The Long Fall Into Darkness

by Charlie Cottrell

  “Well, shit.”

  VII.

  We all sat around a large conference table in the safe house: Ellen, Maya, Vera, and myself. We didn’t trust anyone else with the knowledge of what we were about to do.

  “Okay, so here’s a map of city hall,” Maya said, pulling up the architectural plans for the building and displaying them as a 3D render above the table. “The mayor’s office is, um, back here.” A room toward the back of the building and up on the second floor glowed red against the blue of the schematic. “To get to it, you have to go through three sets of security checkpoints.” Three doorways – the main entrance, the elevator foyer, and the door to the mayor’s office’s antechamber – all lit up red as well.

  “Okay, so the front door is definitely out. What about the roof?” I asked.

  “Not really any better,” said Ellen. The roof lit up red as well. “There’s several sensors on the roof, as well as ambient cameras and an alarm on the door.”

  “What about the sewers?” I asked.

  “Could work,” Maya said.

  “If you’re willing to swim through raw sewage and can fit through a four-inch pipe,” Ellen said.

  I sighed heavily. “Well, what else can we do? The back door? Pretend we’re, what delivery men or something?”

  Everyone was silent for a moment. “Actually, that might work,” Ellen said. She lit up the back door in green. “This is the service entrance. They still check IDs there, but not as thoroughly. And the service elevator doesn’t have a checkpoint. It doesn’t give us direct access to the second floor, but it will take you up to the mail room on the third floor. From there, you can get down to the second floor by the stairs or through a vent.”

  “I dunno about you, but I’m a bit too big to fit through ventilation ducts. Not to mention my knees…” I said.

  “We get it, you’re old,” Vera said. “You can’t go in, anyway. Your face is too immediately recognizable. I believe Miss Janovich would stand a better chance at success.”

  Maya blinked. “Um, me?” she said.

  “Yes, darling, you,” Vera replied. “You have the computer expertise required, and your narrow shoulders and hips would make the vents easier to navigate.”

  “You’ll be fine,” I said, patting Maya on the shoulder. “They probably don’t have nerve gas canisters in the vents or anything.”

  “Eddie! Don’t be an ass,” Ellen said.

  “I don’t know how to be anything else,” I replied. More soberly, I said, “Really, though, I don’t know how comfortable I am with sending Maya in by herself. We don’t really know what to expect from security in city hall, and I for one would feel much better knowing she had backup.”

  “There’s no way to get anyone else in there,” Vera said. “No one who knows the ins and outs of city hall and could navigate through the security without mishap.”

  “Well, actually,” said Miss Typewell.

  We all turned to her. “I used to work at city hall,” she said sheepishly. “I still have my passwords and clearances and all that.” We all gave her incredulous stares. “What? I was friends with the IT guys. They kept me hooked up. How do you think I always knew what was going on in city hall all the time, Eddie?”

  “I dunno,” I said with a shrug, “the rumor mill? Gossip train? Ravens from the Citadel that come and whisper secrets to you.” Miss Typewell was kind enough not to reply. “Anyway, okay, so you can get in, too? Do we even need to send in Maya through the vents?”

  “Yes,” Ellen said, “because she’s a much better hacker than I am. I can help her find the data cache, but she’ll have to extract it.”

  “Alright,” I said, clapping my hands together excitedly. “Do we have an actual plan? Like a real plan with backups and contingencies?”

  “God help us, I really think we do,” Vera said.

  “Awesome!” I said. “So, who’s ready to break into city hall?”[DS6]

  VIII.

  I hated not having an active role in the infiltration. I was stuck in a minivan with the windows painted over, parked a couple of blocks away. First, we’d dropped off Maya and then Ellen, letting them make their own way into the building as planned. Each was providing us a secure video and audio feed of everything they saw and heard, but the back of my neck felt itchy with anticipation and concern.

  “I’m, um, almost to the door,” Maya said.

  “Okay. Good luck,” Vera replied. She was running point on the operation from right beside me. The back of the van was filled with computer banks far more powerful than the pocket variety. Maya and Ellen were both linked to them in case they got the data cache and had to upload it remotely.

