Sara was totally focused now. There was no room in her mind for worries. She was fully occupied making and refining plans for any number of scenarios in case they were compromised. She half tuned out everything around her but she was highly focused an any actions that could lead to a compromise at the same time. She steered Carla around holding her softly on the upper arm. They joined the people leaving the office and were joined in turn by the people Carla had heard behind them. These groups then went on to mingle with other people coming out of other corridors or offices or stepping out of elevators or stairways. Sara kept Carla and herself moving with the crowd keeping central in the throng of people as camouflage. They would have a problem soon but she didn't want to worry Carla so she stayed quiet.
Tell yourself that often enough and you might even start to believe it. Sara knew that at least a part of the real reason why she didn't say anything was in case she needed to sacrifice Carla to ensure her own escape. When they came to the weapons detectors she could separate herself from the younger woman and get away in the commotion that would surround her recapture. She wouldn't necessarily have to abandon Carla, nor did she really want to after getting her this far, but if it was a choice between getting out alone or getting caught again with Carla she knew what she would do.
Soon enough the multitude of people came together and queued up for the security guards to wave them through the weapons detectors. There were over ten different checkpoints so that the people could leave the building without it taking all night.
Carla froze up when she saw the checkpoints, detectors and guards. Sara could feel the muscles in her arm go tense.
"I know. Just keep it natural and I'll get us past this." She got in there before Carla could say something stupid in her panic. "Come on."
Now Sara had to make her decision. Did she have such a better chance of escaping without Carla that it would be worth leaving her, and any possible answers she could provide, behind? Sara surveyed the people walking through the checkpoints, being waved through the detectors by armed security guards who seemed to be checking the women more closely than they were the men. The crowd was starting to thin and if Sara took too long dithering over her choice the congregation would have dissipated too much for any plan to work.
Sara made her decision. "Okay, just wait here I'll only be a minute."
Carla reached out and grabbed her forearm. "Don't leave me."
Sara shook herself free. "We can't get out of here with these weapons." Carla looked down and only just noticed that Sara had taken the pistols out of her jacket pockets. "Don't worry. I'll be back for you."
Sara left Carla in the midst of the sea of people and went in search of a pair of candidates. She wanted a woman who would be going through one of the checkpoints near to either end of the row, who she could plant the weapons on, and preferably, but not a definite prerequisite, someone who looked broadly similar to either Sara or Carla.
She spotted a likely candidate and smoothly made her way through the crush towards her. Everyone was too focused on getting home to notice her cutting through in her inappropriate jeans and cropped T-shirt. They certainly didn't notice the pistols she held pressed between the inside of her forearms and the sides of her body.
The woman Sara had chosen was now only a couple of meters away. She was about the same height as the two fugitives. She had chestnut colored hair tied back against her head. She was dressed in the common blouse and skirt combo but she carried a long dark coat hooked over her left arm. The belt of the coat just touched the floor behind her. Sara closed up further and surreptitiously slipped a hand down to pull open a pocket on the coat and deposit the pistol inside. She switched the second weapon into that hand and prepared to repeat the action when she thought better of it. She melted back into the mass and returned to Carla.
"See? I told you I'd be back." She guided her to the opposite side of the room. Keeping one eye on where they were going and the other on the unwitting stooge. She wanted to be close to the checkpoint when the decoy reached her checkpoint, but she didn't want to be so close that they got waved through first or the guards manning that checkpoint got a chance for a good look at them.
"In a second all hell is going to break loose. When it does I want you to run through to that exit over there. When you get out on the street turn right and keep running. If I'm not with you I want you to lose yourself in the city, then, when you're safely away, contact the police and tell them everything that's happened to you these last couple of days."
Carla looked like she was about to shake out of her skin but she nodded her understanding of Sara's instructions.
"Don't worry, everything will be all right. Just be ready to run." The platitudes were starting to grate on Sara but Carla still seemed to appreciate them.
The decoy was next in line to pass through the detector. Sara flicked the safety off on the pistol she still carried so that it was ready to fire. She wasn't sure how many rounds it had left in it but if she needed more than a couple of shots they were dead anyway.
One of the pair of guards working the checkpoint in front of the decoy waved her forwards. She took the couple of steps to position herself between the twin poles that were the actual detectors on the machine. She obviously fully expected to be waved through like she would have been on many prior occasions. She wasn't prepared for the alarm that started blaring and the red lights lighting up on top of the poles. The guards on that checkpoint reacted instantly and the guards working the other points all looked over. For that instant the attention of everybody in the room was focused on the opposite end of the room from where Sara and Carla were. It was time.
