Page 61 of Shinji Takahashi: Into the Heart of the Storm

“What if we went in through the roof?” Phoebe mused, craning her neck to stare at the top of the building. “If we could get up there, we could rappel down through the skylights. Oh, wait.” She snapped her fingers. “Darn, I left my rappel cables in my other bag. Double darn, I didn’t think to call the Society and have them send over any equipment. My lipstick grappling hook would’ve been perfect for this heist.”

“No fun Society toys this go-round, sadly,” Oliver said. “But I have another idea. This way.”

They circled the building, where a single, normal-looking door sat at the front entrance.

“There’s probably an alarm,” Oliver went on, glancing at Lucy. “But I’m guessing Tinker can turn it off, at least long enough to walk through the door. I admit, plastic explosives always sound fun, especially against Hightower, but I don’t have any on me this time. And rappelling in through the roof may look cool in the movies, but with our luck, Shinji will fall out of his harness and land on his head on the concrete.”

“Hey,” Shinji protested. “Again, that was not my fault. My harness was too big.”

Oliver just grinned. “Whatever, kiddo. All I know is that you and heights don’t get along. And walking through a door sounds much easier than swinging in through the skylights. Lucy, can your mouse unlock this thing and turn off any alarms?”

“He can try.”

“Well, darn.” Phoebe sighed as Lucy began texting instructions to Tinker. “There go my hopes of rappelling downMission: Impossiblestyle.”

“Got it,” Lucy whispered a few moments later. “Tinker is in. The door is unlocked and the alarms are disabled, but only for a minute.”

Oliver nodded. “Let’s go, then.”

They hurried across the lot and up to the warehouse, with Shinji arriving at the door first. He tensed as his fingers reached for the metal handle, half fearing a gate would come crashing down or laser beams would chop them all to bits as soon as he touched it. But nothing happened. Nothing, except the door swung back, and they all crowded through the frame.

Just inside the door was a small reception area, a white counter on the back wall and a large sign that saidtower corpdisplayed prominently above it. The entire room was spotless and pristine and very Hightower.

“Don’t stop here,” Oliver ordered, nodding to a camera over the desk. Shinji’s stomach clenched, but the light below the lens was dark. Tinker had turned it off. “We need to get to the back. Lucy, are all the doors unlocked?”

“He’s working on it now,” Lucy replied. There was a beep by the door in the corner, and she nodded. “Okay, door unlocked but…” She paused, frowning at the screen. “He says there are more things moving around in the warehouse.”

“More drones, probably,” Oliver said, striding across the room. “We’ll deal with them when we get there. Come on.”

He bashed his shoulder into the door, and it flew open. They followed a short hallway past three or four small, neat offices, until they came to yet another door. This one wasn’t locked, and as it swung back, Shinji’s heart leaped into his mouth.

A huge warehouse stretched away before him, the ceilings soaring overhead and the racks and shelves that seemed to go on forever. Hundreds of aisles ran the length of the room, filled with everything you could imagine, and even things you couldn’t. Crates and boxes crowded the shelves, along with rugs, paintings, vases, old computers, ancient-looking books, and items Shinji didn’t even have a name for, all fighting for space. Finding one small box in this huge, sprawling sea of junk would be impossible if they didn’t know where to look.

He saw the others gazing around in amazement, too. “Wow,” Oliver muttered, picking a dusty smoking pipe off the shelf. “How old is some of this stuff, I wonder?”

Phoebe suddenly let out a gasp, plucking the item from his hand. “This is an original pipe from Duke Monocle’s private collection,” she exclaimed, holding the pipe at arm’s length. “And it’s just collecting dust in this old warehouse. Ugh, Hightower, what are you doing?”

“So, it’s valuable, then?” Roux asked, sidling up beside her. “How much do you think it’s worth? Tens of thousands? Hundreds?”

“Don’t get any ideas,” Lucy warned with a scowl.

“Oh, come on,” Roux protested, and waved a hand at the sprawling warehouse around them. “Look at this place. I bet they don’t even know where half this stuff is. No one would know if something mysteriously disappeared.”

“I would know,” Lucy said firmly. “We’re not Hightower. We don’t take what doesn’t belong to us. Besides, we didn’t come here for this.”

“Technically, this stuff doesn’t belong to Hightower, either,” Roux pointed out. “So, what’s the difference?”

There was a flash, and a moment later, a deafening boom of thunder made the whole warehouse shake and caused the windows to rattle. Everyone, including Shinji, jumped.

Phoebe winced and immediately replaced the pipe on the shelves. “Well, that was a timely reminder,” she said. “Lucy is right; we have far more important things to worry about.”

“That’s what we like to call an understatement,” Oliver said, and turned away. “Come on,” he urged. “Let’s find that idol and return it to the storm, before that hurricane flattens the city with us in it.”

A deep growl suddenly echoed through the warehouse, making everyone freeze. As silence fell, Shinji could hear footsteps racing toward them. Except, they didn’t sound like normal footsteps. They sounded…metallic, clanking over the concrete and getting steadily closer.

“Something is coming,” Roux warned, looking like he

wanted to bolt away and dive out a window. Oliver drew his cane.

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