Chapter 12

Ada didn't have as much as a head start as she would have liked. No sooner had she jogged down one hallway, the piercing buzz of an alarm began to blare, honking like some kind of winged animal would if it were part machine. An intercom sounded through the building's ceiling speakers over the cry.

"Attention all personnel, lockdown has been initiated. Non-essential staff, please return to your offices for a level one security sweep. This is not a drill."

The latter portion of the message was repeated for clarity sake. The Agency was a lot faster than she initially thought. Word had gotten out that she was loose, or someone had found the guards she dropped. But wait, that fast? It had been 30 seconds, a minute tops, since she broke free. Long enough for someone to find the bodies and pull an alarm? Feasible, but not likely...maybe there was something else going on.

Ada pushed it out of her mind and returned her focus back to escaping. That took priority. Anything else would have to be taken care of as she came across it.

The hallway turned left to a t-junction, and Ada peeked around the corner before moving into it. As soon as she reached it and began to debate to go left or right, two agents did the job for her as they appeared around the corner to her right. One of them wore a collared shirt and tie, minus the suit jacket that went over it, the other more casually dressed in jeans and a long sleeved shirt.

"Hey you, stop!" the one with the tie yelled, then both of them raised handguns. "Drop it!"

Ada spun and broke into a sprint, outnumbered and outgunned. The part of the hall she was in was just short enough to make a run for it. The agents opened fire, sending deadly lead over her shoulder as she rounded the corner. Part of it exploded into shrapnel as a bullet zinged close. The hallway turned to stairs, and Ada began to climb, taking three to a step and loosing very little speed in the process. A figure stepped into view at the top of the stairs just as she neared the landing. Without wasting time to identify gender or threat, Ada punched, burying her fist into what turned out to be the crotch of a man in a suit and tie, then pulled him forward by the collar as he stooped over, sending him tumbling down the stairs.

She pushed through a door at the top into a more public part of the GSA headquarters. The bland tiled floors were replaced by carpets, and the concrete walls were now wallpapered. Ahead of her, dropping from the ceiling, was a heavy metal gate. It was already more than halfway down by the time she got to it. Ada flung herself forward into a slide, her hip igniting painfully from the ground's friction as she skimmed on burber. The gate clanged down just as the last wisp of her silk hem passed it. As she rolled to her feet, more gunshots sounded as the pursuing agents opened up through the gate from the end of the hall, desperate at the last chance they had to drop her.

The bullets pockmarked the wall ahead of her, but she rounded the corner, out of their line of fire without injury. To her left, a door opened, discharging the single guard that monitored the checkpoint she just crossed. Too late and too close to shoot him, the guard swung a collapsible metal baton in his hand. The bludgeon almost clipped her gun arm, had she not jerked backwards reflexively. With three strikes, she hit and trapped his arm before he could retract it. CRACK CRACK CRACK. The bone snapped at the elbow, and Ada hooked his foot forward with hers, then kicked the back of his knee, dropping him down on his other knee. With a final chop, she struck his throat. The guard gagged horribly before twitching forward, down for the count.

Down the hall, an agent stepped into view, immediately opening fire with his weapon. Ada threw herself against the wall and returned fire, forcing him to dive for cover the way he came. The door to another stairwell was just behind her, so she kicked it open and bolted up the stairs just as another shot rang out.

Up, up, go up. They'll already have the ground floor locked down. Only chance is to go up and find an alternate way down.

The stairs ended abruptly after two flights. The GSA, though it looked older on the outside, was probably renovated for security reasons. If they had a lockdown system with security gates, the interior was probably designed to be as inhibiting to movement as possible, especially given all the high profile suspects brought in.

Like me.

Outside the stairwell was almost identical to the floor below her. The hallways were mostly empty, but as she rounded a corner she nearly bumped into three Agency staff, a man and two women who squealed as she blew past with her gun. Around another corner and the next person she nearly collided with was a guard who immediately grappled with her, grabbing her by the upper arms.

