AfterNet 01 - Good Cop Dead Cop

the back of her belt but the leather case was open and empty. She’d lost them during the scuffle on top of the room. She went back to the DJ’s table and grabbed the microphone cable she’d earlier discarded. She came back and hog-tied the groaning man. She didn’t know how secure a job she’d done, but he didn’t look like much of a threat.
    Munroe reported back. “There’s no one coming. I’m going to go back down the hallway. How’re you doing?”
    “Just get me out of here alive, Alex.”
    “You’re doing all the work. I’m going. Keep the field facing the door.”
    Munroe moved back into the hallway. He realized it must be the central hallway that ran the length of the old school and that the gymnasium/dance floor was at one end. The ceiling was about 12 feet high and in places holes showed through to the floor above. Debris from the holes had rained down onto the main floor. Classrooms opened off the hallway on either side, alternating with rows of lockers. He gave a quick look into each classroom but saw nothing.
    Halfway down the hallway he saw a large staircase that led to the second floor. He glanced up and debated whether he should check the upstairs when he noticed a light at the other end of the hallway. He tracked the light to its source, what had been the school’s cafeteria. The large room, almost a mirror of the gymnasium, also had large swinging doors, propped open by old school desks taken from a classroom.
    Two men flanked the doorway. One had a drawn revolver, and the other was armed with a crowbar. Munroe walked through and saw two more men standing next to a table where a young woman was sitting, facing a laptop. She was Duggan. Also on the table was a box, apparently made of particleboard, about a cubic foot, matching the plans he’d seen online.
    From behind him, Munroe noticed that the two men flanking the doorway had entered the main corridor. Munroe raced back and went through the doorway, past the men and down to the other end. He reached the gymnasium doors, still partially held open by the bodies of the two men. But he couldn’t feel the terminal’s field. He looked for her and saw that she had moved into the hallway and was using a side stairwell as cover. He rushed to her side.
    “Linda,” he said.
    “thought i should move.”
    “OK, two men, one with a revolver, the other with a crowbar. They’re sneaking down the hallway.”
    “i can see em.”
    “Drop them when you can.”
    “yeah.”
    “Don’t need to give them a warning.”
    “shut up.”
    Munroe resisted replying. Instead he cautiously peeked around the corner of the stairwell before realizing what he was doing. Damn, doing it again, he thought.
    He went into the corridor and saw the two men were a little too theatrically using cover. They’ve never really done this before, he thought. They must be making a racket.
    He went back to his partner’s side. She doesn’t need your help, just let her do her job, he thought to himself, when he noticed the shape on the stairway landing above her partner.
    “ABOVE YOU, STAIRWAY,” he shouted to her.
    She rolled to her side and brought her gun to firing position, grasping it with both hands after dropping the terminal to the floor. The battery immediately jumped out of the case and Munroe felt the field die.
    He saw a muzzle flash from the landing and saw his partner’s body shudder from the impact of a slug, but she was already firing. He saw her lips move and realized she was again giving a warning even as she was firing. Her gun flashed again and the man on the landing pitched forward down the stairs, finally rolling out into the corridor.
    Yamaguchi wasted no time. She got up off the ground, knowing she’d been hit but not caring. She staggered to her feet and stupidly stepped into the corridor, fully in view of the two men. Once she saw them she immediately started firing blind. A muzzle flash caught her attention, however, and she fired at it.
    Another shock to her body drove her right shoulder back, but she kept firing. She emptied her magazine, released it and had a new clip ready faster than she ever had in training. But she saw she had no target. The man with the gun was down and the man with the crowbar was running through the doors at the far end of the school.
    She ran after him, one foot dragging slightly as she favored that side of her body. She realized it was hard to breathe, but she kept moving. She made it to the end of the corridor