We made our way up to the thirty-third floor. It was after normal business hours, but to be safe, Jane kept the brim of her hat pulled down low in case we ran into anyone she knew. Luck, however, was on our side, and we arrived at the door without a single run-in.
“Most girls get dinner and a movie,” Jane said as we stood outside the now familiar glass doors of the Sectarian Defense League. “I get breaking and entering.”
I adjusted my gloves as I looked at the dripping red letters on the door and then at Jane.
“Complain much?” I said.
Jane smiled sweetly and shook her head. Her blond ponytail bounced from side to side, and for a second I did feel like we were out on a date instead of hell-bent on infiltrating her old workplace. I eyed the keypad at the side of the double doors.
“What are the chances that your old pass code still works?” I said.
I had come prepared to try my hand at lock picking, but an electronic lock was beyond my abilities. I supposed there was always the bat, though that might not be the subtlest entrance.
“Worth a shot.” Jane shrugged and punched her old number in. The red lights turned to green and the unit chirped a happy signal of approval. I gave her delivery hat a playful push down onto her head and she giggled. Connor would never have let me do that to him.
However, Connorwould kill me if he knew what Jane and I were up to, but hopefully it wouldn’t matter if the two of us actually succeeded.
I pushed at the door and it gave way. “That was easy enough. Makes me a bit nervous, though.”
“Getting past the door really wasn’t my concern, Simon. It’s what might be on the other side of it that worries me.”
We moved quietly through the door and into the darkened lobby of the Sectarian Defense League. I hoped my eyes would adjust quickly to the half-light. As I edged forward, I was relieved to see that the room was silent and there was no hint of motion. I felt Jane’s arm press against mine, and though for a second I thought she was trying to take my hand, I realized quickly that she was trying to stop me.
“Wait,” she said with a squeeze. “Look.”
I came to a halt in the middle of the lobby, and as my eyes finally grew accustomed to the darkness, I realized we weren’t alone. The desks around the outer rim of the reception area were filled with dark figures. I slowly crept forward to examine one, and was relieved to see that they did not react to my presence.
Zombies. After work hours, they were almost motionless as they clacked softly away at the keyboards before them, no longer working at the pace I had seen them filing and typing on my first visit here. It made perfect sense that they were still here. At the end of the workday, where did these corporate zombies have to go, really? They didn’t have homes, and without a single working brain among them, they would sit there silently until their masters returned in the morning. Their faces reminded me of so many I saw among the commuters here in New York-lifeless and slack-jawed. Even though I’d been known to take my bat to rotting zombie flesh from time to time, I felt sorry for the restless souls that remained trapped in these rotting corpses. I reminded myself to talk to Davidson about zombie rights if Jane and I made it out of here alive.
I moved back to Jane.
“Won’t they start craving the taste of our yummy, yummy human flesh?” I whispered.
Jane covered her mouth to stifle a laugh. When she regained her composure, she said, “I’m pretty sure they’ve been fed for the evening. Last thing Mr. Bane wants is for them to start wandering the building in search of…snacks.”
I shuddered at the thought. I wonderedwhat exactly they had been fed earlier, but Jane cut me off before I could ask.
“Relax, Simon. They don’t normally feed them on human flesh anyway. The building would be empty in a week! It’s mostly cow brains and entrails. They also seem partial to hot dogs from street vendors.”
“Well, that’s of some comfort,” I said.
“Besides, human flesh is an occasional treat…like catnip for cats,” she said with a wink.
I wasn’t sure if she was pulling my leg or not, but now was not the time for a lengthy discussion of the culinary habits of the undead. I pushed it all out of my mind and smiled. “Lead on, milady.”
I kept close behind as Jane led, none too curious about what might happen if I should stray. We made our way out of reception and down a short hall that opened into a large bullpen. I was relieved to see that there were only two zombies in sight. Jane stopped at a door bearing her name and swiped a card at it. It clicked open and we stole inside quickly, shutting the door behind us.
She flicked the overhead light on and I stood there momentarily in awe. Her office washuge. It was littered with ultramodern Norwegian furniture that was so nice it made me want to burn down the next Ikea I saw. It sure beat the shitty secondhand desk I had been assigned back at the D.E.A. Jane’s hand brushed against my cheek and I mistook it for affection until I felt her lift my jaw back into place.
“Look,” she said. “I’m sorry that evil pays better. Isn’t that part of its appeal, after all?”
She turned away and went straight to work searching her old desk and pulling out anything personal she came across. She laid a framed picture of some very corn-fed-looking parents of the Kansas variety on top of the pile.
“Do your parents know?” I asked. “About you working here…”
She pulled out a sheaf of papers and began sorting through them. “No, and they never will. They think I’m working for an animal rights group.”
“I suppose you could spin it that way. Some sort of ‘Save the Zombies’ angle…”
“Fudge!” she said, throwing down the papers. “It’s not here.”
“What isn’t?”
“The manifest on item one-six-eight,” she said as if I knew what the hell she was talking about.
I looked at her with the kind of blank stare usually reserved for the zombies themselves.
“Better known to you as ‘that wooden fish thingie’? I should have all the details here on where it’s being stored, but they’re missing.”
“Keep looking,” I said. I placed my flower box on her desk to help out with the search.
Since it was Jane’s office, I really didn’t know exactly what she was looking for. I left her to go through the rest of her drawers while I packed her personal effects into my bag. Jane had made the choice never to return here after this, so whatever I could do to help her get out of here quicker, I would.
Her desk was cluttered with stuff. Pictures, a squishy little stress-management toy, a collection of breakfast cereal action figures. The Trix Rabbit, Count Chocula, Booberry, the Lucky Charms leprechaun, even the Cookie Crisp bandit! I was in love. Good thing I was wearing the gloves or the nostalgia of all these items might have put my powers into overload, leaving me flopping on the floor like a fish.
A small collection of plants occupied one corner of the desk, but they would have to stay behind.
I hadn’t told Jane why I was looking for information on the fish or that it had been Irene’s. All she knew was what she had seen the first time I came into the League swinging my bat. Just because her days with the Sectarians seemed over didn’t mean she was getting full disclosure about my assignments at Other Division.
If Jane chose to be taken into the fold of the Department later, which I hoped she would, she might find out everything concerning my mission to reacquire the fish so we could discern what happened to Irene’s soul. For now I was quite content to keep it a mystery. My dealings with my favorite ghost girl were complex enough as they stood. My department’s line of “on a need to know” basis came in handy once in a while, and just then it was helping to alleviate some of the guilt I felt for keeping Jane in the dark.