Clockwork

A high-tech raid on a secluded mansion goes horribly wrong when the would-be thieves discover a family secret that is more than they can handle.

Date: 20 Feb. 3301

Place: Priscilla`s Cross, Vega.

The black van sped along the busy pass towards the filthy rich suburb known as the Cross, its signal was carefully masked, no one would know it had passed within kilometers of where it was now. Inside the van was crammed with sophisticated equipment, hot and otherwise, against one side hung five state of the art electronic fully automatic C-576 pulse rifle, one for each of the vans occupants.

There were no windows save the windscreen and no functioning air vent made the van hot and stuffy inside, Loe felt uncomfortable, one of his feet had fallen asleep. He peered around at the other four men to see if they showed any discomfort themselves, they were men who he had never seen, who he had never met, who he did not know and who he had worked with for six years. The carefully glued on masks they all wore weren`t expensive enough to betray the facial expression of the wearer underneath, they always wore masks, to hide their identity from each other and the law.

Loe`s own mask pulled at his face, it had been glued there fifteen minutes ago and was just beginning to dry. It also itched, Loe scratched at an itch just under the edge of the mask and it peeled off. He grabbed a hand mirror and applying more glue, he stuck it back down.

`Two minute warning.` The man in the driver seat called, he operated under the alias of `Moe` when the group was at work. Loe, also an alias, looked at the stalwart fellow driving, a man he had never met but he felt as close to him as anybody he did know.

The others, Nurse, Joe and Tech, all false names, began to gather their equipment for the approaching job, Loe followed suit. First, he picked up all the surveillance busting gear, a hoop to detect traceables, a laser cutter, a can of aerosol paint and even a pair of glasses that saw interior alarms through walls and floors. Then he strapped a collapsible trolley to his back and finally unclipping his gun from the rack and carefully checking it over. He did this with Moe`s gun too. Moe was too busy driving.

`Here we are.` Moe announced triumphantly as he brought the van to a halt outside an ornate front door. Loe took a deep breath, the tension he felt before a mission built up a usual, but why should it? This gang was the most prepared than any other group in this line of business, they painstakingly monitored the targets movements for months in advance, their phone calls, their personal journal entry's, their planner, everything. This time, Tech claimed the parents of the huge mansion had left for a Saturday night at the opera, leaving their eleven year old daughter in the care of a baby sitter currently attending high school. Loe had no reason to doubt Tech`s information, he had been right in over a hundred other missions.

The van doors were opened and the five jumped out with Loe in the lead, they ran to the securely locked door. First Loe sprayed thick black paint on the lens of the computer controlled camera situated above the door, now he had thirty seconds before it contacted the police automatically. This brand of cameras were top of the line, having a setup where circuits vital to the action of opening a door would be destroyed by cutting the cover open, one way to avoid this is to drill a tiny hole and using a small claw, disengage these parts from the danger areas, unfortunately even the best take about half an hour to perform the operation. Instead, Loe drew the laser cutter and swiftly cut a square hole into the unit, amid jagged metal and fried electronics lay the CPU of the camera, Loe stepped away to let Tech in, the expert in camera trashing. Pulling out replacement parts from several pockets and fitting them in place he allowed the door to open at the touch of a button, it did, with five seconds to spare.

At eight o`clock and twenty five seconds stage one was complete, Loe breathed a sigh of relief, it was all going to plan. Clockwork.

Loe dropped the laser cutter and all the other camera busting gear next to the door as he drew the equipment for the next stage. Spray-can in one hand and gun slung over his shoulder, he flipped down the glasses and they switched on automatically, the giant entrance hall was revealed all in green with a few patches of fuzzy white spread around, this showed electric fields and magnetic fields, thus revealing security devices.

Carefully scrutinizing the entire room, Loe searched for signals resembling movement detectors, electronic eyes and pressure sensors in the floors, the only patches of white in this room were the wiring to the lights, and the power to the door camera.

Up the grand stairway, nothing. Down the hall that was the most direct route to the control room, ( according to the council plans of the mansion, Tech had got,) nothing. At the end of the hall Loe clearly saw the tell tale fuzzy white grid on the ground in front of them, he took off the glasses to study the expensive white carpet, it looked just like any normal part of the floor, but the glasses knew better. Shaking the can of paint vigorously, Loe sprayed thick black lines around the parameter of the pressure pad to give the others an accurate idea of where it was. Carefully they side stepped the black box on the carpet and continued on their way.

The control room was fairly standard for this type of mansion, the phone lines went through this room just as all the security was controlled by this point. There was one computer terminal and the rest of the walls were covered with monitors, some double dimensional, some single. They were all displaying various camera angles and other sensor status. Tech shrugged off all the gear he was holding and began work on the terminal, the others watched on expectant silence. Finally he stood up and circled the bench, removing the cover on the back he surveyed the mess of cables and cords behind, selecting a few wires he smoothly severed them in a matter of seconds, then stood up.

