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MITCHELL AND ROGER wanted to recap the last few glorious minutes of their shift and motioned each other and the boys to the security office. There, Mitchell and Roger continued to high five and chest bump while Danny jumped on one leg and then the other, trying to regain his hearing as though he had just come out of the deep end of the pool. Kevin, however, had glued his eyeball to the peephole in the security door, searching for Suzanne.
“WHAT ARE YOU DOING?” screamed Danny at the Tweedles, as he couldn’t monitor his own volume.
Kevin ignored Danny given his own temporary deafness. The Tweedles stopped in mid-high five with Mitchell slapping Roger in the shoulder and Roger missing Mitchell entirely, which caused him to spin in a circle from the momentum and Mitchell’s slap. Mitchell found this hilarious and laughed uproariously until he had to sit down from the effort.
“This has been by far the best drill this stuffy company has ever come up with.” wheezed Mitchell as his giggling wound down. While saying this, he was removing his shooting earplugs, as was Roger.
“I know this is so much better than the fire/disaster drills we have to put on twice a year. This is so kick ass,” Roger agreed.
Kevin and Danny’s hearing was slowly returning from registering only a steady hum to actual sounds and voices. At the mention of a “drill” they turned toward the Tweedles.
“Drill? This is no fucking drill you.” Before Danny could complete his sentence, Kevin put his hand over his mouth and whispered in his ear, “Don’t piss them off. They just saved our lives.”
“Right, shit, right, okay. Umm, guys, this wasn’t a drill, Suzanne is not who we all thought she was. Mad Maxine here is some sort of industrial spy or just a complete nut job or possibly a combination of both. Whatever Suzanne is, she is using live bullets, as you can see in your vests. She wants to kill us, and you guys were simply in her way. So, police, for God sake has anyone called the police?”
The Tweedles tried to process this latest information while looking at their vests and each other’s body armor. Kevin and Danny exchanged a look and then grabbed the phone in the security office. The line was dead. They frantically checked all their pockets for their cell phones and simultaneously cried, “Fuck!”
The Tweedles slowly caught up to speed. Roger searched for his cell phone, as Mitchell was scanned the video screens for Suzanne.
“There’s no sign of her on any of the levels. Of course, she could be hiding in a bathroom or a camera’s blind spot,” Mitchell said to no one in particular.
Kevin and Danny both stopped looking for their phones, glanced at each other and started slowly backing up toward the security door.
“You know, maybe our phones slid out of our pockets when we were crawling to your desk,” Danny said as he casually felt around for the doorknob behind him.
Roger cried out, “Found it! And waved his phone in the air.”
“Um, Roger, take a closer look at the phone, I think there might be a slight problem with it,” Kevin said overly casually as he edged himself and Danny toward the door.
While Roger was bringing his phone to eye level and examining the round hole in the center of the screen, Kevin and Danny eased open the door and crept out.
“Maybe we should’ve told them we messed with their video system,” whispered Danny as he and Kevin crouched down, scanning the floor for any signs of a phone.
“Are you kidding? The video system is like their child. If they knew we even messed with one camera, let alone the entire system, they would have a shit fit.”
“Oh God, I forgot. They even named it. Now what do we do?” Danny asked.
“See if we can get back to the security desk. If our phones are anywhere, they are behind the desk.”
“Good, let’s go.”
They were halfway to the desk when Kevin, who was slightly ahead of Danny, abruptly stopped, causing Danny to run into his back.
“What the fuck? Why did you stop?”
“What if Suzanne is behind the desk? She’s disabled the phones, and she knows we are going to have to either leave through the front or the rear entrance. What’s a better place to hide than the security desk? She can use for cover and see which entrance we choose to leave by,” Kevin said in one breath.
“Now what, now what, now what?” chanted Danny.