The other Supers and drivers walked over to
get a first-hand account.
“What’s taking so long?” asked Alan. He
scanned their faces as if he already knew but believed the question
needed to be posed to be fair.
“What’s the procedure from here?” asked
Klaus.
Now Alan was confused and repeated his
question in a different form, “What’s wrong here?”
“Chris isn’t cooperating. What’s next?” said
Klaus.
Alan spotted Chris’s empty hands versus
Frank’s gun toting hands. He moved on. “Grant and I will disable
the two sentries and then join Jean, Bernard, Hal, and Rachel as
perimeter support. Frank and Chris are to lead in disabling all
surveillance equipment including the data bank located in the
northeast corner with Klaus and Johnykin on their backs to secure
the package. Take the gun or not, you’re heading in.”
“I’m not shooting anybody,” said Chris.
“They’re only cameras,” said Grant.
“Why am I shooting cameras if the drivers
are videotaping this anyway?” asked Chris.
Alan looked at Chris and then turned to
Frank, “You have the program ready?”
Frank pulled out a flash drive for
confirmation and then pocketed it just as quickly.
“Let’s move out,” said Grant as he slapped
Alan’s shoulder to diminish the theft of what should have been
their leader’s line.
The Supers jogged up the hill at different
points and then crawled up to the peak to peer over. The drivers
hustled back to their SUVs, adeptly pulled digital camcorders and
shotgun microphones from padded suitcases and followed their Supers
up the hill as well.
Johnykin and Klaus were up the hill, but
Frank stayed behind with Chris. The driver had placed the gun
reserved for Chris back in the duffle bag it came from. Chris
stared at it.
“Just take the damn thing. You’re not going
to go to hell for shooting plastic and metal,” said Frank.
Every willful fiber in Chris’s being
screamed ‘no’ as he continued to stare. Frank had said enough and
caught up to Johnykin and Klaus. If it meant anything, Chris told
himself, he was making the choice. He picked up the gun and jogged
up the hill.
Just as Alan said, two guards were outside
the warehouse. One was sitting, possibly sleeping, on a chair in
front of the door. The other walked lazily around the building,
which was surprisingly small. To Chris it looked a third the size
of the X-Tech store he worked at. Chris looked over to his left to
check on Alan and Grant. They were checking on him too. Grant gave
a thumbs up, which Chris thought was for him, but was really the
cue for the drivers who all simultaneously clicked on their
camcorders and pointed the microphones directly where the action
was about to begin.
The walking guard was around the back of the
warehouse out of sight. Alan and Grant jumped to their feet and
sprinted down the hill towards the stationary guard in his chair.
They moved swiftly, but not as fast as Chris thought they should
have. Johnykin and Klaus were blurs at top speed and these two
looked merely Olympic level.
It didn’t matter as the guard in his chair
must have been sleeping, because when Grant made it to him he
didn’t move a muscle until Grant’s fist pounded into his head. The
blow sent the guard into the dirt and into an even deeper sleep
than he was in before. Alan went around the building to catch up
from behind on the second guard.
A single shot echoed and everyone tensed,
but Alan ran back into sight immediately with a wave to continue
the mission. Frank bumped Chris intentionally to start him
following a path down the hill. Two cameras perched on the front
corners of the building peered down at the approaching sidekicks.
Frank squeezed the trigger for a short three burst shot at the
camera to the left obliterating it. Chris moved in front of the one
on the right and hesitated. Frank moved towards him about to do the
same damage to this camera as the left one, but Chris widened his
stance, took aim, and fired. His three bullets surrounded the
camera, missing it completely.
Frank stifled a laugh as Chris steadied his
hand and aimed the weapon the way he saw it in the movies. This
point of reference surprisingly worked and the next three bullets
shattered the plastic and metal. Frank sprinted past Chris to the
back corner wall of the warehouse where the next camera waited for
its destruction. Chris pushed down the adrenaline fueled smile to
check the other back corner and almost tripped over the guard lying
on the ground. He looked quickly at the unconscious body before
taking out the last outside camera.
