Ntshona (26 page)

The moment was tense. It was tempting to eliminate the enemy before he could attempt the same, yet the distance alone was a deterrent. The next one vaulted over a sizeable rock by the border of the woods, and followed rapidly behind the first guard in the same direction.

Eve glanced over her right shoulder to check the blue digits above the lift’s entrance. It was somewhere close to the two-hundredth floor. She made a rapid calculation, “We’ve still got over twenty seconds to wait”.

The third security guard emerged, accompanied closely by the fourth, who spotted the group straight away and immediately started firing rounds.

Accuracy at this distance was a problem on both sides, but Lon, Eve and Lin dispersed and fired reciprocally.

Nobody from either side made a hit, but bullet holes began to appear in ground and walls around each party. If one were to get hit at this point, it would be a fluke.

“The lift’s almost here!” yelled Eve.

Among the sounds of rounds being expelled, one, to Lon’s surprise, appeared to whistle past his head in a direction other than expected. Overwhelmed by the action of the engagement, neither Lon, Eve nor Lin had managed to do a headcount on the enemy, and recognition of the difference in numbers between the security personnel seen in the glass corridors and those currently in interlocking combat had been unrealised until the point when that one round came inches away from obliterating Lon’s head.

“Jesus Christ! There are more of them among the trees!” he called out to his companions. He fired wildly in an arc-like motion from one group of enemies to the other.

Within a few seconds the door of the lift slipped open.

“It’s here, get in!” Eve screamed. She almost leapt inside, and the other two managed the same while remaining unscathed from the attack. “Keep going!” she commanded.

It was instantly obvious that on this floor the lifts doubled as exists straight into the adjacent corridor.

Eve remained inside momentarily to instruct the lift to go to the “Ground floor, now!” and just managed to slip through the closing door on the other side, following Lon and Lin.

The three stood panting heavily in the corridor out of view; the walls here were opaque.

“What now?” puffed Lon.

Eve attempted to gather her breath for a prompt, timesaving response, “They should follow the lift to the lobby”.

“Brilliant idea, you’re a lot sharper than I thought,” praised Lin, “but they’ll click on eventually, especially if we keep using our EMP chips”.

“But we’ll be seen by the security system if we don’t,” Lon pointed out, “what happens then?”

“They’ll have no reason to suspect us if we discard our weapons and split up”.

“What?!” Eve was agitated even more so than she had been prior to this suggestion, “Why do we need to split up?”

“Because they’ll be looking for two Chinese faces and a white one together”.

“But I’m not Chinese!”

“They don’t know that! I doubt they’re thinking about political correctness right at this moment!”

“What about our weapons?” asked Lon, “We can’t chuck them because they’ll have our fingerprints all over”.

Lin’s expression was one of shock. “You’re not wearing fingerprint masks?!”

“No, nothing like that was even mentioned to us!”

She put her face in her hand and thought hard. “Fucking hell, talk about a botched job. You’ll have to keep hold of them and try not to look suspicious”.

“What about you?” Eve asked.

“The government don’t have my fingerprints on record, so I’m getting rid of my guns as soon as possible”.

“Why don’t they?” Both Eve and Lon were perplexed as, to their knowledge, the government held such information on everybody from the country.

She deactivated the EMP device on her palm screen. “It’s not necessary to talk about such things now, we need to split up and get the fuck out of here”. She began to walk away. “Leave the way you came in. Look for a car with the colours of the old republic. I’ll see you outside in twenty minutes. If not, I’ll assume you’re dead”. She discarded both guns she was in possession of, let down her hair, and vanished around the first corner she encountered.

Neither Lon nor Eve could believe what was happening, they both held expressions of wide-eyed astonishment and remained mute for the next few moments, until Lon broke the silence, “I was under the impression she was here to save us”.

Facing the hard-to-swallow reality, Eve and Lon deactivated their EMP devices and retroverted their guns into their original shapes.

Taking another nearby lift straight to the ground floor was a ridiculous idea. “Lead the way,” said Lon.

The section of the building in which they were currently resembled the minus-twentieth floor in regard to the calmness. Perhaps security had already cleared the area, or the fighting in the nature replication area had frightened everyone and caused them to flee.

Several passageways and a fast-paced two minute walk later, they found a commonly underused stairwell, where they descended five stories. Activity on the two hundred and ninetieth floor seemed as normal.

“Why isn’t there some sort of security lockdown?” inquired Lon.

“I’d imagine they don’t want to disrupt productivity. Time is money, you know?”

At a standard pace to cast off any suspicion, they made their way to another lift quite far from the shaft that was used as a decoy several minutes prior.

“Ground floor”.

Towards the lobby the lift began.

“Don’t you think the security in the lobby will be a little… tight after all this?” said Lon.

“Lon, I can’t even speculate
… It’s like they do the opposite of everything we expect. We’ll just have to hold thumbs”.

“You’re right,” Lon made certain that his face was clear of sweat and other notable imperfections, and tried to rearrange his lab coat to feel more comfortable. “Are you sure no blood has seeped through?” he checked himself over in preparation for the home stretch.

“Not that I can see. Do I look okay?”

“You look fine too. Just try not to look so stressed”.

“Easier said than done”.

They both steadied their breathing with large inhalations.

“Almost there,” Eve nodded at the floor count, and they silently enumerated along with the display.

Their speed decreased, and the tension in the air
inspissated.

