***** Vol.5 Chap.26 The shed *****

Frank looked around the one room shed. It was rather barren. Some discarded broken garden tools at one corner of the room. The tools had a thick layer of cobwebs and dust on top.

On the other side of the room, there was a shelf, but the board had long fallen off on the floor. The floor was littered with dry grass and hay. A worn-out mat lied in the middle. A broken table stood on its side at another end of the room.

If there was supposed to be an airshaft, it must be well hidden. Frank looked for a utility hook up box and there were none to be found. The shed itself looked like it was built and abandoned centuries ago before the days where electricity was available. He looked at May-Ling and she looked back.

“Did we come to the wrong place?” Frank asked.

“Let’s look again more carefully.” May-Ling suggested.

With their flashlights, they searched the room from top to bottom again. There were no airshaft and no utility hook up. On an impulse, she pulled the mat off the floor thinking that maybe there was a trap door there. But after removing the mat, there was nothing but a rotten wooden floor.

“Nope, there is nothing here.”

He started jumping up and down testing the floor. The floor seemed solid.

“Strange that they would put such a solid wood floor here in the shed,” said May-Ling.

“And in such good condition also,” he added. “Everything else seems ancient and decrepit.”

He walked to the middle and jumped. The floor sounded a bit hollow.

“I think there is something below the floor. May be the floor is hiding something.”

They both dropped to the floor and started clearing the floor from the dry grass and debris looking for a handle or hinge of some sort that would indicate the presence of a trap door. But they found none.

The floor was in decent condition in stark contrast to the rest of the shed. The boards ran from one side of the room to the other side. There was no strange break, no crack anywhere to indicate that there was a trap door.

They got up and sat on the floor scratching their heads.

“This is almost comical, no, pathetic really. We come so far to the very spot but cannot find the shaft to get in!”

“Shh!” He put his finger to his mouth. Then he put his ear on the floor.

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“I hear a low humming sound that sounded like a fan,” he whispered.

She put her hand on the floor. “I think I felt a small vibration also.”

“The access must be underneath the floor!” Frank jumped up excitedly.

They both jumped up and filed out the shed. Immediately, he noticed that the shed was built on a slope. The door was flat on the ground but the back of the shed is slightly raised as the ground had dropped slightly. Neither of them noticed the slight difference because all around the shed, the wild vegetation had hidden the true foundation of the shed.

As they examined the foundation of the shed more carefully, they found that there was a lattice at the back of the shed. The lattice was carefully concealed by some heavy bush planted in front.

As he stepped over the bush and pulled off the lattice, he noticed that there was a small crawl space at underneath the shed. He felt a draft. As he shone his flashlight into the crawl space, immediately he saw the airshaft in front of it. Next to the airshaft was the utility box.

“Bingo. May-Ling, I’ve found it.” Frank shouted.

“Where are you?”

“Go around the bush and crawl through the hole where I removed the lattice.”

“I see it.”

As she poked her head in, he was just about to come out.

“Let’s get our gear and stash it here.”

“Okay. Here I will get them. You stay here. Take some of my stuff.” She handed him the stuff that she was carrying. “I will be back in a minute.”

She went back to the shed and picked up the rest of the gear. Carefully, she replaced the worn-out mat and spread dry grass over it. Then she threw the gear over the bush, and climbed into the hole.

“Can you put the lattice back?”

“Of course.” May-Ling yanked on the lattice and tried to put it back to the original position.

“Pretty cramped space here.” Frank said. “I got the utility box opened and will try to see if I can tap into the communication network through the power lines.

“I will check the airshaft.”

They each knew what they had to do and they wasted no time doing it. He examined the wiring and found the phone line, the cable line, and the power line. All connections are made in the junction box. He took his laptop out and made the connection with the phone line.

She went over to the airshaft and examined the opening. It was about three feet wide with a grate on top. The shaft itself had small hand holds built at the edge every two feet or so.

Well, that should make the descent a little easier. She thought to herself.

She shone her flashlight as far down as she could. She really could not see much because the shaft took a small bend after ten feet or so. She figured that the shaft was drilled from the top and from the bottom at the same time. Somehow there must be a mismatch somewhere along the way.

“Where are the shears? I need to cut the lock of the grate.”

“Over there near my bags.”

She got the shears and tried in vain to cut the lock. After another 5 minutes, she gave up and called for help.

“Frank, can you help me with the lock here?” She said sheepishly.

“My pleasure.”

He crawled over there and in one snap, he cut the lock open. “Let me help you with the grate.” He yanked the grate open and pushed it aside.

“Thanks. How is progress breaking into the security system?”

“Not good.”

“They must have installed a really foolproof system. I can get into the entire computer system except the security part. It seemed that there is a lockout so that only certain computer systems physically on the premises can get into the security part.”

“What does that mean?”

“That means that I will have to accompany you down the shaft and look for an inside terminal to use.”

“Okay, I think I am ready to descend as soon as I get suited up with my gear.”

“Let me get my stuff together also.”

He carefully put his laptop into his backpack, strapped his backpack on, and picked up the rest of his stuff.