Animals

Day 22 Part 2

Same Day, National Archives Building, 12:30pm

Sweat ran down my back practically in rivers. I was relegated to a little café across the street because 'they'd recognize my face'. From this far away, I couldn't see faces so it almost didn't matter if I was here or not. Mitch was closer to the action, but he was told to stay back as well. Agents whose names and faces were unknown to MA were hanging around closer to the building. I had a book with me and a cup of cold coffee to seem nonchalant, but my focus kept darting from the building entrance to Mitch.

The clock was ticking down the minutes and we'd seen no one suspicious even glance at the National Archives building. I checked my watch again. 12:45pm.

Mitch looked my way, his brows set in a deep furrow. He shook his head, and I went back to fake-reading.

12:50pm.

My chest tightened as the hour drew near. Evanoff's hints resurfaced in my memory. He'd said they would leave the real bomb in the vents. Did they even need to go in through the door to do that? How could we be sure it wasn't already in the vents? As soon as I thought that, I knew that was what Evanoff had been trying to tell me. The unichtium was already in the vents.

12:52pm.

I left my book and the coffee on the table and hoofed it across the street. Stan was in front of the building, sitting on the edge with a newspaper in his hand. Mitch noticed my urgency and met me at Stan.

My breath came in heavy puffs, and I had to take a second to fill my lungs with air.

"What is it?" Mitch urged.

"The vial... It's in the vents already."

"How do you know that?" Stan asked, his eyes narrowed in suspicion.

"Evanoff said it was set to go off at 1. Why would they risk placing the vial in the building and trying to get out of the city with so little time? I've seen what this stuff does first hand. They wouldn't get within 50 miles of this place. It's already in the vents. There's no time to evacuate. We have to go inside and find it."

Stan blocked my exit, shaking his head. "You're not going in there."

"Stan, please! There's 8 minutes left. We can't wait any longer!"

"It's not happening. We have no reason to storm the Archives building."

I fumed, my face feeling hot as my fists shook at my side. Mitch's movement on my right caught my eye. He jerked his head to the door, his silent way of telling me to go, and tossed his badge over Stan's head. I caught it and swerved Stan as Mitch got his attention, racing up the stairs. Stan yelled in my earpiece, but very few agents tried to stop me.

I burst through the door, flashing Mitch's badge quickly as I shouted, "CIA!" I wasn't sure if it was shock at my intense entrance or if it was the badge, but none of the security guards followed me. Maybe they had been warned about our presence before.

The research center was near the middle of the building with the museum surrounding it. It was a busy day for it, apparently, since there was an almost constant flow of people in and out the door. My first instinct was to head to the museum vents and start there, but other thoughts niggled at my mind. Lester had made a comment about history during our painful time together. That didn't help much, considering the entire place was history. Was he the type to go for civilians taking in the history or the researchers digging for more?

The rats died, but nothing else in the cage was harmed. The artifacts in the museums and files in the lab meant nothing to Lester, at least not right now. The unichtium wouldn't damage it. But the people who continued to piece together lost history—those would be his more likely target than random citizens on an outing.