Plan

1 Taipei 101-2

He silently closed the door behind him then listened for any traffic on the other side. When he was satisfied that he had made it, he noticed the camera in the upper corner and smiled. She smiled back.

* * *

He was flipping through the charts when his friend, Chen, sauntered over. “Hi Kevin, what is your duty station tonight?”

As he continued perusing the checkpoint status, he said, “Mid-levels, 50 through 57.” He tried not to show his true feelings regarding the assignment. The job must come first. He would manage to get in the necessary studying when he could.

“I am in the high levels tonight. Maybe we can synchronize our breaks,” his friend said.

“Umm, that sounds great, but I have a big test tomorrow that I need to study for. I should use my time wisely during the shift.”

“Oh,” said Chen with some sadness. The disappointment was not born of not being able to spend time with Kevin, but more so from his lack of doing anything different with his own life. He secretly admired Kevin's tenacity and willpower to continue pursuit of a degree. “That's okay, I understand.” He half-smiled and walked away.

Kevin shook his head. He could see the disappointment in Chen's face and knew he just wanted to spend time with him. They had both been friends long before working together at Taipei 101. Lately, their friendship became distant due to Kevin's schedule. His schoolwork was important to him and what it meant for his future and family, but it he could not let it come between his friendships and other responsibilities. “Chen, wait! Maybe we can work something out and have our lunch together.”

His friend turned around and smiled. Kevin grinned. “What does your floor shift schedule look like?” he asked.

Chen's smile stretched impossibly wider as he walked back over.

* * *

Nigel pulled out a penlight and quickly began to search the large facilities' room for markings. Even with the low-level after hours' illumination, the light was too small to see anything of significance, but might aid him with identification. As with the tunnels; everything was written in Mandarin.

“Per the schematics, it should be located 55 feet back on the South-east wall, just behind the steam-works,” she said into his ear.

He passed through and behind the piping scanning labels and signs he mostly didn't understand, then found it; a single door separating the rooms.

He read the label. It all looked like gibberish to him; it could have been hieroglyphics for all he knew. He quickly tried the door, but was not easily rewarded. Extracting a set of lock-picks he began to work—

He heard a faint beep and the click of the main entrance.

“Bloody hell!” she said.

He began to grind his teeth. “You are supposed to be watching the door.”

“I was spooling up the elevator controls and preparing the bypass. I only took my eyes off the monitor for a—”

“Not now, love,” he said, concentrating on the activity at hand.

* * *

The security guard pulled out his flashlight and slowly scanned the maintenance room.

“Anything?” came the voice over his radio.

“I don't see anything from here. Are you sure you registered a signal?” said the guard.

“B-126N, Main Tower entry popped about 60 seconds ago. No security card access, so it registered as unauthorized.”

He continued shining his flashlight around the room. Sensing his hesitation, the voice said, “You'd better walk the room.”

He was so close to getting off shift. He rolled his eyes thinking that an incident report on what was most likely a technical malfunction would need to be filed. That would be an additional 15 minutes of his life that he would not get back. He turned towards the door and flipped the breakers. The main lights shuttered and blinked to life. “Walking the room,” he said in a monotone voice.

The guard moved about the machinery and equipment looking over, around, and under. He looped back up to the right and started for the steam-works. He shook his head thinking that this was a waste of time. Picking up his pace, he headed back for the hallway entrance. He slowed to a stop and then turned towards his right. He bent slightly and noticed an access door just behind the pipes. Shaking his head again, he said something that could be loosely translated into a Chinese curse word, and headed for the door. When he reached it, he stared at it with a deadpan expression. Putting his hand on the knob, he gave it a slight twist.

Nothing.

He pulled out his key ring and started searching for the right one to open it. As he inserted the key and began to twist, a feeling pulled him from his curiosity. He no longer needed to check behind the door. Not wanting to be there to begin with, he didn't question this newfound urge to withdraw.

He removed his key, turned off his flashlight, and headed for the main hallway. “It's all clear,” he said into the radio, as he turned off the lights and exited.

* * *

The few minutes seemed like a lifetime. Victoria dare not try to contact him until she could confirm his situation. Upon seeing the guard exit facilities without Nigel in tow, she began to breathe. Albeit somewhat shallow, but breathe nonetheless. “Nigel, are you all right?” She said in almost a whisper.