Carla had frozen so Sara gave her a hard shove in her back to get her moving. That was all the time she could spare. If Carla didn't act for herself now she wasn't going to get out, that was all there was too it. Carla did seem to be starting forwards but Sara had other things to concern her. She vaulted past the nearest two guards kicking one in the side of the head as she went over the desk built into the side of the detector. She hit the other with the back of her left fist just after she landed. She put all the force of her turn into the backhanded blow. Both guards crumpled under the assault. Sara fired twice into the air and the crowd, who had been calmly watching the spectacle of the decoy being stopped and searched, burst into a panic frenzy. They rushed around and several people were forced into the guards.
Sara made sure that all of the guards were being caught up in the mass hysteria. There was one guards who was still on his feet and was going for his weapon. Sara hit him with a pair of shots in the chest. The flexible armor he wore should have prevented him being seriously injured but the force of the shots was enough to send him tumbling backwards.
The crowd reacted to the sounds of more gunfire and the guard going down by panicking further. Sara used the distraction to get out of the front doors. The reception desk next to the door was abandoned, either the people who should have been there had run outside after the first shots or, more likely, they were cowering behind it.
Sara looked up at the building as she ran after Carla. It was a good size and the signs next to the door indicated it was an office building for a selection of high-tech companies. Sara caught up with Carla in about twenty meters and got the younger woman to follow her on a twisting course around the other office buildings in the area. She stuffed the pistol back in the pocket of her jacket that Carla still wore as she passed her. They were getting enough strange looks as it was but she didn't want to get rid of the weapon yet. It could still be useful.
She slowed the pace the further they got from the building and started to look for familiar streets so that she could start them on a course to safety. Not that she had any idea of where they could stay.
"You said that after Grosset got in touch with you you found a new place to stay where no one could find you?"
Carla nodded. "It seems he was right after all."
It was Sara's turn to nod. "I need you to take me t
here while we sort this mess out."
"Can't you just get in touch with whoever it is that you work for and get us some real protection? And", she added, "get those people locked up."
Sara shook her head. "They got me just as I was trying to get in to find out what happened to you. They might even have got to my boss. No whoever is behind this they've got connections. We need to figure out what it's about so that we know who we can trust."
Chapter Eighteen
"Don't worry. You are safe now. Those people won't ever hurt you again"
The man set her down on the floor. She scuttled away into the corner of the room. She huddled up and risked only tiny glances around.
"All right, if that's where you feel safe." The man took a seat in the middle of the room. He continued talking, as much to himself as to her. "I've arranged it so that you'll be going to good people. You'll be well taken care of. You won't have to go through all the rest of it. I managed to get you out and I'll keep checks on you to make sure you can have a normal life. You'll have a chance to be more than another one of their experiments."
He faltered and hung his head in his hands. "Their experiments," he huffed. "As though I wasn't as involved in what happened to you poor things as all the rest of them. I wish I could ask you to forgive me for what I did to all of you, but I know there is no forgiveness for any of us who did this to you. A couple of attempts at redemption can't wash away years of sin."
He sat there for a long time with his elbows on his knees, hands supporting his head. Staring blankly at the floor.
She slowly uncoiled herself out of her huddle in the corner and crawled over to her rescuer. She climbed up onto the seat next to him and cuddled up to him. She wrapped her arms around him and nuzzled the side of her face into the gap between his chest and shoulder. At first he gave no reaction to this contact so she squeezed her slender arms more tightly around him. He shifted position to make it easier for her to hold him. He ran his fingers through her short hair, only just reaching a normal length after many months of being routinely shaven completely off.
"I don't deserve this, you know?" he said softly.
They sat there few a few minutes in silence. "I've arranged it so that you'll forget all about this. You won't have any memory of what was done to you. You won't remember me, and if everything goes well you'll never see me again. But I'll keep checking up on you to make sure you stay safe. I wish you never had to go through any of this but taking away your memories is as close as I can get."
He trailed off and started talking to himself again. "I should do more for the others, I know, but I can't fight them alone. I took a major risk trying to get you out after the last time and when they find out you're gone they could come after me. If I get away with it I'll have to lie low for a while and they'll never trust me even as much as they used to. You have to believe me that I would like nothing more than to stop it all right now but I can't."
He broke into tears and wrapped his arms around the little girl.
***************
"Well here we are. It isn't much but it's home."
Sara regarded the rundown hotel. Carla was right it wasn't much. She looked around at the other buildings nearby and the state of the whole area. Compared to what surrounded it the hotel was five-star accommodation.
She followed the younger woman inside where she exchanged brief pleasantries with a man called Joseph. Then she led her upstairs to the rooms she called home. Her next door neighbors were enthusiastically engaging in some bedroom gymnastics and from the sounds of things there were at least four participants. Carla looked at Sara with a mildly embarrassed expression as she unlocked her door. For her part Sara just shrugged.
