On the other side were a number of people standing around backstage. Most of them were working or watching monitors of the debate.
A large black curtain blocked away what Gus knew was the stage, the audience, and the candidates. He could faintly hear voices over the speakers. They were muffled, and he couldn’t quite make out what they were saying.
Monitors hung from the catwalks above, displaying what was happening on the other side of the curtain. There was no volume on any of them, but there were subtitles.
Next to each monitor were several clocks. One that counted down to the next commercial break, one that showed the time left in the program, and the last showed the current time.
I’ve got about… five minutes, I guess.
That doesn’t leave me much time to set up.
Would this be a good location? I’m just about right behind her. I could creep up on that black curtain and just… peek through.
She’d be right on the other side, I imagine.
Or is this a bad location? Would the lights blind me and paint a shadow for anyone to see?
Would I really be right behind her, though? Something could be in the way if I don’t do this right. I could end up accidentally revealing myself and flash my hand.
Though… I’m already completely past almost all the security precautions. I’d have a little time to get away from the immediate area.
Melody was likely to be around here somewhere as well.
Gus briefly considered finding her and including her on what was happening, but he couldn’t. Not without risking losing his chance.
The clock was counting down, and Gus was on the wrong side of it.
Getting his feet under him, he leapt up onto the catwalk above.
There was a soft clang as he grabbed the metal. The whole thing swung partially to one side, then moved no more.
It panicked a number of stagehands and workmen, but they seemed calmed as soon as it stopped moving.
A few of them were pulling out their phones, however. Probably noting what’d just happened for repair.
Or so Gus hoped.
Hauling himself up onto the catwalk, he rolled over onto his back. Moving to his knees, he found his view of the stage.
Newbin and her opponent were the only ones there. Standing at two podiums, looking out over a crowd of hand-picked audience members.
The moderators were sitting at a table facing the two candidates.
“This is it,” Gus said.
“I’m ready,” Indali said back to him.
Pulling Indali from her holster, Gus set her barrel against the top rail of the catwalk.
Slowly, he began angling the barrel down toward Newbin. Till the iron-sights were bracketing her head.
“There,” Indali said softly in his mind. “That’s it.”
Gus thumbed Indali’s hammer back very slowly, then slipped his finger into her guard. He fit the trigger against the middle of his fingertip and began to slowly pull.
“Almost… there,” Indali groaned.
Gus paused, staring at Sarah Newbin’s head.
There was no going back after this. No turning back the clock. No reversing course.
He’d be betting everything on his ability to get out of this. His family, his friends, his contracted wives.
Everyone and everything rode on him.
Him and his—
Gus pulled the trigger.
Sarah Newbin’s head exploded—skull, brains, and blood flying out toward the moderators. Splattering them viscerally, as if they’d been hit by a paint brush.
Slamming Indali into her holster, Gus turned and launched himself off the catwalk and toward the far wall.
He needed to get back into position before the whole thing went to shit. Or at least, out of the broadcast stage.
Hitting the wall, Gus dug his fingers in and looked down, then behind him. He could see a whole lot of people rushing around without any direction.
People began shouting, screaming, yelling. Both through his earpiece and just in general.
Fear began to spread out in a flood from every direction, fear about everything.
“What just happened!?” Melody shouted through the line. “Someone report! That sounded like a gunshot!”
“Congresswoman is down,” said someone else. “Down and… and dead. Her head exploded.”
“Fine. She’s dead. Work on capturing the shooter,” Melody said. “I need all exits sealed. Now! Seal everything.
“I need the roof team to lock down the exit up there as well.”
Fuck. Okay, thanks Mel. Thanks a lot.
Looking around, Gus saw a nearby exit that wasn’t yet guarded. He needed to get to it.
And now.
Clinging to the wall, he got one foot against it and then pushed off hard. Trying to launch himself straight to where the door was.
He hit the ground with a slam that was lost in the noise from the crowd, then pushed the door open. He found himself in what looked like a hallway. He knew it probably led into the offices of the newsroom, and that wasn’t where he wanted to be.
After dashing through the door, he closed it behind him.
It was better than being in the broadcast room.
Looking up, Gus found it was much like any office he’d ever been in. Almost down to the same off-white and hole-studded tiles in the ceiling.
Jumping up, he grabbed hold of the doorframe with one hand and brought his foot down on an “emergency exit” sign that was parallel to the ground against the wall.
He reached up with his free hand, shoved a tile out of the way, and then clambered up into the false ceiling.
Bracing himself as carefully as he could, and spreading his weight out on the braces, he pushed the tile back into place.
He didn’t want to be in this narrow space without anywhere to go. He also needed to unload the single empty case he had in Indali and replace it.
In fact, now that he thought about it, he could use this little area to his advantage.
With one hand, Gus pulled Indali back out of her holster and stuck her handle in his mouth. Biting down on her, he unlocked her top-break and pulled it open partially.
Trying to look at the cylinder, in the dark, hanging in the false ceiling, Gus took ten seconds longer than he thought he would.
