Critical Mass, Chapter 16: Revelation

Tyr and Uruz were back inside the stronghold. Uruz was rifling through the paperwork in the briefcase, and Tyr was glued to the dead man's laptop. He had it connected to his own, using his software to break through any encryption he encountered. Having made it through a challenging password series required just to boot up, Tyr was perusing his hard drive, looking for pieces of the puzzle. It was just odd that a man of Reid's stature would end up in a situation to try to blackmail anyone. He was wealthy beyond imagination already. Certainly it wasn't just about the money... maybe it was a personal strike. Either way, at this point, it didn't really matter, except that the contents of the briefcase were still intact, and probably still incriminating to someone. Perhaps it wasn't blackmail at all. What if he was simply going to blow the whistle on some high level corporate corruption? They killed him, but somehow were stopped short of destroying the evidence. That would mean they would be looking for it. That would put everyone in danger.

He stumbled onto a program named "Cams" and opened it up. A menu popped up listing a number of locations. He punched one in, and busted up laughing as the screen came up, "Hey bro! Check this out! Uruz leaned over and laughed hysterically as the screen showed a giant woman in her 50's struggling to get into a pair of pants in a dressing room somewhere. He looked at the time caption in the corner of the screen. "This is in real time! That's fucking hilarious!"

"Reid, you sick, perverted fuck! I love it!" Uruz chuckled. "What else does he have?"

Tyr punched in link after link, some of them showed bathrooms from the ceiling vent, some were of different intersections and street side views around town. They were growing bored with the whole thing, and almost closed the program, when Uruz saw a link toward the bottom of the list that interested him. "What's H.K.? One and two, check those out...." he said. Tyr clicked on the link for "H.K.-1” and was caught kind of off guard to see the front door of Hell's Kitchen in the Border District. "Hey!" Uruz exclaimed, "I know that place!"

"Yeah, me too. I haven't been there in a while, but I'd bet dollars to donuts that that's exactly where Thor went yesterday! What a trip." Tyr suddenly felt a chill go up his spine. He quickly punched in the second link and saw a shot along a building, down a street he didn't recognize, at an offramp. Cars were flying by overhead on the freeway, but nothing was going on at street level. It looked like a ramp that didn't get used much.

"I know that place, too!" Uruz yelled out. "It's just right around the corner from the bar. What a strange spot to put a cam... I like the dressing room better." He reached out to change the link, but Tyr grabbed his wrist, sensing something strange about this. "What?" Uruz complained. "You're not going to see him pop up in it unless you could rewind it... which you can't."

Tyr scratched his chin, then opened his eyes wide, and pointed at Uruz. "No shit! That's it...." He dropped down a menu on the player and started looking for recorded files. Sure enough, he found an entire database full of them. "Jackpot!" he exclaimed, and clicked on the last date recorded. The laptop was dead when he started, and so was its owner, so he assumed it was probably receiving a signal up until the battery died. The screen that popped up, oddly enough, was of the same view. It was night time. He watched for about three or four uneventful minutes before he looked closer and realized the file was enormous. He clicked on the progress bar and dragged it to the right, speeding through the recording until finally, there was movement. He pulled back just a bit, then waited, letting it play out. Suddenly, a figure appeared from the left side, walking away from the camera. It was a woman. "Jesus fucking Christ!" he yelled, slapping Uruz entirely too hard with the back of his hand.

"Fuck!" Uruz yelled back, annoyed at the attack, rubbing his arm where Tyr slapped him as he turned his attention to the screen. His scowl became a look of shock as he saw who was walking across the screen. "That's Kait!" He turned to Tyr, who was nearly catatonic, eyes and mouth wide open, unable to speak. They both watched in horror as she was attacked from behind, disabling the attacker, only to have the verdict changed by a stun gun of some kind. The resolution was fair, but the light was poor, and they were a long way from the camera, still, they could visibly tell she was still twitching from the stunner long after the third man entered the scene from the left, fired one shot right into the attacker's forehead, then walked away, off to the right somewhere.

"What the fuck?" Tyr finally said, still staring at the screen with unblinking eyes. A couple of minutes passed, then a car pulled up. It was the BMW they just dismantled! The shot in the head… The kick by Kait, bending the attacker's knee straight back... The guy on the ground was Reid himself! They watched on to see the man with the gun, dressed all in tactical black, almost like a swat officer, pull up close to the bodies, then get out and pop the trunk open. He threw Reid in the trunk, then grabbed the case and computer out of the passenger side and threw them in with him. He shut the trunk, then walked slowly over towards Kait, who was still on the ground, shaking violently. Even if she had survived this far, the ongoing shock at that voltage would turn her into a vegetable.

