He took a breath and held it.

 

He was not experiencing fear. He could no longer feel that.

 

He was thinking about his exit strategy if an alarm went off.

 

Guards in front. Roof alarm. They’ll secure the perimeter. How long will that

take? I’ll go over the rear side, down to the third floor, let go, and free fall

to the ground. Over the fence and out. Twenty seconds. It will have to be

enough. If I run into a guard, well, he’ll be dead and I won’t.

 

He opened the door.

 

He waited. No alarm sounded.

 

His memory had been good. They hadn’t alarmed this door back then either. They

imagined that no one could scale a sheer brick wall without the aid of a ladder.

They were off by one on that assumption.

 

He shut the door behind him and moved down the stairs. The interior of the space

outlined in his head from thirty-year-old memories, he made his way to the

second floor and then out into the main corridor. He looked in the ceiling

crevices for motion sensors but saw none. He looked for surveillance cameras but

saw none of those either.