  “I’m standing in line for the first security checkpoint,” Ellen said.

  “Excellent,” Vera responded. “Your feed will probably go black as soon as you enter the building. Switch to alternate feed when you’re through security.”

  “Got it.”

  The next several minutes were tense and quiet as both of our agents approached their ingress points. Maya got in first, her feed going dark and staticky as soon as she stepped through the security gate. A minute later, a secondary feed kicked in, with just black and white footage from an ambient camera she’d attached to an old pair of glasses she was wearing as part of her disguise. It was double-shielded to protect it from the distortion field city hall had implemented. Maya and her magical computer know-how had come through again, from the look of things.

  “I hate not being out there,” I groaned.

  “I’m not overly fond of it, either,” Vera said.

  “Aw, thanks, Vera,” I said.

  “You’re much too loud in these confined quarters.”

  I frowned. “Thanks, Vera,” I repeated more sourly.

  “Look at it this way, Detective Hazzard,” Vera continued. “They are both highly adept at what they do. Of all the people you could have sent in your place, you have selected the two most likely to succeed. Even more likely than you, as a matter of fact.” She tapped a couple of buttons on an old-fashioned physical keyboard, and the image from Maya’s camera focused better. “Just sit back and enjoy the show.”

  “Is there alcohol?” I asked.

  “No.”

  “Then how am I supposed to enjoy this?”

  “How did you survive as the Boss for so long?” Vera asked.

  “I was far more hands-on than you were,” I replied huffily.

  “Yes, I know,” she responded. “How did you not manage to get yourself killed by recklessly going out into the field all the time like that?”

  “Look, I’m a more hands-on leader than you are. So what? It’s a legitimate management style.”

  “For an office. For a business. We are an organized crime syndicate, regardless of whether or not you were trying to shut it all down at the time. Going out in the field was unwise at best and monumentally stupid and dangerous at worst.”

  “You sound just like Kimiko,” I muttered.

  “She is wiser than her years,” Vera replied primly. “You, however, remain a stunted man child who thinks he’s the only one who can get anything done. I mean to disabuse you of that notion, hopefully well before you actually die from some stupid thing you decide to do.”

  We sat in silence for a moment. “Gee, Vera, why don’t you tell me how you really feel next time, huh?” I said.

  Vera groaned angrily. “You immature little—” she started before Miss Typewell’s voice interrupted us.

  “I’m approaching the elevators. Time to see if my guys in IT were true to their word or not.” Vera and I both shut up and stared at her monitor intently. Out of the corner of my eye, I caught sight of Maya approaching a vent, a small powered screwdriver already in her hand. She leaned against the wall by the vent and quickly unscrewed it from the wall. With a glance up and down the hallway, she made sure she was alone before removing the vent and sliding into the duct, pulling the vent cover back into place behind her. “I’m in,” she whispered.r />
  “Okay, ladies, best of luck. Maintain radio silence unless you need assistance or until you are back out of the building.”

  Both women responded and then went quiet. For the next several minutes, all we could do was watch and hope they didn’t get caught.

  Ellen approached the security guard outside the elevator and handed him her ID card. He scanned it with a handheld machine. It beeped and he stared intently at it for a long moment before it beeped again. Apparently, content with this second beep, he waved her toward the elevator. The door opened up before her and she stepped in, a half dozen other individuals filing in behind her and quickly filling up the elevator car. She stood facing forward like everyone else in there, waiting patiently for the brief trip up to the second floor. The door dinged and about half of the people in the elevator with Miss Typewell exited, her included. Most of them split off from the group for various offices and hallways, leaving Ellen alone as she approached the mayor’s office.

  Meanwhile, Maya was making her way through the vents. She had a small map pulled up in a vid window and was tracing her way through each twist and turn to reach the mayor’s office. She was getting close, only a couple more turns would bring her out right behind the mayor’s desk.

  “What if we’ve mistimed everything?” I asked. “What if Esperanza is sitting in there when they bust in? I don’t want them to get arrested.”

