The Four Corners of the Earth

CHAPTER TWENTY TWO

The room itself was obnoxious, the last vestige of Tyler Webb, crawling with external imagery manifested of a malignant inner madness. They destroyed the locks in seconds, saw the framed pictures on the walls — favored victims and stalkings, before and after shots — and a bizarre collection of spy-gadgets from all over the world, sitting on tables all around the room.

Karin ignored it as best she could, hearing sirens already through the glazed windows. Wu and Dino stood guard whilst she dashed over to the terminal.

Double-checking, she confirmed it was the very one that had received enormous streams of data, plugged in a specially formatted flash drive, and looked for a small green light that would confirm automatic download of the terminal’s contents. Karin had anticipated a large amount of information might be transferred and had configured the stick accordingly. It was as fast as she could make it.

“How we doing?” She glanced up.

Wu shrugged. “All quiet here.”

“Apart from the moaning,” Dino said. “Plenty of that.”

Part of their plan was to leave casualties. It would confuse and delay the cops. Karin was happy that they were, at the very least, thugs and deserved their upcoming new lot in life. She glanced at the flashing green light, saw it was blinking fast, and knew it was almost done.

“Get ready.”

Sirens shrieked outside the window.

The light stopped flashing, signaling all was complete. She withdrew the tiny drive and zipped it inside an inner pocket. “Time to go.”

Instantly, the boys moved out, stepping carefully around the fallen, bleeding men and kicking two that tried to rise up. Karin threatened them with her gun, but wouldn’t have used it. There might still be some confusion as to where the gunfire had come from. Already, they would be manning the surveillance cameras and asking myriad questions. The key to escape was not to be quick, not even to be careful.

It was to be unexpected.

They unbuckled their backpacks, withdrew their contents and then threw the empty bags away. Staring at each other, they nodded.

“Officer.” Wu saluted Dino.

“Officer.” Dino nodded smartly at Karin.

“Sarge,” she exaggerated her British accent and headed for the service elevators.

In her pocket, the key to power, to government and royal manipulation, to coup upon coup, to financial freedom and law enforcement control.

All they needed was a safe place to start it up.