Whiplash

26

Nuri walked around the back of the barn. There were several windows, but all opened into small rooms protected by motion detectors.

The motion detectors worked by sensing infrared energy in front of them. He had a can of compressed air he could use to temporarily freeze the sensors, but to use it he’d have to get relatively close and move very slowly. And only one of the rooms looked vulnerable.

“What we want to do,” said Hera as he stared through the window, “is go through the wall.”

“We can open the windows,” said Nuri, confused by what she was saying, “but once we’re in the room, getting close to the sensor is tough. I need a much longer pipe, and we have to cool it down. It may be better to just bag it tonight and come back.”

“We go through the wall where the detector is,” she told him. “We stay behind it.”

“How?”

“The detector in that room is in the corner,” she said, pointing to the window at the extreme right of the building. “We get past that, and we’re in.”

“Assuming there’s no detectors on the other side.”

“Why would they bother putting one inside if they have the perimeter guarded?” said Hera.

“All right. But how do we get through the wall?”

“They’re just metal panels. Screwed in. Look.”

Hera leaned against the side and put her thumb into one of the small boltlike sheet metal screws that secured the panel to its post. The screw, barely three-eighths of an inch long, popped out within a few turns.

“It’s junk. Some idiot tried to sell my dad a building like this when I was a kid. He laughed.”

They got out their screwdrivers and went to work. The panel was roughly three feet wide by ten feet long; the last six screws were too high for either of them to reach. They tried pulling the panel up as if it were a hinge. But the metal was too stiff to bend without a great deal of pressure, and Nuri realized that if he bent it, he was unlikely to get it back properly; the penetration would be noticed.

“I’ll have to boost you up,” said Nuri reluctantly. “Put your foot in my hands.”

“That won’t work. You’re too short.”

“You’re not exactly the Jolly Green Giant.”

“I’ll have to climb on your back.”

Nuri couldn’t think of an alternative. He leaned toward the building, bracing himself. “Take off your shoes,” he told her as she lifted her foot. “I don’t want them in my back.”

“Oh, don’t be a baby.”

She planted her boot on the small of his back and lifted herself up. He was a wobbly ladder.

“Hold still, damn it. I can’t get the screwdriver in.”

Even standing on Nuri’s shoulders, Hera could barely reach the last two screws. She raised herself as high as she could on her tiptoes, leaning awkwardly and holding onto the edge of the panel as she undid the screw. The panel slipped when she took out the next to last one and she started to lose her balance. She grabbed the panel, trying to hold on. The small screw gave way and she tumbled down, smacking Nuri in the head with the metal as she fell. He grabbed it, keeping it from crashing, but then spun and fell. Both of them tumbled to the ground in a pile, momentarily dazed.

“Ssssssh!” hissed Hera.

Nuri cursed angrily, but softly. He got up and examined his arm — bruised but not hurt too badly.

The room was to the left, separated from the panel they had removed by an interior wall, whose stud they had revealed by pulling away the metal. A hallway sat in front of them. Nuri increased the magnification on his glasses, making sure there were no sensors guarding it. There weren’t.

The panels were fixed to the barn’s structural posts by a network of narrow one by ones. The wood members were too close together for either of them to squeeze past. Nuri pushed against one; it gave way with a snap.

“You’re going to set off the alarm,” said Hera.

“There’s a wall between it and us. We’re good.”

“Well, be quiet, then.”

Nuri pushed at the next piece of wood, breaking it off, then slipped inside.

He stopped short. There was a video camera directly above his head, covering the hallway.

They must really have something to protect here, he thought. But what?