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HUMBERTO AND CATHY were debating whether to wait for the others in the garage or to leave in the vehicle and circle around and pick them up. Cathy and Humberto had gotten so involved in their debate they had both laid down their weapons on the hood of a Mercedes Benz truck that looked like it had been given steroids. When Cathy had first walked into the garage, she thought she was seeing things, but, no, the truck had six wheels. She intended to examine the Frankensteined truck more closely, but got sucked into the argument with Humberto. Cathy had forgotten to whisper and was trying to outshout Humberto who was over analyzing the situation, and consequently, they didn’t notice when Suzanne slid their weapons off the hood of the truck and into her bag.
“This is why pencil pushers should never go out in the field. You fuckers will discuss a thing until you are both old and gray, and in this day and age, that’s a hell of a long time.”
Cathy whirled around and saw a woman. “Suzanne? I heard about you. You’re the corporate spy, aren’t you? Why don’t you let us go? Corporate theft is one thing but out and out murder and or unlawful restraint is another.”
“I’m much more than a corporate spy, my dear. I don’t like to be pigeonholed into one job description. In fact,” Suzanne said, stopped, took a step back, and waved .45 Heckler and Koch handgun at them. “Never mind, I don’t have time to give you my resume. Just so you know, I’m no one to fuck with. As long as you get that straight, we’ll get along fine.” Suzanne punctuated each point with her .45 handgun; causing Humberto to flinch each time she pointed the pistol in his direction.
“Put your weapon down, Suzanne,” said a voice very close to her ear, followed shortly by the unmistakable sound of a shotgun shell round being chambered. This noise would make anyone extremely nervous; however, Suzanne was not normal, and she knew that she had a split-second to make her move. Suzanne whirled around and grabbed Maggie’s shotgun, which threw Maggie off balance and caused her to fall to the ground minus the shotgun but not before firing it into the garage door opener mechanism suspended from the ceiling. After hitting the ground, Maggie heard Cathy screaming. A few seconds, later all eyes turned away from Maggie and swiveled to the overhead doors as they made several loud clanking noises, followed by the garage door closing along with a second much heavier looking door coming down as well.
Regarding that second door, Suzanne asked, “What the hell is that?” and then looked at Maggie. “Well looks like I don’t have to worry about you for very long. But seriously, what’s with the heavy-duty door?”
A faint “Fuck you, Suzanne,” came in reply.
Suzanne pressed the garage door button several times, but nothing happened. She then pulled the cord to manually open the door, but it wouldn’t move. Suzanne looked at Maggie, smiled an evil little smile, which was probably the only smile Suzanne was capable of, and said, “Well I guess I don’t have to worry about you going anywhere.” She then entered the laundry room through the garage door exit, where Humberto and Cathy were in front of her.
Maggie thought to herself, Usually when I act immediately and without planning, things turn out well. It’s when I over think something it all goes into the crapper. What the hell had just happened? Maggie had seen Suzanne walk into the laundry room toward Humberto and Cathy and acted without thinking per usual. After she chambered a round, she heard a very loud and close gunshot and realized that she was on the ground of the garage amongst a cluster of garden tools, and felt something wet and sticky on her thigh. Her shotgun had fallen to the ground, and Cathy had screamed and pointed at her leg.