"We worried for decades about WMDs – Weapons of Mass Destruction. Now it is time to worry about a new kind of WMDs – Weapons of Mass Disruption."
― John Mariotti
PARIS WATCHED as the numbers reversed on the small screen, a countdown that stood in the corner, next to the images of their victims.
He smiled when he saw them screaming through the camera, the bald man trying to pull out any strand of hair left on his shiny chocolate-colored scalp, digging a nail right above the brain , scraping off a piece of skin, then bawled as he banged his head on the locked door.
The brunette next to him was laughing like a maniac from the gas until the drool soaked the white shirt, dripped off the microphone set and onto his lap, then he fell with the chair on the floor and kicked the air until he couldn't move anymore .
The man dropped his legs , while his dark eyes remained still and motionless like those of fish, losing their glow as if the bulb of life got switched off.
'' Time to have fun! You guys got in?'' Paris asked and connected to a set of cameras and scrolled until he got the desired location.
A white room with a small mahogany desk cluttered with papers, a couch with dirty clothes and panties and a safe box hidden behind an ugly Monet painting ,where Jared and ZazA were collecting the valuables inside, stuffing them into their backpacks.
As soon as he caught their attention, they knew he was watching and turned their heads to the camera.
The silicone masks with the faces of two elderly people were covered by scarves and brown wigs, for none of them had brown hair and that was the last outstanding color.
They checked their watches, while throwing the last piles of money and a few bags of green gold inside.
Then closed the safe box, placed the painting back at exact measured angle, with the small piece of green paper under the frame in the left corner , according to the instructions : - 1, 5 cm measured with a ruler, let the tip of the paper hang and glue it to the wall with what the owner of the office called ''Phantax'' from a small white bottle he kept on his desk, performing the same routine.
They used the key card and left the room in silence.
Paris watched them sneak into the hallway and into the elevator through the cameras. He was connected to their CCT system and could see everything, while the building's screens were disconnected.
According to the schedule, the next shift of the guards starts in an hour and by the time someone comes to find those two, they would be out of here.
Normie surveyed the hallways , sitting in a chair next to Paris in the small room they had access to, in the underground parking where they had the equipment and installments they planned in the last two days for this operation.
Jared and ZazA got in the elevator at the tenth floor, but they suddenly stopped at the seventh floor.
''What are they doing?'' Normie asked.
'' I don't know. They're supposed to take it all down to the parking!'' Paris flinched and clenched his fist, then he got in contact with Jared through the ear pods.
'' Why did you stop?''
''I didn't!. Something's wrong with the elevator. We're stuck!'' The black haired complained.Paris held the urge to grit his teeth and connected to the elevator cam, where he saw ZazA and Jared trying to press two buttons at the same time, in hopes the elevator is going to open. But no luck!
'' Shit!'' They both muttered and Paris bit his lip in anger.
'' Up here, dolls. '' Paris said to them through their pods and they both looked at the camera.
''Get us out!'' ZazA said, holding the backpack tight to his stomach, feeling the prey wanting to escape, every illegal molecule struggling to burst free.
'' I'm trying. You idiots are sure you can't open it from the buttons? Maybe you haven't pushed the right one!'' Paris said.
'' Oh, there's one I haven't tried yet.'' ZazA said and flipped Paris the peace sign.
Right, lovely, Paris thought to himself, but sarcasm didn't solve his problem. Normie fidgeted with his phone and then he called Tansa.
''What are you doing?''
''If we can't solve this through computers, we're gonna have to do it manually. I'm sending Tansa in!''
Paris thought about it for a minute and agreed, as Normie was speaking to the girl and calling her in. As soon as he placed the phone down, he started typing some codes. He knew the card reader of the DCS system was connected via a Wiegand input and the server he hacked earlier was connected via TCP/IP.
Come on, baby. Let daddy in!
He asked Jared to check the destination guidance display but that didn't help either.
Normie sighed and got on the phone with Tansa, who already infiltrated down the hallway of the first floor. The building only had two elevators, but if there was a problem, she could get stuck too, so Tansa decided it was better to use the stairs.
''How long do you think that's gonna take her?'' Paris asked.
'' She's an athlete, it can't be that long.'' Normie replied, looking at the screen to spot Tansa and also trying to figure the flaw in the system. He saw her crossing the long hallway under the dim lights, holding her chin down so the camera wouldn't capture her facial image, pulling the collar of the orange uniform with neon yellow stripes to her mouth.
''Means she's good!''
Tansa heard them through the pods, grinned and fixed the firefighter helmet on her head, keeping all the dark brown locks tight in a bun and hurried up the stairs. It was just like when she used to get ready for the marathon.
The adrenaline pumping, her heart pounding in her ears, sweaty palms wiping the sweat off her face, feeling her throat tighten with every movement, every deafening sound on the stairs, until she reached the seventh floor.
She took a deep breath, followed by other measured ones and went in the elevator's direction, when someone tapped her on the shoulder.
''If we really must.... Throw the masks and the fucking backpacks through the shaft doors. We'll think of something else!'' Was the last thing Paris said to them, before complaining to Normie about the heat in the backroom.
Jared and ZazA were huffing out loud, either cursing Paris - knowing he could hear it or just tapping their feet and walking around as much as the space allowed them.
If you think that's hot, you should stick your damn head in here. I feel like I'm suffocating! The brunette thought, imagining Paris sweating like a pig in a room that's much colder than the elevator.
Jared felt like the time he was trapped in the locker at the Orphanage, between smelly pairs of shoes, a strange sticky substance and something furry and cold. He shut his eyes tight and tried to think of something else, before letting any hint of claustrophobia or panic get to him.
