by Jeffrey Cook
“Precisely,” Mina agreed, looking to Miko. “Ready?”
“As I'm ever going to be,” Miko agreed as they approached the door.
Mina readied the gun she'd taken off the thug earlier and moved towards the door. Fulton nervously moved up to the retinal scanner, entering his security codes and pressing his eye to the scan. Fortunately, his clearance apparently was still good for this section, and the door unlocked. As soon as she opened it, Mina was hit with the scent of a lot of people in close quarters, most of whom hadn't had a shower in far too long. A dozen sets of eyes turned towards her as the door opened. Picking up on motion out of the corner of her eye, she ducked back just in time to avoid a shot that cracked off the reinforced plastic frame of the open door.
Mina ducked back around the door, trying to draw a bead on the apparent monitor for the hostages, only to feel herself being dragged back into the hallway by Miko, who frantically pointed towards the back of the room, where another figure was approaching. Mina couldn't doubt he had the counter chipping, as she hadn't even registered his presence in scanning the room, or at least didn't pick out the armed man among the programmers.
She could hear more commotion from inside. “Where would you normally stand to secure a doorway?” Miko asked.
Mina started to point, even as she was fighting the reflex to take her instinctive covering position. “Bait,” she saw Miko whispering to her, as her friend ducked just outside the door.
True to Miko's apparent expectations, the big man coming out of the doorway didn't even seem to notice Miko lurking just down the hall, instead immediately turning towards Mina. He kept the door between himself and her, ducking around it to take a shot. Before he could pull the trigger, Miko kicked the back of his knee, causing it to buckle and making the shot go wild.
Miko tried to follow it up while he was off balance, but even with surprise, he was too fast for her, recovering his balance and whirling about. Before he could pistol whip Miko, Mina managed to dart forward and grab his gun arm. She kept a death grip on his arm even as he came back about, swinging his off hand right past Mina's guard. She felt the fist on her nose, and the taste of blood, her vision blurring, but still she held on so he couldn't get his gun free.
While he was occupied with Mina, Miko got a second chance, sweeping his legs and using that momentum to drive the man's head into the wall. He staggered back after the impact, trying to clear his vision. This time, Mina was able to get a clear shot without risk of hitting Miko, and managed to shoot him in the chest while he was finding his equilibrium.
“Look out!” Miko shouted, as the second figure emerged into the hall. It was all she was able to say before a pistol butt caught her between the eyes.
“Miko!” Mina shouted, charging at the figure. She managed to close the gap before he could get a shot off, driving the man back into the room before he caught his balance, though that was all she managed, as he managed to backpedal and shift to one side before she could bring him down.
With Beth's warnings about video games passing through her head, as Mina's reflexes screamed 'left!' and she started to shift that way, she managed to jerk right instead. It was less the graceful dodge it should have been than an ugly tumble due to the effort to fight her own instinctive maneuvers, but to her surprise, it worked. The man lunged right past her, striking thin air where her head should have been. Unfortunately, the tumble didn't leave her in a good position to counterattack, but it bought her time. Mina swept at his legs, kicking him in the shin and causing his knee to hyperextend, sending him tumbling back into one of the work stations. She was trying to scramble to her feet when she saw him adjusting, leveling his gun. Just before he could fire, there was a tremendous crash, the sound of electricity and breaking glass, then screams accompanied by burning smells.
Head still swimming a little, Mina caught sight of Scott standing just behind where the guard had been, his eye still jacked into the computer, now missing the monitor that Scott had clubbed the guard with. “Mina?” he asked. “What are you doing here?”
Chapter Nineteen
The programmers had all been tethered to their stations. Apparently, there were normally four guards on duty, but two had recently left. When it was clear that Miko was all right, Mina, Miko and Fulton started working on freeing everyone. A double check of the cargo elevator revealed it to be in perfect working order, despite signs stating that it should be otherwise.
“How many of those chips did they have you make?” Mina asked Scott as they were moving.
“Not very many. We managed to sabotage the first batch before they caught on somehow.”
“Any idea how?”
“Testing, probably. They weren't very good—real rush jobs.”
“Just like video games. No complete programs, just a speed setting and specific set of counters?” Mina filled in.
“Exactly,” he agreed. “And anyone using them would be at high risk for eventual rejection.”
“Wonder how many of them know that?' Mina mused. “Can you help us confirm all copies are accounted for?”
“Yeah, we couldn't get any outside data chips or anything, but I've been storing a backup copy in my eye. Get me to any computer with enough juice to run this, and enough security it won't get out, and I'll be able to come up with a list for you.”
“You said something about testing? We've been having trouble with a couple of rogue FBI agents and ...”
“And police officers?” Scott asked.
“How did you know?”
“Because that's how they moved us all. A cop showed up, said something to our boss about compromised security settings, and insisted we all had to come with him and evacuate to a secure lab. The boss confirmed it, told us all to go along. We never saw him again, but I'm pretty sure he was in on it anyway.”
“Why would you say that?”
“Because that's what we were arguing about. He was messing with some data transfers I was pretty sure he shouldn't have been. Trouble was, he knew I knew. He reported me for trying to hack the system, and blamed me for the things he'd been doing.”
