Red to Fade (6 page)

*

Joel speaks on his walkie-talkie. “I want agents in the indoor car park, vehicle storage floor and the ground floor entrance of the building. Those are the only places where he can go to escape.”

After Joel gave orders, groups of agents on different floors talk amongst themselves and decide which place they should go to. After they make their decisions they proceed to take their places.

All of the agents in the stairwell beside the twelfth floor who have been chasing after Connor listen to Joel's instructions. They talk to each other and make a decision about where they should go to out of all the places where Joel wants agents stationed. An agent called Furlong, who has a higher command than the rest of them, decides to order all agents in the stairwell to run down to the vehicle storage floor. After Furlong gives the order, they all run down the stairs.

Out of the three agents who opened fire on the elevator doors, an agent called Roderick ignores Furlong's instructions. Roderick tells the other two agents who opened fire at the doors not to go to the vehicle storage floor. Roderick and the other two agents stay on the twelfth floor. Roderick sees an axe in a cabinet attached to a wall near the elevator that Connor got into. He smashes the glass of the cabinet with his elbow and grabs the axe. Roderick swings with the axe and forces it through the gap between the elevator doors.

Roderick says to the other agents, “Open the doors.”

One of the agents says, “Should we not listen to Furlong?”

Roderick says, “We can kill Harper, right here, right now.”

The agents are able to get a grip on the doors with their hands because of the gap created by the axe that's rammed in between. Roderick holds on to the axe as the other two agents open the doors with their hands. After they have done so, Roderick throws the axe away. The axe lands on the ground at a distance away from the entrance to the elevator shaft. The three agents see the hydraulic-operated elevator that Connor is in and open fire with their assault rifles. The firearm projectiles pierce through the roof of the elevator and create little explosions of blood as they hit the five dead agents. Connor stands close to the doors, away from the roof of the elevator. The agents' assault rifles finally run out of ammo.

Connor fires bullets with his other assault rifle through the roof of the elevator. By a pure fluke Connor hits one of the agents in the head. The agent falls down the elevator shaft and goes through the roof of the elevator and lands on top of the other dead agents. Roderick and Agent Sadler duck for cover behind walls that are beside the entrance to the elevator shaft, as they don't want to end up like the agent who got shot in the head.

As the elevator goes down to the vehicle storage floor, Connor continues to fire at the beam of light that is shining into the elevator shaft, because that's where the gunshots are coming from.

Connor's assault rifle is out of small metallic missiles and he has finally reached the vehicle storage floor. Connor drops the assault rifle on top of the dead bodies and exits the elevator. Roderick has just remembered that he has a hand grenade attached to a steel buckle on the back of his body armour.

Roderick pulls the hand grenade away from the steel buckle, which loosens the pin of the grenade. Sadler sees what he's doing. Now that the hand grenade has been pulled away from the steel buckle, the grenade can be thrown. Roderick drops the hand grenade down the elevator shaft.

Sadler says, “You had that the whole time and you're only using it now?”

Roderick says, “I just remembered that I had it there.”

Connor hears the noise the grenade makes as it hits the ground surface of the elevator. He turns around and sees the grenade. Connor jumps very quickly to his right. The grenade explodes,
KABOOM!
The explosion turns the elevator and the dead bodies inside into small bits.

Connor isn't badly hurt. He just has a few cuts and bruises. The vehicle storage floor is huge, and located in the back of the FBI building. Directly opposite the elevators where Connor got off, there is a door for a staircase and two more elevators. The door for the staircase is on the left-hand side of the elevators. The vehicle storage floor has four RBM-3 vehicles and loads of FBI jeeps.

In front of the RBM vehicles is a security door. When the security door is open a vehicle is able to exit the vehicle storage floor. When a vehicle has exited another security gate must be opened to allow the vehicle to exit the FBI building and drive into the city. The security door and gate can be opened by a button control panel, which is located inside the vehicle storage floor close to the security door.

The RBM-3 vehicles are silver four-door vehicles that have huge jeep-style wheels, which have boat propeller-style wheel trims. There are also truck bumpers attached to the front of the RBM vehicles. The RBM-3s' body structure is similar to that of a Lamborghini.

