The sounds within the empty building felt amplified. The tiniest squeak of a boot against the floor sounded like the screech of a dragon. Every breath took on the guise of a hurricane. And all those noises threatened to blow the operation out of the water. Cade knew, if he couldn't pull this off then everything he had worked for, everything he had sacrificed would be worth nothing. Less than nothing.

He had managed to get through the first phase of the problem. A window, left open by a colleague who sympathised with his dilemma, navigated and closed behind him. That left him here, within the building, with only a maze of corridors and intermittent security rounds to find his way through. All he needed to do was open this door to begin his mission.

Except, the door was locked. Instinct took hold for the slightest fraction of a second and he almost slammed the heel of his fist against the frosted glass. He regained control, he had to, the slightest mistake could cost him everything and the people be owed expected better of him. He took a deep breath and looked around. If he could find another way out into the main part of the building, he could salvage this.

Of course, if his sympathetic colleague had left the doors unlocked, as they had planned, then finding himself stuck in one room, away from his prize, would not be a worry. But they hadn't. He crouched, looking at the lock in the dim light from the full moon shining through the window. A hand rubbed his chin, but that didn't help. He had never learned how to pick locks, had never had any reason to pick a lock until now. It looked as though he had come all this way for nothing. He turned as he stood to leave the way he had entered, but a noise caused him to spin back around.

"Boo!" Bright light poured into his eyes as he got to his feet, blinding him. He strangled a yelp that threatened to reverberate through the building. "Shh! Dummy!"

Fingers rubbed at his eyes as he blinked, trying to dissipate the pulsing after-images from the light that had tried to burn his pupils with its strength. He felt a hand patting his shoulder. A sympathetic hand. A sympathetic hand from a sympathetic colleague. Of course it was her. He had told her he needed to do this himself, but she had to push her way into it. She always did, never giving him a second of time alone.

"Holly!" He tried to whisper, but anger caused it to emerge as a hiss. "What are you even doing here?"

"Helping!" Holly slapped both hands over her mouth, eyes widening beneath the flashlight fastened on her head. Through her fingers, she continued to speak, though much quieter. "Sorry. I'm helping."

With a conspiratorial look outside the room, the door of which she had unlocked and entered through, somehow without Cade noticing, Holly dipped a hand into her jeans, taking out a ring of keys and dangling them from a finger. The keys rattled and jingled and Cade almost jumped to cover them with his own hand, glaring at Holly.

"Careful! Man!" Not trusting that Holly had looked well enough, he poked his own head out of the door, looking in both directions. "I mean, why didn't you just unlock the doors like we planned? You could get us both in trouble."

"Well, my dad forgot something at work, so he needed his keys and then I had to put them back before he was, like, all 'where are my damn keys?'. So I came with him and said that I was going to Siobhan's instead of going home and that I'd lock up for him and he totally believed me and ..." She paused, as Cade rubbed the bridge of his nose, and frowned. "And am I boring you? Maybe I should just take the keys back to dad? How will your masterplan go then?"

Cade didn't need this. This operation was supposed to be stealthy. A simple in-and-out job. Nothing fancy. Instead, he now had someone along that wouldn't close her mouth even if he used duct tape on her. Holly would find a way to talk. She always did.

Luckily, that talk, though a stream of consciousness that never seemed to end, usually left out anything secret. Talkative she may be, but she wasn't a snitch. But, as much as he trusted her with his secrets, he couldn't trust that her runaway mouth wouldn't get them both caught. And, if they were caught, Holly would suffer as much as him. More, even. Her dad could lose his job.

But, she was here now and he needed to make the best of it. By his calculations, he had another, he looked at the timer he had set on his phone, forty-eight seconds before the night security came around the corner at the end of the corridor. He hadn't planned to still be in this room by then. Sure enough, he started to hear boots coming their way.

"Close the door and keep quiet." He switched off Holly's head lamp and pulled her down to hide behind the wooden bottom section as Holly clicked the door into place. "For once, Holly, not a word."

The boots came closer and Cade scowled. His timings were out by ten seconds. Ten seconds which could have meant the difference between success and failure. As the sounds of boot steps came to the door, a beam of light, refracted by the frosted window, swept into and across the room. Cade looked up to see the huge shadow of the night security and then the shadow and the light began to move away.

Cade changed the intervals on the timer and reset it. They had a further minute or so before they could begin to move out, before the night security had moved far enough ahead for Cade to finish this job. He looked to Holly and couldn't help but smile. She had a look of pure glee on her face, so excited about the operation, she almost shook. He couldn't get angry at her, she was his best friend and, now, his accomplice.

It was time. With one hand, Cade opened the door. With the other, he stopped Holly from switching her head lamp back on, not wanting to bring any attention their way. Bent-backed, they slipped from the room and began to rush to the far end of the corridor. A quick glance, and they had a clear path to the offices away to the left and, upon reaching them, Cade demurred to Holly to open the door for him.

Once again, she removed the ring of keys and began to flick through them, murmuring 'no, no, no' in low, hushed tones as she looked for the right key. She tried one, but that wasn't right. Again, she began going through more of the keys, repeating the 'no, no, no'. With a far-too-loud exclamation, she found the right one.

"I knew it was that one!" She bared her teeth in a grimace before lowering her voice once more. "Now let's get it and get out of here. If my dad finds out I haven't brought his keys back, he'll kill me. Or ground me and then kill me. Or cut me off social, then ground me, then ..."

Cade had opened the door, dragging Holly behind him and then headed where he knew his prize awaited. Confiscated during Trig class, his sketchbook was his ticket to the big time. With the art he had created, the editors from the comic companies would be beating down his door to offer him work. Comic-Con awaited this weekend.

He opened the cabinet and there it was, lying on top of all the other confiscated items. It was his own fault. If he hadn't tried to put the finishing touches to his masterpiece ensemble panel in class, he would never have had to do this. He almost kissed the cover until the lights in the room switched on.

"What the hell are you kids doing in here?" The deep voice made Cade's shoulders droop.

"Leave this to me." Without turning, Holly squeezed Cade's shoulder. To her credit, she did, at least, try to whisper. "Just remember, you're deaf and I don't speak English. Everything will be fine."

"Holly, it's Mr. Deacon. He knows who we are." Cade put the sketchbook down and turned, holding his hands up. He was never going to get to Comic-Con now.