Paladin 2: Chapter 7

Two dusty white hover-cars pulled into the long driveway which led to the Government Center. That wasn't strange; there had been plenty of vehicles arriving over the past day or so. Some were deliveries or staff to manage the event, while others bore guests.

One of the vehicles, a boxy thing of the sort most of the caterers used, pulled off into the lane which led to the underground parking area, the same road Sandy took earlier to park and wait for Jace and Kira. The smaller car came around to the front of the building and parked almost exactly where Sandy had to drop off his passengers.

Four men got out of the car and strode toward the main entrance. One of the younger men held the door, allowing an older man with dark brown hair, a beard and mustache enter ahead of him. Once they'd let themselves inside through the glass doors, they headed straight for the reception desk.

There was only one man on duty at the desk. He smiled as the quartet approached. These men were well-dressed in fashionable attire.

“Gentlemen, are you here for the award banquet?” the guard asked, smiling. “That will be on the forty-second floor. You’ll want to take the elevator bank right there. Can’t miss the reception; it’s in the big hall right as you get off the elevators.”

The mustached man smiled in return. “Thank you. Yes, we’re headed to the banquet. I appreciate the directions.”

Then without warning, he drew a pistol from beneath his coat and fired a single shot. This blaster was special; it was designed to give off as little sound as possible. There was a faint, high-pitched whine as he pulled the trigger, and the hiss of burning flesh as the energy bolt burned through the hapless guard’s heart. He slumped back against his chair, dead before he could sound the alarm.

“Hendricks, Trevor, you know what to do,” the shooter said as he slipped his pistol back into the chest holster.

“On it, boss,” the one called Trevor said. He walked quickly around the reception desk and lowered the guard to the floor, then took his seat and picked up the computer keyboard, entering a series of commands.

Hendricks went around the other side of the desk, but didn't stop there. He kept moving until he reached the wall about five feet behind it. There was a door set into the wall. It was a deliberately unobtrusive door, modeled to look as much like the wall around it as possible. It wasn't hidden, just designed to be less visible than a typical door.

He drew another blaster much like the one the mustached man carried, then rapped on the door twice. It opened a moment later, another guard peeking out. "Matt? What's up?"

Hendricks fired a single shot into the guard's temple. The man probably never even saw his killer before he dropped.

With the door open, Hendricks slipped inside, nudging the guard's body out of the way with his foot. He stepped down three short stairs and found himself in a security office. This wasn't the main security space. That was up on the tenth floor. But this smaller room still had access to the building computer network, which meant there was a lot Hendricks could do from here. He tapped the earbud he wore.

"Mr. Dain, I'm in position, sir. Ready to execute."

"Do it," replied the voice over the radio.

Hendricks cracked his knuckles, dragged the keyboard closer, and got to work.

Outside in the reception area, the other three men were still at work. The one behind the reception desk had slipped into the jacket and hat from the dead guard. It wouldn't fool anyone who observed him too closely, thanks to the small hole in the front from the blaster shot. But it would fool a casual glance, and that was all that mattered at the moment.

"You set here?" Dain asked him.

The man gave a crisp nod. "Ready, boss."

Dain tapped his earpiece, activating his comm unit. "Lobby is good. Ready for fireworks."

Then he marched his way toward the elevators, followed by his other man. The doors there snapped open the moment he arrived, revealing a dozen more men packed inside. This group looked very different from the team Dain entered with. Where Dain's men had worn expensive suits, this group wore tactical gear and carried duffel bags filled with additional supplies.

One of the men, massively built with long blonde hair, stepped forward. "The truck is secure on P2, sir. We have all the gear with us, though. I've set explosives to blow the hover-truck if we need to."

"Excellent, Magnus," Dain told him. "I think we're ready for next steps. We need to make a quick stop on the tenth floor, and then it's on to the party. Shall we?"

Magnus stepped aside, allowing Dain and his other man to enter the elevator, then stepping back in behind them. Dain scanned a security badge he'd pulled from the guard they killed, which gave him access to every level of the building. He tapped the button for the tenth floor. That was where the main security office was, after all, and they needed to neutralize any hazards there before going higher in the structure.

