Tempest: The Scarab Beetle Series: #6 (The Academy)

by C. L. Stone

  THE LUCKY SURVIVING FEW

  The plan was simple. They could technically see us coming if they had cameras everywhere, that was obvious. But cameras and computers required power.

  “Luckily we know a guy who knows a guy,” Henry said, putting in a phone call. We were parked on a street, within view of the Sargent Jasper, but on the other side of the reflecting lake. The view was tranquil for the late evening hour, but my heart was beating fast. I flinched at any car that passed us.

  “Lights go out,” Lillian said. “That’ll be our chance.” She had a cell phone out and was texting someone. “I’ve got a team on the way.”

  I’d found a pair of shoes, sneakers a size too big, while we were on the way back from the islands. We also managed to source some bottles of water and some of the last of the crackers in the pantry for Blake and me to consume on the way. “What do we do?” I asked her. “Storm through the back?”

  “We’ll wait until they get here,” she said.

  Waiting was more difficult than I thought. I counted windows on the building, assuming the floor without lights at all must be the seventh, the one our friends were on. I’d never worked with the Academy on anything other than through Axel and the others around. Our team had been impulsive, shoot first, set off a bomb, ask questions after the smoke had cleared. They had some vast experience.

  So when the team arrived, I was surprised when out of the ten of them, three were kids. Young, like maybe thirteen. The rest were varying ages, from older teens to someone with graying hair at the temples.

  They’d arrived in a couple of discrete vehicles but we used the RV to gather in. I didn’t get all their names, and I got the feeling to them, it wasn’t important to tell everyone who they were. With all of us together, it was cramped, but it was the only way to mask so many people from the road.

  We weren’t able to circle each other, but some sat on the floor, while a couple of people listened from the bed area.

  Henry waved his phone at people as he spoke. “I can turn the power out any time. I just need to give him a text. So whenever we’re ready.”

  “I have a map,” one of the teenagers said. He was the oldest of the three. He’d scrawled a lay out of the lower floor on a piece of paper and then unfolded another sheet, showing the seventh floor. He pointed to the lower floor first. “Guard is here. Stairs are here. They’re likely to have someone at both the elevator and the stairs on the seventh to stop anyone coming in, and if the power’s out, they’ll call to ask what’s going on, possibly to their guard downstairs.”

  “We intercept the call,” one of the others said. “Tell them we need a few people downstairs. That’ll thin out the group a bit. They’re already down a few since Axel is still out with them somewhere. Anyone they send downstairs, we can overtake them and then bombard them going up the stairs.”

  “So that’s the plan?” I asked. “Take them out? And then go upstairs?” It was pretty bold. With so many people here, it actually seemed doable, as long as no one started shooting guns. “But how are you going to overpower them?”

  One of them held up a gun. “Only a few of us are loaded, but we should be able to just flash them at the people without firing a shot. We’ll lock them in a room, give ourselves enough time to get away.”

  Lillian nodded. “We can drive the RV up to the sidewalk on the other side, meet people at the doors. Load them in. We’ll have to keep a few of us downstairs to be lookouts. Take everyone to the hospital immediately. We’ll leave someone behind to help Axel get away when the others come back.”

  “Then we should hurry,” Blake said. “They might be back any minute.”

  Henry motioned to us. “If you don’t have a gun, you’ll be given some pepper spray. Don’t hesitate to use it, just be sure to not spray yourself and try not to spray our own in there. We’d rather you shoot than have to use a gun in any case.”

  Lillian looked to the others. “If you’re going to bail out, or see a problem, now’s the time to speak up.”

  No one said anything. It surprised me how she didn’t question the teens on how they got the map or balk at throwing them into the line of fire. In fact, no one thought anything of the largely diverse group of people, nor questioned what was said. It was a lot of trust in a group of strangers.

  When it was silent and clear no one had any disagreements, Lillian motioned to me. “I need you with me. Depending on who is up there, they may not recognize me or trust me to follow us. Like you said, they were intimidated, nearly tortured for information and anyone besides you, they may not believe, everyone except Cornelius at least…”

  “I should go,” Blake said.

  “I need your eyes on the ground,” Henry said. “If they show up with Axel, I’ll need you to point them out. And help me stall them if our people are still inside.”

  Blake pressed his palms together, rubbing. “Like asking if I want to be roasted or cremated.” He nodded to him. “Okay. I’ll stay on the ground.”

  I wasn’t totally sure I was ready. My heart was racing. I felt a mess. Part of me was still considering if we should have been going after Murdock. Maybe we could have done this without the guns.

  But was that the thief in me? Lillian’s plan had been wiser, more sensible in saving everyone’s lives faster. It embarrassed me that I didn’t consider everything she did. Axel had wanted to separate himself from the Academy to do it on his own. He’d hesitated on even Liam coming along. However, once they were let in on it, it was like we were more powerful, with multiple minds working the problem instead of just us.

  I just hated the idea of us being wrong in how we had been handling things. Maybe if we’d let them help us sooner...

