CHAPTER 31
Nancy waited until the guys were a good distance away, shooting at the door, before she crawled from beneath the desk to perform her half of the task - to kill Pandora.
Quietly determined, she wanted to get the boys and herself out of the trouble they were in…wanted to do her bit…wanted to make Frank proud of her and make up for the last four months. The Posse were already returning fire, so she had better get a move on!
She scurried on all fours as fast as she could to the desk and PC Vanessa had previously indicated, ignoring the sounds of Joe, Fenton and Con's pounding feet zig-zagging behind her and the returning gun fire. About halfway there, the first bullet thudded into and obliterated a floor tile right in front of her and another whizzed by her ear. A third quickly followed, impressing itself into the metal desk by her head as a fourth hit and reflected off loudly. Nancy had no choice but to drop and stretch along the back of the desk next to her. She reduced her level of exposure but in turn was unable to progress.
She looked back to see Joe sprinting full pelt towards her, he'd realized her predicament. As he drew level, he directed his firepower over the top of where she lay, to protect and draw the gunfire towards him. She clambered further, but then saw a red laser light dance in the middle of Joe's chest. A bullet hit, drove him back and he lost his footing. A second hit sent him spinning down onto his front, out of sight.
Nancy screamed and froze, unable to move even though in a vulnerable position.
In her eye line, Con ran toward Joe while continuing to shoot at the doors.
Fenton yelled his head off to the side of her.
Con stood over Joe in seconds, he glanced quickly down, then looked left and shouted, "HE'S OKAY, FEN!" then he looked at Nancy, "He's not shot. Don't lose your nerve, girl, GO!" He continued to fire over her head.
So she threw herself to the desk and Pandora and backed underneath the table.
She watched as Con dropped to reload. Up again, he began to fire a volley of rounds at the door again while running the other way away from Joe. Two guns were now clutched in his hands - he'd apparently appropriated Joe's. He passed Fenton, said something quickly…but another red laser light targeted Con and two slugs thudded into the side of his vest in quick succession and he too hit the ground and disappeared from her view point. His Glocks flew up in the air and disappeared, goodness knows where.
Now positioned above Joe, Fenton blasted over the desk she hid under and, for an instant, Nancy saw a red light on his vest too, before he crouched and the light slid away. He didn't come back up, instead, he continued to fire and reload from his squat position behind the table. He wasn't about to give the gunmen or women any quarter.
Nancy didn't want to lose Fenton, didn't want to be left alone. "Fenton, get down!" she yelled, trying to raise her voice above the deafening melee. "Get yourself out of the way. Please Fenton, you promised…we agreed!"
Recognizing the pressure of time, she decided to ignore Fenton's strange behaviour. She raised her hands up onto the desktop, felt around quickly, and got her nails to the edge of the keyboard. She yanked it off the top and bought it down to the floor. Silently, she thanked the Pandora Posse for being so thoughtful as to provide their employees with wireless accessories - no expense spared! She didn't know whether it occurred to the gun wielders outside, but she didn't need to put her head over the parapet anymore. She intended to use the massive screen on the wall as her monitor, using the gap designed for leads to be fed through.
"Fenton, stop!" She yelled again. 'Why's he still firing?' She leaned back and took a quick look, seeing his frenzied face. She realized he couldn't hear her, his brain locked into a state of manic fatherly protection. Two children down, one of those under him…he wasn't stopping.
She turned her full attention back to the keyboard and looked through the gap at Pandora. Using the arrow keys, she directed the curser down to the boxes containing the incorrect code. She moved to the last letter and quickly backspaced to the start, taking out every single digit. Then she entered the real code. Three quarters of the way through, the Posse realized they were about to lose, and turned all their firepower at the big screen in a last ditch effort to thwart her. Angry barks of hot lead pumped into it, causing the image of Pandora to flicker in and out. "Stop shooting and get down. PLEASE FENTON!"
