by Estes, Danny
“Oh, Jonathan, I can’t believe you really came for me,” Jill cried.
Randolph reached up and with a bit of effort pulled her arms apart so he could push her back and say plainly, “The name is John. No adaptations.” Then he looked her square in the eyes and added, brutally frank, “And if I had no need of your knowledge of this building and surrounding area, I would not be taking you along. Got it?”
Randolph saw her lip quiver to his bluntness and felt like a heel, But I’m not out to win any popularity contest, he told himself when she nodded. He then pushed his feelings aside. “Good! Now then, you’re to do as I say, when I say it with no questions asked. When I move, you glue yourself to my shadow. When I ask, you give me the shortest answer. Up, down, right, left or straight. If I need to know something, tap my shoulder and whisper. Got it?”
“I believe so,” Jill answered softly, her eyes holding hurt within.
“No!” Randolph stressed in a harsh whisper. “You either do or don’t. One slip up and it’s back in the cell for the both of us, and the next trip I do on my own!” he added to emphasize she was a luxury he really didn’t need, which of course was a lie, but he had to make certain she was in the right frame of mind.
Nodding, she answered, “Yes, John, I get it.”
“Good! Now there are bound to be surveillance videos in the hallways. However, I’ve activated a scrambler which should take care of them, but we’ve only half an hour and we’ve wasted ten minutes of it. So let’s move.”
Like a couple of mice, the pair moved along the wall to the first door while Randolph looked for trip lasers. Once there, Randolph inserted the magnetic card while Jill whispered the information he’d need for the next hall. When he pulled the door open an inch, he signaled Jill to squat and inverted his pen to open the end and allow a single ball bearing to roll out into his hand. This he rolled down the center to check the hall for strong currents which were tell-tale signs of other security measures. Not until after the ball’s straight path to the far door next to a plastic-steel window and security entrance door twenty feet in, did Randolph point out the three trip beams at ankle height along the wall to Jill. Once she nodded understanding, he moved them past the security booth to the secured door before the elevator.
Now comes the tricky part, Randolph considered. With the key-card port on the other wall, opposite the security window, I’ll have to watch the room and slide the card in at the same time. Of course with the video down, the guard might be rather busy with the equipment or if luck is with me, he’ll be kicked back reading, waiting for the techs to arrive. So risking a peek, Randolph inched up under the window and saw the single guard being overzealous by way of checking his equipment AND the wiring. This meant he would need good timing. For the guard’s eyes could spot Randolph’s bright orange jumper over the gray hallway fairly easily. Randolph squatted and checked his mental clock. If he were right, fifteen minutes had gone, not leaving much time for the perfect opportune to move. So with a quick rundown of possible scenarios, Randolph decided a slightly tan skin texture was far less eye attracting than his bright orange jump suit. So disregarding his present company, Randolph shucked off his jumper and took his chances. Low to the floor, Randolph inched up to the panel and while watching the window, out of the corner of his eye he caught an unexpected appraising look on Jill’s face. Distracted by the expression, Randolph risked a fuller inspection and found Jill’s eyes roving over his body with a hungry look before giving him a quirky smile and shrug of her shoulders. So much for sex only in the minds of men, Randolph thought with a roll of his eyes before he went back to work.
With a slow hand Randolph slid the card in and after only a moment, he heard the hall door click. The sound also drew Jill’s attention whereby she flattened herself into the corner. An act he himself might have done. But for an amateur? Hmm... Unable to waste any time on conversation, Randolph pulled his card and backed up next to her and opened the door. He then ushered Jill in the hallway with the elevator and retrieved his coveralls. But while buttoning up the front, Randolph filed Jill’s behavior along with that slight eye change he thought he saw, reasoning, I best keep a closer tab on her, because she should be more nervous, scared and jumpy, nothing like she is acting. And then it hit him. Could she be acting? Could I be some sort of lab experiment? Perhaps a test on their security measures? Randolph looked her up and down covertly and had to admit she wasn’t a typical secretary. She held confidence, an athletic build but then… But then what? Troubled by such a possibility, Randolph looked her in the eyes and swore he noted her irises fluctuating again, and this time it was not from the change of lighting. When her eyes steadied and she saw the look on his face, Jill returned a look of puzzlement. As Randolph held no choice in her company, he rolled his eyes skyward, pushed his uncertainty aside and asked her about the elevator and the floors above.
