The five-minute timer on Clerk 03’s Casio Pocket-Register sounded a sharp, metallic trill.
BEEP-BEEP-BEEP.
Julian Vance tapped the clear button on the register’s rubber keypad with his thumb, cutting off the alarm.
Inside the narrow stall, the air had begun to clear as the last wisps of frozen mist drifted out through the open ventilation shaft. Lin Mei stood in the doorway of Stall #7, angling her round dentist’s transom mirror down into the cubicle. The small glass mirror reflected only clean, empty white tiles and the glistening brass rim of the floor drain.
“Zero motion,” Lin Mei confirmed, her voice steadying. “No active thermal signatures. The ductwork above is completely cold.”
Elena knelt beside the drain grate, holding her white enamel medical tray flat across her knees.
In Julian’s right hand, the long stainless steel surgical forceps held the brass cylinder of Detex Master Station Key #E. The key was heavy, four inches long, and chilled by the cold water in the plumbing trap.
Wrapped tight around the notched teeth of the key were four full yards of half-inch black cotton typewriter ribbon.
