Amber had to almost crawl up the stairs. She cautiously popped her head up at the top, her shotgun still pointing mainly at the ceiling. The store appeared to be deserted. In fact, she realised that really it was just a medium sized room with a lot of shelves in the middle. She climbed the rest of the stairs and quickly checked that no-one was lurking behind any of the shelves. Ghost joined her and when she nodded, he called for the monks to come up.
He looked around the store carefully as they made their way up. It was had a good range of artists supplies. That was useful to know. He looked behind the till and quickly found the keys to unlock the front door. The windows were covered with frost so he accepted they’d just have to go and hope for the best. He unlocked the door and they flooded out of the cramped shop back into the deep snow of the main street. He could hear the zombies yells in the distance as he relocked the door and pocketed the keys, but nothing seemed to be nearby.
Daniel led the monks back the Library while Ghost locked up the shop. Amber stood pensively next to him, her shotgun sweeping the area. Ghost looked at the tracks the monks had left. Pulling out a knife, he prised open the crate of cleaning alcohol and took out one of the bottles. Walking backwards through the jumbled tracks the monks had left he liberally sprinkled it on them and the surrounding snow. After he’d used three bottles he took out his lighter and held the one the remaining bottles over it until finally the vapour caught alight. He threw into the tracks and watched in satisfaction as the tracks melted enough to confuse someone as it what had actually happened. With a nod to Amber, they headed after the monks to the Library.
Once in the Library, they joined the monks in stamping the snow of their boots. The monks headed off in different directions, presumably to catalogue their haul of books.
“Well that was successful,” Daniel beamed at them.
Ghost nodded and put the crate down.
Daniel beckoned to a monk who handed him a small electronic device.
“A list of what we have. Anything in blue is actually here. Anything in green is on loan to someone but will eventually come back here. Anything in red is elsewhere, but we can make arrangements to get it,” Gideon said with distinct pride.
Ghost switched the device on and tried a few terms in its search engine. It was fairly rudimentary, but the number of listings was extraordinary. Ghost wisely chose not to hide his surprise, before turning the device off and putting it into an inside pocket.
Next