  When the plan was in place, Lillian and I approached the back entrance of the Sargent Jasper and the others circled around front, getting into position. I’d been given pepper spray and a small flashlight. Lillian had a .22 revolver, with pepper spray and a flashlight, but she kept the flashlight in her hand alone. We waited, looking to be a couple of friends standing alone on our side. The others would approach the door on the opposite side while Henry moved the RV around and made the phone call.

  We were to wait until the lights went out in the building. That was our signal to enter. We stood under a tree, next to the tennis courts. Loose leaves, brown and dead, tossed around in a light breeze coming up from the waterfront. I sucked in fresh, cold air, willing my heart to stop pounding so hard. My bumped head tingled, electrified by the excitement and the cold. If this plan hurt anyone, I wasn’t sure I could handle it. Going after Murdock at least felt like a chance to negotiate. This ambush seemed risky to me.

  This Academy, maybe they didn’t go after big corrupt corporations, but when overpowering a few thugs holding people hostage, they didn’t seem a bit hesitant.

  Lillian kept her hands in her pockets, looking up at the building. Two of the windows had been blown out from Axel’s fire he started. The one he created to destroy possibly any evidence of the Academy that might have been left behind. He did it to protect them. So much was done to protect them, yet they risked their lives to help us.

  “Can I ask you something?” I said to Lillian.

  She kept looking at the floors above us. “Sure.”

  “Your group questioned Axel and the others…about our relationship a lot. Liam said yours was similar.”

  She turned her gaze to me. “They’re your boyfriends?”

  I shrugged. “I guess you’d say that.”

  “They’ll never stop asking, you know?” She smiled at this and turned her gaze back to the building. “If they want you to join them, they want to put you on a girl team. They ask us about it a lot. Even this many years after we told them.”

  “Why?” I asked. “Why stay with a group that’s just going to question every private decision you make?”

  “It’s not like that,” she said. “It took me a long time to figure out that’s not what they were doing.”

  “What are the
y doing?”

  “I’m alive today because of them,” she said. “Just like we’re here today to help the others. Whatever they might ask, whatever they might drag up from your past or about your relationship, it’s always because…” She waved her hand toward the building just as the lights went out. “Because we need to know. I’ll have to tell you about it later.”

  The entirety of this corner of the neighborhood went dark, making it look like a powerline issue. With the lights out, it wasn’t long before cell phones and other devices were the only things illuminating in the windows, the other residents were probably curious about what was going on, but if we were quick, the power could come back on and they wouldn’t notice anything.

  We fell silent, approaching the building’s back doorway. Just inside, we paused, hiding ourselves off to the side, just out of view of the main entrance where the guard was supposed to be captured by another Academy team member.

  We waited in silence, with the door to the stairs nearby. Two more team members lined up on the other side, one of the older teens and an adult, waiting. Both kept guns out, just in case. The teen held a pepper spray ready in her other hand.

  Eventually, the door opened. A flashlight shone around, looking to us.

  The other team members started to jump but froze when the light illuminated her face, an older woman, clearly not who we were waiting for. They hid their weapons to their sides.

  “Power’s out again?” she asked. She didn’t seem to catch what they had been holding.

  Again?

  Another of our team came around. “This guard here, he’s not…” he paused as he looked at the woman. “Uh, he’s not sure what happened.”

  “Go figure,” the woman said.

  “Come with me,” the team member said, urging her out. “There’s a maintenance room somewhere, right? Someone’s got to be there.”

  She was nosy enough to come down, and the Academy member lured her out of the way.

  Down one already, just to guard a resident.

  I shared a glance with Lillian. Something was wrong. A second power outage. The guard situation…

  Lillian forged ahead, a wild look taking over. The plan was originally to wait for the cartel people to come down, but now that something went awry, she took to the steps, using a small flashlight to guide the way.

  I followed, as did two others who had met us at the door. After the first set of stairs, I heard a few more joining us, taking up the rear. Blake and Henry had to be in position with the RV by now, ready to take us all out of here.

  By the fourth floor, I was wheezing, but one of the others held me by the elbow.

  “Almost there,” he said.

  I hated being this out of shape. Long weeks at the hospital and being held captive and in a car crash… it wasn’t helping matters. He was sympathetic, holding me the rest of the way.

  At the seventh, the door was closed. Lillian shook the handle. “Locked?” she said.

  One of the others pulled out a long metal crowbar. “Thought we might need this,” he said. He used it, although it was loud, shoving it at where the handle was to pry the door open. When he was able to get an inch, Lillian lowered herself to stick her flashlight in where the lock was and push it back into the door. Then she paused and held the guy’s hand who was holding the crowbar. “I don’t hear anything,” she said. “No one’s stopping us.”

  “Did they move them before we got here?” I asked. “Are we too late?”

  “We’ll go in,” she said. “But assume they are still here. Use every precaution.”

  The hallway was dark, predictably. The doors were all closed on this floor from what I could tell.

  Something was off with the shadows down the hall. We’d gone in without light at first but Lillian shortly shone the beam of her flashlight ahead of us. Even as she did, I didn’t understand why some places were darker.

  One of the guys with us rushed ahead of her, to a lump on the ground. “He’s dead,” he said, his face going pale.

  The others rushed ahead. I froze in the door, my flashlight loose in my hand.

  Dead.

