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Beka vs the Port Authority - Chapter 5
After parking the scoot in the public parking area , Beka, with Trance in tow, began to explore the perimeter of the port authority building, eventually stopping at a door that said 'Port Authority - Employees Only'. Beka tried the door, it was locked, secured with a push button cypher lock. Somewhat to Trance's surprise Beka ignored the lock and instead stopped, pulled out a flexie and began to concentrate on the display. Wondering why they were simply standing around Trance peeked over Beka's shoulder to see what had attracted her attention on the flexie. She was reading a horror novel.
"I thought we wanted to find a way into the traffic control administrative offices," said Trance in a puzzled tone of voice. "Why are we just standing around outside the building?"
"We do. We're just waiting for someone to open the door, then we'll go in."
"That's it?" asked Trance incredulously. "That's how we're going to sneak in?"
"Sometimes," said Beka adopting a teacher to pupil tone of voice, "the simple ways are the best. It's a busy spaceport, someone will be coming along shortly either going in or out and we'll just take advantage of the open door."
Her words proved prophetic for a few minutes later a man came walking towards the door obviously in a hurry and wearing a scowl that indicated he was not happy with the world. He ignored the two women as he punched the combination to the lock, jerked the door open and stepped inside. Beka started to move towards the open door but stopped when the man snarled 'Wrong door' and slammed the door in her face.
"Well that was rude," said Beka. "I wonder who pissed in his coffee? We're either going to have to wait until someone else opens the door or find another way in."
"Maybe not," said Trance. She reached into the small clutch purse she habitually carried with her when in port and removed a compact. She looked around to ensure that no one was in sight, then walking up to the lock she opened the compact and blew a cloud of face powder onto the lock. She waited for the powder to settle then blew gently on the lock.
"There," she said. "We know what numbers he pushed. Look"
Beka leaned forward. The numbers of the lock were arranged in three rows of three with the number zero at the bottom center. There were faint but discernible clumps of powder on the two, five, seven and nine buttons.
1 2 3
4 5 6
7 8 9
0
"When someone touches the buttons they leave body oil and sweat on the buttons," explained Trance. "The powder sticks to the oil and sweat letting us see what buttons were pushed."
"That's pretty slick, Trance" said Beka admiringly. "Where did you learn that trick?"
The younger woman practically glowed at the compliment. "I learned
it on Bathsheba before I met you guys," she explained. Then using the
same tone of voice that Beka had used moments earlier said. "It's like
you said, Beka. Sometimes the simple way is the best."
"Touche," said Beka at having her own words come back at her. "Someday,
Trance, you and I are going to have a long talk about your past," The tone
of her voice and the look in her eyes indicated that when the time for the talk
came, Trance's participation wasn't going to be optional. "Ok," she
said getting back to the subject at hand, "we know the numbers, but what
order do we punch them?"
"I saw the man's hand move as he started to push the buttons," said Trance. "His hand moved like this." She moved her hand in a diagonal motion from upper right to lower left. "I bet the first two numbers were two and seven. If I'm right that only leave two other possibilities for the rest of the combination."
"It's better than standing around waiting for someone else to come by or sneaking in by another route," agreed Beka. "Lets try two, seven, five nine first."
The combination turned out to be two, seven, nine five. When the lock clicked Beka opened the door and stepped inside, Trance following close behind her.
"Act like you know where you're going" said Beka. "If you look like you belong most of the time people will assume you do and leave you alone."
The inside of the building was blissfully cool compared to the outside air. According to the inhabitants of Fenree, the port authority building was the original building that had been in place prior to the civil war, but it had been added to in a haphazard manner over the years until to Beka's mind the floor plan resembled a rabbit warren more than a design created by thinking beings.
The port authority building did more than administer the day to day activities of the port and provide traffic control for arriving and departing spaceships. It served as a secondary traffic control for the airport that the spaceport shared the island with, and whose airships connected the spaceport to the rest of the planet. Additionally it served as a hiring hall for spacers seeking work, a training center for spacers and yard workers seeking to study for certification examinations, and an office complex for individuals and companies that did business with either the port or the ships that used it. Additionally it contained barracks style sleeping accommodations for spacers needing an inexpensive place to sleep when tiding over periods of unemployment, a surprisingly good restaurant, and a small but well equipped infirmary.