  “Calm down,” Vera soothed. “We have contingency plans for if that happens, remember?”

  I sighed glanced at the monitors. “Yeah. Yeah, you’re right.” I took a deep breath, held it for a five count, then exhaled, trying to push all my negative energy out with the breath. It didn’t work, but I didn’t quite feel like leaping out of the van and sprinting in there to save the day, so we’ll call it a win.

  “Maya, what’s your location?” Ellen asked.

  “I’m about to reach the vent,” Maya responded. “Releasing the camera spores.” She reached into her pocket and pulled out a small, circular disk. Uncapping it, she blew on the powder inside, sending it spiraling out into the air around her. With the touch of a button on her computer, the motes hanging in the air began to move on their own. They were a microscopic camera array. Individually, each camera wouldn’t reveal much, but together they could create a complete picture of the office on the other side of the vent. Maya collapsed the vid window displaying her route and pulled up a new one displaying the cameras’ view. Static coalesced into an image of the mayor’s office. It was empty; Mayor Esperanza was out giving a speech at the civic center this morning.

  “We’re all clear,” Maya said. She unscrewed the vent and pushed it out into the office, sliding out behind it and replacing it quietly. Meanwhile, Ellen took up a position near the door to the mayor’s receptionist’s office, her computer out and a halo of vid windows gathered around her head. She started chattering in annoyed bureaucrat-speak, her voice modulated to indicate anyone who came anywhere near her was likely to be the next target of her wrath. Thankfully, that particular corner was fairly empty, so Ellen eased up on the chatter and kept an ear open for any request for backup from Maya.

  “I’m beginning the search,” Maya said, pulling up new vid windows and starting to scan the room. A wave swept out across the vid window image of the office, checking everything for energy signatures related to the data cache.

  It came back negative.

  “I don’t understand,” Maya mumbled. “It’s not in here.”

  “Scan again,” Vera said. Maya complied, with the same result as the first scan.

  “Still nothing,” Maya said.

  “Hey guys, I think we’ve got a problem coming our way,” Ellen cut in. “Mayor Esperanza and her Chief of Security are coming.”

  “Dammit,” I muttered, focusing on Miss Typewell’s visuals. Sure enough, there was Mayor Esperanza, tailed by several stuffed shirt bureaucrats and…

  “Shit, is that Chief Li?” I asked.

  Vera gave me a look. “Who?”

  “Chief Li. He worked for the accounting firm your husband worked at. Too damn smart for his own good. If he makes Ellen or Maya…” I didn’t bother finishing the sentence. Nothing good could have followed.

  “Ladies, get out of there,” I said. “Abort now. It’s not worth risking either of you getting caught.”

  “Wait!” Maya said. “I think I found something.”

  “What?” Vera asked.

  “Doesn’t matter. Get out, now!” I shouted.

  “But I found the data cache,” Maya whined.

  “It’s not worth getting caught over,” I said.

  “But—” Maya started.

  “No,” I cut her off. “Get out of there, right this instant.”

  “Okay,” Maya said reluctantly.

  “Hold on, I’m going to give you some time,” Ellen suddenly cut in. “Maya, find the data cache and get it out of there.”

  “Yes’m,” Maya said. On her monitor, we could see her scurry under Esperanza’s desk and start fiddling with one of the drawers. It popped open, and Maya pulled it all the way out and flipped it upside down. The contents of the drawer – pens, pencils, sticky notepads and paperclips – all spilled out across the floor. Maya began prying at the bottom of the drawer, pulling away a false bottom and revealing a small datachip. “Got it!” she whispered triumphantly, pocketing the datachip and cramming everything back into the drawer as fast as she possibly could.

  Meanwhile, Ellen started walking toward the mayor and her entourage. When she was a few steps away, she tripped and stumbled into the mayor, knocking the two of them to the floor in a tangle of limbs. Esperanza cursed under her breath and tried to push Ellen off of her. “Ohmigosh, I’m soooo sorry!” Ellen wheedled. “I’m, like, such a ditzy klutz!”

  “What are you even doing in this hallway?” Esperanza asked, exasperated.