Nancy banged in the last few numbers and hit return. She now found herself confronted, like the last time, with a number of command choices: 'Continue', 'Abort' or 'Self Destruct'. She selected 'Self Destruct' and hit enter. An out of focus Pandora looked down, disappointed, at Nancy, gave her a wave and a cheeky wink and the screen went blank. Entirely blank. Broken blank. Pandora, and the screen, were both no more.
Nancy waited for Frank's prediction to come true, that the Posse would disappear and leave them alone. Instead, the shooting continued unabated; if anything, it gained momentum and volume, bullets constantly hitting the top of her hiding place. She screamed at Fenton again, trying to get him to put himself into a safer place - pure madness! Her hands were over her ears but it didn't deaden the noise much. 'How many gunmen are there? It sounds like hundreds! Damn you Arthur Gray, how could you!' Then, along with the explosions, she detected another unconnected, metallic grind.
She looked out at the massive screen to watch one side drop and began to gently swing. It stayed for a few seconds but then the sheer weight of the unit snapped the mounting at the other end, and the entire thing fell. It hit the ground and toppled forward, away from the wall, and crashed against the first bank of desks. A domino effect started as it pushed the first desk into the next desk. Metal legs screamed against ceramic tiles and the whole thing gained momentum until eventually they connected with the workstation Nancy huddled beneath. She curled into a tight ball and, with a shriek, disappeared under the sea of creeping metal.
-o0o-
The instant Pandora gave Nancy a wink, a wave and 'died', Fenton turned his weapon sights on the PC and blasted it to hell. Although not equipped with a deep knowledge of computers and technology, he did remember the last time Nancy destroyed Pandora, she crushed the memory stick afterward. So he concentrated his dwindling ammo at the base unit and pumped all he could into it, even using Joe's supply. Finally, the PC physically lifted off the desk and flew down the room, just as Nancy became buried under the mountain of surging metal and office equipment.
The return fire, if anything, had grown even louder. Deafening beyond comprehension. Fenton felt amazed he hadn't been hit. He waited for it to happen, the situation beyond desperate. No way could he hold them at arm's length on his own for much longer. He only had a few bullet magazines left.
He decided to drop one of the guns and not reload it, but regretted it when a figure of an armed man in dark clothes appeared to the side of the ruined doors. Fenton set his jaw and attempted to get a bead on him, but the man ducked out of the way. He didn't go entirely though, hidden as the barrel of his scope-bearing rifle swung in Fenton's direction. "Dammit!" Then a gun went off from the direction of the stairwell. It detonated like a canon, omitted from a higher velocity gun than the Glocks he used. Fenton jumped in shock.
The mystery slug cannoned its way into very edge of the wall where the assailant stood with the rifle, and dusted his face with powdered masonry. His hand went to his eyes and he retreated fully this time. Fenton jerked his eyes in confusion at where the shot came, looking up to see if Frank had pulled himself together, for a moment feeling jubilant that his eldest wasn't as badly injured as he feared.
"Mr H, get the hell down!"
Fenton ducked quickly.
James lay on his side, his gun arm outstretched. The weapon he held was the same Beretta he had shot out of the stair-dweller's hand earlier. He must have woken, sought the gun out and dragged himself to the edge to help. Not Frank after all.
"That's two I owe you, James."
"Who's counting? A lousy shot. I aimed for his head! Didn't you hear Drew yelling at you to get down?"
"Was she?"
"Bawling her face off! She bought me to my senses." James paused and indicated to Con with a flick of his head. "Is Dad—?"
"No. I think he and Joe got hit in the vests. No blood."
"Thought so." James groaned and lay down.
It dawned on Fenton they no longer needed to shout across to each other as the enemy's attack dwindled, so he took the opportunity to palm a fresh magazine of bullets into his gun. He turned and wilted against the side of the desk, mentally exhausted. He needed a moment. He could see James easier from this angle. "How you feeling?"
James grimaced. "Like I'm shot full o' lead, partner. Yourself?"
"Pretty good, considering."
