by A. American
Bob laughed. “Business as usual my friend.”
***
Malcolm looked down at the crowd below the bridge as he crossed. They looked pissed. One guy, young black kid in a gray hoodie looked up, locking eyes with him. The kid was shouting something, but no way he could hear it up here. Malcolm just stared back at him. His apparent indifference sent the kid into a rage. He tore the red bandanna from his face and began to scream. Then, in a final act of defiance, he gave Malcolm the finger. Malcolm just shook his head and continued to the garage where he took the elevator up to the next level where he was parked.
Malcolm was digging around in his pocket for his keys when he stopped in his tracks. He stood there for a moment. Certainly he wasn’t seeing what he thought he was seeing. But there sat Daniel’s van in his usual spot.
“Son of a bitch.”
That little shit. Sure, he was good at his job, but he was the biggest pain in the ass. The thought passed through his mind that if he weren’t so damn good, he could terminate him. But then he knew deep down that he couldn’t do half of the stuff that Daniel could. The kid really was good. Malcolm located his car, hit the button and the locks popped open, and soon he was heading down to the exit.
When he got to the exit, he was forced to stop. There was a big gate blocking the exit. One of the security officers approached him on the driver’s side. Malcolm was surprised as he had not seen the guy until he was almost at the window. Malcolm put the window down as the guy got there.
“Can I get out?” Malcolm asked.
“Hang on a sec.” The security man keyed his radio. “Got one ready to exit. Is it clear?”
The radio crackled with a reply. “Uh, yeah. Looks alright. There’s one guy out there, but he looks ok.”
“Alright, open it up.”
Malcolm and the security officer watched as the big steel gate rattled and groaned while rising. Once it was high enough for the car to clear, the security officer told him to go ahead. As Malcolm pulled out, he looked to his right checking for cars. Then his windshield exploded. Shocked is not the word for what he felt. Suddenly, someone was at his car door trying to get in. Malcolm was startled to see a young guy in a gray hoodie with a red bandanna over his face. He was pounding on the glass and screaming. Malcolm was stunned. He didn’t know what to do. Shock prevented him from moving.
“Go go go!” The security officer was screaming. The kid at the car window ignored the screaming guard; or maybe he didn’t even notice the man.
Malcolm looked in the rearview mirror at the security officer, who was frantically waving for him to go. Then he looked to his right out the passenger side window, and he gasped. A sea of people was pouring around the corner of the garage. It looked like those videos of the tsunami that struck Indonesia; but instead of water, it was people. Looking to his left again, the kid was still there, but he had dropped a pack off his back and pulled a metal bar out of it. He took a batter’s stance at the window with the bar.
A series of pops went off in rapid succession and the kid fell to the floor of the garage. The security agent appeared at the window. “Dammit, man. Fucking go!” he shouted while holding his pistol on the stricken man. Finally, Malcolm floored the gas and took off. The security officer keyed his radio, calling for the gate to be closed immediately. The crowd on the street was still running towards the open gate. The gate began to lower and the security officer back-peddled into the garage, weapon still drawn, with an eye on the shrinking opening.
Bob looked at the message that was marked urgent. “Need you up here now. Andy.”
“Come on. Let’s go back to my office,” Bob said as he stood up, dropping the butt of a cigarette into the empty cup.
“What’s up?” Daniel asked.
“Don’t know. But I bet it ain’t good.”
Bob watched the video for the third time. He simply couldn’t believe what he was seeing. On the screen beside the one playing the recently recorded video was the live shot from the camera outside the garage. The crowd out there was still growing, and two cars parked on the other side of the street were already on fire. All types of objects were being thrown at the building. Several people were using the post of a street sign to batter the gate.
Bob reached for a radio sitting in a cradle beside Andy. “David, soon as you can, I need to see you up here.”
The reply that came back was distorted by the sounds of banging on the metal gate. Mixed with shouts, it was almost inaudible. “You gonna send someone else down here to relieve me first?”
Bob thought about it for a moment. “Andy, pull up to the front of the building.”
An exterior view of the front of the building filled the monitor before him. It looked like most of the people out there had moved around towards the garage. At the moment, things were quieter out there.
Bob keyed his radio. “S1, S4.”
“Go for S4.”
“Go relieve S3”
“Roger that. On my way.”
Andy spun around in his seat. “Want me to call 911?”
“Not yet. Let’s see what David has to say first. It’s not like they’d come right now anyway.”
Daniel pointed to the screen. “Looks like they’re already on their way.”
Bob looked up as Andy spun around. He quickly brought up a monitor to the center of the screen. In the bottom left corner of the screen, the top of the metal gate of the garage exit could be seen along with part of the crowd gathered there. On the top half of the screen, the Atlanta PD, in full riot gear was forming up. A skirmish line was already formed, and they were advancing one step at a time, banging their batons on the top of their shields. The crowd paid them little attention.
“Shit. Andy, call Carlos and tell him what’s going on.”
Daniel looked at Bob. “Who’s Carlos?”
