Fuki had been right about it being a cultural center. There were three floors, with the first one for official use, a large reception desk, and a spacious office space. There were rooms of various sizes on the second floor and a modest event hall on the third…
The floor plan alone wasn’t much to go on to guess at the present state of the interior, but the sniper was either on the second or third floor, and the only parts of the building with windows overlooking the parking lot were the corridors, so she probably wouldn’t have to search every room to find the enemy.
“Sakura, the muzzle flash you saw, which floor was it on?”
“Third. A corner window, on the right side when you’re looking from the parking lot.”
So Fuki could go straight to the third floor. The target might have moved, but she’d first look for them on the top floor, and if they weren’t there, she’d search from the top to the bottom.
“Sakura, look to the left, the eastern side of the building,” Commander Kusunoki cut in. “There’s an external emergency staircase there. Based on the drone footage, it’s usable.”
“Roger! Heading to the third floor!” Sakura replied.
Fuki looked at the floor plan again. There was only one staircase inside the building, and it was on the western end of it. The building was facing to the north, where the parking lot was, so if Sakura took the eastern staircase to the third floor, she’d reach the right side of the corridor.
“Okay then…”
On the staircase, Fuki would have no way to hide from the enemy if she encountered them there. In principle, being higher on a staircase gave you an advantage. There was no better ambush spot than at the top of the stairs. Fuki, though, had no choice. She had to head upstairs. It was her job.
She moved silently through the first-floor corridor, wary and ready to shoot at any moment. She was holding the gun and the flashlight in each hand so she could switch the flashlight on and fire at a target with minimal delay.
…It was quiet in the building, save for the faint sound of Fuki’s footsteps. Was the enemy taking care not to make any noise, or were they simply still too far away from Fuki for her to hear them?
The corridor was strewn with broken glass in some places. No matter how careful she was, Fuki couldn’t help making relatively loud crunching noises as she walked over it, warning the enemy of her approach. It made her stressed. She reminded herself that the target was on the third floor, though. She couldn’t let down her guard, of course, but there was no need to be so high-strung. The enemy wouldn’t be able to hear her crunching glass underfoot from two floors above… Or would they?
Fuki mocked herself for losing her cool. She evened her breathing to lower her heart rate.
She reached the stairwell. It was quiet there, too. The air stank of mold. Without any windows, it was pitch-black. When her eyes adjusted, Fuki saw that the staircase was a very common concrete type with a landing between two flights of stairs. She started slowly climbing it, keeping her back against the wall but not leaning against it so that she could react swiftly, pointing her gun and the switched-off flashlight toward where an enemy might be lurking above her.
She reached the landing between the first and second floors. It was empty. She kept moving to the second floor. Nothing to see there, either. She couldn’t sense anyone’s presence. If the sniper hadn’t moved, they should be directly above Fuki…yet she couldn’t detect any sign of them.
Making no sound, Fuki slowly took a deep breath and started walking again. Sakura reported that she had reached the emergency staircase. Fuki wished she could reply to her, but the enemy could be within mere meters, so she only tapped the mic twice to let Sakura know she had heard her. Both Sakura and the command center should be able to guess from the taps that Fuki was about to reach the third floor.
Fuki started walking to the landing between floors two and three, as alert as she could be in case of an attack from above. If the enemy was still on the top floor, they might open fire on her at any moment. Fuki approached carefully, step by step. Her heartbeat seemed almost deafeningly loud to her. She mentally yelled at her heart to keep it down. Another step. And another. She had four steps left to the landing, and then she’d reach the last flight of stairs, where she could aim the gun in the same direction she was walking, making it a bit easier. She took another step. And another… Then she felt something through her stocking. Something taut at shin-height.
A chill ran down Fuki’s spine when she realized it was a tripwire. She hadn’t triggered the trap yet, though, having stopped as soon as she felt it.
Had she let the enemy lure her in? Did they let the girls see that muzzle flash on the western end of the third floor to get the Lycoris to come up there? Expecting the enemy to be above, she naturally stopped paying so much attention to what was at her feet…
If the flash was to decoy them…Sakura was in trouble.
“Sakura! Watch out for booby traps on the staircase!”
Fuki knew she was taking a great risk by shouting into the mic, and sure enough, she immediately noticed movement on the third floor. Her insides tightened with the certainty that something bad was coming, and she could feel the enemy’s murderous stare on her skin.
Since touching the wire, she’d been frozen with her gun and flashlight pointed toward the third floor. She switched on the light. It was made for the army, so despite its small size, the flashlight emitted a surprisingly powerful beam of light.
“Ugh?!”
The groan came from a large man blinded by the light. She saw his thick arm sticking over the railing. He was holding something. The object was long and silver…
Whatever it was, it wouldn’t have affected Fuki’s next action—she pulled the trigger. The suppressor muffled the sound of her gunshot, but a loud blast shook the air.