The Johnson Run

by Kai O'Connal

  By now, Paz was done with the fence, and she walked through the opening. Keandra and E-jekt followed, ducking to make it through the hole. A tearing sound made Keandra whip around to see E-jekt wrestling his shoulder free from one of the jagged edges, a large fresh tear visible in his coat. Shaking her head, she turned back to check the warehouse. The southeast corner was up ahead and off to the right, but they had to wait for the camera to finish its sweep of the area before they could advance. Lance was good enough to hide from its gaze, but he was the only member of their group with that skill.

  Once the electronic eye swept past their location on its programmed arc, Keandra rushed forward, waving for the others to follow. They hustled to the edge of the wall, within an arm’s reach of their entrance point. The camera had finished its sweep and was starting to head back in the other direction.

  Keandra turned to E-jekt; his chest rose and fell rapidly, his wheeze plainly audible. Despite that, he nodded and pulled up his interface, hacking into the security system.

  They had nothing to do but wait. With no time to set up a proper hacking run after taking the job, he needed to be this close to access their network, but there was no good hiding place. They just had to hope he finished before the camera swung back in their direction. As it continued to turn, Keandra flattened her body against the wall, as if hoping the action would hide her.

 

  The camera continued to swivel until Keandra was sure she was in its view. She was about to call for a retreat when the device powered down and the red light went off.

 

 

 

  E-jekt pushed away from the wall and walked around the group to the door, dropping to a knee and examining the lock. With a soft snort of amusement, he pulled a pair of lockpicks from his coat pocket. The door was mechanical, with no electronic lock to speak of. Once again, it looked like luck was finally turning in their favor. Still, Keandra remained vigilant. She’d seen far too many runs go south at the last minute because of one foolish mistake.

  Lance took up a position on the opening side of the door, ready to slide in as soon as it was unlocked. Paz framed it on the other side, to provide less subtle backup if needed.

  With a soft click, E-jekt moved the handle. He short quick glances at each of his companions before turning it completely and pushing the door open. He shuffled back and to the side, moving into the space vacated by Lance as the elf slipped into the room beyond.

  Keandra waited a few seconds, listening with all of her focus. When she heard nothing beyond the distant sound of machinery she nodded to Paz. The sturdy dwarf stepped into the warehouse, gun tucked against her shoulder with her eye lined up on the sights. Keandra followed, letting E-jekt bring up the rear. He left the door open in case they needed a fast retreat.

  This entrance led into the rear half of the warehouse, which had been converted into offices and server space. The front part contained some of the vehicles Federated Boeing had developed: nothing new, though—these were already-released technologies more than a few years old. The servers, however, contained data for the corp’s current research projects. That was their target. The room they needed to get to was on the second floor, but first they needed to find the stairs.

  Currently they were in a cubicle farm, crouched low behind a half-wall forming the edge of someone’s office. At this hour most of the employees were gone, and the entire area had been reduced to minimal lighting in an attempt to save energy. Workers occupied a few scattered cubicles, their hands moving in front of them as they interacted with their AR components, developing something no one else could see. The beauty of the modern office: so simple and Spartan, with minimal costs to the company.

  That also meant there was little for the team to hide behind as they headed toward the stairwell. It would have to be near one of the exit doors, but Keandra didn’t know which one. There were no blueprints on file for when Federated Boeing had converted the empty warehouse into a hybrid office building.

 

  Lance moved off without making a sound, turning the corner and heading north. Keandra took the lead for her group, sneaking along as best she could. Of course, it almost didn’t matter how much sound she made, since she had Paz stumping along behind her. The dwarf tried to be quiet, but her metal limbs still created heavy dull thuds whenever they connected with a wall or even the floor. Each bump made Keandra wince, but little could be done about it.

  Ahead, an exit sign hung over an entryway into a combined kitchen and eating area. Keandra ducked inside and was glad to have the chance to stand up straight. The crouching made her legs sore enough that they were starting to shake, and she wasn’t sure how much longer she could have kept it up without resorting to crawling.

  The kitchenette had a sink that smelled of stale coffee, a fridge, a couple of tables surrounded by chairs, and a few motivational posters about doing it for the good of the team. Standard corporate propaganda. Keandra couldn’t understand how some people could live like this, seeing the same things every day, knowing it would never change while pretending to care about something so menial that any one of a thousand different wage slaves could have done it. Then again, she was sure they wouldn’t understand her lifestyle either.

  The exit door was on her left, across from the fridge. Keandra opened it and peeked through, relieved to see a stairwell going up to the second story, as well as an exit door leading outside straight across from her. There were cameras in the upper corners of the stairwell, but they were already powered down. E-jekt was nothing if not thorough.

 

  She held the door open for the other two and then leaned against the wall, waiting for Lance to join them. When she noticed a flash of movement to her right, she pushed herself off the wall. A young elf entered the room carrying an empty mug, and they both froze.

