Exit 9

44

The door was open about an inch. Through the gap, Ash spied several people, all looking away from the door at an angle. The voice they heard earlier had stopped and been replaced by an eerie silence.

Olivia quickly divided her people into two groups, and made it clear where she wanted them to go. She looked at Ash and Chloe, and indicated they were to follow her.

She put one hand on the doorknob, and began counting down with the other.

Three.

Two.

One.

She pushed the door open. The two small groups went in first, then she stepped through with Ash and Chloe behind her.

“Well,” she said loudly enough for everyone to hear. “I’m glad we made it in time.”

The entire room seemed to turn as one to look at them. Immediately, the five security men scattered throughout the space went for their handguns. They could have saved the effort. Before any of them had their weapon above their waist, Olivia’s people opened fire. The security guards dropped to the floor, dead.

Screams of terror and surprise filled the room, as those nearest the new arrivals moved away as quickly as they could. Several people went for the doors, trying to get out, but when gunfire rang out again, slamming into the wall near the exit, they pulled back.

Olivia rushed toward the front of the room, where an unremarkable middle-aged man sitting in front of a computer on a solitary table had just been handed an envelope by an older, but similarly unremarkable man.

“I’ll take that,” she said, snatching it out of his hand.