Ingrams & Assoc 6: Downfall Ch. 05

The first man, arrogant in his glaring, stopped by the chair, and just stared at April. She defiantly stared back, when the two security guards came forward and grabbed her, each taking an arm. It was a practiced move, so she'd clearly been resistant before.

They pulled her up and then cruelly twisted her arms behind her, in a half nelson, no doubt to forestall any physical ideas she might have had in mind.

Muttering, "Alright, alright," April was dragged up to standing, and then frog marched to the chair and pushed into it. The two guards stayed by her side holding their batons with urgency, ready to jam them into her side at a moment's notice.

The man sat down.

"I see we still have to do this the hard way. You aren't significantly persuaded to cooperate yet. Well, no matter. We have all the time in the world. We'll get there," said the man, in a surprisingly reedy voice. Closer, April could see that he had a pockmarked face, probably from chronic acne as a child.

April just sat and stared at him. She wasn't about to make it easy.

He sighed. "I doubt you'll remember the other conversations we've had. Let's just say that I'm still quite angry with you, concerning the treatment of my mentor Doctor Jezdic, at your hands. If it were up to me, there would be some very different things in these ampules," he gestured at the metal plate with the syringe on it, that had been placed on the table by the nurse, who now hovered behind him, "but I have my orders. So, let's get on with it."

He nodded at the nurse, who reached forward, picked up one of the ampules and then the syringe, loaded it, and reached forward to grab April's arm.

April looked up into the nurse's face and, with a shock she tried hard to clamp down on, looked directly into the eyes of her next-door neighbor, Kim McGee. At that moment, for the first time in her life, April's hope died. If they could get to her friend and neighbor, or, worse still, she had been in on it the whole time, a plant, then... there really was no way to beat them. They held all the cards. She was never going to win. Why fight it?

She was at the point of actually offering her arm, giving in and letting go, when she saw the Kim give a long, slow, laborious and clearly augmented-eye lashed wink. It was slow, but it was there.

April was stunned. She glanced at the doctor person in front of her, and saw he was making notes on his iPad. The two guards were watching her, waiting for a movement they didn't like. No one had noticed except her.

Kim grabbed April's arm, and then, looking first at April, then at the syringe, - quite intently, - and then back at April, she plunged it into April's forearm and pushed down the injector, with the practiced ease of a professional. April remembered, in her past male life, Kim had been a nurse.

April was an old hand at injections. She wasn't phased by a needle. But this time... this time there was a different reaction to whatever had been put in her system.

This time, there was a warmth, spreading out from her arm to her body, infusing her, and suddenly, her mind cleared out. She had full access to her memories. She had strength. She had power. She had clarity of purpose.

She realized that she'd just been injected with pure adrenalin, rather than whatever concoction they normally gave her.

She suddenly came to the possession of understanding that the reason Kim was wearing a mask and a hat, and why the clothing she wore was too short, was that she wasn't there as their puppet. She was there to help April out. She'd probably stolen these clothes, and they were just a tad to small for her.

She removed the syringe, quickly loaded it up with the second ampule, and gave her a second injection of more of the same stuff.

April felt like she could fly. She was power. She was action. She was bloody vengeance, ready to strike.

The man looked at Kim and nodded, and Kim nodded back and then retreated to the door with one of the guards, who pressed his palm on the door side panel. The door hissed open, and she left. The guard made sure to close the door again. They weren't taking any chances.

The man in the scrubs stood up and leaned over the table, staring down at her, and started to say, "Now, Ms. Carlisle, today, I think we'll..." at which point April acted.

The man still standing to her left was holding the baton at the ready, but he clearly wasn't actually expecting her to do anything. The threat was all in the appearance. "We are here, have weapons, and are not afraid to use them, - look, here they are, don't they look painful? - so don't try anything." Which is all well and good when the subject is sufficiently cowed or defeated that they'll accept that.

When they've just been shot up with two sets of adrenalin, and are now on a personal high they've never felt before, it was a different matter.