Frank leaned against the entrance door,
waiting for Chris to catch up. When Chris arrived he jumped into
position to face whatever waited inside.
“You open the door on my signal,” said
Frank, and pulled his gun to eye level.
“Uh-huh,” said Chris, breathing hard and
placing his hand on the door handle.
Frank moved his gun down and then up to
signal. Chris tugged at the handle. His fingers slipped out and he
stumbled back as the door stayed completely shut.
“Shit, it’s locked,” said Chris.
Out of the corner of his eye Frank saw Klaus
and Johnykin jogging up behind them ready to go. Frank released an
unnecessary amount of bullets on and around the door’s lock and
then kicked to check if it was effective. The door was loose and
Chris pulled it open. Frank moved in and Chris followed with
Johnykin and Klaus right on his tail.
The warehouse was fully lit and empty
besides a dozen crates scattered to create a maze. Bullets rang out
as Frank took out another camera. Chris scanned the ceiling as he
maneuvered around. There was only one more camera he could find,
but Frank got to it first and riddled it with bullets. Johnykin and
Klaus walked calmly around and inspected the crates. Stamps in
Syraic were placed on every side of the crates. Chris wasn’t sure
if Johnykin or Klaus could read it but they all looked the
same.
Chris just remembered the second part of his
role when a hand slapped his butt hard. His finger still on the
trigger fired a bullet through the roof. As he turned to complain
to Johnykin not to scare him like that, he found himself face to
face with Klaus.
“Nice job, but keep your finger next to the
trigger until you find another deadly camera.”
“Quit fucking around Chris and get over
here,” said Frank, from a corner of the warehouse.
Chris hustled over to see Frank crouched
next to a computer tower and a monitor. At a quick glance the setup
looked simple and Chris couldn’t see why Frank needed his help.
“Do you see a USB port?” asked Frank. “There
is none. I’ve looked everywhere.” He grabbed the tower and moved it
left to right in order to find any kind of opening but the case was
smooth plastic with only a couple blinking lights breaking up the
clean finish.
“What do you have a virus for, the air
conditioning unit? That’s all that’s on the monitor,” said
Chris.
“Dumb ass, it’s controlled from an outside
source. If I upload the virus it will reach that source and any
others that should be connected to it. But I need a damn port.”
“If I had some solder and a couple other
tools we could directly connect it to the motherboard,” said
Chris.
“We don’t and we don’t have time,” said
Frank. He raised his gun at the tower.
Chris jumped back to get away from the
ensuing shrapnel. His leap put him straight into a crate that
screeched a few feet across the floor upon impact.
“Thanks for the hand,” said Klaus pushing
another crate closer to the large sectional door for their eventual
exit.
“Chris, take a look at the control panel for
the door. Hopefully it’ll open without Klaus and I tearing a couple
big holes through it,” said Johnykin.
Simply enough was a two button panel on the
wall. Chris walked over and pressed one button, nothing happened,
and then pressed the second one which rolled up the door like a
garage opener. The mission seemed over until Frank rushed in front
with his gun sweeping the area ready to fire. Chris startled and
followed the lead bringing his own gun up.
Nothing appeared. Klaus and Johnykin pushed
the crates through and out away from the warehouse while Frank
continued his protective lookout with Chris in tow. Once everything
was cleared from inside, Klaus touched his ear and spoke into his
radio. Chris forgot they had them.
The other Supers closed in on them in less
than a minute. They were relaxed, but still eyeing their
surroundings. Alan called up the extraction on his radio and just
as swiftly as the Supers, the SUVs circled the team and crates.
Everyone stood around watching.
Chris was dying to make a joke or say
something stupidly sarcastic to get past the climactic point, but
the steady drone of a helicopter did it for him. It came over the
hill they had come from and then hovered above. A large pallet
lowered from the helicopter’s belly just to the side of the dozen
crates. As soon as it hit the ground with slight maneuvering by
Alan and Grant, Johnykin and Klaus loaded the pallet. The drivers
brought out the camcorders again to capture the end of the
successful mission.
