Next Level

Stepping through the gate was a decisive moment. I'd now gone beyond where I'd be able to pretend I was just lost. The situation now looked exactly as it really was: I was sneaking around private property - heavily guarded private property - and it was obvious I hadn't come in the front gate.

I felt a strange feeling of lightness in my stomach, a sense of excitement as well as fear. Prowling round places uninvited isn't something I've done much of - certainly not as an adult. It was unreal somehow, like going up to a new level in a computer game.

Quickly, I realised that wasn't a very helpful thought, and I pushed it to the back of my mind. This was real, and this was now.

Pushing myself flat against the wall, and edging along, I did feel pretty ridiculous, though. Who did I think I was? What was I playing at? The roughcast wall scraped my clothes, and its abrasive texture under my fingers kept bringing me back to the moment.

Kate had told me that my best chance of getting into the building was to go in by the fire exit, around the corner from where I was standing. She'd explained that this was the door that the smokers used when they nipped out for a break. You needed a key card to get back in, but there was no security other than a camera - a camera that wasn't working, she'd assured me. That complacency again.

I wouldn't have long, she'd said - but there was a 10-second delay before the door locked, after a person went back into the building.

If I timed it right, I'd be able to get in by following pne of Kate's colleagues on their return to the building. Provided I waited long enough for them not to notice, of course - and didn't wait so long that I'd be locked out. And provided I didn't run into someone else on their way out.

I'd reached the corner, and was about to chance a look around it, when a voice said very loudly, "what are you doing here, then?"



Story begins here.