by M. D. Cooper
Sure it was. This guy had been colluding against Schramm for who knew how long. Reece doubted that Bellwether had any good feelings about Schramm showing up here. But he didn’t know he’d been caught, and would no doubt continue to perpetrate the charade until he knew.
“Not so nice for me,” Schramm admitted. “I’m afraid I’ve been caught up in something not of my making. A power grab at my company.”
Bellwether sat, looking concerned. “I’m sorry to hear that. How can I help?”
“I need to access some Rexcare records. We store some of our backups here, and I think I might be able to find proof of the scheme against me there.”
It was pretty close to the truth, as far as lies went.
“Of course! If you give me the location and the dates you need, I’ll pull them myself. Anything for you.” Bellwether gave Schramm a look of sympathy.
“I knew I could count on you. I won’t forget your help.” Schramm stood and offered his hand to Bellwether, who shook it.
“Never mind all that. It’s the least I can do.” Bellwether handed a device to Schramm, who entered some parameters that no one would ever look for.
“I’m relieved. We’ll wait here, if you don’t mind.” Schramm looked at Reece, then said quickly, “This is my junior, by the way. She’s unfortunately gotten caught up in all this due to my mentoring her.”
Bellwether gave her a cursory nod, barely even glancing at her. As a junior executive, she didn’t matter, and they all knew it.
As a fixer, she mattered a whole hell of a lot, and soon Bellwether couldn’t fail to know it with absolute clarity.
After his smarmy behavior, she was looking forward to sticking it to him. She thought of Trey and the others, and where they were that moment. Right on plan, hopefully.
Please let them be right on plan.
She stuffed some more purplefruit in her mouth before things got crazy because it was too delicious not to, and she wanted to cost Trumark as much money as she could while she had the chance.
* * * * *
Reece was still chewing on her latest mouthful, when an alarm went off. She reached under her suit jacket to where she’d stashed her pulse pistol. A shame her Rikulfs couldn’t fit in there, but they were just too big. And besides, most of the people here were innocent. Or enough so that she didn’t want to actually put holes in them.
She dialed the pulse pistol all the way up and looked to Schramm. “Ready? Pretty sure we’re going to have to shoot our way out of here now.”
Looking grim, Schramm nodded and reached for his own pulse pistol. He’d assured her that he had decent aim, but she had reservations about him having one. The last thing any of them needed was for him to give her a blast that left her incapacitated.
Everyone always thought they’d be cool and be able to aim well in a hot situation, but the truth was, very few actually could.
On the other hand, Schramm faced down board members on a regular basis, so…she’d put even odds on him shooting her or not.
As she passed the food, she thought, what the heck, and stuffed some more fruit in her mouth.
With her cheeks puffed out, she kicked open the door and barged into the corridor. A pulse wave rippled down the corridor, too distant to do any damage, and Reece fired a trio of shots in the direction it came from.
A satisfying cry of pain came from down the wall and Reece hurried to her right, hugging the wall. This junction would bring her out to a maintenance corridor that might have less traffic.
At least, she hoped so.
A woman burst out of a door, almost banging right into her. Instinctively, Reece delivered a palm-strike to the woman’s nose, which resulted in a crunch and a horrific scream.
Oops. Reece quickly gave her a pulse blast, which she should have done to begin with. The close quarters had thrown her a little. At least the woman didn’t have to worry about her nose for a little bit.
“Sorry about the nose,” Reece muttered as she stepped over the woman. She glanced behind her to make sure Schramm was following.
He stepped around the woman, frowning, but kept moving.
Good. He was handling the situation okay so far.
They hurried down the maintenance corridor, but the next bit would be trickier. To rendezvous with Trey and the others, they’d need to cut right through the building’s lunch room.
That would hardly be inconspicuous, but the only alternative would be a circuitous route that would take them an extra ten minutes and expose them to much more potential of getting caught.
Forward, then.
Schramm grabbed her arm. “Wait!’
Reece stopped and turned to look at him. “What?”
“If we put these away, and pretend we’re there to eat, we might go unnoticed.”
“Seriously?” It sounded like the dumbest idea ever to her. “Are they not broadcasting our images everywhere right now?”
“Of course not.”
“What? Why not? Are they stupid?”
“No. But the alarm that went off is disguised. It sounds like an air purification alarm, which happens periodically and isn’t a reason for alarm. But for security people and those who need to be aware, there’s a tone in it that a simple air purification alarm doesn’t have. They’re trained to know the difference. So only certain people will even know there’s a real problem right now.”
“Air purification alarm.” She shook her head and stared at him. “Inside an atmosphere. Where we can already breathe.”
Schramm shrugged. “They’re known to be finicky systems that go off frequently. It’s a good cover. Plus, corporations can pretend they really care that much about their employees, and about protecting them from environmental pollutants in the workplace.”
She stared at him for another long moment. “I’m a little scared that this is something you people thought of.”
“What? Because it’s deceptive and calculating?”
“Yeah. You all are smarter than I thought. So okay, let’s stroll in there and get some biscuits. Or whatever the lunchroom is serving today.”
