The Life- Illusion

by Lincoln Greene

When the door opened, it was facing the back of a guard station, populated by two night watchmen in navy blue uniforms with flashlights. Kurt could see revolvers at their hips, large and silver.

  Swallowing his nerves, he moved out of the elevator and began walking past them. A clipboard with a sheet of paper on it seemed to demand his attention, his eyes going to it on their own. His perception skill was coming in handy already. Walking up to the clipboard, he scribbled a false name on it while nodding to the guards. Jimmy stepped up and followed his example, also giving the guards a smile.

  “What are you doing here? Cleaning staff went home for the night already.” The guard that had spoken was seated before a bank of monitors that showed various areas of the building, mostly the lobby.

  The other guard scowled. “Two guys for one mop?” Jimmy kept his smile where it was, but Kurt noticed him slowly unzip his coveralls to the waist. Thinking fast, he smiled as a plan came to him.

  “Training the new guy. He’s going to be working the AM shift.” He started to move away from the desk.

  “Hold on.” The guard was scanning the names on the sheet. “Frederico? Why are you training Frederico here at night?”

  Kurt turned back with an exaggerated sigh. “You want him screwing up during the day? When everyone is trying to work and run a business? They lost the morning guy on short notice and this is who we got to replace him. C’mon guys, it’s late and I’m tired. Let me show him how to do this crap so I can go home.”

  The guard at the monitors looked at his partner and shrugged. Kurt tipped an imaginary hat to him as he continued up the hallway. The building was hollow in the center, built around a ring of walkways that extended up from the lobby to the penthouse floor. The walkways were slanted into ramps, with the offices and cubicle blocks being set back from the center. As soon as they were far enough away, Jimmy nudged Kurt.

  “That was sweet. We got this.” He patted Kurt on the back and moved ahead, peeking into offices as they walked up the ramp. The office they were after was the last in the building, at the very top of the ramp, across from the guard post. The door was unlocked, though it had a very clear deadbolt set into the glass at the bottom.

  With a frown, Kurt pressed the door open. A woman jumped from her seat at the offices desk, raising a strange looking rifle at them. The rifle was clearly very old, with a fully wooden frame. It sported an odd-looking barrel; an oversized black metal tube. She was dressed all in black, with a matching knit cap covering her bright red hair. She was lithe, and moved easily as she rose from the desk. As she raised the rifle to her shoulder, Jimmy stepped in front of Kurt and pointed his MAT 49 at her with an easy smile.

  “She’s a player. No way an NPC would have a gun like that.” He whispered over his shoulder to Kurt, moving further into the room.

  “What are you idiots doing here!?” She hissed at them from her position behind the desk. Kurt noticed she had taken a position of partial cover, resting her gun against the back of the chair.

  He stepped off to the side, raising his hands. “We came for that painting on the wall, that’s all. Nothing to do with the computer. I’m Kurt, he’s Jimmy.”

  Her eyes narrowed at him as he spoke. She hesitated for a moment, and then jerked her head towards the wall where the painting hung. “Gadot. Go ahead.”

  Kurt nodded his thanks and moved to take it down, as Jimmy kept both his gun and smile on her. It did indeed depict an ancient battle, men on horses with spears and bows featured clashing with one another. The title plaque read “The Ten Thousand.” Kurt lowered the painting to the floor and began peeling a corner of it out of the frame, as one of the guards walked up behind Jimmy with his flashlight pointed at them.

  “Shi…” Before she could even finish the word, Jimmy turned and hit the guard with a quick spray of bullets from his SMG. The noise echoed in the hollow building and Jimmy turned back to them, a chagrinned look on his face.

  “Oops.” He shrugged the instant before Gadot shot him in the face. The rifle made almost no sound, just a sharp snapping of the bolt as it fired. She cycled the bolt action and swung the rifle on Kurt as Jimmies corpse hit the floor. His gun scattered to the side, and Kurt’s perception skill drew his eyes to it briefly.

