"The Chosen (part two)" by Bethan Jones

The guard at the front of the building never knew what hit him.  One moment he was sitting staring at the computer monitor that was cycling through the CCTV footage, the next he was slumped on the floor.  We took the card key for the lift from his pocket and Emma sat down at the computer and started clicking away.  After a moment she shook her head.

“This computer’s on a different system I can’t get in.”

I nodded and called up Wayne who was leading up the other group.

“She can’t get in.”

“Can she loop the system?”

“No idea. Emma?”

“Yeah, just a second…”

The cameras all over the building blinked off for a second and when they came back on they were showing a still picture of what ever they had been pointing at before.  No one walking around could be seen.

“I’ll stay down here and keep an eye on things.”  Emma offered.

I nodded and led Bryony over to the lift.  On the other side of the building Wayne, Aimee and Bex headed up to the roof.  They would start at the top and work their way down we’d work our way up to meet them.

The lift showed there to be 10 floors.  The card activated the system and we headed for the first floor, meanwhile Emma did a quick scan of the reception room and the smaller guard room leading off it.  There was nothing much there but she picked up one of the guards ID cards and copied the details.  Chances were the guards were just mercenaries but they could still investigate the company they worked for if they needed to.

The lift pulled to a stop and Bryony and I jumped off.  The floor was deserted, the offices all locked.  We went up to the first one and Bryony began to pick the lock, while I stared around the empty corridor.  The door opened and we went in and started going systematically through the files.  It was boring.  There’s no other word for it, after just two rooms I was bored stiff, as were the other team.  There was nothing, it was all solicitor’s reports or bank statements.  Aimee and I started playing eye spy through the walkie-talkies and in the background I could hear Bex trying to memorise her French vocab.

“I spy with my little eye something beginning with…T”

“Table?”

“No.”

“Torch?”

“No.”

“Telephone? Aimee?  Hello?”

The walkie-talkie had gone dead.  I shook it and then knocked it on the wall, nothing.  Bryony stopped what she was doing and we both just stood there trying to decide what to do.  Then as suddenly as they had gone the walkie-talkies were back.

“Bryony, Beth get out now, they’re here!  Can you hear me?  Get out…”

Emma’s voice was cut off as Aimee broke in.

“T for trouble.  Wayne wants everyone out now!”

The walkie-talkie crackled and we could here gunfire in the background.

“Scrap that.  Get up here, we’re in trouble!”

We raced out of the office and Bryony turned for the lift. 

“Not that way!”

I pointed down the corridor to the window at the end.  Bryony hesitated then nodded and sprinted after me.  As we got closer, I began to focus on the glass, it started to glow red, and then slowly, slowly it began to melt.

“We haven’t got time!”  Bryony yelled at me.

“You do it then!”

A bolt of lightning shot form Bryony’s hands and smashed straight through the window.  I didn’t stop running and as I reached the gap I jumped out into the night.  For about two seconds there was a horrible sensation of falling then instinct kicked in and I spread my arms (for no reason other than it made me feel better) and shot upwards towards the roof.  Bryony was right beside me; we shot past the eighth floor and stopped, hovering in mid air.  Through the window onto the ninth floor I could see vague figures moving about but the glass was frosted and I couldn’t tell what was going on.

“What do we do?”  Bryony asked impatiently.

“Go for it!”

Another bolt of lightning came shooting out of nowhere smashing the window and I shot in through the opening.  The floor was exactly the same as the one we had just left except for lines of bullet holes along the walls.  Oh… and the armed men shooting at us.  Working on instinct I veered left inside one of the rooms and dived behind the desk.  For a moment I thought no one hand noticed then two men burst through the door.  Desperately I pulled open the draws looking for a weapon as the men advanced slowly towards me.

“Oh screw it.”  I muttered under my breath, leaning round the corner of the desk to get a clear view.

A burst of fire shot from both my hands and hit the men squarely in the chest, they crumpled backwards to the ground.  It had not been a killing blow but before either of them could get up I had rounded the desk and was out the door.  The fighting seemed to have moved round the corridor a bit but I could still hear the shouted orders and the constant rattle of the machine guns.  Not good.

One of the men tried to regain his feet but I slammed the door in his face knocking him back to the ground and then melted the lock effectively sealing them inside.  Cautiously I stuck my head round the door and pulled it back hurriedly as a jet of water shot past.  As I’d thought I was on the enemy’s side of the playing field and in serious danger of getting taken out by my friends. 

They were grouped at the other end of the corridor backing slowly away and ducking behind open doors to avoid the bullets.  The men had stopped firing wildly and were moving systematically forward shooting at any exposed body parts.   They were trying to take us alive – otherwise we’d have all been dead already.

“Here goes.” I muttered and stepped out behind them. 

Knocking the one who appeared to be in charge to the floor with a well placed kick and relieving the nearest man of his gun, I beckoned the others over.  They took the hint and attacked from the other side.  Together it took a relatively short time to relieve the men of their weapons and leaving them unconscious, dead or doubled over in pain.

“Any one hurt?” Wayne asked hurriedly.

Amazingly there were only two injuries.  Aimee had taken a bullet in her left arm and Emma had a bad graze along her head where she had ducked just in time.  The rest of us had the normal assortment of cuts and bruises but we didn’t have long to feel sorry for ourselves.  The sound of a helicopter passing over bought us all back to reality with a sharp bump.

“Let’s go already!”  Bex yelled over the noise of the helicopter.

“Back to the jeep.  We’re going to be needing it later!”

“We won’t need anything later if we don’t get out of here!”  Bex pointed out, taking a neat swan dive out of the window.  The rest of us followed suit just as the backup troops started to land on the roof.

Aimee headed automatically for the drivers seat but I got there first.  Wayne shrugged at me as Aimee climbed into the back reluctantly.

“Your driving can’t be worse than her’s.”

Wrong.  The closest to a car I had ever driven in my life was a quad bike and they don’t really compare.  We screeched out of the car park and shot off down the road at close to seventy miles an hour.  No one followed and after a few twists and turns I relaxed and slowed down the pace.  The last thing we needed was to be pulled up by the police. 

Bex tied a makeshift bandage round Aimee’s arm.  It wasn’t too serious but it was still bleeding and it was going to be difficult to explain to her mum in the morning.  Luckily we heal fast and by morning nearly all the bruises would be gone – nearly all.  It was never a problem for me, I always had bruises from something or other but I knew for a fact that Bex’s mum was starting to get worried.

At about 2:00 in the morning we finally pulled up at the abandoned factory and all piled out.  Battered, bruised, exhausted and severely shaken up we trooped inside and started sorting out our injuries.  An hour later we had all bathed (in an old plastic tub filled with lukewarm water), changed, and had several cups of coffee (from the base’s personal coffee maker which we had rescued from a skip).

“So…”  Emma started when we were all sitting down.  “What exactly went wrong?”

We all just stared at each other for a moment then Bryony started to giggle, then me and then we all started.  It was pure relief at having got out alive.  Wayne shook his head and held up his hand to stop the giggling.

“We’ll sort it out tomorrow okay.  Go home, get some sleep, have a lie in.”

“Yes boss.”  I said sarcastically but I didn’t really have the energy to be annoying.

The others all nodded and we went our separate ways.  Wayne had said nothing about not flying home but to be honest I had had enough excitement for one evening.  So I walked.  It gave me time to think, and time is one thing I’m surprisingly short on these days.