She lost her gun when he surprised her, but before he could wrangle her to the floor, Ada twisted and pulled, managing to offset his balance and drag him hard into the wall, whereas upon contact, he lost his grip. She followed up with a fist numbing punch across his jaw that slammed his head into the wall, then again with an elbow to his temple, denting the drywall beneath the wallpaper as he sagged to his knees, unconscious. Rapid approaching footsteps forced her to leave the gun and start running again.

Another gate ahead of her began to lower, and this time, Ada was unable to reach it in time to clear it. It clanged shut, blocking her immediate route to God knows where; she didn't exactly have the building layout memorized. So she went the one way available to her, the hallway that didn't lead back to the stairs or to the closed gate. When the path ended in a dead end with no window, she tried a door, finding it unlocked.

Ada kept low and creeped into the room, shutting the door softly behind her. Low, worried voices were audible from the bank of cubicles she was crouched behind. Personnel following lockdown procedures. Then somewhere, there was a crunch of wood and a few surprised gasps.

"Everyone, there's been a breach in security," came a loud voice. "Stay calm and start moving." The murmuring voices began to shift, moving to what Ada believed to be a door that was kicked in. Over them, Ada almost missed what the voice said.

"Initiate office sweep."

Shit, they're clearing this floor.

Ada snuck low, making very sure that she didn't rise above the cubicle walls. Unless she wanted to leave the way she came and possibly meet up with pursuers, she was forced to play hide and seek. As she came to a path between the cubicles, she spotted the combat boots and digital camouflage of military fatigues. This far in America's capital, it was stupid to assume the army wouldn't be involved. The GSA probably had its own military staff to help with things.

Ada kept her movements quiet as she moved along the next row of cubicles. The alarm, not blaring in the current sector, was still faint in the distance, helping to quell the noise she made. She bladed her body against the corner just as she heard the heavy boots enter her row. Either the soldier was sloppy or following a different search pattern, as he didn't come down any farther. If he did, he would have easily seen her.

"Office clear," a voice said after the click of a radio. "Moving on."

She could just her the affirmation over the radio as the footsteps left the office. Looked like they were back online or using a different system. Ada crept to the cracked door after them, then peeked into the hallway. Three soldiers, stacked up in entry position stood poised at the next door. One of them kicked it open, resulting in a crunch similar to before, and they filed into the next office.

Seizing the absence that they left before they stuck a guard in the hall, Ada darted across the way to another door, opening it to find another office. This one had what she was looking for: windows. They even opened, though she had to release the locks, since it was the middle of winter.

The GSA, she noted inanely, seemed to have some kind of old fashioned architecture, despite the fact it was a relatively new (and secretive) organization. Snow had fallen sometime recently, dusting the old brick ledge which she now crept out on with a fine white powder. Just as she nudged the window shut with her toe, she heard the concussive force of the door being kicked open and froze, trying to make herself as thin as possible in between the segmented windows.

There was a tense moment where Ada simply thought the soldiers were going to start shooting and swat her right off the ledge, but it never came. She spared a very generous 15 seconds, then looked back into the room, finding it empty and sighed in relief. The office had been small enough, without the rows of cubicles, that the soldiers hadn't thought more to just have a quick peek before moving on.

It was hardly a moment to relax, as she was now balanced precariously on a wet, snow covered outcropping about 6 stories above the ground over the rear parking structure behind the main building. The hem of her dress fluttered from a cold unseen breeze, covering her legs in goosebumps. She spied her next route, a pipe on the other side of the corner she was mere feet from.

Being a red splotch on a segment of tan concrete gave her great sense of exposure. Hoping very much that no one was looking out a window or zeroing a rifle on her exposed back, she inched along the ledge almost daintily. Little clumps of powdery snow fell from beneath her ebony heels, gently fluttering to a balcony below her. If only she fell that lightly if she slipped....Eventually, she got a hand on the pipe and began to descend, taking it slow. Her only foot holds were strips of metal used to anchor the pipe to the wall, and though her Pollini heels were elegantly crafted and sleek, they were nowhere near meant for handling such meticulous footing. She slipped once, scuffing her knee hard against cold concrete, but managed to keep a death grip on the freezing, damp pipe.