“How did you figure it out?”
Scott blushed. “I actually was hacking the system a little. Only because Hawkins kept having trouble with my security codes. I got locked out of the system a few times, and he kept having to readjust things for the new guy. I was trying to figure out why it was doing that, and ran into someone else messing with it. I tracked a bunch of quick changes to the security offices, but was kind of stuck, since to report anything to Hawkins and Harper, I would have had to say how I knew. I didn't begin to suspect it was anything like this.”
“Even if he was in on it, I don't think your boss knew what he was getting into either,” Mina reported. “He's dead.”
Scott paused. “Dead?”
“He's not the only one. Those rush jobs have been wreaking havoc. If we're thinking of the right person, the cop who evacuated you all is dead too—so is his partner. Can you tell me what he looked like?”
“Was he hot?” Miko chimed in, from where she followed close by, looking in good spirits despite her quickly developing black eye.
Mina was blushing too hard to look daggers at her again. “Will you knock it off with that?” she finally said.
“Hey, he was your evil boyfriend. Evil boyfriends are totally not my type.”
“How would you know? You never saw him.”
“I just know these things, okay? I'm pretty sure he didn't look like John Belushi, and if he didn't have the eyes of doom, he was totally not my type. Besides, evil,” Miko answered quickly, deflecting the comment like pretty much every other time boys came up.
Mina just shook her head. “Hopeless.”
“Am not. I'm the chirpy optimist sidekick. You're the grim floral avenger,” Miko answered back, losing none of her good cheer.
Finally, Mina couldn't help but laugh. “Floral Avenger, seriously?”
They were interrupted by Hawkins, racing after
them as they were about to emerge out onto the main campus. “Uhm, agent folks ... there's a serious problem. I wouldn't go out there. Some kind of shootout, and nothing is getting off campus. I was trying to confirm what Agent Cortez was saying. I think Raymond Harper, or someone, has everything all jammed up. There's some kind of signals going around, all closed network. I'm pretty sure there's people headed this way.”
“Then we need to get a signal out, and we need to keep these people safe,” Mina declared, looking between the programmers. “How quickly could you guys change the security settings for the security system? If you sealed yourself in, and changed the authorizations ...”
“They'd need a tank to get in after us,” Scott said. He and Hawkins got the rest of the group turned around, heading back for their old workstations.
“You coming, Mina?” he asked, noticing her starting back in the original direction.
“I can't,” Mina said. “You guys have to get people here—the cops, the FBI, anyone, everyone. Lots of attention—not just a couple of officers either. I need to go find my boss. I almost didn't call her in at all, and now she's pinned down out there somewhere buying us time. I need to go help her.”
“Then I'm coming with you,” Miko declared.
“Not this time. You're still wobbly, probably have a concussion. Go and keep Scott and the others safe, just in case.”
“You need me,” Miko insisted, though she sounded a little less sure of herself than usual. Apparently, the comment on still being wobbly on her feet hit home.
“I need you safe, and I need the data in Scott's eye. You need to keep an eye on them and make sure they get locked in safely.”
“You sure you're going to be all right?”
“No,” Mina admitted. “But there's just some things the Floral Avenger has got to do.”
* * * *
If what Scott had said was true, Mina was pretty sure there couldn't be that many people out there with the anti-Inquisitor chips. On the other hand, on checking her gun, she only had seven shots left. On emerging from the building, she could hear an exchange of gunfire from some distance away. She couldn't initially get a good fix on it, with the echoes off the old stone buildings, but did her best to navigate towards it while hugging buildings and peeking around corners. As much as she was in a hurry, she couldn't do the Director any good if she got herself shot.
Along the way, she tried to raise her own commotion, and to maybe draw some attention off of the Director, smashing in windows of buildings and cars alike. Car alarms going off diminished some of the ability to hear the occasional gunfire, but she was sure they'd also get attention in their own right. She didn't linger long, and whenever she identified camera emplacements, she did her best to avoid them, though she was forced to spend two shots taking out a pair of the wide-angle security cameras, lest someone pinpoint her exact location. She wanted to try and draw some attention away from the Director, but was only willing to take so many risks. If she got herself caught, she wouldn't do anyone any good.
A few times she considered trying to head into one of the taller buildings to see if she could get a crow's eye view of the goings-on elsewhere, but this time she listened to the chip's instructions, and chose not to risk getting herself cornered atop a building, if she got caught on any of the indoor cameras. With only five shots left, she wasn't going to hold anyone off for very long.
Finally, she came out on a hill where she could see some hint of the source of the noises. There were two cars crashed together, forming a V. From the hilltop, she could see a figure crouched down in the crook of the V. The Director, likely. She was surrounded by at least four people Mina could see at different points down below. All had taken cover around the buildings that bordered the parking area.
