Ground Floor Breach

The elevator car decelerated with a heavy hydraulic sigh, and the sliding stainless steel doors parted to reveal the ground-floor lobby. I marched across the grooved metal threshold onto the wide expanse of polished stone tiles. Deep night shadows filled the open foyer, but twenty paces ahead stood the glass double doors leading to the exterior courtyard. Near the base of the central reception pillar, my optical receptors locked onto an unfamiliar fixture: a heavy brass floor-mounted door wedge held down by a dense rubber foot. I advanced, braced my stance against the cold marble, and drove my right boot against its sloped metallic face. The wedge shifted three centimeters across the polished surface with a sharp, resonant rasp before seating firmly into the grout line. Ground tier perimeter mapped and secured.