Mr Hook's Big Black Box

Marco Schmidt: First Engagement

I couldn't believe it, we ran into men with guns on the way up to the club room. Some of the other societies and departments were taking this way too seriously. Still, Ferrari scared me some with how quickly she dealt with them. I think we ended up with one tied up with cable ties, and one tumbling down the stairs. I didn't think about how badly hurt he must have been, I just thought two enemies dealt with. I wouldn't have time to think about the consequences of our actions until the adrenaline wore off. For now I was only able to live in the moment, where I was and where I needed to be next.

We sped out of the stairwell on the top floor, glad to not hit any more soldiers. Ferrari was faster off the blocks, but hit a dead end right away. We must have let the fire door swing closed too hard earlier, because the damn thing was closed. It was a huge solid timber block, so heavy I'd think some of the nerds might not be able to move it even if the latch hadn't fallen on. It cut off the stairwells from the corridors, and a little coloured circle above the handle said that in the event of a fire, a properly closed door could hold back the flames for an hour. It wasn't something we could break down, so I immediately turned to go around the other way. The lower levels of this building were pretty much big rectangles of corridors where some department hadn't decided to add a reception area controlling access, and it was almost the same on the top floor. Four lines of rooms along the rooftop, four long corridors, four lobby areas giving access to the stairs or elevators.

The fire door in the other direction wasn't locked. I sped down the corridor at top speed, and reached the other end in maybe twenty seconds. Once my heart was pumping hard, it was always a bit harder to estimate time. Then I turned back, expecting to see Ferrari a dozen paces behind, but there was no sign of her. The door at the other end had closed on its spring. I wondered for a moment if she'd finally got her hands on a key for the fire door, which we'd been requesting from the Buildings Office for the best part of two years.

I could have gone back, but I didn't know if she would have locked the door again behind her, or if she'd found a way to get through, or even been ambushed by more soldiers. I thought about it, but I couldn't easily make a decision without knowing what had happened to delay her. And, a trained athlete, it was second nature to keep sprinting while I thought. I burst through the doors, and heard a commotion from below me on the stairs. I didn't stop to meet the soldiers, but put my shoulder down to hit the next door as hard as I could. It flew open, bounced off the wall with a loud bang and slammed closed again. At one side of the corridor was a long pole, used by janitors to open and close the skylights a couple of feet overhead. Today, it was the perfect tool to slip through the handle and keep the door closed behind me.

This corridor sloped down at the end, to meet the stairwells and elevator on the level below, because I was coming up at the one corner that was four levels instead of five. Somewhere over my head, the skylights opened onto a sloping strip of rooftop that gave outdoor access to the club rooms above ours, though I'd never been up there so I didn't know any more detail about the layout. At the end of the corridor was one man in black uniform, fastening a bike lock around the door handles. Presumably that was what they'd done on the other side of the building. But the rooms on my right now were former science labs, the extension that had been added in the original building's courtyard, and the pattern of corridors there was a lot less regular.

The guy had a rifle, but so did I. I pointed it at him as he turned, hoping I looked a lot more confident and proficient than I felt. His instincts worked in my favour this time, he ducked into a doorway to give himself partial cover as he drew his own weapon. He was almost certainly trained how to use it, so I'd bought myself maybe a second or two before I got shot. I carried on running, rifle in one hand while the other slapped against each door in turn until one of them moved. I dived through without any further contemplation, putting me out of his immediate line of sight. This time, I blocked the door by toppling some shelves packed with textbooks. I was in an old laboratory, now a seminar room. Heavy wooden desks, some of them still bolted to the floor like they were in the science labs. I didn't care about the contents of the room, or the decor. All I cared about was that there was a second door, offering tutors access to the storage and staff rooms that took up the centre of the Sciences Annex.