Quicker

by Laurence Dahners

  Jamal, distracted by Hamid’s contempt, missed the street level exit and suddenly realized that the parking spiraled down below street level as well. “What about down here?”

  The area below street level was closed off from the outside world and poorly lit but still, attackers would be able to approach from many angles. Hamid merely grunted in doubt, but then they came to the bottom level where they found that a quarter of the total area of the lowest deck was walled off in concrete The main entrance to that section was an enormous rolling steel door that would be large enough to drive an entire bus through! They got out and examined it, it wasn’t even locked! With all four of them heaving on it they were able to raise the door enough for Jamal and Hamid to slip under with flashlights. They found an enormous room which was empty but for a few ladders, some cleaning supplies and an old pickup with a flat tire. Hamid asked, “What is this room for?”

  Jamal, who had been wondering exactly the same thing, shrugged his shoulders. It seemed to be a waste of an enormous amount of valuable parking space. There was one human sized door, also sturdy steel and no other openings. They wandered around examining the entire room. It didn’t even have ventilation ducts or openings other than the doors, suggesting it must have been designed only for storage. There was a large grate in the floor near the back corner and the floor sloped toward it. At first Jamal wondered if they had intended to use it for washing vehicles but there was no water spigot near it. There was one across the room by the cleaning supplies. Then Jamal realized that water must leak into the deck and run down here during storms. That corner was the lowest point in the entire deck and so the grate probably served as a storm drain which explained why it was so large.

  The concrete walls of the underground room were sixteen inches thick and the steel doors would be very difficult to break through. Hamid proclaimed the room to be perfect and sent Jamal to get the other team members while he began planning.

  When Jamal returned, Hamid told him to find plans on the web for the deck so that they could determine where the storm drain went. To his surprise Jamal found that he couldn’t connect to the net down in the bottom of the deck and had to drive back up, almost to street level in order to do so. His AI then downloaded plans for the deck but to his astonishment the available plans didn’t show the storm drain at all! Instead, a sump pumping system was shown from that back corner of the deck, to pump back up about four feet to access the storm drain system. Jamal surmised that they hadn’t been able to excavate quite as deeply as they had planned and so the floor level was above the storm system rather than below it as anticipated by the architect. At the slightly higher level it could drain directly into the storm system rather than requiring the pump. This he confirmed by looking at the plan for the entrance. The plan showed a level drive into the deck whereas they actually had had to drive about 4 feet up a ramp to enter. The plans, at least the ones available on the net, apparently didn’t show these changes that they had made during construction. Those plans labeled the big room on the lowest level, “valuable car storage.” Perhaps that part of the business plan had never borne fruit? With the entire team there, they were able to lift the large grate and one by one they climbed down into the storm system. At present it had only a small trickle of water. They walked along until they found an access pipe with rungs in its side that led up to a manhole cover.

  They left Yousef at that manhole cover and Hamid and Jamal went back up to street level. They walked along where they thought the storm sewer ran, looking for manhole covers. When they found one, Hamid used the net to order Yousef to stick a wire up through the finger hole in the manhole cover. Nothing happened so they searched for another manhole cover closer to the deck. This time, when Yousef stuck the wire up they saw it. They had him go to the next access point and do it again, the third cover they came to exited into an alley. Hamid was delighted and began to talk of possible escape. “They’ll think we have no way out! We’ll get a welder, and weld those damn steel doors shut so it takes them forever to get in. Then we’ll kill all the Americans, leave through the drain that they won’t know about because it isn’t on the damned ‘net’ they rely on for everything. We’ll pop out here in this alley and disappear into the city!”

  Jamal, heartened by the possibility that he might not die, became a little more enthusiastic himself.

  Then Hamid realized angrily that they couldn’t connect wirelessly to the net from down in their “retreat” as he was calling the concrete room at the bottom of the deck. That would make it very difficult to publicize their capture of the Olympians, their demands and their eventual killing of the athletes. Hamid was delighted when Jamal told him that he could hardwire a signal repeater up to the street level. A visit to Radio Shack provided the materials and then they back drove to the parking deck at two in the morning. Hamid barked orders as they strung the wire from the basement room up to the ground level.

  It became apparent to Jamal that Hamid planned to place the antenna on the roof of the parking deck. He said, “But they will be able to triangulate and find us almost immediately.”

  “What?”

  “First they will find the antenna where our signal enters the net. Then they will come down to this area of town and search for the source with direction finders. If all our signals come directly from the top of the parking deck, they will immediately look in its bottom levels for us.”

  “So?”

  “So when they find us they may do something we do not expect that will stop us from completing our mission. We may want some time to pass before they have that opportunity.”

  “OK then, where should the wire go?”

  Jamal proposed that they string it across the street, piggybacked on one of the wires crossing to the next building, then to the top of that building and across to the other side of it. He had a few bad moments when it appeared that Hamid intended Jamal to string the wire but then the small man, Abdul, volunteered to do it. It seemed he had no fear of heights and he simply hung from the existing wires and crawled across like a monkey, then scaled the next building dragging the wire as if it were a completely ordinary task. On the way back he used cable ties to fasten the antenna wire into place every few feet.

