The employees didn’t wait around to see who was shooting. As a group, the five or six green-shirted people ran for the front door. He pointed to them. “We’re going straight through the front doors. Don’t stop!”
More shots cracked from the store aisles. It started here and there, but it grew in intensity with every second.
“Should we leave the cart?” Haley squealed, now holding Liam like a little football.
“We’re taking it,” Ezra replied.
“You’re the boss, E-Z,” Butch said, running alongside Haley while hunched over.
When they passed the checkout counter Ezra stood up and looked in the security camera. He slowed the cart, pointing to what was inside. “I’ll pay for this later!” he shouted.
He’d wrestled with the idea of being labeled a thief ever since he and Butch had borrowed those two bikes. He believed he’d done enough to make it clear to whoever might be watching the security tapes they weren’t sneaking the supplies out the door like common crooks. Whether anyone would find him to collect payment was irrelevant. If nothing else, he envisioned returning them when the disaster was over since it was the honorable thing to do.
The giant pane of glass in the front window collapsed as they ran through the front doors. Shouting and gunfire burst from multiple points in the store, suggesting a major gunfight was in progress. They were the spark which had set off the bonfire.
“Where to?” Butch asked.
Ezra pushed the cart by him. Ahead, in the lot, a few men in blue shirts got out of their trucks, obviously concerned about the constant rattle of gunfire. They blended in with the sensible patrons running to escape the battle, as well as what appeared to be every green-shirted employee heading for their cars.
He led them along the front of the store, past the fishing boat department and around the corner of the building. Once they were out of the line of sight of the mining company people, he halted and sucked in some air.
“My God,” he panted. “What were you two thinking? You could have gotten seriously hurt.”
Haley hugged Liam. “It was horseshit they wouldn’t let you two have your rifles. I didn’t think they should be able to get away with it, so I gave Butch my Walther P22. I didn’t think anyone would start shooting, least of all those regular guys.”
“Me, either,” Butch admitted.
“I guess they didn’t believe those guys could protect them, either. You two didn’t know it, but you tapped into some serious anger in there.” Ezra glanced back toward the corner of the building. “Let’s load these rifles, then we need to find a safe place to hide. Once things calm down, we can get this stuff back to the boat.”
Haley bounced up and down with excitement. “I know where we can go!”
After what she’d done, he had serious reservations about where she would take them, but he didn’t have any choice. It was her town. They wouldn’t get far without her.
“Lead on,” he sighed, already exhausted.
Denver, CO
A short time after watching Stricker deliver his address, Petteri was on top of the world. Sure, there was nothing but chaos down in the streets below his office, but the new mandate by the feds would give him the authority to make a legal dent in the mob of trespassers swarming his property. Howard had summoned him to a conference room on the level below to go over their next steps. He was surprised to see Dorothy standing at the door.
“Hello. I don’t think you need to be here,” he said, uncertain of her intentions.
“You have a woman in there, don’t you? I saw Howard take her in.”
He scrutinized her, searching for her motive for asking such a question, but he didn’t find anything unusual in her eyes. “What if there is a woman?”
She didn’t hesitate. “Then I want to see what you’re doing with her.” Dorothy brushed at her business skirt, ramping up for a long speech. “Sir, I’ve been nothing but helpful to you the past few days, and I’ve had amazing access to all branches of your operation. I’ve helped in every way I could and sometimes in not so legal ways…” Her voice drifted off.
“Go on,” he encouraged.
“Well, I know there are threats to you outside and out in the wild. I’ve overheard enough to know about Misha, Mr. Creighton, and others. I won’t pretend I didn’t hear Howard use the name Diedre Creighton. So, sir, if she’s a threat to you, she’s a threat to me. I don’t even have to say anything. I only want a chance to see what this woman is all about.”
His thought process had been simplified by her success with Stricker. He’d sent her in to test her loyalty and she’d come back out with everything he’d asked. By all accounts, she’d proven herself.
