by Jack Heath
They reached the end of the aisle. Ash poked the tip of the Benji around the corner, looking for a reflection of the door in the tip of the grappling hook.
Peachey was there.
Ash withdrew the Benji, slowly, so Peachey wouldn’t see the movement. He had been standing with his back to the door, gun drawn.
She leaned close to Benjamin. “No good,” she breathed. “He’s right against the door, and it doesn’t look like he’s going anywhere.”
Benjamin swallowed. “He knows we’re here. And he knows there’s no other way out.”
Ash stared at the floor. Thought hard.
“Stalemate,” Benjamin said. “We can’t move until he does, and he won’t until we’re dead.”
“He might not realize we know he’s here.”
“So?”
“So we can trick him.” But, Ash thought, we need bait.
Benjamin had known her long enough to tell what she was thinking. “No way, Ash,” he said. “We stick together.”
“If we stick together, we’ll die in here.” She handed him the Benji. “Wait until you get a clear shot.”
“Then let me be the bait,” he whispered. “You’ve got better aim than me anyway.”
“You can’t run as fast as I can,” Ash said. “This is the best way.”
“I’m not letting you leave me here while you walk into the firing line!”
She hesitated. She didn’t like it any more than he did. But she knew it was their only chance.
“Don’t be a hero,” she said. “Shoot him in the back.”
She didn’t give him any more time to argue with her, or give herself the chance to change her mind. She slinked away, moving towards the opposite side of the server room.
She still hadn’t heard Peachey move. She tried to take it as a good sign – if he’d known they had spotted him, he would have been sneaking away so they couldn’t trap him.
On the other hand, maybe he was just treading very lightly.
Ash reached the far side of the room. Took a deep breath. It went against every instinct to make a loud noise while she knew Peachey was listening, but the plan depended on it.
She pressed one foot against a server tower and kicked it over. At least, she tried to – but it didn’t move.
She looked down, and saw that it was welded to the floor. Of course, she thought. This is California. If the towers were loose, earthquakes would knock them over every other day. Damn it.
She didn’t have anything to break the metal seal, so she unplugged one of the servers from the tower, and pulled. It fell to the floor with a mighty crash.
“Crap!” she yelled. Then, quieter, but still loud enough for Peachey to hear, she said, “Pick that up, will you?”
She was rewarded with a soft footstep. Peachey had heard and he was coming her way.
She kept making noise, stamping her feet and rattling computers. If she went silent now, he would suspect a trap. He might turn around and see Benjamin sneaking up on him.
She kept her eyes on the tower closest to the door, waiting for him to appear beside it. She crouched slightly, legs like coiled springs, ready to run the moment she saw him.
“What about these cables?” she said aloud. “Should we take them too?”
Another footstep. He was coming.
Don’t look back, Peachey, she thought. Eyes straight ahead.
It took all her restraint not to start running now, to get as far away from him as possible, and hide. But Benjamin was depending on her.
Peachey stepped into view, gun barrel raised.
Ash exploded into motion, dashing away between two server towers. She heard a crack, and a monitor burst near her head as a bullet plunged into the screen. She kept her head down. Kept running.
She could hear him behind her, shoes slapping against the tiles, hard, heavy breaths. She reached the wall, hit it palms first, ran sideways. Blam! A ragged hole flowered where her hands had been.
Any time, Benjamin! she thought. I can’t take much more of—
Her foot caught on a trailing power cable and slipped out from under her. She cried out as she fell, her fear of Peachey momentarily overwhelmed by the fear of breaking her neck, and she covered her face with her arms.
Her knee hit the floor first – it felt like a firecracker had gone off in the joint. She tumbled sideways, banging a hip. He’s right behind me, she thought. Got to run.
Too late. As she scrambled to her feet, Peachey was already there, his pistol pointed at her head, his finger on the trigger. There was nothing she could do.
He saw her face. Stared.
“You?” he said in disbelief.
Then he dropped the gun.
Ash stared. Was he surrendering? Why would he do that?
Peachey looked down at his empty hand, apparently perplexed. A dark stain appeared on his shirt, growing like a fast-spreading cancer. When he touched it, his fingers came back bloody.
He twitched as another hole opened up in his chest, and this time Ash heard the cough of a silenced low-calibre pistol. Her first thought was that Benjamin had found a gun and opted to use that instead of the Benji. But where? Why?
Peachey glared at Ash as though he knew this was somehow her fault. He took a step towards her, one hand clenching into a fist.
Cough. Another spray of blood from his torso, and he fell like a tree in a storm. Hit the floor face first, eyes rolling wildly, then fluttering closed.
Ash scrambled back behind a tower as the browless ex-soldier and his sergeant approached, weapons still drawn.
“Christ,” the man said. “I thought he’d never go down.”
“Is he dead?” the sergeant asked.
The man looked at the puddle of blood growing beneath Peachey’s body. “Heart’s still pumping,” he said. “He’ll bleed out soon.”
“Good,” she said. “Find the package. It should still be connected to the main server. That way.”
Ash didn’t see which way the woman had pointed, but they were getting closer. She backed away, edging around the tower to stay out of sight.
