Chapter 23

Meagan pulled over a few tables from the cafe and rounded up everybody who had defected – but there weren’t many. Of the fifteen survivors who stayed in the Tower – or survived – only a few had escaped the guards.

There was Omar, the long-time disgruntled employee and stealth killer extraordinaire; Geoff, their former boss who looked like Wolverine in high school (but was really 35 years old); Krista, Elise’s bubbly baby sister; Matt, an overly eager drama student who even Holden described as “way too emo”; and a quiet older Asian man named Tyrol.

“Who the hell is that guy?” Elise nudged Meagan when they spotted him. Tyrol was sitting cross legged on the windowsill when they arrived, staring straight out over the lake. He hadn’t moved since.

“That’s Tyrol. He had a lot of interesting stories when I worked here. I think he worked for the Chinese government before defecting. That’s not even his real name.”

“He looks like he should be selling me a Gremlin.”

“Trust me, he’s useful.”

They gathered their little band of seven now (except for Tyrol, who opted to listen from his windowsill) and stood around a single table, staring at crudely drawn blueprints of the restaurant.

“The power supply is one floor above the restaurant. If the guards aren’t completely stupid they’ll have somebody doing regular patrols of their stairwell to look out for giraffes. Omar, you take Holden and some weapons and hide out in the stairwell. We’ll take out this guard first, then head to the Electrical floor. We’ll cut off their power before we attack.”

Matt raised a gangly arm. “What’s that thing?” He pointed to a stick figure with a dress.

“Oh that’s Krista.”

“What’s my job?” she said.
“I’m glad you asked,” Meagan beamed at her. “You’re our bait.”

“Whoa whoa!” Elise stepped in front of her sister. “Nobody’s using Krista as bait. No way.”

“Sorry Norma Rae but it has to be her,” Geoff said. “Those guards are shallow douchebags; they won’t be able to resist helping Krista.”

Elise shook her head. “No way, I’ll do it.”

“No offense, but look at you. You look like a Serbian refugee.” Geoff turned around and gestured at Krista. “Now look at Krista. She looks like Apocalypse Barbie.”

“Don’t worry Elise, I’ll stuff a bunch of guns under my skirt, it’ll be fine.”

“Fine,” Elise said, shoving her pistol at Krista. “Just how exactly is she going to bait the guards?”

Meagan smiled. “She’s going to be a damsel – or, Barbie, I guess – in distress. Omar’s going to scream at her in the stairwell, and she’s going to wait outside the guard’s door. One of them is bound to hear it, and they won’t resist your sister. And, since it’s Omar yelling at her they won’t be afraid of her getting bitten. They’ll open the door, check out the scene, and BOOM, you grab him.”

Omar and Holden exchanged a glance. “Um, how exactly are we going to do this without everybody hearing the guard’s scream on the way down?”

“Oh you’re not gonna throw them down the stairs. You’re just going to wound them and send them back upstairs with a gash. The other guards will take care of the rest, I presume.” Meagan leaned back and looked around. “Any questions?”

“Yes I have one,” Steve raised his hand. “Why did you spend ten minutes drawing a Juno award on a napkin before you told us this really simple plan?”


Ten minutes later Omar, Holden, and Krista were ready to take their places when Elise pulled Holden aside.

“Look, if anything should happen to—“

“Aww, that’s sweet of you.”

“--To my SISTER, you idiot, I will kill you and feed you to the security guards in a delicious soufflé. Understood?”

Holden playfully shoved her arm. “Yes, I get it. And I knew you weren’t really worried about me. You know how tough I am.”

“I could take you with one arm tied behind my back.”

“Any time you want.”

She glared, but had to smile. Hell, he was probably about to die in the stairwell, she thought. Let him have one.

“Oh and by the way,” he whispered, “Geoff’s wrong. You totally make better bait.”

With that he sauntered away, and took with him all the feeling in Elise’s knees.