Chapter
Eighteen
“That was...” said Chris. He looked around the SUV as
it bumped along a barely paved road. Everyone had a guess in what
he would say and Chris felt it so he went in a different direction,
“Super.”
They snickered and rolled their eyes. Chris
continued, “Well not really super. It was two against ten. I mean
did you see how not fast Alan and —“
“Leave it alone, hippie,” said Frank.
“You're just glad you didn't have to shoot anyone but could still
come along and play. You can't have both worlds all the time.”
“Yeah, leave it alone, Frank,” said
Johnykin.
The wrap-up party excitement dwindled only
slightly as Klaus ignored the rest of his team's bitterness to jump
back into a steady banter with their driver once again. The small
conversations from earlier were now heavily filled with flirtations
on both parts. Johnykin looked eager to prod her fellow Super for
his blatant speech but stopped short as it was much more
entertaining to just sit back and watch. Frank and Chris noticed
the same value in the show going on in the front seats and looked
on with glee as well.
Klaus eventually realized he had a
viewership and acknowledged them with a wink and smile and kept on.
The back row giggled like teenagers that snuck into an R-rated
film.
The ride took a good two hours and sucked
most of the adrenaline out of the back seat. Limbs stiffened and
eyes drooped as the SUV pulled over to another lightly forested
area, which would be turned into camp.
Outside the sun reminded Chris they had a
whole day left in front of them. Frank caught his eye and wiggled a
cell phone at him to remind him he should call Sadie. Chris
struggled to think of how many days it had been since they talked,
which of itself made him aware he needed to stop thinking and call
her. With his phone next to his ear, Chris saw everyone else doing
the same.
Sadie picked up, he wasn’t sure what time it
was there, but she was excited to hear him.
“How are you?” she asked.
“Fine, fine,” said Chris.
“Is there bad reception where you are? I
mean right now I can hear you fine, but what took you so long to
call me? Are there rules against it? What?”
“Uh, I don’t know about rules. The
reception, yeah, it isn’t everywhere. I don’t even really know how
I have reception now. We’re kind of in the middle of nowhere. Well,
there are trees.”
“Uh-huh.” Sadie paused. Chris could see her
in his mind gulping down the thousand other interrogative questions
that would only make her more upset. He should have pushed to call
her earlier.
He pulled out the big gun he’d had plenty of
experience with. “I miss you.”
“Yeah, you better. Wait. You’re just saying
that to get on my good side you little shit.”
“Maybe. But it’s true. I’m sorry I didn’t
call you earlier. It’s crazy over here or just different. I don’t
really know yet.”
“Your son and daughter have also missed you
and would have appreciated a phone call so they could know their
father wasn’t dead.”
“I’m sorry. How are they?”
“Oh, you need a couple more apologies first
before you can ask about them. Or anyone.”
“I don’t know if we can say anything, but we
just finished our first mission.”
“They’re calling them missions? Are you a
special ops group? Oh my God. What are they having you do?”
“Nothing. No, I don’t think we’re special
ops. It was nothing. We just took some weapons away.”
“What kind of weapons? How are you doing
this? They don’t need you. The Supers can take weapons away. God,
Chris. You should be at home. Come home already.”
“It’s only been a couple days. They need
me.”
“We need you too. This is ridiculous.” Chris
heard Sadie sniffle and snort. Again he could see her in his mind;
this time crying.
Chris had gradually moved out of earshot of
the group during the phone call and looked up now to see a fire
building in intensity in the middle of the camp. Those not on phone
calls of their own we’re smiling and moving things around in
preparation for something Chris couldn’t figure out just yet. His
mind wanted to connect the dots, but was still entrenched under
Sadie’s emotional gravity.
“It’s not going to take much longer,” said
Chris to break up Sadie’s silence.
“When?” asked Sadie.
“Soon. I’m not really sure.”
“Then how do you know? Don’t just say that
to try to make me feel better. Or to try to end the
conversation.”
“I’m not, but I know it won’t be a long
time. I won’t let it be a long time.”