Darren picked up a piece of paper.
“This says, ‘account’ right?” Darren asked, “I can read some. I’m just very slow at it.”
“I’m joking,” Yuki said.
“I know.”
Darren pulled the desk drawer. It was locked. Darren put the crowbar up to the desk drawer and heaved at it. The front of the desk drawer pulled open.
“Success.” Darren said, “Are those filing cabinets unlocked?”
“Not sure,” Yuki said.
She pulled the door handle.
“They’re locked,” Yuki said.
“One moment,” Darren said.
Darren used the crowbar to break open the other side of the desk drawers.
“Can you look at the desk and see if there’s anything you think we might need?” Darren said.
Yuki nodded.
Darren used the crowbar to pry open the metal filing cabinet. It took more effort than the desk did.
“There’s nothing important in here.” Yuki said, then after a pause, “Oh, there’s a chocolate bar in here.” Yuki dug around in the desk drawer, “There are a bunch of chocolate bars in here.”
“Grab them,” Darren said.
With a thunderous bang, the filing cabinet flew open.
“Success,” Darren said.
Darren searched through the metal drawers. There was nothing significant in them. When he was exploring the bottom cabinet, Darren noticed that the bottom cabinet was different.
“That’s funny.” Darren said, “The bottom cabinet drawer is different than the other two.”
Darren lifted and slid the drawer out of the filing cabinet. In the cabinet was a large metal spacer that hid the back six inches of the drawer from view. In the space, was a handgun, some magazines and some boxes of bullets.
“That’s a 9mm,” Darren said as he picked it up.
“Is that real?” Yuki said.
“Yes. Its unloaded , but its real.” Darren said, “Its heavier than I thought it was going to be.”
“Are we going to keep it?” Yuki asked, “We could have trouble if we run into cops.”
“We’ll have trouble if we run into thugs without it.”
“Let’s keep it them,” Yuki said.
“Stand behind me.” Darren said, “I’m going to load this thing.”
Darren loaded the magazines and then loaded the handgun. He followed the motions that he remembered seeing in movies and video games.
“And there’s the safety.” Darren said, and flicked it off, “Its loaded, but no round is chambered.” Darren pulled back the slider and let it go. “Now its ready to fire.” Darren released the magazine and put it on top of the filing cabinet. He pulled back the slider and released the chambered round. With a flick of his finger, the safety was back on.
“It seems like you know what you’re doing?” Yuki said, “How do you know how to do that?”
“Video games.” Darren said, “and movies.”
Darren reloaded the handgun using the magazine that he had put on the filing cabinet. He put it in his inside coat pocket. It stayed secure in the big pocket. Darren put the two extra loaded magazines in his other inside coat pocket. The remaining rounds went into his backpack.
“We shouldn’t use that though.” Yuki said, “It could cause us lots of trouble.”
“Only if we have to.” Darren said, “We only have a limited amount of bullets.”
A glass ping echoed in the silent office.
“What was that?” Yuki asked.
Darren crouched down and threw the backpack onto his back. He crept his head out of the office and looked out into the central office area. The big windows had a large crack and an impact point from a large heavy object.
“Someone’s trying to break in.” Darren whispered, “We need to get across the office to the other end and get out of here.”
Yuki nodded.
“How?”
“The street is lower than we are.” Darren said, “If we crouch down, they won’t see us.”
Darren and Yuki both crouched down with their bellies on the floor. Darren kept himself as far away from the window as possible.
He looked out at the window, and he could see the heads of the people who were trying to break into the office.
After another moment of crawling, Darren reached the doorway. They crawled into the storage bay.
Yuki followed quickly behind him. Once she was in, he quietly closed the door behind him, putting the door hinge pins back into place.
“Problem.” Yuki said, “The door locks on the other side.”
Darren turned on his light.
“Stay here.” Darren said, “Listen to them. I’m going to see if I can’t get a locker open. I’ll pile a locker full of heavy boxes in front of this door.”
Yuki nodded.
Darren looked to the side and saw a nice long row of push carts. Darren grabbed a cart and pushed it down the hallway. After he had gone far enough that the gang of thugs couldn’t hear him, Darren got to work.
Using the knowledge of the sliding door to Yuki’s locker, Darren knew that the door locks consisted of two bars that slid horizontally into place when you turned the key.
Darren shoved the crowbar into the wood frame where he thought that the bar was. After a couple minutes of bashing, Darren broke a chunk out of the frame. Darren pushed the gate back into itself and shoved at the now exposed bar to get it and the other one in the door to unlock.
Darren slid the door up. The locker was filled with boxes. Darren picked up a box. It was light.
“Shit,” Darren said.
He tossed the box out into the hallway and grabbed a few more. The third box was cumbersome. After another couple minutes, the cart was full of heavy boxes.
Darren pushed the cart over to the office door. He walked using careful footsteps on the concrete floor. The cart squeaked as he neared Yuki.
Yuki motioned quiet and for him to kill the light.
“They’re on the other side searching the office,” Yuki said when Darren stood next to her.
“Then let’s pile these boxes quickly so I can go back for more,” Darren said.
Darren stacked four trips worth of boxes in front of the door.
“No one’s getting through those doors,” Yuki said.
“Shh,” Darren said.
A voice echoed through the office.
“We got the main register, but it looks like this place was hit before we got here.” A thug said on the other side of the door.
“Why are we hitting a storage unit?” A voice said.
“Cause its an easy hit and we’re here.” The first voice said, “And there could be a storage unit full of gold in here.”
“Or grandpa’s old socks. I think we need to look elsewhere. If someone got the office first, then they might be in the storage unit. Let’s not get into a fight.”
Footsteps echoed away, then the sound of boots on glass echoed. Then there was nothing.
“That was close,” Darren said.
Darren slumped onto a box.
Yuki laughed, and Darren looked at Yuki with a raised eyebrow.
“This box says Grandpa’s socks,” Yuki said.
“That one was way heavier than socks,” Darren said.
Yuki shrugged.
“What time is it?” Yuki asked.
“Nearly five in the evening.” Darren said, “It’ll be dark soon.”
“We should head back to the storage unit,” Yuki said.
“Yeah we should, but I’m worried about securing this place,” Darren said.
“After some food, maybe we can look around for some ideas,” Yuki said.
“Sounds like a plan,” Darren said.
Chapter 16
Darren and Yuki banged on the storage unit door.
“What’s the password,” Sakiko yelled from inside the storage unit.
“Open up Sakiko,” Yuki said.
Sakiko opened the door. The door slid up to reveal Sakiko standing in front of them. The oil lamp was lit from the ceiling. Sakiko stood in her bra and panties.