Dovolo Securities chapter 2

"What have we got?" Torrance yelled as she walked through the corridor of the fifth floor. While others ran around like chicken with their heads cut off, her strides were in no way stressed or hurried. Her body was alert, listening to all forms of communication.

The blast wasn't hard enough to be a demolition, she knew what it was like to be in a building as it was brought down. It felt like a grenade, or perhaps an IED. Chad, who was speaking rapidly on his phone, shut it and said, "We are being... invaded. They are wearing Dovolo Security uniforms and logos so no one can tell them apart, the first floor is a mess."

Torrance took it in, returning to what Rae, Logan and the others that knew her in academy referred to as the General. Chad had only seen it a few times. He knew that in this state, f she was escalated, she could slip into a blood lust. At this point he didn't know if it would be a good or bad thing.

Reports were coming in from all floors, and within seconds Torrance had formulated a plan. Walking to one of the phones, she turned on the intercom, "This is Torrance Dovolo," her voice boomed over all floors of the building, "This is a Code Orange, all support personnel and civilians are to move to the safe points. Squads Beta, Charlie, Marco, and Zulu are to report to your assigned stations. Alpha and Elite squads are to engage the targets." She hung up and walked towards her office. She had special equipment there, and guns, lots of guns.

Chad kept pace, "I am going down to help the Elite squads, the police and fire departments have been alerted and are on their way."

She shook her head, that could make things more bloody, "If these people are in our uniforms, then the cops aren't going to know the difference. We have to keep them out. Get down there and for God sakes be careful,"

He grabbed her hand and squeezed it, "Don't worry, I will." Then he jogged to his office.

Mary was still at the secretary's station, coordinating the evacuations and safe points. The conference room was the safe point for the fifth floor, the daycare for the forth, the tech development for the third, the west meeting rooms for the second and first. They were tactical strongholds as well as reinforced. Because most of the people working in the Dovolo Corporate Building were not fighters, but support staff, it was necessary to have these havens.

Torrance hit the desk with her fist, not out of anger or any emotion, just to get Mary's attention, "Problems?"

"There is a lot of them, they got through security, the first floor is gone, the second floor will be soon. They took the elevators and it will only be a matter of time before they hit the third floor." Mary said, keeping her eyes glued to the computer screen.

Torrance's mind was racing, thinking of possibilities and priorities, "We can't loose the tech department. If they get in there, we are fucked, and so is the entire west coast."

Mary's hands were flying on the computer. She was pulling up camera angles and communicating with the EMCs on each floor, "I know, what do you want me to do?" she said in spanish. Shit, she was stressed and scared, this wouldn't work.

As much as Torrance wanted to strap on a gun and pull a Scarface, she knew that her playtime would have to wait. She ran around the secretary desk to the second computer. Her keystrokes were strong, powerful, but quick. Torrance had been known to go through a keyboard every few months. She signed in with her codes and threw on a headset. She turned to Mary and said in spanish, "I am going to head them off, you concentrate on the safe rooms. I'm going to work on the elevators, evac and stairwells."

"Ok Miha." Mary said as they both turned to their assignments.



Toby jumped to his feet and growled as the doors to Chad's office burst open. Chad himself strode in hitting a panel in the wall.

"Down Toby." He said firmly. The dog quieted and sat next to Tyr, who slept quietly in the hammock. Not many cooperate officials had hammocks strung up in their offices, but normal corporations did not have to worry about being attacked by unknown soldiers.

It was like being back in the Army Rangers. He had been in the military during 9/11. But after he got out, the only real action he saw was when Dovolo Securities was getting off of its feet. In the old days, he and Torrance worked some of the more dangerous jobs themselves. They hadn't fought togethere in years, and Chad secretly hoped that they would get a chance today.

With all of the DOD contractors in the building, Chad knew Dovolo Securities could be a prime target. Of course, more than likely, Torrance or some other member of the Dovolo family had pissed someone off. Someone important.

The panel popped off of the wall, revealing Chad's own private arsenal, complete with armor.

He stripped off his suit jacket and pants, replacing them with a bullet proof urban assault suit. While most Dovolo suites were black, his, was well as Torrance's, were white. They were commanders, they needed to be recognizable. He loaded himself with 2 more handguns, a sawed off shotgun and a submachine gun. Spare ammo graced his belt and back. He wouldn't wear a helmet, instead he wore his standard shooting glasses and an earpiece.

The process took under a minute, but what stopped him was Tyr's whimpers. The child shifted in his bedding and scratched his ears. Chad walked to him and kneeled by the hammock.

"Just hang in there buddy, Mommy is going to come get you in a minute." He kissed the child's forehead and then turned to the dog, ordering him into attack mode. The only people that should be coming for Tyr would know the command to make Toby stand down, otherwise they didn't need to be near the heir to the Dovolo fortune.

He ran out of his office, passing Torrance and Mary at what had just become the Mobile Command Center.

Torrance spat out instructions, "They are filtering in from the garage, I have suspended the elevators but I need you to stop them on the second floor."

"What you're not coming along? Where is the fearless General that I have heard so much about," Chad taunted into his headset as he hit the stairwell.

Torrance smiled at that, "She will hit the field as soon as she can," she turned from him and went about giving new advanced orders to her squads.