“Fine. You can join me. Quietly.” He strode through the door.
“Thank you,” she whispered.
Petteri believed his television-smashing outburst was already fading from memory. All he had to do was get some useful information from the sister so his people could finally wrap up the Asher Creighton problem.
“Hello,” he said to the young woman already at the table. Diedre looked the same as when she’d been on his island, though she now wore black slacks and a light-colored top.
“Mr. Tikkanen! This is unacceptable. You told me I would get my phone back. It didn’t work when I was on your island; now your thugs have taken it away again. They won’t let me touch a phone in this place. I demand you let me talk to my brother.”
He slowly took a seat across the table from her. Two of Howard’s security men stood behind her, though she was a small-framed woman who barely filled out the chair. TKM could afford overkill, he reasoned. “Your brother is what this is all about.”
“Why? What happened?”
All his efforts to shield her from current events were about to pay off. “I know this is going to be hard to believe, but we have evidence suggesting your brother was working with covert operatives in my company. His goal was to destroy the Petteri-2 spaceship and drop the asteroid on top of the United States.”
She guffawed. “Asher! A terrorist? Have you gone crazy?” Diedre canted her head to glance toward Dorothy, but the other woman remained silent, as instructed.
He spoke slowly and with purposeful clarity. “Miss Creighton, I assure you I don’t like the implications any more than you do. We are all a family in this organization. Unfortunately, we have evidence of signals being sent back and forth to the ship. We have evidence showing your brother, on video, trying to pin the blame on me personally. As if I have time to get involved in a conspiracy!”
“But—” she started.
He kept talking. “And we have evidence he conspired with an Indian tribe to illegally lay claim to the fallen asteroid pieces we at TKM have gone to great lengths and expense to clean up.” He tapped the table. “All the evidence is there. I’m happy to show it to you.”
She leaned back in her chair, thinking. Her brown bangs dangled over her left eye, but she didn’t seem to care. “I’ll have to see this evidence. I don’t believe you for a second. Ash is about as dangerous as a grape.”
Dorothy strode up to the table, a few spots down from Diedre. “If Mr. Tikkanen says he’s into trouble, then you can believe him. It doesn’t mean he’s a bad person. We think he’s with a woman. A park ranger, actually. All his problems seemed to be wrapped up with her. We even know he’s come to Denver.”
“Really? Is he going home?” Diedre’s hazel eyes lit up, waiting for the answer.
As with every negotiation, he saw the kill shot. “That’s why I’ve kept you protected, Miss Creighton. We don’t know whose side your brother is on, but I knew the instant this problem started it would be up to you to solve this for us.” He pulled her phone out of his pocket. “I couldn’t let you call him before, since I didn’t know if it would put you in danger. My attempt to keep you isolated and safe on the island was a clumsy act on my part. I’m sorry. We think now is the time to let you make contact with him. Now is the time to save your brother.”
<
br /> Petteri knew what she’d say even before she did.
Chapter 17
Denver, CO
“We’re keeping the uniforms,” Grace decided as she reached the bottom landing. “We can’t approach the TKM people in our official capacity if we dress like regular people. Besides, there aren’t many places to buy replacement clothing, you know?”
Asher came down the last few steps almost as out of breath as when he went up. He smiled to show he was still alive, but then put his hands on his knees to rest. A few moments later, Shawn appeared at the top of the last flight. She repeated her declaration for his benefit. “We’ll get you to the head guys wearing our uniforms. I hope I’m not making a mistake.”
The man was tired, but he did a noble job of hiding it. “I think it’s the right call, but if I could ask one thing?”
“Sure,” she said, breathing hard.
“Let’s not go down the street we saw from above. If those men do have it in their heads to shoot us, we shouldn’t make it easy for them. We’ll keep buildings between us and them.”
“I’m with him,” Asher echoed.