  Kurt ducked as she fired again, striking the wall just above him. “Stop! Friendly! Friendly for fucks sake!” He scrambled into the base of the desk as she fired again, the snap of the bullet striking the floor where he had just been somehow louder than the rifle. The second guard chose that moment to make his appearance, coming into the open doorway and raising his gun at the woman. Kurt had been scrambling in his coveralls for his gun from the instant she had shot Jimmy, and he raised it at that moment. His suppressor did a respectable job covering the noise of flash from his gun, but it was still much louder than the woman’s as he shot the guard in the chest three times.

  He rolled onto his back and pointed the Beretta up at the woman as she leaned over the desk. They stayed that way for a moment, pointing their guns at each other. Sirens in the distance broke up their standoff, the woman shaking her head and sitting back down in front of the computer.

  “You assholes blew my op. Take your stupid painting and get the hell out. Maybe you’ll lead the Heat off me.” She tapped furiously at the keyboard. Glancing at his wrist, Kurt was dismayed to see a two bar Heat level. He quickly stripped off the coveralls and grabbed Jimmies gun from the ground. Cramming it under his arm, he moved to the painting and ripped it out of the frame, rolling it up and shoving it into the tube container.

  After he slung it across his back, he moved behind the woman and looked at the screen. “Can I help? I think the cops are in the building, it’s getting noisy down there.”

  She snorted. “Right, you genius B&E artists are going to help me hack an info objective console. Just get lost, I can handle the bulls.” She continued to manipulate a pattern on the screen, moving blocks of the pattern at a time while others moved on their own. Her hands were clenched into fists in frustration.

  “Move that one down.” He pointed at a corner.

  “Sure, why not. This op is bust anyway.” She moved the curser on screen and shifted the section he had pointed to. The screen continued its movements, causing the new section to complete the screen, and the patterns stopped moving. A download in progress bar popped up onto the screen and the woman raised a fist into the air. “YES!” She paused to look at Kurt incredulously.

  He shrugged and moved towards the door. “Good luck Gadot.” She just stared at him as he turned to run. Exiting the office, he peeked down at the lobby to see it swarming with small shapes, each with flashlights. As he watched them, the buildings lights all came on. He ducked back behind the wall and checked his phone, swiping everything aside until he reached his friends list.

  A text was waiting from Jimmy already. “She get you too? Where’d you respawn?” He quickly found the coms option and thumbed it. An instant later he had Jimmy in his ear. “That chick is hardcore! Should we wait out the pork and try again, or you just wanna call it?”

  “I’m actually still up. She shot at me a couple times, but chilled out when I took down the other guard before he could get her. I have the painting, and your gun, now how do I get out of here?”

  The sounds of sirens came through from Jimmies side. “Oh sweet; you saved Annabelle, thanks. Hornet’s nest has officially been kicked. I’m on my way in the hearse; I should be in the garage in like two minutes. Think you can get down there?” Kurt shifted Jimmies gun, before noticing a strange feeling at his side. A rolled-up duffle bag was in his jackets side pocket, having deposited itself when the need for something to carry loot with had become apparent. Kurt unrolled the bag with a flick of his hand, tossing the painting tube and MAT 49 into it before slinging it across his shoulder. The belt contracted automatically, shrinking to fit the bag snugly across his back.

  Nodding to himself, Kurt lifted his Beretta and started moving along the walkway, keeping low. “I’ll try.” Th
e main elevator dinged as he was moving past, and Kurt scrambled into a cubicle cluster. He glanced at his map as seven dots flashing red and blue stormed from the elevator. A scowl of confusion came to his face while the police shouted their presence and loudly informed each other of what they were doing and where they were going.

  “Moving up!” One of them shouted as he walked forcefully up the ramp towards the office. “Body sighted!” As Kurt peeked out from behind the cubicle wall, a sharp metallic snap sounded and the police NPC at the lead dropped in a crumple. All the remaining police began shouting about shots fired and took cover in various locations, none of them making a great deal of sense. Kurt changed positions, using his map to remain unseen as he slid into place behind their group. Another one of them dropped, the sound of Gadot’s rifle bolt snapping into place following shortly after.

  All of the remaining police NPCs raised their guns and began to fire at the office. Handguns and shotguns roared across the offices, causing Kurt to notice the sound didn’t actually hurt his ears, while still being incredibly loud. He could even hear them shouting over the roar of gunfire. “Man down! Returning fire!” He scowled slightly as he moved up behind one of them, leveling his gun at the NPC.

