“He offered us triple because he knows there’s most likely nothing out here.”
Gus pushed ahead of Ripp who had slowed down to scan the hallway. “Plus, I don’t like how quiet it is.”
Ripp closed his display and followed Gus. “Maybe you can head back to the water park and join the Fringers for dinner,” Ripp said, meaning every word.
Gus quickly held up one hand to quiet Ripp and put his other hand on his pistol.
Ripp shook his head and walked ahead of Gus, who was still in listening mode. A small crash echoed through the hallway ahead of them. They both turned off their headlamps and turned on a softer green light that illuminated everything for their visors, but didn’t shine like their headlights. Ripp crouched and slowly moved forward, gun ready. Gus followed with his pistol aimed just off Ripp’s right shoulder.
Two small crashes echoed through the hall. Ripp pointed at a broken wall ahead of them. Gus switched his position to the other side of Ripp, covering a better angle, as they approached the opening in the wall.
Ripp knelt and peeked around the corner in the room ready to fire, but didn’t see anything. Gus rotated around slowly. He saw a pile of junk and broken building materials in the middle of the room. A small animal that looked like a mix between a squirrel and a cat with no hair jumped out of the pile.
The gunshot was deafening in the silence.
“The hell, Gus!”
The washed-out light in their visors faded. They no longer saw the animal, but it had left pieces of itself all over the room.
Gus holstered his pistol and walked over to inspect the carnage.
“You have to admit that was a damn good shot.”
Ripp looked sideways at a grinning Gus, then pointed at a sign that said “Receiving”. “Let’s just find what we came for and get out of here.”
“You’re no fun, you know.”
They walked into the next room. There were desks and a handful of old computers covered in dust.
Ripp pulled out a small array of cords and inspected the computers. Using the various cords, he hooked the first one up to a portable battery and waited. Nothing. He moved to the next one. Nothing.
While Ripp checked the computers, Gus rummaged through rusted filing cabinets, obviously not worried about how much noise he was making.
“A little louder, yeah?” Ripp said as he threw a piece of plastic at Gus who had just started grinding another drawer open. It hit Gus in the leg, but he ignored Ripp and continued with the banging and screeching.
Ripp tried the third computer and got a working but fuzzy screen.
“Got one,” Ripp said quietly.
Gus stopped rummaging and burst into laughter. Ripp dropped the scanner on the table as he reached for his gun out of reflex.
“You see the way that thing just exploded?”
“You do realize I could just shoot you out here, and no one would know,” Ripp said.
“Yes, you could, but you love me way too much.”
Ripp took his finger off the trigger. After inspecting the device he searched its files for anything with Theonicorp’s name on it. “Not seeing anything here. Let’s check the next office.”
“Nun say what the files are for?”
“Nope, just that anything and everything with Theonicorp attached to it needed to be brought back.”
They worked their way to the last office on the floor. Ripp tried opening the door, but something was blocking it.
“Give me a hand,” Ripp said as he flashed his gun light in the opening of the door. “Door has a desk or something behind it.”
Ripp moved to the side and set his feet. Gus got set and gave him a thumb’s up.
“On three?”
Ripp nodded affirmatively.
“One, two.”
They rammed their shoulders into the door and drove with their feet. The door slammed into a pile of metal desk frames, leaving a four-inch opening.
“Hold on, let’s see what’s blocking it.”
Ripp used his gun light again and saw four desks lined up end-to-end spanning all the way to the other wall.
“Yeah, that door ain’t opening like this.”
Ripp looked closely at the hinge side of the door marking mentally where he thought the hinges were located.
“There are connected metal frames from the door to the other side of the room. I think we could shoot out the hinges and slide the door out of the frame, though. You want to do the honors?”
Ripp stepped away from the door as he motioned for Gus to do his thing.
Gus swung his shotgun around from his back, chambered a shell and shot the middle hinge. Sparks flew and metal bent inwards as the rusted metal door was bombarded. Gus made quick work of the top and bottom thirds too.
Ripp patted Gus on the shoulder for a clean job well done. He hit his shoulder against the door. The door jerked off the top two hinges and slammed against the metal desk frames behind it.
“One more on the bottom, good sir,” Ripp said as he graciously moved out of the way for Gus to fire one more round.
Gus shot at the bottom again. The door fell completely out of the frame and fell to the side.
There were large piles of boxes in each corner and a desk on the far side of the room. A body, long decayed, was lying flat on the ground just inside the door and another one sideways in a corner.
“No computers,” Ripp said, frustrated.
Gus started going through the boxes in one of the corners.
Rip looked in the desk. Nothing.
Gus checked one of the body’s brittle pockets and found a small device.
“What about this?” he asked, tossing it to Ripp.
Ripp caught it and quickly scanned the device. Nothing. He slowly looked around the room.
“There’s got to be something here.”
“Maybe Nun was wrong,” Gus said.
“No. It’s here.”
“Do you think Nun had anything to do with those Nukes following us out to the water park?” Gus asked.
“No,” Ripp quickly replied. Part of him considered the possibility that Nun had set them up, but knew there would be no point.
Gus walked over to the desk, sat down on the corner, and folded his arms.
“What would he have to gain? Nun is about results and return on his investments,” Ripp added.
Gus nodded his head in agreement as Ripp walked over to the body that was leaning in the corner. He squatted and turned around to look at the other body lying on the floor. He raised his arm and made a motion as if he had shot a gun in the direction of the other skeleton.
“Also, I know when he’s lying and he knew something was out here. No, this con is legit. I could see it in his greedy little eyes.”
Ripp stood up and looked back and forth at the two bodies, waiting for one of them to tell him something, anything.
Gus stood up and slowly turned around in a circle.
“Plus, I don’t get why they locked themselves in here. There weren’t any scratches on the door and we got through with a shotgun. If someone really wanted to get at them it wouldn’t be hard,” Gus said as he joined Ripp in his vision of might have transpired.
Ripp was half listening, half processing.
“He was almost desperate, and you know Nun. There’s nothing for him to be desperate about. He practically owns Nucrea.”
Ripp let out a sigh and put his hands on his hips.
“I don’t know.”
“Well let’s go. I don’t know why I let you drag me out here.”
Gus shoved the empty desk drawer hard out frustration. The sound of something hitting the back of the drawer caught their attention. Gus opened up the drawer all the way and started to wiggle it.
Ripp came over and watched as Gus pulled it out and shoved it again. There were definitely heavy objects sliding and hitting the back of the drawer. Gus pulled out the drawer again and smashed it hard with the butt of his gun. The drawer broke in half. Gus reached in the hole he had made and felt around.