A very quick trip up nine floors later, the elevator snapped open. Magnus was moving before the doors were fully open, rifle raised as he stepped into the space beyond. Men followed close on his heels, their movements fluid as they flowed clear of the confining space. Dain followed in the rear, well behind the others. There was no sense dying to a stray blaster bolt. He knew full well they were likely going to run into trouble on this floor.

Hopefully it wouldn't be too much, though. He'd paid well to have the security comms hacked, to generate a fake attack on the presidential palace. All of it was to pull the bulk of the security forces from the Government Center long enough to take it over.

One security guard must have heard the elevator ping, because she wandered around the corner. "Bob, is that you? You know you can't-"

Magnus shot her dead before she could say anything more. The rifles were not silenced, so now time was even more of a commodity. The gunmen rushed down the hallway toward the security office. The desk there was empty; that was likely the woman's station. But the door behind it was unlocked. The men smashed the door open and tossed a stun grenade into the room beyond. It went off seconds later and they followed the blast by pouring into the room beyond.

Gunfire, then silence.

Dain walked forward, his steps calm and methodical. The smell of burned stone and plastic stung his nostrils as he stepped into the room, but these were things he was more than used to.

Two dead security guards were laid out against a wall inside the room. Magnus stood near the entrance, keeping watch over the room and hall alike. Their computer tech was already seated at a computer console, working on turning the building’s systems into their systems.

Dain stepped in close to watch over the tech’s shoulder. “You have everything you need to make this happen, Carter?”

“Oh, yes. It’s not that difficult. The nice thing about emergency protocols is they aren’t useful if it takes all day to initiate them,” Carter replied, fingers still moving on the keyboard as he spoke. “This building may serve as a simple governmental hub most of the time, but it was constructed to be a fortress, in case the planet was attacked by outside forces.

“If I use the badge of the security officer over there,” Carter gestured at one of the dead men, “and assuming those activation codes we bought are accurate—which it looks like they are—then we’re in. Now I can shut off everything. Air will be internally cycled, like a starship. The blast shields will slide out to cover most windows and doors. And most importantly, the force field will activate. We’ve even got external gun emplacements which will go live. All I need to do is press this button.”

His finger hovered over the keyboard.

“Do it,” Dain replied.

Carter stabbed the button, and the lighting in the room went red. A large screen on the wall showed a series of alerts as one emergency response after another was engaged. The force field went live first. The gun emplacements right after. Then one by one each additional security feature was triggered, activated, and marked on the status board.

“We’re good, boss,” Carter said. “And now the building AI is talking to me, too. I’ve got an update on every human being in the building. Most of them are on forty-two, at that banquet. But we’ve got two janitors, one on the fifth and the other on the twenty-fifth floors, two guys in offices on the twelfth who look like they just picked the wrong weekend to work, and one woman in the swimming pool.”

There was a pause, then Carter went on. “Holy shit, I think the entire forty-fifth floor is nothing but a pool and changing rooms. That’s nuts! Anyway, the AI says that’s everyone in the building.”

“Excellent work, Carter,” Dain replied. “The building is ours, gentlemen. Magnus, I want you to leave two men down here with Carter. All three are to lock yourselves in here. Take no chances; open the door only for someone from our team, understood? Then I want Magnus to personally take a team of two with him to collect the five people who are not where they’re supposed to be and bring them up to the forty-second floor.

“We know there are…” Dain paused and checked Carter’s display. “Still three security guards on the forty-second floor. They will be alerted to our presence, but we have the floors locked down, so they can’t go anywhere. We need to find and eliminate them, but the priority is the guests at the banquet, for now. That is our next stop. It’s time to crash a party, friends. Let’s move.”

He stepped back out of the room, most of the group following him. The first steps were already in place and everything was moving along swimmingly, but Dain knew from long experience that a caper like this could go sideways in a moment, and he had no intention of allowing that. Every possible factor that could impact their eventual success had been accounted for.