Chapter #34Inside Dopes by: Seuzz   Crack! A dark spot appears in the middle of the executive's forehead, and something black sprays against the wall behind him. For a moment he looks surprised, then he sinks heavily to the floor.
The guard in front of you swings around, eyes bulging. Crack! His face blurs, and he spins and falls over the chair onto the keyboard. All the monitors begin to flick wildly from scene to scene.
The other guard stares at you. No, he's staring into your corner, that's all. You grit your teeth and squeeze your eyes shut. Crack! Thump. When you open your eyes again, he has fallen over his comrades.
The door flies open, banging into your arm. You jump back into the corner. Joe leaps into the room, looks around wildly, and gasps at the carnage. From his pocket he pulls his cell phone. "Frank! Get your ass to beta block! Someone just painted the security station with number two's brains! I said there was a fucking shooting down here, and number two is down! He's pining for the fjords, Frank, so get number one down here as well!"
Your arms are shaking as you raise the pistol, but Joe vanishes in a blur before you can lock the pistol onto him. You're almost glad he got away.
Your eyes are stinging and all your nerves are screaming, but there's no time to go to pieces. You peer into the atrium. It looks empty, but you've no idea where to go, and you don't want to chance running into anyone, seeming invisibility be damned. You drop to your haunches and waddle out to hide under the outside desk again. You pull an office chair in front of you and curl into a tight ball, hoping that if the invisibility wears off, you will still be screened from view.
* * * * *
How long are you there? Hard to say. Long enough for a squad of guards led by Frank and Joe to return and survey the carnage. You can make out nothing in all the babbled cross-talk. Eventually stretchers are brought and the two dead security men are carried away. But the executive remains on the floor, head turned up, the same look of surprise--a little more blank now--on his face.
Eventually only Frank and Joe are left, visible from the knees down as they stare at their boss. "He only said something about needing a shadow piercing," Joe says.
"How'd the little fuck get out of his cell?" Frank says.
"How'd the little fuck shoot 'em?" Joe retorts. "From that angle, from outside the room, through a couple of walls without leaving holes? Neat trick that puts Verity in the shade. John Dickson Carr, call your office."
"You're supposed to be the brains of our partnership, Joe. How would you do it?"
"Simple. Walk in, shoot them, then time-dilate myself out the door before I-- Well, before the detective who's playing my current part can get through the doorway. But obviously that's not what happened here."
"Almost as spooky, though."
"Spookier, because I can't see how he did it. Hold me, Frank. I'm scared."
They continue muttering this way for a bit. Then they turn at the sound of footfalls. Feet clad in gleaming black loafers stride past your hiding place, and legs in elegant trousers frame the doorway. Between them you can still see your first victim, gazing upward. "We left 'im for you, boss" Joe says.
"My my my my my. What a mess," says the newcomer. His voice is familiar, but you can't place it. He steps into the room and squats next to the dead man. "Pity. What happened?"
"Prescott escaped his cell," Frank says. "He shot number two and two others, and got out without being seen."
"Prescott? What was he doing here? More to the point, what are you two doing here?"
The newcomer turns and looks up. You swallow hard. He is the twin of the dead man.
"Didn't number two keep you in the loop?" Joe asks.
"I didn't micromanage him, same as he wasn't supposed to micromanage you. What's the story?"
"How far back to we have to go?"
"Far enough to explain why you're not still in the States minding the Stellae for us."
Frank takes a deep breath. "Diana somehow got wind about Prescott and us. Must be a mole in the operation. Anyway, they were nosing around him. We let them, in case we wanted to feed them disinformation. But then Hal Swann blew into town, found Prescott--"
"Swann? How did that happen?"
"Swann told Prescott he picked up 'chatter'," Frank says. "So there's another breach to be investigated."
"Worrisome," the newcomer says, and tugs his ear. "Did Swann look for you?"
