The Debt Collectors War

Chapter 61

Ellie glanced around the compound, sweeping with her sidearm, scanning as she did. It only took a second or two to get her bearings.

The compound was an open space, with cut grass around the outside, and a flat concrete area in the middle. There were several buildings placed haphazardly around the inside of the compound, mostly one and two story houses, but also sheds and what seemed to be a workshop. The buildings were all canter-cornered to one another, with doors and windows facing in all directions. There were spaces and pathways between the buildings, and porches and verandas, too. There were piles of crates, and rusted out broken-down old cars, and a few scrubby trees.

There was a lot of cover and concealment, Ellie thought. There were a lot of corners she couldn’t see around and places she couldn’t see into from where she was standing right now.

“Start a scan,” Ellie said quietly to Sameh.

Sameh didn’t answer, but Ellie didn’t need her to. She knew Sameh would be reaching for the sensor bot packets, and getting her tablet out. Getting ready to do as Ellie had asked.

Ellie scanned the area in front of her, ready to move, ready to act.

The compound was still quiet. Only a few seconds had passed since the gunfire, and there didn’t seem to be much reaction to it yet.

Ellie could see two other people in the compound in front of her, both men, both looking her way.

One was closer to her, ten steps away. He looked as if he had been on his way towards her when she came through the gate. He might be John, come to see what her business was, or he might just be some kind of quartermaster. He seemed to have stopped, surprised, when she began shooting. His mouth was open, and his expression astonished, but he had stopped moving for now.

The second man was further away, between two buildings, and had probably just been going from one to the other when Ellie started shooting. He was standing still, as if he had stopped and glanced over when he heard the gunshots.

He was standing still, but only standing. He wasn’t running or lying down.

Ellie could see his face, and could see he wasn’t yet alarmed, not even when a gun had just gone off. For now, he was only curious and slightly puzzled, nothing more than that.

He would be worried in a second or two, Ellie thought. Once he realized one of his group was down, on the ground, and someone he didn’t know was forcing her way into the compound. He would be very worried in a second or two, but right now, right at this instant, his first reaction was only curiosity. That was good to know, Ellie thought. It meant gunshots weren’t necessarily a reason to panic, here. It meant people played with guns inside the compound often enough that shooting wasn’t especially something to notice.

That gave her a little more time to work.

Ellie shot the second man, because he was further away, and because, even as he stood there, he was starting to realize there was a problem. She shot him, calmly, before he could warn anyone else, shot him twice in the centre of his body where the fragmenting hostage-rescue rounds would tear open his heart and lungs, killing him quickly and also stopping him taking a breath to shout while he died.

She shot, then watched him, making sure he fell, and then pointed her sidearm at the closer man’s face.

“Do you want to live?” she said to him.

He stood there, and looked at her, and didn’t react at all. He was startled, confused, too overwhelmed to think.

Behind Ellie, the first man she’d shot, the one who had opened the gate, began screaming. She’d been expecting that to take a little longer.

Ellie lowered her sidearm, and shot backwards and downwards, without looking properly where she was aiming. She knew approximately where that man’s torso was, because she’d just stepped over him and her back foot was still beside his hip. She also knew Sameh was paying attention, and would anticipate what Ellie was about to do and keep herself out the way.

Ellie didn’t need to aim or check. She pointed her sidearm backwards and downwards, and shot twice, three times, and then the screaming stopped. She didn’t look and see where she’d hit him. She didn’t actually care. She’d quietened him down, and that was enough.

She shot the man on the ground behind her, then pointed her sidearm back at the face of the man right in front of her.

“Do you want to live?” she said.

He swallowed, and then nodded slowly.

“How many people are here?” Ellie said. “Where are they?”

The man looked at her, and didn’t answer. He still seemed confused. He probably wasn’t hearing very well past the gunfire, and probably couldn’t think properly either with the shock of what had just happened in front of him.

Ellie gave up, and shot him too, in the centre of his chest. He looked surprised and then fell over too. She watched him for a few seconds to make sure he was down, and while she did she reached backwards, behind herself, and said to Sameh, “SMG please?”

Sameh put her submachine gun in her hand.

“The sensors?” Ellie said to Sameh.

“They’re going now,” Sameh said. She threw two packs of sensor bots out in front of them, front left and front right, to begin scanning and mapping and warning them of movement.

“Thank you,” Ellie said, and began to move.