`The security system for this house is down.` He announced and the other four filed out leaving him to watch the entrances by camera for any unexpected returns of the parents.

Moe, Joe and Nurse with Loe in the lead walked down the hall relaxed. They maintained radio contact with a receiver that fit in ones ear with a small arm to hold a minuscule microphone in front of the mouth. Loe heard Tech`s voice clearly: `I've cut the phone lines, we're in the clear for a couple of hours.`

With that in mind the four moved towards a specific target, the games room. According to the security monitors that was where the babysitter and the girl were watching a movie.

Beth looked around the games room. The movie was boring and she had begun to look for other things to do. Polo, the babysitter didn't look real gripped by the movie either, turning her attention more to the homework spread out on her lap and the couch around her. On the side table next to Beth`s chair there sat a wooden box that Polo had brought with her, it was really heavy and inside it was a jumble of pens and pencils and tapes and books and text disks and all sorts of junk Polo once claimed she needed for high school. If high school meant you had to drag around a box as heavy as that, Beth knew she didn't want to go there.

Suddenly the room was full of men carrying huge guns pointing them right at her, she dropped the box and it hit the floor with a clatter from its contents inside. The men told her to get up and stand against a wall, she was assured that if she didn't try to escape she would be alright. The whole operation was so fast, Beth had no time to think she could only do as the men told her and watch where the guns were pointed. It was a few moments before Beth`s heart stopped pounding so hard and she realized Polo was standing next to her, she grabbed Polo`s hand tightly and noticed Polo`s grip was just as fierce.

One of the men said aloud: `Stage two done. It`s all going like clockwork.`

He and two others stood up and left the room without another word, leaving the last to watch the two prisoners standing by the wall, he wasn't pointing the gun at them but looked ready for anything. Suddenly Polo spoke.

`What do you want with us?` she stammered tightening her grip on Beth`s hand.

`Oh, nothing with you.` he said, his face didn't quite look real, his eyes were slightly sunken and as he spoke only his mouth moved, there were no cheek movements, no eyebrow movement, nothing. `You are only hostages, we are only crooks stealing the stuff in your house to make a living.`

Moe strolled along the halls of the huge house, this looked as good as any place to start, he took the collapsible trolley off his back and set it up. Wheeling it into a room he picked up a portable sound system looking over for engravings then using the hoop he scanned it for traceables - small beacons that police can home in on when such a device is reported stolen,- the detector hoop showed nothing. He looked around the room, it seemed to be the little girls room and the only other piece of electronics visible was a computer built into the desk, Moe left to look for easier pickings.

The mansion was four leveled and the top floor was very strange, it showed no signs of being lived in and there was a lot of medical equipment lying around, some of the stuff looked real expensive.

`Hey Tech, does a doctor live here?` He asked into the radio.

`No, why?`came the puzzled reply. Techs voice was breaking up. Something was interfering with the radio.

`Well there seems to be a lot of medical stuff lying about, pretty expensive looking too.`

`Yeah? Great. Just don't get any yet, some of that is real delicate, well all come up and pack it carefully before we go.`

`Ok. Out.`

`Out.

Further on there was what seemed to be a laboratory with one entire wall a window to another room...

Suddenly Moe felt a wrenching pain in his back, then out of his chest emerged a jagged piece of metal pulling with it indescribable pieces of flesh and a river of blood, a warm sticky liquid came bubbling up from his throat and filled his mouth, the smell and taste of blood overloaded his senses. He vaguely felt himself being lifted off the ground by the piece of metal, he tried to twist around to catch a glimpse of who was doing this before he faded into oblivion...

You wanna sit down?` Polo jerked herself out of the fear induced trance at the sound of the guards voice. She looked up to see him holding two chairs up questioningly, his gun was slung over his shoulder and for a fleeting moment she considered rushing him while he was only half armed. Before she could formulate an attack plan he had placed the two chairs just in reach and the gun was once again in his hands. The moment had passed.

Slowly, so as not to get the man`s trigger finger itchy, she leaned over and picked up the light plastic green chairs that normally sat under Beth`s old tea party table in the corner of the room. The two sank gratefully onto the barely thirty centimeter high chairs, not realizing until now how tired their legs had grown in the tense preceding minutes.

The adrenalin still pumped through Polo`s veins furiously, never before had she been so scared, never before had her life been in danger. Of coarse she heard all sorts of true stories and news reports of people being in danger and dying from bomb blasts and hostage crisis, but never had she, Polo, had a gun pointed at her with the welder having a real intent to kill. Then at once all sorts of ideas flooded her mind, what could four armed men do with a young woman they had taken prisoner? murder? rape? There were criminals about who would do the same to Beth without batting an eyelid.