Fenton considered his belt to find only two full magazines left. He glanced at James' Beretta, resting on his belly, his hand lightly holding it. It couldn't have too many slugs left, fifteen at most. "Don't pull yourself any further out; you've no body armour, no protection."
"Doubt I could even if I wanted to. Can you throw me one of the Glocks and some ammo?"
"Wish I could. I'm almost out."
"Shit!"
"Nancy told me you're a good shot."
"I am."
"We're gonna need your skill."
'This isn't going to end well!' Fenton knew it would only be a matter of time until they were swarmed and overpowered. He and James wouldn't be able to protect everyone for long. Fenton placed his gun to one side and reached to Joe to roll and pull him half over his lap. No bullets had penetrated past the armor of Joe's vest. At his touch, Joe moved. "Hurts, doesn't it?"
Joe nodded.
Fenton unstrapped the vest and briskly rubbed Joe's chest.
Joe coughed and found his voice. "Hurt more than last time. I blacked out." His hand went to his thigh. "I lost my gun!" He raised his head and looked dimly about for it. In the process, he locked eyes with James. "Dude!"
"The blonde one!" James said and grinned.
Fenton watched Con's fingers clench and unclench. Con turned his wrists to lay his hands flat against the tiles. He pushed up and twisted to flop onto his back, wheezing.
Joe clumsily re-strapped the vest on with Fenton's help. "Did Nancy kill Pandora?"
"Yes."
"And the Posse left?"
"No."
"What? But it…it doesn't make sense! Frank said—"
"I know, son."
"But—"
"I know. I'd be up there with Frank now if they were gone."
"Ouch," Con muttered.
"Your son's awake," Fenton told him.
Con lifted his head to look, but was interrupted by a flicker of red and white lights against the pale and pock marked walls. "Uh-oh…my guns? I lost both of them? Unbelievable!" Con sat up and commenced an urgent search.
"It's the ambulance," Fenton said. "They've come to get Frank and Nancy." He turned to James, "Let's do this, Jimmy. Do your best. No mercy, head shots if you can. Maybe we can scare them off if we kill a couple of them."
"Yessir!" James twisted toward the door with a painful grunt, and stretched out his arm.
Joe and Fenton gazed at one another. "Son, I—" Fenton started to say.
"Me too," Joe finished, and they simultaneously hugged tightly, then Fenton pushed him away, but retained his grip on Joe's shoulders so they were eye-to-eye and making solid contact.
"Listen and listen good, Son. Keep your head down, and if it all goes to hell, run. Make for the stairs. Don't wait for us and don't look back. Get you and Frank out of here. Go down the emergency exit…throw Frank out of a window and jump yourself if you have to. I don't care how you do it, just get out."
Joe's eyes went wide and he nodded.
"Con and I'll take care of James...and Nancy." Fenton hugged Joe again, finally let him go and retrieved his gun. He turned to crouch behind the desk and laid his arm on the desktop. He began to squeeze off bullets along with James in a thankless bid to scare off the Posse.
Joe sat up and ran his hands around his utility belt for any spare magazines but came up empty. He turned his attention to his father's abandoned second gun, snatched it, and found it dry too.
"JOE!" Con shouted and held his hand up.
Joe thumbed the empty magazine free and simultaneously tossed the weapon to Con who caught it and shoved a bullet case into the breach. He rose up onto his knees and joined in the fray.
James ran out of ammo, screamed as he dragged himself under the stairs out of range, and slumped.
Fenton and Con continued, but no bullets were being fired back…confusing. "JOE! GET READY TO RUN!" Fenton bellowed, accepting his ammo was about to be all used up and the Posse were probably waiting for that to happen before they rushed them. "CON, GET JAMES!"
Joe got up into a stance as though he was in the starting block of a race and tensed, building up energy to go off at a full sprint.
"THIS'S THE BAYPORT POLICE DEPARTMENT, CAN YOU PLEASE STOP FIRING AT YOUR FRIENDS. YOU'RE WRECKING OUR CAR!" A loud hailer request begged, followed by the relay of a squad car's siren.