  They were dead.

  It took me a moment to see the other lumps as bodies, with pools of blood. Maybe it didn’t seem real to me, because of the dark, but my head tingled, my eyes slid from one shadow to the other.

  I wanted to throw up. We were too late.

  I approached slowly, afraid to look but compelled to see, to prove to myself who was on the floor.

  All of them I didn’t know, except one. “This was Joe. He was guarding the room I was in.” Because it was dark, I didn’t see the bullet holes or anything, but it was clear from the pools around them that they had been shot. No one heard the shots? The woman downstairs, she didn’t seem to have known.

  “We’ll have to check the other rooms carefully,” one of the guys said. “They could still be in here.”

  “I don’t think so,” Lillian said. “Too quiet.” She picked her head up, looking around the hallway. “If we had interrupted, they would have just come out and shot us by now. None of ours are out here, though. Where are they?” she asked me. “Which one were you in?”

  I pointed to one of the apartment doors. “I think it was that one.”

  We entered carefully. Tables were overturned, one dead man on the floor. Computers were destroyed.

  “It couldn’t be the cartel,” I said. I only then noticed the smell, previously too shocked and numb to notice much of anything. It wasn’t like a long-dead rotting body or anything, just very off, gross. “They wouldn’t kill their own teammates.”

  “Has to be Alice’s team,” one said.

  “Check the bedrooms.”

  I went to the one I’d been in. One of the guys went with me. He approached the door, telling me to step back. “On three,” he said. He motioned to my flashlight. “Shine the beam in but protect yourself with the edge of the door. I’ll cover us.” He held his gun ready. He must have been one with it loaded as he took the safety off.

  I waited with the flashlight. When he wedged the door open, I stuck the light inside, sweeping the space, allowing him to be able to see in.

  Two bodies on the floor. Neither moving. I almost dropped the flashlight, afraid to know.

  “Who was in here?” he asked.

  “Cornelius and—”

  One of the bodies sat up instantly. “Present!” he said. “What happened? Let us out.”

  We went to them. It was him, still bound but he’d been near Raven, still unconscious, but breathing.

  “What happened to you?” I asked, kneeling while my partner helped cut his ties free.

  “There was a black out, then a rush, a little shouting, but then silence,” Cornelius said. “I pretended to be passed out but no one came in. Lights came back on, then went out again and same thing only no shouting.” When his hands were free, he rubbed at his wrists.

  We must have been just behind them. “What happened to Wil?”

  “He was taken before it all happened. I don’t know where. But he was trying to use the camera, break it off the wall to use the wires or something. They came in and moved him to somewhere else.”

  I checked Raven, opening an eye. “They’ve been keeping him under?”

  “Kayli!” someone hissed from the other side of the apartment.

  I left them, rushing over to the bedroom doors on the other side of the apartment, now open.

  Inside was my father, a teenage girl I didn’t know, and Corey. All nude and tied up together like us, only huddled against the far wall.

  “They could be tricking us again,” Jack was saying.

  “Tell him you’re with us,” Lillian said.

  “It’s okay,” I said. I pulled Lillian’s light away from her to shine it toward my face so they could see us. “We’re here to get you out. We should hurry.”

  Corey seemed to react to this, holding out his wrists to us. “What happened?”

  “We don’t know,
” I said. “But we’re here to get everyone out.”

  “We have to get everyone who’s still alive,” Lillian said.

  Corey retracted his hands. “What do you mean still alive?”

  She went to him, a pocketknife ready, cutting his ties. “We don’t have time to explain. There’s an RV downstairs waiting for us. Someone needs to stay behind to call the police.”

  “We can’t call them in,” I said.

  “This is beyond us,” she said. She sniffed hard and focused on cutting Corey’s legs free. “We get our people out, we leave. Murder is not for us to deal with.”

  “Who’s been murdered?” Corey asked, speaking louder.

  “Joe,” I said. “The…cartel people. I don’t know who else.”

  The teen girl was breathing funny, loud and fast.

  “Don’t hyperventilate,” Lily said to her, working on her next. “Breathe slow, you’ll be okay.”

  “Kayli,” my father said. “I’ll stay.” He was still bound, but other than the fear on his face, seemed untouched. They hadn’t been too much trouble I guessed. “I’ll call the police.”

  “No,” I said.

  “Kayli,” he said, more insistent, reaching for my arm to tug at it. “I understand it now. Not everything, but I know they’ve been helping me. Let me stay behind. I’ll tell them I was looking for my daughter who was in the hospital but the lights went out. They’ll ask me questions, detain me. I’ll tell them you were living here but I found the dead…called them in.”

  “We won’t be able to hide from them forever,” Lillian said. “We’ll all be called in for questioning for this eventually.”

  “Maybe,” Corey said. “But we can make sure we all get out and find out what happened, and not be dead in the process.”

  “Someone has to stay,” Jack said. He lifted himself up after Lillian cut the binds. He crouched a bit and used his hands to hide his nudity. “That’ll be me. I won’t say anyone else was here. I promise.” He focused on me. “Let me do it.”

  I didn’t know how to respond, sure that we all needed to leave. Dead…they could come back and finish this.