Days of Reckoning (28 page)

“And even though you didn’t recognize her, you let her in?” Kevin pressed.

Her initial friendly demeanor stiffened. “We have students in and out all the time. You can’t expect that I’ll be able to recognize all ten thousand of them.”

The receptionist decided not to tell them that she hadn’t been there when the girl left. “No, sir, not that I could tell.”
There, not a total lie
.

“Alright. We’re going to go take a look at some of the upstairs offices.” He gestured to the campus officers. “These men are coming up with me. Smithy will stay down here with you. Smithy, you see Miranda, don’t try to stop her by yourself, just let us know where she goes.”

Sam and Arnie found one of the campus chaplains inside the chapel. “Pastor, I was wondering if you would be able to let us up into the chapel tower.”

The minister smiled and offered to show the way, as long as they showed him identification. Satisfied by their badges, he led them through a narrow door to the left of the chapel altar. At the end of a short hallway, they found a second door. Behind it was a winding set of stairs leading up into the bell tower. They thanked the chaplain and assured him they would be fine on their own. When they were alone, Sam said “What do you think?”

Arnie was clearly displeased. “Lovely spot for an ambush.”

“At least the lights are still on. I’ll go up first. You stay around the bend behind me. That way anyone up there won’t be able to take both of us out.”

“Right behind you all the way.”

The trek up the stairs was exhausting and nerve racking, but the pair of officers made it without incident. Up in the belfry, Sam had to switch on his pocket flashlight. A second later, Arnie added his, and the pair quickly scanned the area.

“Looks like this place has been busy,” Arnie said.

“Yeah, and I’m guessing it’s more than Make-Out Point.” Sam toed empty condom wrappers, spent cigarette butts and plastics baggies. “Gee, I wonder what was in these.” He inspected a powdery residue under the beam of his light.

“I’ll have to remember this place next time I need to pad my arrest record.”

Sam rose up and scanned the area again. “I don’t see any sign of Miranda having been here. Besides which, it looks like this place is too busy. Someone would have found her or her stuff.”

As per Smithy’s directions, Sam and Arnie got off of the elevator at the fifth floor and went to a room near the end of the hallway. Two campus police officers greeted them at the door. Inside stood Kevin Jones, Chief Blankenship and two more campus policemen.

“What have we got?” Sam asked.

Kevin pointed to a bundle covered by a blanket on the floor. Blankenship stood by, looking unhappy. Sam pulled the blanket away and let out a low whistle.

“Sorry, Chief,” Sam said. He knelt down beside the machine gun. “I got to truck around with one of these babies when I was in the service. They’re light, accurate and that box mag holds two hundred rounds of ammo. You feel pretty safe armed with one of these.”

“Well, I certainly don’t feel safe knowing someone was able to set it up here on my campus. Can you imagine the carnage that thing would cause?”

“I have no illusions about what it can do,” Sam said. “Anyone lift any prints off of it?”

Kevin shook his head. “Wanted to wait for you to get here. But my money says that the handler either used gloves or wiped her down.”

Sam agreed. He stood and turned to Blankenship. “No one’s been seen coming up after this baby?”

Blankenship shook his head. “Not today. But the receptionist downstairs says that your girl may have been up her yesterday, dropping off computer parts.”

“Or she had this broken down and hauled it up in separate boxes,” Sam concluded. “Hell, that’s how I’d do it.”

“You know,” Kevin said, “if she had this broken apart, that means she put it together up here. And there’s a good chance she wasn’t able to wipe all the surfaces she touched in doing so. Her prints could be all over the insides.”

“Could be. But Miranda also has a pair of neoprene shooting gloves. I’ve seen her wear them at the range. With those on, you can still move enough to work this weapon. I did it all the time.”

“I’ve put everyone on high alert,” Blankenship said. “Obviously she left this here for a reason. We’ll make sure that she doesn’t get to use it. Now, Detective Connor, if you’ll be kind enough to assist in rendering this weapon safe…”

Sam rubbed his chin. “Sure thing Chief. But I’ve got another idea. It’s your turf, so you obviously make the call. But what if we left it here, and sent most of our guys outside? Keep ‘em close to the building, of course. But leave Smithy with the receptionist, and Kevin and Arnie or a couple of your guys up here with the gun.”

“I’m not sure I follow.”

“Miranda left it here last night,” Sam explained. “But she didn’t stay with it. Obviously, because she went to go take care of Eldon and Tim. She wanted it ready for her whenever she made it back.”

“I see…”

“So she’s out there, watching and waiting. She wants to get in here and get to her weapon. She’s waiting until everyone is looking elsewhere, like maybe when the main speakers arrive. Then she’ll move in, but only if she thinks it’s safe. She sees us walk out with the weapon, or sees too many of our guys paying attention, I doubt she’ll show. This could be our best chance to get her.”

Blankenship considered the argument for only a moment. “Makes good sense to me,” he said. “I’ll send my uniforms back outside. They’re more visible anyway. You keep an eye on this thing with your plainclothes guys, and we’ll be ready to back you up.”

Miranda watched through her binoculars as the uniformed officers emerged from the building. None of them was removing her machine gun, but she figured that if they did, it would be done discreetly. She noticed that Sam and the other city police did not come out with the uniforms. That was curious, until she saw another pair of plainclothes officers walk into the building. Satisfaction flowed and warmed her. They had found her weapon, and they assumed she was going to go and use it. It looked like they were laying out a trap of their own, in hopes of snagging her.