“If the TRA wanted the hard drive,” the man was saying, “why did they have us plant it here in the first place?”
“Don’t know, don’t care,” the sergeant replied. “I receive the instructions, I follow them, I get paid.”
“I’m just saying, this is the third time we’ve had to steal it. Doesn’t that seem weird to you?”
“Then it’s the third time you get paid for the same package. You should be thankful. You should be especially thankful that this time you don’t have to break into a burning house to do it.”
Ash heard their footsteps getting closer. She pressed her back against the tower as though she could melt into it and become invisible.
They stole Alice from Connors’ house, she realized. And they think their instructions are coming from the TRA. But if they shot Peachey, then where’s Benjamin?
She hoped he’d seen them come in and had the good sense to run, but it didn’t seem likely. He was too loyal – he’d never leave her in danger. So he must still be here, somewhere. And once the soldiers discovered the hard drive wasn’t where it was supposed to be, and that Peachey didn’t have it, they’d start searching the rest of the room. She and Benjamin would be in danger.
Ash heard them moving past the tower, back towards where she’d found Alice. Once she judged that they were out of earshot, she pulled out her phone and called Benjamin.
He answered immediately. “Ash, who are those guys?” he whispered.
“The ones from the mine. Where are you?”
“Near the door. You?”
“Next to Peachey’s body. But I can’t get to you – the soldiers are in the way.”
“I’ve got the Benji. I can take them out.”
“You can’t. They’re both armed and they’re both pros.”
“I have to try.”
“No you don’t.” Ash bit her lip. “I want you to leave and sl
am the door behind you so they hear it. Then hide somewhere and let them run past. I’ll slip out after them and go to the Amphitheatre Parkway outside. I’ll wait for you there. Got it?”
There was silence.
“Got it?” she said again.
“Okay. I hope you know what you’re doing.”
“Almost always. See you soon.”
She hung up, crouched, and waited.
She heard a clang from near the main server. The browless man cursed loudly. “It’s not here,” he said.
“I see that. Maybe the dead guy has it.”
They were coming back. Now would be a really good time, Benjamin, Ash thought.
The door slammed closed as soon as she’d completed the thought. Not for the first time, Ash wondered if she and Benjamin were psychically linked.
“Damn it!” the woman hissed.
Ash heard her and her comrade sprint towards the door, just as she’d expected. They opened it, ran through, and kept running as it swung closed. She hoped Benjamin had had time to hide.
She waited a few seconds before moving. If one of them had thought to stay behind in case the thief doubled back, they would return quickly. But no one came.
Ash emerged from behind the server tower and walked towards the door. This long, hard mission was finally coming to—
Something grabbed her ankle.
She looked down and screamed as she saw Peachey leering up at her from the end of a long trail of bloody smears and handprints. He was holding the gun.
Ash tried to pull away, but his other hand was clenched too tightly around her ankle. For a man who was bleeding to death, he didn’t seem to have lost much strength. She bent down over him, reaching for the gun, trying to snatch it from his grip.
He took aim at her face, and pulled the trigger.
Ash crumpled to the ground.
Showdown
The pain was incredible.
For a moment Ash wasn’t sure what had happened. One of her ears was chiming, so loud she couldn’t think. It was like someone was beating a gong right beside her head. She could tell she was on the floor, but not which way was up. Her balance was completely gone.
Her cheek felt as though someone had flung lava onto it. She slapped herself in the face, trying to put out the flames. Her skin was hard and cracked, cauterized by the muzzle flash. The bullet must have missed her by only—
She moaned in horror as her fingers reached her ear. The bullet had torn a narrow chunk out of it, exposing the cartilage in the tip. There was no blood – the heat had sealed the wound.
Turning her head, Ash saw Peachey lying next to her.
He was lining up a second shot.
Terror took over, and she lashed out, driving her fist into his face as hard as she could. She’d never hit anyone with her bare hand before. Her knuckles stung as they collided with his cheekbone.
She did it again. And again.
The gun went off. Ash felt another sizzling rush of hot air, but the bullet missed her.
She hit him a fourth time, a fifth, a sixth. His fingers were still wrapped tightly around the grip of the gun.
Seventh. Eighth. Each wet smack made her want to puke. Her hand was covered in blood.
He dropped the gun.
She grabbed it, threw it as hard as she could, and collapsed. She heard it skitter away across the floor. Only now did she realize she’d been screaming like she was on fire.
Peachey was deathly still, his eyes wide open and staring at the ceiling. Looking at his mashed-up face, Ash realized that he might be dead. She could be a murderer.
He made me do it, she thought. He would have killed me if I hadn’t stopped him. And he was dying anyway.
The notion didn’t make her feel any better.
She staggered to her feet. Her ear felt like someone was squeezing it with pliers. Got to get out of here, she thought. Got to get to the Parkway. Peachey’s out of the game, but those two soldiers are still here.
The game. It didn’t feel like a game any more. Prodding the wound, she thought, What the hell am I going to tell Dad?
