Exasperated, Jadine pushed to her feet and stomped to the other side of the room. The infuriating thing was, she had said it and meant it. Now, with Trevin gone, that all slipped away. Pacing the room like a caged lioness, Jadine racked her brain for another route of escape.
She was working on her third circuit, when a strange sound caught her attention. A faint sliding, scraping noise punctuated by a metallic crumpling that was remarkably familiar. Jadine cocked her head and listened hard. Was it coming from the vent? She took a step closer. Could it be…?
Stacy, the last of her mascara ringing her eyes from her crying jag, scrambled to her feet. Clutching the cell phone to her chest, she moved to stand next to Jadine. As they watched, a pair of tennis shoes appeared in the mouth of the vent, followed by jean clad legs.
Jadine was bouncing on the balls of her feet with joy. It was all she could do, not to yank him from the vent so she could hug the life out of him.
The legs became a torso, the torso a whole body, and at last, Trevin’s head appeared. Crouching on the chair, he mouthed “vent cover” and mimed shoving something over the hole. Stacy rushed to the cover and plucked it up. Smiling through fresh tears, she passed it up to Trevin who maneuvered it back into place.
As soon as his feet touched the floor, he was firmly embraced by both women. Under normal circumstances, he would have quickly disentangled himself and hurried away. This time, he hugged back.
“I can’t believe you’re alive!” Stacy gushed.
“What happened over there?” Jadine said at the same time. “Did you send the message?”
Trevin gave Stacy an extra squeeze before whispering his answer into the huddle.
“Yes and no,” he said. He outlined the horror he’d witnessed and finished off with, “I adjusted the message. We can’t have more people showing up and getting killed, so I changed the message to say it’s a dangerous situation and to stay away. Hopefully, the cops will send in an entire swat team next time.”
“If they come at all,” Stacy said, glumly. “So, we’re stuck here.”
“They’ll come,” Trevin said. “The one officer was on his walkie reporting. I’m surprised they haven’t arrived already, but we don’t have time to wait. Those clowns are trying to break into the office. I didn’t mean to call attention to myself, but I did. It won’t take them long to figure out how to access this room from there. We need a survival plan.”
Jadine rubbed her forehead. A tension headache was developing there, throbbing away behind her eyes.
“Can we use any of this stuff, Jadine?” Stacy waved a hand at the all the mechanical boxes and electrical panels in the room.
“I don’t know,” Jadine muttered. “This is way above my pay grade.”
“When we get out of this, I vote for a pay raise,” Trevin said.
“When we get out of this, I’m never leaving home again,” Jadine answered.
The three traversed the room together. Jadine rattled off what she knew about each panel.
“These are for the gas pumps,” she said, pointing to the first set. “They set off the alarm if there is a fueling issue or if the levels are too low. These are the electrical switches.” She tapped the cover of the next three sets. “I suppose they could come in handy. Could we rig a way to electrocute the clowns without killing ourselves in the process?”
Trevin shrugged. “Probably not.”
The sound of breaking glass reached them over Holly, Jolly Christmas, stopping them in their tracks.
“Sounds like they’ve breached the office,” Trevin said. Pointing a finger at the boxes Stacy had been examining before they sent him into the office, he said, “What do those do?”
“Mostly routers for the computers,” Stacy answered. “One is for the music, of course, and that last one, I have no idea.”
“It’s for the security cameras,” Jadine piped in. “They route through here, then to our computer in the office, as well as to Corp. and the security office. So, somewhere out there, someone will go to work in the morning, and, while reviewing tonight’s footage, will get the shock of their life.” Jadine wandered over to a small panel set into the wall. “But here’s something. This is for the new heating system. Gas powered. Has its own generator and is supposed to work even if the electricity goes out. If they have it up and running…” She flipped the switches and adjusted the temperature. With her head cocked to one side, her eyes closed in concentration, she listened for the sound of the system kicking on. There was a series of clicks, a whoosh, and then the unmistakable sound of air flow. “Yes! We know those clowns can stand the cold, but can they take the heat?”