"No, he told Prescott--"
"Very worrisome," the newcomer says. "If he thinks you two aren't what you appear to be--"
"He doesn't think that," Joe sneers. "If he did, we wouldn't still be walking around. That's just Swann's style. Renegade."
"Hmm. Well, go on."
"He found Prescott and talked him into a hair-brained scheme to infiltrate Diana," Frank continues. "Somehow Prescott got hold of a mask--"
"How?"
"We don't know, boss. Prescott didn't either. My guess is that Diana planted it to cause mischief."
"I think Swann planted it," Joe interjects. "It's his style."
"Still not an explanation," the newcomer says. "But continue."
"Prescott used the mask to replace a secretary, and found out that Diana had replaced members of his own family, apparently with an eye toward surrounding Prescott and replacing him. Probably so they'd have a spy of their own close to our operation. Diana moved one of those replacements they'd made here to their London office--"
"Big bonus there, boss," Joe interrupts. "Tell you in a moment."
"And Prescott found out," Frank says. "Luckily, he called us instead of Swann, and we were able to grab the reins. We brought Prescott out here and used him to get into Diana."
"Why go through that bother?" the newcomer asks. "You should have just spun him an excuse--"
"We've got a cover to maintain," Frank says. "We'd be out of character if we didn't play hero. Besides, Prescott would have just gone to Swann or even to Rick Bredon if we were mulish."
"Well, I suppose. So how much of a mess did you make at Diana?"
"Broke everything, but Patterson is still mobile. The committee won't yell, but I trust he's learned his lesson and will keep his nose to himself in future."
"Tch. I'll want a full report. But why bring Prescott back here instead of taking him home?"
"Two reasons," Frank says. "First, because he'd have seen far too much. Easier to stop him talking to Rick or Hal by keeping him here than by knocking them out of the picture. Right now we're only supposed to be infiltrating the Stellae, right?"
"Correct. But why not flense him? And how do you propose to cover up his disappearance?"
"Already covered. Before hitting Diana we caught one of their hunters, already primed to replace Prescott. We convinced him of the error of his ways, and he's working for us now. He'll have a convincing story for Rick and Hal when we take him back with us."
"Smooth. And the second reason?"
"Prescott was with us when we got the girl that Diana had taken. He saw she was still alive, which she can't be, because she's not going back."
"Why not?"
"Because she's a Stellae, boss," Joe says in a gloating voice. "One that they never found. That's the bonus."
The newcomer stares up at them. "We captured another Stellae?"
"Yep. She's already disassembled, primed for testing. Or for stitching back together, if you want to give us a new partner."
"They don't know about her?"
"Nope. She'll be a Sulva. Those are hard to find, very rare. She might even be a Glundandra." Joe hops and down on the balls of feet. "And that would be fucking awesome!"
"So it would. First order of business is to establish her planets, then."
"I was just prepping for that when this all went down," Joe says. "Prescott was being fetched for storage, but he'd vanished from his cell. An alert went up, number two got summoned. He called me, said that he needed shadow piercing. I was ten feet from the door when I heard shots. Burst in and found number two and two guards down. The shooter was gone, a gun was missing, and no one could have got past me. Unless he walked through the walls."
"You check the security footage?"
"No time. Building's in lock down, so he should still be around."
"Unless he really can walk through walls. Would that be a Stellae skill?"
"That little piss-ant a Stellae?" Joe cries. "He can't even keep his shoes ties."
"You're awfully sure of yourself, Joseph."
"Yeah, and you'd fuck me all night and morning if you could. Frank too."
"True, but we can celebrate later." He stands up. "Joseph, you see to our new acquisition. Frank, get a technician in here, go over the footage. I'll go make us a new number two."
They mill a bit, then all exit together. Once they're out in the atrium, you peer around. They have gone up the stairs, but then separated to each head down a different corridor.
You don't want to wait here to be caught in close quarters again. And you don't how to get out except by following one of them. Frank will just be coming back here, so that leaves it a choice between following Joe or following their boss.   indicates the next chapter needs to be written. |
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