She didn't see any easy way to get to the Director, or approach the people's covered points without drawing attention to herself, and while she saw four, there could easily be more she couldn't see. If she had had a rifle, she might be able to provide a bit of covering fire, or catch one person by surprise, but the pistol wasn't going to cut it. While she was confident that Scott and the rest would figure out a way to get past whatever was cutting them off and get help, she had to figure out a way to buy some time. She also knew she didn't have a lot of time to figure it out. While several ideas occurred to her, accompanied by the now-familiar aluminum taste, she discarded those, since anything that was going to come via her chip would have been accounted for. She had to think as something other than an Inquisitor.
Her face broke out into a grin as a thought occurred. If she couldn't think like an Inquisitor, she did know how to think like a landscaper. The parking areas bordering campus had been part of the beautification processes. The University had fields and flower beds and lawns, all of which needed maintaining. All of that took supplies.
She bolted out across open grass, headed for the area where they kept the maintenance truck. She'd driven one like it a few times—slow and ponderous, more good for hauling irrigation equipment, sod, or whole trees than it was for any kind of maneuvering. It would serve her purposes perfectly.
Mina broke into the shed and uncurled all of the gardening hose in the place, tying it everywhere she could find a secure place about the supply shed. The other ends of the hose she ran out to the truck, tying it about the towing hitch and anywhere else she could find to tie it off. Then all of the towing chain and every bit of rope she could find was used as well. Before closing the shed, she grabbed a pair of respirator masks, and two sets of goggles, pulling one set on.
She hotwired the truck and started to pull. At first the wheels just dug in, dirt shooting back in a rooster tail behind her, but at last they found purchase, and the shed broke off its foundations, towed behind the heavy truck.
Just as she was celebrating her victory over the foundations, she saw two cars coming at her. Both jumped the curb, coming fast across the lawns. Mina gunned the engine, heading straight towards them. The thick windshield cracked as bullets came at her from the oncoming cars, then splintered in at the next shot, making her shield her eyes for a moment and duck as low as she could. She jerked the wheel hard to the side, at first getting only a sluggish response, but eventually, she turned, barreling right at one of the cars. It lost its traction in the grass, skidding out of the way as she passed the other, her passenger side window blowing in with a shot. She could see in her side view both cars recovering and turning to pursue. They'd catch up with her soon enough—she was just trying to get to the top of the hill before they did.
She swerved side to side, causing the shed to almost tip a few times, making it hard to get around the small building. One car finally did, racing up to pull alongside her. She jerked her steering wheel again, her heavy truck crashing into the car's side, and a bullet ricocheted off the frame of her driver's side window. The car fell behind again as its driver recovered from the side swipe.
A few more shots rang off her frame, throwing up sparks and sending more glass flying. Mina could feel something warm on her face, her chip helping make her aware she was bleeding from one of the sprays of glass. Shoving thoughts of injuries aside, she pushed on, reaching the hill. Once she got over the top, gravity took over. Mina did her best to steer at first, until she got good momentum going on the hill. When gas was no longer needed, she turned the truck at a diagonal, heading for one of the buildings, then opened the driver's side door. She pulled herself up out of the cab, and managed to climb around into the pickup bed. Balancing as best she could, she darted across and dove off the truck in a roll just as it careened into the side of the building. Mina rolled with the impact, ending up tumbling down the hill. She heard shouts of alarm, looking back to see the truck skidding along the front of the building towards one of the gunmen's secure points. Eventually, the front of the truck snagged, spinning it around. The shed being towed came with it, crashing into the side of the building. Mina went racing for the cover of the nearest vehicles as the shed hit the wall near one of the
gunmen, and the wooden building exploded in a rain of gardening tools, splinters, fertilizer, bark, pesticides and who knew what else. The truck continued to spin out, chains and hose whipping out behind it. Briefly, Mina hoped it might literally explode, like in some of the movies, but even without anything going up in flames, it was a pretty spectacular collision.
Amidst the chaos, she caught sight of a male figure emerging from one of the covered points some way away, trying to figure out what was going on. Aiming as best she could through the thick haze of dust and fertilizer in the air, Mina fired, dropping him and clearing her path.
Someone would figure out what was happening before too long, but for the moment, she had cover and confusion, and anyone not wearing a mask probably wouldn't be doing so well. Mina emerged from her cover and darted towards the Director's hiding spot in the V of the two crashed cars. She had almost made it, when the sound of screeching tires caught her attention. She managed to dart out of the road enough to not get run over, but felt an intense pain in her leg as a bullet tore into it and Mina tumbled to the ground, landed on her back and clutched her injured leg. The pursuing cars rushed past her down the hill. My God, she’d been shot! The wound didn't hurt as much as she thought it should, and somewhere in the haze starting to overwhelm her brain, the chipped thoughts told her she was going into shock. She let the chip help push her into auto-pilot, crawling and fighting to get to her feet and get to cover, while she tried to clear her head.
The vehicle was starting to turn about, her pursuers ready to take another shot when Mina saw the Director stand and fire a shotgun from the hip. The car spun out, and the front windshield appeared to be painted in red.
Mina pulled herself up onto one leg, and hop-scrambled as best she could, diving onto the hood of one of the cars in the V, where the Director caught her hand and pulled her across.
“You really don't know the meaning of subtle, do you, Agent Cortez?” the woman asked. From her tone, it took Mina a moment to realize that Fiona Richter had just made a joke.