The swiftness of the countdown on the display gradually lessened and stopped
… on the fifth floor.

Lon shot a worried “What the hell?” sort of look at Eve, to which she responded with the same.

The doors opened to reveal three security guards holding their guns at head height. Before either of the twosome could muster a reaction, the guard in the middle said in threateningly cold, deep voice “Hand over the briefcases, slowly”.

Lon and Eve complied, giving the guard on each side the disguised guns.

“Put your hands behind your heads and get out of the lift”.

Again they complied.

“What’s going on?” Lon forced a breath of cluelessness into his articulation.

“You have no reason to know,” menaced the same guard, “now move”.

The couple each experienced a gun muzzle in the back and were forcibly moved down the corridor. Along the way were many more security personnel stationed by every lift and some laboratory entrances.

Lon attempted discrete eye contact with Eve, and wanted to mouth “I think we’re okay”, but could not manage to.

“Why did you take our briefcases?” he asked, expecting no decent response.

“Shut up,” said a new voice.

Soon they were pushed through a door into a medium-sized, generic-looking research lab. Sunlight poured in through the large windows at the far side of the uniformly white room. Nobody was present prior to their arrival.

“Stand over by the windows,” again came the new voice.

They did as they were told. From here Lon quickly noticed two things; that Eve had done as Lin had instructed and taken them close to their initial entrance point into the building, and - something he never thought he would need to be aware of - the base of the building had a noticeably more gradual incline than the rest of its height. He quietly tapped the worktop with a knuckle. Solid, not wood.

He turned around and found that the menacing guard did not accompany them the whole way, and the remaining two had placed the briefcases on a workbench close to the centre of the room, and one of the guards was attempting to open one.

“Which section do you work in?” asked the other guard.

“Bio-med,” said Eve, “why?”

“I didn’t tell you to ask me questions,” he fiercely responded.

Lon could see the guard struggling to open the briefcase. He thought he could try and stall for time. “Why do you need our briefcases anyway?”

“Don’t ask questions!” yelled the other guard.

“You’ll only find our research in there”.

“Hey, shut it!”

Lon purposely continued to infuriate the man, “I can open the briefcase for your friend, you know? He seems to be struggling a little”.

“Listen, boy, if you don’t shut the hell up right now, I swear I’ll moer you through the face!”

Lon, in fact, was frightened, yet defiantly radiated boldness.

Eve subsisted in her silence, trying to discern Lon’s plan, because he surely had one if he were talking with so much nerve in such a dire situation.

He bated his behaviour long enough to feign a sigh, turn and surreptitiously slide his hand into a pocket on the inside of his lab coat. “I know what’s going on,” he resumed with a conceited tone, “there’s been a security breach, hasn’t there?”

“Right!” yelled the progressively furious man.

Lon half-turned to see him moving forwards.

“I fucking warned you!”

Just as the man came within a few steps, Lon slammed his hand on the worktop and launched himself at Eve, and as they slammed hard onto the floor tiles their bodies were lapped with ravening heat and they once again succumbed to auditory failure.

Certainly at least the guard closest was permanently taken out by the grenade, however the fate of the other was uncertain; he was definitely blown off his feet, as Lon and Eve both could see once they stood, although whether his life was now void was another matter, and one they felt not the need to discover.

Reorientation is far easier after a blast that you are prepared for, as they quickly learnt, so, taking immediate advantage of the turn of events, they snapped up their briefcases as not to leave any traces of their identities, and Lon motioned Eve towards the shattered windowpane where he helped her clamber onto the worktop and onto the sill overlay with shards of desecrated glass.

In any other situation Eve would have protested this reckless course of action, however this escape felt to be the least rash option. She dared to put her faith in Lon and squeezed his left hand hard with her right.

After a backward glance to check for pursuers, Lon braved the next step out onto the Science Centre’s outer wall, slowly at first to get his footing on the steep slope of the building’s grounding. Once his base was steady he assisted Eve to follow. They both anticipated the need to increase their speed, but first thought it best to find where they were supposed to go; Cat’s car, no doubt.

There was a sizable car park only metres away from the foot of the building, yet what they both noticed first was the presence of security personnel outside the building, unlike when they had gone in.

Bullet holes suddenly began to pelt the granite around them, visibly emanating from the guards at ground level. The usual crowds of workers around the building scattered.

Lon lost his grip on the steep incline and fell on his rump, dragging Eve down with him. The building’s solid white surface radiated a powerful heat collected over hours of exposure to the intense sun, and was difficult to withstand. As soon as he felt the burning he tried with great restraint to pull himself and Eve to their feet without falling forwards into an uncontrollable tumble. Certainly, though, they would have to pick up speed.

A barrage of barely audible blasts came from close behind them, from the window through which they had just exited.

In a panic, Lon and Eve both began to take medium, quick steps to put distance between themselves and the window, yet were caught by the next flurry of bullets from behind. Lon landed hard on his belly and slid several feet, at the same time unconscientiously releasing the grip in both hands, causing his briefcase to roll to the ground, and inducing an imbalance in Eve’s equilibrium leading to a falter in her steps, and ultimately she toppled over into a rapid spin for several seconds before managing to stop herself with outstretched arms. She was orientated to face the shooters who had just released that last volley, and was astonished to see one fall off the sill and slide down the wall towards her for several feet, leaving a trail of smeared blood along the way. Then another dead guard dropped in the same way. Clearly someone was helping.