Chapter 6 - The Service Corridor
Evelyn stood up, wiping her tears with a linen napkin, leaving her mink wrap draped over the back of the chair to make it look like she intended to return.
Maya picked up her dark serving tray, turned her back to the front doors, and walked smoothly toward the double doors leading into the kitchen, using her body as a shield between Evelyn and the approaching operative.
"Sir! You can't go back there—" the floor manager’s voice boomed from the front entrance, cut short by a quiet, commanding murmur from the second operative.
Maya pushed through the swing doors into the roaring, high-stress heat of the kitchen.
The air was heavy with the smell of seared meat, duck fat, and screaming line cooks. Order tickets fluttered from overhead lines like paper white flags.
"Maya! Where are those champagne flutes for Table Seven?" the executive chef bellowed from the pass, his face red beneath his tall white hat.
Maya ignored him. She grabbed Evelyn by the elbow, guiding her past the dishwashing station, through a heavy metal door marked STAFF ONLY, and down a dimly lit concrete staircase that descended into the building’s subterranean utility basement.
"Where does this lead?" Evelyn panted, her expensive heels clicking loudly against the concrete steps.
"To the alley behind the seafood distribution plant," Maya said, her heart hammering against her ribs like a trapped bird. "I take it when I want to avoid the shift manager. It's pitch black out there."
They reached the bottom of the stairs. Maya reached out, unbolting the heavy steel emergency exit door.
CREAK.
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The door swung outward into the cold, rain-swept alleyway. The smell of rotting fish, damp asphalt, and diesel exhaust rushed into the stairwell.
Before Maya could step through the threshold, a heavy hand grabbed the steel frame of the door from the outside, slamming it backward with a deafening CLANG.
