The Aegis Solution (47 page)

"They're coming in here."

Elias jumped back from the door, seeing that Tillie had jerked back to the side. Looking around,
he saw that his rifle was several feet away. His first impulse was to draw the 9mm tucked behind, when
he realized that he was still gripping the length of pipe from earlier.

There was no more time to think. The door to the utility room opened and the two men walked
in. They did not have a moment to react before Elias swung the pipe, solidly connecting with the first
man on the side of his head. An instant later, he thrust the pipe forward with all of his weight behind
it, aiming for the row of cartilage between the second guard's ribs. The man grabbed his chest, his eyes
wide, and staggered to the side, allowing Elias to slam him with another blow, this one directed at his
neck. The man dropped.

There was instant commotion outside in the hallway, as several of the civilians and more than one
of the security team had witnessed the attack through the open door. One of the guards was already
shouting for the people to clear a path as he brought his automatic weapon to bear on the opening into
the utility room. Elias did not hesitate. He was stepping forward to slam the door, but Tillie beat him
to it. The metal door crashed closed.

Elias, sweeping his eyes around the area, found a hard-plastic, collapsing sawhorse. He dropped
the pipe and grabbed the sawhorse, sliding it under the door handle.

"That should slow them a bit. We need to move back."

They both snatched up their weapons and retreated to the freestanding shelving. Fortunately, the
first row was filled with steel plumbing parts and was parallel to the doorway, providing fairly good
cover.

They had only turned in to the aisle a moment earlier, when the door was suddenly perforated with
bullet holes as the security man outside emptied his clip into it, some of the rounds hitting one of the
two unconscious guards on the floor, others shattering the sawhorse. Elias, choosing Wilson's shotgun,
had poked the barrel through the jumble of parts on the shelf and was able to get off a shot just as one
of the men outside kicked the door open. The double-0 shot caught him squarely, and violently tossed
him backward. He fell to the floor, motionless. None of the others in the hallway ventured in front of
the open doorway.

Tillie, armed with the AK-47, positioned herself five or six feet away from Elias along the shelving,
and cleared enough of the stored plumbing parts to provide a gun slot. "I wish we knew how many we
were up against."

"That makes two of us. I saw at least five or six. Doesn't mean that was all of them."

"I'm worried about the Zippers."

"Roger that."



Boehn was isolated. At his back was the opened exit door, which was completely blocked by the
tangled mess of solar panels and twisted steel. In front of him was the open door to the utility room.
The civilians had all been herded back to the far end of the hallway, and one of the security team was
stationed with them. The rest of the team and the one remaining Accelerant were on the other side of
the opening, waiting for instructions.

Boehn did not want to lose his last asset by sending the Accelerant into the room. Chances were,
he would prevail, but there was always the possibility that some sort of trap had been set. After all, these
three had foiled the Accelerants in the past. The beige-suited freak, as Boehn still thought of all of them,
was in constant motion, twitching, shifting, and pivoting, even though he was standing still for
instruction. They simply could not help it, he decided; it had been hard-wired into their being.

Making eye contact with Killeen, Boehn pulled a black marker out of his pocket. On the wall
adjacent to the exit, he wrote TEAR GAS? The security chief nodded and turned to his men, sending
one of them back to the armory.



"I wish there was a damn grille in here. Wilson could drop the rope to us and we'd be out and could
get behind them." Tillie's voice was quiet.

Elias nodded. "That would be nice."

"What do you think they are going to do?"

"If it were up to me, I'd send in gas, along with some flash bangs."

"Flash bangs?"

"An armament you haven't heard of? I'm surprised."

"What are they?"

"Concussion grenades. Super loud, super bright. They stun you, blind you, temporarily disable you."

"Shouldn't we find something to protect ourselves against them?"

"Already thought of it. Here!" Elias turned and tossed a couple of small plastic packets to her.

She caught them and ripped one open. "Earplugs!"

"Yep. Pretty common on job sites. They use them to protect the hearing of workers during the loud
stuff."

"What about the flash part?"

Elias rested his shotgun on the shelf. "Keep an eye on the door." She nodded, and he checked the
adjacent shelves until he found what he wanted. Returning, he handed her a pair of dark goggles.

"I suppose construction workers need these in case someone throws a bright hand grenade."

"No. These are for the workers who are around welding. Protects their eyes. And, here, take one
of these."

He handed her a painter's respiration mask.

"Will this keep out tear gas?"

"No. Not really built for that purpose. It's designed to keep out the fumes from enamel paint, but
it should slow it down quite a bit."

She grinned and slipped the mask over her face, its two filtered inlets causing her to look like a large
insect.

"No reason to put it over your mouth until they send something in."

She pulled it down so that it dangled around her neck by the straps.

"What about the goggles?"

"I'd put them on now. There wouldn't be any warning with that."

She shoved the bright orange earplugs in, donned the goggles, and picked up her rifle. "I feel silly."
She spoke too loudly, compensating for the earplugs.

"You shouldn't. You should feel like a member of a SWAT team. These are basically all of the items
they wear during an assault."

"Cool!"

Elias put on his own gear and took a deep breath, shouting, "KREITZMANN! I WANT TO
TALK!"



Out in the hall, Boehn heard Elias and grinned. Again catching Killeen's eye, he motioned back
toward the group, pointing at Kreitzmann, who was leaning against a wall, his head bandaged. Killeen
indicated his understanding and trotted back to get the scientist.



Elias was surprised to see someone stumble into the opening, framed by the doorway. It was
Kreitzmann. The man looked much different from the last time Elias had seen him. He appeared to be
dazed, disoriented. There was a thick bandage wrapped around the top part of his head, and he stood
unsteadily.

