Night 54: Stairwell by Waiting Room/Lobby 2
[From here.]
L ducked his head into the stairwell, peering into the gloom. It was hard to tell what might be waiting there.
He remembered how Jones had objected to him sweeping corners with the light, and it was true that it would signal their presence, maybe even their location, to anything that might be waiting. However, he had learned by now that if something was lying in wait, it would ambush them whether or not it had advance warning of their approach. The risk that something would take his quick investigation as encouragement to attack him was outweighed by his need to know--even if it wasn't with absolute certainty--that he wasn't walking into a trap.
He cleared the area as well as he could with the beam of his light, in the same way that he would expect officers working under him to know how to clear it with their firearms. When he was satisfied that as much of the stairwell as he could see was safe, he made his way up, cautious, keeping his back to the wall, continuing to check the areas ahead of him, hoping that he and Figaro wouldn't be followed.
L ducked his head into the stairwell, peering into the gloom. It was hard to tell what might be waiting there.
He remembered how Jones had objected to him sweeping corners with the light, and it was true that it would signal their presence, maybe even their location, to anything that might be waiting. However, he had learned by now that if something was lying in wait, it would ambush them whether or not it had advance warning of their approach. The risk that something would take his quick investigation as encouragement to attack him was outweighed by his need to know--even if it wasn't with absolute certainty--that he wasn't walking into a trap.
He cleared the area as well as he could with the beam of his light, in the same way that he would expect officers working under him to know how to clear it with their firearms. When he was satisfied that as much of the stairwell as he could see was safe, he made his way up, cautious, keeping his back to the wall, continuing to check the areas ahead of him, hoping that he and Figaro wouldn't be followed.