“I’m sorry, but I don’t know,” Jill whispered, “I was a bit tied up trying to reason with the two bull dogs.”
“Okay I’ll give you that, so which floor would we get off on?” Randolph activated his pen and began to work on cutting around the button touch key pad.
“Oh, sorry, I thought you wanted to know how to operate the elevator,” Jill apologized. “Uh, this one doesn’t open on any floor except at the security desk. But once past that, it’s a simple walk down the corridor to an intersection where the main one is.”
“So where’s the guard’s desk and is it behind a window?” Randolph asked next, tilting the panel out of the wall to examine the wiring.
“It’s in the open, a few feet away,” Jill answered, trying to see over his shoulder at what he was doing.
Randolph nodded he understood and found the override security wire and jumped it to the power wire long enough to activate the doors. Then he repositioned the panel so to the casual observer it would look normal before following her into the elevator. Even a second or two added to their escape time could make the difference. Now of course came the iffy part which Randolph held no control over. With the video cameras coming back up in our vacant cells, will the guard settle back in his chair and believe the two lumps under the blankets are us, or will he check the cells out? And what of the guard watching the elevator feeds? Will he believe it’s the same problem just jumping about or will he consider alerting someone, especially after it starts moving? Questions, questions… this is the very reason I’m so highly priced to hire—research, research. However there were times, like now, when Randolph had to leave things to chance. So touching one of the only two directional buttons, he found out from Jill where the desk was in relation to the elevator and moved her so they wouldn’t automatically be seen.
Though the pair were close to making good an escape, Randolph took note his accomplice was far too relaxed. By all rights she should be jumpier than the only woman at a cheek pinching bachelor party. But regardless of how Jill should be, Randolph had to quiet his anxieties and concentrate on the moment at hand as the elevator came to a stop. After the count of three the pair watched in silence as the doors slowly opened. When no guard appeared at the opening, Randolph stilled Jill’s move with a hand, knowing a seated guard could trip the alarm faster than he could move. So with a finger to his lips, he allowed the twin doors to slide closed. This reinstated a puzzled look on Jill, which he answered with a motion of his hand to stay put. When she gave acknowledgment to his desire, he pushed the up button again, whereby the circuitry registered its location and reopened the doors. Twice more Randolph selected his floor in an effort to entice the guard’s curiosity over that of his natural laziness to get off his keister and have a look. The fact Randolph knew what this would entail did not mean he would be truly ready when the time came. So for each time the doors slid open, he found his heart pounding like a panting rabbit. By the fourth rotation, Randolph found his heart on its way out of his chest when the opening doors finally revealed the average-looking guard stepping into view. When the guard saw the pair of them, the shoc
k on his face gave Randolph that micro second of time to reach out and grab the man’s fashionable tie, which to criminals was nothing more than a convenient neck handle. With a jerk and shove, Randolph sent the surprised guard right into the back wall. Then a couple of quick blows to the head as the doors closed sent the dazed guard to the floor, unconscious. His veins bouncing with adrenaline, Randolph locked the doors closed and took a few steadying breaths before he began to strip the man.
“Is he dead?” Jill asked, having moved not one muscle in the violent activity.
“No, just unconscious,” Randolph answered, wishing his voice didn’t betray his edginess.
“Wouldn’t it be better for us if he were dead?”
Randolph had the man’s pants off when he picked up on the unfeeling tone in her words. He spared a glance up at her leaning on the wall with her arms crossed and watching him with calculating brown eyes. Warning bells went off in his mind at the ease in which she was standing there but as yet he couldn’t reason out what he should be doing about them. As yet she hadn’t hindered him in any way, nor has she given any false intelligence. Thus far the only alarming thing about her was her changing moods and uncaring belief in a human life. So with an edge in his voice he told her, “I haven’t the right to take his life.”