“I’m all for safety.” She straightened her hat, then pushed through the fire door. The lobby had been mostly empty when they’d gone in, but the shooting must have chased men out of the streets. Many of the miners now stood inside, looking like they were part of a dirty, blue-collar convention. The heavy door slammed at their backs with a loud crack, turning all eyes toward them.
She froze for a few seconds before giving a small wave. “Hello. We need help getting to the TKM headquarters out there. Does anyone know where it is?”
Voices rose. Curse words were mumbled. An empty beer can flew from a thick group of men standing twenty feet away.
“We’re not with them!” she protested as the container hit Shawn in the chest.
Grace was ready for a riot to break out, but a string of rat-a-tats barked in the streets outside, and the men’s attention went to the action.
Shawn took the can toss in stride. “I would have preferred a full one.”
“I’m thirsty, too,” she replied. Then, to both, “Come on, we’ve got to move.”
She took them to the front side of the building, which was directly below the shooters on the top floor. She intended to hug the building, out of their field of fire, and go to the next street, which would get them within two blocks of the asteroid piece. Instead of a direct route under view of the snipers, they would detour a few extra blocks and come at the rock from another direction. Before she got to the broken glass doors, a woman shouted from behind.
“Hey, wait!”
Outside, she was reminded of a herd of buffalo stampeding in panic. Men clogged the sidewalks and jogged in between the lines of construction vehicles in the streets, seeking cover from the gunshots. Some scrambled toward the right; others ran left. It was legitimate chaos. Before she committed them to go out, Grace turned around.
The thirty-something woman was dressed in dirty jeans and a heavy long-sleeved denim shirt. Her brown hair was pulled into a tight ponytail, though her bangs were long and wavy. She smiled as she walked toward them, but her eyes darted between Grace and the windows. She knew how dangerous it was. “Hi, I’m Angela Mercer. I work at the Colorado School of Mines. I—”
“Hey, I went there!” Asher interrupted.
Angela beamed. “What a small world.”
“I graduated a couple of years ago. Before all this asteroid business, I was working on my doctorate at MIT. I was working with…” He looked at Grace, perhaps wondering if he should reveal his background to a stranger. “A mining company.”
She nodded, then glanced out the windows. “I heard you say you’re looking for Tikkanen Mining. I can help. I saw them before the streets got crowded.”
“Where?” Grace asked. “Point the way and we can get there.”
“Through all that?” Angela asked, impressed.
Shawn chuckled. “These two have been through much worse.”
Angela seemed to notice Shawn, so she held out a hand. “I’m Angela.”
“Shawn Runs Hard, of the Crow Nation. Nice to meet you, given the circumstances.”
“Same,” the woman said dryly. “But I can’t point or give you directions. I’ve gotten turned around in these confusing streets, and I don’t even remember which way you’ll need to go, other than toward it.” She pointed to the far side of the lobby, which was in the direction of the rock.
“It’s by the fragment?” Grace asked.
“Oh yeah. They’ve been here from the beginning. They have some tents set up in one of the side streets. I’ll know it when I see it.”
Asher was still a little winded from the run down the steps. “We tell this to everyone we meet: it could be dangerous to go with us.”
Shawn stifled a laugh before pulling it together. “It’s true. They told me the same thing, and it has been dangerous.”
Glass shattered elsewhere in the lobby, the cause unknown.
Mr. Runs Hard ducked reflexively. “See? It’s already starting.”
Grace was tempted to go out into the streets without Angela, simply to avoid being responsible for her. However, the woman waved to some men sitting on the floor nearby. When the three of them got up and came closer, Angela explained. “Me and my graduate students are trying to get up to the front to take samples. We want to document what’s in this meteorite before all these mining companies come in and grind it up into ore for the market. It would be a tremendous loss to science.”
Her three assistants carried huge red duffel bags with what she assumed were collection tools. They were a bit scruffy looking, maybe in their twenties, with dirty jeans and heavy shirts. It was easy to picture them as geologists or environmental engineer grads. Once they’d heard the plan, they stood behind their teacher.