  Keandra was the first to recover, whipping her gun from its holster and pointing it at the new arrival. He started shaking, and she was worried he’d drop the mug and shatter it. She gestured with her gun, indicating for him to move farther into the room.

  At first he diddn’t budge, fear holding him in place. Keandra stepped forward, gesturing once again with the gun and raising it even with his eyeline. He dropped the mug and whirled, sprinting away from her. The ceramic cup shattered on the floor.

 

 

 

  Lance appeared behind Keandra and put a hand on her shoulder. When she looked at him, he offered a soft smile and nodded to the stairwell. When she hesitated, he bent to whisper in her ear. “I understand, and I’d have done the same.”

  She grasped his forearm, squeezing it once. Then she turned and took the stairs two at a time to the second floor. Maybe if their luck held, they could destroy the servers and get out before security responded.

  E-jekt and Paz waited for Lance and her on the second-floor landing. Both crouched near the door, and Paz held up a hand to stop Keandra’s advance.

 

 

  Paz pointed her gun around the edge of the door, angled it up, and launched the grenade. It bounced a few times with metallic clinks before letting out a loud hiss and a muffled explosion. Immediately, e
veryone in the room began shouting at each other and calling for backup on their radios.

  Keandra made out someone saying something about thermographic cameras. Lance ducked into the room just before gunfire erupted. Several bullets ripped through the air in front of the doorway, embedding themselves in the far wall of the stairwell. Paz released a burst of bullets; the guards’ gunfire paused as presumably they dove for cover.

  The turret roared to life with a harsh mechanical whirring sound as it shot bullets faster than any metahuman guard could. Between the gunfire, the smoke, and the shouting, the small chamber sounded like a war zone. After a few seconds, the turret stopped, only to whirr back to life a second later. The guards screamed in pain and confusion.

  “Hey—it’s targeting us!”

  “Shoot him! Forget the turret!”

  “Where is—”

  The last shout was cut short with a wet gurgle, and the turret powered down. By now most of the smoke had cleared, so Paz spun around the corner and stepped into the room.

  “Clear.”

  Keandra entered the chamber, taking in the carnage all around her. The turret still smoked. The walls and floor were riddled with holes and splattered with blood, scarred beyond any hope of ever being pristine again. What remained of the guards was also spread around the room. A decapitated body rested at Lance’s feet; the elf’s sword dripped blood onto the floor as he stood over his victim.

  On the far side of the room, Keandra saw the plexiglass wall protecting the servers. A single door led into the room, held shut with an electronic lock. Just one barrier to go, and then they could destroy their target. Hopefully before the rest of security showed up.

  “Let’s go, E-jekt. Get us in there, and fast.”

  12

  E-jekt hustled to the door, kneeling in front of the lock and opening his display. Lance took up a guard position on the edge of the entrance, sword held up at his right shoulder and ready to dissect anyone who tried to interrupt them. Paz stood just behind E-jekt, sheltering him with her body just in case. Between them and the turret, hopefully E-jekt would have the time he needed if they were interrupted. Meanwhile, Keandra huddled behind one of the barricades put in place for the guards, trying to ignore the fact that she was kneeling in still-warm blood.

  She felt blind. There was nothing to do now but wait. She wondered just how fast Federated Boeing’s response team was, and whether they had a Knight Errant contract. That was the kind of thing that she’d have researched if they’d had the time, but now it was too late, and she had to deal with the cards they’d been dealt. Out of nervous habit, she released the magazine in her gun to make sure it was fully loaded. Of course it was—she hadn’t fired any shots—but it still provided a few seconds’ distraction. She slammed the magazine back into place and tried to relax.

  “Got it.”

  The door clicked, and E-jekt jerked it open. Paz barely waited for him to clear out of her way before she rushed into the chamber, Keandra close behind. E-jekt joined them while Lance maintained his vigil. The ork looked up at the ceilings and let out a soft grunt.

  “State of the art fire-suppression systems. You’ll need to plant explosives at the base of each server rack if we want to get them all. Do you have enough?”

  Paz just snorted in response. She set up her bombs, placing one at the bottom of each rack. She tossed a couple to Keandra and waved toward the rest of the room. Keandra obliged, setting the explosives as instructed. She didn’t know much about demolitions, but Paz assured her that these bombs were basically idiot-proof.

  A burst of gunfire caught Keandra’s attention as the turret roared to life again. She looked up in a panic. The guards were faster than she’d anticipated, and they were running out of time. The likelihood of them getting out safely dropped along with Keandra’s stomach.

  A couple of guards tried to enter the room and the reprogrammed security system cut them down. Another managed to sneak through, but Lance took him out before he’d taken two steps. The rest of the guards ducked back into the safety of the hallway. A few fired blindly around the corner and the bullets cracked the glass, sending spider-web cracks along its surface, but didn’t penetrate or shatter it.