“John, you don’t need any-one's permission. Just snap his neck, and we needn’t worry about him setting off any alarms.”
Randolph stepped into the man’s pants and secured his gun, making certain its beam setting was on ‘non-lethal’ before holstering the weapon, and told her sharply, “His handcuffs will do that for us.”
“Yeah? So he can’t reach the alarm with his hands, he has a set of legs to use you know.”
Randolph’s ire rose as he buttoned up his new shirt. Then he set his face in stone and told Jill, “I’ve never taken a human life and I’m not about to start now, so zip it!” When it appeared she understood his declaration, Randolph used his coveralls to tie up the guards head and shoulders to keep him quite when he did awaken. Next Randolph opened the doors and hurried to the desk, shoving Jill ahead of him so she wouldn’t get any ideas. Once at the desk, he rifled through the drawers, pulling out any card keys and also discovering a few spare credits on a petty cash card, which he pocketed, as it wouldn’t require any identification to use, like the man’s main credit account in the wallet now resting comfortably in his back pocket. “All right,” Randolph began, “we’ll play it this way. You’re a secretary in the wrong corridor and I’m showing you to the other one. So act the part.”
“Fine, you’re the boss, but what if we end up in a fire fight?” she asked, sounding as if she was little concerned about it.
“If we’re lucky it won’t come to that. Now follow me.”
Randolph took her over to the exit and swiped the security badge, but when the door slid open, it revealed two burly security guards with guns already leveled and an upper management businessman behind them. “Hold it, fellows,” Randolph held up a hand, thinking fast, “she’s just…” He got no further as Jill swiped his feet out from under him. As Randolph’s eyes filled in panic, his arms wind-milled in an effort to reduce the damage he could sustain in a backward fall or at the very least minimize the painful event by landing on Jill. But she had already cleared Randolph’s reach and once he crashed to the floor, she grabbed and twisted his arm, forcing Randolph to roll on to his stomach or have it broken. “Oww!” he exclaimed in disbelief, feeling the holster relieved of its weapon.
Once she had him disarmed, Jill let Randolph go just as quickly as she had dropped him and backed away, pointing the gun, and announced, “It’s okay guys. He’s harmless.”
“Uh?” Randolph exclaimed as he rolled carefully to his side and looked about the group.
“So, Major, how’d our boy do?” the businessman in the 3,000-credit blue and gray suit asked Jill.
“Up until Larry in the elevator, he did quite well,” Jill answered, motioning with the point of the gun that Randolph should slowly get up.
Randolph did as directed with an eye on the four of them. The two guards, however, waited till he stood before they holster their guns and seized Randolph’s arms while Jill and the suit watch him. I’ve been snookered, Randolph acknowledged. And a right good job of it. But why? He then took note of Jill’s nonchalant attitude with the gun as she aimlessly patted the barrel against her thigh.
“Okay, men,” the businessman said as he stepped up to Jill’s side. “Take care of Larry and make certain his jacket reflects his poor abilities before firing him and also fire Pete down in the cells with some remarks reflecting his ineptitude.”
“Yes, Mr. Bennett,” one of the two said while both let go to carry out their orders.
With a look of uncertainty on his face, Randolph looked to Mr. Bennett, who talked in a tone of superiority. “Be of ease, Mr. McCann. If you’ll precede Jill to my office, I’ll see about clearing up some of your understandable confusion.”
Randolph looked over to Jill, who motioned with her easily-acquired gun to take the lead, but also gave him a no non-sense look which spoke louder than words she’d use it without hesitation. So walking in silence, Randolph entered an elevator, then stepped off on the thirtieth floor into a world of cubical people, phones, computers and the countless other activities any thriving business depended upon. Reminded of the gun which Randolph had seen readjusted to lethal by a flick of Jill’s thumb, Randolph walked besides a glass wall which separated them form the corporate activity till the suit in front came to a mahogany door which read *Mel Bennett, Senior Floor Executive of Research and Development.*
Chapter Five
You can always tell how important a man is by his office, Randolph quoted to himself as he walked into Mr. Bennett’s outer office, which was complete with stylish metal and plastic-glass waiting chairs. Wall hangings and cool bluish-white walls told of a modern thinker who was more interested with the future than the owners who always used earth tones. Passing a true secretary instead of the eye candy the codgers and dead-end managers used, Randolph, Bennett and Jill stepped into Mr. Bennett’s private office, decorated in the same manner.
