Encounter in Atlanta

by Ed Howdershelt

Cade was at last able to pry the gun out of his fingers. Marjeel tried a rather inept left-handed punch at Cade, so Cade swatted him in the temple with the Beretta to calm him down. Raising his head, Cade looked around. Mandi was standing beside them. Both of the other gunmen were down and their guns were in Mandi's hands. The two hostages were sitting up, barely beginning to realize that their danger was over as what seemed like a dozen more people in SWAT gear flooded the room. Cade rolled off Marjeel and got to his feet, handing the gun to one of the SWAT guys. Marjeel feebly tried to spit at Cade, but missed. He still seemed a bit disoriented. John walked up and extended a hand to Mandi, then to Cade, and said, "Good job, people. Great job." "Thanks," said Mandi. "Yeah," said Cade. "I'll be down the hall." "Okay," said John, "See you in a few." Mandi looked after him quizzically as he left the room and asked John, "Is he okay?" "Sure," said John. "He's like that, that's all. A few minutes from now he'll be his usual cheery self." 'His usual cheery self, huh?' thought Cade with a small grin as he entered the hall and headed for 835. 'Up yours, John.' The guy at the camera console in 835 looked up as Cade came in and started to say something, but Cade raised a hand and said, "Play it back for me. Show me what she did." Nodding, the guy hit rewind as he said, "Good job in there." Another 'good job'. Damn all overused phrases. "Thanks." When the scene on screen had reversed to Cade holding the camera, the guy hit 'play'. Cade kept his eyes on Mandi as the action proceeded. She seemed to leave the floor and lean slightly forward before she almost disappeared completely. The black and blue colors of Mandi's Kevlar jacket and dress seemed to stretch across the room to the first gunman and continued streaking across the bed to the second gunman. Both men fell to the floor at about the same time and the blur came to a stop by the men struggling on the floor. Mandi stood holding both mens' pistols as she watched Marjeel and Cade scuffle. "Jeeezus!" breathed the console guy. "Try it at half-speed," said Cade. The guy stopped the tape and rewound, then set the speed bar and played it again. Mandi was still blurred, but vaguely identifiable as a blonde in a blue dress instead of simply a streak across the screen. They were still unable to see what, exactly, she'd done to the gunmen. "Jeeezus!" the console guy muttered again. Checking his watch against the tape counter, he said, "When you made your move, she took the other two out in less than three-tenths of a second!" "Yeah, she's pretty quick," agreed Cade. "Thanks." He turned from the screen and went to the bathroom, took a leak and washed Marjeel's taint from his hands, then combed his hair and headed back out to the bedroom. Half a dozen people were clustered around the console, playing and replaying Mandi's part of the action and making various amazed comments about her as she appeared in the doorway. For a few moments she watched and listened to them, then she looked at Cade. "Are you all right?" she asked. As Cade said, "Yup," some of the awe-struck people turned to stare at her. Two men hurried over to her, raving about how she'd handled the two gunmen so quickly and helping her out of her Kevlar vest. Another guy pulled open the closures on Cade's jacket and took it, then Cade left Mandi to her adulation and went to climb back into his shoulder rig and field jacket, tossing his phony 'press' badge on the bed. John came in and momentarily joined the group by the console, then went to stand by Cade and asked, "She's really something, isn't she?" "Oh, hell, yes, John. Every bit of something. How's your picture-collecting coming along?" "I can only tell you what I told her. Our people are working on it. So far we've recovered five sets at WNN alone." "It doesn't look good for total containment, huh?" Shaking his head, John said, "Honestly? No, it doesn't. And if they get to the internet, we can forget about it." "No shit. John, do you remember the Marilyn Monroe and Elvis look-alike contests back in the sixties?" He shrugged. "Yeah. Vaguely, I guess." "They happened all over the country. If Mandi's pictures get out, maybe the thing to do is hold contests in L.A., Vegas, and all the major cities as quickly as possible. Send up some chaff. Make Mandi Steele-wannabes all over the place and give her a nationwide crowd to get lost in; otherwise she'll have to hide between missions in order to have any privacy at all. Now tell me something, John." "What's that?" "Tell me why didn't you just let her buzz into the room and grab all the guns. I've seen the tape. With a running start from the hallway she could have zapped them all in half a second or less and been out of there." With a straight face, John said, "It was felt that we needed a distraction to minimize risk." "And I need taller boots. Just tell me you aren't going to tell me, John. Don't bullshit me." Nodding, John said, "Okay. I can't tell you." "That means someone else is in command of this op. Someone I don't know. I really don't like that, John." Sighing slightly, John said, "Well, I don't either, but you know it isn't the first time and it won't be the last." "Can you tell me who's running the show?" "Not at this time." "That sucks, John." Nodding again, John said, "That's how I see it, too, but that's how it is." Someone called to John from the doorway and John excused himself, patting Mandi's shoulder on the way past her and saying, "Thanks again for your help." Mandi shortly disengaged from her SWAT fan club and joined Cade by the bed. "Is everything all right?" she asked. "No," said Cade. "John can't tell me who's running this op." "Neither can I," said Mandi. "Alan's getting his orders from John and won't admit to knowing anything else. Does it really matter who's at the top?" "It does to me, but as long as John's in my command chain, I'll go along with things. Do you have dinner plans?" "Yes. Some of the people from my group are going to DelMonico's around seven if nothing else happens. Want to come with us?" "No, thanks," he pulled the DragonCon schedule halfway out of his pocket, "I'm gonna disappear before they let the news people out and go find some food. There are a couple of things I want to check out between seven and nine." Reaching to touch his arm, Mandi said quietly, "You gave me the opening I needed in there. Thanks." Regarding her silently for a moment, Cade said, "You didn't need me at all, Mandi. After I saw the playback, I asked John why you didn't handle the whole mess yourself." Letting her hand fall to her side, Mandi said, "That wasn't the plan, Ed. That's all I can say." A woman called Mandi from the doorway. Mandi nodded to let the woman know she'd heard and turned back to Cade to ask, "What's your issue-cell number?" "Forty-two-eighteen. Yours?" "Zero-two-two-one." Although he knew that the cells were recharged and reissued in no particular order, Cade grinningly said, "Wow, that's a low number. You must be somebody special, ma'am." Laughing, Mandi said, "No, not me. They just handed me one from a box." An awkward moment of parting was developing. Cade curtailed it by extending a hand and saying, "I'm off in search of dinner. See you later, milady." Catching her lower lip between her teeth for a moment as she shook hands, Mandi said, "Yeah. See you later, Ed." As Cade left her to head for the door, a guy asked, "Have you been debriefed?" Thumbing at the console that was being packed into metal suitcases, Cade said, "It's all on tape. John has my number." 'Debriefed', thought Cade as he entered the hallway. What kind of a putz came up with that word? Probably a politician.

  Chapter Seven

  Mandi watched Cade leave the room and wondered how such people came to be. She'd met a few others somewhat like him since her arrival on Earth and her involvement with the NIA. None of them had talked much and few had been as smilingly sociable with her as Cade. She paused by the door to help the two men who were working to angle the long commo equipment trunk through the narrow hallway to the corridor. One guy grousingly asked, "How the hell did they get it in here in the first place?" Grasping the top strap in her right hand, Mandi lifted it out of their hands and said, "I'll hold it. You guide it." After a moment of staring, the men steered the trunk through the door frame and into the corridor, where Mandi put it down on end for a guy with a two-wheeled dolly. One of the guys marveled at the way the leather-and-metal handgrip on top had been deformed by her grip and said he was going to replace it just to have this one as a souvenir. When John saw Man
di at the door of 835, he excused