“He’s a LT with the Atlanta PD, a good friend of mine. I need coffee. Anyone else?”
“Yeah, I could use some,” Daniel said.
Daniel followed Bob into his office. “See if you can find a cup,” Bob said as he blew stale ashes out of a cup on his desk.
Daniel was standing beside the coffee pot, going through the various cups scattered around it. His face appeared as ill as he felt, looking into some of the cups. He was certain some of these would be of interest to the CDC.
“Found lots of cups. You got a clean one anywhere?”
Bob was wiping his cup out with his tie. “Look under the counter. Should be some Styrofoam cups under there.”
Much to his relief, Daniel found one cup still in the plastic sleeve and poured himself a brew. The liquid was dark, really dark, like it had been on the burner all day. Bob poured a cup without a second thought and took a long drink. He looked up to see the security guard from the garage standing outside his door.
“What the hell happened?” Bob asked.
David ran his hand across his face. “I’m sure you already saw the video. What was I supposed to do, let him beat the guy’s brains in? If the dumb ass would have just driven off, it wouldn’t have happened. But he just sat there looking all stupid.”
“Yeah, we saw the video, but you gotta know that killing one of them is just going to make things a lot worse out there,” Bob said, shaking his head.
“I know, sorry. But I couldn’t let that dumb shit get beat. Who was that ass hat anyway?”
“His name’s Malcolm, head of IT security,” Daniel said.
David looked at him. “You mean that guy was in charge of the department that caused most of this shit? Those people are rioting out there because they can’t get to their money or use their damn food stamps, and I saved his ass? Shit, if I’d a known that, I would’ve stepped back and watched. It’s IT’s fault this shit is getting worse.”
“Careful there,
David. Daniel here works for that man,” Bob said.
“Don’t worry. I think Malcolm’s an ass hat too. And for the record, there were already riots before the whole bank holiday thing,” Daniel said.
Andy stuck his head into Bob’s office. “Bob, Carlos on two.”
Bob walked around his desk and fell into his chair, paused for a moment looking at the phone, then picked it up, pressing the button for line two at the same time.
“How’s business, Carlos?”
“Market’s peaking. What’da need, Bob?”
“I guess you know things are a little hairy down here right now.”
“Yeah, the riot guys are out. We should have the protesters cleaned out soon. They’re bringing in a sound cannon right now; that should run ‘em off.”
“Good. It should make it easier for you guys to get to the crime scene.” Bob shook out a smoke and lit it. There was a pause on the other end.
“What crime scene?” Carlos asked.
“We were evacuating the building earlier and one of our people was attacked by someone in the mob.”
“I’m sorry about that, Bob, but right now we just don’t have the time to deal with it.” Carlos was getting irritated with this trivial situation considering what was going on throughout the city.
“That’s not the issue. One of my guys shot him.”
“Are you fuckin’ serious?” Carlos shouted. “Dammit, Bob.”
“Look, I got it all on video. It’s a clean shoot.”
“Where’s the actor?” Carlos asked in exasperation.
“That’s the real problem. He went down just outside our security doors on the parking garage. The crowd down there is beating the shit out of the door, and we can’t see the body now.”
“Shit, what exit? I’ll see if we can get it cleared out.”
“It’s the north exit. You’ve got a riot squad just down the street from them now. If your guys can push ‘em down the block, we can get in there.”
“You aren’t getting in anywhere. Just stay out of it. I’ll see what I can do about getting them cleared out, then get back to you. Keep your shooter onsite. He can’t leave.”
“10-4, Carlos. Let me know if we can help,” Bob said.
“As if people weren’t already mad enough at the banks, then you guys, one of the banks, whack one of the poor demonstrators,” Carlos said with clear irritation.
“Poor demonstrators, my ass,” Bob said with a snort.
“Well, that’s how the media is describing them. They’re going to have a field day with this when they find out about it. You’re going to have cameras shoved so far up your ass you’ll be able to taste them. I’ll be in touch,” Carlos said and hung up.
Bob hung up the phone and looked up at David. “How’s it look?” David asked.
“He’s pissed, but you should be alright. Go get a drink and take break.”
David nodded and left the office. Daniel waited until he was gone to comment on how casual David acted after shooting someone. Bob told him David was a vet that had spent six tours in Iraq and Afghanistan. He’d killed before.
For the next several minutes, they watched as the APD tried to push the crowd back. Volley after volley of teargas was fired into the crowd, many of which were thrown back. Riots and unrest have been going on for so long that many people were now coming out equipped with their own gas masks. While their numbers were low, they made up the front line troops in the gas war with the police.
The police would deploy gas and rush the mob. The rioters would fall back a bit, regroup and surge towards the officers, who would then deploy another round of gas as they fell back, before regrouping and charging the rioters again. It was essentially a stalemate. Neither side really had the upper hand. While both sides were constantly being reinforced, the police had the advantage in equipment.
“Holy shit. What the hell is that thing?” Daniel asked as a large hulking vehicle came into view.
