Page 70 of The B-Team

“Leave our post?” The woman sounded horrified. “I don’t want to have to explain that to Commander Fitzwater.”

“They’re talking about leaving,” Katrina said.

“Lock the doors. We don’t want them outside with a clear view into reception. The lamp we need is sitting on the desk in plain sight.”

“Where do we want them to go?” Rodrigo asked.

“Basement would be best,” Ryan said. “No windows and far away from reception.”

“The cop’s radioing the station again,” Katrina said.

“Jam all signals in and out of the building,” Ryan said. “I have an idea.”

There were worried complaints when their police radios fell silent.

“I’m calling reception,” Ryan said. “Once I’m done, cut the phones.”

“Got it,” Katrina said.

She watched the screens as the phone in reception rang. The cops ignored it until it rang for a third time.

“Officer Grayson,” the tall male cop said when he answered.

“This is base,” Ryan said. “There’s something interfering with your radio signals. Elle Roberts-Knight said this is supposed to happen. The phones will go out next. She also said the doors will be locked by now.”

The cop signaled one of his colleagues to check the front door. “It’s locked,” he reported.

“There’s a control room in the basement,” Ryan continued. “It’s near the changing rooms. Ms. Roberts-Knight said that from there, you’ll be able to reboot the system. The instructions are in a folder beside the console. You just need to—” Ryan hung up.

Katrina’s phone rang as the cop raised his voice. “Need to what?” he shouted into the now dead line.

“Katrina,” Ryan said. “Set off the fog.”

“Are you sure it won’t harm anyone?” Katrina brought up the controls for the fog cannons, which were ducted into the reception area through vents near the floor.

“Nope, it will just make it damn hard for them to see, which should hurry them down to the basement.”

“Okay, I’m trusting you here.” She hit the button, and fog started to stream into the reception area.

The cops went nuts.

“What the hell is this stuff?” one of them shouted.

The female cop coughed. “We need to get out of here.”

“The doors are locked,” the guy who’d checked them called out.

“The basement,” Officer Grayson shouted over the rest of them. “There’s a control room down there, and we can reboot the system.” The room was filling up fast. The police were just shadows in the mist now. “Time to go. We don’t know what’s in this stuff. Basement. Now.”

Coughing and spluttering, they ran for the door to the basement stairs.

“They’re heading downstairs,” Katrina said. “Is there really a folder in the control room with instructions on how to reboot the system?”

“Yeah,” Ryan said, amusement in his voice. “It tells you to do the hokey-pokey, then hit the big red button. Elle and I made it to play a joke on Isobel because she freaked out the last time this happened. We stuck a button to the desk for her to press. We got it in a joke shop. It says, ‘You rang?’ when you press it.” He burst out laughing.

Katrina shook her head. “We’ve only got a couple of minutes before they hit the fake red button and I need to switch everything off. I’ve locked the door to the basement behind them, and I’m clearing the fog out now. Front doors are wide open; you guys had better run.”

“On it,” Ryan said, all business now.