April reached across her body with her right arm and grabbed the baton of the man holding it on her left, and then standing smoothly and lunging forward, jammed the baton into the man in front of her, looming over the desk. As it hit the man in front of her full in the chest, her left hand clamped on the guard's hand, triggering the batons stun action.

The guard was taken completely by surprise, allowing her to move the baton the few inches it needed to connect with the threatening Doctor, who's name she never actually caught. Not that it mattered now.

The man screamed and instantly fell, the smell of scorched flesh suddenly enveloping everyone.

The guard jerked the baton back, trying to regain control of it, and April went with him, letting him move it in the direction he wanted, only riding it with him and at the last minute, giving the other end a helpful shove, so it ended up smashing into his face, with a very audible crack.

Immediately he fell back, a spray of arterial red blood jetting out, standing out among the white of the room. He clearly was out for the count, and April smoothly stood up, amazed at just how easy it all was. She was powerful and confident and she had the strength in her limbs to back it up.

She was also aware there was one more guard to be dealt with, and he was sufficiently far away as to not be reachable with her hands.

Glancing over, she saw the man had dropped his baton and was struggling to bring his gun to bear. And she saw she would never be able to get to him or attack in any way before he did.

Instead, thanking her stars that everything in the room was steel, designed so it couldn't be used as a weapon, she leaned forward and grabbed the table with both hands, flipping it forward, so the flat plane of it was in front of her, as cover.

And not a second too soon, because there was as sudden loud set of explosions, the telltale rapid bang bang of an automatic weapon letting loose. In front of her, several divots appeared in the surface of the table she was cowering behind, thankfully none penetrating. Each appearance accompanied by the high-pitched ping of a ricocheting bullet.

Looking down at the guard's body by her side, April's eyes alit on his own weapon, and thanking her lucky stars that he only wore it over his shoulder, rather than across his body, she yanked the gun off and then picked up the similarly dropped baton.

Pausing only to the throw the baton over the top of the table, she then lent around the bottom of the table, holding the gun out and wildly pulling the trigger in the general direction of the armed guard.

There wasn't time for finesse, April just sprayed bullets in his direction, and since his attention was on the baton as it arched in the air, he noticed her crouched at the bottom of the edge of the table too late.

Bullets whistled past him, and then walked right into his body as April arched the gun across him, the automatic aspect spitting out bullet after bullet. She wasn't stingy with ammunition; she didn't care if she emptied the gun on him, just as long as she got him.

As it turned out, she stitched across his body, the first bullet hitting his right leg, the next his left thigh, then going up the body into his thorax and then into his chest. April just waved the gun, holding down the trigger.

After being hit multiple times, and doing the strange dance that bodies do when hit repeatedly by fact moving bullets, the other guard dropped.

April wasn't the least bit upset that she'd almost certainly killed him. She was feeling pretty lethal about then, and glancing down at the table top, with its bullet marks, it was clearly a Him or Me situation. Well, it was him. Tough shit.

She was very surprised that there was no more emotion than that. She knew herself well enough to know that she should be way more impacted by the taking of a life, but then, she was high on adrenaline, and also in a highly stressful situation.

She literally shrugged, and then dropped the almost empty gun and ran forward to pick up the other guard's gun, which would have more rounds in it.

She knew several things at that moment. The first was that all of this had caused a hell of a racket, and even then, there were certainly cameras in that room. They'd know she was loose and they'd come after her, without doubt. It was a kill or be killed situation, and she was way too dangerous to let lose, particularly with what she knew.

The second was that Chris was out there, and she was NOT going to leave without him. She needed him and he needed her. They were a unit. They were partners. They were lovers. And she loved him. There. She'd said it. Strange time to admit it, but oh well.

She needed to find him and get out, in that order. And, if possible, get some proof of all they'd been told, while she was at it.

Thirdly, she knew that whatever she'd been given, it would wear off. She'd crash like the Hindenburg when its effects dissipated, and she had no idea how long it would be. Probably not long. She had to make the most of this feeling of invincibility while she could because when it wore off, she'd be useless. Worse than useless. A drain on Chris, once she found him.

