Zero by J. S. Collyer Page A

other side. It was another service corridor, windowless with closed doors on either side. Webb had off-lined the motion sensors so it remained as dark as the first passage. They pulled out lenslights to make their way down to an even darker stairwell. Hugo craned his neck, sending the beam of his light between the flights of stairs. There was the steady hum and thunk of the bank of lifts on the other side of the wall, along with the general mumblings and footsteps of a workforce going about its business. Apart from that, all was deserted and quiet.
    Hugo took the lead up the stairs. Every footfall echoed in the silence. They got to the third floor by counting the flights and pressed themselves to the wall either side of the exit. Hugo concentrated on the feeling of the cool wall pressed against his back, clenching his eyes shut and trying to ignore the sensation of his skin crawling.
    “You get used to it,” Webb murmured as he checked over his gun in the beam of his lenslight. “Undercover, I mean. Shooting people in the back. It gets easier.”
    “ How do you know? You don't have anything to compare it to.”
    Webb's face darkened but then he switched off his lenslight and turned his back on Hugo. Hugo shifted back and shut off his own light as Webb braced himself and opened the exit door a crack. Hugo held his breath as the commander put his face to the gap.
    “Come on,” Webb said eventually and ducked out. Hugo followed. The corridor was empty, though the windows on one side overlooked the activity in the motor pool. He saw Webb pause and wrinkle his nose and a minute later it hit Hugo. An odd tang in the air...acidic, strong. For a minute it threatened to turn Hugo's stomach.
    “ What's that?” Webb mouthed but Hugo just gestured for him to move on.
    They carried on creeping down the corridor. Even though he knew the cameras were off or misdirected, it still took an effort to move past them. They hugged the wall, as far from the windows as possible, and approached a bend in the corridor with ears straining for any kind of noise.
    They were nearly at the corner when they heard voices from behind them. Hugo looked back the way they had come. The service door onto the stairwell was ajar and the voices were getting louder.
    “ Shit,” Webb cursed, looking this way and that. “This would have been a good time to have fake ID.”
    “ Quick,” Hugo said, pointing to a door.
    Webb crossed the corridor in two strides, dropped to his knees and began working on the lock of the store cupboard.
    “ Faster,” Hugo growled, seeing the service door start to open.
    Webb muttered another curse before the cupboard door swung inward and the two men tumbled inside.
    “Lock it,” Hugo ordered and Webb did so. They stood in the dark, breathing. Hugo was flat against the wall but Webb was looking out of the window in the door.
    “ Get away from the glass, Commander,” Hugo hissed.
    “ Hold on,” Webb said. “I want to see who's using the service stairs.”
    “ Maintenance crews? Get back.”
    “ Maintenance crews use the elevators like everyone else, Hugo...what the fuck?” Webb's face froze and he ducked back away from the window.
    “ What?”
    Webb shook his head and pressed a finger to his lips. Hugo edged a little closer to the window. Three figures came into view. He recognised the tall, square-faced Gabor, the base commander, from Luscombe's files. He was accompanied by a woman in a security uniform holding a computer panel, and a much shorter man in a suit. They paused almost right outside the store cupboard and Hugo frowned. The shorter man had space-pale skin and no hair. His eyes were extremely light and looked out of his hairless face with a keenness that set Hugo's nerves jangling. The two men murmured to each other as they checked what the security woman was showing them on the panel, then moved on out of sight.
    The second they were out of sight, Hugo’s wrist panel started blinking. He looked at the