Skyler
2:28 PM. Brice’s bank is in outer Columbus, which would have been a two-hour drive under normal circumstances. We didn’t have that kind of time to spare. When we weren’t in the middle of the city and when no police were around, I drove at least ten over the speed limit. Those times didn’t come as often as I wanted them to, and we didn’t end up saving that much time. The two-hour drive was cut to around an hour and 45-minute drive. We tried to stay motivated as time dragged along, but there were still moments on the highway where we’d get swept away by the scenery and the sound of the engine and forget why we were there, only for one of us to suddenly snap back to our reality and then push to drive faster. Graham had been freaking himself out into exhaustion, but I could only feel a sense of anxious dread.
It was almost 4:30 when we finally arrived at the bank. Graham called Brice beforehand to let him know we were coming, then called Adrian to tell him what was happening and to stay put. Graham burst through the bank entrance ahead of me, sprinted down into the “Employee’s Only” hallway, and charged straight into Brice’s office.
Brice nearly jumped out of his seat when the door burst open. “Jaysus fucking hell, Graham. What the hell is the problem?”
“Fucking Eclipse, that’s the problem! Percy and Finn tried to sneak into their HQ building in Cincinnati and the fuckers took them hostage!”
“For chrissake, slow down! What are you talking about?”
“Eclipse? That tech giant supposedly contributing to AI research? The one that your people supplied us for, remember? We went after them in the first place because they were so secretive about information regarding the company, and now we fucking know why!” Graham grabbed a pen off of Brice’s desk and started clicking it against his thigh.
“What, and they took Percy and Finn hostage? How the fuck did they manage that?”
“We don’t fucking know! But it happened over two hours ago, and we haven’t heard shit from them since!” Graham backed against the wall.
Brice kicked back in his chair and rubbed his eyes. “Goddammit. So… how am I supposed to help fix this clusterfuck of yours?”
Graham threw the pen back at his desk. “You know how. We don't exactly have better choices.”
“Are you saying you want the militia to get them out? You want a massive public rescue mission to get them out of a tech company?”
I sat in the chair in front of his desk to take control of the conversation. “There’s nothing else we can do. They can’t be contacted, and we don’t know if anything has happened to them yet.”
“And if something has happened?”
I stared at the wall beside me. “Well, there’s only one way to find out, isn’t there?”
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Brice sat on that for a moment trying to process what was happening. “Fucking hell, do you have any goddamn idea what it is you’re getting into right now?”
Graham shot back, “Brice, we had to drive here for two fucking hours thinking about this bullshit, we know exactly what the fuck we’re doing.” My phone started vibrating. “You know we wouldn’t be in this room if it wasn’t our absolute last resort.”
“Guys.” Their heads turned to my phone. “I'm getting a call from Cincinnati.”
“What are you waiting for? Fucking answer it.”
I answered and put it on speaker. “Finn?” I asked.
“Yeah. Yeah, it’s Finn.” They hung both of their heads back in relief. “We aren’t quite dead, but we might as well be with the building’s shitty air conditioning.”
Graham was about to speak up, but I made a hand motion to stop him. “So you’re still in the HQ?”
“Somewhere in the HQ, yes. I’m not sure why we’re being kept here, but I think they’re waiting for you. Also, this phone call is their own courtesy, it’s not like I’m sneaking around or anything.”
“Well… we are trying to figure something out right now. We aren’t leaving you there, in case you thought otherwise.”
“Don't worry, I didn't have any doubts. But be careful, because I don’t know what they want and they aren’t telling me shit. It’s a pretty fucking weird situation we’re in.”
“Okay… is Percy with you?”
“Yeah, Percy’s here too. Say hi, Percy.” We waited for five seconds and heard nothing. “Well, she’s not in a talking mood right now, but she is here. This place is mostly boring, but we are hanging in here. That’s all that matters. I suppose.” His voice was cut off by a loud rustling noise, and the call ended.
Brice kicked back in his chair. “Jaysus Christ.”
“‘Waiting for us?’” said Graham. “What the fuck does that mean?”
“It means they’re trying to lure you in so they can eliminate the threat altogether. Every bird with one stone.”
“Eliminate. Fucking eliminate.” Graham started pacing around the room before walking up to a wall and screaming, “FUCK!” He turned around and sat in a corner. “So we show up and they’re fucked. We don’t show up, what happens then?”
“They keep waiting, I guess. Or they put more pressure on them to try and force you to show up.”
“'Pressure.' You mean torture, right? They’re just gonna slowly drain the life out of them until we have no choice but to show up, in which case all of us are fucking dead. We all die, they win either fucking way. God, I love it. I am absolutely loving our fucking chances right now. Aren’t you, Skyler? Isn’t this just… fucking delightful?”
I had been staring at my lap trying to think, doing my best to not to dwell on the scenarios the others were floating. “Well… sneaking inside to rescue them won’t work, and we can’t get them out diplomatically if they're not interested in diplomacy. I think that… moving our way in by force may be the only real option here. We skip the hand-wringing and just... get in there and get out.”
“If we make an entrance by blowing down their fucking front door, Finn and Percy are surely going get killed, and if I’m not mistaken, that was the outcome we wanted to avoid.”
“Then we move quickly. A couple of us can break in and get to the elevator, then we blow their front door down. That way we keep them from killing Percy or Finn and have the manpower to get them out.”
Graham buried his face in his hands and hit his head against the wall. He stood back up and sighed. “Brice?”
Brice blankly stared at his computer and folded his arms. “Fuck me. Alright. I guess we don’t have any other choice. I’ll gather the people that we have and let them know what’s going on. We leave in half an hour.”
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