by Alan Marble
It was locked. The next two were locked, as well, and it was not until the fourth door, just opposite the little alcove with the copy machine that they found an office door that would open for them. After peeking inside, Abe turned back to look at him with a faint smile, mouthing the word “Bingo” before stepping inside and making room for him to follow.
Just as the hallway beyond was unremarkable, the office itself seemed to be indistinguishable from the countless other offices Jonah had seen. A bookshelf to one side lined with various texts and stacks of folders, one or two pieces of generic art on the walls, and a desk sporting a small handful of personal affects and a half finished coffee mug. None of that interested Abe, of course, who was motioning to Jonah to close the door to the office as he pulled up a seat behind the desk and smiled.
As luck would have it, the computer was already on, the sound of its fans humming softly in its case breaking the silence in the room. They would not have to wait for it to boot up. Once the door was closed Abe clicked the power button to the monitor, his face lighting up in a slightly eerie glow as he cracked his knuckles. “Here we go,” he whispered, almost imperceptibly.
Jonah stepped around behind him to get a look at the login screen, frowning. “So, you’re going to just log in to the thing like it’s no big deal?”
Abe just smiled, resting his hands on the keyboard a little awkwardly. “I did work for the Syndicate, don’t forget that.”
“What, you don’t think the first thing they did when you betrayed them was to revoke your access to their system?”
“Oh, of course they did,” he whispered, starting to peck out the keys with his pointer fingers, none too quickly.
Jonah frowned at that, shaking his head. “Wait, don’t tell me. You know the system well enough to hack in, or something like that.”
Abe had to stifle a laugh, covering his face with a big hand and shaking his head. “Goodness, no. I can barely operate these damned things, to be honest,” he said, resuming his slow typing, punching a few keystrokes into the password field before reaching over for the mouse, giving it a click.
To Jonah’s surprise, the login screen vanished and the desktop began to load up, populating with various icons. “Well then how the hell did you do that?”
“Don’t forget, Carl works for the Syndicate, too. You suppose a guy who hasn’t bothered changing his name in nine hundred years is going to take the time to change his login password?”
In other circumstances it might have come across as a funny joke. Even now it still was a little humorous, listening to Abe sneak in a little dig at Carolus like that, but there was no time for laughter and lighthearted banter now. Indulging himself with nothing more than a smirk, Jonah nodded. “All right, but do you know what you are looking for? Where are you going to find information about where the others are at?”
“Old Carl is in pretty deep with these guys and their operation. He was basically their lead man back at the compound in the valley, he’s probably the one who had to give them the bad news of how it all went down,” Abe answered, slowly but methodically bringing up Carolus’ email, clicking through some of the more recent messages with a little nod. “It’s probably right in here somewhere. Even if it isn’t we just have to access … ah, no, here it is. ‘Relocate to Olympus’. Well there we go.”
“Olympus?”
“Very remote. Very secure. About a hundred miles west of here,” he responded, frowning a little as he clicked through some of the other messages, skimming through them. “Just like we thought, they predicted that we’d come after them, and they aren’t taking any chances. Olympus is a hell of a location to try and break into.”
Jonah frowned as well. “So now what? Do you even know where it is.”
“I do. And we’re going to do exactly what we set out to do, kid. I said Olympus is a hell of a location to try and break in to, but not impossible. Might make them complacent, too, thinking that we don’t know where they are. Give us the element of surprise.” Abe was still perusing through some of Carolus’ emails, breathing a quiet little chuckle. “Looks like they took the bait. Caught on the transaction out of LA this evening and dispatched a team to find us there.”
“You aren’t worried about them catching your friend?”
Abe shook his head. “Nah. They’ll chalk it up to a stolen card or something once they realize it wasn’t us,” he began, before his voice trailed off and a frown began to creep up on his features again. “Still. Old Carl knows me fairly well, all the same. They’re expecting us here, in Seattle, expecting us to do exactly what we’re doing now.”
Jonah felt his skin starting to crawl, his heart thumping a little quicker in his chest at the thought. “They know we’re here?”
“No. Not yet, at least. They think we’re still in California, that we’re traveling by car. Probably not expecting us up here by later this morning, at the earliest,” he said, abruptly sitting up from the desk and stepping to the back of the office, throwing the curtains open and examining the window behind it.
“Wait - what are you doing?” Jonah stepped over to the window as well, looking on in confusion.
“Looking for a way out,” Abe muttered, running his finger against the seam and pushing on the pane here and there, the frown on his face deepening. “Damn. Got to love these decorative windows. Don’t even open to let in a little breeze.”
The sense of panic starting to creep up into the corners of his mind again, Jonah found himself glancing nervously back and forth between the computer, the door, and the window. “But you said they aren’t expecting us yet. They don’t know we are here. Why not just go back out the way we came?”
After another futile shove against the pane, the bald man took a step back away from the window and puffed his cheeks a bit. “I said they don’t know we are here yet. The Syndicate doesn’t think we’ll be here tonight but they’re also not willing to take chances. Carl’s account activity is being monitored, and if someone on their end is on the ball - and they usually are - it won’t take them long to put two and two together, realize it’s not him up here tonight logging in to his email.”