“If you’ll take a seat, Mr. McCann, I’ve a few questions before we begin to enlighten you.” Mr. Bennett motioned, rounding his smoky-glass desk.
Randolph did as told, while he noted Jill took the chair next to the wall as if out of habit.
“So tell me,” Mr. Bennett asked with curiosity in his voice as he settled himself, “why didn’t you kill the guard?”
“Uh, come again?” Randolph asked, bewildered.
“I’m certain the major made it quite clear he was a threat to your escape, so why didn’t you kill him?” Mr. Bennett folded his hands on the fire-hardened glass desk, watching Randolph’s eyes.
Randolph stared at him in disbelief for a second. “Wait a minute, you mean to tell me you wanted me to murder the man?”
“It would’ve proven you’re capable of close end work. We already know you can murder at a distance.”
“Now hold it right there—you have your facts wrong. I’ve never killed anyone in my life,” Randolph explained with a hard edge to his voice.
“Come, come, Mr. McCann,” Mr. Bennett began, sitting back in his chair with a glance at Jill. “Your trial is a matter of public records. That explosive you left killed nine people.”
Randolph folded his arms over his own chest and told the unfeeling man in matter of fact tones, “Don’t believe everything you read. I was framed and done so with considerable skill.”
Jill got up to open a mini-bar cabinet and offered Randolph a glass. Randolph eyed the chilled glasses within and the hundred-credit Wild Boar bottle of bourbon but waved off the offer as he liked to keep his reflexes at their peak, even in situations he had no idea how to handle. Jill caught his negative and shrugged before she poured herself a tall one. Mr. Bennett eyed Jill’s antics and her free use of his bar but made no comment and instead asked Randolph, “So you�
�re maintaining in all the jobs you’ve ever done, you’ve never killed anyone?”
“Absolutely not!” Randolph declared with some force.
Mr. Bennett pulled out a thick file from a desk drawer and flipped the hard copies till he stopped at a page and asked, “Are you opposed to killing, or is it more of a religion?”
“I don’t believe in murder, which in no way means there are not people I’d like to see dead.” Namely, one Mr. Hilden, Randolph said silently to himself.
Jotting a note, Mr. Bennett pushed the file aside and asked Jill, “What do you think, Major?”
“He’s got the skills; there’s no denying. And he’s not helpless in a fight.” Then Jill shrugged and finished with, “I’ve seen better.”
Randolph decided it was time to become the aggressor and demanded, “Now I’ve answered your questions, how about filling me in on what the hell’s this all about?”
“I’m sorry, Mr. McCann, but for now I’ll have to leave you in the dark.” Mr. Bennett pressed a button under the edge of the desk, where after two guards stepped in from the outer office who must have arrived a little after they did. “If you’ll be so kind as to follow these men, they’ll take you to your apartment.”
Apartment? Randolph looked over the very able duo.
Mr. Bennett pulled out a card key from a drawer and tossed it to one, telling Randolph, “Now don’t get any ideas on the way. That item in your skull has other uses then tracking.” With that threat plainly aired, Randolph was excused and taken to the elevator.
When the elevator stopped on the forty-eighth floor, Randolph walked out onto dark green carpet along a light green and white hall to room 17. Here one of the two men stopped their casual stroll as the other guard produced the card key.
“This is your pass card, Mr. McCann. It has your room number and a color code. The color code allows you access to any rooms with the same color. Dining hall, weight room, entertaining center and such but a word of warning, using your pass on doors without your color lets Mr. Bennett know within an instant, and that can be very painful, if not detrimental to your health.” He tapped the back of Randolph’s neck to emphasize his warning before he handed over the card.