Chasing Gold

CHAPTER TWENTY NINE

Alicia burst through the doors, hot on the heels of the straggling mercenary. He’d slammed it back at her, but she took the blow on her outstretched arms and forced her way through. Beyond, a new world awaited.

To the right, a double, vertical row of windows tilted outward, their clear glass giving an almost vertical view straight down the side of the tower. Beyond the windows she saw the red painted tracks of the rollercoaster that ran around the outside and huge, alien-looking green arms that belonged to other rides. A breeze blew through the place, since the doors that led to the rollercoaster were open.

Terrorists crowded around the elevator doors. Mercs delayed in front of them. Alicia pulled up short of engaging anyone and eyed the huddle.

Russo joined her. “What the fuck? What is this — brunch break?”

Alicia caught Crouch’s eye, closer to him now than at any time in the last thirty six hours, but saw no helpful sign. No indication of his own intentions. What the hell does that mean?

More FBI agents came in behind them now. One shouted: “Freeze, FBI!”

Alicia turned and gave him a withering glare.

As if on a prearranged signal, two mercenaries and two terrorists rushed them. They came as a mass, wielding no weapons, hitting Alicia and Russo unstoppably from the front simply because they had nowhere to go. The agents pressed in behind, fell back as Alicia and Russo staggered into them, their attackers throwing punches and using knees to gain headway. Alicia peeled away to the side, the windows at her back, to gain a little room, and found a man confronting her. Two haymakers caused her to block and retreat another two steps and then she felt a rail at her back.

A shot was fired. One of the mercs went down. Somebody screamed at the shooter for being a goddamn fool. A melee erupted by the staircase doors, agents tripping and being herded by their aggressors. Russo stomped over to help Alicia.

She pointed at the elevator lights that were blinking. “Stop them!”

Russo came to a halt. Alicia took a blow to the stomach and then the chin. She rolled over the rail which appeared to be part of the rollercoaster queuing system. As she landed she kicked out, striking the other man’s shins and making him stagger. Then she rose fast, elbows striking out. If it weren’t for the rail she’d have progressed forward, but it hampered her movement. The man’s bloody visage was facing her again in just a few seconds.

“You’re sacrificing your freedom for them?” she hissed “Give it up. Let us by. I’ll get you some leniency.”

He struck out and they were evenly matched for a minute. Every second that passed screamed a warning to her brain. The staircase doors were still a mess. Russo was lumbering at the elevators but three aggressors were waiting to meet him, makeshift weapons ready.

Crouch screamed something then at the top of his voice, a reiteration of his earlier words: “Chase the gold! Keep chasing the gold!”

He conferred with Terri and Cutler as the mercs and terrorists around him pushed and huddled and fought off random attacks. Alicia saw it all even as she fought off the man standing before her. It was several seconds before she realized her mistake.

The cold was at her back.

“Crap and bol—”

Her opponent pressed forward, delivering blow after blow so quickly that she knew exactly what this guy did every day from dusk until midnight. Feeling like a punch bag she pressed back. Her right foot balanced on a round rail which would be the edge of the track. High winds buffeted her, tugged at her hair and jacket. Her left leg backed up against a hard surface and she figured that would be the rollercoaster carriage.

And this thing runs around the outside of the bloody tower.

Fear mixed with adrenalin galvanized her efforts. She struck at the man’s weak areas, his pain receptors. She hit the nose and the eyes, the throat and the groin. He grunted and growled but came on, unstoppable, perhaps immune to everything he felt but the victory he could see just a few steps behind Alicia.

And then he jumped at her.

The amount of times Alicia had cried out in dread could be counted on the fingers of one hand, but this was one of them. The man launched himself fully off the floor, struck her upper body, and sent her tumbling backward, over the rollercoaster carriage. He landed short, striking his chin on the edge. She fell inside, smacking her spine against the seats, her head and shoulders leaning out of the far side.

He rose before her. This wouldn’t be pretty. She kicked and kicked, stopping his advance and trying to lever herself up into a better position. A gale now slammed at her, flowing around the tower and funneling into the coaster station. To her left she could see a patch of ground, far below, all grays and browns and the distant, miniature tops of square and rectangular buildings that, from below, would probably seem very high indeed. To the right the coaster track curved away and around the tower as it emerged from a protective outer barrier.

The man reared up again, and this time she was out of options.

As he jumped into the carriage she somersaulted out of it, toward the drop. He landed heavily and she landed cat-like on the soles of her boots, both balanced on the outer track. He smashed his face into the hard surface and she leapt once more, coming down squarely on his neck. Even to her, battered as she was, the crunch was sickening.

Unable to give up, she forced herself down from the carriage and back inside the tower.

The elevators were chiming, white lights flashing. The man that she thought of as the terrorist leader was ready to push his banner-bearing men inside and had one arm around Crouch’s throat. Even from here she could tell he was a ruthless, violent individual. One other man guarded Terri with a similar threat, neutralizing both her and Cutler. And still, by the stairs, men fought and died. Russo had been felled by an attack and was even now struggling to his knees.

Damn, it felt like I was out there a lifetime, yet it was just a few seconds.

The elevator doors slid apart, their sudden arrival surprising even the men standing next to them. In seconds they had the banner maneuvered inside and were supporting its base. Alicia saw the end of everything right then, right there, as Crouch’s throat was squeezed; and sprinted forward with every ounce of energy that she had left.

Like most battles she fought, it became a total melee. There was nothing clinical about battle, especially unarmed combat. Mostly it was just varying shades of chaos.

The terrorist leader hauled back on Crouch’s throat. The merc leader jabbed his improvised weapon at Terri, forcing her toward the doors. Cutler fell at her side, catching hold of a window-rail to steady himself.

A mercenary that had fought free of the staircase melee ran headlong for the doors.

Alicia missed his shirt by inches. He kept on sprinting, now leaping the fallen Russo.

Someone jabbed crazily at the inner buttons. Crouch’s face was bright red as he was hauled practically off his feet, heels dragging. The banner slipped and was then heaved back upright. Terri feigned an attack at her captor…

Alicia saw it clearly.

The attack made the man focus solely on Terri, reach out a hand to steady her, and bring his weapon to bear.

It gave Cutler precious seconds to make a move.

The American thief darted away from the elevators, putting distance between himself and the enemy. He ran until he couldn’t go any further, pressed into a corner. Alicia reached out a desperate hand, clawing at empty air.

The last things she saw were Terri’s boots as she was swung bodily inside, and Michael Crouch’s bulging eyes as he was choked into submission.

As the doors glided shut, all hell broke loose.

Whatever fight remained in the struggling aggressors quickly dwindled away. The four agents that had been pitted against them crawled over and tugged zip-ties tight around their wrists before practically collapsing with exhaustion. On their knees, they shouted at each other and tried to unclip radios.

Alicia figured how long it took to reach the ground floor. Half a minute? Then the walk through the casino. Another sixty seconds maybe. It would take them a little longer to subdue Crouch and Terri and make them presentable perhaps. Beyond that, it was game over.

And here in Vegas, that expression held an ominous note of finality.

“Is there another elevator bank?” she asked.

Caitlyn and Austin threaded their way through the spent agents. The young woman ran a hand through her short hair and pointed at the corner wall that ran away to Alicia’s left.

“That way!”

With her chest heaving, every sinew burning, she heaved on Russo, dragging the man to his feet and put one foot before the other.

We can make it. We have to.