CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
Ric and Reeves had no trouble getting into their new white suits, courtesy of poor dead Graham. They holed nearby and simply strolled up to the chancellor’s tower, as anybody still could at that time. Reeves drew looks, due to his dark skin, but otherwise all was promising.
Reeves did his part as they had planned, taking his place in front of the tower’s southeast entrance. He walked right up to an armed guard, stopped, and spat right in the guard’s face. Taken completely aback, the guard leveled his weapon to kill Reeves on the spot for his crime. But Reeves was fast and he cut around the corner of the building.
But the guard was no dummy, and though he left his post in front of the door, he wasn’t about to go running around a blind corner, one of the few as
the tower walls were solid and not transparent like most. So the guard stopped at the entrance of the alley, raised his machine gun, and prepared to blast whoever or whatever was in his sites.
But he didn’t count on Ric, who’d been looting unseen just a few feet away. He rammed the guard from behind before he could shoot, and the two men tumbled into the alley, where Reeves waited to finish the man off with a sharp twist of the neck.
The rest of the plan was just as elegantly simple. They dragged the guard deeper into the alley and Ric swapped clothes, donning the armed guard uniform and redressing the guard in his civilian whites.
Then Ric walked Reeves, with his hands behind his back as if he were handcuffed, right into the tower in plain view of everyone. The only risk was that someone would notice that the southeast entrance had been abandoned, and that was likelier to happen sooner rather than later. So Ric and Reeves wasted no time getting to the elevator to ascend to the upper floors.
But neither Ric nor Reeves had any way to know where Jeanell and the others would be, or what they’d be stepping into when they got off that elevator. And before they could find out, somebody else stepped into it—two chancellery officers. And they instantly focused in on Ric and Reeves.
One asked Ric, “What’s all this?”
Ric said, “This… thing spat in my face.”
The officers looked at each other. “Why didn’t you just shoot it? That’s what the damned gun is for!” The two officers chuckled, Ric and Reeves didn’t. “And why aren’t you at your post?”
Ric’s mouth went dry. “I got somebody else to cover for me. And I think this guy’s got some info for us.”
“Yeah? About what?”
Ric looked Reeves over, menacingly. “Not sure. But look at him; you know he’s hiding something. He’s a criminal!”
One of the officers shrugged. “Well, obviously.”
The other guard said to Ric, “Okay, we’ll take it from here.”
Ric said, “I’m sorry?”
The other guard said, “You go back down to your post and we’ll take the prisoner up from here.”
“But… he’s my prisoner.”
One of the officers snarled at Ric. “Are you disobeying a direct order?”
“Well, no, of course not, but—”
“Then surrender the prisoner and stand down or be shot!”
“Oh, um, okay,” Ric said, “I understand.” He and Reeves shared a quick glance before Reeves burst forth in an attack on one of the officers, wrapping his massive black hands around the man’s skinny white throat.
The officer went for his gun, but Ric grabbed it first and pistol whipped the other officer with two sharp blows, putting the man on the elevator floor, where his partner soon joined him. Ric asked, “Think there’s time for another quick change?”
The lights along the elevator doors indicated the third floor from the top. The elevator doors slid open, and Ric and Reeves realized they were out of options. Reeves took the officers’ handguns and daggers, Ric still holding the machine gun.
“Okay,” Ric said, “let’s do this.” After a tense silence and before stepping out into the hallway, Ric added, “See you on the other side.”
“Yes, you will.”
***
Chancellor Kana said, “No, she dies now.”
“But… why? I want her!”
“She’ll get loose, escape. We can’t afford that. I can’t afford it.”
“Where is she gonna go?” Brad looked her over. “I’ve waited a long, long time for this.”
Chancellor Kana said, “One more word and I’ll have you both shot.” She turned to an armed guard. “Do it, do it now!”
Jeanell’s instincts threw her legs into action, arms stretched out as she charged the guard. It was a desperate attempt, a Hail Mary pass, but soon enough, she clutched the machine gun between them, grunting and gasping as she tried to pull the gun out of the man’s hands, but he was almost twice her size and she had no chance of taking control of the weapon.
Vice Chancellor Haines shook his head, a pathetic half smile on his bony face. He said, “Give it up, Miss Glenn. You’re a national hero! The very least you can do is die like one.”
Jeanell ignored him, feebly pulling at the big machine gun. And even if she couldn’t wrest if from his hands, at least she couldn’t be shot by that automatic rifle from that position.