She could pretend she’d been mugged. But then she’d have to lie, not just to him, but to the police. To doctors at the hospital. To teachers and friends when she got back to school. She was so sick of lying. Besides, if he thought she’d been mugged, her father might never let her leave the house again.
Ash found herself wondering if that would be such a bad thing. Her career as a thief was probably over, after all. She had relied on her ability to blend in. A disfigurement like this would make that much harder.
Do ears grow back? she wondered. Because if you don’t wear your earrings for a while, the holes close up, right?
But she knew this wouldn’t be the same.
A salty tear trickled over her burns; burns that might never heal, stinging her. She opened the server room door and stumbled out, leaving all the blood and bullet holes behind her.
She thought of her first meeting with the Ghost. You’re just, uh, really pretty. Maybe she’d never hear those words again. Not even from a psychopath.
How is Benjamin going to take this? she wondered. Will he even be able to look at me?
She lurched towards the stairs that led down to the lobby, trying to hold down the vomit that threatened to rush up her throat every time she imagined what she must look like. What she would look like for the rest of her life.
She reached the stairs.
The Ghost was standing at the bottom of them.
Ash’s heart punched her ribs, and as she turned to run, a harpoon swept past her head like a swooping bird. It slammed into the ceiling above her, and then the cable went taut. She heard a whizzing sound, getting closer and closer as the Ghost flew up the stairs.
She sprinted down the corridor, her wounds forgotten, a tsunami of adrenaline sweeping away the pain. She reached a T-junction and turned left. She heard the Ghost land somewhere behind her and give chase.
She turned right, her hand squeaking along a glass wall. He has weapons, magic tricks and no conscience, she thought. But I bet I can run faster.
And then she saw another flight of stairs ahead – leading up.
Every flight she went up took her further away from the exit. But if she tried to double back, the Ghost would have gained a lot of ground, bringing her within range of his harpoon.
And every second she spent standing here thinking about it brought him closer.
She made her decision. She ran up the stairs, pushed open the door at the top – and realized she’d made a terrible mistake.
She was back on the roof. And this time there was no time to make a slide out of the solar panels.
“No!” she hissed. She ran over to the edge, and looked down. The trees below were tiny. She was way too high to jump.
She scanned the roof for hiding places. There was nowhere.
There must be a way to buy some time. She rummaged through her backpack, looking for something she could use. Duct tape, spare rounds for the Benji, glow sticks. All useless.
She started moving back towards the door, hoping to get behind it before—
The door burst open. The Ghost loomed in the frame like the Grim Reaper, harpoon gun by his side.
He raised it.
“Don’t,” Ash said.
“Why?” He sounded surprised. Perhaps he was used to his victims begging, rather than issuing orders.
Ash talked quickly. Words were her only remaining defence. “Because you don’t have to,” she said. “I’m unarmed. I’m no threat. And your problem is with Buckland, not with me. Killing me won’t get you to him.”
“No,” he said. His expression was unreadable. “But what’s in your bag might. The hard drive is on his list. It was always my goal – why do you think I put your friend’s name up on my website?”
“You did that?” Ash gaped at him. “But...how did you know we would hide in the bank?”
“Buckland is very predictable,” the Ghost s
aid.
He was done talking. His finger tightened on the trigger.
Click. For a moment Ash thought the harpoon gun had jammed. Then she saw the browless man and his sergeant standing in the doorway behind the Ghost. The browless man had his pistol raised – the click had been the hammer pulling back.
The Ghost whirled around to face them. Took aim.
“Ghost,” the sergeant breathed. Her revolver trembled in her hand.
The Ghost smiled faintly. “And you are?”
The browless man said, “Drop the gun.”
“No.”
Ash crept backwards. This was a disaster waiting to happen, and she didn’t want to get caught in the crossfire.
“You can’t win this,” the browless man said. “Two guns against one. You shoot either of us, the other one will shoot you.”
“If you know who I am,” the Ghost said, “you know the bullets will pass right through me. I won’t be harmed.”
“I don’t believe in any of that crap.”
The Ghost’s gun didn’t waver. “You sure?”
The browless man fired, and the bullet pinged off the harpoon gun, even as the Ghost was squeezing the trigger.
The man fired again, but missed – he’d backed into the sergeant, throwing off his aim. The bullet sparked across the rooftop.
The Ghost fired.
The harpoon went straight into the browless man’s chest, skewering him. The barb exploded out his back and plunged into the sergeant’s open mouth.
They fell to the ground, joined together. Ash heard the sergeant’s neck break as the fall twisted it.
The Ghost turned to face Ash. She’d made it to the edge of the rooftop, and was standing still, one hand in her backpack.
The Ghost reeled the harpoon back in. The two dead bodies flopped around wetly as the spear was dragged out of them.
He turned to face her, ready to fire again.
“I wouldn’t do that,” Ash said.
“No,” he replied. “You probably wouldn’t.”
He raised the gun.
Ash held the hard drive out over the edge. The drive with Alice B on it.
She said, “Shoot me, and this will fall.”
“You’ll still be dead.”
Ash shrugged. “And you’ll have lost what you came here for.”
