Chapter 22 #2
I crouched there, waiting. A faint conversation from the hallway grew louder and clearer.
It wasn’t the most comfortable position, but I didn’t dare move.
With my luck, I’d slip and splash the toilet water, something the guards would definitely hear since I could hear them.
One of them was complaining about how expensive his daughter’s birthday party was turning out to be.
Clowns weren’t cheap, and food was even more expensive.
As jobs in Aberdeen went, security guards probably didn’t make the best money, but they were still making a lot more than the average low-towner.
Folks in Dreswick put together birthday parties too, but clowns and catered food generally weren’t involved.
Back home, a birthday party consisted of kids getting together and playing, with the birthday kid getting homemade gifts from their friends.
The bathroom door opened, and I stilled as much as I could. If I could’ve frozen my heartbeat, I would’ve done it.
“I’m going to learn how to juggle. Then next year, I don’t have to hire a stupid clown,” Birthday Party Dad said.
The other chuckled—he sounded like he was still in the hallway. “Clown trumps juggling any day. If you learn how to juggle, you’ll just become the warmup act for the clown.”
“Nah. Next year, she probably won’t even like clowns anymore.”
I heard a hand touch the door of the stall next to mine.
“That’s weird. The door locked on its own. Or the janitors are playing jokes on us.”
I heard a hand on my door then and saw the shadow just beyond.
“Yeah, definitely a joke. Both doors are locked. Stupid janitors. They have too much time on their hands.”
“Look who’s talking. Wait, didn’t Chirry use the bathroom?”
“Yeah. Maybe he decided to use the one in the second quad.”
“Nah, this is his bathroom. That’s why I always go to second quad.”
The guard on the opposite side of the door grunted. “Huh, weird for sure.” The shadow moved. “There’s no one in here, so it’s gotta be Chirry playing a joke on us. He’s sophomoric enough to do something stupid like that.”
“I’ll call him.”
Crap. This was not turning out how I’d expected.
The next second, the guard slammed into the door of the stall next to mine, and that door banged open.
I practically jumped off the seat. Stupid flimsy doors.
I saw the guard’s black boots in the stall before leaving, and I knew exactly what was coming next.
I braced myself. The crappy door in front of me swung open.
The guard had used his shoulder and body strength to beat the door open, and I could see why—he was a big fella.
But he also wasn’t expecting to see anyone, so by the time his brain registered that I was there, I’d grabbed the door, and shoved it back at him, using all my body strength as I lunged off the toilet.
It hit him in the face, breaking his nose and knocking him back several steps.
He backed into the sinks and fell on his butt, clutching his profusely bleeding nose.
The thing about broken noses is that they hurt…
a lot. A broken nose turns on the waterworks, so the guard couldn’t see clearly, though he wasn’t even trying to get up off the floor yet.
I ran at the other guard. He’d dropped his radio and was reaching for his stun stick, but he wasn’t trained like an enforcer and was slow and clumsy.
They’d been bored, making their rounds, so their adrenaline hadn’t caught up to them yet.
I bull-rushed him into the hallway, pounding him against the wall.
While he was disoriented, I slammed his head twice into the wall until his eyes rolled up and his body fell limp.
I turned back to the first guard. He was on his feet—wobbly but making his way, sort of, toward me. Then the alarms blared.
The third guard manually activated the alarm.
“Yeah, kinda figured that out,” I muttered, taking the stun stick from the fallen guard.
As subterfuge is no longer possible, I suggest you run.
And I ran.
I made it to the end of the hallway to find the door locked—which proved my theory that all the doors were security features rather than an architect’s obsession with doors.
Byte worked its wireless magic, while I heard the telltale whir of an approaching drone.
I spun to face it just as the door opened.
I jumped backward through the door, watching the drone zip through the hallway, a small laser shocker poking out from its underside.
The door closed it off from us. “At least that’s one less drone we have to worry about.”
Unfortunately, they have full access to the building’s security system.
“Wait, what’s that mean?”
The door opened, and the drone burst through. I jumped to the side just as it fired, the yellow blast crackling through the air. It readjusted before I could take off, and it had me essentially pinned. I squeezed my eyes shut, waiting for the painful shock. But it never came.
I cracked an eye open to see the drone turn away and fire at two more incoming drones.
I’ve taken control of this drone, but I’m not fast enough to take them all. Run, Cal.
I sprinted down the hallway. There were sounds of blasters and multiple whirs.
Something crashed. I continued forward with equal parts wanting to look behind me while also dreading what I’d see.
I had to stop at the next door, which Byte hacked faster than before—it must’ve been tweaking its processes—and I ran through…
only to come face-to-face with two more drones.
They’d been waiting, so once the door opened, they announced, “Surrender or you will be incapacitated.”
Both drones seemed to tremble, then one drone said, “Run, Cal.”
I was getting tired of being told to run…
it wasn’t like I needed any additional motivation.
We made it through the final hallway, only to emerge from the building to be surrounded by at least twenty drones and the third security guard.
More drones were popping out, one by one, through a small square access just above the door I’d used.
“Stop!” the guard yelled, holding the business tip of his stun stick toward me even though he was ten feet away. “Backup will be here any second, so toss that stick and get on your knees.”
One of the drones overhead shot the guard, the electrical shock causing his body to go into a rigid tremble before collapsing.
“Ouch,” I said with a tiny bit of sympathy for Whistler.
The drone that fired was struck simultaneously by all the other drones. It smoked and hit the ground with a resounding thud.
I glanced at all the drones overhead, aiming their lasers directly at me. “Uh…”
I took out the greatest threat. Humans are unpredictable. Drones have programmed responses.
“ Surrender ,” a drone announced, echoed by several others.
They shouldn’t fire unless you show aggression.
“Shouldn’t?”
Well, it depends on how their responses were programmed.
I gulped. “And how about the backup on the way?”
Please hold.
“What?!”
A drone fired on another drone, only to be fired on in return by others.
More drones joined in, and a firefight ensued among the drones.
Shocker shots were going everywhere. I ducked and covered my head as I pressed against the building and started running toward the AV.
A drone flying erratically came straight for me, and I shocked it with my stun stick, sending it tumbling off and flying straight into the wall.
Drones littered the ground, some still, others rumbling and shaking as if trying to take off again.
As I ran, a formation of the remaining four drones buzzed overhead and fired as one on the AV.
Their combined electrical fire caused the AV’s alarms to go off just before a loud zap , and the auto went silent.
The remaining drones turned to me, and I had a feeling they weren’t going to give me the benefit of the doubt anymore. One shot would be enough to take me down for ten minutes. Four shots? I’d be dead.
One drone turned to fire on the others, but one of the others turned and fired first. The remaining three turned back. They wobbled as if drunk. One stopped wobbling suddenly and spun and took out the other two. Then the final drone flew into the wall.
Their firewalls are adaptive. It became increasingly difficult to control them. But I must say, this proved to be an excellent adventure to identify opportunities for growth. I’ve learned much.
I heard sirens in the distance.
“Grow later. We gotta get out of here.” I ran before Byte could tell me to, making it to the next building.
I hid in the shadows as the enforcer AVs sped by, before making my way to the nearest road.
From there, it was just a matter of minutes before an auto-cab arrived. Byte hacked it before the door opened.
Where to now, Cal?