A compact but powerful firearm designed for vehicle crews, support personnel, weird guys in office towers—
Lindsey sat at a small table outside a coffee shop in the tunnels, watching office workers walk down the linoleum street where fluorescent lights stood in for the sun. They talked into phones with sales pitch confidence and groaned to each other about the tragedies of the last four hours. Voices echoed off the paneled walls and slick floors until they were beaten into white noise. Smells of espresso, peanut oil fried chicken, and pan-Asian sweetness moved with them. It was corporate culture after a nuclear war.
Across the tunnel from the coffee shop was a dark empty deli with ‘for lease’ signs plastered on the glass, and its double doors wide open. On the other side of the seating area, behind another set of glass doors, was a well-lit and well-guarded elevator lobby. The two security guards standing at the entrance looked like they should be helping a puppet dictator out of a limo on the other side of the world. Next to the doors, a woman on a poster laughed over a turkey sub. Lindsey imagined her giving a speech to her customer-citizens while snipers shuffled on the rooftops. A new age of fresh eating. Thunderous applause. EP chimed on the line and brought her out of it.
“How’s it going?”
“Hey babe, can you get me around these guys?” said Lindsey.
“I’m looking. This map is fucked. There’s a parking garage and two levels of basement below you. No, wait, one sec.”
Lindsey tapped the stopper on her lid while the tv in the corner replayed a clip of Philip firing the M240 on the ramp. If it hadn’t been for his road warrior shit, she might have been able to walk right through the front door with the lunch crowd. Now even the rent-a-cops in the tunnels were looking around like machine-gun fire might break out at any moment.
“Ok, there’s a maintenance door or something in the parking garage below building three. If you take that, you can make it to the elevator in the basement of his building, ride that up and get out in the lobby.”
“There’s no other pedestrian route?” Lindsey was sure the first thing they would have locked down was the maintenance access.
“Not unless you come in above through the lobby.”
“What’s Boss’s status?”
EP was silent for a moment. On the tv, the newscaster interviewed an expert on the cartels. Lindsey looked back across the deli. One guard wanded a woman while the other tried to find something telling in her eyes.
EP came back on the line.
“He says the guards should be moving soon. Get ready to pull the fire alarm in the lobby on my signal. I think he’s going loud.”
~
“The mail guy just dropped it off at reception,” EP said in his ear. Michael put up his DS and went out the door. There was a box sitting on the counter at the reception desk.
“Hey, is that for IT?” He asked.
“Uh, yea.” said the receptionist.
“Thanks. I’ll take it.”
“What is it?”
“New overhead.” She had lost interest before he got the words out. He took the box back into the conference room.
“Anyone rustled out there?” he asked EP.
“No. The guards are all either in the lobby or down in the tunnels.”
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“Do you have eyes on the door?”
“No, but there’re a lot of places with no cameras down there. I sent the map to Theresa.”
Michael opened the box with his keys. Inside was an old computer case. He took it out and unscrewed the panel. Everything was taped down and the only computer component left was the motherboard. He laid it all out on the table.
The receiver slid into the lower half of the P90 with a familiar click. He took the sight out of its padded wrapping and mounted it, attached the flashlight to the side of the top mount, clipped the strap into place, and loaded a magazine with a slap. He took off his overcoat and put the low-profile plate carrier and magazine pouch on his chest. The last thing left on the table was a leather pouch that seemed to have fallen off a fantasy hero. He put it on his belt like a medieval fanny pack and sat back down.
Some part of him wanted to take it all off, throw it back in the box and mail it back, go home and come back on Monday to his new job. He could take Kelsey out, get David’s gamertag, build up a 401k and get to know all the restaurants in the area. He smiled at that part of him and gave it something like a mental hug. After today, he would never see it again.
A helicopter whined outside the window. When it was over his head he got up, set the DS on the table, and walked to the door.
“Stairs or Elevator?”
“They just came off the stairs, but they’re moving to the elevator. Theresa’s not in position yet. They have the tunnel entrance guarded.”
“They should move once I start shooting. Have her pull the fire alarm after he’s off the elevator.”
He opened the door and stepped out into the office. That other part of him screamed, but the sound had become white noise long ago.
The post-lunch haze had set in and no one noticed the ammo pouches or small polymer submachine gun as he walked through the office towards the elevators.
“Sir, you need to sign out please!” The receptionist said. He took the elevator key out of his pouch.
“Center,” said EP in his ear.
“Sir?” She stood up. Michael put the key in the small hole in the door of the center elevator and pushed open the doors. He leaned against one, holding the other back with his foot, flicked on the flashlight on the P90 and set the selector to full auto. A man waiting in front of another elevator saw the gun and screamed.
“Gun!”
Michael aimed up the shaft and fired in short bursts.
Inside the car, rounds zipped through the floor and cracked on the ceiling. One guard took a burst through the foot and leaned on the wall screaming and emptied his mag through the floor. Another guard got hit in the groin and sunk into the corner without a sound.
“Get on the edge! Put him above you!” Andler yelled. The last two guards lifted Paul onto their backs and backed up into the corner. Andler worked the buttons as they fired blindly into the floor. The guard shot in the foot finished reloading and took two rounds under his chin and fell forward as more bullets cut into him. After a few more seconds of gunfire, two empty mags dropped next to his corpse. A flashlight searched up through the floor, lighting up dust and gunsmoke.
The doors opened suddenly. Andler leaped out and the two guards pushed through with Paul between them, his feet barely touching the ground. Bullets chased them out and one cracked inches from his ear.
“What floor is he on?” Andler yelled into the radio.
“Twelve,” a voice answered as gun fire sounded below.
“Send a team to contain him and another to escort us down!”
Michael saw a door open ten stories below him and throw a square of light into the dusty shaft. Two men fired up at him and he stepped back into the lobby.
Across the floor, a man came out of an office at the back. His shoulder flashed and Michael ducked as bullets ripped through the tops of cubicle walls and cracked the marble floor around him.
“About ten heading up the stairs,” EP said in his ear. The fire alarm went off, and his earbuds muffled it to a low tone as he moved up to the side of the reception desk in a low run.
“He’s coming up on the right side,” EP said. Michael stepped to the left of the reception desk, quietly.
When the guards at the door ran for the elevator, Lindsey grabbed her luggage and walked across the tunnel into the dark deli. Through the glass double doors, she saw them pry open one of the elevator shafts and aim pistols up, sweeping the dusty darkness with bright beams. She pushed through the doors into the lobby as they opened fire, and someone screamed.
Four people took off in her direction. She let go of her luggage and stepped right to let them pass and drew her Walther PPQ out of her jacket. She came around them so close the last woman’s hair brushed her shoulder and stopped right behind the guards. From their point of view, she might as well have teleported.
She shot one in the back of the head and the casing bounced off the other guard just above his temple. She shot him before he had finished flinching. They dropped into the dark shaft and the doors slid closed.
“You’re such a smooth bitch. Hit the fire alarm, please.” EP said in her ear. Lindsey flipped the alarm on the wall and grabbed her luggage.
“Thanks. You got eyes on the stairwell?”
“Yea.”
“Where do you want me?”
“Office at the end of the hall. Wait out the evacuation, then set it up.” EP said.
Lindsey walked the suitcase down the lobby like she had never fired a gun in her life.