Tyr and Uruz were both red with rage, gritting their teeth, but continuing to watch just the same as the man leveled his pistol at her head. Suddenly there was a flash of muzzle fire from just off to the left, in the darkest part of the alley, well off the road. The man dropped to his knees, then folded over backward, almost on top of her. Tyr's mouth was wide open again. A pair of figures emerged from the darkness, dressed in military gear. One covered the street back toward the camera while the other knelt above Kait, disconnecting whatever was shocking her, then checked her pulse. He made a gesture to his partner with his hand open, back and forth across his throat like a knife, and Uruz yelled out loud, grabbing ahold of Tyr by the clothes with his fists.

Tyr sat with his jaw clenched, tears welling up in his eyes, and closed his fists so hard he started cutting himself with his own fingernails. The man hoisted her onto his shoulder, then took off back into the dark the way he came. The other man grabbed the apparent hitman the same way, also disappearing back into the alley. Still no one touched the car. They must have arrived too late to see what really happened, so they didn’t understand the relevance of the car, and left it in the middle of the road, blocking the offramp.

This was all starting to make a small amount of sense to them when they were snapped out of their deepened thought by a very loud bang on the front security door. They looked at each other, surprised and alarmed, especially given what they just witnessed. Uruz was scrambling for guns, while Tyr wiped his eyes and quickly shut the laptop with the program still playing. Nobody comes here uninvited! Nobody! The only people who knew where they lived were the handful that lived in tight pockets around this area, and they all knew better than to drop by unannounced. *"BANG! BANG! BANG!"* They heard again.

"Catch!" Uruz was still in the gun cabinet, not trusting the situation for a moment. He tossed Tyr a short shotgun, then grabbed another one for himself. They were kept loaded, but he strapped a bandolier with about 50 more shotgun shells attached to it around his neck and shoulder. Now he was ready. Tyr got there right before him. Looking at the monitor, they could only see the top of a hat. It looked like Dagaz. Only problem is, Dagaz wouldn't knock. Tyr cocked the pump on his shotgun to chamber a round. Uruz did the same, realizing he hadn't already.

Tyr pushed the intercom button and spoke in a loud, concise tone, "Step away from the door and identify yourself!" The person with the hat stepped back about three feet, and looked up at the camera. It was Dagaz, but he had a gun pointed at his head from the right, and a different set of hands holding him still by his lapel and the back of his neck on the left. "IDENTIFY YOURSELVES RIGHT NOW, MOTHER FUCKERS!" he yelled considerably louder and more violent. He was still stewing about Kait, and not in any mood for games. The men backed up further. He could see it was Cane. He was the unofficial ruler of the U District; a ruthless dictator who was rising to new heights of power all the time due to his complete lack of ethics. He was one of the few underground bosses who had actually wreaked enough havoc to get the attention of the Governor and his SWAT teams. The man on his left was his brother, T. It was assumed, due to the fact that the man was over six and a half feet tall, that the "T" stood for "Tiny." No one was really sure because T didn't speak to anyone but Cane, and only then by whispering in his ear. It was pretty much common knowledge, however, that they were not a pair to be trifle with.

"We're here to speak to Dragon!" Cane spoke up, glaring into the camera, and forcing the gun a little harder into Dagaz's temple.

"Come on in." Tyr said softly, attempting to control the tone of the encounter. He hit a button, and the outer security door slid open. The front foyer was "L" shaped, so before they realized there was a second door, they had already shoved their way inside, and Tyr silently shut the first door behind them. They came defensively around the corner and became agitated when they realized they were trapped. "Open this door or you'll be mopping up your skinny friend! I'm not fucking joking!" Cane yelled fiercely, ramming the gun into Dagaz's head even harder.

Tyr spoke calmly into the com, trying to manipulate their mood, as well as take some of their attention off of Dagaz and pull it towards the door. "Take it easy, Cane," he said softly and slowly, "I'll be able to open the door in three seconds..." He pushed a button on the panel, but not the one for the door. He could tell by Dagaz's increase in chest size that he was holding his breath already. "One... Two... Three..." He waited for just another second, then he looked at the monitor as both men crumpled to the floor without a fight. The gas was an invisible, odorless compound Tyr had been perfecting out of a few different household chemicals. He hit the exhaust fan, waited a couple more seconds, then opened the door for real.

"Whew!" Dagaz exhaled, then breathed in fresh air, trying to regain his composure. Uruz stepped in and gave him a big bear hug, lifting his feet off the ground. Tyr scooped up their weapons and patted them down revealing a couple knives and an ankle pistol. He still wasn't sure what to make of Dagaz's disappearance, or his sneaking in when they weren't there, so he decided not to say anything to him about it just yet. It was just good to see him alive.

©2010 Steven G. Curry, All Rights Reserved