Stay Awake

"Uff... you two are a terrible couple, you can be incredibly convincing together... I know I'm going to get in trouble, but..." Sam whispered, puffing and opening one of the drawers of his desk.

Both Layton and Faith looked over the edge to spy and noticed that he took a small box, opening it with a key he kept in his pocket.

"… but...?" Layton asked, who kept rushing.

Sam opened the box and pulled out a metal card, similar to an identification tag but larger.

"But I have decided to trust you... I hope you won't make me lose my job, fuck it!" he replied after a long wait, grabbing the card and looking at it carefully under the light.

"And what is this, Sam?" Layton asked, intrigued by that object he had never seen.

"This is a pass, a key that opens most of the doors connecting sectors A, B, and C. I was entrusted because I am the head of the janitors and I need it to coordinate the work of my staff... but now stop playing the naive young boy, I'm sure you already understood these things!" old Sam replied, continuing to look at that object as if it was an heirloom of incredible importance.

"I imagined, yes... it has all the appearance of a key, but I can notice with my eyes closed that is not a simple identification tag. So with this, we can access Sector C and figure out what they want to hide from us?" Layton replied, extending his hand and trying to grab the key.

"Yes, but... easy, boy! As you imagined the use you can make of this key, you can also imagine the fact that my identification code is engraved on it... in a nutshell..."

"If we get in trouble, you'd be responsible... don't worry, I've already thought about this detail. At worst, I can always say I sneaked into your personal room and stole it without your knowledge. But it won't be necessary, we'll be as quiet as two ghosts!" Layton exclaimed again, trying for the second time to grab the key from Sam, who turned his hand away, preventing him to touch it.

"And how are you going to do that? If something serious is really going on, I'm sure the area will be guarded by three times as many guards as usual, you'll never be able to keep yourself uncovered without a good plan and..."

"If I can interrupt you, Sam... what you say is true, given the emergency situation, the area will certainly be monitored, but if it is true that it is a contagious disease, security personnel will not be allowed to flock to Sector C either, for obvious reasons. Think about what would happen on board if the guards got sick. A real civil war could break out and no one could intervene! The consequences would be catastrophic and..."

"I get it, girl! I get it, that's enough! Let me think..." Sam exclaimed again, after being interrupted by Faith, who had remained silent to listen to the diatribe between the head of the janitors and Layton, who once again was amazed by her perspicacity, even if he didn't show it, avoiding crossing her gaze with his own.

"So... the entrance at the end of the corridor to which you saw the guards running... it is not the only point of access to sector C. There is the inter-warehouse..."

"The inter... what?" Layton asked, who had never heard that word and wanted to learn something new, as well as Faith, who with her words, knew she had provoked a reaction to Sam, who was working out a plan aloud.

"The inter-warehouse is a special warehouse, larger than those within the sectors, which connects one sector to another. Obviously, this key doesn't open the front door to Sector C, but it can give you access to that warehouse... inside of it, there are two doors, one leading to the sector in which we are now, sector A and the other to sector C. Precisely for this reason, the warehouse to which you must refer is called 'inter-warehouse A-C'..." Sam continued to think aloud, closing his eyes and concentrating, as if imagining the spaceship map.

"Well! This will allow us to enter Sector C without being noticed! How far is the warehouse door at the main entrance? If it's far enough, we just have to distract the guards and... boom! End of the games, we will have entered" Layton replied, who tried to think about the scene, which in his mind seemed feasible.

"Once inside the sector C will not be easy, you will have to try to move without making the slightest noise... I don't know how many people there will be, but if there is an infection going on for real, they will have evacuated most of the rooms and temporarily transferred all the workers in that sector to the others, so that I can employ my men and proceed with the sterilization of the area when the doctors manage to defeat the virus ... or at least, that should be the procedure."

"I hope the room where the infected doctor was quarantined is not so far... anyway, we're going to come up with something. Don't worry, Sam... we will act in the name of all the crew members and when we find out what is really going on in Sector C, we will report it to everyone, no one excluded!" Layton continued, clenching his fist and charging with adrenaline, imagining that he could make the right choice, which would allow him to live serenely the days that remained aboard the BS Voyager.

Sam's arm gradually stretched outwards and Layton's hand firmly grabbed the card, which remained tight in his owner's hand.

Sam looked his employee straight in the eye with a tremendously serious look.

"Please, Layton... no bullshit... I don't even know why I'm letting you do it... I'm risking my whole career just because I trust you" he said, weakening his grip on the card and handing it over to the young janitor, who squeezed it as if it was a treasure of inestimable value.

Layton nodded.

"Soon you will thank me, Sam. You will see, we will be invisible... this girl is good, I'm sure her help will be very useful to me" he replied, looking at Faith out of the corner of his eye, making her blush slightly on her cheeks, not expecting such a compliment out of nowhere.

"Be careful and keep me up to date. You can contact me with your handheld... if anything goes wrong, write to me and I'll see if I'm still in time to help you somehow" Sam concluded, returning to sit in front of his desk and touching his forehead as if regretting the decision he had just made.

"All right... try to stay awake then..." Layton replied, approaching the door followed by Faith, who like Sam looked at him with a questioning expression.

"Stay awake? When are you going to do that?"

"Tonight, we're going to do it tonight."

"What? Already? Aren't you going to wait a few days to be able to calculate all the details? Such a rough plan won't get you anywhere!" Sam answered again, fearing Layton's wasn't a good idea.

"And the virus will wait for me? Fuck Sam, I thought you were a little more insightful" Layton continued, chuckling and making fun of his boss.

"Lay! Don't say that! It's not polite!" Faith added, unable to hold back a rebuke and stunned that her new friend could speak to a superior with the same confidence as a close friend of his.

"Polite? He said a lot of bullshit! We can't wait! It may be too late tonight too!" Layton replied, reiterating the concept.

"Go, come on! Get out of here and get ready... bring a broom, a bucket, and rags... something that gives you an alibi when they'll ask you what you're doing" Sam exclaimed, standing up from his desk and walking toward them at a quick pace as if he wanted to manually kick them out of his room.

Layton and Faith walked out the door, making sure no one was in the nearby hallway and their speech remained secret.

"Thank you for your trust, Mr..."

*zzzz*tok*

"... Stevenson..." Faith continued, who wanted to politely greet her boss but was interrupted by the door sliding, which closed while she was speaking.

"Come on, let's go little girl... there's not much time. We'll take the material we need and hide it somewhere, so we can take it with us tonight without accessing the warehouses" Layton exclaimed, grabbing the girl's arm and pulling her with him as if they were close friends by now.

Faith, after she realized that the door had closed and that their talk with Sam had been successful, followed Layton without a word and together they arrived at one of the 4 small warehouses in Sector A.