“So you’re saying they could be tracking us?”
Abe nodded curtly, flicking the computer back of before moving in the direction of the door. “No, I am saying that they are tracking us. It’s just a matter of how quickly one of them realizes what’s going on. The sooner we get out of here the better,” he grunted, reaching for the door and pulling it open.
Almost without hesitation he shut it again, turned to push Jonah into a darkened corner of the room, and held up a finger to his mouth to demand silence.
For a long, tense moment, nothing happened. Jonah huddled back into the corner, wide-eyed and confused, his heart thumping angrily in his chest and nervousness gnawing at the edges of his awareness, watching as Abe crouched next to the door, unmoving and silent. He wanted to ask the big man what he had seen on the other side of the door, why he had pushed him into the corner, what the hell was going on - but dared not break the silence, especially after getting that look.
Then the door was pushed open from the hallway, someone stepping inside. Jonah hunkered further into the corner of the office as he watched a flashlight being shoved into the office, pointed directly at the desk, the little cone of light disrupting his night vision for a moment, enough that the shape of the man wielding the flashlight was indistinct and blurry at first. He really could not make out any detail, but thought that the man seemed to be wearing some kind of uniform.
Cautiously, the man took another step into the room, sweeping the light back and forth over the desk, over in the direction of the bookshelf. “Hello? I’m with building security … is there anyone there?”
Abruptly Jonah found himself blinded when the flashlight flicked over in his direction, bearing down right on top of him and leaving him helpless. The panic he felt redoubled when he realized that he’d been caught, but at the same time could not see a thing, could
not do a thing to defend himself. “What the,” he heard the guard start to shout before there was a dull thud and a crunch.
The light fell away from his eyes with a metallic clatter against the ground, followed by a much louder thump, but for a moment Jonah could still not see, his eyes still trying to adjust to the changing in the light. He heard an indistinct ruffling sound as he tried to blink away the darkness, and then Abe spoke up. “You ok there, kid?”
“I can barely see,” he hissed, assuming that the silhouette now moving in his direction was Abe. “What’s going on?”
“Guard,” the big man said simply enough. His vision slowly began to return to normal, enough that he could make out Abe moving to kneel at the side of the guard’s fallen form, patting down his sides and looking for something, perhaps. “Probably not the only one, either, so we’d better get moving.”
“I thought you said that they weren’t on to us yet!”
Abe shrugged. “If they aren’t yet they will be very soon,” he said, pausing as he plucked something away from the guard’s side and hefted it up in the air; Jonah was a little disturbed to see that it was a handgun. “I don’t get the impression that the guards here are authorized to carry these things. You know how to use one?”
Jonah blinked, nodding as he stammered a bit. “Well, yes, I do …”
“Good,” the big man cut him off, shoving the weapon in his hands before turning to look out the door once again, up and down the hallway.
While he was hardly squeamish about guns Jonah had not ever used one outside of the context of a shooting range that he occasionally went to for the purpose of letting off a little steam. He did not have to be told that if one guard was packing heat the others would, as well. Nor did he have to be told what he was being given the weapon for, but the thought of actually shooting a gun at someone - even in defense - made his blood run cold.
He was still fumbling uncomfortably with the weapon when Abe spoke up again. “Come on. Coast is clear, let’s get moving. Back to the roof.” Abandoning the need for stealth and quiet, the pair made their way out into the hall and hastily back in the direction of the stairwell.
“Chuck? That you?” The voice came from behind them, in the opposite direction of the hallway, suddenly lighting up with another flashlight. Jonah looked back behind him instinctively at the sound of the voice, and when the light flashed in his direction he tried to shy away from it, bringing his hands up in a futile attempt to ward it off. In the process he mistakenly pulled on the trigger of the gun, firing it off loudly if harmlessly into the ceiling overhead, causing little bits of plaster and other materials to cascade down onto them.
The guard who had just called out to them dove for the ground, the flashlight dropping and rolling off to the side. Abe shot him an incredulous look before pulling him along toward the stairwell. “I thought you said you knew how to use it,” he complained.
“I do. Sorry. I got startled.”
Noisily they began to pound their way up the stairs, passing a doorway on their way up, coming around the landing when the door to the last floor before the roof opened up and three more of the security guards spilled out. “Freeze,” one of them shouted down, the others pulling out their weapons and immediately firing off a volley of shots. Their aim was poor, the bullets ricocheting off the walls and sparking against one of the guardrails, but it was enough to send both Abe and Jonah tumbling to the landing and scurrying for cover around the corner.
Jonah found himself screaming in confusion as he was hauled back up to his feet, Abe starting to drag him bodily down the next flight of stairs while the guards above gave pursuit, firing off another volley of bullets that rained down around them. “Jonah! How about you use that thing now?”
Startled but nodding, he finally pulled the weapon up and aimed it in the general direction of the pursuing guards, firing off a couple of shots. He was certain neither of them would hit anyone but the report of the gun, the sound of the bullets bouncing against the stairwell above had the intended effect. The pursuing guards dove for cover, as well, giving them enough time to push their way into the door on the next landing. By some stroke of luck there seemed to be none of the guards on this particular floor.