A few seconds passed; more than she cared to be comfortable with. “Nigel!” She said with a bit more intensity.

A few more seconds. “They could be listening you know,” came the reply.

“What!?”

“You broke the first rule. We're not supposed to use names,” he said.

“Bugger all! You had me scared to death!” she said.

“I'm fine—”

“Answer me the next time I call you. You're in a dead zone now. I don't have visual. I thought I lost audio too,” she said with worry in her tone.

“The poor chap was almost on me. Had he come through the door, it would have been tragic.” He removed the Osprey suppressor from his Walther p22, and place them both in the quick release of his flak vest.

“Okay… Now, where were we?” he said with a casualness that was indicative of his sociopathic nature.

Anger replaced her worry. “This is not over.”

“I wouldn't have it any other way, love,” he said as he started assessing the different units.

Of all the places that he had been within the building over the course of reconnaissance, his cover and visitor access did not allow him near any of the maintenance rooms. Although the blueprints they procured were greatly detailed, environmental usage and containment units were very secretive. Taipei 101 was one of the Eco-friendliest modern structures in Taiwan. Everything was state-of-the-art and provided clean energy. Far be it from them to be left out of the Global Green Initiative.

Her fingers danced over the keyboard as she looked at the building schematics. “The elevator banks are directly behind the South wall. How many ventilation units do you see?”

Looking up and across the ceiling, he said, “Six; number one and number four have ducts directly above.”

As he was speaking, Victoria was pulling up the elevator shaft designs. She executed a trace program that produced a direct line to the unit that would be needed. “Number four.”

Nigel quickly scaled the unit in question and found the best position, then began cutting an opening with a small micro laser.

“The duct should curve two meters passed the ceiling. Another four and you should see the vent for the elevator shaft,” she said as she continued to type. Victoria turned to the monitor with the elevator controls.

He breached the inside of the duct and began his climb. As his head crested the first turn, he saw his target just as Victoria said. “I see it,” he said with the penlight in his mouth.

“You'll have to hurry. We'll need to time this perfectly with the rotation,” she said.

He smiled. Always the worrier, she was. He started the horizontal crawl towards the shaft. “I'll be in position within a matter of minutes.”

* * *

Kevin punched his card into the time clock. He was now on shift. No time to fret over what could have been; his duty assignment was clear.

Trin Yann was sitting at a side table shuffling papers rather roughly.

“You okay?” asked Kevin.

He cut his eyes up to Kevin. “Hey, yeah, I suppose…”

Kevin dipped his chin a bit to look Trin in the eyes. “It doesn't seem like it.”

Frustration was apparent. With a very audible and exaggerated sigh, he said, “I've got to fill out this paperwork based on a stupid call to the maintenance room.” He went on to explain to Kevin what happened.

“Well, that's the procedure when any of the alarms go off,” said Kevin.

“Maybe so, but there was nothing there,” said Trin still resentful.

Kevin knew that it didn't matter what he said, Trin was going to be in a bad mood regardless. “Look, would you like some help filling this out?”

Trin's eyes sparkled. “Really? You would be willing to help me?”

Kevin slightly smiled and nodded his head, “Sure.”

“That would be great! I—” the security chief for Kevin's shift strolled up to Trin while flipping through papers on a clipboard.

“Hello, sir,” said Kevin respectfully.

The security chief's eyes briefly cut to Kevin with a slight nod then he turned to Trin. “Mr. Yann, you missed a badging at your last security check point on 62.”

Trin's eyes widened. “What! You're kidding?”

The security chief continued to look at the clipboard and shook his head slightly. “The computer printout for the ending shift statistics says otherwise.”

If Trin was depressed before, his mood deepened even more now. First the maintenance room, now this? How could he have missed that? He had been anticipating his date with Tina for a week. Tonight, was going to be the night. He wanted to take a shower before meeting her at the theater. His focus was absent because all he could think about was getting home. It was quite possible that he was lost in thought as he completed his last round. He sat there for a few seconds with silent hope that the chief would overlook it and just walk away. He did not budge and looked at Trin expectantly.

“Sir, can you just this once–”

The chief was already shaking his head. “I need the checkpoint reconciled before I can sign off on the next shift's rotation.”

Kevin stood there in silent observation. He felt bad for Trin. He knew he was in a hurry to get home. Although he was not jazzed, he had an idea.