Two stories down, Ada ran out of pipe. It simply ended above a snow covered balcony, to which she dropped and began scanning her next path. The ground below was still too far to drop to without injury, not to mention wide open. She eyed another balcony, an easy jump from hers, as well as the next beyond it.

No sooner did she cross the gap, movement and dull noise through the window caught her attention. There were Agency staff in the room, but that's not what the noise had come from. The noise was two separate doors crashing open as soldiers and agents entered the room, bellowing for the civilians to drop to the floor. Some did, others hesitated, which allowed her to sprint for the next jump.

Then the gunfire started, breaking through the windows in bursts of fury. She heard the chatter of a submachine gun, and the loud, thundering boom of a shotgun. Glass and snow and ice pounded her as she bolted across the balcony, hopping up onto its wide stone railing and vaulting to the next one. The bullets followed her as the gunners angled their shots through the window. With nowhere else to go, Ada jumped for the next balcony, though this one was far out of her reach.

She managed grab the wrought iron railing that was mounted into the concrete, but the cold, slippery metal, combined with the pain of hitting her arms during the jump and the bullets ricocheting inches from her hands, she slipped. Ada thought that was going to be it, but Providence managed to throw her another bone as she landed horizontally on another balcony below her.

Owww...

The fall and impact momentarily stunned her. She'd only fallen about fifteen feet, and the small layer of snow made sure her head didn't split like a melon, but none the less, it hurt. Now, that snow was melting against her hot adrenaline-laced skin and beading against silk as she struggled to her feet, then shoved through the balcony's door, one last round digging into the concrete door frame from a shooter above.

That's it, I'm not leaving without that stupid grapple gun again.

Self reprimands aside, the room was clear upon entry. With her desperate and unorthodox maneuvers, Ada had either landed in a cleared sector, or one that had yet to be swept. Either way, they knew where she was, and it would be moments before the building converged on her.

She got moving, leaving the empty office that connected to the balcony and sprinted down the hall. No sooner than she did, she heard the yells behind her.

"Hold it right there!"

You'd think with all the shooting they were doing, they would figure out that I'm not listening. Ada kept her sprint at full speed and turned a corner before they could start firing.

"Goddammit, shut the gate! Shut the gate!"

A checkpoint ahead of her had a barred off door, like in a jail cell, standing wide open. It started to slide shut, and once again Ada leaped and tried to flatten her body. The edge of the door clipped her foot as it clanged shut and locked behind her. As she scrambled to her feet and started running again, she heard the voice and saw the shadow of movement through the ajar door just ahead.

"Seal the exit! She's-"

Ada lowered her shoulder and rammed the door as she passed it. Pain welled up in her shoulder, but the door slammed shut hard. Just before it did, she had felt it hit something, hopefully whoever was inside trying to pursue her. The door didn't open again as she moved on, so it must have been quite a hit.

Another gate was already shut in front of her, blocking the way. Ada veered out of the hall and through another door, through an office, then into another hall. The GSA was starting to look more and more like a maze, and she was the rat inside. But she had to be getting close to a point where she could slip out. More windows were showing the outside, and it had been only minutes; they wouldn't have been able to create a good enough perimeter yet. All she needed to do was sneak past and disappear...

The corridor was empty and gloomy. The way behind her blocking pursuit, Ada tapered her run to a light jog, then paused altogether when she reached the next intersection of hallways. They spread out in all for directions, and without much though, Ada went right. That way followed the outer edge of the building, so she'd be close to an exit if one presented itself. Quietly, she pushed open a door, scanned the opening, and crept inside.

The shot came out of nowhere.

Ada instinctively jerked into what she hoped was safety. Only then did she feel the pain in the side of her gut and the warm blossom beginning to spread. She clamped a hand over the spot and looked. Her fingers were wet with the blood that was oozing out of the hole in her side. Her blood.

"Ohh..." she moaned through a clamped jaw as she tried to quell the feeling to throw up. She felt the blood began to trickle down her side, seeping into her underwear as it started to bead down her thigh. "Shit...shit..."