Power Shift (Book 1)

Chapter 11: Breaking and Entering

Winning Choice: Break into the Church and see what’s going on.

Brandon had just finished talking with two Mormons by the back door of their church, when he caught the scent of the two men he had been chasing coming from inside the church...

These guys think I’m the one who accosted their Missionaries! Convincing them otherwise is going to take too long, and who knows if they’d believe me. Heck, they may be working with the people I can smell inside the church.

Ripping the doors off the place and running around like a maniac seems appealing, but a little voice tells me something stealthier may work better.

“Sorry, guys,” I tell them, “I’ll get out of your hair.” They’re still staring after me as I hop back away from the door and zip around the corner of the building.

“Hey!” one of them yells, but I’m not waiting. There’s not much cover on the side of the building so the options are slim. The roof might work if I can find a skylight, but if I screw up the jump I’m going to be easy to spot. There’s a small window that looks like it opens into an office room of some kind. It’s locked when I tug at it, but on a second (more forceful) pull the frame pops and the window slides open. Scrambling inside and pulling the window closed, I peek out to see the two guys standing in the parking lot, looking around confused. They’re not looking anywhere near the building, so I keep low and duck out of the room into the church. 

Moving as quietly as possible and listening for anyone else in the place, I head through the main room towards the back door to pick up the scent. The place is dead silent. Those two guys were probably just locking up and heading home, and with some luck they’ll continue with that plan.

At the back door I run into the scents of the two pseudo-Missionaries I’ve been tracking. They were definitely here, but they had a purpose. The trail leads directly down a short hall, through a door, and down into the small basement. It’s filled with noisy fans and blowers, and I imagine putting the furnace and everything down here probably helps keep it extra quiet upstairs. There’s one locked, solid door in the basement, and that’s exactly where the trail leads.

Putting my ear to the door I can’t hear a thing. No breathing, no talking, nothing. Maybe this is where they hid out before they ambushed the Missionaries, but I don’t think they’re in there now. Disappointing, because I really wanted to have a chat with these guys. A very physical one.

The handle resists but I keep turning and pretty quickly the thing crumples in my hand with a groan. Inside is nothing but a small closet filled with shelves, boxes, and a mop bucket. My sides clench up again with another wave of pain, even worse than before. It almost doubles me over then vanishes, leaving me almost shaking. 

I take a deep breath to clear my head and pick up their scent all over one of the boxes. I pull it down from the shelf and set it on the floor, now almost as confused as I am angry. It’s filled with clothes. No wonder the scent was so strong, they’d been wearing this stuff! 

I dump it onto the floor to go through it and a cellphone slips out of the heap of clothes and skitters across the floor. It’s an older Nokia, built really solid. Not the kind you see anybody using these days. There’s nothing else in the pile except pretty generic clothes, some jeans and t-shirts. Maybe this is where they changed clothes after ambushing the Missionaries, or maybe this is just where they stashed the stuff to come back and get it later.

My Sherlock Holmes impression is interrupted by voices upstairs! I slide the phone into my pocket and creep up the stairs to the basement door. Pressing my ear against the wood I can make out three, maybe four voices.

“…since yesterday afternoon,” finishes one of them. It sounds like one of the guys I met earlier by the back door.

“And they’ve already filed a report on that?” says a new voice.

“Yes, Officer. They’re taking it easy today.” Officer? Seriously? I’m already well ahead of my preferred weekly dose of police and don’t need any more.

“But then you found the back door open and thought it might be related?” says the cop.

“Yeah, the alarm was deactivated, which was really weird,” says the first guy. “We didn’t see anything stolen or damaged, but know it was locked and alarmed last night so figured we should report it.”

I don’t like where this is headed. Opening the door as carefully as I can, I peek out into the small hallway. No sign of them.

“Then that guy was creeping around here just before you showed up,” says the other guy I met earlier. Yep, this is bad. They must be out in the main part of the church, so I slip into the hallway and push the door shut behind me.

“I’ll take a look around just to be sure,” says the cop. “Why don’t you wait outside.” Edging along the hallway, I hear the doors close at the back of the church. The cop walks slowly around the main room, probably looking for some sort of vandalism. The trick is to not give him anything to be suspicious about. If he thinks they just got freaked out and forgot to lock the church he’ll be out of here. If he hears me or gets suspicious there’s going to be a party and I’ll be the guest of honor.

I’m up on the balls of my feet, walking as silently as I can manage. Every step the cop makes sounds like he’s stomping around in combat boots, and it’s clear where he is in the larger room even though I can’t see him.

Scooting down the hallway towards the back door, I figure it’s safest to cover ground he’s already looked at. The window I came in is on the other side of the building and I’m not sure I can get there unseen.

He stops, and I freeze in place with him. He’s still out of sight so there’s no telling if he found something or what he’s doing. I wait, barely breathing, straining to hear, until finally I hear him… sneeze. I’m so relieved I almost blurt out “Gesundheit!” before I catch myself. He sneezes once more, a big powerful one, then keeps on walking. I wonder if my new powers can keep me from having a heart attack.

The back door is slightly ajar when I get there, and the two Mormon guys are out in the parking lot by the police car, deep in conversation. Neither seems to be looking this way, so I cinch up my hood and push the door open just enough to squeeze through. I then sneak out and back around the very same corner of the building where I dodged those two guys previously. 

This side of the building seems quiet and empty, so I break into a low trot until I get a block or so away. Nobody is following me so I pull up next to a big tree that offers a little cover and dig out the phone. It feels good to get out of there without creating a scene.

The phone is as nondescript as it could possibly be. It’s probably a throwaway of some kind which is why they left it behind. I punch the power button and it turns on like a champ. About half a battery charge left. I thumb through the call list and all the incoming calls are from the same number. There’s no caller-id entry for it so no idea who it is. 

There’s also one text message, sent yesterday. “st josephs hospital, tmrw, 10am”. That’s one of the biggest local hospitals, and they do a ton of medical research there. Could that be where whoever did this to me is based? I check my watch and it’s 9:45! It’d be cutting it tight, but if I left right now as fast as I’ve been running I could probably make it on time. But then how would I find them in the hospital once I got there?

Or maybe I should call this number back and see who picks up. Maybe it’s this Manderville guy and I can figure out just what the heck he thinks I’m supposed to be doing. Who knows how long it will be before I can call them if I don't do it now. Maybe they'll ditch their phone like they did the one in my hand. Since there’s no way I can run at that speed and make a call at the same time, so I think I’ll…

1. Call the number in the recent call list.
2. Race down to St. Joseph’s Hospital. (Winning Choice)

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