“Well,” Grace began, “I guess we’ll do our best to get you guys there.” She pushed open the empty frame of the glass door, hoping everyone would follow. Then, as soon as she stepped outside, a frighteningly loud plink resonated off the metal frame above her head. She hunched over and ran across the glass-covered sidewalk to take cover next to a red-and-white dump truck.
“Maybe things get more dangerous when we add people to the group,” she thought out loud.
When she turned back, none of the others had come out after her. In fact, gunfire was erupting inside the lobby.
“Ash?”
St. Charles, MO
Ezra was almost as fast as Butch at loading the magazines of the AR-15s. When Butch finished his, he helped Haley with hers, though she insisted on finishing it up once he showed her how. Ezra emptied his panda backpack and put boxes of ammo into the new pack he’d purchased. No, the pack he’d taken.
It’s not stealing if you show the camera.
He didn’t know what was right or wrong in his situation, and it was going to eat him up if he couldn’t move beyond it. Butch emptied out his sporty red kid’s pack, though Haley grabbed it before he could toss it on the ground.
“I can use this to carry Liam if we get in trouble.” Haley pointed to the dog. The puggle pup was tied to the cart and he constantly pulled and yanked to get himself free.
Ezra admired the cute little thing for a few seconds but snapped to attention when gunfire lit up the parking lot. Some men were loading long sniper rifles into the rear doors of a cargo van, while several aimed handguns back toward the store.
“We’ve got to go!” he shouted.
After he’d stowed away all the fishing gear, boat repair epoxy, and everything else, there was a lone camouflage baseball cap left at the bottom of the cart. “Did someone toss this in?”
Haley lit up. “Oh, that’s mine! I couldn’t take a shower. My hair’s a mess.” She leaned over to gather her blonde hair into the hat, then she slapped it on her head as she stood back up. “This is what I do in a pinch.”
Butch held both fishing poles and he seemed interested in Haley’s methods, but
he also waved insistently to get them moving. “This way. Come on.”
Haley grabbed Liam’s leash, and the four of them ran toward the loading docks at the rear of the store. Butch checked the corner, then sprinted to a small retaining wall at the edge of the property line. The interstate passed behind the store, creating a grassy hill to the left and right.
“We’re going up and over,” Haley said, pointing up the embankment of the highway.
Ezra’s new pack was loaded to the gills, but it wasn’t properly set for his shoulders, which created an uncomfortable situation. He’d gone most of the way up the hill and figured he could spare a few seconds to adjust the straps, when…
“Hey, by the order of TKM Security, bring those firearms back!”
He spun around, expecting the police again, but it was the TKM man with the handlebar ’stache. Plenty of gunfire continued on the front side of the store, so he wondered why the guy was bothering with them at all.
“Those belong to me!”
“E-Z, come on!” Butch yelled from the top of the hill.
Ezra chose to ignore the man. Forgetting the discomfort of the pack, he ran all-out to the top of the rise. When he got there, Butch was prone on the roadway shoulder, aiming his rifle down the hill and toward the store.
“Get down!” Butch ordered.
As he fell to the pavement, the TKM employee fired a rifle. The crack-bang was so loud it might have been next to his eardrum. Before he struck the ground next to Haley and Liam, Butch fired several rounds from his weapon.
Another shot cracked from down below, causing Butch to scramble away from the edge. He looked over to Ezra and Haley. “Stay low. We’ve got to back off. That guy is using a scoped deer rifle with the loading dock wall as hard cover. We’re in the open. I want to find our own cover before his friends get around us.”
“When it comes to military stuff, always listen to Butch,” he said, hoping to comfort Haley. She’d sprung up off the ground in half a second and was already running toward the far side of the highway. Fortunately, there were no cars on the road at the moment.
Crush: Impact Book 4: (A Post-Apocalyptic Survival Thriller Series) Page 13
