08/11/2020 Snippet, MORGAN BAROD AND THE ELDRITCH TOME.

Overthinking!

The roof wasn’t in the best shape; it was at least a century old, and probably had been overdue for renovations even before the Discovery made that sort of issue moot. Kiddo and Ben found it easy enough going, but Morgan was hearing an alarming amount of creaking underneath his feet. He figured it wouldn’t be a problem if they moved quickly enough.

Then he looked at the windows themselves, and swore. Ben drifted over, looking absurdly light on his feet. “What’s the problem?” he said. “The smart locks frozen in place?”

“Worse, “said Morgan. “There aren’t any. The locks are all non-powered. Take a look; the damn things use screws, for Christ’s sake.”

Ben looked a little more closely. “It looks like you can’t open them from the outside at all. Doesn’t that violate about a dozen health ordinances?”

“It did.” Morgan shook his head. “But this was a state university; they probably got grandfathered in. Or maybe nobody bothered to check. Which doesn’t do anything to get us in, you know.”

“I’m starting to think that maybe we should have brought some specialists with us,” Ben said. “Like someone who knows how to pick old-style locks.” He stared at the window for a moment, then looked over at Kiddo. “Hey, Kiddo! We could use your help.” When Kiddo came over, Ben went on, “Do you know how to get through to the other side?”

Kiddo looked at him, then at Morgan, then gestured for Morgan’s pack. After he handed it over, ignoring the creaking underneath him, Kiddo went neatly rummaging until she found — a towel and a hammer. She tucked the towel into the top seam of the window, smacked the towel with the hammer a few times, and was rewarded with the muffled sound of breaking glass on the other side. She then shoved the towel over the bottom of the now broken-window, smiled at both of them, and put the hammer back in the pack.

“Well,” Ben said. “That’s us told.”