Kevin held out his hand.

Trin looked at him with confusion. Kevin grinned with a slightly inpatient and exaggerated look. “I have things to do. I'm not going to wait forever. Give me your card.”

Trin snapped with the realization. “No way! You would do this for me?”

“Finish your paperwork. By the time you are done, I will be back, and I will turn it in for you.”

They both looked to the security chief for approval. He flipped the papers back down flat on his clipboard and said, “I don't care who does it; I just want it done,” then turned and walked away.

Trin handed Kevin his security card. “Man, I owe you–”

“Yeah, yeah, …” said Kevin taking the card and turning towards the door.

* * *

The rivets from the inside of the air duct were harder than he anticipated. It was clear that no one, or thing was meant to come from the inside out. Nigel never would have admitted this, but he was running out of time. He was about to pull out his micro laser when he heard a familiar chirp.

“Elevator seven will be in position in twenty-seconds,” she said.

No time for niceties. He quickly cut through the bolts as the elevator came to a stop just below the air duct.

With a little panic in her voice, she said, “Someone is waiting to enter number four. Are you ready?”

He shifted his body and started pounding the metal grate with his feet. After the fourth kick, it gave way and flew down with a crash to the top of the lift. He pulled himself out feet first and landed gracefully on the top. “In position,” he said, trying to control his breath.

* * *

As the doors to the lift opened, Kevin heard an enormous clatter. It startled him like a gunshot. As he cowered down, looking inside and upward, he reflexively reached for his radio. “Dispatch, there appears to be something wrong with elevator H7. Can you verify any maintenance activity?”

A few seconds passed, “Negative. H7 is not in the cycle this month. Is something wrong?” came the response.

Kevin slowly entered and looked all around.

* * *

“Bloody hell! Was that you that made all that racket? What are you trying to do? Get us caught, and you captured or killed?” said Victoria all excited.

Oh, shut up, woman! Thought Nigel. I can't hear a thing with all that yapping.

He remained still, not moving an inch. He listened intently for any movement or sound below. He could barely make out a lone voice, but couldn't discern the words.

There!

He thought he heard a radio too.

Blast it!

If he had gotten to the bloody grate sooner, maybe two minutes, he would've been able to handle his entrance with a bit more finesse. If they shut this lift down, they are pinched. If that nagging siren were on top of her job, she would be able to tell him what was going on. He was becoming very uncomfortable with all the “If” thinking. Nigel's backups to backups did not include another way to the target.

* * *

The elevator doors closed as Kevin stood and looked around. The lift went nowhere as no commands were entered. He slowly walked around each side of the box, his hand grazing different points along the walls. He knew absolutely nothing about mechanical or structural engineering, but the perception of touch gave him more of a mental reassurance than anything else. After finishing his physical examination, he stood there for a moment and continued to look around. The indecision of riding this elevator versus waiting for another was his internal argument for the moment.

* * *

As if on an empathic queue, Victoria's hands began to, once again, dance across the keyboard. She was ensuring that she still had command override of the elevator controls, and could hack into the lift's video surveillance. “It looks like there's one guard. He's speaking into his radio, and moving about like a blind man feeling the walls.”

Nigel reached up and clicked his microphone twice indicating the message was received.

As silence overtook them, they both thought similar things. If this bloke doesn't take this elevator, and has already reported a malfunction, it would look very suspect for it to move on its own. Had the guard not entered the picture at all, she could have simply sent the elevator up under the guise of being summoned by someone wanting to descend. Their best option was for the guard to take this elevator, and hope that his floor selection was close to the one they needed. They both knew full well that the elevators were monitored by security. Too many movements after hours would rouse suspicion.

* * *

By all indications, it looked like this elevator was okay. Kevin had no way of truly knowing if there was a problem or not. It was just a sound that he heard; he did not see anything. The elevator shafts are long, and funnel sound as well. It may not have been the lift at all; it could have come from somewhere else. Dispatch had nothing on record. If he hadn't been there at that precise moment, he would never have known the difference. “No, everything is fine. I thought I heard a sound, but it turned out to be nothing,” he said into his radio.

“Copy that,” squawked the voice at the other end.

Kevin reached for the keypad, punched floor 62, and swiped Trin's security badge. As he made that decision, he was completely unaware of another existence on top, or for that matter, in the elevator.