  One guard tossed a grenade through the opening, near the base of the turret. Rather than exploding, it opened up and emitted harsh white light in a regular pulsing pattern. The barrel of the turret dropped and all its lights went out as the device powered down. Once that threat was dealt with, the guards poured back through the entrance, attempting to overwhelm Lance with sheer force of numbers.

  The elf fought like a whirlwind, his blade flashing faster than the eye could follow as he took down one opponent and then kicked the corpse into the rest of the horde to slow them down. They opened fire, but Lance rushed to the wall and sprang off it, gaining enough height to get over the gunfire. He dropped into the middle of the large group, sweeping out with his blade in one direction while throwing a knife in the other. One guard tried to shoot him, but Lance grabbed another guard’s neck and swung around his body, moving out of the way so his attacker shot his ally instead. Five of the guards were already dead, and Keandra hoped Lance might be able to hold them off. They only had one more rack to go and then they could escape.

  However, the guards’ numbers were too great, and it wasn’t long before one got in a lucky strike with the butt of his assault rifle, connecting with the side of Lance’s head. The adept stumbled and swung his blade in a warding blow, keeping his opponent at bay, but he slowed. Another guard came up behind him and slammed his elbow into the small of Lance’s back, forcing him to his knees. Seizing the opportunity, yet another guard kicked the sword away. It clattered as it hit the ground. Keandra willed for Lance to stand as she tried to finish their task. They just needed a few more seconds.

  Six more guards hurried into the room, four of them centering on Lance. One kicked him to the floor and they all kept their guns trained on his body. They stood a safe distance away, making sure he couldn’t grab any of them before they could shoot. One stepped forward and spoke into an intercom hanging on the wall next to the entrance.

  “Drop your weapons and come out with your hands in the air, or we’ll execute your friend.”

  They still had two more bombs to place, but Keandra couldn’t risk it. The other two looked to her for guidance, so she held her hands up over her head and walked to the entrance. Paz and E-jekt both followed her example.

 

  E-jekt stumbled to his knees before reaching the entrance, looking like he was trying to catch his breath. Keandra turned as if to help him, when in truth she shielded his actions with her body. If she could give him a little more time, he might be able to work his Matrix magic. Paz continued walking toward the entrance.

  “Get up, you two. On your feet!”

  Keandra stood and turned around, leaving E-jekt where he was and putting her hands on her head to show she wasn’t carrying any weapons and wasn’t a threat. She stayed in the center of the aisle, doing everything she could to block the view of E-jekt for as long as possible.

  In the room ahead, she saw all the guns eject their magazines at the same time. More importantly, Lance noticed it. As the guards stared in confusion, he tapped into his supernatural speed and burst into action.

  Springing from the ground, he kicked the closest guard in the chest, driving him back. Then he snatched one of the falling magazines and hurled it into the face of another guard. It wasn’t heavy enough to do any real damage, but it surprised him. Lance vaulted over a third guard and kicked backward, sending the officer sprawling. The elf rolled across the ground, snatching up his sword as he came to his feet.

  Paz turned the corner and punched the guard standing near the intercom. There was a sickening crunch as his chest caved in and he collapsed. Paz grabbed his gun and the ejected magazine, slamming it into place as she took a knee and aimed at the still-standing guard. She fired a
quick burst of three bullets, all of them piercing the man’s unarmored neck and dropping him to the ground. Within seconds, the entire battle was over.

  “Let’s finish up and get the hell out of here.” Keandra rushed back to the final few servers, patting E-jekt’s shoulder as she passed him. She went to the last two racks and placed her explosives. The entire room was rigged to blow now. She joined the rest of her companions in the antechamber. E-jekt closed the door and locked it. Paz held out the detonator to Keandra, but the leader smiled and shook her head. She didn’t want to rob Paz of this moment. The dwarf giggled when she knew she’d get to bring the boom. The others stepped away from the glass, even though Paz had assured them the blast would be extremely localized.

  When she pressed the button, all the explosives roared to life in a single wave of force and fire. The wave of flames struck the windows and rolled off to either side, contained by the bulletproof material. The fire suppression system kicked in immediately, and it only took a few seconds for the flames to dissipate. The smoke took a little longer to clear, but when it did, all that remained were large towers of melted slag that used to contain electronics. Several towers twisted from the heat and bent at awkward angles, like a madman’s sculpture garden.

  Now they just needed to get out alive. “Nice work,” Keandra said. “Now let’s get out of here before we find out if they have a Knight Errant contract. Then we can start talking about where we want to go.”

  The group filed out of the room with Lance taking the lead. He leaped over the handrail and dropped to the ground floor rather than taking the stairs a few at a time. By the time the others arrived he was nowhere to be seen, but the door leading outside was wide open. In the office area, a white light flashed and the emergency lighting was on. It looked like someone had staged an evacuation. Keandra was glad that the company drones had left and wouldn’t be caught in any possible crossfire. While civilian casualties were sometimes part of the job, it was always unpleasant, with a healthy dose of guilt attached.