Chapter 14 #3
I scanned the area behind us. The enforcers were closing in, but there were still quite a few people between them and us. I finally saw Donista—he was being given a wide berth since he was brandishing a blaster. “Then find us another way out of here.”
Take the janitorial stairway between the bathrooms one hundred meters to your left along the same wall as this doorway.
I grabbed Lyra’s forearm. “Let’s go.”
We squeezed our way through the bottleneck.
Once clear, she kicked off her heels, and I hazarded a look to find Donista aiming at me, glee written all over his features.
I ducked, yanking Lyra down with me. A blaster shot hit the wall exactly where my head had been a split-second earlier.
The blaster fire brought about more screams and chaos.
The bottleneck at the door surged as more and more people frantically tried to press through.
A vendor, cowered behind her kiosk, was yelling about the windows and the air outside, and I realized that if Donista continued to shoot, we were facing the very real possibility of an actual air sensor alert.
“Cal!” Lyra exclaimed.
I turned in her direction to see a trio of enforcers run out from behind a group of tourists.
They were between us and the stairway, meaning there wasn’t a chance to outrun them.
They weren’t even looking in our direction until one of them noticed we were running in the opposite direction of nearly everyone else.
He pointed his stun stick at us. “Hey, you two. Stop for ID check!”
There are only three enforcers, and they do not have lethal weapons engaged, per the station’s security protocols. Reaching the nearest stairwell is still your best option for survival.
Easy for Byte to say. It was just hanging out on a lounger in my brain and didn’t have to deal with an enforcer’s stun stick.
Lyra took a stance that made it look like she’d had her fair share of hand-to-hand combat.
I, on the other hand, had not. I noticed a cooler three doors wide alongside the wall was on small wheels rather than directly on the floor…
wheels not unlike those that were placed under drums of battery acid to make them easier to move, but the wheels also made the barrels easier to tip.
I rushed to the cooler and slid it out from the wall. The first enforcer reached Lyra, swinging his stun stick. She batted away a strike with her forearm. I shoved. The coolers were heavy—damn heavy—but strength was the best skill I had. With a grunt, I shoved the massive cooler.
When it began to tip, gravity took over. It toppled just as the other two enforcers had reached us. The cooler landed on both. Whether it smashed their heads in or knocked them out with concussions, I didn’t know and wasn’t going to stick around to find out.
Lyra did a wide swinging kick and knocked out the last enforcer.
It was impressive a barefoot kick could do that, but the damage could’ve been from his head bouncing off the tile floor.
She grabbed the enforcer’s stun stick and then turned toward me.
I noticed surprise flash across her features when she noticed the two downed enforcers.
Evidently, she hadn’t had the highest confidence in my ability.
More shots fired. They hit the wall several feet away. Donista was the same distance from us, shoving through the throng of passengers and holding his blaster high to fire without aiming.
You had better run, Cal.
Lyra and I both took off simultaneously. I saw the signs for the restrooms and the door between them. As we slid to a stop, I grabbed the handle to open the door, but it was locked.
“Allow me,” Lyra said.
I stepped back as Lyra held the tip of the stun stick against the lock mechanism. Electrical static fizzed as she attempted to jolt the lock into submission.
I’d seen doors with Janitorial Services printed on them at the other spaceport and had assumed they were closets. I wonder if that’s what most people thought, too, since there wasn’t anyone trying to break open the door.
The alarm silenced with the announcement, The air quality alert is cancelled. The air quality in concourse A is at optimal levels. You may resume your normal activities.
“There goes our diversion,” I muttered.
The lock clicked, and Lyra yanked open the door.
She held it open for me, and we rushed through.
As it turned out, it was a closet and not a stairwell.
A small foyer contained cleaning supplies, mops, and garbage cans.
But where the opposite wall would be was a one-person elevator.
It made sense. Janitors had carts, and it would’ve been easier to move through levels with an elevator.
It was large enough for both of us. The control pad only had a single button—a down arrow—so I pressed it.
The platform lowered smoother than any Dreswick elevator, not that there were many of those still working.
I swallowed. “Let’s hope this next level isn’t swarming with enforcers.”
Lyra punched my bicep. “Damn it, Cal, don’t jinx us.”
The elevator stopped, and we hustled to the door. She reached the handle first. We each took a deep breath, and then she opened the door.
And sure enough, I’d jinxed us.