Shadows (29 page)

The mayor had marched well
onto the floor, with the guards backing up. They turned, looking at
the runner heading to get Hammond, and Jules made her move,
followed by Charlotte, darting over to the far side of the
floor.

Charlie led Susan around
the desks and over to the wall.

“
Hey,
”
a voice cried, and Susan turned to
see one of the IT workers leveling a rifle at her and Charlie. She
froze, her fingers tightening around the gun in her
pouch.

“
She's with
me,
”
Charlie said, straightening up, which wasn't out of
place as most of the other IT workers were crouched or
seated.

“
Who are
you?
”
the man asked.

“
I'm
Charlie!
”

The way Charlie said his
name, with his arms outstretched and seemingly innocent, he was
utterly convincing, thought Susan, but the armed worker didn't
think so. He raised his rifle to his shoulders, clicking something
on the side of the barrel, just above the trigger.

A shot rang out, echoing
off the concrete walls.

The noise was deafening,
louder than anything she'd ever heard before.

There was a small hole in
her coveralls, directly over her stomach.

Susan staggered
backwards.

An acrid smell lashed at
her nostrils, stinging her eyes, causing tears to form.

Before her, the guard
crumpled, keeling forward and dropping his rifle as he clutched at
his chest. Brilliant splashes of red marred his white
coveralls.

Susan pulled her hand out
of her coverall pouch, her fingers still clenched around the grip
of the smoking gun.

Charlie grabbed her,
pulling her further along the floor.

Susan stumbled, almost
falling as gunfire erupted around the level.

Charlotte stood in one
corner, firing her handgun with devastating accuracy, catching
several IT workers with head shots. Blood sprayed through the
air.

Sheriff Cann and the mayor
raced through the center of the floor, making a run for the offices
and the meeting rooms at the back of the level, weaving between the
barricades. Charlotte was covering them, shooting anyone that
threatened them. Jules rushed along the far side of the floor. She
too was firing at anyone that rose up from behind the metal
desks.

Charlie dragged Susan on,
racing past confused IT workers. Most people were taking cover from
the sudden, unexpected onslaught.

From between the desks,
Susan saw Charlotte reeling to one side and dropping out of sight.
Deep red blood stained the wall where once she had stood and Susan
found herself confused as to what had happened. It took a second
for her to realize Charlotte had been shot.

“
Hammond,
”
the mayor cried above the
confusion.

Hammond ducked into a
doorway as the sheriff fired at him. Glass shattered, spraying
across the ground.

Hammond was armed. He fired
back and Susan watched in horror as the mayor spun to one side and
slammed against the floor. That she fell without breaking her fall
was alarming. Blood pooled on the floor beside her.

Another shot rang out and
the sheriff crumpled onto the floor, clutching at his chest. Blood
splattered across the desk behind him.

“
No!
”
Charlie cried, running out toward
the sheriff. He grabbed the old man with his one good arm, and
struggled to pull him back behind cover.

Susan lost site of Jules,
but she could hear the crack of gunfire. The sound of the rifles
was distinctly different from that of the revolvers.

Susan stopped behind cover,
with her back leaning up against a desk next to the mayor. Mayor
Johns lay face down in a pool of blood, her eyes staring blankly
into the distance.

Death had never been so
cruel to Susan. There was nothing she could do, and that struck her
as profoundly tragic. Here lay a woman she'd known and admired her
whole life, a woman who had seen past her own prejudices to realize
Susan and her family deserved a second chance. A woman that had the
courage to publicly challenge Hammond by voting against him during
the trial. Mayor Johns must have felt duty bound when Charlie was
sent to clean, but Susan had no doubt she hated herself for that.
Then, just a few hours ago, she'd learned the truth about the
silos. Then with nothing more than the testimony of a cleaner to go
on, had accepted her world being turned upside down. By coming down
to IT, she had the audacity to challenge The Order, undermining the
very system she was sworn to protect, and now she was
dead.

Susan sobbed. What could
she do? There was nothing she could do for Mayor Johns other than
to ensure her death was not in vain, and that thought steeled
Susan's resolve. Peering around the corner, she saw Hammond darting
toward the server room. She couldn't let him bring down the
silo.

“
Charlie,
”
she cried, chasing after Hammond
with her revolver out in front of her.

As she rounded the corner,
Hammond fired at her, but he was too busy punching a code into the
keypad on the server room door to aim properly. Susan pointed her
revolver at him, holding the gun as Charlotte had taught her,
bracing herself to fire. She tried not to close her eyes, but the
prospect of the crack and violence overwhelmed her and she winced
as she jerked at the trigger. The recoil threw her arms back as a
deafening boom leapt from the end of the barrel.

Charlie scampered in front
of her.

She looked and Hammond was
nowhere to be seen. The server room door had opened briefly and was
beginning to shut. Charlie dived for the closing door. The
automatic, sliding door clipped his legs and opened again
temporarily, giving her enough time to squeeze through as Charlie
scrambled around the side of the server racks.

Shots rang out.

Susan didn't think gunshots
could get any louder, but within the sealed, metal room, the
deafening boom shook her to the core. Adrenalin surged through her
body. Her eyes were wide with fear.

