Page 79 of Static/Cling

The muffled, guttural groans that drifted up to him a few minutes later, followed by the shuffling of clothing and the heavy breathing told him this wasn’t a tryst between two people in love, intent on lingering over the act.

Finally, the door below clanged open and the two people left.

“I’m moving again,” Bjorn said.

“What happened?”

Bjorn snorted. “Quickie in the stairwell.”

“Sweet Baby Jesus,” Sal muttered.

“Indeed.” Bjorn snuck down, careful to be sure they had both gone. When he reached the main floor again, he spotted a swipe card on the floor, with a snapped alligator clip lying nearby.

“Looky here.” He bent to pick it up, thought better of it, and instead slipped off the lined flannel shirt and used the tail of it to pick up the card.

“Ears, not eyes over here,” Leif said.

“It’s a swipe card. The sexy-times pulled it free of one of their lanyards, I’m thinking.” He turned it over, then grinned at the image of two arrows, one pointing up and one down. “And it’s an elevator card.”

“Horseshoe,” Leif muttered.

“It won’t take them long to miss it. Get moving,” Sal said.

“Moving.”

He dashed down the last flight to the basement and crouched under the window of the door there. It was a bigger window than any of the other floors, and he peered through it. “There are a lot of people out there.”

“Doing what?” Sal asked.

“Not sure? Milling around, but mostly looking nervous. Hang on. They aren’t all army.”

“What do you mean?”

Bjorn narrowed his eyes, squinting through the wavy glass and security wire. “They’re not all in uniform. Some are really young-looking. I think—oh! Shit!”

“What?” They all spoke at the same time, and he winced.

“A guy just… I think he turned into a…” He squinted harder. “Sloth? The hell?”

A figure in a miliary uniform strode up to the sloth and prodded it with something that made the animal curl a lip and lean away. A minute later, the human form was back, and being instructed to put their clothes back on.

“Okay, that was weird. But they’re filing onto the elevator now.”

“Up or down?” Sal asked, voice tight.

“Up.”

They breathed out a sigh of relief. “They’re letting them go. Probably through the front gate. No use giving away your secret back entrance to a bunch of rejects. Roger?”

“Yeah. I’m on it.”

“On what?”

“They’re probably all people with powers, but not ones strong or impressive enough for the army to use,” Sal said. “So they’re sending them home. Rog is going to watch and make sure they get out.”

“I thought they didn’t have that list of names,” Leif said.

“You’d be surprised how many people volunteer,” Roger said darkly.

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