Mostly because he had a lot of Indali in his mouth while trying to fish out a single casing with one hand as the other hand held him upright.
Finally, he got it out. He threw it into the corner of the false ceiling, fairly confident it wouldn’t be found anytime soon.
If ever.
Pulling a single round out of his belt, he stuffed it into the open spot of Indali’s cylinder and then closed her back up. Pushing her back into his holster, he hung there.
Listening to Melody trying to direct and lead anybody who would listen to her.
It sounded like everyone’s efforts were being focused on the stage for now.
Pulling the same tile out partially, he was able to peer down into the hallway beneath him. No one was there.
Sliding the tile out, Gus got down. He pushed the tile back into place as he dropped down into the hallway.
He didn’t need to see himself to know he was covered in dust and cobwebs.
Doing it as quietly and quickly as he could, he brushed himself down with his hands. Dust going all over in every direction.
Moving into his human visage, Gus pushed on the door back to the stage.
Only to have it not move at all.
Reaching up, he gently flicked the microphone into the on position.
“This is Agent Hellström,” Gus said. “I came down quick across the front of the building. I’m in the hallway leading from the offices into the stage. I didn’t pass anyone on my way in. The door in front of me is secured from the stage side.”
There was a muffled discussion on the other side of the door, and then it opened.
Two agents Gus didn’t know were peerin
g at him.
“Hey,” Gus said, then stepped into the very place he’d only just fled from.
“Do what you can, Gus,” Melody said. Her tone was tight.
Angry.
She wanted him to start doing what he could with his gifts to figure out who killed Newbin.
Except he couldn’t do that, obviously.
Moving into the room, he began to look like he was interviewing people. Talking to anyone he could. Asking them questions. All the while poking through their thoughts just so he had something to tell anyone who asked.
With any luck, he’d made his escape.
By not escaping at all.
An hour later, a whole lot of people Gus didn’t know were taking charge of the situation. Supposedly, Fed agents from another building and state.
Gus didn’t believe that for a second, of course.
Except whenever he tried to peer into their thoughts, that was all he found. Brand-new Fed agents with almost no training and no experience, all hired in through friends.
He couldn’t dig any deeper, given the circumstances. The last thing he needed right now was accidentally finding a psyker, or someone trained enough to notice him poking around.
“Hands out, please,” said an agent Gus didn’t know.
“Why?” Gus asked, looking at the man. Melody was standing next to him, talking to someone on the phone.
“We need to do a gunshot-residue test,” said the man.
“No point. I can tell you you’ll find some. I fire my weapon every day,” Gus said. “I’d be pretty damn surprised if you didn’t find any.”
“Shouldn’t be on your hands unless you fired something in the last few hours,” said the same agent.
“Go nuts, telling you you’ll find GSR though. I shoot every day. I shot today, in these clothes. Before we came over for this security detail, in fact,” Gus said. It was all very true.
Glaring at Gus, the agent seemed to be considering how to handle that.
“What? You don’t practice?” Gus asked. “Besides, I like shooting my weapon.”
Gus pulled out Indali slowly and held her in his open palm.
“See? She’s beautiful, isn’t she?” Gus said.
The man looked at the revolver.
“Fine, open your weapon for me,” he said, apparently giving up on the testing.
“Sure,” Gus said. Grabbing Indali with both hands, he spread her apart, but not all the way. He didn’t want her spewing brass everywhere. Which is exactly what she’d do if he opened her completely.
“Could you please unload your weapon?” asked the man.
Sighing, Gus tipped Indali toward his palm and pulled her barrel down completely. She ejected all her rounds into his hand.
“Anything else?” Gus asked. “Wanna see me load her, too? I’ve got speed loaders.”
The man was clearly counting the live rounds in Gus’s hand and making sure they were all unspent.
As the man did so, Gus snuck into his mind. He’d been ordered specifically to check Gus.
The person who’d given the order had done so over the phone. They hadn’t even given the man their name or designation.
The fool was too stupid to even question it. He just did what he was told.
Though… that does sound like maybe the council suspects me of having been involved.
Doesn’t it?
“You can reload, Agent,” said the man, walking away.
Frowning with a shake of his head, Gus began to load his rounds back into Indali. Once he’d finished, he carefully closed her back up and slid her into his holster.
“What was that about?” Melody asked, phone to her ear, now facing Gus.
“Fuck if I know, but I think I’m done with all this,” Gus said. “Mark coming yet or what?”
“He’s already here, but they’re not letting anyone out yet. No one,” Melody said. Her brows slowly slid together, her eyes locked on his.
He pushed into her mind, realizing he’d have to tell her something. He didn’t hide his presence from her; if anything, he wanted her to know he was there.
Except what he got when he entered was a unique greeting. It was a kaleidoscope of dirty thoughts, memories of their last orgy, and what she wanted to do to him next time.
Of… course. It’s Melody.
What’d I expect?
He pushed a single image into her mind. Of him lining his shot up on Newbin.
