Shift:A Virals Adventure(9)

Ben’s hands found his pockets. “I don’t think so.”

“Got it.” Hi swiveled back to me. “I’ll check the lab for anything else made of wood and make sure the other cabinets are identical to this one.”

“Good plan,” Ben said.

“I’ll help,” Shelton said. “We should be hustling.”

The two boys hurried to make another sweep.

I rotated the splinter in the palm of my hand. Triangular shape. Two sides rougher than the third, which was darker, smooth, and worn.

Holding the fragment up to the light, I noticed the grain was barely detectable.

And something else.

“There’s goop on this.” I tilted my hand back and forth, watching the light play over the chip’s surface. “A coating. Or residue. Sticky.”

Impulsively, I held it under my nose. “It smells like . . . nuts.”

“Nuts?” Ben scoffed. “Sure you’re not just hungry?”

“Zip it.” I sniffed again. “Maybe . . . more like grass. Or tree sap. I know I’m not making sense.”

Hi and Shelton rejoined us.

“No other wood,” Hi confirmed. “That specimen appears to be a foreign particle.”

“Which doesn’t necessarily mean it’s related to the break-in,” Shelton countered. “It could’ve hitched a ride in here on someone’s shoe. For all we know, it’s been there for weeks.”

“It’s a place to start.” I dropped the chip into a plastic glove, tied off the opening, and slipped the makeshift specimen bag into my pocket.

Hi rubbed his hands together. “What next? Should we start some interrogations?”

“Let me think.” Unnecessarily waving for quiet.

The boys waited. They trusted my instincts, and my ability to discern patterns. Skills that had served us well before.

Except now you’ve got nothing.

Just a slice of wood that doesn’t match the local wood.

An idea took root.

I moved to the closest shattered cabinet. “This was hacked open, right?”

“More like pried.” Ben pointed to deep gouges where the door met its frame. “See how the wood split, right at the edge? Someone jammed an object into the gap, then wedged it open.”

The idea congealed into a theory.

“A tool.” My mind was fitting pieces even as I spoke. “The robber must’ve used an implement to crack them. Some sort of lever.”

Three blank looks.

I tapped my pocket. “This splinter isn’t from the doors. It’s from the tool.”

Ben’s brows formed a V. “The instrument had to be metal, Tory. These doors fractured under some pretty serious force. I don’t think something wooden could’ve done the job without leaving at lot more splinters. My guess is they used a crowbar. Pure steel.”

“Okay.” Thinking furiously. “Damn.”

Shelton spoke up. “What if the wedging part was metal but the handle was made of wood?”

“Like an ax?” Hi rubbed his chin. “You think Jason Voorhees might be our man?”

“I’m just saying. Lots of tools have wooden grips.”

“Wait.” I squinted at nothing. “Hold up a sec.”

Hi’s mouth opened, but Ben snagged his arm. “Let her think.”

I barely noticed. Blocked them out. Tried to pin down what was bothering me.

Loggerhead. LIRI security. A shattered lab. All that missing equipment.

Something doesn’t track.

I considered the evidence, one point at a time.

“This crime. It’s odd.” I began to pace. “No alarms, no video, no record of any kind.”

“Happened during the software upgrade,” Shelton reminded. “They got lucky.”

“Not a chance.” Back and forth. “The thieves knew.”


The issue nagging at me came into sharper focus. “This heist was too neat and too dirty. Outside of this room, there are no kicked-in doors, smashed locks, or downed gates. Nothing to indicate a break-in occurred at all.”

I swept an arm around the room. “Until you get in here. Inside this lab.”

I froze, the answer on the tip of my tongue.

Muffled steps sounded in the hall.

“Move!” Ben hissed.

In a panic we bolted from Lab Three, Hi closing the door behind us. We booked down the corridor to the back of the building, around the corner, and up another dark hallway, putting the maze of cubicles between the noise and us.

We stopped. Listened hard.

Someone coughed. More footfalls.

I heard Kit’s voice, followed by a gruff tenor I didn’t recognize.

“Police?” Hi mouthed.

I shrugged.

I peeked over a cubicle wall. The elevators were directly across from where we were crouched. One set of doors was closing, the new arrivals already moving toward Lab Three.

Waving the others to follow, I continued to the west end of the building, turned another corner, and bolted for a stairwell dead ahead.

Thirty adrenaline-pumped seconds later, we were back on the ground floor.

“That was fun.” Hi was red-faced and puffing. “Hope no one left anything behind.”

“This way,” I whispered, stripping off the latex gloves and stuffing them in my back pocket. The others quickly followed suit.