The back of the RBM-3 vehicle is similar to the back of a 2010 Ford Super Duty F250; the main difference is there is a gun and a grenade launcher installed in the trailer in the back of an RBM-3. The mini gun/grenade launcher can be controlled remotely by the computer in the RBM-3 vehicle, or controlled manually. There is also a bulletproof camera that is attached to the mini gun.

This bulletproof camera is used to aim the mini gun at targets remotely using the computer in the RBM-3 vehicle. Connor walks over to the RBM vehicle that's in front of the others. To open the RBM vehicle you simply put your finger on the fingerprint scanner and the door will open. All agents have access to the RBM vehicles. Connor opens the door and gets inside.

To start the RBM vehicle you just press your thumb on the fingerprint scanner, which is close to the steering wheel, and the RBM vehicle starts up. Connor starts the RBM vehicle. He activates the gun controls by pressing the blue button on the dashboard. When the button is pressed again this will deactivate the gun controls. Gun controls of the RBM-3 vehicle are activated in the front passenger seat area.

When the gun controls are activated, a hologram screen will appear above the joystick that's used to control the mini gun remotely. There are two buttons on the joystick; one button is used to fire the gun and the other to fire the grenade launcher. The joystick can make the mini gun move and aim in any direction. Balaxian technology is amazing.

The hologram screen is the mini gun's targeting system. The hologram screen displays footage of the bulletproof camera that's attached to the mini gun. There is a target aim symbol on the hologram screen; this is used to aim the gun at targets. When the target aim symbol is aimed at a target, the target can be taken out either by the gun or the grenade launcher.

The hologram targeting system does not affect the driver while they are driving; the driver is still able to see clearly. Connor aims the mini gun remotely at one of the RBMs. He fires the grenade launcher at the bumper.
BOOM!
The grenade explodes and makes the RBM flip up in the air and land upside down. Connor aims for the front left wheel of the other RBM. He fires another grenade.
BOOM!
The wheel is blown off and the RBM rolls to the right and eventually lands upside down.

Connor is blowing up the RBMs because he wants his to be the only RBM on the road. He doesn't want to get chased by any others. Connor aims at the last RBM. He fires another grenade.
KABOOM!
The RBM flips up in the air and lands upside down. Connor hears a dinging sound coming from the elevators, which are at a distance from the right side of the RBM he's in. Connor is beginning to hate the dinging sound elevators make.

So far, every time he's heard a dinging sound coming from the elevators there have been agents coming out of them trying to kill him. Groups of agents come out of the two elevators as well as the door for the staircase; some are armed with assault rifles, some with machine guns and some with machine gun/grenade launchers.

Connor opens fire with the mini gun at the agents coming from the door to the staircase. Still firing, he moves the mini gun slowly to the right. Some of the smart agents duck and some of the not-so-smart agents armed with assault rifles get penetrated with weapon rounds. Some of the shots fired create small blasts of rubble and sparks as they hit the wall and the doors of the elevators. Connor is killing more guys than Rambo and Robocop combined! He deactivates the gun controls, jumps into the driver's seat and accelerates fast. Connor bursts through the security door, leaving a really big hole; then bursts through the security gate and drives onto a road with multiple lanes and busy traffic. There are huge buildings and pedestrians walking on footpaths on the left and right sides of the road that Connor has driven onto.

Connor turns right. A lot of cars are swerving left and right to avoid crashing into him. Some of the cars that are swerving crash into each other. Connor drives past vehicles and switches from lane to lane to go as fast as he can on this road. The agents who survived Connor's shooting see that he has exited the FBI building. They get up off the ground and get into the FBI jeeps. Agents in the driver's side of the FBI jeeps start up the jeeps by putting their fingerprints on the fingerprint ignition.

All FBI agents have access to the FBI jeeps. Eight jeeps filled with agents exit the FBI building and drive in pursuit of Connor. The FBI agents are now driving on the same road that Connor is driving on. Connor turns left and drives onto another road that has multiple lanes and busy traffic. There are office buildings, skyscrapers and pedestrians walking on footpaths on the left and right sides of the road. As Connor turns left onto another road he makes a lot of cars slam on their brakes and crash into the backs of other cars.