Miranda tried to focus her binoculars on the window to the room where Sam and the others were probably waiting. It was hard to see, however. Damon’s college dorm was on the opposite side of the green, and it was two stories lower than the room in the admin building. She gave up and focused her attention elsewhere. All of the law enforcement personnel seemed to be a little bit more on edge. Many of them cast glances at the administration building. That was good; anything that kept their attention away from her perch was useful. She’d wondered why Damon had both a dorm room at the college and a house in town. After talking to the chief, that question was answered. Now, she saw no reason not to adapt it to her own use.

The crowd cheered as the major speakers for the event took to the stage. Above the applause, she was able to make out a smaller racket, coming from the little roped-off rally area below and to her right. She was not surprised to see Reverend Wallace Dean Mercer make a grand entrance onto his own little stage, followed by several of his cronies. She counted six Deacons in all. The Reverend had timed his entrance well, arriving just as the speaker on the main stage began reading from her teleprompter. The distraction was obvious, and hundreds of heads turned to see what this new commotion was all about. Miranda let the binoculars fall to her chest and bent down to pick up the H&K rifle.

#

Sam stood at the window in the room next to the machine-gun nest. He watched as the crowd burst into applause, and a tall, attractive African-American woman took to the stage. Several of her own private security personnel were on hand, some of whom mixed in with the troopers protecting the stage. They were there for show, mostly, or perhaps to act as bullet catchers. Permits hadn’t been given allowing them to act as armed security, but Sam was sure most of them ignored that fact.

His interest picked up when he saw the commotion over at the other rally point. It was hard to see, as he did not have binoculars, but it looked like five or six men had taken to the small platform. “Kevin, can you see what’s going on over there?”

Kevin was in the room with the machine gun, and he did have binoculars. “Looks like we have a large Caucasian male loosening his tie and warming up for some serious preaching.”

That had to be Mercer. “Any sign of Miranda anywhere?”

He was answered with a bunch of negatives. Arnie, who was beside him, said, “This Reverend will be here all afternoon. Miranda’ll probably wait a while, until everyone starts to relax a bit. She’s smart, she won’t try anything while everyone’s still primed for action.”

Sam nodded. “I agree, but be ready people,” he said over the radio. “She could show up at any time.”

#

The Reverend was close, not even a hundred yards from her. Miranda didn’t even bother to attach the telescopic sight to the PSG rifle. Its abbreviation – when translated – stood for “Precision Shooting Rifle,” and she was a precise shooter. She watched as Mercer started into his rant full-bore. There was no easing in with this man; he came out shouting from the very start. Miranda could almost hear his tirade, but the electronic speakers for the main stage were better quality than his hand-held microphone, and the woman there outmatched him. Miranda stayed back from the open window and a little to the left side, allowing her a much better view below while keeping her out of sight from anyone looking directly in. She flexed her fingers around the pistol grip and forward handguard, making herself more comfortable. She could have rested the heavy rifle on its bipod, but didn’t want the telltale barrel hanging out the window. Her breathing slowed into an even, steady pace, and she listened to the speaker on the stage, waiting for just the right moment.

The crowd roared as the woman finished her comments, and the band behind her picked up with some jazzy show tunes. She left the stage, shaking hands with a shorter man. He strode up to take her place, waving at the crowd in front of him. The first act was done; time for round two.

Sam watched as the band continued playing. To the delight of the crowd, the new speaker stepped down from his pedestal and shook hands with people close to the front. The band rose to a crescendo, and the roaring cheers reached a fever pitch. Then Sam heard his radio hiss to life.

“Uh, Sam,” Kevin said, “not sure if this is important or not. We have an open window across the quad. Can’t see inside….”

Sam’s stomach churned as he shifted his gaze across the way. “I can’t see it from here.” He heard several balloons pop in quick succession. But they sounded awfully metallic…

“Fuck! They’re just dropping! I think the shots are coming from over there…” Kevin turned to Sam, holding out the binoculars and then the window in front of them shattered. Kevin screamed; the others all dropped to the floor. Sam heard the crack and thunk as a supersonic bullet passed overhead, lodging in the wall near the ceiling.

“Shit!” Arnie cried. “Kevin’s hit! We’re under fire!”

Sam hugged the floor as another bullet smacked high overhead. Arnie crawled to Kevin and tried to pull the big man away from window, but he raised himself up a little too high, and a splash of red erupted from his shoulders. He fell without a sound, and only then could Sam make his own body move.

#

With twenty rounds in the magazine, Miranda had plenty of room for error. But there wasn’t any error, and her first round struck true, as did the second, and the round after that, and the round after that. Four of the men on the small stage crumpled to the ground before anyone realized what was happening and made a move to get away. The remaining three deacons abandoned their leader and dove over the back of the platform. Miranda fired once more into Mercer’s body, then she shifted her fire to the building across the quad. If anyone were able to pinpoint her location, it would be the officers stationed up there. She had no way of knowing if she hit anyone, but she fired five rounds in that direction, satisfied that the shattering glass and incoming bullets would send anyone inside diving for cover. She emptied the rest of the magazine through the windows on either side.