"You are kidding me?" Joe muttered and dropped his head.
Fenton rested his trigger finger and raised his head from his gun sight. He turned slowly and looked back at Con. "I don't believe it. We were seeing a squad car all along, not the ambulance."
"I've never been so happy to be wrong in all my life."
"Hot diggity!" James muttered.
Ezra Collig emerged from the darkness, materializing in the doorway while looking in amazement into the bullpen. "Did you folks destroy his place?" he asked, toeing the glass. Quickly, several more officers joined him, staring just as nonplussed.
"I think I figured out why the gunfire got so loud before," Fenton said and got up. He circled the room, stormed up to Collig, and raised his gun.
"Erm, Fenton?" Collig put his hands up and several of his officers started snatching for their weapons. "We got here as quick as we could, none of us were firing on you…FEN!"
Fenton pushed him aside, went to the remains of Pandora's hard-drive, and pumped the rest of his bullets into it. Once he ran out, he stomped on the console, obliterated it.
Ezra watched for a while. "I think you killed it, Fen…FENTON!" When he didn't stop, he dropped a big hand onto Fenton's shoulder and jerked him away. "FENTON!"
Fenton finally quit and stilled. "That should do it." His hand went to the back of his head and scratched hard.
"Where did you spring from?" Joe unsteadily got to his feet and moved to Con.
"Your lass called us…uh…had someone called Mark call us, all the way from England. Looks like things escalated to mammoth proportions."
Con allowed Joe to help him to his feet and arched his back. "How did we survive? How did we do that?" He quickly moved to James and bent.
"I wonder why they aimed for my Kevlar and not for—"Joe stopped. "Wait. Where's Nancy? I can't see—" His head turned toward the stairs, "Frank's gonna be—" His attention flip-flapped. "I'm not thinking straight anymore, too many threads." He and Fenton stared at one another across the bullpen. Then Joe started for the stairs at speed.
Collig's brow furrowed as Fenton ran by him to also get to Frank. "I'm confused…Nancy? You mean Nancy Drew?"
"She got buried," Fenton shouted back.
Con rose startled from his crouched position. "Buried? Fen…FEN!" He put out a hand and pulled Fenton up short as he passed.
Fenton pulled his arm clear. "What?"
"Stop! Show us where Drew got buried, you were the last to see her." Con considered the officers around him and settled on the most able. "Ben, got up with Joe."
"You betcha!" Officer Wright ran through the desks to catch up with the fast moving Joe.
Fenton gritted his teeth, looked at the upper floor, then back at Con…but then reluctantly about turned to Collig. "We need help Chief, Drew's buried in here, Frank, he's shot up there…James's under the walkway, he's been—"
"Shot in the leg. Yes, Mark told us. Ambulances are on the way. We know your boy's status too. Help's on the way."
Two of the officers moved to the stairwell and to James.
"Let's go boys," Collig said to the other officers. "Help to shift these desks and find the girl. Be careful, she could be injured. Fenton, calm down."
-o0o-
Joe heard Ben hit the stairs behind him and was glad because at the halfway point, he started to dread what he would find. But what he did find, once at the top, wasn't what he expected. Joe froze and stared at a large puddle of blood, and the red phone where he'd anticipated finding his big brother.
'Frank's gone!'
Joe's stomach dropped and his head became light as his blood pressure crashed. "This isn't happening! No…this isn't happening…it can't be happening…not fair!"
Officer Wright joined him a second later at his shoulder. "I thought your girlfriend said Frank's up here?"
"He is…he was. This can't be happening!" Joe felt his knees lose strength and he became unsteady, his palm snatched for a handhold. "This can't be happening!"
Ben quickly became his handhold, grabbed his forearms and braced. "Take it easy, Joe. Frank can't be far away."
"You don't know the half of it." Joe levelled himself. "Where the hell's my bro?"
"Sit down there for a second," Ben said.
"No—"
"Joe, don't be a tough guy! Sit down and catch your breath, take the weight off."
"Not in Frank's blood!"
