by D V Wolfe
I got into the passenger side just as Noah came banging out of the room. I got out and checked to make sure the room door was locked behind him. We each had a sidearm. I’d loaded the .357 with wrought iron rounds and given it to Noah. I had the .45 strapped to my leg and Luke had his normal piece. I had the sword on my back, invisible and hidden until I grabbed the hilt and each of us had a Solomon Spice stake in the inner pocket of our suit jackets. To Luke’s credit, he hadn’t questioned it. He’d just taken it and slipped it in his pocket.
“I don’t know how you do this day in and day out, Luke,” I said, as we headed towards Copia. “I hate suits and it’s weird that this,” I motioned down to the .45 on my thigh, “is the weapon I would carry every day.”
Luke cut his eyes to me. “What would you prefer? I mean, at least we’re armed and we didn’t have to pose as plumbers or something.”
“She’s just missing her machete and sawed-off,” Noah muttered. He was sitting as far up in his seat as possible. “Can we drive any faster?”
I turned in my seat to look at Noah. “When we get there, you’re going to have to keep your head,” I glanced down, “and your hands, under control. Just breathe. We’ll find her. And we’ll get her out of there. Just play the part with us so we can get in.”
Noah nodded and I watched him breathe deeply through his nose, trying to calm himself.
Luke parked towards the front of the lot where his Fed-car-caravan had parked before.
“We’re not going in like spies,” Luke said to us before opening his door. “We are bored and dogged agents of the Homeland Security Department. We don’t want to be here. The higher-ups have ordered us to question Bill Griffith, yet again. We know it will be fruitless, we are nonchalant and unassuming. Got it?” I gave Luke a huge fake smile. “And don’t smile,” Luke said. “Especially not like that.”
Noah and I followed Luke inside and we flashed our badges in time with his. The security guard motioned us to go through the metal detector. We each lifted our suit jackets as we moved through it, showing the guard our sidearms that set it off. I glanced at his face and he just nodded at us without looking and reset the machine. Even the security guards had gotten used to the constant visits.
There was a woman behind the large round reception desk wearing a headset. She was deep in conversation and held a finger up for us to wait. I heard Luke sigh and I looked at him. He was the epitome of boredom. I tried to copy him and looked around at the walls. There was a hundred-inch or more TV screen on one wall showing a scrolling slideshow of Copia Industry operations. Fields of cotton being harvested, a plant producing first aid supplies. Then it shifted to a medical research lab and a manufacturing line showing pills being funneled into bottles. Then a skeet shooting course and an American flag partially transparent with a tank rolling by in the background. This faded out and there was a shot of a man showing a new design on a whiteboard for what looked like a bazooka. Then another manufacturing plant shot with a row of techs wearing black rubber gloves and oiling and filing pieces of black metal. The camera pulled back to show the final product was the bazooka from the earlier shot. The last shot was the American flag again with “Copia Industries, Keeping American Families Safe” scrawled across it.
“Back again?” The woman behind the counter asked. She was professionally friendly, but the fact that the smile didn’t go past her lips, and her eyes were angry and annoyed, told me that she’d had enough of the Feds as well. I tried to remember if I’d seen her in that mob. I couldn’t place her and she didn’t come out of her chair and try to strangle us for being there so I was betting she didn’t “mob lurk” in her free time.
“Yeah,” Luke said. “I’ve lost count of how many times this makes it.”
“He’s very busy,” the woman said. “It would be a lot more convenient if you and your...team would move on to something that didn’t just waste everyone’s time.”
“Tell me about it,” Luke said. “Unfortunately, we just have to do what we’re told. I’m sure you understand.”
The woman’s back straightened slightly. “Fine. One moment.” She hit a button on her phone. She waited for a minute and then sighed. “The Homeland Security agents are here again. Is Mr. Griffith available?” She listened for a moment, thanked the person on the other end of the phone, and hung up.
“He’s in his office for the next hour. There was a conference call that was canceled, so you’re in luck.” I saw her gaze land on my hair and then Noah’s slightly rumpled suit. “Use your time wisely. I need to scan your badges and then you can take the elevators up.”