“Well, I’d say they’re on to us now,” Abe muttered, very briefly looking for some way to secure the door behind them, and, finding none, he abandoned the attempt and turned to look for some other escape route.
This floor was completely different than the other. Rather than quiet hallways full of small offices, they were in some kind of broad foyer with a reception desk, an elevator sitting quiescent off to the side, plush looking couches and end tables covered with magazines. There was also a set of oversized double doors, and it was toward those doors that Abe was making his way.
Following close behind, Jonah shouted out, “Why don’t you just take them on as a dragon? We could fight our way out a lot easier that way!”
“These guys aren’t dragons, themselves. Might be mages, but I don’t know. Either way they might not know who or what we are, either, and I’d like to keep it that way as long as possible,” Abe said, pushing the double doors open and stepping into the room beyond.
It was a large sort of conference room, several tables arranged running the width of the room in rows six deep before stepping up to a sort of elevated podium. Behind the podium was a series of broad windows that presumably gave a panoramic view of something beyond, but it was still too dark to see outside.
Jonah protested. “Does it matter at this point?”
“The longer till they catch on to what we are doing, the more time we have. Look, if they think we’re just some random thieves breaking in to try and steal some equipment, they might still think we’re down in California, on our way. Soon as they know we are here they’ll alert Olympus. Then our cover is blown.”
“You honestly believe they think we’re just random thieves?”
Abe paused for a moment, his chest heaving as he was breathing, looking around with a fairly dismal expression. “You never know. We could get lucky. Here, give me the gun.”
Jonah blinked. “What?”
“The gun. Give it to me.”
Nodding but confused, Jonah turned the gun over to Abe, who made his way up to the elevated podium in front of the window. “Get your ass over here, and when I tell you to duck, you’d better do it if you’re fond of having your head attached to your shoulders.”
Once again Jonah nodded and complied, making his way past the tables and up on to the podium, wondering what the big bald guy had in mind. There was no other way out of the room other than the way they had come, and somehow he doubted they would be lucky enough to go long without being noticed in that room.
Their luck did not hold out long. Only a moment later, fully half a dozen armed guards came pouring into the conference room, taking up positions at the far end of the room that looked frighteningly reminiscent of a firing squad, each one of them with his weapon drawn and trained directly at them. Abe stood with his own gun drawn, pointed right back at them, unmoving as the lead guard shouted at the top of his lungs, “Freeze, we’ve got you trapped!”
“I’m as frozen as I’m gonna get,” Abe called back, quite unmoving, true to his word.
“Put the gun down on the ground slowly, put your hands over your heads, and get down on your knees,” the guard yelled back, his voice firm and commanding.
Abe still did not waver, the look on his face taking on that broad, toothy smile that he was accustomed to wearing. “Now why would I do that? Soon as I put my gun down you boys are going to start shooting.”
“No one is going to start shooting as long as you comply with our orders. We don’t want anyone to get hurt tonight, so please, just put the gun down, get on the ground, and let’s handle this like civilized men.”
“I don’t like that idea one bit,” he responded, almost teasing in his tone. “But I don’t want to see anyone get hurt, either, so how about I make you a deal. Y
ou boys put your guns down, step out of the way, and my friend and I here will be on our merry way. No one gets hurt, everyone gets to go home to their families, and we call it a night. Mmm?”
The lead guard seemed a little irritated by Abe’s less than serious tone, shifting nervously on his feet before he spoke up again. “I’m afraid that’s not possible, sir. We cannot allow you to leave this building on your own.”
Abe simply shrugged. “Well, then I guess we’re not leaving.”
Jonah watched the interaction with a sense of detached bewilderment. None of the guns were currently trained on him but he had instinctively put his hands up in the air when the guards had assembled, leaving them there, growing heavy over his head. He looked to the guards and then back to Abe, his heart throbbing in his throat as he wondered what would happen. He knew that it would take only a few seconds for them to cut him down with their bullets, and then he was certain those guns would be turned on him to finish the job.
What the hell was Abe trying to accomplish?
“I will ask you one more time, to put the gun down, sir,” the lead guard shouted, irritably. “We do not want to shoot you but if you do not comply we will be forced to do so.”
“That’d be a hell of a shame. You boys start shooting and I’ll have to do the same,” he said with a smile.
The lead guard did not look in the least amused. “Do the math, sir. There are six of us and one of you. If things get ugly then you will not be walking out of here alive. Please. Put your weapon down and cooperate with us, I will not ask you again.”
“I’m fairly good at math, boys, and I’m sure you can do it too. I get one, maybe two shots before I’m down? I might only take one of you out with me. Let me ask you, which one of you is ready to be the one to take that chance? Which one of you is the betting man?”
The tension in the room, already palpable, became thick enough to cut with a knife. For a long moment no one moved, no one spoke, though Jonah could see a few furtive glances cast among the guards who had been assembled. He wondered if any of them had ever really been in this kind of situation, if they had been prepared to face this kind of risk, if it was what they even signed up for. None of them, at least, seemed very eager for the prospect.