Reece tucked her pulse pistol in her jacket pocket. Not the best carrying place, but she could get to it faster than her back holster. She opened the cafeteria door and walked in, as she imagined a hungry exec would. Calculated steps. A purposeful, yet bored expression. For good measure, she pretended she was mentally counting all the money in her accounts. That might give her just the right amount of a ‘you underlings are so far beneath me that you might actually be dirt’ kind of vibe.
It felt pretty authentic, anyway.
She strolled up to the salad bar and paused, as if considering its options, then turned away to the counter that had the hot dishes, which was closer to the door. Then she went past it, toward the drink machines.
“Milkshakes.” She stopped and looked at Schramm. “These people have milkshakes in their cafeteria. That’s amazing.”
He shrugged. Apparently he didn’t think it was that impressive.
She grabbed a small cup and filled it. For authenticity. She slapped a lid on it and stuck a straw in.
Schramm watched her, mystified, and she gave him a pointed look. If anyone was watching, it would look awfully suspicious if they just strolled through without getting anything.
Sighing, he reached for a cup and began filling it with a chocolate-flavored shake. As soon as he’d put a straw in it, they went out the north side entrance, which connected to another maintenance corridor.
As they walked own the maintenance hall, Reece casually sipped her milkshake. For authenticity, of course. Yum, berry flavor. Her favorite.
She’d started to get pretty pleased with herself. Their escape had gone darn well so far. Outside of the woman with the broken nose.
Then a door opened and a group of three burly men and a very pissed-off looking woman came out, pushing a floor buffer.
“If you’d done it right the first time, you wouldn’t have had to—” the aggrieved woman no
ticed them and abruptly ended her angry tirade.
The four looked at her and Schramm.
Reece looked to him for some smooth explanation for why two execs would be in a back hall like this.
He’d gone mute.
Well, dammit.
She did the only thing she could think of. She slapped his milkshake out of his hand, causing it to splatter all over the floor and wall. “How dare you! You lure me in here saying it’s a shortcut and then grab my ass? I’ll report you. This isn’t the Joseon era, you know. Just because I’m your junior doesn’t mean you can get away with that garbage. Good luck explaining this to the shareholders!”
She stomped away indignantly, praying he had the good sense to play along and follow her, begging for forgiveness.
It took a beat too long, but he did.
When they burst out into a hallway, she started giggling. She’d remembered Trey’s milkshake story, and that, combined with the horrific mess Schramm’s chocolate shake had created, and the dumbfounded expressions of the floor-cleaning staff, and the accusation that Schramm had grabbed her butt…she couldn’t stop laughing.
“I don’t see what’s so funny.” Schramm seemed mildly affronted, though she wasn’t sure which part had bothered him. Probably the butt-grab thing. Which reminded her of Trey being called the bandit assgrabber, and that made her laugh even harder.
She tried to explain as they hurried along, but between that and her laughter, all she managed was, “bandit assgrabber,” which seemed to further annoy Schramm.
She tried to muffle her giggles, which resulted in a loud, extremely non-exec-worthy snort.
By the time they made it through a third maintenance corridor, she’d managed to compose herself, in spite of the amusement caused by the idea that another group of floor cleaners might pop out at them.
When they reached the end of that corridor, she turned to Schramm, wearing an almost straight face. “Two choices here. Short way is the courtyard, but it’s out in the open and a risk. The other way is through the executive hallway and out a private entrance.”
Schramm bit down on his bottom lip, in deep thought. “Better go with the courtyard. Execs will recognize me, and possibly you.”
“Short and risky. I like it.” She grinned at him, but he apparently hadn’t yet forgiven her for the ass-grab thing.
“Okay,” she said, “out we go. Watch the windows and roofs, but mostly, run like hell. Not in a straight line though, and not right against me.”
“Corporations don’t have snipers,” he said, following her to the exit.
“We can hope.” She threw the door open and ran way faster than anyone wearing an executive’s suit ever had.
It was a nice courtyard, she noticed as she barreled through it, edging to the side as long as she could to prevent from being as vulnerable on both sides. Eventually she had to leave it, though, and bolt straight for the designated meet-up entrance, where—if all had gone according to plan—the rest of the team awaited them.
A hot burning feeling shot down her leg. She’d pulled something. Well that was inconvenient. Then she realized that it felt different—she’d gotten shot.
Pulse pistols were close-range weapons, so the effect wasn’t severe. She had no choice but to keep running, even though her left leg was rapidly going numb; her thigh down to her knee felt wooden.
Shit. She had twenty meters to go.
The numbness spread down toward her foot and she knew they weren’t going to make it.
Suddenly the autovan came barreling into the courtyard. Trey leaned out a window and Tommy leaned out another. Both of them held large weapons, but she didn’t have time to identify make and model.
“Down!” Trey bellowed.
Heedless of the autovan flying right at her, Reece locked up her knees and bent at the waist, causing her to eat dirt and go rolling. On the bright side, her left leg didn’t feel a thing.
She sure hoped Schramm had gotten himself to the ground, to avoid whatever it was Trey wanted them to avoid.
