Story 21 - Part 2 - Flickering Light

Dev finally found the elevator. Both of them. The first one was near the control room and it went all the way to the roof top. It was a pretty nice view, and it was much cooler outside than it was inside. With all the equipment that was operating in the factory, the temperature was sometimes borderline tolerable.

After enough searching around the elevator, Dev went exploring again. With a clipboard and an unusually colored hard hat, he both stood out and was ignored at the same time. A few people stopped him to introduce themselves, thinking they were going to get in good with someone high up in management. Dev played his role and then would always excuse himself to go inspect something.

It was after one of those incidents that he discovered the second elevator. It seemed to be quite forgotten and he would have missed it entirely himself, had it not been for the flick in a nearby light bulb. In fact, the elevator seemed purposefully hidden. Several large cabinets had been lined up, forming a wall in front of the elevator, but there was enough of a gap behind them to slide over to the elevator doors.

Agent Driver spent a few moments debating about whether he should push the button or not. If someone was at the top, an elevator was certainly a blatant way of shouting ‘hey, I’m coming up’ or something to that effect. Of course, he had no idea where the closest set of stairs was, or if they even went to the same place.

That was one of the biggest problems with searching a factory. You could reach the same spot through twenty different routes, but sometimes you took a wrong turn and ended up lost somewhere else. It was definitely an ideal hiding place for a fugitive. There were enough hiding places and enough ignored places that a person could stay hidden or lost for a very long time.

Dev tapped the elevator door a few more times before deciding to hit the button. The elevator was slowly coming down from five floors up, and so he decided to start there. While he waited, Agent Driver quickly checked his earplugs. They looked rather cheap, but they were also doubled as radios for the group. Because of the noise level in the factory, though, the microphones were turned off. At least for now.

“All agents, this is Driver,” Dev said, switching on his microphone. “Be on the alert. I’ve found something suspicious and if I don’t find the suspect I’ll most likely flush them out. I’ll keep you informed.”

Agent Driver winced a little as each of the undercover agents switched on their microphones. Until he called false alarm, they needed to be ready for constant communication. That meant that instead of the earplugs canceling out noise, they were now channeling it. With a ding, Dev practically fell into the elevator and pushed the button for level five. It seemed like even the emergency lights were having a hard time working as the elevator slowly dragged itself up to the top floor.

“Jack pot,” Dev said as he looked around the top level.

In this factory, computers were only one of three places: the office, attached to a machine, or in a control area. And they most certainly did not use laptops. The top floor was relatively dark, only a flickering light struggling to live provided any light along with the computer screens. The computers were not off, nor were they on screen saver mode, and Dev could clearly see who had just been recently hacked.

He bit his lip as he adjusted the clipboard in his hand. Because of the company dress code, Dev had no weapons on him except for a box cutter, a pen, and the clipboard. Granted, if used correctly those three things could be quite dangerous. Still, he was in unfamiliar territory with the person undoubtedly near by.

“Location found,” Dev said quietly, knowing that his agents would pick up on it. “Suspect not in sight, but area is recently abandoned. All agents, be on the look ou-OW!”

He had never been more grateful for a hard hat than ever before. The wrench that had hit him was not that big, but combined with the full weight of the person Dev ended up on the ground. He pushed himself up, and caught sight of the person running into the elevator. That was probably the only way in and out of this place, and now he was stuck.

“All agents, suspect on the move,” Dev called out.