Chrono Inquisitor (Gods Be Damned) (34 page)

I turned my attention back to Dewhurst, and did so just in time to catch his movement which indicated he intended to shoot again. I ducked to the left as he fired. I didn’t see the bullet, it was going too fast, but I heard it whistle as it sped by.

The door to the stairwell was just a few feet away. I slammed through the door. I could have raced down the stairs and easily lost Dewhurst, but I was sick of running. Sick of reacting to everything. It was time for me to really take the lead.

I moved to the side of the entry and ducked, just enough out of the way so that when the door exploded open, it wouldn’t hit me, yet I was still close enough to quickly pounce on Dewhurst.

Seconds later, the door was forced open and Dewhurst came bursting through. I jumped at him, but he’d burst through the door at break neck speed. He lost his footing due to the oil beads, just as I’d hoped.

Dewhurst went slipping across the floor, wobbling every which way, arms flailing, trying to keep his balance. For the most part he stayed on a straight trajectory, which wasn’t to his benefit. He hit the center railing and flipped over it, there being a wide of enough gap between the two stairwells for a man to fit through.

Realizing what was happening, I stretched my arm out to grab him. I was too late. I got there in time to see Dewhurst bang back and forth as he plummeted to his death. He had literally come through the door at a break neck speed.

Damn, that was…disheartening. I hadn’t meant for him to die. I’d been hoping to subdue him until I could get the Horsemen to straighten things out.

I stood there, stunned, for several seconds. Then I realized that several floors down there was movement. Someone was coming up. Actually, several someones were ascending. It was the Horsemen, sans Death.

“Inquisitor Yan,” Victory yelled up at me. “Where is Death and Ranger Alvarez?”

“I don’t fucking know,” I yelled back.

“Stay where you are,” he said.

“Noble and Dewhurst are behind this,” I yelled. “They were trying to frame me.”

“Stay where you are,” he repeated.

‹Run,
›
Kali said
.
‹They don’t believe you. Something has happened to Death and Ranger Alvarez. They believe you are responsible.›

‹“How-”›

‹I’ll explain later. Run. Now.›

The Horsemen were quickly gaining steps, taking several at a time as they went. I didn’t stand a chance at outrunning them, but I wasn’t about to let myself get taken in on some false charge. But how did Kali know?

I wasn’t about to stick around and find out.

I ran back to the hallway.

On the other side of the door, I paused and inspected its frame. As I’d hoped, not having paid attention before, they were both steel.

I extracted two small canisters, one from compartment 04, the other, compartment 15. I opened the door a crack and sprayed the contents of the two cans along the entire edge of the door. When it was completely covered, I shut the door, sprayed what was left in the cans along the crack between the door and the jam, tossed them aside, removed another can from compartment 26, and sprayed its contents all over the crack. As soon as the chemical in the third can made contact with the
contents of the other two, a white hot glow came to life. In seconds the door became fused to the wall.

I wasn’t sure how well it’d hold against three fully armed and augmented men, but I hoped it was long enough to make up for the time I lost in creating the delay.

If Dewhurst and Noble weren’t actually crazy, still a big if, and Cassius had turned over three names, mine among them, the only hope I had at proving my innocence, was to prove that the other two accused were innocent as well. Now the two big questions were, how in the universe was I going to accomplish it, and were they innocent as well? If they weren’t, I was completely and utterly damned.

Why did Noble and Dewhurst kill Beit? Frank said Noble was gunning for the top spot. Would he have gone so far as to frame me in order to get it? Was Noble a Conspirator trying to take out the threat against him? Frank said he didn’t think all of Noble’s convictions were legit.

Things were starting to make a lot more sense. I needed to confront Noble and get the truth before the Horsemen got to me.

With the door welded to its frame I turned back to the hallway looking for Lillian and Noble. I’d been so caught up in sealing the door, I hadn’t bothered to make sure that either of them were still around.

The area in front of Shepard’s suite was in shambles. It looked like a bomb had gone off, but there was no sign of either Lillian or Noble. I couldn’t even hear any sounds which indicated the fight might have moved into the suite or around a corner further down the hallway. It had to only have been a few minutes since I’d seen them. Where had they gone so quickly?

A bang at the door made me jump. The horsemen were knocking at the door. At least Death wasn’t among them.

I ran to Shep’s door to hopefully get an idea of where Lillian and Noble had gone. I saw what could only be blood on the wall, the carpet, the ceiling, basically all over. Not a lot. Not pools of it. Most likely a hand had gotten cut, whoever it was had sent drops and spurts all over the area while fighting and deflecting blows. It reminded me of another painting by Swarez, Hemoglobin Hits the Fan, which was actually my favorite of his.

On the floor was the Maelstrom Dewhurst had been holding. I went to pick it up. Dewhurst being dead it’d be safe. But then a sound caught my attention further inside the suite. Instead of retrieving the bigger weapon, being confined in close quarters and not quite ready to die in that blaze of glory and gun smoke, I removed my Glock and held it at the ready. I slowly moved further in. It sounded like someone was groaning inside the office.

I positioned myself just on the other side of the door, took a deep breath, and then moved to stand inside the doorway, gun pointed at whoever was on the other side.

It was Shepard Cook, leaning against the desk. He was swaying back and forth a little, almost like he was about to collapse. He didn’t seem to notice I was there. He was looking at the floor. More focused on remaining standing than anything else.

The panic room door was open.

“Stay right there, Cook,” I said, holding the gun pointed at his midsection.

Cook looked up at me for half a second, but then his head slumped back down, as if it were too heavy to keep erect. He mumbled something, but I couldn’t make out what it was.