Chancellor Kana finally said, “Enough is enough,” before pulling a handgun from a black leather shoulder holster of her black-and-red uniform. She leveled the gun at the back of Jeanell’s head.
Bang! Bang! Jeanell’s legs buckled, but her legs didn’t give out. She remained on her feet, though for a moment she was sure that she was dead and that her body just didn’t know it.
Bang, bam, bam, bam! Both Jeanell and the chancellor behind her looked over to see their armed guard running across the office to the double doors. More muffled gunshots rang out behind that.
The chancellor wrapped her arm around Jeanell’s neck, pushing the barrel of the gun against her temple.
The vice chancellor asked his superior, “What are you doing, Heir Chancellor? Kill her, kill her now!”
“It’s too late, you fool! We’re besieged. We need her as a hostage now.” She turned to Brad. “You, get a gun and start shooting.”
Brad asked, “What? Wait, no.”
The chancellor said, “I beg your pardon?”
“I don’t do guns. I’m a terrible shot. Really, I’d probably do more harm than good.”
The chancellor smiled, glancing at Jeanell in her grip. She said to Brad, “You’re a lover, not a fighter.”
“Right, exactly.”
“Excellent,” the chancellor said, leveling her handgun at Brad and shooting twice. Brad took the first shot in the chest and the second in the forehead, his body flying back, eyes wide and stunned.
Jeanell’s heart pounded in her chest, her breath thin in her lungs even as a surprised gasp spilled out of her mouth. But she didn’t have time to think about it for long before the chancellor returned the gun to her temple and said to Vice Chancellor Haines, “Take a position at the door.”
“I should hang back, stay close to you.”
The chancellor thought about it, then nodded and turned to the double doors, gunfire and screaming muffled behind those golden gates.
They wouldn’t hold for long.
***
Outside, Ric and Reeves had cut a bloody swath down the gold-drenched hallways of the chancellor’s tower. Reeves wielding a machine gun and Ric two handguns, one in each hand. Bam, bam, bam! Two men fell to Ric’s bullets, and another three to Reeves’ barrage. But both men were quick to discard their weapons and replace them with those of their fallen enemies. They had still been one level below the chancellor’s office, and both were armed with machine guns. Rat-tat-tat-tat, their enemies fell, but not without a fight. Bullets whizzed by overhead, planting unto the walls nearby, the floor at their feet, scars dug into the soft gold walls.
Reeves pitched back with an oof! Ric provided cover fire, clearing the hallway before turning to Reeves as he bent forward. “Reeves, you okay?”
He winced, teeth gritted. “For now,” he said, “ain’t put me down yet.”
“Where?”
“Right thigh.” Ric knew how bad that was; Reeves needed those legs to survive the mission, and to accomplish his goal. There would also be a lot of blood loss, probably enough to seal the man’s fate.
“You can push on?” Reeves nodded, and Ric went on to ask, “Loaded up?”
Reeves peered down the hall. “That guy owes me a gun. Let’s go collect.”
They moved quickly down the hall, dropping their weapons and taking up new ones at every turn. Reeves winced again and nearly fell off his feet, but Ric braced the big man with a hand on his arm. They crept forward together, the haze of gunfire thick in the air. Though it was 2076, it could have been 2016, or 1926. That ancient weapon of death still reigned supreme, and no sophisticated building material or transportation device could stop its deadly power.
Some things never changed.
Two more armed guards stepped into the hall and called out, “You there, stop! What’s going on here?” But they had already leveled their weapons at Ric and Reeves, ready to mow them down in a kill-or-be-killed confrontation of shoot first, ask questions later.
But Ric and Reeves were ready too, crouched down and shooting for all their worth. Ric saw the two men in front of them snap back, their Kevlar vests ineffective against the severity of their own weapons turned against them.
The two men crumpled, one still shooting with the twitch of his death nerve. Ric’s heart pounded, hands slippery with sweat.
Ric turned to urge Reeves forward, but his partner was already slumped against the wall with a bloodied chest, eyes staring out for their last glimpse of the planet Earth.
Ric fell to him. “Reeves, buddy, I’m… I’m sorry.”
Reeves looked at him, eyes filled with blood. “Get her out, boy… get… her…”
Reeves slumped into death, tears rolling down Ric’s cheek. He set Reeves’ head onto the floor and whispered with a bittersweet chuckle, “Don’t call me boy.”