Kill Switch: Chapter 44
The Word Scientist Feels Rusty On My Tongue
“Split up!” I yell. “And meet at the mainframe!”
I turn left, Yide turns right, and X keeps running straight.
I skirt around a warehouse. A door opens. It’s a man in a lab coat. I point my blaster at him.
“Don’t shoot,” he says.
“Give me the coat and I won’t.”
He looks down, as if just now realizing he’s wearing a coat.
I step forward, jab the gun at him. “Give me the coat,” I say, “or I shoot.”
“Fine, fine.” He throws me the coat, which I slip over my security guard uniform.
“Alright,” I say, jabbing the gun in the direction of the door he just exited. “Go back inside, and stay put. Understand?”
“Yes,” he says, eyes wide. “I understand.”
“Good, go.”
I wait for him to slip back inside, and then I run past another couple of warehouses before reaching the mainframe building. Yide is already there, rattling the doorknob. She takes a step back and kicks on the steel door. She hears me approach, turns, her gun aimed at me.
“It’s me!” I yell, raising my hands in the air.
She pushes a strand of hair out of her eyes. “Oh, right, sorry. Where’s X?”
“I don’t know. I was hoping he’d already be here. I had a run in” – I point at my lab coat – “with a scientist.”
The word scientist feels rusty on my tongue.
“I can see that,” Yide says. “Well, what should we do? This door is locked.” She points at the keycard swipe. “I thought the locking mechanism was supposed to shut down with the kill switch.”
“There must be some kind of manual lock as well,” I say. “Here, step back.” I wave Yide out of the way with my gun. I shoot the knob. Once, twice, three times. Then kick the door. Once, twice, three times. And then, finally, on the fourth kick, it groans open.
I look back. No guards.
“We should go look for X,” I say.
Yide shakes her head emphatically. “We’re here, we need to finish the job.”
I turn to Yide, stare into her pleading eyes, and then look back at the rows and rows of warehouses, and listen to the inexplicable quiet.
“Alright,” I say. “You’re right. It’s time to disrupt some shit.”
And I step inside the warehouse.