Seth didn't think the guard could've spotted the window from that vantage point, but, damn, the guy
have! Here Seth was, a lean young genetically tuned engineered soldier, less than twenty feet from his access out of here… and this old fat friggin' guard decided to pick
to be on top of his job.
Fatso reached for the radio on his hip, his head swiveling as he looked down the hall in the other direction, apparently checking for more evidence of an intruder.
Seth had hoped to get in and get out without raising any suspicion; but that seemed impossible now. The guard had lifted the radio from his belt, poised to put in his call— a call that if Seth let him make meant the rest of a (presumably slimmer) security force would be on the way in seconds. But taking the guard out first would tell Sterling that his company's security had been breached…
Manticore training, and life on the streets, had taught Seth long ago to pick the lesser of evils.
The guard had just pushed in the TALK button, and sucked in a breath to form the first word, when Seth chopped him on the back of the neck, and the guard folded up like a fat card table, pitching awkwardly forward, the walkie-talkie clunking to the carpeted floor and bouncing away a few feet. The guard had barely hit the indoor- outdoor carpeting when Seth had him by his collar, to drag the man away.
The voice came from behind Seth, off to one side.
Another voice.
Another!
Spinning toward the lunchroom, Seth saw four more guards sitting around a big table, sandwiches spread out before them, two empty chairs, their eyes all now turned toward the boy in shock.
the X5 thought. Fatso hadn't discovered Seth's entry point— the guard had simply been calling to the last member of the security team, to invite him to join the group for their midnight lunch!
Seth didn't wait for them to gather their wits; he'd been trained to use surprise, and the surprise on their faces invited him to join them, in the lunchroom…
As the nearest guard rose from the table, Seth jammed a fist up under the man's nose, the X5 thrusting hard, the guard unconscious, possibly dead; as the guy toppled, Seth grabbed the man's Tazer before he landed, taking the chair with him.
Seth aimed the Tazer at the guard across the table, out of the X5's reach— a kid barely his own age. The two darts flew and struck the young guard in the chest, the charge dropping the kid to do a twitching dance on his back on the floor.
“Fuckin' kill you!” another of the guards spat, a square-jawed probably ex-military boy, on his feet, going for his own Tazer; but then, like a jump cut in a movie, Seth was suddenly beside the guard, and triggered the weapon in the man's grasp, sending the shocking darts sailing down, sinking into the guard's own trousered leg, to convince him to do his own convulsing Riverdance before he dropped in a spasmodic heap, to duet with his twitching buddy.
Seth allowed himself a laugh at that, which may have been what sent the final guard's scare level into overdrive, inspiring the guy— another older, overweight waste of a security-guard uniform— to make a run for it.
The X5 merely walked quickly— running was not necessary— and grabbed the guy by the hair on the back of his head and guided him, face first, into the door frame. The guard dropped to his knees, a glistening red clown's nose in the midst of a pitiful expression.
The red-nosed guard wasn't unconscious, though, able to say, “Please,” before Seth put him to sleep with a right hook that caught the guard on the side of the jaw, knocking him over like a potted plant, blocking the lunchroom door.
Seth could not cover his break-in, but he could cover the reason for it, and turn this failure into a financial success, anyway.
He vaulted over the slumbering clown-nosed guard, leaving his lunchroom exit behind; he sprinted back to the stairwell and returned to the executive floor, and that hallway where he'd seen the paintings… but coming through the fire exit door, on the run, he collided with the last guard.
The two of them crashed to the floor in a mutually surprised mound of writhing flesh, each yelling angrily as they wrestled for position. Seth was stronger, of course, but the guard was wiry and young and kept his head.
The guard even managed to avoid most of Seth's blows, and surprised Seth with an elbow to his groin, which sent nausea-tinged agony through his belly, and another elbow jammed into Seth's left eye, which dazed the X5 and sent the hallway spinning.
Reaching for his Tazer, the guard struggled to his feet, and— as he freed the weapon from his belt— Seth swept his feet out from under him, and the guard landed on his ass with a hard
Tazer flying.
Seth, on his feet now, nimbly leapt out of reach when the dazed guard tried to repeat the sweeping maneuver on him.
Looking down at the fallen guard with respect, Seth asked, “Nice work— we finished here?”
The guard looked up, his eyes blinking rapidly as he tried to clear his head and understand what was happening.
“You got cuffs?” Seth asked, conversationally. “I'll cuff you and then I'm outa here.”
The guard shook his head, whether in protest or to clear the cobwebs, Seth couldn't tell. Then the guard dived at Seth, and the X5 threw a hard right down, catching the man's chin, breaking his jawbone, dropping the guy into an unconscious heap.
“That's one way to get cuffed,” Seth muttered to himself.
Now that he had the luxury of time, Seth studied the paintings; there had been no Moody in his life, and Manticore was rather light on arts training… so this X5 took down half a dozen that pleased his eye, using his switchblade to cut the canvases from their heavy frames. He rolled them up together like a carpet and took the elevator downstairs.
In the lunchroom, the guards were all still out— one or two of them might be in comas, or even dead— but Seth didn't care one way or the other. Feeling exhilarated— this had been fun!— the boy slipped out his window into the night.
LOGAN CALE'S APARTMENT
SEATTLE, WASHINGTON, 2019
Logan Cale took the computer disc from Seth, and loaded it into his computer, as the X5 filled in his benefactor on the night's adventures.
“You did what?” Logan asked.
Seth grinned, proud of himself; this was the happiest Logan had ever seen the boy.
“I made it look like a robbery,” the X5 said. “With any luck, Sterling won't even notice the breach in his computer security.”
That
smart, Logan knew; and the last time he'd dispatched Seth, homicide had happened… this was merely grand larceny, with assault and battery as a chaser. Maybe the team could work their way down to jaywalking.
Shaking his head, Logan asked, “What did you take?”
“Six paintings.”
“Where are they, Seth?”
“Trunk of my wheels… Know a good fence?”
Logan stared at Seth like the boy had gardenias growing out of his ears. “You're kidding, right? These
