By late afternoon, the light over Grefort had turned red enough to make the rooftops uncomfortable to look at for too long. The infected below were becoming louder as well, their groans carrying farther through the streets as evening approached.
Dmitri packed away his binoculars.
"That's enough for today, buddy."
Rex was already waiting near the rooftop door.
Dmitri stared at him. "Don't tell me you're more eager to get downstairs than I am."
The dog only wagged his tail.
Dmitri unlocked the door, let Rex through, and closed it behind them before starting down.
They met Alexei and Selene several floors below, both carrying bags of recovered food toward Hans's room. The two moved aside as Dmitri passed, just as Hans stepped into the hallway.
"Oh, Dmitri. Finished?"
"Preliminary reconnaissance is complete, Commander. I found several things worth reporting."
"We'll sit down for the full report later." Hans looked toward the stairwell. "Walk downstairs with me first."
"Understood."
Rex barked and followed without needing to be called.
The lower floors were much quieter than they had been that morning. Several Conscripts still worked around the entrance, filling the remaining open sections with furniture and other material recovered from upstairs.
Adam noticed Hans near the stairwell and came over.
"Commander."
"How's it going?"
"Slower than expected, but the bodies are gone and most of the entrance is covered. Cleaning can continue tomorrow."
"All right. Keep four people down here tonight and work out the shifts with the others. Once the open sections are covered, let everyone else stop. We're eating upstairs."
Adam's expression brightened for a moment. "Understood."
Hans left him to organize the rest and continued with Dmitri.
The elevator doors sat on the other side of the lobby.
Hans looked at the call button but did not press it.
The building still had electricity for now, but he had no idea how long that would last. More importantly, nobody had opened the elevator since the lower floors were secured.
"The car could still have bodies inside."
"Possible," Dmitri said.
"Tomorrow, then. No point opening another enclosed space tonight just because the button still works."
Hans glanced upward. "Any solar panels on the roof?"
"None, Commander."
Hans sighed. "Of course not."
Lights, water pumps, elevators, air-conditioning, repairs. The more Hans looked at the building as a base instead of an apartment, the longer the list became.
I really do need people who know how this stuff works.
The rear staff area was mostly empty, with tables and couches they could reuse later.
The kitchen was less useful. Hans opened the door, caught the smell, and shut it again before backing away.
"Damn it."
"Spoiled storage?" Dmitri asked.
"Unless something died in there twice." Hans left the kitchen alone and kept looking for the maintenance room.
They eventually found the maintenance-room door near the back corridor. It was metal, scratched in several places, with a few dark stains around the lower edge.
"Locked," Hans said.
"I can open it."
Dmitri brought out his lockpick kit and worked on the mechanism while Rex watched the corridor. The lock gave way after less than a minute.
Dmitri returned the tools to his pack and brought his MP7A1 up.
"I'll check first."
"Go ahead."
Dmitri entered with Rex, cleared the immediate corners, and waved Hans through.
The maintenance room was larger than Hans expected.
Pipes ran along the walls and ceiling, several vibrating faintly as water or pressure moved through them. Electrical panels covered most of one wall, each section marked with old labels for floor lighting, elevators, pumps, and other building systems.
Some indicators glowed green or amber. Others were dark.
Hans kept his hands away from everything.
"I don't know what half of this does, so I'm not touching it."
"Probably for the best."
A board near the opposite wall held labeled keys for apartments, utility rooms, and staff areas. A pile of employee ID cards sat below them.
The shelves farther inside were more useful: cleaning supplies, spare bulbs, electrical tape, hand tools, buckets, mops, flashlights, batteries, rope, a fire axe, and several crowbars.
Hans perked up at the shelves. "Now this is useful."
He picked up one of the crowbars, tested its weight, and returned it to the shelf.
"Keep these here for now. We can issue them when needed."
Hans looked at the flashlights. "You carry one?"
"Night vision is better for my role. A flashlight would give away my position."
"Right. The others can use them."
Near the far end of the room, Rex stopped and let out a low growl.
Dmitri moved toward him and found another door partly hidden behind stacked storage boxes. Beyond it, a narrow staircase descended below the building.
He opened the door only far enough to see the first section.
The light from the maintenance room barely reached past the first few steps.
Rex's growl deepened.
Dmitri listened for several seconds.
"Something moved below us, Commander."
Hans did not approach the stairs any farther.
"Can you identify it?"
"No."
"Then we're not going down there tonight."
Dmitri looked into the darkness once more before closing the door.
Hans pointed toward the boxes. "Lock it again and shove those boxes in front of the door. If something tries coming up, I want to hear it before it reaches us."
"Understood."
Dmitri locked the door and shifted several storage boxes against it. Rex stayed beside him until the last one was in place.
When they returned to the lobby, Hans explained the staircase to Adam.
"We can place two Conscripts near the maintenance room," Adam suggested.
Hans counted the manpower in his head.
Four at the main entrance. Two near the maintenance room. That left six Conscripts free for anything outside the building.
"We're starting to run out of people."
"Six are enough for the initial parking-lot sweep," Dmitri said. "I'll lead them. Rex can come with me."
Hans ran the numbers through his head again.
"All right. We'll plan it after dinner. Nobody goes underground until we know what we're dealing with."
"Understood, Commander."
Hans headed upstairs while Dmitri remained behind to give Adam the shorter version of his reconnaissance.
Far below the locked maintenance door, something shifted once in the dark and went still.