by Ryan Burnett
"More. You’re the guy in charge right? Please that feeling....I can't describe...the....lights...the colors...I'll do anything you want just... More..."
Rex said nothing. He didn't speak a word but merely wore a disappointed look on his face.
"Tyra what are you ...." I began, before the lights flickered off for a second and then returned. Shange approached from down the hallway his tan complexion still slightly ashen and his expression troubled.
"We need to get the security detail and get ready to move. They're making their move" Rex nodded before dismissively shoving Tyra off of him and proceeding down the hallway. I stood at the door's threshold between Tyra pleading on the floor and my captors who seemed content to leave me to fend for myself. Rhodora's voice spoke to me from inside.
There's nothing you can do for he Angela.
It was a thought I was determined to deny.
Chapter 22
22:48:19
Marcus
"So what now hot shot" Rob exhaled the words along with a nimbus of nicotine... I couldn't help but notice the strange hue the cerulean glow of his electric cigarette gave that cloud. We had been waiting outside the Photographist center for a while now thinking about the best way to get in... a line of thought whose trajectory was beginning to alter the more I thought about the situation. The longer I stared at the building the more distracted I became. How do you come up with a plan of attack when you have no idea what you were up against? What would Sun Tzu or Machiavelli have to say about an adversary who bent the laws of not only what was expected but what was physically possible? The best way to get into the building was only the surface of the conundrum, but I suppose the journey of 1,000 miles really did begin with a single step. A camera was clearly visible at the front entrance and I am sure that the security device had a brother or sister sitting above the entrance that connected it to the parking annex as well. There had to be something more to this situation beneath the surface. Whatever the AI ...thing... was, it wanted to keep us away from this place as long as possible. We were close. I hadn't seen anyone try to leave the facility but the longer I waited the more time I was giving them to escape or prepare; the little edge I had was being wasted.
"You know it’s not too late for us to Houdini" Rob said, As if the thought hadn’t crossed my mind....but knowing myself....there was only one way I could answer. This was too big to just let go of, how many men lived and died without ever once seeing something that flipped the foundation of what they knew on its head? I honestly didn’t care if it was starting to seem like the deck had been rigged against us all along, a dead man’s hand could still be a strong showing provided you could play your card’s right.
"This is like perpetual motion, or love at first sight...I've seen something Rob, and now... I can't just walk away."
"I've been in love before... and usually the broad didn't have a gun to my head." Rob replied
"Well to be fair this "broad" didn't try to kill me just kind of....I don't know... trapped my mind" I explained as I thought over the incident one more time.
"So that makes it better?" Rob asked with a laugh.
"What can I say? I have terrible taste." I admitted with a smile.
"...I can't wait to say I told you so...." Rob grinned at these words before taking another drag from the tobacco device. Taking stimulants to drive the autohighway always gave him the jitters afterwards as well as a fierce nicotine craving.
"Well for whatever its worth I'm still in....what do you say we wait until they open and then just walk in through the front? Ask some bs questions, get the receptionist to give us a tour of the building?" Rob suggested
"Meh...I don't know...maybe we should......the fuck!?!?"
Three black SUVs sped past us towards the photographist center. The first came to the front entrance and parked while the other two went towards the parking structure. The one in the lead driving inside past my field of vision while the other parked horizontally across the annexes entrance effectively preventing anyone from easily getting in or out. Armed men in black paramilitary suits began to exit the vehicle near the front entrance; two were striking out towards the front desk while the other two seemed to circle around the side of the building.
"Heh looks like the problems may be out of our hands after all Marcus..." but as he spoke I had already started moving. I got out of the vehicle and began striding around the grimy back of the buildings toward the rear of the photographist center's parking garage. I could hear Rob's surprised huff and muffled swearing as he pocketed his vice and hustled to catch up to me. I felt uneasy about diving into this mess head first but the time for thinking had passed. Other players were making their moves and I knew I had to do something. The slick and puddle pocked asphalt made the footing tricky but I couldn't let slowing down become an option. It would lead to doubts and second guessing that I couldn't afford. I approached the rear of the building in a near breathless state. One of the men we had seen circle around the building lay in wait watching the rear entrance of the photographist center with a semi-automatic pistol drawn ready to stop anyone trying to exit the building. The other man was connecting a black box to the door hinge as he knelt in front of a thumbprint scanner that had its face pried off. I could see cables connecting the box to what sounded like a small motor. The kneeling man gave a thumbs up and then flipped a switch on the motor. There was the whiplash crackle of electricity as the lights on the building went dark. A split second later I heard the sound of compressed air and pistons followed by the rending grind of stressed metal as the black box pried the door from its frame with a surprising burst of force. I looked back to whisper to Rob in time to see him sprint past me while throwing a rock with the accuracy of a first string pitcher. The armed man in the rear slumped as the lumpy stone connected with the back of his head. Before the kneeling man could react Rob was on him, my partners arm wrapping around his neck pinning the windpipe closed and forcing the man to the ground till his flailing helpless body lost consciousness.
"Jesus Christ Rob, Rocks?"