  He remained crouched, and held the gun in close, gripping it tightly as he fired. The NPC dropped, and the rest immediately turned and began shouting at him. Making an undignified sound, he threw himself against a nearby cubicle wall, collapsing it and providing himself some cover from the gunfire that followed. Crawling away on his belly, he heard the rifle snap again, causing the NPCs to divert their attention back to Gadot. As Kurt rolled out from underneath an office desk, he saw her position. She was hiding behind the wall of the walkway, using it as cover while she picked off the NPCs one at a time. Their return fire caused her to drop below cover, and Kurt fired twice at the back of the nearest NPC.

  Rolling again, he went under another desk and came up in a crouch on the other side of it, checking his map. One of them was moving towards him, so Kurt pressed his suppressor to the cubicle wall and fired three times. On the third trigger press the gun clicked empty, so he ran in a crouch to the back of the cubicles cluster. As Kurt moved, his gun made a click sound and the spent magazine fell to dust as it slid out towards the carpet. The remaining NPC started moving back towards the elevator, shouting for backup into his radio. He dropped to the sound of a sharp snap.

  Scrambling in his pockets for a new magazine, Kurt pressed his back against a desk as the elevator pinged once more. Finally thinking to check his hidden holster, he discovered a single magazine well in place beside it. Slipping the new magazine into his Beretta, he clicked the release and sighed in relief when the gun’s breach slid closed. A quick glance at his wrist HUD informed him he had two reloads remaining, with a cooldown timer ticking away at his third. He also noticed a handful of skill notifications awaiting his inspection, but waved them away for a later time.

  “Sounds like you’re having fun.” Jimmy spoke in his ear during his moment of respite, a decidedly amused tone in his voice.

  Shaking his head, Kurt peeked around from his hiding place as he whispered. “This is really stressful. Doing alright though.” He thought for a moment, glaring in annoyance at the overhead lighting. “Hey, any chance you can do something about the power from down there?”

  The sound of tires squealing echoed through his internal phone link. “Uhhh…Maybe?” The police NPCs who emerged from the elevator this time were different, and the Heat notification had bumped up a bar. From his hiding spot, Kurt watched them fan out, using hand signals instead of shouting their presence. Each NPC was dressed in more tactical gear, wearing vests and balaclavas with ballistic goggles covering their faces. They carried MP5 submachine guns, clearly recognizable from their prevalence in the films of the era. Each member of the eight-man team also wore a sidearm strapped to their hips.

  “Ah. Here we go, lights out in a sec.” The sound of Jimmies engine revving was clear, as was the resulting chaotic crash. True to his word, all of the lights and electronics in the building blinked off. The police NPCs became easy to pick out, as they all flicked on their flashlights while they continued to spread out and search for Kurt and Gadot.

  Kurt’s eyes widened as he saw the reflection of a light behind him, on the other side of the desk. He lay down on his side and shot the NPCs foot, and then when the man fell with a scream, he shot him in the face. Both the armored vest and gun puffed to dust on impact, but a magazine remained and was drawing his gaze with the help of Kurt’s perception skill. He snatched it quickly, tucking it into a pocket as he rolled to his feet and ran for a nearby office.

  No snaps from Gadot’s rifle were sounding, and the remaining seven members of the swat team were hunting Kurt after his loud kill a moment earlier. He scuttled between two groups of them, moving as quickly as he could while staying quiet. Keeping his eyes on the map, he darted out into the open area of the walkway, moving down towards the guard post and his elevator while narrowly avoiding a swat NPC at the end of the cubicle cluster.

  He took a moment in cover to watch the NPCs on his map as they moved through the cubicles, looking for him. After a moment, a grim smile came over his face when he saw the opening he needed. Checking his pocket, he noticed the magazine he had picked up was gone. His HUD showed a premature refill of the magazine that had been on cooldown, and when he reached in his holster he felt it seated in its well.

  Gripping the spare magazine in his left hand, he watched the map for a moment longer and then stepped out of cover. He leaned around the corner of the cubicle cluster and shot the NPC he had passed a moment before. A quick glance at his map told him that his plan was working perfectly, as the other NPCS clustered towards the shot. He slid against the wall of a cubicle, and then crept in behind them as they passed. Three more quickly placed headshots at close range, and the tables had turned.