ZazA watched him lean on the cold surface, sighing and looking at the small watch. He could feel Jared's anxiety rising, but at the same time, he couldn't stop feeling nervous either.
Waiting was excruciating. The smell of melting silicone on his face and the soury sweat made him sick in the stomach!
'' What if we get caught?'' Asked ZazA.
'' We won't!'' Jared replied.
'' I need to pee!''
''What? Right now?''
''Yeah. Remember you made me drink a huge espresso before coming here!''
''And you went two hours ago. How the fuck you got such a tiny bladder?'' Jared asked, getting mad. As if being stuck in an elevator with stuff worth hundreds of dollars wasn't bad enough, he was stuck with a 16 years old teenager with the bladder of a mouse.
Paris stopped talking through their ear buds and the police could be just behind the doors. He tried to breathe, but something else was burning inside him, something foreign , but exciting and arousing at the same time.
Maybe he was an autassassinophiliac.
Tansa looked at the man standing in front of her and wondered if she should kick him and run or keep cool and listen.
'' Are you a firefighter? We just made a call! How did you get here so fast? Apparently the elevators stopped working and I think someone got stuck,'' The man said, pulling his tie loose and she got a look at his tag.
General Manager - Louis Chang.
'' Yes, sir. I was in the area when I got the call! '' She replied.
'' And you're here by yourself?'' He asked, taking a good look at her.
'' No sir, my colleague is in the car, speaking to the department. As soon as I need to, I'll call him for assistance!'' She said, almost reciting a memorized poem, something inspired from all the lies she said so far.
The man shrugged and walked away, without asking any further questions and Tansa sighed in relief.
She took the key card out of her pocket and contacted Normie. It was something she got from a homie of hers, a tubular ASME 17 , 7 pin , 137 style construction with the bitting code : 6143521. She took a good look at the elevator's doors, remembering how her uncle used to do it, humming silently the same sound he used to hum when he was thinking of something. Then she inserted the drop key in the hole and managed to pry open the doors from the first try.
Uncle would be proud of me, she thought.
She smiled and exhaled when she saw that the guys weren't stuck between floors, because that would have made it hard to rescue. As soon as the they saw Tansa, both smiled through the heavy and sweaty masks and stepped out in the hallway.
'' Y'all ready to go?'' She asked.
'' Yes, thank you. And before he pees himself!'' Jared said. ZazA huffed and they all ran away to the stairs.
'' Don't tell me we gotta run seven floors!'' Jared said and turned pale. He wasn't the athletic kind and everyone knew it.
'' Come on, it isn't that bad!'' Tansa said and a part of her enjoyed this situation.
'' Tell that to my tiny bladder and his couch potato ass!'' ZazA complained. All the hopping and jumping made his insides hurt and scream and he felt like he was about to explode.
'' Oh crap!'' He heard Tansa yelp and hurried down the stairs to see what happened, when he heard a loud thud.
Paris was waiting impatiently, biting his nails and chewing what was left of them. It's been almost an hour, the countdown was getting close to zero. He had no idea what floor they were all on, but he knew Tansa got them out of the elevator, before he heard a loud crash through the pods.
Were they safe? Damn it.
In the underground parking, he heard the director of the company - Bill Norman - talking to his associate through the metal door and saw their cars parked.
Trouble and more trouble!
'' If the guys come here and he sees them, it's over!'' He whispered to Normie, who looked as if he ate a bad pickle and was about to throw up.
''What do we do now?'' The green haired asked and looked at the men through the small crack of the door, while keeping his hands on the keyboard. There was only a door separating him and Paris from Bill Norman. A small door of a smaller room in the underground parking where their computers were set to destroy this man's company.
'' Plan C!'' Paris whispers.
Bill Norman laughed at the jokes of his associate, ignoring the small touches on the arm or the occasional grab of the shoulder, when he heard some noise coming from the opposite direction.
Then he got a text from Louis Chang , who said he found the guards in the security room unconscious or possibly dead. He showed it to his associate - Clark and was about to leave, when someone called out to them. As soon as he turned his head, he was greeted by a middle aged man dressed as a carpenter in light blue overalls and a cap.
The man walked slowly , then started to cough and placed a hand on Bill's black Mustang for support, leaving a print.
'' Help... me!'' He muttered and collapsed on the ground. '' Chemical...allergy. Can't breathe!'' He said and the two men tried to get a hold of him, lift up his head and shake him awake, but there was no reaction.
Clark then stood up and called the ambulance, but the signal down there was bad and he couldn't hear what the woman on the other line was saying, so he started walking around. Bill got up and went to Clark, asking him what's going on, but he was still on the line with the woman, trying to explain what the old man said and get some clear indications about what to do.
'' Is he dead?'' Clark asked. The man looked at them, then crawled and sneaked behind a long row of cars , until he reached one of the far white minivans in the corners that was parked next to the metal door where Paris and Normie were hiding.
The two of them got out, ducked and slid inside the vehicle, wearing a bunch of ugly masks. Paris got on the driver's seat and looked in the direction of the stairs, where Jared and ZazA were holding Tansa and she was limping.
The three saw Bill and Clark in the distance and ran to the van. They got in, followed by the man in the blue overalls and once the slide door clicked closed, Paris stepped on the pedal and they got out of the parking lot, leaving a trail of smoke and burnt tires.
Bill Norman and Clark took a look at the van without any registration numbers, shrugged their shoulders and decided to turn to the man laying on the ground. But all was left of him was his blue cap left on the concrete.
'' Nice job, guys!'' Paris said, looking at the two men in the wing mirror and smiled.
''Especially you, Paul!''
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