"They were distracted. We can’t afford to give our position away with shots. I made a judgment call. “He huffed as he straightened himself up while still standing over the now sleeping guardsman.
"...a little messy but it got the job done. Besides on the off chance this guy isn't waking up that’s just one more body for these goons to take care of." Rob stated as he caught his breath.
As a man without a plan I couldn't argue against improvisation... or results for that matter. I shrugged and looked towards the open doorway. Rob bent down to pick up the man's firearm and handed it to me. He gave the still churning motor a light kick with his foot before switching it off. "I'm taking this with us. It’s an automatic crowbar, the diode wires on this side fries any local security circuity and then the mechanical jack here does the rest of the work. I've never actually used one of these bad boys but I’ve always wanted to! These puppies can crack damn near anything without the fuss of alarms or high powered explosives."
I didn't say a word as he wrapped up the equipment neatly and tucked it under his arm
He retrieved the other man's firearm for himself as well, while being careful not to step in the blood leaking from his victim's scalp. "Much better than using our own. You ready?" Rob asked
I nodded as I entered the building with my finger hovering near the trigger of a stolen gun. The decor reminded me of a new age therapist office. Most of the non-structural walls were composed and occasionally displayed vague geometric symbols in bright color palettes. As far as I could tell not a single one held a definite meaning but were somehow supposed to convey the feelings of positivity and hope. I couldn't hear the team that had stormed the front of the building and I didn't know if that was a good thing or a bad thing. Things were oddly silent as we moved forward pausing every now and then to jiggle the handles of locked offices.
We had rounded two corners and had proceeded into the building’s interior when as we appr
oached a third turn the sound of gunfire shattered the tense silence and sent me to a crouch. The defensive maneuver kept my center of gravity low as a slight formed barreled into me knocking me slightly off balance as it rebounded off of my body and fell to the ground with a strange twist. I looked down and was surprised to see a young woman in the casual clothes of a civilian sprawled on the floor. She was wearing a faded pink hoody and jeans; her makeup was smeared and her long black hair spread in a haphazard pool on the tile beneath her. She was holding hands with another girl who wandered behind her like a dazed zombie. She had skin that was a beautiful shade of caramel brown but at the moment it seemed dirty and caked with sweat. The other girl seemed entranced by her own reflection and was staring at herself in the thick tinted glass, she didn’t react to our presence at all. The young woman on the floor turned to look up at me with sea green eyes that seemed far older and deeper than should have been possible
"Help u...” the words were cut off by the sound of a returning salvo of bullets down the hall. Fuck.
“How many shooters are there? Where's Alex! Is Shange here? Or Rex?' I shouted hoping to get a response to at least one of those names. Fuck. What was a girl doing in this mess? Was she an intern? A staff member’s daughter?
"Quickly" Rob said, and I could tell by the tone of his voice that he was doing his best to mute his frustration. The questions were piling up in my mind but that was no reason to give away our position.
"We're all gonna die here. I heard their orders...they're going to...they're going to shoot anyone who isn't Alex. There's too many of them. Please pretty please listen to me...We have to leave..." The sincere desperation tugged at something in me. I wanted to trust this girl, despite her friend who was absentmindedly pressing her cheek against the glass wall and giggling.
"We have company" Rob said from behind me. I turned and I could see from this angle we could see distorted reflections of more men advancing along the path we had just come in from. Re-enforcements. The gunfire ahead of us still raged.
"They're.....they can only buy us a little time. There are too many." The coherent girl said.
"Marcus, cover me." Rob said and I angled the gun around the blind corner....I wasn't an expert but I remember the angles and presence of one way mirrors in the offices along the hallway being arranged so that I had trouble seeing around the blind corners on our approach to this point inside the building. At least I had that small advantage of knowing they would be coming towards us without knowing what to expect. I aimed behind us at where the hallway turned cocking my gun so the barrel was pointed just above center mass. Behind me I could hear Rob starting the motor for the automatic crowbar and clamping the black box to one of the door frames. When the man turned the corner I didn’t hesitate and squeezed the trigger three times dropping the man instantly. Someone behind him poked their gun around the corner and sent random shots careening down the corridor, splintering the display glass around us. The geometric shapes began to take on weird and non-Euclidean angles as the crystals fractured. Some of the displays disappeared altogether or showed nothing but static.
"Get down" I whispered as harshly and loudly as I could. This hallway had no cover our only advantage is that they had to totally expose themselves to get a clear shot. To add more problems to the list, the gunfire at the front of the building was beginning to die down. One side was clearly winning at this point. The broken corporate decor around us gave the firefight a surreal quality, as if everything had been infected by an element of madness.
There was a clamorous crash as the auto-crowbar pried an office door off its hinges. I ducked inside and the saner of the two girls followed in my wake dragging the other girl in tow.
Now we had some form of cover. This thick industrial carbon glazed glass around us was turning into a creeping web way of bullet wounds but it was too strong to shatter. I sent a few more blind shots of my own down the hallway trying to prevent their advance. I heard a grunt as I hit one but the wound wasn't fatal...probably wasn't even disabling from the sound of it. The fighting at the front of the building had ceased entirely. I had a bad feeling. The animal inside me was screaming "ESCAPE". It was the inner voice of a fox being slowly surrounded by hounds.
