Collin had finished the email report to his friend Donnie. He was happy to send Donnie his report. Otherwise Donnie would have made him come in to the station and give a report as well as answer questions. The email took less of Collin’s time and was much less aggravating. After closing up the office Collin went home. His plans were to wait until dark and then visit the locked gate and what lay beyond it.
After his post dinner walk with Lily he went into the second bedroom and started to pull together some supplies.
“Are you going snooping?”
“Yes. I found a locked gate. I have to see what’s on the other side.”
“Sometimes your job is so exciting! You didn’t see any dogs this time did you?”
Lily was referring to a previous time when Collin had gone snooping only to get run off the property he was snooping on by some very aggressive German Shepherds. He had escaped minus one torn pant leg. Even carrying pepper spray doesn’t work when you are out numbered.
“No. No dogs.”
“Be careful.”
“I will.”
Collin was now dressed in a black t-shirt, black leather jacket and black pants. He was carrying his surveillance gear in a black backpack. He kissed Lily.
“I shouldn’t be too long but please don’t stay up worrying. I’ll call the emergency phone if I get into trouble.”
“I’ll just be watching TV for a while.”
Collin went out to his car and drove into the night. He loved this part of his job. When he was a kid he watched private investigator shows on TV and then snuck out at night to spy on his neighborhood. He got caught a few times but he was a loveable kid and the neighbors that caught him usually fed him cookies and milk while they called his mom to come get him. His father had been a policeman and had been killed when Collin was just 4 years old. The neighborhood felt sorry for his mother and him and helped them out when they could.
Collin pulled his car off the road into some brush about a quarter of a mile from the gate. He pulled a black ski mask over his head and face, took his backpack and started walking down the road. The road was not well lighted and not well traveled so he could walk freely on the side of it.
As Collin approached the white gate he studied the fence that ran around the property from the gate. It didn’t look like much of a fence until you looked closely. The fence was only three feet high like most of the fencing in the area. It had a low voltage shock wire running along the top as in most farms to keep livestock from pushing up against the fence and knocking it down. But this fence also had hidden motion sensors with cameras spaced out in intervals of every three fence posts. If someone jumped the fence the occupants of the property would see him coming.
The posts nearest the gate didn’t have the motion detectors. Probably so every time the gate was used it didn’t set off the alarms unnecessarily. If Collin could unlock the gate and he stayed on the lane he would be safe from the alarms. Unfortunately the gate and lane were lighted. So if someone drove by or happened to be watching he would be easily seen. Pausing in the darkness out of the reach of the light on the gate Collin opened his backpack and removed the device he needed to unlock the gate. He was perspiring from the walk and from nervousness. He closed up the backpack and walked determinedly up to the gate. He slid the electric key card into the slot and pressed the go button. Numbers flashed by on the digital read out for a couple of seconds and then the gate sprang open. He walked through quickly and on up the lane. The gate automatically closed and locked behind him. He was breathing heavily as he reached the top of the hill where the lane disappeared into the trees. He moved off the lane and into the trees to stop and listen for signs that anyone might have detected his entrance to the property.
Collin looked back down the hill at the gate. It had closed behind him and looked as it had before. The light from the gate was not overly bright and it looked quiet and peaceful. He looked the other way over the hill past the trees where he was hiding. A few hundred yards down and away from his hiding place was a group of buildings. It looked like a farmhouse and a barn with a silo. Then there were the other buildings. He couldn’t make out what they were but they were each two stories high. There were at least four or five of these buildings. Some lights were on both inside and out. There was a truck and some cars parked at the farmhouse. It didn’t appear that anyone knew he was there.
Collin kept to the shadows as he started toward the buildings. He stayed in the trees then followed the tree line around to the left. He figured sneaking up from the back would be best. It was dark and the ground was uneven. Collin was being careful not to twist an ankle. There was no evidence of any motion detectors or other alarms as he made his way. He picked one of the two story buildings and snuck up from behind. There was no outdoor lighting and he was able to find a back door. He used a flashlight to examine the door. It was completely ordinary so he pulled out a lock pick and picked the lock. Inside the door was a dark hallway. Collin slipped into the building and closed the door. There was some pale emergency lighting and lighted exit signs in the hallway. Collin let his eyes adjust to the light. He listened to see if there was anything or anyone making noise in the area. He could hear a condenser go on and off and a motor running but no voices. He started slowly moving down the hall.