The third floor was holding beautifully, but the Charlie squad on the second floor was literally holding the door closed at the safe point. "Shit," Torrance muttered to herself as she looked for any unit that could possibly aid them. Sirens could be heard getting nearer to the building. The first police cars were arriving on scene. Cops were running from their cars with guns drawn, double shit.

There was nothing she could do for these cops. Hopefully, if they were shot at they could make it back to their squad cars. But she could give the rest of the police force a heads up. She dialed the police chiefs' number and listened to the ringing while she closed the garage entrances.She breifly wondered how Tom was holding up, but she pulled herself out of it. she head to keep her head in the game and not piss off the Police Chief too badly. It wasn't that she didn't like Chief Mcgehee, their personalities sometimes clashed, but it had never been a great problem.

"What's the situation Dovolo?" Police Chief Mcgehee grunted into the phone. Good he wasn't wasting time.

"You have to pull your men back, make a perimeter around the building, but they will be killed if they try to get inside." Torrance said in a calm but urgent tone. Her mind was doing 4 things at once and she didn't need another problem on her hands.

"Like hell, this is a criminal matter and I will not have you running this," He said. Torrance could almost hear his vein pop out of his forehead.

"Look, we have targets ranging in numbers from 20 to 50. They are in Dovolo uniforms and assault gear. Your cops aren't going to know who they are and my guys aren't going to know if the cops are on our side or not. Stay back and just keep anyone else from entering the build-" she was cut off when another explosion went off, this one closer.

She hung up on the Chief and clicked back into the squads conversations, "Some of them have bombs... and armor piercing rounds...they are suicide bombers...Fuck they are in the security system... We need backup.... Shoot for the heads.... Charlie company requesting immediate backup...." Torrance threw up the camera shots of the second floor. The meeting rooms were at the end of a hallway, only one way in, but a few ways out. Charlie Company was pinned just outside the safe point. The squad had removed their helmets, so they could recognize each other, but it left their heads vulnerable. They were holding the position, however they wouldn't last forever.

In her headset she spoke, "Charlie, help is on the way, hold your position and if you can, recapture the elevator. Dallas where are you?" her hands were flying again, checking up on Chad.

He was reaching the second floor, after an encounter with a stairwell full of targets. "On my way to Charlie, Alpha Squad is gone, I need Marco to secure the stairwell." He pumped the shotgun and kicked the stairwell door open, placing himself between Charlie Squad and the targets.

Torrance would have watched him work, because he was truly masterful in his techniques, but she had lives to preserve. "Marco squad, leave three of your men on the floor, the rest are to hold the stairwells." She didn't listen to the response, she knew that Reggie, the Marco squad leader would take care of it. Reggie was Torrance's best female fighter, rivaling herself. Reggie had been a street fighter, and she and Torrance had met in an cage match. So Torrance had some weird ways of blowing off steam, it worked for her, and allowed her to find people that one could not by using the proper channels. But that is a story for another time.

Turning to Mary, she said, "I am going to help," she took off her headset and jogged to her office, also removing her jacket and pants.

She was only able to get the assault pants on when she heard Mary yell, "Torrance something's taking over the system!" Shit!

She grabbed a browning high power and a silver cube from inside her desk before making it back to the computers. How were they in the system? Where were their access points?

"Do everything you can to shut them down," Torrance growled. She was alright with a computer, she could do more than most, but she was no OR.

"They are taking back controls of the elevator and starting to remove our files." Mary whispered frantically.

Well they just couldn't have that. "Step back Mary, I am going to shut us down." It meant that they would have to work on the secondary circuits and that this would most likely kill the power to the building, but that wasn't necessarily a bad thing.
Torrance reached into her pocket and pulled out the silver cube. It usually sat in the glass case next to Torrance's desk, and most who had seen it thought it to be just some random award. In fact that's what Mary herself had thought.

In actuality the cube was an EMP device. It was the third generation of Torrance's original invention, and, in theory, it would work masterfully. It would fry all of the computers connected to hers, including those that were being used to access their systems. The actual mainframe was tucked securely in the tech department, and when the pulse hit the server, it would shut down in order to protect itself. It was Torrance's fail-safe.

She pushed back a paneled side of the cube, revealing microchips and circuitry. The light was flashing green, good it was armed. She placed the cube next to the station and pressed the miniscule button inside the device. Mary watched, as she really didn't know what the box really was.

Torrance suddenly grabbed her and pulled her farther away from the station, hell away from anything electronic. The cube gave three distinctive beeps before the green light began to change colors. Within 15 feet of the cube, everything with an electric pulse, including computers, light bulbs and cell phones were overloaded. If they didn't boot down they exploded.

Torrance could hear her computer in her office shorting out, and knew that because it was not in the EMP range, that the pulse was being carried through the connection, perfect. All systems around then were shutting down, including the electric and the air conditioning. Ok so it was going to get hot, they would live.
Mary turned to her taller white friend and smiled, "Damn girl, that's one hot paperweight!"

Torrance laughed, shaking her shoulder length blond hair, "Thanks, I try to be creative. Get the spare cell phone in my office and get to the safepoint. You've done a good job miha. I want everyone who's not carrying a gun into the conference room."