Suddenly, there was the sound of shattering glass and screams, followed by gunshots. Everyone froze, the office plunged into an eerie silence

"What the f-" Malcolm began, but was cut off by another gunshot, this time from the floor below. The bullet ripped through the floor hitting the edge of the metal tray hanging over the edge of Glenn's desk and ricocheting and drilling a hole

into the wall.

The office instantly dissolved into panic, Terri and Robyn joining the vast majority of the civil servants around the office in screaming and running around. Ollie ducked underneath his desk while Glenn and Nicola stared round in panic.

Malcolm, as normal, was the one to recover first. He had been staring at the spilled tea, cogs whirring. He'd always been good in a crisis, but a political crisis with politicians messing up was very different from guns and madmen, and for

a second he couldn't move, he was rooted to the spot in horror.

There were gunshots. In DoSAC. In his domain.

The sound of another smashing mug snapped him out of it

"ALRIGHT!" He yelled "EVERYONE SHUT THE FUCK UP AND STOP FUCKING RUNNING AROUND!"

The office froze again, some shrieking at his voice, momentarily mistaking him for one of the gunmen, then relaxing slightly at the strange relief they never imagined could be felt after hearing Malcolm shouting.

Now he had their attention, he continued.

"Alright! This is a lockdown!" He lowered his voice, not risking alerting the gunmen to inspect this office any earlier than necessarily. "Unplug the phones, put your mobiles on silent... And turn off the lights! We've got to make sure we

are invisible"

"But Malcolm, we've got the lau-"

"The launch?! Who fucking cares about that! We've got a madman with a gun in here!"

"Remember your training!" Ollie shouted helpfully, still cowering under his desk

"We don't have any training!" Terri shouted back

"STOP FAFFING AROUND!" Malcolm roared again."Olly, get onto 999 and let them know what's going on. Terri, check if security is up and running."

"And you?" Nicola asked as Terri and Olly picked themselves up and dashed for the phones.

"I'm gonna phone the PM."

Aaand that's all I've got for now.

Let me know if you liked this as I've got a beginning middle and end to sort out!