  A door opened and closed up ahead, earning the attention of the remaining swat NPCs, who quickly rushed towards it. Kurt dropped his magazine out of the gun and slid the fresh one in as he stepped out from cover and fired into the backs of the NPCs. He dropped two and the last one ducked to the side, taking cover behind a pillar. Thinking quickly, Kurt put four rounds into the pillar on the left-hand side as he moved. He stepped lightly, moving around the right side of the pillar and hitting the NPC in the forehead as he did.

  Grabbing the NPCs dropped magazine, he slid it into his pocket and fished out a fresh one for his handgun from the holster. The game seemed to have strict rules about re-loading, and picking up a magazine for an MP5 simply wouldn’t cut it for his Beretta even though they shared an ammunition type. Instead, picking up a magazine dropped by an NPC gave him an immediate reload from his own supply, the NPCs item vanishing once secured in his pocket. He stepped up to the door as the elevator pinged again behind him, causing him to shake his head in exasperation. He shoved the door open and was shocked to see a police officer in the stairwell below him.

  The man stopped and raised a silver monster of a handgun. Kurt noticed the gun was a Desert Eagle, another easily recognizable firearm of the era, in spite of a nasty looking spiked compensator on its barrel’s end. He also noted the patrolman’s cap on the man’s head, and the unusual behavior of being alone in the stairwell. The realization that this was a player hit Kurt as he raised his own gun and opened fire. The player ducked his head and scrambled back down as bullets pinged off the stairs and handrails all around him. He fired over his shoulder as he went, seven thunderous shots ringing out in the stairwell.

  Kurt gasped in pain as a fifty-caliber slug grazed him. The pain wasn’t particularly strong, but it was unexpected and when he glanced at his HUD, his health bar was blinking and nearly empty. The burst of pain felt a little like striking his shin on something hard. It hurt in a bright flash at first, but quickly faded to nothing. Slipping out his magazine, he raced upstairs as another seven loud shots rang out behind him, shattering concrete and warping the han
drails where they struck. He burst out of the stairwell onto the roof, seeing Gadot perched on the edge of the rooftop. She was holding onto a handlebar above her head, which a quick glance showed connected to a zip line. As he watched, she shook her head at him and lunged off the roof, sliding down the line towards a rooftop across the street.

  Slipping another fresh magazine into his Beretta, Kurt turned back and unleashed all eight rounds into the door. He crammed the gun back into his holster as he ran to the zip line, trying to think of anything he could use to make it across himself. Being pinned on the rooftop with a swat team on their way and a rogue player coming fast behind him was rather daunting. Desperation set in and he slid the bolt cutters from their pocket.

  As he stepped up onto the rooftops lip, a wind buffeted him and made him reel back from the ledge a step. From behind him, the door banged into the frame as it was kicked open and the player with the gigantic handgun stood grinning at him from the doorway. He hooked the open bolt cutters around the zip wire and held on for dear life as he jumped over the edge.

  The wind howled past him as the bolt cutters head spit sparks from the metal wire. It was over thankfully fast, and he landed in a tumble on the opposite rooftop, to an astonished glare from Gadot. Scrambling to his feet, he looked back to see the player in the police outfit staring at him from the rooftop he had just vacated.

  Gadot shook her head at him as she opened the rooftops door. He didn’t wait this time, following right behind her and tossing the ruined bolt cutters aside. They moved without hindrance to the buildings elevator, and then down into the parking garage beneath it. As the doors to the elevator opened, Kurt’s eyes widened. The garage was much more open than the one he had come from, and several police cruisers were already in place as part of the cordon for the other building.

  As Gadot left the elevator, a shout sounded from the right and a shotgun went off. She hit the ground twitching, a sparking slug stuck into her stomach. Kurt put his back to the elevators interior, peeking out to see a three-man squad of NPCs approaching. He steadied himself as he drew his Beretta, waiting for them to get closer. One of them knelt to place zip ties on Gadot’s wrists, and Kurt stepped out and shot each of them twice. He crouched, swatting away the Taser slug and helping Gadot to her feet.