We handed over our badges and a few minutes later, we were let beyond the reception desk. We turned the corner to the bank of elevators and we paused. We were out of sight of the woman at reception and the security guard.
“Ok, we need to search for June, get her out of here and then get to Griffith all within the next hour,” I said softly. “Easy, right?”
“The building is four stories,” Luke whispered. “The top floor is just Griffith’s office and reception area. This floor is just the reception area, public information center where they take people for tours and those huge bathrooms.” Luke nodded back down the hallway behind us. I turned to see that we were in a hall that formed the top of a “T” with the reception and entrance being the lower portion. I could see a sign pointing to the restrooms at the end of the hallway on the other side of reception.
“I’ll take this floor,” I said. “If they stop me, I’ll just say I was heading for the restroom.”
“The second and third floors are all conference rooms and offices,” Luke said.
“What about the labs and assembly lines?” I asked.
Luke shook his head. “All of that is in the actual plant behind this building. They aren’t connected. If we can’t find her here, that will be our next stop.”
“You and Noah want to take the third floor? This one shouldn’t take me very long,” I said. “Then I’ll hit the second floor.” I pulled my cell phone out of my pocket. “Whoever finds her, texts the other one, and says where to meet up, ok?”
“I could take the second floor,” Noah said and I could see him trying to keep a lid on his anxiety.
“There’s no way for you to contact us if you find her,” I said. “If she’s being held here, they probably took her phone away.” I didn’t want to add that she might not be conscious and was very likely injured. I wasn’t sure how Noah would take seeing her like that if that was the case. Better to have Luke with him for support. Finally, Noah nodded and Luke punched the elevator button.
“Be careful,” he mouthed at me.
I nodded and mouthed back. “You too.”
I turned and headed back down the hallway passing behind the reception desk. The woman turned in her chair to look at me and I summoned every ounce of acting I’d ever learned from watching sitcoms and movies and Nya.
“Restrooms,” I said, pointing down the hall.
The woman followed me with her eyes until I made it out of her line of sight. The bathrooms made up the entirety of the end of the hallway with golden doors and engraved logos. One wall had no doors, just oil paintings of U.S. presidents and one enormous rendering of the man I’d seen in the paper. The plaque under it said “WILLIAM R. GRIFFITH”. He was a tall man, slim with wavy blonde hair and cold blue eyes. Nothing like those eyes judging you as you went to take a whiz. The opposite side of the hallway had one fire door labeled, STAIRS, and a pair of double glass doors.
Through them, I could see what looked like a mock lab with a red carpet pathway on the ground that twisted out of sight about fifty feet in. I tried the door. It was locked. I took a deep breath and reached under my jacket to pull a couple of bobby pins off the elastic band on my underwear. If I ever needed my lockpicking skills to be Hollywood-grade, it was now.
I took a deep breath and looked around. The hallway was empty. There were probably security cameras aimed everywhere, but if everyone else in
administration and security felt the way the security guard did at the entrance, I might be in luck. Now if the guy manning the camera feeds was a member of last night’s mob, I would be screwed. I opened up the bobby pins and wedged them into the lock. I fished them around and after a minute, I felt the cylinder tumble. I twisted to the right and I saw the metal bar behind the glass lift. I could hardly believe it. I wanted to jump around and do a little dance but I decided to save it for later considering where I was. And of course, I was by myself, so I couldn’t even rub it in Noah’s face that I’d gotten the lock so quickly. Oh well. That was about par for the course. I just hoped June’s luck was better than mine. I slipped into the tour area and moved past the mock lab to a wax exhibit of American rebels fighting the Redcoats with muskets and bandaged heads. The Redcoats were outnumbered and posed with their arms in the air as if they were backing towards the green-lit emergency exit behind them. I doubted that it was unintentional. A guy with this many American flags probably wasn’t familiar with “subtlety”.
“June?” I called into the darkness.
