Brain Storm (US Edition) (21 page)

They retreated back to the junction. Given what had just happened Sara had a feeling that the corridor leading off to the right wouldn't be any good either. Still it had to be checked out. Sure enough this corridor changed from drab grey floors to off-white tiles just like its left-hand counterpart. Sara tossed the piece of junk that had once been the butt of an assault rifle over to the tiles. It landed in two pieces on the other side cut apart in mid air. This way was out as well which left them with only one choice. They went back to the junction and took the stairs.

Sara had her twin pistols back in her hands and she was on the lookout for any change in materials of the walls and floor that would indicate another laser trap. Carla seemed terrified for Sara every time she moved forwards. For her own part her muscles were fully tensed as though she could spring out of the way of another trap. She knew her reflexes weren't up to that challenge, if there was another of
those traps that she or Carla didn't notice then she was dead, but it made her feel better all the same.

Chapter
Seventeen

Sara waved Carla back against the wall and indicated that she should stay silent. She could tell that they were on the right track. The corridors and rooms they were moving through now weren't the abandoned disused things they had been moving through. These were still full of equipment, signs of life, and too often actual people. These for the most part looked just like any normal office workers. The alarm sounds had died down some way back so gradually that it had taken some time for Sara to finally notice their absence, and the workers were just going on about their normal work as though they were totally oblivious to what else was going on in their workplace.

Of course I still don't know what
is
going on.

None of the groups of people they had recently started seeing looked like they could pose much of a threat in themselves. But if they were able to raise an alarm or if they were missed then a drama would develop in short order. So they continued to try and get passed the populated areas without being seen. Alone Sara might have been able to just walk past them and out before anyone noticed she didn't belong, but Carla's prison uniform and badly fitting body
armor would stand out like a sore thumb.

They had made steady progress staying out of sight by sneaking around occupied rooms or crouching past where the top half of their wall was made up of windows. Now they found themselves at the entrance to a room with seven people busy at work. They had a choice of either going through the room or backtracking and trying to find another way around. Sara had decided that they should try their luck and move through the room. They had to expect to find more and more people as they came closer to the exit so they couldn't keep away from them forever if they ever expected to leave. There wasn't anywhere else close by that looked like it would be any more promising than this way. If they backtracked they would have to
waste an awful lot of time with no guarantees of finding anything better at the end of it.

Now Sara stood carefully looking into the room, assessing possibilities and deciding exactly how to go about getting them through the room. The workers were busy tapping on keyboards and staring at the screens of their computer terminals. They didn't look to be so absorbed in their work that they would fail to notice the two women walking through their workspace.

Sara was considering again whether they should try looking for a different way out when the other door into the room, on the right hand wall adjacent to the one that Sara was looking through, came open. A young woman, dressed in a smart skirt and white blouse matching the type of attire the others already in the room wore, came just inside and said something Sara couldn't hear clearly. The other people nodded or acknowledged her otherwise. She left and the workers started closing their terminals down. They pulled jackets off the backs of their chairs and started chatting between themselves. It was time for them to clock off.

Sara was turning to give Carla the good news when there was a tug on the back of her jacket. "I think people are coming this way."

It must be clocking off time for some other people as well. Carla's eyes were wide with fear, she really didn't want to get recaptured.

"It's all right." She tried to keep her reassured. It still seemed like Carla was walking the knife edge between coping and falling to pieces and at any moment she would topple. "Look this is good for us, the more people there are the less chance of them noticing that we aren't supposed to be there."

Carla just looked down at her bright orange prison outfit, badly fitting body armor and raised an eyebrow at Sara. She didn't have to say anything both women already knew what she was thinking.

"All right." Sara smiled at her, a sarcastically raised eyebrow was better than a nervous comment. "Get out of that
armor."

She helped the younger woman unfasten the straps holding the body
armor in place. Then she stripped out of her jacket and gave it to Carla. She had to leave her pistols in the pockets because there was no way for her to conceal them otherwise.

The jacket didn't do much to conceal the orange outfit but it was better than nothing. Once they were in a crowd hopefully no one would be able to get too good a look at how far up those orange trousers went. If, as seemed to be the case, the
people up here didn't know about the rest of the facility down there then they wouldn't automatically connect the part of the uniform they could see with a prisoner.

Carla felt the weight of the pistols in the pockets and pushed her hands inside. Sara saw the concern build in her face when she felt the cold metal and her suspicion was confirmed. "I don't think I could actually
shoot
someone. You know, kill them?"

"You won't have to." She took Carla's arm and they walked into the office. She tossed the body
armor down the back of the nearest desk before anyone could notice she had it. She continued talking, smiling to make it look like she was sharing a private joke although anyone who looked at Carla would see that she wasn't an amused woman. "Just stay close to me. If there's any trouble I'll take care of it."

Sara was totally focused now. There was no room in her mind for worries. She was fully occupied making and refining plans for any number of scenarios in case they were compromised. She half tuned out everything around her but she was highly focused an any actions that could lead to a compromise at the same time. She steered Carla around holding her softly on the upper arm. They joined the people leaving the office and were joined in turn by the people Carla had heard behind them. These groups then went on to mingle with other people coming out of other corridors or offices or stepping out of elevators or stairways. Sara kept Carla and herself moving with the crowd keeping central in the throng of people as camouflage. They would have a problem soon but she didn't want to worry Carla so she stayed quiet.