  “I was, like, waiting for you, your mayorness?” Ellen managed to turn the statement into a question with mere inflection.

  “Why?” Esperanza asked.

  “Um, well, like, I’m just soooo inspired by you, ma’am, and I just wanted to come ask you for, like, a job? I feel like I could learn so much from you?”

  Esperanza arched an eyebrow at Ellen. “If you want a job, go through the appropriate channels,” she said. “Chief Li, please escort this woman out.”

  “Yes, ma’am,” Chief Li said. He gestured to two men standing further back away from the mayor; their well-tailored suits had bulges under the arms, indicating they were armed. Each one grabbed Miss Typewell – not ungently – by an arm and nearly dragged her down the hallway.

  “It was, like, a pleasure to meet you, your excellency!” Ellen called out as she was dragged around the corner and back to the elevator.

  “Please tell me that gave Maya enough time,” I said to Vera.

  She pointed at Maya’s screen. “It did.” On the screen, Maya was screwing the vent cover back into place. She then scooted around and headed back the way she’d come in.

  Ellen, in the meantime, had been rather unceremoniously dumped on the front steps of city hall. “Well done, Miss Typewell,” I said.

  “Who said espionage was difficult?” Ellen said. I could almost hear the grin.

  “Go around back and meet up with Maya. We’ll pick you up at the rendezvous point.”

  “Got it,” Ellen said, taking off at a brisk walk around the building.

  I turned to Vera and grinned in relief. “We did it,” I said. “We’ve got the data cache. We can clear my name and get the city off my back. And since they’ve got Carmen in custody, I’ll be a free man.”

  “Yes, it’s a banner day for you, Detective Hazzard,” Vera said. We climbed into the front of the van and I took the wheel. I turned the key, shifted into drive, and pulled away smoothly from the curb. Then Ellen’s voice came over the audio feed.

  “I’m being followed.”

  The hair on the back of my neck stood up. “What?” I asked.

  “T
here’s a security officer tailing me,” Ellen elaborated. “I think Chief Li might’ve seen through my act.”

  “Crap. Okay, don’t panic. Go to Rendezvous Point B,” I said. “Be ready to jump into the van as soon as we roll up.”

  “Got it.”

  “Miss Janovich, change of plans,” Vera said. “Head for Safe House A.”

  “Okay, Ms. Stewart,” Maya said.

  “This could be very bad,” I said.

  “Just stick to the plan,” Vera replied evenly. “We’ll get through this together.”

  I rounded the corner and stepped on the accelerator. Ellen was power walking along the sidewalk, a goon in a suit trailing her about fifteen paces behind. “Get ready, Ellen,” I said. I saw her nod and pick up her pace. The security goon must’ve noticed, because he dropped all pretense and took off at a run toward Ellen. She must have heard his footsteps behind her because she set off at a sprint for the van. Vera climbed into the back and wrenched the sliding door open. “Come on!” she shouted, holding a hand out to Ellen. Miss Typewell reached, her fingers brushing against Vera’s fingertips, but then the security guard tackled her.

  “Dammit!” Vera shouted. “Stop the van! They have Ellen!”

  “Shit,” I muttered, slamming on the breaks and spinning the van around in a one-eighty. I threw the shifter into park and dove out of the van, drawing the lighting gun as I did so. The guard was perched on top of Ellen, squatting on her back like an overly-muscled gargoyle. “Get off her,” I shouted, holding the lightning gun steady and aiming right at him.

  The guard grinned and drew his own gun, but rather than point it at me he put the barrel against the back of Miss Typewell’s head. “Go ahead, shoot me,” he said. “I guarantee she’ll be dead before I am.”

  I gave his position some thought. Vera might’ve had a better angle on him than I did, but I didn’t think she was necessarily that much better of a shot than I was. I couldn’t risk Ellen’s life this way. I dropped my gun to the ground and raised my hands above my head.

  “That’s better,” the guard said, pointing the gun at me now instead of Ellen. “Your death is gonna be a big win for me, Detective Hazzard. Good riddance.”