––––––––
Getting the groggy man up to the next floor took more time than I wanted to delegate, but I needed a human shield for what I planned to do. Most of Smith’s men were either dead or gone. I’d felt the presence of a lot of them when I’d first woken up in whatever compound they had me trapped in, but the majority of them had winked out.
A few thoughts and emotions had bombarded me momentarily before they slipped away. I took that to mean that most of them were dead. I wouldn’t cry into my pillow over their loss.
Several of the blank voids of consciousness remained nearby. I hoped at least two of them were the men I was looking for. Smith and his number-one flunky, Man in Black, had a few things to answer for.
The guard I’d choked out had fully woken up as we exited the stairwell. He’d attempted to spin out of my grasp, but a swift rap on the back of his neck with a pistol had adjusted his attitude. I only held one of the two guns I’d procured. The other was secured in the back waistband of my prisoner. With his hands tied in front of him, he couldn’t reach it. And I didn’t have anywhere else to keep it.
My bare feet padded on the cool floor as we walked past two doors and stopped in front of a closed third. It didn’t have any markings on the outside or even a window to see in.
Four men waited inside.
“Open the door,” I hissed into his ear.
“Fuck you.”
I gave him another love tap on the back of the head.
His knees buckled. I grabbed the back of his jacket and held him up until the strength returned to his legs.
“I can do this all day, asshole. Open the door.”
He hesitated. I was about to brain him again when he reached for the doorknob. I placed the muzzle against the base of his skull and shoved him through when I heard the latch click open.
We stumbled into darkness. Flashing lights blinked at us from banks of servers lining the far wall. Tables sat to either side of the room, computer components covering them. The large server towers whirred loudly.
Two men stood in front of the computers, yanking rectangular parts out of them. I didn’t know a whole lot about the workings of electronics, but I figured those to be hard drives because I’d seen Nami dicking around with a few of them in her office. They were preparing to cut and run.
Another guy stood on the right, a hammer in his hand. Smashed bits of metal cluttered the table in front of him. Homeboy was destroying evidence the old-fashioned way.
Smith was on the left, a large, stuffed duffel bag slung over his shoulder. He was sliding a tablet into the bag when he looked up and saw me.
“Todd!” I shoved my hostage at Smith while pulling the second pistol from his waistband.
The evidence destroyer swung around, lifting the hammer up.
I put two in his heart.
Both of the men along the back wall charged forward. Neither made it halfway across the room. One of them veered sideways, hands clutching his bloody chest. He reached toward Smith as he staggered like a drunk.
Smith sidestepped the guard with ease.
As I spun my guns in his direction, he slid a black pistol from the bag and pointed it at my chest.
“You’re as industrious as ever, Mr. Benson.”
Then he shot me.