waste to not go further now."

I pushed open the door a crack to find the hallway empty. I led the way through and down the hall in the direction of the library. Sarah was close on my heels. We had gone over the plans for this floor so many times that I had every twist and turn memorized. I cursed myself for not doing the same with the other floors. I guess we weren't as prepared as I thought. When we reached the end of a long thin hall we can out into a small foyer area. In front of us were two large wooden doors.

I grabbed Sarah's shoulder and whispered into her ear. "We're here."

THIRTY

"This might be loud," Sarah said.

I nodded and put one hand on the handle, the other on the door itself. With a twist and a push I opened the door as fast as I could with the most deafening creak of hinges I had ever heard. Sarah slipped in and I rushed in behind her, closing the door with another loud creak. We rushed forward toward the set of open stairs leading up to the second level of the library. We ducked underneath them and hid behind a crawl space as planned. After ten minutes of silence we stepped out into the room. I felt a giddiness rush up through me all at once, and had to slap my hands over my mouth to prevent the bubble of laughter from popping out.

Sarah grinned at me. "Yep. We did it."

I got myself under control and nodded, before turning to look up the stairs. There was no entry to the library on the third floor, but I could see the light spilling in from a window. Our initial plan was to cross across the roof of the building, and then back down the other side. Our entry point was to be that window. I stepped up to it and looked out over the courtyard within the mansion. It was still lit up like daylight, but there was no-one as far as the eye could see. I turned with my back to the window and looked for Sarah. She was standing by a set of filing cabinets and rifling through the contents.

"Here," Sarah said, lifting out one of the index cards. "According to this the books you're looking for should be on the second floor. Check the third row of stacks back. Somewhere around that area."

I smirked at her. "You can't be any more specific than that?"

"Register number 558.53 though to 569.40 to be precise. Would you like anything else, dearie?"

I scowled at the innocent look on her face. "That will be all. Thanks, ma'am."

I turned to find the books I wanted before she could swat me and made my way up the stairs. Following her directions brought me to a section of books that looked much like the others. I started browsing through the titles, found the books I was looking for, and pulled off my backpack to start to fill it. I got halfway through the shelf before I realized that I wouldn't be able to carry that many. Also the gap in the shelf was a little conspicuous. I put them back and cherry picked the ones that sounded best. Once I had what I needed I made my way back down the stairs, but Sarah wasn't where I had last seen her.

I whispered as loud as I could. "Sarah?"

"In here," came her voice from behind one of the stacks. When I walked around them I saw that there was a doorway that led into a smaller room. I stepped in and found Sarah on the ground next to an open drawer of a filing cabinet. The room was filled with them. She was reading what looked like a stack of papers she had pulled out of one of the files.

"What's this?"

Sarah looked up at me and grinned, her eyes alight with excitement. "Field reports."

My mouth dropped open. "But… wouldn't they keep those in a computer database somewhere?"

"I guess they wanted hard copies too."

I dropped my backpack and rushed over to the drawers. Sarah pointed to one at the far end labeled 'Infiltration'. I grinned at her and made my way over to the cabinet. The first document drawer I pulled open had a label at the beginning: '2054 MISSION TRANSCRIPTS'. These were actual missions taken out by the Pulsers, and only a few years ago at that! I did a quick check of the adjacent cabinets.

"Four drawers of missions in one year alone. This is amazing!"

Sarah grinned. "Thought you might like it."

I jumped back to the first drawer with the beginning of the year and pulled out a pile of the folders. I crawled back to the wall and lifted the first transcript. The mission objectives were printed across the top.

Prismane, Quadratic Acid, and Limare.

I smiled at the names. These must be the chemicals that we needed in the production of medicine. This is what I was after. This is what I needed to become who I wanted to be. Knowing that I would be helping people made me happier than I had ever been. The place I was at when I destroyed that robot felt far away indeed.