Convergence - The Last Science #2.1 - In Plain Sight

B2: Chapter 10 - Allies of Coincidence - II

  Jeremy squinted in the darkness as his eyes started to adjust. He was curious what the owner of the voice looked like. To his vague disappointment, it was someone utterly boring. Twenty-something, plain dark jacket and jeans, clean shaven, short haircut, white. Paler than white, actually, with how nervous he looked. No identifying marks, and probably lower-middle-class. If he entered the guy into a search, Jeremy doubted he'd get a single useful result.

  Despite that, the young man still had a loaded gun pointed vaguely at Jeremy's chest. His finger hovered dangerously near the trigger.

  "I should take you to the guy now."

  Jeremy shook his head. Keep playing the supportive guy, keep them off their guard. "If you do that, no one's guardin' the back door. You gotta stay here, right?"

  "Oh. Right."

  "So just straight down the hall to the back room?"

  "How'd you know where it was?"

  Jeremy shrugged. "We downloaded a blueprint of the place when we got here. The internet's a hell of a thing."

  The guy's eyes widened. "So you could just break in from anywhere?"

  Come on, just let me go alone. "Maybe, but that's not gonna happen. I'm here to make sure no one gets hurt, remember?"

  "Right." The guy waved him off with the gun. Jeremy winced as the barrel swung upward past his face twice. "Go, then. I'll stay here and watch."

  "You got it." Jeremy turned, as uncomfortable as he was putting his back to the guy, and started down the dark hallway. There was an empty employee bathroom, door thrown wide with the lights on, and at the end of the hall were two doors on opposite sides. The left door was brightly lit, and Jeremy could make out the floor of the bar through the threshold. The right door, by process of elimination, had to be the store room where they expected the hostages to be.

  There was a pool of blood on the ground between the two, and splatter all over the wall.

  Fuck.

  Jeremy kept forward, one step at a time, his hands held up high. Call out now or try to get the drop on them? I'm unarmed, but if I can get one of them, can I flip the hostage situation? Nah, they don't seem to be a tight group. They'd probably just shoot us both. Gotta go in as myself.

  Jeremy took a deep breath, then bellowed down the hall. "Hey, whoever the fuck's in charge! Negotiator coming in!"

  A head immediately popped out of the store room, closely followed by a sawed-off shotgun. "How the hell—"

  "I'm just here to talk," Jeremy called back. He lifted his hands even higher with emphasis. "I'm totally unarmed. Your guy cleared me."

  "Go back," he growled. "We're almost done here, then we'll leave. You don't need to be involved."

  "Hate to break it to you, but they're getting ready to raid your asses. I'm the only dumb motherfucker standing between you and a sniper." Jeremy kept walking forward, since the shotgun apparently wasn't going off anytime soon. "Talking's the only way you're getting out of here in one piece."

  "Look, Agent Ashe. We're on the same damn side. So just shut up and let us finish, and everyone goes home happy." As soon as Jeremy was within a few steps of the doors, the man raised the shotgun threateningly. Jeremy froze in place. "No negotiation."

  On the same side? Sides of what? "This isn't the way to play this."

  "I know what I'm doing. We know what we're doing." Had to remember to say 'we'. This really isn't a unified group. The man jerked his head in the direction of the bar area. "Go in there and sit down. We're done talking."