"Don't shoot, Tillie."

Elias side-stepped to the end of the shelves, continuing to point his shotgun forward.

"Kreitzmann?"

The scientist's eyes seemed to have trouble focusing. After a moment, he looked at Elias and quietly
asked, "Charon? Is that you?"

Trying to figure out the situation, Elias only said, "Step inside the room."

Kreitzmann began to move forward, when a voice boomed from the hallway behind him, "That
wouldn't be advisable."

Kreitzmann stopped, his confusion now clouded with fear.

"Why are you doing this, Kreitzmann?"

The man in the doorway shook his head, trying to clear it. "Doing this? I'm…I'm not doing this.
I don't know what's happening." His speech was slurred and difficult to understand.

Trying to make sense of what he was seeing and hearing, Elias pressed, "Who is?"

With a monumental effort, Kreitzmann, fighting the effects of a severe concussion, answered,
"Boehn."

"Doctor Boehn?"

"Yes," he confirmed weakly.

Elias' mind whirled as he readjusted all of the variables, painting a new picture inside his head. "You
didn't kill the people at ZooCity?"

The words slammed into Kreitzmann with a physical force, his mind beginning to clear. "Kill
people? ZooCity? What are you talking about?"

From the hallway came the same voice Elias had heard earlier. "Mister Charon, I'm afraid you've
been chasing the wrong dragon in your crusade. Rudy Kreitzmann is and has been nothing but a
convenient front man for us, although I do admit that some of his findings have proved to be quite
useful."

Tillie quietly switched her weapon out of fully automatic mode and slowed her breathing.

"Boehn, why are you doing this?"

"Why am I doing what? Letting you discover the truth, or parading the pathetic Rudy Kreitzmann
in front of you? I'll tell you. You are learning the truth because, very shortly, it won't matter what you
know. And telling you a little gives me some satisfaction. But, mainly, the reason we are talking and the
reason you have Kreitzmann standing before you is to buy a little time. And judging by the return of
my man, I believe that we have purchased quite enough."

Boehn must have signaled the member of the security team who had pushed Kreitzmann in front
of the door; the instant he finished his sentence, an arm came into view, the hand reaching for
Kreitzmann's shoulder. Before the fingers could close on the fabric of his coat, a shot rang out and the
man's forearm exploded into a pink cloud. In the next moment, Tillie shouted, "GRAB
KREITZMANN!"

Elias was already in motion, plunging forward. He seized him by the front of his shirt and pulled
him in, violently. Kreitzmann stumbled and almost fell, but Elias' grasp of the shirt held, and the
scientist swung wildly, trying to get his feet back beneath him as he was dragged back behind the
shelving. Two rows back and out of the line of fire, Elias let go and Kreitzmann fell to the floor.
Without taking any more time, Elias grabbed the shotgun he had hastily leaned against the wall, and
rejoined Tillie behind their barrier. He saw that she had pulled the respirator over her mouth and he did
the same, right as he heard the clunk-and-roll sound of something being tossed into the utility room
with them.

There was no thunderous crash, just the muted popping sound of a tear-gas canister. A second
followed the first, and Elias could see that this one rolled against the side of the guard he had decked
earlier. Tillie shelved the AK-47 and dashed around their barrier, picking up the second canister and
tossing it back out the doorway. She then snatched up the first one and did the same.

Elias saw a third grenade fly into their room and could tell that this one was not tear gas. "TILLIE,
TAKE COVER!"

She only had a few seconds to turn back toward her end of the barrier before the grenade exploded.
Even through the earplugs, the sound was a horrendous assault. The simultaneous bright flash was easily
neutralized by the heavily coated lens of the welder's goggles. She returned to her position, rubbing her
ears, and raised her weapon just as the first man came in, laying down suppression fire as he entered.
None of his bullets came near the mark, striking the side wall of the room rather than hitting the
barricade of metal in front of them. Elias was sure Tillie was about to fire, but stopped her with an
abrupt hand gesture.

With a glance he could tell she understood. Within no more than three seconds, two more armed
men followed the first one in, guns at the ready. When they were all the way inside, Elias triggered the
shotgun at the closest one, blowing him against the door frame. Tillie immediately opened fire with her
AK-47, dropping the other two, who had no benefit of cover and had obviously expected the two of
them to be disabled by the blast.

No more attackers followed, and the ensuing silence, ruined only by the ringing in their ears, was
eerie. After a moment, Elias shouted, "HOW MANY YOU GOT LEFT, BOEHN?"

Understanding the minds of the people outside the room was a very special skill Elias possessed.
A static situation had been created. He and Tillie were in the room. The others were in the hall. There
was a narrow kill-zone in front of the door. He was certain that this was the picture they all held in their
minds as a reality, something they could count on.

With a gesture, he indicated that Tillie should swap weapons with him. She did, and he slapped in
a fresh magazine, left the aisle, and ran out the door into the hall. He knew Boehn was to the left and
was fairly sure that he was alone. All of the others, whatever security team he had remaining, would be
to the right. As he cleared the doorway, he dropped to the floor and rolled once, coming to rest on his
stomach, the AK-47 in firing position in front of him. There were three men in uniform conferring with
one in a suit. None of them were pointing a weapon at the doorway, so certain had they been that no
one would come out.

As one of the men saw Elias suddenly burst into the hallway, he attempted to bring his rifle to bear
on him, but was cut down before he could complete the move. The others attempted to open fire but
never had a chance, as Elias was less than ten yards from them and in a perfect firing position. The man
in the suit, seeing nowhere to go and not carrying a gun, raised his hands in a gesture of surrender.