Breach of Peace (The Lawful Times #0.5)(23)

It’s Chapman.

Sliding three replacement shells into her weapon, Khlid walked out into the hall and met Smits’ eyes. “Let’s move.”

The gunfire had died down, but occasionally the crashing open of a door, followed by a series of blasts, would ring out.

Khlid brought her rifle to her shoulder as she moved down the stairwell, Smits only a few steps behind. As she reached the halfway landing, Khlid leaned to see down the hall. A man sprinting in Khlid’s direction saw her officer’s coat and stumbled into reverse.

“Nope.” Khlid raised her rifle and shot the man in the right leg. He had no weapon she could see, so she spared his life.

Down the hall, Khlid heard, “Stay down!” Samuel’s voice. A shot rang out.

“Let’s move.”

Smits nodded.

Khlid tied the wrists of the man she had shot. He was no threat, but it was procedure to tie up everyone found on the scene of a raid.

At the end of a long hall, Khlid and Smits came to a thick metal door. Fortunately, whoever Khlid had shot in the leg had latched it from this side. With a simple twist of the lock, the door swung open.

Six officers and Samuel met them on the other side with rifles pointed. As soon as recognition flashed between them, all rifles were brought up.

They were all in the main storage area of the warehouse. Countless barrels and crates lined the walls, separated into stacks by shape and size. Each stack was made uniformly of one type of container. It caused the room to have a disorienting effect: a series of miniature mountains, each composed of identical casks, urns, or baskets; each stacked pristinely, yet asymmetrically, like some kind of cubic alien topography.

A circle of five prisoners, all tied, were watched over by Sam’s team.

Samuel approached her. “Are you okay?”

“Yes. You?”

“Unharmed.” Samuel let out a shaking breath. “We have one dead and one injured. I left Franklin to watch over them.”

Khlid noticed more officers making their way through the man-made mountains. “All accounted for, then?”

“I ordered the other two breaching teams to sweep. I assume no more where you came from?”

She nodded. “Two tied up. Management, I believe. One dead. Any word on what the firing out back was about?”

Samuel shook his head. “We just finished up when you got here. We killed seven. One sweep done and none found hiding, but I’m not satisfied.” He turned to his assembled officers. “James, Belinda, Marcus, go make contact with the team out back. Tell them to make a complete perimeter.”

The three nodded and jogged towards the back of the warehouse.

“Samuel, what do you make of this?” Khlid could not shake a feeling they were overlooking something desperately obvious.

Thunder boomed outside. Rain clattered softly, continuously, on Warehouse Two’s tin roof.

Sam grabbed Khlid’s shoulder and lowered his tone. “This was M.O.D. No question. But they weren’t wearing uniforms.” He stared at the nearest mountain of wares. “Damned if I know what we’re looking for. But we have to open up everything we can and secure anything that looks halfway like evidence before our ‘backup’ arrives.”

Khlid stared hard at the inscrutable labyrinth of containers. To one side, a line of wagons loaded with barrels. “Agreed.” Khlid called, “Ekris, crowbar, now.”

A woman walked over and passed Khlid the bar. Khlid approached the wagons, inspecting the wood of the barrels loaded upon them. Obviously newer than the rest. Khlid climbed the front wagon and placed the crowbar at the lip of the closest barrel.

This is it. Whatever it is we came here for, it has to be in here.

A gunshot rang out from the back of the warehouse. A single cry. Deafening silence.

Samuel took action. “On me!”

Samuel’s six remaining officers formed up behind him, smoothly fanning out into a “V” shape.

Khlid stayed on the wagon and brought her rifle to her shoulder yet again.

A tremendous crash came from the far end of the warehouse, and another series of shots.

“What is happening?” Khlid called. “Marcus, report!”

Only silence. Several beats passed.

Atop a high stack, a barrel wobbled over, then fell. It smashed into others on its descent, creating in short order a cacophonous avalanche, louder than thunder. Several officers lowered their rifles and attempted to cover their ears.

Sam turned to give orders to his team.

Movement caught Khlid’s eye. “Sam!”

Her warning came just in time. Sam dropped to his belly and narrowly dodged a mass of something flying through the air. It struck a wagon further down the line from Khlid. The wood of the wagon cracked with the impact, and the mass—the limp body of an officer—fell to the floor.

As the body came to rest, Khlid identified the officer: Franklin. His face looked as if a sledgehammer had been taken to it.

“Officers of the law interfering with Imperial business?” The voice was liquid, yet sharp. A serpent’s hiss. Khlid could assign no age or gender to it. All she knew was it sounded like death.

A figure all in black emerged from behind a stack of crates. She trained her rifle and called out to Sam, “At your two o’clock.”

Samuel regained his feet and every officer made a firing line, half of them dropping to one knee.