The Bodies One By One

Chapter 30

When Storm and Baloc arrived, they had spoken to Finlay about getting a warrant, 'you think it's her?' Finlay asked and they knew she had to ask the question, because it was a big move. Storm nodded, 'the connection sounds solid and -'.
Suddenly it all went black, even the monitor lights had died, 'what the fuck!?' Storm said as he reached out to find anything that could steady him, 'don't move!' He hears Baloc, 'we need to get to the hallway, Finlay are you okay?'

'Just dandy'.

They could hear her get out of her seat, 'we better hurry and get to the hallway, we need to see what's going on'.

'It's just a power outage'.

But Finaly seemed to disagree, 'yes we've lost power, but I was having trouble accessing the database a few moments before you started talking to me'.

'Which means what? Something tripped the system?'

'Not something... Someone'. 

That got Storm moving, and he didn't care if he was destroying anything that was getting in his way. His feet left the carpet and landed on polished floor, 'alright, isn't the power box down further? Wait... Your flashlight on your phone, use it!' He pulled his phone out and switched it on. The hallway was dimly light, and he could see other workers blocking the light from their eyes, 'sorry', Storm says as he moves past them.
The power box was open, but nothing seemed to be out of place, 'they must not have gone this way, maybe it's a trick, to make us think we've had a proper power outage', Baloc quickly said as he slammed the little door shut, 'come on! We gotta find the others'. 

Stacey and Rushforth were near the seat of bones when they were found, 'wonderful power outage, I thought I'd gone blind or something', Rushforth shook his head, 'can we go home now?' But he picked up the urgency written on Storm's face, 'what's wrong?'

'Someone has hacked through our systems and it's fucking up everything'.

Stacey pushed the set of bones aside, 'are you serious? Is this person here with us?' But Baloc shook his head, 'we don't know, there's multiple people in here, and for all we know it could be someone who we don't know'. 

'So what're we going to do? What do you want us to do?'

'Don't do anything, just stay put in here'.

Baloc said as he flashed his phone light back to the doors, 'turn your phone flashlights on, and make sure that you identify whoever enters here'. 
Storm and Baloc rush back out into the hallway, but a little slower than usual so that they don't bump into anyone.

'Are we able to contact the others on the rest of the levels, if Finlay is right, then we have to make sure that everyone has their eyes peeled for this person'. 

Baloc manages to reach the door to the stairs, 'it's gonna be pitch black in there', Storm groans, but he was ready. Whilst he was looking at his phone, he could see that the power had been out for at least fifteen to twenty minutes. Anymore time, and the intruder would have gotten away. 
They reach the next level and shine their flashlights onto one of the members of the second team, 'Sam?' Baloc called to him and he spun around, blood pouring from his nose.

'Baloc!?'

'What the hell  happened, did you fall?'

Sam shook his head, 'no! Someone his me!' Storm's heart was pounding against his chest, 'Lockie, someone else is here, we need to find them fast! Sam, where were you when you were struck? Were you standing right here?'
He shook his head, 'no, I was over in the examination room, you know, where we kept some of the evidence -'.
He quickly swung himself to the left just in time as Storm forced his way through, ignoring Baloc calling his name.

The evidence, the rest of the evidence from the crime scene! It's the necklace!

He shoved the door open to the room and at that very moments, the lights flickered on. All the monitors up on the far wall whirred to life and Storm stood at the entrance of the room with his phone flashlight still on. He stood frozen for a few moments, hoping that there was no one else other than him in the room. Baloc joined his side, 'what the hell is going on?' He said as he shut his flashlight off, 'how long was the lights out for?'

'Not too long, but it still gave this intruder some time to get the necklace'.

'Wait, what? Necklace? How'd you know they were after it'.

Storm wasn't actually so sure, but something was picking him on the inside, because this case was now growing on him. He made his way over to the tray but almost slipped and when he looked down he saw blood.

'This is Sam's blood, he was hit here'.

'The necklace'.

Baloc touched the tray, 'it's meant to be here', shit, they got the necklace! Storm raked his fingers through his hair, 'Storm?' He turned to Baloc who was tapping his fingers on the tray, 'how'd you know it was the necklace?'

'I don't know Lockie, but it's this case! We've been working on this case for a while and I've just had this gut feeling, because I feel like we're getting closer!'

Baloc grabbed Storm by his shoulders, 'okay, calm down, I'm not accusing you of anything, I just wanted to know how you knew'.

'It's just my gut talking'.

Baloc chuckled, 'you're becoming more like me every case we go on', Storm tried to smile, but he was still trying to understand everything. 

'You need to go home and get some rest'.

Baloc tapped his shoulder, 'we'll have security run over the system to see what happened'.
Storm didn't like the idea, but he was running low on sleep, 'alright... I guess I'll see you tomorrow then', he rubbed his eyes. Tomorrow was going to a new day and he was going to get that warrant.