The elevator opened out into a non-descript corridor. The floor was devoid of carpet; some sort of vinyl surface sent her heel taps echoing down the hall. There were no helpful signs down here either. The fact she had been required to swipe a card and give a fingerprint was encouraging, though. How much security would a janitor have to pass to get to the supply cupboard?

Laura glanced both ways along the corridor. There were no obvious signs of CCTV cameras. Where could she start? What would she say if she were discovered? She closed her eyes and breathed deeply. She should start in the most deserted parts of the building, and maybe she could avoid any unnecessary encounters. She cast the Net, gently sending it out from her. If there were any Listeners down here, she didn't want to alert them.

To her left a group of four minds huddled together. A coffee room, perhaps, or an office they all worked in? To the right it seemed clear. She didn't want to cast too far. It was unlikely a Listener would be around at this time of night, but she felt vulnerable enough as it was. She decided to go to her right first.

She tried the doors as she walked down the corridor, guiltily looking both ways before she turned each handle. Most were locked with traditional keys. A couple had fingerprint readers on them, but she was loathe to try those if she didn't have to. Who knew what alarms she might set off if she tried an unauthorised lock?

She reached the end of the corridor without finding a single door that opened to her. It angled left to reveal an identical corridor running at right-angles. So the building was built around a square, the corridor eventually turning back to the elevator. That meant she would have to eventually confront the knot of employees, but not just yet. She cast the Net again, trying to establish if anyone inhabited this end of the building. It came up empty. Without enthusiasm, Laura started down this leg of the corridor, softly trying door handles as she went.

Some burglar she turned out to be. Gaining egress into the building had been relatively straightforward, but now she was here she was as useful as a hose in the desert. She couldn't pick locks and she was too scared to try the fingerprint readers. Wonderful. What if every floor was like this? What could she do? How could she face Christmas afterwards?

Something wasn't right. She stopped, turned, and regarded the section of passage she had just walked along. What was it her subconscious had kicked her about? She backtracked to the last door she had passed. It was locked, of course, and a fingerprint reader kept it locked. What was different about this door? Nothing. It was identical to all the others, anonymous and immovable. She looked up. There!

A thick duct ran across the ceiling of the corridor and disappeared through the wall above the door. Was that significant? It wasn't air conditioning; that was tucked away in the plenum above the ceiling, regular grilles marking its position. Power cables then? Why would that be significant? Because you'd need a lot of power to justify having your own power duct, separate from the main building power. What would need a lot of power?

Laura wiped her hands on her thighs. This had to be the server room. Why else would they need extra power cables? Well, for any number of reasons, but it was the likeliest proposition so far. What alternative was there? Wander around the building until daybreak, finding nothing but locked doors? Asking the nerds on the other side of the building? 'Excuse me, I'm a hacker. Could you point me to your server room, please?'

But suppose Allen hadn't access to this particular room? Would that ring alarm bells in the system? Would the building be locked down until she could be delivered into the hands of Lee and Jones? She felt sick at the prospect. She shouldn't do. After all, they were the Guild, they were there for her, but after Lee's behaviour in the car she loathed the thought of ever seeing them again.

She took closed her eyes and took a deep breath. No, she had to do this. What else could she do? She wiped her hands again, fighting the nausea rising in her. She took Allen's card, braced herself and swiped it over the card reader. The corridor failed to fill with alarm sirens. Instead, the fingerprint reader flashed. She held the fake print over the reader. How long would it take her to sprint to the elevator? Would it even work by the time she got there?

The lock clicked. Laura took the handle in a shaky hand and pushed. The door opened.

She slipped inside and pushed the door closed behind her. The room was lit by muted sodium lights, giving the whole place a yellow monochrome feel. Cabinets of winking lights and multi-coloured cables filled the room. If this wasn't the server room, she couldn't imagine what else it might be. She moved quickly along the cabinets, searching for any clue as to their function. They were a world removed from her notebook, completely alien to her. They didn't have keyboards or screen, and nothing that looked like a universal port. She moved to the next row. These were even more unlikely, wardrobe-like cabinets with a handful of lights on the facia and nothing else. Supposing this wasn't the server room. Suppose this was some other IT function, and the server rooms were somewhere remote? Laura pushed the thought away and pressed on, scanning each cabinet in turn for anything that looked familiar.

Against the far wall stood a rack of machines, stacked to the ceiling behind glass panels. Laura opened a panel. A blast of frozen air hit her. She studied the rack. There, a keyboard on a sliding tray tucked neatly into the maze of circuit boards. She pulled it out. That at least looked familiar. She pushed it back and studied the other closely-packed tiers of electronics. Another tray seemed to be on sliders. She tugged that, and out slid a screen, hinging down at chest height. So these were the servers, they had to be.

She shoved the screen back and looked for a universal port. There were none. The other shelves seemed to be designed to slide out as well, but they remained fast as Laura tugged at them. Were there retaining screws, or some sort of catch? She couldn't find them, and didn't want to force anything. She'd sent so many notebooks to electronic heaven, who knew what damage she could do to a sophisticated piece of equipment like this?

She closed the glass door and walked down the row. Each rack appeared identical to its neighbour. She felt a wave of frustration. She had come so far, got so close. To fail now over something so simple was infuriating.

One of the glass panels fronted an empty rack, the shelving bare, ports and cables unconnected against the wall. Laura opened the door and poked her head in. There was a gap between the neighbouring server and the wall. She leant forward, squeezing her head into the confined space, trying to see behind the rack. Cables ran from the rack into the rear. How did they do that? The unit must slide out somehow, but she was damned if she could work out how. From the acute angle she had it appeared to have a couple of free ports in the back. Were they universal ports? They could be. She pulled out the silver bullet Christmas had given her and reached around. There wasn't enough room for her head and her arm, so she tried to find a port by touch. The small fob caught on the lip of a port and slipped to one side. Laura was almost sick with the sudden fear of dropping the thing behind the rack and never being able to rescue it. Slowly, carefully, she withdrew her arm and wiped her hands free of sweat yet again.

Come on, she thought. She could do this. So close. Stop being such a klutz.

She tried again, searching for an opening with her fingertips, manoeuvring the tiny device into position. Finally it slid home. Was that it? Laura withdrew her arm and pushed her head through. A tiny green LED winked at her from behind the server. Success! Now all she had to do was hope that it was on the same system Christmas needed access to.

She closed the class panel and stepped back, weak and trembling with relief. It was done.

"Can I help you?"

Laura whirled in surprise at the sudden query from behind her.