The first door he came to was locked and unmarked. The next had frosted glass for the top half and was labeled with a sign that said Animal Room. Collin peered through the glass but he couldn’t make anything out. The door was also locked. He continued to the end of the hall where it turned right. This hallway was wider and he could see ahead a lighted area where there was an elevator. He crept past the lighted area and down the hallway past the elevator. The first doors in this hallway were offices with signs indicating who worked in each office. The first was Gregory Phelps MD, Director. The next was Donna Singleton PhD, Laboratory Supervisor. Beyond the laboratory supervisor’s office was a long stretch broken by a set of locked double doors. The sign here indicated that this was the Main Laboratory.
Directly across the hall was another set of locked double doors with a sign that said Clean Room: EXIT ONLY. Collin wondered what kind of testing this place was doing and if it was related to Gene Search or not. He picked the lock on the main laboratory and peeked inside. He took out a flashlight and swept the light around the room. There was a counter top running down the middle of the room with a sink on each end. There were some electrical outlets sticking up in the middle of the counter but no instruments were present. There was also a counter at the back of the large room. There was a refrigerator standing to the left and a horizontal behemoth of a freezer with a loud motor on the right. There were other doors on either side of the room to the back. Small instruments were installed on the counter on the back wall. Collin was most interested in a book shelf with manuals on it that he saw on the right side of the back counter opposite the instruments.
He pulled out some of the manuals. They were technical manuals for the use of the instruments. Then he pulled out a medium sized notebook that was labeled Standard Operating Procedures. Inside he found what he was looking for. The first page of the book had in large print: GENE SEARCH PROJECT. The book was a procedure manual for the testing associated with the Gene Search project. The first section in the book was entitled: PROTOCOL I. The document was very technical in nature. Collin couldn’t discern any explanation of exactly what the project or its goals were. He put the notebook back on the shelf and left the lab. In his hurry, he didn’t notice that he placed the manual back upside down. He wanted to see what was in the other buildings and he had already been on the property for over an hour.
He went back down the hall and then past the elevators. He was startled when the light on the elevator came on and a loud DING was heard. He ran around the corner toward the animal room and paused to look back and see if anyone got off the elevator. Collin was delighted to see the man and woman who exited the elevator turn away from him and walk toward the laboratory. He quickly continued do
wn the hall past the animal room and to the exit door. He let himself out and peeked around the corner of the building to look at the next one. He pulled back immediately. There was a man smoking a cigarette leaning up against the wall of the other building. He was dressed like a security man with a belt and holster.
Collin listened then turned and went around the building the other way. When he got to the other side he carefully peeked around the corner to see if the security guard was still there. He was and he had been joined by another guard. Collin could also see a sign in the yard in front of the building that read SECURITY.
“Quiet night.”
“So far. I guess the gate alarm was a false alarm.”
“It has registered an entry before when there was no entry.”
“I know. I always thought it was the wind. No wind today.”
“Could have just been a raccoon or something rattled the gate.”
“Yeah, the motion sensors didn’t show anything.”
Collin was perturbed. His entry had apparently been detected.
“You and Jack checked the dorms right?”
“Nobody was missing. Jack’s been out doing a perimeter search for about and hour. He should be back soon.”
“I’m headed back in. Tell him to come see me when he shows up.”
“Right.”
Collin watched the first guard walk down the side of the security building and go inside. He did not know where Jack might be at this point but Collin it was time to go. He snuck back to the backdoor of the laboratory building and tiptoed across the open area into the cover of the trees. He quietly made his way back to the lane listening and watching for any signs of the guard named Jack. At the top of the hill Collin paused to decide how best to exit the property. He didn’t want to be detected again. Just then an alarm sounded from the laboratory building. Lights came on around the building and the security guards came running. The woman Collin had seen leaving the elevator was standing outside the building pointing and talking loudly.
“Someone’s been in the laboratory!”
The guards followed the woman back inside. It was definitely time to go. He ran toward the gate staying in the center of the lane so the motion sensors would not pick him up. He didn’t pause to unlock the gate. He put both hands on it and vaulted over. He fell on the other side. He picked himself up and ran down the road for his car. He made the quarter of a mile in just a few minutes. He unlocked the door and got inside. He was breathing heavy and was dusty from falling. He grabbed the steering wheel and breathed deeply. He told himself, “Don’t panic! Drive slowly like you belong here.” Then he started the car and headed for home unaware that he had been observed as he ran down the lane by the guard, Jack.