On the other hand, the autovan hadn’t veered away, and she had a sudden fear that death-by-autovan might end up being her epitaph.
Finally, the van slewed to the side and did a kind of miraculous skid that had it sliding into a turn that shielded her. Reece had landed on her arm and rolled off before turning her head to see Schramm several meters away from her, now also protected by the van.
The side door of the van flew open and she heard shots being fired, but she wasn’t sure if they were coming at her or going toward the people who had already shot her. Probably some of both.
She got to her knees and tried to launch herself at the van, but only ended up going sprawling. Her left leg had gone not only numb, but now also refused to follow her commands. The knee just wouldn’t tense, and she couldn’t feel her foot.
Fine. Reece got back to her knees and started crawling forward on her one good leg.
Something caught her around the waist and she was about to attack when she realized it was Schramm lifting her to her feet and balancing her against him so she could hop on her good leg. He half-carried her to the van, where he unceremoniously dumped her in. Trey pulled her in further even as the van took off.
Reece heard the door slam as she pushed herself on the seat.
Ting ting ting. She heard things hitting the van, but they didn’t seem like critical hits. More like someone throwing pebbles at them.
“How bad is it?” Trey asked, leaning down to examine her leg.
“Not sure. It’s numb all the way down. I’ve never felt anything quite like it. Do you see any blood?”
“No. Wait. Yes.”
“It’s not just an energy blast, then.” She didn’t like that idea. Professional medical care wasn’t in her immediate future. A bullet wound would be a big problem.
She had other problems at the moment, though. “Do we have everyone?”
Looking around, she counted heads. Yeah. Seven including her. Everyone accounted for.
“Anyone else injured?” she asked.
“Nothing serious,” Trey answered. One of the others had passed an emergency medical kit to him. “We need to get your pants off.”
“That’s what all the guys say. In fact, when we were in there, you wouldn’t believe what Schramm—” She’d been about to make a joke about Schramm being the new bandit assgrabber, but reality did a weird wobble and bounce around her. “I…I’m not good,” she said.
Trey helped her lie down on the seat. “You’re losing a lot of blood. I think an artery might have been hit. Don’t try to stay conscious, okay? I’m going to look at this, and I’m no field medic. You’d probably be better off if you were out. Wait, here’s an injection.”
“No. Wait.” She held up a hand to ward off the injection. “I need to know—did we get it? What went wrong?”
She heard Marky say, “I think we got it. We’ll tell you the rest later. Just rest now.”
She didn’t feel the injection, but reality suddenly squinched together and everything went quiet.
RECOVERY
DATE: 06.01.8948 (Adjusted Gregorian)
LOCATION: Schramm’s Farm, Agriculture Sector 43, Akonwara
REGION: Machete System, PED 4B, Orion Freedom Alliance
Reece felt like she was in a dark room, but she had no particular desire to see if that was true. She heard voices and they said words that she recognized, but they didn’t string together any real meaning. Nothing worth struggling to hang on to and figure out, though.
She realized she’d had the sensation of being lifted and moved, and her head falling to the side, but she wasn’t sure when that had happened.
Everything was still now, and that was good. She didn’t like the words, which kept coming. She turned her head away, but that didn’t quite work for some reason, so she just turned her whole self away and receded into the dark room.
* * * * *
Reece opened her eyes, feeling exhausted, though she knew
she’d slept a long time. Maybe she’d stayed up too late. Wait. She didn’t remember going to bed the night before. Why?
She had an odd sense of being out of sync with time. She felt kind of crappy and wanted to go back to sleep, but she was awake now. No going back.
Sighing, she sat up, then hissed. She pulled back the sheet and saw bandages on her leg.
Her leg. Right. Trumark. The alarm. The courtyard.
Okay, it made sense now. How long ago had all that been, though? She didn’t feel like it was the same day.
The ever-present starslight didn’t help things. It could be two in the morning for all she knew.
Whatever the time, she was hungry and pushed the sheet away, swinging her legs over the edge of the bed.
The bathroom door opened and Kippy emerged.
“Whoa.” He hurried over. “Careful. I didn’t think you’d wake up while I was in the bathroom or I’d have had someone come sit with you.”
“I’m hungry.” Her voice sounded bad. Rough and raw.
He blinked at her, then laughed. “No ‘where am I’ or ‘what day is it’ or anything. Just ‘I’m hungry.’ Okay, then. What do you want? I’ll see if we have it.”
“We?” She looked around. This was the room she’d been using since arriving at Schramm’s farmhouse. Was Kippy staying there now?
Well, sure, he probably was. They’d done an illegal thing, then she’d gotten shot. He wasn’t going to just mosey back home after that.
Reece smiled at him.
He frowned. “Are you delirious or something? Why are you smiling?”
“Just glad you’re here.” Her voice sounded a little better the second time using it.
“Well, me too. In a way. And as for who all’s here, it’s pretty much all of us. The general idea was that they’d all go on holiday until we were sure no one had linked us to the hit on Trumark.”
“How’s that looking?” she asked.
“So far so good. But just because they aren’t saying it doesn’t mean they don’t know it.”
“Yeah. So how long has it been, then?”