*

Agent Alvarez sees Connor turn left onto another road from a distance. Alvarez is wearing a wireless Clandarian mic.

He says, “This is Alvarez. I'm in pursuit of Connor along with other agents in other jeeps. Connor's driving down Cooksville Road in an RBM vehicle.”

Joel is now in the vehicle storage area getting into an FBI jeep with Charles Richardson and some other agents. Other agents are getting into the remaining seven jeeps. Joel put on a Balaxian wireless earpiece mic before he left his office. All of the agents have started their jeeps and are pursuing Connor. The jeep that has Charles and Joel inside is in front of all the others.

Joel speaks. “Alvarez and all other agents who are listening, try to take the vehicle out from a distance with a grenade launcher if you have any. You can make the RBM explode if you fire enough bullets into the exhaust pipe of the RBM. I've seen it being done before.”

Alvarez replies, “Yes, sir.”

Joel speaks again. “Raymond, I need you to get into the helicopter and take Connor out. He's driving down Cooksville Road.”

Raymond replies, “Yes, sir.”

Raymond Burns is a helicopter pilot. He is in the FBI building. There is a military Apache helicopter on the helipad that's on the roof of the FBI building. Raymond gets into an elevator and presses a button for the helipad floor. The elevator goes to the helipad floor and Raymond gets off. Raymond exits the elevator and opens the door in front of him, runs to the helicopter and gets inside.

Raymond starts up the helicopter and flies the helicopter with the cycle stick, the collective lever and the anti-torque pedals. Raymond proceeds to go to Cooksville Road.

*

Connor is crashing and bumping into cars left, right and centre. He is also making cars crash into each other. Connor is not very good at driving this thing; he's only driven the RBM a couple of times in some training sessions. Connor sees a huge lorry heading straight for him.

He shouts, “Shit!”

Connor makes a hard left. There is a row of concrete road barriers on the Hawthorn Bridge preventing drivers driving onto it. Connor smashes through a barrier and is now on Hawthorn Bridge. Hawthorn Bridge is a new bridge that's being built, and has multiple car lanes. There are no builders working on Hawthorn Bridge today because they don't work on Sundays.

Alvarez says, “Connor is driving on Hawthorn Bridge.”

Joel laughs evilly and says to Charles, “Connor's fucked; he's heading to a dead end.”

Hawthorn Bridge is not yet fully built. The bridge is being built to connect two bays of LA, but currently ends in between them. At the end of the unfinished Hawthorn Bridge is the Pacific Ocean. Eight FBI jeeps drive over the destroyed concrete road barrier one after the other and drive along Hawthorn Bridge.

Joel says, “Raymond, I want you to corner off Connor at the end of Hawthorn Bridge. As soon as you have him in your sights take him out.”

Raymond replies, “Yes, sir.”

Raymond proceeds to fly to the end of Hawthorn Bridge. The eight jeeps filled with agents are gaining on Connor.

Alvarez says, “OK, guys, try to take Connor out with the grenade launchers. If you fire bullets at the bulletproof camera of the mini gun it makes it difficult for Connor to target someone. I reckon you should take out the mini gun first and then take out the RBM.”

The agents that are in the five jeeps in front of the other three form an attack formation. In each of the five jeeps an agent pops out of the sunroof, front passenger window and back passenger window. In the eight FBI jeeps that are close to Connor some agents are armed with standard machine guns and some with machine gun/grenade launchers. All of the agents are also carrying 15-shooter handguns.

The armed agents in the five jeeps open fire. Some agents are trying to hit the bulletproof camera of the mini gun and other agents are trying to hit the exhaust pipe of the RBM. Their gun shells just bounce off the RBM. Firing ammunition from a gun at the RBM is like firing a BB gun at a wall. The firearm projectiles are not doing any damage to the RBM at all. They create small sparks as they hit it. Some of the agents are firing grenades from their machine gun/grenade launchers. Connor is swerving the RBM left and right to avoid the grenades.