Tell yourself that often enough and you might even start to believe it.
Sara knew that at least a part of the real reason why she didn't say anything was in case she needed to sacrifice Carla to ensure her own escape. When they came to the weapons detectors she could separate herself from the younger woman and get away in the commotion that would surround her recapture. She wouldn't necessarily have to abandon Carla, nor did she really want to after getting her this far, but if it was a choice between getting out alone or getting caught again with Carla she knew what she would do.

Soon enough the multitude of people came together and queued up for the security guards to wave them through the weapons detectors. There were over ten
different checkpoints so that the people could leave the building without it taking all night.

Carla froze up when she saw the checkpoints, detectors and guards. Sara could feel the muscles in her arm go tense.

"I know. Just keep it natural and I'll get us past this." She got in there before Carla could say something stupid in her panic. "Come on."

Now Sara had to make her decision. Did she have such a better chance of escaping without Carla that it would be worth leaving her, and any possible answers she could provide, behind? Sara surveyed the people walking through the checkpoints, being waved through the detectors by armed security guards who seemed to be checking the women more closely than they were the men. The crowd was starting to thin and if Sara took too long dithering over her choice the congregation would have dissipated too much for any plan to work.

Sara made her decision. "Okay, just wait here I'll only be a minute."

Carla reached out and grabbed her forearm. "Don't leave me."

Sara shook herself free. "We can't get out of here with these weapons." Carla looked down and only just noticed that Sara had taken the pistols out of her jacket pockets. "Don't worry. I'll be back for you."

Sara left Carla in the midst of the sea of people and went in search of a pair of candidates. She wanted a woman who would be going through one of the checkpoints near to either end of the row, who she could plant the weapons on, and preferably, but not a definite prerequisite, someone who looked broadly similar to either Sara or Carla.

She spotted a likely candidate and smoothly made her way through the crush towards her. Everyone was too focused on getting home to notice her cutting through in her inappropriate jeans and cropped T-shirt. They certainly didn't notice the pistols she held pressed between the inside of her forearms and the sides of her body.

The woman Sara had chosen was now only a couple of
meters away. She was about the same height as the two fugitives. She had chestnut colored hair tied back against her head. She was dressed in the common blouse and skirt combo but she carried a long dark coat hooked over her left arm. The belt of the coat just touched the floor behind her. Sara closed up further and surreptitiously slipped a hand down to pull open a pocket on the coat and deposit the pistol inside. She switched the second weapon into that hand and prepared to repeat the action when she thought better of it. She melted back into the mass and returned to Carla.

"See? I told you I'd be back." She guided her to the opposite side of the room. Keeping one eye on where they were going and the other on the unwitting stooge. She wanted to be close to the checkpoint when the decoy reached her checkpoint, but she didn't want to be so close that they got waved through first or the guards manning that checkpoint got a chance for a good look at them.

"In a second all hell is going to break loose. When it does I want you to run through to that exit over there. When you get out on the street turn right and keep running. If I'm not with you I want you to lose yourself in the city, then, when you're safely away, contact the police and tell them everything that's happened to you these last couple of days."

Carla looked like she was about to shake out of her skin but she nodded her understanding of Sara's instructions.

"Don't worry, everything will be all right. Just be ready to run." The platitudes were starting to grate on Sara but Carla still seemed to appreciate them.

The decoy was next in line to pass through the detector. Sara flicked the safety off on the pistol she still carried so that it was ready to fire. She wasn't sure how many rounds it had left in it but if she needed more than a couple of shots they were dead anyway.

One of the pair of guards working the checkpoint in front of the decoy waved her forwards. She took the couple of steps to position herself between the twin poles that were the actual detectors on the machine. She obviously fully expected to be waved through like she would have been on many prior occasions. She wasn't prepared for the alarm that started blaring and the red lights lighting up on top of the poles. The guards on that checkpoint reacted instantly and the guards working the other points all looked over. For that instant the attention of everybody in the room was focused on the opposite end of the room from where Sara and Carla were. It was time.

Carla had frozen so Sara gave her a hard shove in her back to get her moving. That was all the time she could spare. If Carla didn't act for herself now she wasn't going to get out, that was all there was too it. Carla did seem to be starting forwards but Sara had other things to concern her. She vaulted past the nearest two guards kicking one in the side of the head as she went over the desk built into
the side of the detector. She hit the other with the back of her left fist just after she landed. She put all the force of her turn into the backhanded blow. Both guards crumpled under the assault. Sara fired twice into the air and the crowd, who had been calmly watching the spectacle of the decoy being stopped and searched, burst into a panic frenzy. They rushed around and several people were forced into the guards.

Sara made sure that all of the guards were being caught up in the mass hysteria. There was one guards who was still on his feet and was going for his weapon. Sara hit him with a pair of shots in the chest. The flexible
armor he wore should have prevented him being seriously injured but the force of the shots was enough to send him tumbling backwards.

The crowd reacted to the sounds of more gunfire and the guard going down by panicking further. Sara used the distraction to get out of the front doors. The reception desk next to the door was abandoned, either the people who should have been there had run outside after the first shots or, more likely, they were cowering behind it.