The inside of the room-cum-apartment pretty much matched Sara's expectations from her look at the rest of the place. Still it was private and anonymous which made it ideal for the two of them right now.
"There's a kitchen through there if you want anything to eat or drink. I don't have much stuff in but what I have you can have." Carla was playing the good hostess pointing out the facilities as she stripped out of Sara's jacket. "The bathrooms through here next to the bedroom if you want to clean up. There's only one bedroom and it's a single bed so if you want to stay the night I'll sleep in here."
Sara waved her to stop. "That shouldn't be necessary but if it is you can have the bed, I've slept in worse places than this. I would like to get washed up though."
Carla nodded. "Sure, sure, of course. It's just over-"
One moment she was speaking and then in the next she was doubled up and throwing up all over the floor. She retched up all of the food inside her and then dry heaved. When she got over the involuntary actions she was able to cough and spit up what was left in her throat. Sara just let her get on with it. It was just a reaction to the terror of the last few hours that was catching up on her. She had seen it plenty of times before. In the heat of the action people don't have time to give in to their feelings. It's only afterwards when things have calmed down and their mind has had time to come to terms with what has just happened that the full impact hits them.
Carla finished spitting out the last of the vomit and saliva from her mouth. When she brought her head up she was pale and shaking. "I'm sorry, I don't know what-"
Sara held up her hands and shook her head to tell Carla that an explanation wasn't necessary. "Why don't you get cleaned up first and I'll get us both something hot to drink?"
Carla nodded her thanks without speaking and rushed into the bathroom leaving Sara to root through her cupboards for something to drink. She found a couple of tea bags in one cupboard next to some opened biscuits that had been left to go soft. She hit the button on the water heater under the cupboard to boil some water up and went in search of a couple of cups. It seemed that Carla didn't entertain much. There was one cup upside down on a draining board next to the sink, no dishwasher in here, and Sara managed to find another after checking in several more cupboards. The second cup was missing a handle and any patter it might have had was faded but otherwise it was intact.
When the water was boiled Sara put the cups under the tap to fill them up and dropped one tea bag in each, there was no sign of a teapot. She left the water to soak up the flavor of the leaves and moved the two paces to the fridge to get some milk. She didn't know how Carla took hers so she poured some of the milk into the cup without a handle and then carried the second cup and the milk over to the bathroom, she hadn't seen any sign of sugar either.
"You take milk in your tea?"
There was a moment’s hesitation before Carla answered in the affirmative. Sara poured milk into the cup then knocked on the bathroom door. It came open slightly at the touch, not only was there no lock but the catch wasn't up to much either. She pushed the door open more fully and handed the cup to Carla who was perched on the edge of the bath. All she seemed to have done so far was to have splashed water over her face and head but at least her color was returning to normal. She took the cup and thanked Sara with a forced smile.
"I didn't see a computer terminal out there. Do you have one or . . ."
Carla took a sip from the cup and looked back up at Sara. "There's a portable one hidden around the fridge. Karl gave it to me and I use his name as my password."
"Is it all right if I use it?"
Carla nodded and took another sip. Sara left her on the edge of the bath to go and get the computer to see if she could get any answers this time. If she was honest with herself she didn't hold out much hope.
***************
Carla took another sip from the cup Sara had just given her and turned the taps on so that water could run into the bath. She could only let the hot water run at half speed otherwise it would go rusty. She had splashed water over her head out of the sink and washed most of the taste of vomit out of her mouth so she felt a little better than before. She had thought that she was over the worst of it but once she arrived back home, and had time to think about everything that had happ
ened to her, the full impact barreled into her and she reacted to it.
Up until the encounter with the out of control security mech she had never seen a dead body. She had seen plenty on that night but hadn't really been able to take it in because of her terror that she would soon be joining them. But in their escape from the facility Sara had killed at least four people and Carla had had time to drink in the full horrors of death as she stepped over their bodies. She understood that the killings had had to happen. It had been a case of it being the men or Sara and herself. But she couldn't quite believe that the woman she had invited into her home had killed four men a few hours earlier with no remorse. In fact she trained to do that sort of thing and had probably murdered plenty more people as part of her duties when it wasn't even self-defense. Suddenly Carla felt a lot less safe.
She turned the taps off and stripped out of the uniform she had been given after her last shower. She left it puddled on the floor where she stepped out of it instead of throwing it into the basket with the rest of her washing. She was going to throw it away or burn it at the soonest opportunity. She stepped into the bath and sank into the lukewarm liquid.
As the soothing water enfolded and caressed her she decided not to dwell over much on applying her own moral standards on Sara's actions. That was a woman who was used to dealing with very bad people and while Carla didn't condone violence she understood that in some situations violence was the only solution to some very difficult problems. Carla had long since stopped being so idealistic that she thought all problems had a peaceful solution if only people were patient enough to look for it.
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