From Beka's point of view all this activity meant that it was filled with people who didn't know each other. She and Trance strode the corridors looking for the the traffic control administrative center, acting like they knew where she was going and nodding occasionally to some of the people they met in the corridors. After about fifteen minutes of walking they found what they had been looking for. A door marked with the words 'Traffic Control Administration – Authorized Personnel Only.' Two men were chatting outside the door, the first man appeared to be a typical port authority worker while the second was clearly a security guard.
The guard was perhaps a head taller than Beka, slightly overweight and features that might once have been handsome but now seemed merely dissipated. He was wearing the same knee length pants and baggy shirt that hung down to mid thigh that the majority of Fenree citizens who worked at the spaceport did, but unlike the majority who tended to wear shirt and pants of bright, and generally clashing, colors this man's clothing was a uniform shade of dark blue. Additionally he was wearing what appeared to be an identification card clipped to one of his shirt pockets and a wide belt with several devices hanging from it, one of which looked suspiciously like some sort of side arm, and of course there was the patch on the left shoulder of his shirt that said Port Authority Security.
"Hi, Bob," the first man was saying to the guard. "I heard you we lucky at Donner's the other night."
"Sure was, sir. The wheel was good to me that night. I had the late watch last night so I wasn't able visit the tables but I'm on standby tonight so I'll be able to visit the tables as long as I don't drink and can be contacted if I need to come in to the port. And I and still feel lucky."
"While the wife's away the men will play, heh?"
"Something like that, sir." The guard reached up and removed something from his shirt pocket. He swiped the something past a mechanism on the door then punched a series of numbers into a keypad beside the mechanism. There was an audible click and the door opened slightly.
"There you go sir. Try to remember your passkey tomorrow." said the guard. The man the guard had been chatting with nodded his thanks and stepped through the door, the guard closing it behind him.
Beka approached the guard. "Excuse me," she said. "We have an 0845 appointment with port administration. Can you pass us through?" As she spoke she glanced at the out the door's locking mechanism trying as unobtrusively as possible to evaluate the mechanism. As she suspected it consisted of a pass card reader and a cypher lock. There were also several metallic blocks on the door that were in contact with the door jam, which Beka suspected were part of an alarm system.
The guard, whose badge read Kelso, gave the women appraising looks, his gaze eventually settling on Beka's cleavage. "You're in the wrong portion of the building ma'am," he said. "This area is for employees only. How did you get in here? The doors to this portion of the building are supposed to be locked at all times."
Beka shrugged "No one told me which door we were supposed to use. We just followed somebody after they walked in. The door wasn't locked and the writing on it said port administration. So I figured it was OK for us to go in."
"I keep telling those admin types that they have to make sure they close the door behind them," grumbled the guard. "You need to go back out and use the main entrance. The guard there can direct you to which ever office you need to visit."
Her preliminary scouting completed, Beka decided it was time to leave and begin conducting the legitimate business which would provide her a cover for being in the wrong area of the building. "Thanks," she said. "Lets go, Trance" She turned to walk away then paused and turned back to the guard as if she had remembered something. "Did I hear you say that there was a casino nearby?"
"Donner's Casino," said the guard, his attention focused once more on Beka's chest rather than her face. "Will I be seeing you there tonight?"
"Not tonight but maybe tomorrow. Maybe I'll see you then."
Leaving the guard to his fantasies about her breasts, Beka took Trance to the port administration offices, where with Trance listening and taking mental notes, she spent the next hour explaining to a bored functionary wearing an eye searing combination of fluorescent orange, purple and chartreuse that the Maru's lift off date had changed, and why they needed a cargo handling team to load the ship's cargo pod today and not two days from now as originally scheduled, and how much it was going to cost for the overtime the unplanned activities would entail.
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