I Saw a Man Who Wasn't There
Part
Twenty-One
by Cory
Angie leaned her head back against the wall of the elevator and
exhaled. She felt all of the fears, excitement, and
downright horror drain from her body like the breath she had been
holding. She suddenly realized how exhausted she really
was. She hadn't eaten in a long while. She felt
spent.
She glanced over at Rollie. He had rested McCoy carefully
on the floor, and had slumped against the wall. He smiled.
Suddenly her body was jolted, as if by electricity, and she found
herself drawn to him. Her emotions came flooding out of her
in tears as she hugged him tightly, crying. "Oh God,
Rollie," she whispered.
Rollie silently stroked the back of her head, running his hands
through her blond hair. He bit his lip, trying to stay
composed. "Ssh," he said, quietly.
"It's okay ... we're going to be safe." He had a
hard time trying to control himself. He knew she was
scared, but she didn't know he was as scared as she was.
The elevator rose quickly to the upper floor. There was a
quiet hissing sound as it braked, reaching the ground
level. A cable clanked softly. Then the elevator
chimed, and the doors opened.
The warehouse beyond seemed empty. Then a lone voice
exclaimed, "Jesus Christ, don't fire!"
Angie recognized the voice. "Jack?"
she called out, in amazement. She broke out from Rollie's
embrace and ran out of the elevator. Jack's head appeared
from behind a crate, and slowly, other officers moved out from
their hiding places as well. For a moment, Angie was
afraid. She realized their guns had been pointed at the
elevator. They hadn't known who had been coming up.
But now Jack was there. He came running up. "Are
you okay?" he asked her, concerned.
She nodded. Rollie followed, holding McCoy.
"This is the real McCoy ... I mean, Loubar," said
Rollie, heaving the limp body into the hands of two officers.
Jack raised an eyebrow, and Rollie laughed. He sounded
relieved, now that he and Angie were safe.
"Where are the rest of them?" said Jack, suddenly
remembering the other Victors in the complex below them.
"Get teams to the sewer junction at Reynolds and East,"
said Rollie, quickly. "They're evacuating. That
junction's where the evacuation route leads."
"So we probably won't see more of them popping out of that
elevator any time soon?" Jack said.
"I doubt it," said Rollie. "Focus most of
your attention on the junction."
"I'll get on it," said Jack, nodding. "Glad
you guys are safe," he said, before leaving.
"So are we," said Angie, dryly. She leaned back
against Rollie's chest, and closed her eyes. "God ...
I think it just may be over."
Victors Ten and Two
were the only ones left in the complex. The other Victors
had already made their way into the evacuation tunnels.
Victor Ten scanned what they had not been able to bring with
them. It would be a shame that they'd have to leave behind
the computer equipment. The other Loubars had made sure the
all-important mainframe access codes for the systems they had
cracked had been uploaded to the second base, so that they could
continue their plans.
Victor Ten glanced up at number Two. He seemed quiet, and
withdrawn. "You ready?" he asked, a little
forcefully.
Victor Two nodded. "Let's go."
"Whoa, not so fast," said Victor Ten. "We
have to activate the auto-destruct."
Victor Two did a double-take. "The what?"
"Of course, we never told you lower ranked
ones!" said Victor Ten, grinning condescendingly.
"We have an auto-destruct option in this bunker.
Destroy the whole place, and most of the ground surface as
well. Pretty cool, huh?"
Victor Two was suddenly worried for Rollie and Angie. What
if they'd be still be in the warehouse when the complex blew?
Victor Ten frowned, seeing the hesitation in Victor
Two's face. "What?" he said.
Victor Two realized his face had given too much away.
"Nothing ... let's go ahead ... autodestruct."
"All right," said Victor Ten. He moved to one of
the computers. It had been left on. He typed a few
keys. A menu appeared, and he typed in a code. A
counter appeared on the screen.
5:00.
It began to count down, in seconds.
"Five minutes!" exclaimed Victor Two.
"Let's go," said Victor Ten. They ran down the
corridors toward the evac tunnels. Victor Ten suddenly
stopped. "I want to see Angie once before they are
buried forever," he said, grinning.
"No!" exclaimed Victor Two. "We ... we don't
have enough time!"
