Identity (Eyes Wide Open) by Ted Dekker

“It’s a secure door, probably an electronic lock. There’s got to be a button they use to buzz people in and out.”
    He pressed his face close to the glass. A plastic box of paperclips and a pen sat on the countertop. Beyond it and to the right was a small green button. Out of reach.
    “We have to hurry, Austin!”
    The paper clips drew his attention. He grabbed the box and pulled it out. Walked to the office door and dumped them on the floor. Handed his file to Christy.
    “What are you doing?” she asked. “We have to open this door.”
    “The only way we’re going to do that is by pressing the button behind the glass.” He scattered the clips on the floor and selected two larger ones.
    “How are we going to do that?”
    “Tumbler manipulation,” he said, reshaping it into an L-shaped tension rod.
    “Pick the lock?”
    He bent another clip into a J-shape then knelt in front of the lock. Fed one clip into the lock then the other. “Simple mechanics. Opening a lock is easy if you know how they work.”
    After another twist, the lock disengaged and the handle turned. He pushed it open and went through.
    “Go to the door,” he said.
    Christy ran to the door. An electronic lock clicked the moment he punched the button on the counter.
    “It’s open!”
    He hurried to the exit, took the file from her, and stepped through. “Follow me. Hurry.”
    A dimly lit hallway stretched in front of them. Recessed lights in the ceiling created puddles of light on the linoleum floor every twenty feet. No doors that he could see and no exit signs. It ran for another hundred feet before disappearing around a corner.
    “Where’s the exit?” Christy said.
    “It’s gotta be ahead. Just keep running.”
    They ran to the end of the hall where it turned left.
    “Did we miss a turn somewhere?”
    “No.” He was certain of it.
    “Are you sure?”
    “It’s this way,” he said and started walking. “It has to be. We just haven’t gone far enough.”
    Christy followed close on his heels.
    Austin knew they would eventually find a door, and that door would lead outside.
    They hurried to the end, where the hall angled hard left and followed it. When they did, an identical hallway lay in front of them.
    What? But there was no other way to turn. No patient rooms. No doors in the hallway like the ones in the psych ward. Just smooth, white cinderblock walls. New construction?
    He said nothing. Kept them moving forward.
    They reached the end of that hallway, pushed through the door, and pulled up sharply. Another hall.
    “What’s going on?” Christy said, the panic rising in her voice. “Is this right?”
    “It has to be. I haven’t seen any other exits. Or doors, for that matter.”
    What had he missed?
    He pushed the question from his mind and ran for the single door at the end of the hall they were in. “Come on!”
    No alarm had sounded. Austin had the file that would incriminate Fisher. They would be out soon enough.
    Austin reached the door first and slid to a halt. He cranked the knob and leaned his shoulder into it.
    Christy came too fast and collided with him, pushing him through the door. He stumbled forward and pulled up hard, half expecting to see yet another long hall.
    But it wasn’t another hall.
    They were in an office.
    A sharply dressed man sat behind a desk, combing through paperwork of some sort. He glanced up casually, looking over his glasses at them. If he was surprised by their dramatic entry he didn’t show it.
    The door clicked shut behind them.
    Christy gasped.
    The man behind the desk smiled. “Hello, Alice. Nice to see you again. And so soon.”
    She backed to the door they’d come through.
    “I can assure you. That door is now locked.” He reclined back in his seat. “Go on, check it if you like, but I assure you it’s quite secure.”
    She tried, desperate to get out. It was locked.
    “Those doors can be quite deceiving, can’t they?” the man said. “Which one to take?”
    The