  Once they had their plan mostly in place they settled down to a few daily excursions to increase familiarity with the city. They bought a welder and practiced with it. They bought caulk to seal around the doors against tear gas and they carefully caulked every crack they found in the concrete. Two large spotlights were purchased and tested to be sure that they could get good video and audio from the “execution site” out onto the net. Hamid’s plan involved making outrageous demands, then killing an Olympian every hour until he thought the Americans were about to blow their way into the “retreat.” Then they would kill the remainder of the athletes and make their escape while a long prerecorded diatribe was being broadcast on the net to distract the police. “Yousef will remain on the outside to watch what the police are doing and keep us informed so that we will know what to do.”

  Jamal said angrily, “Why Yousef? I know the city better.”

  Hamid looked at Jamal with suspicion, “Because Yousef looks like the Mexicans that are so plentiful here. Why do you want to remain outside? Is Jamal, jabaan (coward)?”

  Jamal said nothing for a moment, then, “No, I just think I can do a better job.”

  Yousef smirked, “Jabaan.”

  Yousef bought binoculars and rented an office in the building across the street from the parking deck with a window looking over the entrance to the deck. On another late night they strung another hardwire down to the retreat from Yousef’s new office, this time for a simple two way intercom that Yousef would use to communicate with Hamid even if their net access was cut off.

  They had a couple of celebratory feasts, congratulating each other on deeds to be done and praying over their last days here on earth in case they did not succeed with their escape. All of them were required to watch as many news feeds
as possible about the American Olympic athletes so that they would recognize them. Jamal found himself intrigued by a particularly striking woman gymnast named Donsaii…

  Chapter Six

  Ell walked into the glaring lights of Olympic Stadium in Dallas like a spectator. Performing at a higher level, she’d been accepted onto the official seven person team without having to use any of her “secret moves.” She felt ecstatic to be there at the Olympics. Her head swiveled every which way as she strode along in the middle of the group of American athletes. Intermittently she bounded up and down with enthusiasm. The other female gymnasts were also energetically bouncing around like pinballs.

  When the team got to their place on the center field Ell wandered through the Americans looking for Phil. To her surprise she was stopped by a couple of the swimmers who wanted her autograph! Though she’d seen a videography team at the gymnastics training camp and her mother had told her about a news “Special” on the net concerning the gymnastics team, she had no idea that she’d been singled out as a “dark horse,” and had featured large in the news reports. The general public found her fascinating, partly because of her beauty, but also in large part because video of her astonishingly perfect routines were run in comparison to some bad landings and routines that were interesting only in that Ell hadn’t been hurt! The story of her late entry to gymnastics, her young age to be in college and her military cadet status interested Olympic fans too. As usual, women’s gymnastics was one of the most popular attractions of the Olympics. This combined with Ell’s looks brought such attention that she had gradually become one of the best known athletes of this Olympics. She had both passionate supporters who rooted for her and vehement detractors who were sure she’d flop in “real competition.”

  “Sure, I’m honored.” Ell said to the autograph seeking swimmers. She noticed that one of the swimmers had a large stack of autograph cards. “Can I bum some of your cards to get some autographs of my own?” They were happy to share and she started with the two swimmers’ autographs and moved on, looking for Phil. She ran into Michael Fentis, the sprinter, who appeared bored with the entire event. He’d been winning gold medals on the world stage for quite a while so she realized this probably wasn’t a big deal to him, but strode up to him and said, “Mr. Fentis, might I obtain your autograph?”

  Fentis didn’t even glance at her, “No.”

  Ell was startled by his rudeness but shrugged and went on. She asked every other athlete she recognized for autographs and they all graciously signed her cards, many asking her to return the favor. Then she saw a familiar broad back and blond head, “Phil!”

  He turned, “Hey Ell!”

  “Go 22nd Raptors!”

  “Yeah! Raptors!” Phil found himself genuinely glad to see her and was bemused at the joy he felt when she threw her arms around him and gave him a tight hug. He realized that any resentment he felt towards her was finally gone. He’d been actively following news about her gymnastics on the net and taking a lot of pride in her exploits. He’d become very proud to know her and called her a “friend” when speaking of her to others.

  Ell let go of Phil and bounced up and down exuberantly. “Isn’t this great!”

  Phil grinned back at her happy enthusiasm. “Yeah. Your first event is tomorrow?” He knew it was, he probably knew her schedule better than his own.

  “Yup. But in the morning, so I’ll be over to root you on in the afternoon. You kick some ass and make me proud, hear me?”

  “You bet!”

  “Hey! I need your autograph!” she held out a card and a pen.

  “Really?” he said taking them.

  She turned her back so he could sign on her shoulder. “Of course! I want to show all my friends that I really did know ya. Write, ‘To Ell Donsaii, signed in Olympic Stadium.’”

  “Have you really been getting autographs?”

  “Sure, except Michael Fentis. He was a real jerk about it. Would you twist him into a pretzel for me?”