“It’s about to get really interesting,” Andy said as he guided a camera on the behemoth, zooming in as he did.
Bob chuckled. “Yeah, unless they got some really good hearing protection, they aren’t going to stand in front that thing very long.”
The riot squad parted to let the truck pull through to the front of their line. The appearance of the thing sent the crowd into a renewed fervor, jumping up and down and throwing everything that they could break loose at the officers. Once the officers were reorganized, they began to move forward, keeping pace with the truck. Initially, the crowd began to fall back in anticipation of what the truck may do. When nothing happened, except for the officers gaining ground, they decided to stand their ground.
Once the crowd stopped falling back, the LRAD opened up on them. The effect was profound and immediate.
“Holy shit!” Daniel shouted as anyone in the direct path of the weapon fell to their knees and cupped their ears. People began to run in every direction. It was an impressive sight on the cameras, watching the sea of bodies move as if one organism, enveloping everything in their path.
“Oh yeah, that got their attention,” Bob said as he lit a cigarette.
The sound cannon was having the desired effect, and the crowd fell back farther down the block. The truck was finally in front of the exit of the parking garage. It pulled over towards the door and stopped parallel to it in the street. The doors on the rear opened and some officers quickly exited, running the couple of feet to the roll-up door. Other trucks pulled up as well, more backup for the officers on the ground.
“There’s Carlos,” Bob said.
Andy was already swinging the camera around so they could look down on the scene. What they saw was Carlos standing there looking around, but no corpse was in the frame. Carlos pulled a cell phone from his pocket and started to dial.
“Shit,” Bob said as his phone started to ring.
“What’cha see down there, Carlos?”
“There’s nothing here, no body, no blood, nothing. You sure he went down?” Carlos shouted into the phone over the chaos surrounding him.
“I’ve got it on video. He was down. Someone in the crowd probably carried him away.”
Across the street from the bank’s parking garage was another parking structure. This one served several businesses on the block and was open to the public, using those little kiosks to pay by entering your space number. Shorter than the enormous garage across the street, it was only two stories.
Suddenly, the camera on the garage exit flickered and another view took its place. Bob looked at Andy, wondering what the hell he was doing. Seeing the video feed explained it in a flash. A group of people was running across the top deck of the garage towards the side bordering the street. Carlos was saying something to him on the phone when Bob cut him off.
“Carlos, on the roof behind you guys. People are moving in on you!”
“What?” Carlos shouted back.
“On the roof of the other garage!”
On the screen, they watched as the people made it to the edge of the parapet wall. They watched with horror as they lit Molotov cocktails.
“Behind you. Look up. You’ve got incoming!” Bob shouted back.
On a small image, they watched as Carlos finally caught on to what was happening. He was shouting at the other officers and pointing up at the garage just as the flaming missiles came over it in a slow arch. The officers began to run for cover, taking up positions behind the truck, between it and the bank’s security door.
“Son of a bitch!” Bob shouted as he headed for his office.
Andy and Daniel were watching the camera feeds when Andy quickly zoomed in on a figure. He was moving in a low crouch to the wall, it wasn’t until the camera had zoomed in enough that they were able to see the AK-47 he was carrying.
<
br /> “Bob, one of ‘em’s got a gun!” Andy called out.
Bob came out of his office holding an AR in each hand, and an OD bag slung over his shoulder. Daniel was wide-eyed.
“What the hell are you doing?”
Bob thrust one of the Warhogs into his hands. “Follow me.” Then he snatched a radio from the charger on Andy’s console. “Keep me informed on what’s happening.”
“10-4, boss.”
Bob headed for the door and paused just outside it, looking at Daniel. “You coming or not?”
Daniel simply nodded and followed him out the door. In the elevator, Bob told him what his plan was. They were going to go to the top of their parking garage which would overlook the one across the street. He would call Carlos and ask if they needed their help suppressing the group on the roof. Daniel didn’t say anything, just nodded his head. Bob pulled two magazines from the bag and handed them to Daniel. He tucked one into the back pocket of his jeans and the other he inserted into the rifle, giving it a tap.
As soon as they exited the elevator and headed for the pedestrian bridge to garage, Bob was on his phone. “Dammit!” he shouted when Carlos’s voicemail picked up. He tried two more times on the way to the top of the garage with the same result.
Making it to the edge of the garage roof, he was able to look down and see Carlos and some of the other officers taking cover behind the truck as Molotovs broke on the other side of it, sending thick clouds of black smoke swirling up, and forcing Daniel and Bob both to fall back.
“Bob, what do you want to do?”
Bob didn’t answer. He tried his phone again. This time, Carlos answered. “Carlos, there’s a guy with an AK on top of that garage!” Bob made his way to the edge and looked down. This time, he could see Carlos. Looking down the street, he could see that the crowd was reforming, albeit farther away this time.
Daniel was looking down on the garage across the street and could see everyone there. The man with the AK was peering over the top of the wall at the officers. Then the officers launched teargas at them.