"Marcus we've got a fucking problem.” Rob said as he gestured to the wall of the office. The wall was made of that same solid glass that had been absorbing our shots without completely shattering. The carbon glass had gone from boon to barrier, as a mere few inches of it now sealed us inside with our approaching deaths with a clear view of the pretentious shrubberies that encircled the building and the outside alley to mock us.
"There's no joint for me to set up on. I can't use the auto-crow." Rob said. I nodded and handed my gun to the girl who seemed to have some basic concept of what was actually happening.
"Do you know how to use this?" I asked. She nodded and took it willingly with a surprising show of resolve.
"Is the safety off?" she responded almost innocently. I had immediate second thoughts but I had no choice but to suppress them.
"Yes. Look, they're down that hallway. Just keep firing, this is an extended clip you have 13 shots. You don't need to hit anyone just keep them from breathing down our necks" I turned to Rob and took his gun from him and fired a series of shots along the connecting corner of the glass wall. The noise of my firing in rapid succession combined by the sound of the girl firing down the hallway mingled together in the closed space to create a lunatic tempo of hellish intensity. As I squeezed the last shot out I looked at the matrix of cracks the now embedded bullets had created. Cracks so numerous it had made the glass appear to take on an entirely different hue. I reloaded and began to fire again and squeezed until the chamber was empty.
"Rob find a thick indentation, set up the machine, and hope for the best. How are we coming?" I turned to the girl as Rob began to set up the auto-crow.
I reloaded once more with our last clip. She had done a decent job the people were still suppressed at the end of the hall but as I turned to look the other way I noticed more similarly appareled paramilitary types approaching from the other end of the hallway. I sent a few shots down that way to keep them pinned down but they had us in their pincer. We could only hold out for so much longer.
The sound of an over-reved engine feels my ears a long with a piercing shatter. I could smell smoke coming from the motor but a narrow jagged chunk of the glass had been pried loose from the wall. A quick look back filled me with hope as I saw Rob already in the process of squeezing his bulk through onto the other side grimacing with pain as he tried to pull the still hot motor of the auto-crow with him as well. I sit another batch of rounds down the hallway as the girl next to me went dry. "Go" I barked at her as I did my best to cover both ends of the hallway. She slid through rather easily. I emptied the remainder of the bullets down the hallway and slid through myself in such haste, that I only avoided cutting myself by sheer chance.
"Tyra!" the girl yelled to the other one who was still in the room spinning in circles like a toddler, oblivious to the situation.
"Tyra we have to go! You have to listen to me Tyra!" She was on the verge of tears as she tried to beckon her through the crack with beckoning motions giving herself a long gash along one arm in her attempt. She bit her lip and ignored the pain still trying to get this Tyra person's attention.
"We don't have time for this shit. Rob let’s move." It killed me to say the words but they had to be said. Sometimes you had to make the choice between being the bad guy or the dead guy.
Something in the other girls face changed...it went from frantic pleading to...an emotionless masked calm. Her voice too lost the panic that was there only moments before "I know.” She removed her arm and turned away from our friend. The three of us sprinted through the shrubs. We had made good progress back towards Rob's car before we heard a sound. A single gunshot. Not one of us spared a glance back.
We flew down the autohighway soaked with sweat still riding an adrenaline hig
h. The automatic navigation ferrying us swiftly back towards safety. I was desperate for a drink or anything to act as a salve for my raw nerve. The girl was oddly silent and composed as she looked out the window at the world around her.
I felt the need to say something but my mind was racing. I decided that I had to be blunt...I was too worn out for anything else.
"Listen miss. You handled yourself pretty well out there but you can't stay with us, we'll get you to Arc, near the monorail or something and then you’re on your...."
"I know where he is." She interrupted. I was slightly taken aback by her words and the car was silent for a few seconds.
"What? I have no idea what you're...."
She interrupted me once more, "I know where he is. I can help you find Rex."
Chapter 23
24:17:38
Cid
I stared into the pyre and the flames danced with a prismatic fury. Multicolored embers shined like opals in the heart of the blaze and a howling wind provided a melody to accompany the tempo of the crackling fire. The beasts were not in attendance, nor were the serving girls. Only the inferno and I remained. Free from distraction I let my mind gaze into itself and find solace in the marvels I had built. I had known that sending in the security teams was a long shot even before the survivors had submitted their report of the retrieval attempt, better men than these had already suffered defeat...and yet the scope of this latest failure filled my soul with disgust. It felt as if a sinking anchor had been bound to my throat and no amount of wrath could possibly dislodge it. The best mercenaries that money could buy had all been rendered powerless and brushed aside like mere children. On top of that I still could not identify a suitable replacement for the Jack, and now no one remained who was even remotely capable of leading the hunt for Alex. Not to mention all of the other training and operations that the Jack used to oversee.
