CHAPTER 16
“EVACUATE IMMEDIATELY!” I did my best to channel Jeff’s bellow. No one bellowed like my man, but I was pretty good. I was also stupid, trusting, and had made myself and my team literal sitting ducks, but I’d go with pretty good on the bellowing and call it even right now.
Happily, everyone here had been in an action situation with me before. The K-9 guys scooped up their dogs, Len and Kyle went in between the K-9s and took hold so they were all connected to each other, and Colette grabbed Melville’s arm and headed back for the bathroom gate.
I grabbed Tito and Evalyne, who grabbed Phoebe. I zoomed us back to the bathroom in time to see the last part of Riley’s tail going through the gate. Didn’t stop to think, just threw the three of them through the gate behind the others. Either Colette had taken the time to calibrate it, or they were all headed to the Dome, which was where the majority of gates recalibrated to after each use.
Didn’t go through myself because I still had Kevin and Manfred here, plus however many A-Cs had answered Evalyne’s call, as well as all the rest of the D.C.P.D. that might be hanging about. The prisoners might not want to be blown up, either.
Happily, there was a fire alarm in the bathroom. Chose not to ask why it was here and instead pulled it, thanking whoever had designed this place for having some foresight. More foresight than me, at any rate. Then I ran back into the holding cells, Rage riding shotgun, which was always a good thing for me in these kinds of situations.
The Casey-Bot hadn’t exploded yet, but I had to figure it was just a matter of time. Of course, she was bending the bars of her cell, so she might have been holding off in order to create more damage. Or catch me, since it was obvious I’d been the target. Totally obvious. Now. Rage shared that I was indeed an idiot, but being stupid made me madder and that was fine.
Left her there—she hadn’t achieved much yet in terms of bar bends and I had a lot of people to clear out. I’d deal with her sooner or later, probably sooner.
Found the stairs and ran up, pulling my iPod and earbuds out of my purse as I did so. Some people wouldn’t have practiced this move for a danger situation, but those people weren’t me. I worked a lot better with tunes. Got the iPod clipped to my belt and the earbuds in before I reached the top of this set of stairs. Hit random and was rewarded with “Speak of the Devil” by Sum 41 hitting my ears.
Turned out there were several floors above where we were, and I checked the first one I came to, pulling any fire alarms I passed along the way. I had no idea if this added anything to the general cacophony or what, but figured it couldn’t hurt. Didn’t bother me because Sum 41 was handling ear protection, so to speak.
No people were in evidence. Ran up to the next level. No people again. Headed up the next set of stairs and ran into Kevin and Manfred at the top, literally.
“Ooof!” Managed to grab Manfred so I didn’t fall down, and he somehow was able to stay upright and not lose either me or Kevin.
“What’s going on?” Kevin asked.
“Casey’s an android of some kind and she’s going to blow.”
“Why are you still here?” Manfred asked, sounding shocked. Thought he knew me better than that, but then again, panic situations tended to focus a person on core personality traits, and Manfred was a protector.
“Um, because you two are still here. And, you know, everyone else.”
“Why ask why?” Kevin said to Manfred. “It’s Kitty.” He took a firm hold of my hand. “Get us to the gate.”
“But there are people in here!”
“We had A-Cs on-site,” Kevin said as we headed back the way I’d come. “The fire alarm meant they went into action. Everyone’s evacuated other than us, and we were coming back to make sure you’d gotten to safety.” Well, that huge relief explained why I’d found no one so far. Go team.
“What about the prisoners?” There were men and women in these cells. They might have been in for DUIs or prostitution or much worse, but still, they might be innocent, and even if they weren’t, this wasn’t the way they should go. Cliff’s insanity had killed too many people—innocent and guilty alike, indiscriminately and with much happy malice aforethought—for me to want to let him or his minions kill anyone else.
“I don’t care about them,” Kevin said. “I care about the First Lady.”
The Casey-Bot was out and blocking us. Manfred managed to come to a stop before we reached her. She smiled at us, one of those nasty smiles all the bad guys seemed to adore. “And here I was trying to help you.”
Wrenched out of Kevin’s hold as “Thanks for Nothing” came on. My iPod wasn’t on general random, it was on random for Sum 41. Worked for me. “Be right with you, Casey.” Looked back at Kevin and Manfred. “And I care about all of you. Get those people and yourselves out, and that’s an executive order or whatever. I’ll handle our Casey-Bot.” With that, I flipped myself forward.
Hit her in the chest with both feet and congratulated myself on the skills working to optimum. Not that it was hard when I was this angry. And not that there was anyone around to witness it, because, thankfully, Manfred had taken my direct order to heart and was wrenching the cell doors open while Kevin collected prisoners, so they were a little occupied.
The Casey-Bot went backwards and as she hit the floor I sprang off and flipped into a crouch facing her. She flipped up from a prone position onto her feet. If she somehow wasn’t an android, she was a world-class gymnast. Voted for android without a lot of contemplation.
She swung a roundhouse kick at me, which I dodged while I swept her legs, which she jumped over. This landed her closer to me, though, so I sent an upward blade kick into her stomach and she flew back into her cell.
Kevin slammed the cell door shut and grabbed me. Then he pulled a gun and started shooting, right at her head. Six shots in, her head crumpled and I knew what was coming for sure now. Chose not to wait around and took off for the bathroom.
Arrived as Manfred was shoving what I hoped was the last prisoner through. Heard the explosion and it sounded massive. Didn’t look around, just shoved Manfred through as well and kept on going, dragging Kevin with me, hoping the heat I was feeling was just my imagination.