Breaching the Corridor

The desk perimeter had yielded all its tactical secrets; my theater of operations demanded immediate expansion. I negotiated the descent down the chair frame to the floorboards and marched across the bedroom threshold into the corridor. Fixed along the baseboard stood a coiled steel spring stopper guarding the wall. I closed in on the mechanism, seized its rubber crown, and forced the coil backward against its metallic resistance. Releasing my hold, the device discharged a rapid, buzzing oscillation that hummed through the wood. A resilient piece of modular hardware. This passage now lies under my direct survey.