The Oaths We Keep

Chapter 2

His name is George, she thought as the security checkpoint appeared. She had walked through this same metal detector and screening process a thousand times. Ray or George, or whatever his name was, always greeted her the same way, with a faint smile and superficial good morning. Today did not need to be any different. Smile, open the bag, walk through the metal detector, and then move to the office.

That's exactly how it happened. Small greetings walkthrough; seconds later, she was waiting on the elevator to take her to the fourth floor. There were only five floors in the building she worked in, but she wore heels and wanted to avoid walking up the stairs. The elevator ride took longer than usual. No one rode the elevator with her this morning, giving her time to let her mind wander. No matter her misgivings, it was too late to back out.

The door opened as she arrived on her floor. Immediately, she could see the bustle of activity as the workday began in earnest. Her office was straight across the hallway from the elevator. She passed a small row of desks to her left as she walked to her office. She got a few more simple greetings from people who technically worked for her, but she struggled to remember their names. Thankfully, no one tried to engage her in a conversation.

Opening the door to her office's reception area, she saw Madison, but everyone called her Maddie at her desk, prepping what she thought her boss would need today. Whatever it was didn't even begin to be what she needed. She opened the door to her office, shutting it behind her without speaking. She took a breath and told herself to relax; now was not the time to get nervous. She sat at her desk and glanced at the list of names she had written on her legal pad, twelve total. Too many, she thought to herself as she viewed the list. It would not be easy, but if she pulled this off, it would be all over by this afternoon. She thought to herself you can do this. Relax.

She took a leather satchel she previously used for her laptop from underneath her desk and walked back to the door. Before opening it, she steadied herself. Let's get this done, she thought as she pulled the door open. As she entered the reception area, Maddie looked as if she were about to say something, but she cut her off instead. "Maddie, please hold all of my calls. I'll be out of the office most of the day today," she said without slowing down. She didn't hear Maddie's response as she reappeared in the hallway.

The hallway seemed much longer this time, and the elevator was much further away. This time, the elevator door opened almost immediately, and thankfully, again, there was no one to ride with her. Pushing the button for the second floor, she felt a knot form in her throat. The doors opened, and she walked down a short hallway to a door with a badge scanner at the end. She placed her badge onto the scanner and was relieved when the light turned green with its usual beeping noise.

Passing through the door, she made her way to a second door protected by a keypad entry system. She typed in her numbers, and the door clicked open.

Entering the vault-like room, she peered around at the rows of filing cabinets. Technology may have seemingly taken over the financial world, but when it failed, paper still existed. It was hard to believe that anyone still kept such large amounts of paper files, but it never hurt to have a backup when dealing with money.

She looked over the numbers on the cabinets as she walked by. Finally, she found the one she sought. Reaching into the satchel, she pulled out the list of names again. Opening the top drawer, she began to look for the first name on the list. Finding it, she went to the second one until she found five of the twelve files, each she carefully slid into the satchel. Looking around to ensure no one saw her, she closed the bottom drawer and moved on to the next file cabinet.

She found the last seven files easy enough. With her errand accomplished, she made her way back to the elevator. Now came the hard part: exiting the building with twelve stolen files without getting stopped by security.

The elevator door opened, revealing the building's bottom floor and exit. Most of the time, security didn't bother to check her possessions when she left the building. It always seemed strange to her because wouldn't most people want to take things from a bank? Of course, most of the money in the bank was in the vault on the first floor. This office was mainly for investments and not cash transactions for the most part, so there was little money anyway.

Still, they often stopped people to check them on the way out. The man standing at the exit today was unfamiliar to her. She thought she'd seen him before but couldn't say exactly. It didn't matter to her since most security people left after a few months. New faces then were a common sight, so most of them she didn't bother to learn their names. She usually smiles and walks out, but someone new could be challenging.

The moment of truth arrived as she approached the security point. As she got closer, the man took notice of her. She smiled slightly at him as she had done this morning when she arrived with the others. Taking a deep breath, she made her way to the exit. "Have a good day, Mrs. Harper," he said as she walked through the door.

George looked up at the man from his station. "Hey, why didn't you check her before she left?" he asked.

"Don't you know who that is, man?" he shot back. "That's Erin Harper, one of the single most important people here. What do you think she's going to do? She practically runs this place."

"It's the procedure, Bret. It doesn't matter if the President of the United States walks in or out of here; we are supposed to check their stuff before they leave."

"Hey, you want to piss off the higher-ups? Go right ahead, man. Just leave me out of it."

George Kirby tried to let it go but was a by-the-book guy. It bothered him that she just walked out the door without ever stopping. On top of that, he was almost certain the bag she carried was not the same one from this morning. About half an hour passed, but he couldn't shake the feeling something was wrong. "Hey Frank, watch the door for me for a while, will you? I need to go upstairs for a minute."

"Sure, George, whatever you need," the man responded.

George climbed the stairs to the third floor. He made his way to the monitor room, which held the feed to all the security cameras in the building. Inside was Jeff Foreman, a guy George didn't think much of because of his lack of work ethic. "Hey Jeff, have you noticed anything funny today?"

"Kirby, what are you doing here? You're supposed to be watching the front door?" he asked as George sat beside him. "You didn't leave the door unmanned, did you?"

"Of course not. Look, have you seen Mrs. Harper today?"

"You're kidding, right?"

"No, I'm not kidding. Can you call up the footage from her floor?"

"Yeah, okay, but you better not...."

"Look, just do it, will you."

Foreman did what George wanted him to do. "Look, there she is, going into her office. There's no camera in there if this is some weird obsession."

"It's not. Fast forward a few minutes, please."

"Whatever you say, George."

They watched as she left her office and returned to the elevator. "Where is she going?" George muttered to himself. "See if you can find where she got off."

The other man sighed to himself but soon found Harper exiting the elevator on the Second Floor. "Why would she need to go there?" Forman asked as concern began to grow inside him.

The two men watched as Harper reached the protected area and entered. She kept her movements inside, hidden as much as she could, but one tiny slip drew George's attention as he noticed her slipping something into her satchel bag. "Oh dear god, no. We've got to call this in."

"Call in what man I didn't...."

"Dammit, Foreman, she just stole who knows how many files from a protected area. Get the bosses on the phone."

"Yeah, yeah, okay, I'll get to it. You won't tell the bosses I missed that, will you?"

"Foreman, we just let someone leave here with protected files. What do you want me to say? Now make the call." It was too late by then. Erin Harper was already well on her way when security reported the crime.