‹“Kali, can you analyze what he said?”›

‹It would seem he said your name.›

Shouts echoed in from outside the suite, indicating the Horsemen were no longer delayed.

“Where’d he go?” I heard War ask.

Not knowing what else to do, I grabbed the woozy man, and with some considerable effort, pulled him into the panic room.

Cook lost his footing and fell to the floor as soon as we were inside.

I heard someone approaching the office. I shut the door, sealing the two of us in rather than making sure Cook was all right.

He groaned and mumbled something.

I knelt down next to him. “What did you say?”

“I just got out of here,” he said with a slur.

“Are you saying you never left the hotel?”

“What?’ he said.

Had Lillian lied, or simply been mistaken?

“Never mind. You said you just got out of here? How long were you in?”

He pushed himself into a sitting position. I helped. He was starting to become a little more lucid.

“Last thing I remember was talking to you and our friend Kody.”

“I wouldn’t go so far as to call him a friend.”

“People are either your friends, or they’re your enemies. Trust me, it’s not wise to put too many people into the enemy category.”

“Simply calling them a friend doesn’t make it so. Friendship takes some reciprocation.”

“True, but if you don’t reach out with an olive branch, how can they ever take hold of it?”

“Fuck this, we’re getting off topic. What the hell happened to you? How’d you end up in here?”

“Wish I knew. I said goodbye to you two and as soon as the door closed, I felt a pinch in my neck. Woke up in here after that. Feels like I was drugged,” he said, and shook his head. “I’m still a little groggy. It took me awhile to figure out how the hell to get out. When I finally did, you showed up and pulled me back in.”

My thoughts tried to form a picture of what had happened.

A pinch, or a prick in the neck. And he was drugged. Just like Beit. But why hadn’t they killed him like they had Beit? Why leave him alive. It’s obvious they decided to frame him. Maybe they weren’t finished. I’d probably interrupted them. Dewhurst probably pretended to be Cook to fool Lillian.

A beeping sound started coming from the wall.

“Enki?” Sam’s voice asked from an intercom. “Are you in there?”

Cook looked at the intercom.

“Damn,” he said. “Didn’t see that there. Probably would have helped.”

I exhaled. “I don’t think it would have mattered. Security systems were down until just a few minutes ago.”

“Oh,” he said. I had an overwhelming feeling that he wasn’t responsible for anything and was more in the dark than I was.

Noble and Dewhurst hijacked the system, killed Beit, and then tried to pin it on Cook, but why? Weren’t they trying to frame me? Maybe
they realized I alibied out on Beit’s murder, so they found another fall guy, Cook? That had to be it.

“
Enki?” Sam said again. “For fuck’s sake, Travis, can you hear me?”

“I was about to ask who the hell
Enki is,” Cook said, “But now it seems she’s calling you. Going to answer that?”

“I’m
Enki,” I said. Highly irritated.

He started to say something, but I raised my hand to silence him.

“It’s another of my names, don’t ask, and to answer your question, I’m not sure I should. I don’t know who’s on my side anymore.”

“I got two words for ya. Olive. Branch.”

I shook my head. “I sure hope you’re right, otherwise, we both might end up dead.”

I got up and pushed the intercom button. “Hey Sam, I’m here.”

“Thank the gods. I was beginning to think they’d killed you.”

“I take it then you can see what’s been going on?”

“Not inside Cook’s suite. Most of the cameras on that floor have been physically destroyed, but I’ve still got some functioning. We just got the feeds back up a few minutes ago. I’ve got enough visuals out in the hall. I saw you go in the suite, and then I saw two of the Horsemen follow you. I thought for sure you were a goner, but then I got a notification that the panic room had been activated. The Horsemen are all back in the hallway now. They seem to be splitting up in order to look for you. Lillian and I have Noble in custody.”

“Great. And oh, you can stop looking for Cook, he’s here with me.”

“He’s with you?”

“That’s what I said. I think Noble and Dewhurst decided to try and frame him. It wasn’t Cook that Lillian saw fleeing. I’m guessing it was Dewhurst pretending to be him. The reason why the Rangers have so far been unsuccessful is because he’s been locked in here the whole time. No one knew because of them hijacking the system.”

“That makes sense. Look, we need to talk. There’s an emergency security elevator between his suite and the actual elevators. It’s hidden behind an art-screen. The Horseman with the red armor is still in the hallway, but I think you can get to it before he’ll catch you.”

“You’re kidding right? For one, there’s no ‘emergency security elevator’ according to my blueprints. Two, he’s augmented. Three, Cook is no condition to run.”

“Well, smart ass, it’s not on your blueprints because only my team knows about it. It’s a special precaution we added in order to extract high priority officials in case of a major emergency. Leave Cook, we can extract him later. You can make it.”

“She’s right friend.” Cook said. “Forget about me. Save yourself.”

I looked over at him. “Friends don’t leave each other behind.” I said. “Besides, I need you.”

“I’m not leaving Cook,” I told Sam through the intercom. “Where I go, he goes. He’s one of the few witnesses I got in my favor.”

“Okay. Give me a minute.” A moment of silence. “All right, Lillian is going to lead him away from you. When I give the word, you two make a break for it as fast as you can.”

“No offense, but Lillian doesn’t stand a chance. Why would she, or you, risk everything for me?”

Lillian came across the transmission instead of Sam. “Don’t worry about me, little man. I can hold my own.”

“You must have a death wish,” I replied.

Sam returned. “I believe red signifies War. So don’t you mean, she has a
war
wish?”

I had to admit. I missed her lip. Both of them. Among other things.

“You didn’t answer my last question,” I said.

“Just get your little ass down here and I’ll explain everything.”