Her mind came to a radical, screeching halt. Everything vanished away like a smoke ring blown apart by a strong wind.
Once he had her attention, he began feeding her everything, starting with his conversation with Serafina.
It only took a minute for her to digest everything. Digest it all, spin it out to everything else in her head, and then come back with a definitive answer for him.
He’d been right in what he’d done. She’d have done the same thing.
“We need to get out of the Fed,” Melody said to him in her own mind. “And immediately. We can’t stay in it. Mark will be fine without us. They’ll just look at him like he’s a supervisor. He had nothing to do with the actual case work, he just assigned it.
“But us? They’ll want us to go away before they make another move. They’ll kill us, or have us set up to fail. If we’re not in the Fed, they’ll assume we’re giving up. That we don’t want any more of this. That we’re just… done.”
Gus agreed with her.
They needed to get out of the Fed.
Before someone killed them just as he’d killed Newbin.
The problem, though… What would everyone else do? They had a lot of other people counting on them now.
It wasn’t just Gus and Melody.
Vanessa and Trish were bound to them.
And as of earlier this week, so was Janelle. Who was still working for the military.
Everything was fucked up and twisted over on itself.
All because Gus had needed to do what he felt was right.
Even if it was wrong for everyone else.
Epilogue
Wondering just how badly this conversation was going to go, Gus wandered over toward Mark.
He was standing out past the perimeter talking into his phone. Everyone was still running around looking for the shooter.
A shooter that was, in reality, part of the search. Gus had been cleared and allowed to leave the broadcast stage.
Though he did see several others clearly eyeing him. Whenever he peaked into their minds, he only saw people who wanted to do a job that’d been given to them. Usually without really understanding the situation at all. They were just doing what they’d been told without any thought whatsoever.
Busy little drones doing busy little jobs. All coordinated through phone calls. Conversations that gave nothing away and seemed to have high expectations for their people to carry out orders.
Thankfully, no psyker showed up that Gus could identify. That didn’t mean there wasn’t one coming, or that one hadn’t shown up, just that Gus hadn’t found them.
Pushing his hands into his pockets, Gus kept walking straight toward Mark. He had something he needed to do, and there wasn’t really any room for him to do it in a different way.
He needed to get out of the Fed.
Today.
Waiting even a day would put them more in harm’s way than he wished. Melody had made it quite clear that she believed there was no alternative at this point.
Gus did agree with her, which was why this felt so awful to him.
Surprisingly, he couldn’t hear a single word from Mark’s phone conversation. It was like he was absolutely deaf to the whole thing.
Mark looked up when Gus got within ten feet and flashed him a smile that looked partly like a grimace.
Coming to a standstill, Gus nodded at Mark and looked around. The night was full and dark. He got the impression there were plenty of people trying to get a look at what was happening.
Which meant there were a lot of cam
eras pointed back at the crowd.
The general belief was there was no reason to not get footage of anyone who came to look. It was no small number of criminals who came back to the scenes of their own crimes to admire their handiwork, or to see what was going on.
Looking down at the ground, Gus eyed his shoes and leaned backward, then forward.
“Hey Gus,” Mark said, getting his attention.
“Hey,” Gus said, looking up at Mark. His long-time friend looked tired and worn.
“I swear, man, it’s like they just up and vanished. Took the shot and then disappeared into thin air,” Mark said.
“Definitely seems that way,” Gus said, walking over to stand next to Mark. He really didn’t want this conversation to travel further. “Got some stuff to tell ya.”
“Really? Ugh. I’m not going to like this, am I Gussy?” Mark said, sighing. Shaking his head, he reached into a pocket and pulled something out.
It was a strange rock with a soft glow to it. Mark ran his thumb over the back of it, causing it to glow significantly brighter. Then he dropped it back into his pocket.
“Fin gave it to me. Blocks people from hearing me unless they’re pretty close,” Mark said. “Pretty common amongst Sirens, I guess. It doesn’t do anyone good to hear them sing unless it’s by choice.
“And before you ask, yes, I’ve heard her sing. Didn’t happen until I moved in with her, though. I can definitely see why she kept that one out of our relationship till then.”
“Uh… why?” Gus asked, curious.
“You wouldn’t understand unless you heard a Siren sing,” Mark said with a smirk. “And honestly, I don’t think a Siren would be something you’d want in Mel’s harem.
“So… what’s up?”
“I shot Newbin,” Gus said, coming straight out with it.
Mark opened his mouth, closed it, and then puffed his cheeks out. He slowly made a series of strange-looking faces before he let out a breath in a wet fart noise.
“Okay. Guess that makes solving her assassination easy,” Mark said, then shrugged his shoulders. “Any reason why?”
“Serafina figured it out,” Gus said. “T2 is a front. Their program is a backdoor software that lets them in and… it basically gives them everything. So be careful of T2.”
“Okay,” Mark said, making a small gesture with his hand to speed it up.
Swing Shift: Book 2 Page 38