Chapter #7The Raid by: imaj   One of the suits looks up at you, her face impassive behind black sunglasses. You give her a cheery little wave as she raises a cuff to her mouth and speaks into it. Only when she raises her gun and points it straight at you do take a step back.
“Get back,” hisses Bobby. “Are you crazy? We gotta get out of here.”
“How many ways out,” you ask.
“Just the stairs you came up. Unless you wanna chance the elevator,” replies Bobby, his tone indicating just how bad an idea that would be. He crouches by the door to the lounge, peering round the frame cautiously. “Balcony at the back, but they’ll be watching it.”
“What’s out the back anyway?”
“Small courtyard between the apartments in the block,” Bobby continues, moving slowly towards the front door. “Don’t even think about it though - they’ll put a couple of guys in the courtyard and on the balconies opposite. It’s a shooting gallery.”
Only if they see you, you think. You look round briefly. “Is it through here,” you ask, pointing at another doorway.
“Yeah, but I told you - it’s crazy,” Bobby calls back.
“You’re forgetting who you’re dealing with,” you murmur as you creep through the doorway.
The next room is a tiny little kitchenette with a sliding door at the far side. You spot an abandoned mug of coffee sitting on the worktop, still steaming gently as you move past. The threads of your cloak come as you will them to you. Then you edge to the door, trying to spot the Fane agents before they spot you.
Past the balcony you spy a couple of heads bobbing several metres distant. They’re crouching low, hiding below the railing of the balcony opposite. It would be the right way to act against a normal foe, but you are far from normal. You let your cloak fall around the agents, instantly blinding them to your presence.
That just leaves any agents in the courtyard itself. You slide the door open and stay crouched as you move out to the balcony proper. There’s no way to see down to the courtyard through the wall of the balcony without first standing up. Then they’d see you first, and the suit hanging by the SUVs will have radioed them to watch out for you.
Or, at least, to watch out for Arabella Idoni.
So who won’t they be watching for? Your clothes tent as you slip into the imago of Bea Churchman as you first met her at the age of six. When you stand up, the sudden appearance of a little girl gives the Fane agents pause. Their guns are trained on you, but they waver momentarily. It gives you enough time to register their locations mentally - three of them in fact - before ducking below the balcony edge again.
You take a moment to untwist your clothes as you change back to Arabella. Then you set the strands of your cloak round the agents in the courtyard. That takes it to five in total - easy enough to manage though you might need to move slowly to hold all of them in place. Then again, you don’t need to do anything other than stand up, gun at the ready.
The agents’ guns are still trained at where you stood moments ago, so you shuffle slowly to the side, to the opposite side of the balcony. Then you raise your gun and take careful aim. Three sharp retorts and the agents in the courtyard fall. Two don’t move again, but the last turns just as you pull the trigger and takes the hit in the arm instead. It’s good enough though, he doesn’t look like he’ll be shooting back anytime soon.
The noise brings the two agents on the opposite balcony up from their hiding place. Though they are too well trained to panic, you can see the consternation on their faces as they scan the building looking for the source of the shots. Almost lazily, you line up the shots before drilling each one straight in the middle of their heads.
“Bobby,” you call back into the apartment as you survey the courtyard again. The lone survivor has crawled behind a pillar. “I’ve cleared the balcony.”
You hear him move into the kitchen behind you. Precious seconds tick by and Bobby still doesn’t join you on the balcony. “Get out here,” you call again.
More rummaging sounds from the kitchen. Then he slips out into the balcony behind me. “Just fixin’ up a surprise for some uninvited guests,” Bobby offers by way of explanation. “Come on , we need to climb a couple of balconies over.”
You turn to look at him in confusion. “What?”
“I told you, I left a surprise,” he repeats.
Bobby edges past you and starts to clamber over the railing. The balconies run right up to each other, making the climb awkward rather than dangerous. You help him with a sharp push then scramble over yourself, taking care to hold onto your gun.
“One more,” continues Bobby. He grabs your free hand and drags you to the next balcony.
“Can’t we go out through this one,” you point at the door inside the neighbouring apartment.
“Gotta be one more along,” he repeats, before climbing across the railings one more. You dive over behind him before pulling yourself up to peek over the railing behind you.
One of the agents emerges from the kitchen door to Bobby’s apartment, gun held ready. You are about to shoot her when an explosion rocks the apartment building. A gout of flame bursts out from Bobby’s kitchen and flips the agent over the balcony railing. She hits the ground in the courtyard with an ugly cracking sound.
You stand up and turn to face Bobby. He holds up a remote detonator switch, his thumb still depressing the button. Then he grins wolfishly and throws it casually off the balcony and down to the courtyard.
“Team tech expert,” you say. “I remember." You watch as the injured agent in the courtyard limps away, supported by the woman that spotted you earlier.
“Yeah, well they knew that too,” he shrugs. “Shoulda been more careful. We gotta’ move though. They’ll be back.”
A childish little impulse at the back of mind fires and you reply. “And in greater numbers.”
Bobby doesn’t react to the comment and you scowl at yourself immediately. It’s the kind of joke you might have made a decade ago. A Will Prescott joke, both naive and foolish. You hate that you made it, and you hate that Bobby heard it. If Rick finds Bobby, well then you might have tagged the wall saying “Prescott was here”.
It is a link to a past that you want to erase.
Bobby turns round and kneels down by the door into the next apartment. He starts fiddling with the lock, producing a pick from one of his pockets. Without even realising it, you raise your gun till it points at the back of his head. The gun barks one last time and you splatter his brains out across the balcony.
“Maybe it wasn’t worth it after all,” you mutter as you step over his body.
To stop reminiscing, attend to Fi's reports in "A Short Hop" 
You have the following choice: 1. Continue |
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