And lastly, she knew she wasn't alone. Seeing Kim, and realizing that Kim was there to help, that she'd done what she could, was such a massive boost, almost as much as the adrenaline. She. Was. Not. Alone. Where there was Kim, there had to be others too, - Kim could never have done this alone. She loved her neighbor, but a James Bond / Jason Bourne secret agent she was not. She had to have help.

Thinking about it, she also realized why it was Kim at all. If Desirea had turned, then Storm Cloud, - Michael Turnbull, - would have all of Ingrams records. They would be on the lookout for other Ingrams agents, or even clients. Their cameras and image recognition systems would no doubt have been trained on photos of them.

But April's neighbor? No one from Ingrams knew her that well. There would be no file on her. Desirea would have only met her once, in passing, which is almost certainly why it was her that had infiltrated to help out.

Making a mental note to, oh, pay off Kim's house, or introduce her to every eligible man she could think of, April smiled grimly to herself. She was going to take this opportunity, and these Storm Cloud Assholes were going to pay, one way or another. Even if she had to blow up the building with her and Chris in it, to get that Turnbull shit stain and Chris Morgan's traitorous bitch ex-wife.

Pulling out the magazine from the machine pistol, she checked it to see how many rounds it still held. About half full. Thank you, Chris Morgan for the education. She checked the safety was off, and flicked the switch from full auto to semi-auto. She figured it would do three round bursts, which would lower the rate she went through ammunition. Time to make each round count.

Looping the gun across her body, she leaned down and dragged the dead guard's body over to the door, and then grabbed his hand and with a grunt, lifted him up so his hand hit the door panel. A second's worth of wait and the door hissed open.

Dropping the guard, and noticing in passing that she may well have just pulled something in her back when she lifted him up, - it didn't matter. She felt GREAT! -- she pushed the nose of the gun through the door, and waved it around.

There was no answering fire, and pausing only to go back and pick up the stun baton, - you never knew when that would come in useful, - she ventured out into the hall.

The hallway beyond was also brightly lit and, as April glanced up, there were cameras in the ceiling. Shit.

Now, the question was, which way?

She had no clue. She'd never been to this facility and while quite a lot of the Storm Clouds buildings were built to a similar plan, they did not follow exactly. And she had no idea where she was in the building anyway, so it was hard to know which way to go.

She glanced down both corridors, - both the same, with doors inset, and hand pads and video panels outside, and... wait. Down one corridor. Were those... Post-it notes? On the wall?

She could see one on the wall, one door down. A yellow color. And then, further down, a light green one. And then at the end of the corridor, another on the wall. This time a deep green color.

Ooohhh... could this be what she thought it was? Kim, to the rescue AGAIN? The Post-it notes, in the rainbow colors of the gay flag. Put on the wall by someone leaving her room. A temporary trail of bread crumbs.

Oh Kim. April was ready to kiss her. Paying off her house was not going to be enough. She needed to introduce Kim to Prince William at some point, providing she could get him away from his dolly bird wife.

She set of down the hallway, turning left at the junction, following the Post-it notes.

And then realized she wished she'd picked up one of the guard ear buds, so she might have a clue what they were doing.

And, on cue, an alarm klaxon blared out. Someone had finally hit the panic button in some guard room somewhere.

She knew that they almost certainly knew where she was, so she had to move quickly.

She almost ran down the next corridor, and then turned a corner and ran into two guard coming the other way.

What surprised her was that they were as stunned to see her as she was seeing them. Surely they knew where she was? There were cameras everywhere?

Both raised their weapons, and all April could hear was Chris Morgan's voice, in training sessions, giving her advice about what to do in exactly this kind of situation. And looking for all the world like Clint Eastwood's character in The Unforgiven, she went smoothly down on one knee, drawing her weapon up and taking aim at the first of the guards. Chances are she would be hit by one of them, but she had to try.

The first guard fired wildly, and missed, and she returned fire, catching him square in the chest with all three rounds. He flew backwards, and she turned her attention to the second guard. He had taken more time and was aiming squarely at her, when she did the other thing Chris had taught her. She threw herself flat, the bullets the second guard fired going harmlessly over the top of her. She fired as soon as she hit the ground, her rounds catching the guard in the foot.