Silence. I walked the red-carpeted circuit, checking under desks and structures. Nothing was out of place, nothing looked like it had been involved in a struggle. I came back to the glass doors and peered out to make sure the hallway was still empty and not full of mob members waiting for me with bats and bike chains. Deserted. Maybe Luke had really good karma and we were coasting on that right now. I made it back out into the hall and immediately went into the ladies’ room. I checked my phone while I stood in a stall. Nothing from Luke. She still hadn’t been found then. I heard the bathroom door open. I flushed the toilet, stuffed my phone back into my pocket, and opened the stall door, heading for the sink. A woman was leaning back against the counter, arms crossed. She had a Copia badge clipped to her gray suit jacket and her hair was pulled up in a severe ponytail. It would be an understatement to say she wasn’t happy to see me.
“Why aren’t you with the rest of your team?”
“I had to pee?” I said. “Why do you care?”
“I’m security,” the woman said. “You went into an unauthorized area. I’m here to escort you out.”
“Really,” I said, soaping my hands up at the sink. “I’m a Federal agent, I don’t think my bosses would appreciate that.”
“I don’t give a shit what your bosses would appreciate. I guarantee you, my boss carries a bigger stick,” She said and her eyes glowed red, reflected in the mirror. She lunged for me. My hands were still soapy and I didn’t have time to draw the sword so I turned and braced myself against the wall as she hit me. I grabbed at her face, sinking my soapy thumbs into her eye sockets. She let out a strangled scream. I could almost imagine the scream echoing off the halls and the security guard getting to his feet, and the woman behind the desk calling for more security.
Great. I’d always wanted to fight thirty or forty demons in a women’s restroom. The universe must have been reading my diary.
I banged her against the far wall and jumped back, letting go so I could draw the sword. She reached up to swipe at her eyes. She was doubled-over and I felt a pulse of relief when I saw the bright red pentagon brand behind her left ear. No problems here. I ran her through with the sword and she screamed again. Black goo was coming out of her eyes and the corner of her mouth as her body started to crackle and smoke from the damage the sword had done. I resheathed it and grabbed her under the armpits, dragging her to one of the stalls. I bailed water out of the toilet and onto her, managed to quell most of the smoke that was drifting up from her corpse. I watched the smoke trickling out of her and rising to the bathroom ceiling. I couldn’t see a smoke detector in here. Maybe I’d still have time. I lifted her up and set her down on the toilet before her chest seemed to collapse inward on itself, a huge puff of smoke rising out of her suit jacket. I fanned the air, trying to get the smoke to dissipate before I closed the stall door and quickly washed my hands.
I cracked the bathroom door to look back down the hallway. I could see the security guard moving away from me, towards the elevators. I slipped out of the bathroom and pulled open the door to the stairwell. It was clear that the stairwell was where they had cut the budget so they could afford that round reception desk. The metal railings were unpainted and already loose in the cinder block walls. I moved up to the second floor and cracked the door. The door was at the end of another long hallway. I could see light spilling from open office doors along it. I could hear a dozen or more conversations going on, but no one was out in the hallway. I did a quick check of myself. My sleeves were damp but other than that, I didn’t look too disheveled. I pulled the door open and strolled confidently down the hallway. I peered into the open offices as I passed, making eye contact, and nodding at the residents. Most of them paused in their conversations and then resumed after I’d passed. So good so far. No one was storming out of their little square rooms to demand to know what I was doing there. Besides the offices, two large empty conference rooms, and much smaller and less grand versions of the bathrooms downstairs, there wasn’t an area that could hold June without having to get the whole floor in on the kidnapping. I checked both bathrooms and ignored the raised eyebrows of several of the workers. None of them were running at me or even asking what I was doing there. Either they were used to it or they didn’t care. Innocents, I assumed. If there were demons on this floor, they would have probably taken issue with me sniffing around.
I took the elevator this time, up to the third floor. The doors slid open and my view was blocked by two brick shithouses wearing suits. God bless well-greased elevators that still smelled like new cars. The elevator was silent and they didn’t turn when the doors opened. They were barking at someone in front of them.