"There's time," argued Victor Ten, surprised at the
hesitant reaction. Suddenly he stopped, and his mouth
opened slightly. His eyes widened. He pulled a gun
out of his back pocket, and aimed it at Victor Two.
"Don't move," he said. He backed up, toward the
door to the conference room. He opened it slowly, and
looked inside quickly.
There was one body on the floor.
And it was one of the Victors.
"You traitor!" Victor Ten yelled,
firing his gun at Victor Two.
But he was gone.
Victor Ten swore, and ran in the direction of the evacuation
tunnels, his gun ready. The look in his eyes was
crazed. He could not believe Rollie and Angie had escaped.
... with the help of one of them.
Victor Two was running for his life.
His breath was loud in his chest as he burst through a heavy door
and into darkness. He was in the evacuation tunnel.
He risked turning on his flashlight as he ran through the tunnel,
splashing through the thin stream of liquid running through the
tunnel. He ducked, evading a low overhanging beam in the
roof of the tunnel. The tunnel turned, and he ducked behind
a corner just in time as bullets blew past him. He yelped,
but kept running. If only he had a gun ...
His mind was screaming at him that he was going to die. The
tunnels had no alternate routes. This tunnel was one way
all the up to the junction that served as their surfacing point.
Suddenly he reached a staircase. A looked up. The
stairs seemed to stretch up into infinity above him, though he
knew that, in reality, it was just twenty-two floors to the
surface. He almost laughed at the way his mind had
processed that. Just.
He was going to die. Face it.
I can't face it.
He leaped over the first three steps, then took them
two at a time, as fast as he could. He had made it about
three stories up by the time Victor Ten reach the bottom of the
stairs.
"Traitor!" yelled Victor Ten
again, firing the gun upward. Victor Two leaned against the
wall as the bullets ricocheted against the metal stairs. Lord,
he thought, I helped Angie. Please
forgive what I've done in the past ... help me now. Please.
He heard a clanking sound, and he realized Victor Ten
was running up the stairs below him. Victor Two, the
adrenaline rushing through his body giving him an extra edge,
attacked the stairs again.
He had climbed another fifteen flights when he suddenly stopped,
and listened. The footsteps had stopped. He strained
to hear any sounds of movement. There were none.
Victor Two felt himself grow cold. He reached into his
pocket and a removed a screwdriver. He tossed the
screwdriver over the railing. It hit the metal and the
clank echoed loudly in the tunnel. There was another clank
as it hit another piece of metal, and then another.
Finally, there was the sound of it rolling to a stop on the metal
grating.
But there was no other sound.
Part of him screamed that he should keep running -- that Victor
Ten was hiding, and waiting for him. Victor Two knew there
was a good chance of that.
But, for some reason, he proceeded down the staircase.
Suddenly there was a deafening rumble, and the staircase heaved
him upward. His vision went black.
His five minutes were up.
Angie and Rollie moved to the car. They were still
concerned about the Loubars, but Jack had expressly forbidden
them from trying to help in the capturing of the Victors.
They were going back to the precinct in one of the squad cars.
Angie couldn't help but be worried about Victor Two. She
wondered if he was safe. She felt in debt to him for
helping them get free. She had already warned Jack to be
careful not to shoot any of the Loubars, if possible. She
didn't want number Two hurt.
She felt sorry for him.
"Rollie, do you think he'll be safe?" she asked, as he
helped her into the car. Theirs was the only squad car
remaining in the parking lot. The other cars had all moved
to the junction, in preparation for capturing the army of
Loubars.
Rollie looked sad. "I don't know," he said.
He shut the car door, and the officer turned on the engine.
"I guess ... "
He didn't get a chance to finish.
There was a rumble, like an earthquake. The ashphalt around
the car cracked, and there was a crackling sound like a tree
falling. Angie cried out, and turned around. To her
horror, she saw roof of the warehouse bend, and then fall inwards
into a fissure in the ground.
What was happening? she thought, staring
wide-eyed at the destruction.
As quickly as it had began, the rumbling subsided. Angie
and Rollie both leaped out of the car, running toward the
building, which had collapsed inward.
"Oh my God," she said.
"Oh my God's right," said a voice. Angie whirled
around. The policeman had spoken. He stepped out of
the car, his back to them. Then he turned.
It was one of the Loubars.