Charlie slumped back
against a fire extinguisher mounted on the wall. He staggered,
trying to use the wall behind him for support. Slowly, he slid down
and sat slumped on the floor. Streaks of blood ran down the wall
behind him. He leaned against the fire extinguisher, favoring his
right shoulder, panting for breath. Blood seeped from a bullet
wound.

Susan wanted
to rush to him, but their eyes met and in that instant she
understood what he was trying to tell her. The motion of his head
was so slight as to be barely perceptible, but that subtle movement
screamed,
“
No, stay where you are.
”

She froze, huddled behind
one of the servers, barely two feet from him, knowing Hammond was
using Charlie as bait. His longing eyes told her that she was the
only reason he was still alive.

“
It doesn't
have to end like this,
”
Susan yelled, moving away from
Charlie. The room was divided into several rows of tall server
racks, obscuring the view of anything other than the immediate row.
Susan darted into a narrow gap between two servers in the outside
row, staying away from Charlie, hoping she was doing the right
thing. Her heart was pounding in her chest.

“
Where are
you, girl?
”
Hammond called out, his voice
echoing through the room, making it difficult to gauge anything
other than a vague direction. He must have been crouching between
the rows, Susan thought, near where the hatch to the hidden level
lay beneath the floor. He probably had two fields of view, looking
to one side of the servers he'd be able to see Charlie, looking to
the other side he'd see the door. He had to know Susan was in the
outer row, furthest from him. She held her breath, not daring to
look out into her row in case he'd snuck along to peer down the
length of the only other walkway within the server room.

“
What's the
matter, girl?
”
Hammond cried, taunting her.
“
Afraid to die for your convictions?
”

It was then she realized he
was doing something. She wasn't sure how she could tell, but there
was a waver in his voice, a hesitancy that sounded distracted.
Whatever process there was to destroy the silo, he had to be intent
on that, talking to keep her at bay while he unleashed his fury on
them all.

Against her instinct to
hunker down, she snuck out into the walkway and crept down to the
end of the row, passing the black servers. Tiny lights flashed.
Electrical circuits hummed, whispering of untold computing power
busily processing millions of instructions every second.

“
You think
they're innocent?
”
Hammond said, his voice dropping. He
was concentrating on something else. She could tell he was trying
to do two things at once.
“
None of us are
innocent. We're all guilty. Guilt runs in our blood. You may not
know it, but the only reason you're here is because your ancestors
destroyed this world. They destroyed the world so you could live.
Without them, you wouldn't exist.
”

Susan caught a glimpse of
Hammond between the wires and computer servers, just a flicker as
he moved around in the far row. His hair was matted. Blood soaked
the corner of his beard, dripping from his mouth. He hadn't seen
her. He was checking the walkway connecting all three rows,
expecting her to come from one of them, but she was making her way
between the servers.

Susan continued working
through the tangle of wires and cables between the computer
servers, squeezing through the tight gaps, keeping her gun out in
front of her. The hammer was cocked, her finger sat poised on the
trigger, feeling the smooth metal fitting snug in the crook of her
finger.

“
You think
I'm alone?
”
he called out.
“
No one
answers the radio any more, but I'm not alone. These are my
children. These servers. You see, no one silo controls our fate.
All the silos share their processing with each other. The Pact will
be kept. The Shepherd's vision will be
accomplished.
”

Susan wasn't sure what he
was talking about, but it didn't matter, so long as he kept talking
she could continue to inch forward, creeping up in his blind
spot.

Computer cables caught
around her boots, tangling her. Slowly, she picked her way free,
crossing the middle isle and darting down a few more feet and
slipping between another pair of servers.

She could hear his heavy
breathing, rasping, struggling.

“
Everyone
dies,
”
he cried out, and she heard the unmistakable
sound of a revolver being cocked.
“
It matters not if we
die or when, but why we die, how we die, whether we die for a
reason, for a greater purpose. Today, you'll die so others can
live.
”

Susan squeezed between two
computer server towers, peering into the last row.

Hammond had his back to
her. He was standing in front of a junction box, but an array of
digits and letters lit up a panel inside instead of wiring. He was
priming a pump, working with a hand lever. She'd seen this before,
down in mechanical on a long run to the deep. It was the same way
the mechanics primed their diesel engines, building up charge in a
capacitor before starting a pump. This had to be part of the
sequence to destroy the silo.

“
You hear
me?
”
he yelled.
“
We're all going to
die.
”

Slowly, she stepped out
into the walkway, grimacing as the steel grates on the raised floor
flexed and creaked under her weight. Her boots caught on loose
wires between the servers. She could feel the tension of the cables
as she pulled her leg forward and had to steady herself so she
didn't trip and fall. A bunch of cables had come loose. Slowly, she
stepped out of them, never taking her eyes or the gun off the back
of his head.

She could kill him. All she
had to do was squeeze the trigger. He was no more than ten feet
away with his back to her. She could end this now. All it would
take is a little more pressure on the curved steel
trigger.

Her finger tightened on the
trigger, slowly building pressure as she held her arms out before
her with her elbows locked. When the trigger finally relented to
her gentle squeeze, the shot rang out and her arms flew up with the
recoil.

The bullet struck its mark,
following her aim and crashing through the control panel. The LED
screen went black.

Hammond swung around and
she fired a second time. Once again she struck the junction box.
Sparks flew. Susan had no idea how the silo's automated systems
operated, but she seriously doubted circuit boards could work with
lead slugs shattering their delicate wiring.