“You show me that badge one more time and I’m going to shove it up your ass. You will leave now if you know what’s good for you,” the one on the left was growling.
“Look, we’re all working stiffs,” Luke’s voice carried over their shoulders. “We have a job to do.”
“Yeah, so do we,” the man on the right growled.
I reached up and pulled out the sword as quietly as I could. I wasn’t positive they were demons, but the second they surged forward I ran the one on the left through. He screamed and as he went down I saw Noah stumbling backward away from him. The big guy’s partner turned his attention to me, his face twisted into a snarl, eyes trained on me, glowing red.
I stepped on the back of the fallen guy, trying to pull the sword out. The body was smoking, the sound of crackling and hissing flesh filling the alcove with the elevators. His partner wasn’t willing to wait for me to get the sword out. I felt him moving behind me and then he grunted in pain and stumbled back. I turned around to see Luke rearing back to punch the guy again. Apparently, he’d forgotten about the stake I’d given him. The guy grabbed Luke by the front of his shirt. Luke kicked out and connected with the guy’s gut. He dropped Luke. I finally managed to jerk the sword free and I rammed it home through the second guy. The black ooze started coming out of his nose and his gut and he slumped to the floor, smoking and melting like that witch in The Wizard of Oz.
“Bultman! Geary! What’s happening on three?” A muffled voice came over the radios clipped onto the belts of both men. “Do you need back up?”
“We’re going to have company soon if they don’t answer,” I said.
Luke struggled to pull the radio off the belt of the guy who had tried to strangle him. I resheathed the sword and turned to Noah. “Did you already search the floor?”
Noah shook his head in panic.
“Well she’s either here, up with Griffith or in the plant,” I said. “She wasn’t anywhere on the first or second floors.” At least anywhere I could get to. For all I knew, there could be a secret trap door between the legs of one of those wax soldier statues in the tour section, but that wasn’t a helpful thought process at the moment. Noah took off down the hall, opening doors. I looked around. The third floor was deser
ted.
“There’s no one here,” I said to Luke.
He nodded. “Creepy, right?”
I heard the sadly familiar sound of Noah puking, echo back down the hall to us.
“Geary here,” Luke said into the radio, making his voice gruff and low. “Three’s dead. We’re heading back now.”
“Dead, ha,” the voice came back. “Don’t forget to plug back in the security feed on your way out. The skin puppies keep coming in to ask us about it.”
I stepped over the body at my feet and started down the hall after Noah.
“On it,” Luke said into the radio.
“Have you seen those Fed dicks? They’re back again. He doesn’t have time to deal with them today,” radio voice said.
“Haven’t seen them yet,” Luke said.
“We’ll send a couple more bodies down to help you find them.”
“Come on,” Luke said, into the radio. I could see sweat forming on his brow and his face was red in panic, but he was managing to keep it out of his voice. “It’s a couple of soft skin puppies, we don’t need help. That’s just insulting.”
I’d turned around in the hallway, halfway between Luke and where I could hear Noah coughing in the distance. There was a pause on the radio and Luke and I held our breaths.
“Touchy,” the voice said. “Fine. Just find them and end ‘em.”
“On it,” Luke said. He switched the radio off. “Boring conversation anyway.”
I just looked at him.
“I’ve always wanted to say that,” Luke said. I didn’t reply and he huffed. “Ok, the situation wasn’t perfect, but…”
Noah dry-heaved in the distance and I turned back in his direction. The security lights in the hall were on, but the rest of the rooms were dark.
“Noah?” I called. As I got closer to him, the smell made it into my nose. Decomposition.
Noah was standing, bent over, coughing, and trying not to puke again. I guess I could see his point. The room looked like a bomb had gone off inside someone’s digestive tract. Blood and sinew and fat were plastered on the walls, all the way up to the ceiling. There were a few bones scattered on the floor and one of the arms still had flesh and skin on the hand. With wiry hairs. A huge men’s watch lay in a puddle of flesh that looked like it had been ripped off the bone.