He immediately screamed and went down, and she regained her feet, and aimed again, and shot him on the floor. It wasn't the sporting thing to do, but he'd kill her given the chance, and she wasn't about to give it to him.

Realizing her gun was almost certainly out of ammo, she walked forward and crouched down to take the weapons from the dead guards, and this time, an ear bud too.

She was just reaching for the earbud when she was aware someone else had just arrived at the corridor's junction, and looking up, she saw Desirea McGhee staring down at her, her face in a rictus of anger and pent up violence.

Desirea rushed her, jabbing a knee into April's face, and April, - just in time turning her head so the knee didn't break her nose, - bounced off, hitting the wall and collapsing down it. It hurt, even with the adrenaline high. She could feel a bruise starting to swell on the left-hand side of her face.

No time to worry about that though. Desirea was looming over her, hands clasped into fists, clearly spoiling for a fight.

"Oh, April," she hissed. "It didn't have to be like this. We could have been such friends. Such close friends. But no. Never time. Never desire. Well, it's come to this."

She slammed down one fist into April's face, and April collapsed on the floor again.

Leaning down and grabbing April's hair, Desirea pulled her up again and spat in her face.

"It's so good. The submission. You just don't..." and her sentence was abruptly curtailed as April, having gathered up the dropped stun baton while she was on the floor, jammed it into Desirea's leg, thumbing the button.

Desirea jumped back, the contact with the baton and the energy flowing through it triggering a muscle spasm in her leg that disconnected her from the electric arc. She'd gotten a jolt, but not a stunning one.

April, using the baton as a crutch, pulled herself to her feet, to square off against Desirea, who was gathering her wits.

April was just raising the baton when Desirea launched herself at April. April sidestepped, and Desirea ended up on the other side of April, pirouetting neatly to face her, combat pose at the ready.

April had no time for this. Chris needed help. She knew her high was going to start ebbing soon, and she hurt and this needed to be over.

Desirea kicked out, and April blocked it automatically. Taunting and trying to find a gap in her defenses, Desirea tried some punches and jabs, and April retreated, either blocking or side stepping them. Clearly Desirea had some training, some kind of kick boxing instruction. Ingrams did some degree of personal martial arts training, but it was mostly defensive, not aggressive, as was being displayed here.

Either way, time to end this. And not nicely.

Desirea stepped in to try and round house and April, instead of retreating again, stepped into it, blocking the inside of Desirea's punch hand wrist with her own left arm. At the very same time, April pivoted so she was side onto Desirea, and with her right hand, slapped her as hard as she could. Like a punch, she intended to go right through Desirea, only with an open hand. Done right, with the power of a pivoting body behind hit, it could dislocate a jaw.

April didn't think she had either the power or the accuracy for that, but that wasn't the aim anyway. What she wanted was Desirea rattled for a split second, to allow her to do the second part of the technique.

After pushing through the slap, April's right hand continued down Desirea's outstretched arm and then grabbing her right hand, April made a large circle over her head, taking Desirea's hand with it.

She ended up with Desirea bent over, her right hand controlled by April, as she stepped in behind Desirea, her torso now against the back of Desirea's arm, facing the same way, with Desirea bent away from her.

Desirea naturally tried to stand up, only April's left hand was now on the back of her arm, up near the shoulder. What with her left hand controlling the shoulder, and her right controlling Desirea's outstretched right arm, Desirea had no leverage and no chance to stand up. It was brute strength against leverage and April was in control.

But that wasn't enough. This had to end.

To that end, April stepped forward, forcing Desirea to do the same, and this time, when Desirea tried to push herself upright, April allowed it, to a certain amount. And then, using her leverage, she stepped forward again, pushing Desirea cruelly forward, and smashing her face into the wall, with as much velocity and power as April could muster.

There was a crunch, and Desirea instantly just folded, dragging herself down the wall as she collapsed, blood splatters dripping down the wall as her face leaked onto it.