Her Body of Muscle: Winter vs the Nanobots

Part 4: Chapter 36

Blinking, the soft calming faintly warm light of a beautiful long hallway greeted them.  It wasn't anything like Winter had expected.  In her mind, they would be dealing with flickering overhead lights and a splintered poorly polished cement floor.  This was the opposite.  Beautiful carpet was hedged on the side by modern looking marble.  The hall was delightfully decorated with original looking photographs from various Californian national parks.  If this was what working in Tech looked like, Winter half wondered if she shouldn't have taken the programming classes a little more seriously.
Similarly startled, Jackson stood beside Winter, head slightly tilted taking it in.  Grabbing his hand, Winter pulled him quickly towards the stairwell.

"Come-on!"  She whispered, "Let's keep moving."
They raced up the stairs.  After years of stair-stepper cardio, the exercise was more like a walk by the pool.  The final floor had another electronic lock before access to the final flight would be granted.  The keypad looked different than the others and included a code box to the right.  Winter had been prepared for this, noting the tight tiny codes printed next to the various doors on the plans Dave had given her.  Trying one of the black key swabs on a hunch, the dialogue buzzed green.  She took out the map and punched in a four-digit code.  The door swung open automatically.

They quickly charged up the final flight of stairs and tried Emilia's badge on the floor entry switch.  Once again, a green light.  Wow, easy.  Winter thought, before hearing another terrifying idea in the back of her mind, too easy?  But neither of them had second guessed yet, and they wouldn't this time.

Slowly opening the door, Winter punched Jackson hard in his chest to block him from taking another step.  She put her finger to her lips suggesting quiet.  Pointing, she indicated with two fingers that two people were in the hallway in front of them.  They were walking away down the far end of the corridor.  A thickly carpeted corridor.  This top floor had to be the executive suites.  The walls were half blazoned with dark beautifully stained oak and the light fixtures looked excessively expensive in their simple, modern design.

Finally, Winter removed her hand from Jackson's chest and encouraged him forward.  Holding the door back, she softly closed it behind themselves not making a noise.  Neither daring to speak, they simultaneously pointed at the fourth door down on the left.  That was the door that led to a corridor that ran directly into the server room.
Doing their best imagined spy sneak, they high stepped quickly towards the door.  Winter couldn't help wondering who they were kidding.  Baseball caps?  All black clothing?  If anyone saw them, she couldn't imagine a more obvious give-away.  Why had she assumed they were having to break into an old warehouse or something?  Nothing could be farther from their current surroundings.

Arriving at the door, she tried Emilia's key.  There was a soft but harsh chime as the tiny display light turned red.  Not panicking, Winter retrieved the key swabs and tried the first.  Again, a red light and no access.  She meticulously worked through them all before returning to Emilia's badge.  Again, nothing.

Winter shoved the swabs and badge into Jacksons hand and pointed at the access panel, motioning for him to try as well.  The electronic scanner gave the same response over and over again, that annoying electronic groan and a red light.

Frantically looking around, Winter spied a large vent access nearly 10 feet above them.  Jackson could see her staring and he grabbed her shoulder to get her attention, viciously shaking his head "no."

"Can you think of a better idea?"  Winter asked in a hiss whisper.  Jackson cast his eyes down, clearly running through options.  He glanced back up at Winter still holding his shoulder firmly in his hand.

"Try some other doors?"  He whispered back.  They looked at each other realizing that even if they were to try, they wouldn't be able to find the route without many multiple more doors and most likely blocked entries.

There were no better ideas.

Pointing downwards, Winter indicated Jackson should get into a crouch.  He did, and Winter jumped quickly on his shoulders.  Using the wall for leverage and support, she easily kept her balance as Jack stood up, propelling Winter higher.

Surveying the vent, she could clearly see through the steel grate that it would provide access and space.  It was massive, an approximately 3 foot square air vent.  Industrial size, at least in this case.  The vent was a problem, however.  Damnit!  Winter scolded herself, didn't even think to bring a screwdriver.  Digging her fingers between the grate and the wall, she could just barely get some leverage on the massive steel covering.  From the bottom she strained to pull it from the wall, her arms pulsing in exertion.  There was a squeal of metal on metal as it moved just slightly away from the wall.  Looking down at Jackson, she motioned for him to take a step backwards, so she had more leverage.  He did, and this time Winter threw her entire body, arms, shoulders, chest into the movement.  It reminded her of a row machine pull.  With a sharp snap, the grate lurched off the wall, cracking the screws, hanging only from the top screws loosened but clinging from above.  Glancing down again at Jackson, she motioned for the door, indicating he should hide in the stairwell.

"I'll come find you there!!"  Winter mouthed and Jack nodded.

Gripping the inside of the metal, Winter heaved herself up with a fast pull-up, easily tossing her entire body into the vent with a soft thud.  While a large shaft, it didn't provide enough room for her to actually turn around and make sure Jackson had safely retreated to the stairwell.  Reaching to her hip, she felt Philip's flash drive firmly held between her muscular upper thigh and the tight form fitting pants.  Slowly, forearm reaching in alternating order, she slid on her stomach down the shaft.  Every once in a while, she heard the pop of metal bubbling out one way or the other.  She was making remarkably good time considering the tight quarters.

More than once, however, a metal screws grabbed the fabric of her shirt or pants, ripping holes and scratching skin.  She bit her lip and paused very briefly each time.  Just scratches, the last of her concerns.  Glancing as best she could over her shoulder, she tried to sight gaze the distance.  At least 200 feet.  Most likely she was about halfway.  She continued plodding forward.  Suddenly, her head was snapped backwards.

"Eeeeoow."  She breathed softly through gritted teeth.  What was that?  Again, glancing behind, she saw that somehow her hair had gotten severely tangled in a screw that was jutting out from the metal.  She torqued and reached back as best she could, but nothing could dislodge it.  Trying to twist various strands this way or that didn't seem to help either.  It was going to take brute force.  Gripping the bunch of hair that was the culprit.  She twisted her fingers around the soft straight strands.  Leaning back towards the nefarious screw to create some slight momentum, Winter threw her body away and yanked.  The hair ripped off the screw sending her entire body hurdling into the bottom of the vent.  Before Winter could respond, she heard the soft squeal of metal being pulled apart and the bottom gave out as she went tumbling 10 feet down to the ground with a hard thud, taking her breath away with a heavy heave.