  He wrinkled his brow, “Why didn’t you just hit him with your purse, kick him in the nuts and put him in the hospital?”

  “Oh!” Ell put her hand over her mouth at the little exclamation she’d just let out. “Will you ever forgive me? I really am sorry.” The crinkles around her eyes said she wasn’t too sorry.

  “Yeah… Hell…” Phil laughed. “I deserved it.”

  The next morning the gymnastics team, all wearing their brand new red, white and blue sweats, went out to catch the early bus to the arena. Coach Benson wanted them to get in some warm-ups before the actual competition started. Ell knew that it would be better for her to rest, as her biggest enemy was fatigue, but she was too wired to sleep in anyway. After they pulled out of the gate of the athletes’ housing complex, she rested her head against the window of the bus to watch the city go by. She was startled to see a small group of people wearing Team USA sweats standing at one of the corners. She decided that they must be fans but they were arguing with one another and didn’t even seem to notice the bus going by.

  In the gym, Ell commandeered a corner where she pretended to stretch but mostly tried to be unobtrusive in order to avoid the coaches’ attention. Nonetheless Benson found her and dragged her over to the vault, “This is your best event, Ell. You should do a few to ‘stick them’ into your motor memory.”

  “Yes sir.” Ell said, carefully repressing the sigh that nearly escaped. She did one vault, making sure that Coach Benson was watching. She suppressed the zone, but did an excellent vault so he wouldn’t demand that she do more, then snuck back over to her corner.

  She had been thinking about it and had decided that the Olympics would be her last gymnastics competition. Next year she wanted to get back to focusing on academics. Sitting at the “training tables” wouldn’t be as important once she was a cadet third class. After all, she had refused to take an athletic scholarship for college because she wanted to focus on physics and engineering. Therefore she contemplated doing at least some of the events as well as she possibly could. Would it cause trouble? Her mother and grandmother had flown into Dallas three days before. The owner of the diner where Kristen still worked summers had become one of Ell’s biggest fans and had given her mother time off with pay, though of course she was forgoing her tips. One of the USA Olympic sponsors had sprung for airline tickets for the two of them and put them up in a nice hotel. Ell had been able to go out to dinner with her Mom and Grandma the night before the lighting of the flame. Jake, of course, hadn’t come to Dallas, though her mother claimed he had become quite proud of his stepdaughter and watched all the news feeds about Ell. He might have changed his attitude, but Ell still couldn’t imagine liking him. Since Ell had broken Jake’s arm she and her mother had had several long discussions and Kristen now understood something about Ell’s strange abilities. She had always wondered how Ell had so handily overcome Kristen’s assailant when she was only eleven. In reality, Kristen was a little freaked out by the whole thing.

  They had talked at length about Ell’s gifts as they related to the Olympics. Both of them were concerned that her strange talents in the zone should be kept secret for fear of people reacting badly to something they didn’t understand. On the other hand they wondered whether, if she didn’t use her talents, she would always wish she had actually seen just what she could do against the best in the world. How could she pass up this chance to see how she really compared? After agonizing about it she’d decided that she’d never know what “could have been” if she didn’t do at least one event as well as she could. Since she was starting on vault she’d decided to do just as well as she possibly could on her first vault. No one paid much attention to first events anyway, so she could see what was possible without too much risk.

  When she was called for the vault she felt the butterflies coming and only suppressed them a little as she walked over to the runway. She stepped up to her mark and let the rush of the zone flood over her. With a little tremor she decided to go ahead with on
e of her “secret weapons” that no one else had ever seen. She threw her arms high and dropped her center of gravity to begin her run, the low throb of each foot strike thundered through her as she flew down the runway, then skipped into her round-off. Deep into the zone, she seemed to have forever to align her hands so that they struck the springboard together, exactly in the center. She hid with just exactly the resilience in her arms that she knew from hundreds of practice sessions would launch her perfectly to the table. Spin over once, still deep in zone’s slow motion, allowing her to place her hands perfectly in the center of the table also, and thrust hard, up off the table into the air for two and a half rotations in layout, with two and a half twists as well! Because no one had ever done such a vault before, she knew it was going to cause judging problems. While turning, she realized that, this deep in the zone, she had thrust herself higher in the air than she’d ever been in a vault before. Despite the spinning and twisting, the world flowed slowly enough that as the mat slid past beneath her she could determine that she was perfectly centered in the lane. She noted that her rotation was slightly too fast and so stretched her body even more to slow it. Then she stuck her landing, exactly centered between the lines, perfectly balanced over feet that struck side by side as a single unit. She flexed her knees just enough to absorb energy and keep from bouncing, then stood back up, throwing her arms up high and wide. She smiled broadly at the judges, knowing in her heart that she had just perfectly executed a vault that no one had thought was possible before now!

  Ell let the zone go and the rest of the world gradually came up to her speed. As she turned from her landing her eyes passed over round eyed judges. As she came back down to earth she heard a roaring noise and turned to see people leaping to their feet, cheering wildly, shaking fists. She looked around to see if something had happened but even the girls waiting to do other events were staring over at the vault section in general and her in particular.