Polo knew what she had to do, for herself and Beth, she had to somehow overpower the man standing guard- or even better knock him unconscious and escape out of the house before the others returned. He, the guard, had lost interest in guarding and was paying more attention to the last minutes of the movie that still played. She bent down next to Beth`s ear and whispered:

`When I say now, scream as loud as you can.` Beth`s barely perceptible nod gave her all the courage she needed to go through with the plan, did Beth see any good in it or was she just trusting to the elder`s judgment? Polo eyed the heavy pen box doubtfully.

Joe hated standing to watch the prisoners, it was a long, boring, job. He would much rather be out collecting the goods, pushing his trolley around the ornate halls as if he was shopping for groceries, but in reality he was shopping for a career, Black market art dealer or Jewelry seller, Electrical goods supplier or Bringer of second hand mink and ermine, or all of the above if you wanted to...

`Hey, Tech,` Loe`s voice came clearly over the radio. `Would it be too much trouble to jump on that computer of yours and see if this painting, a.....Burl......`Bottomless pit` currently resides here?`

`Okie-dokie,` Joe heard typing behind Tech`s voice. `Oh yes, what you are looking at, is an original indeed.`

`Shame, it looked pretty good too, out.`

`Yeah, out.` Tech laughed.

Joe had actually seen Burl`s `Bottomless pit`, well a print actually, it was a shame that selling stolen original paintings always ended in getting caught, what with modern police methods these days so originals were always left hanging. As a matter of fact this group had been dubbed the `Art Haters` by the police investigators because of this practice. Loe never really figured out a proper name for the group and let it remain as Art Haters but Joe thought something to do with the aliases would be much better. Joe, Loe and Moe were named after the Friday night slapstick comedy trio: Bunkum Brothers, but that was kind of tacky for this gang and Joe often spent a late night trying to figure out a name with any style.

`Hey Loe,` Nurse.

`Yes Nurse.` Loe replied.

`I`m tired.`

`So?`

`Just thought Id let you know.` Nurse finished.

`We've only been going for thirty minutes.` Joe broke in.

`And how do you know?` Loe demanded.

`Because I only got to see the last half hour of this movie.` Joe looked at the credits rolling up the screen.

`Oh no, he's watching television again.` Nurse stressed the again.

`So?` Joe inquired.

`Well it would be great to come back and find our prisoners had escaped because our illustrious guard was watching TV.` Loe answered reasonably,`I mean looking the other way is fine, so is being asleep outside the door, but watching television is really pushing the baddie cliche.`

`Hey, I've got everything under control.` Joe assured Loe, glancing at the girls to make sure they hadn't actually escaped while he was talking, they were still sitting on those green chairs he gave them, staring at him.

`I don't want to break into your delightful conversation but I still am tired.` Nurse reminded them.

`And I already told you is too early to be tired.` Joe talked back.

`Hey, I am the medical expert around here.` Nurse asserted, It was true of coarse, that was why his alias was `Nurse`. It was was also the case with Tech who was the electronics wizard.

`Hey guys have you heard from Moe recently?` Loe spoke up suddenly.

`No, his signal stopped coming through a while back.` Tech said.

`Probably switched off cause you talk too much.` Nurse laughed.

`No as a matter of fact he went up to the top floor which is fully shielded.` Tech disagreed. `Nothing can penetrate it, radio, microwave, infrared, ultraviolet, x rays, Im sure its the same with gamma rays but I don't have a receiver here. Anyway, there is nothing that I or anybody could use to spy on that area.`

`Why would anybody want to pay so much money to hide the contents of someplace in your own house?` Loe wondered.

`I don't know, Moe said there was a lot of medical equipment before he broke up, hell be down soon with all the facts.`

`Yeah well, I have a date with a Very big stereo in the living room.` Loe prepared to switch off.

`And I have very important things to watch on this wide screen stereo triple dimension television.` Joe laughed, checking again the prisoners were where they should be.

`OK guys,` Nurse said. `I`m out.`

`Yeah out.`

`Out.`

`Out.`

Joe switched off the radio and repositioned himself so he could see the TV. better, but keeping a watchful eye on the ladies against the wall. His gun was relaxed in his hands but pointed in the general direction of the pair, there was nothing they could do in the tiny fraction of time it took to raise the weapon and shoot.

The show that came on after the movie was a cartoon but incredibly funny, it started when a tiny white dog gave a bunch of flowers to a huge blue cat, which of coarse squirted water into the cats face. The cat then pulled an eight foot mallet out of his top pocket and hit the dog across the room as if it was cricket, the dog hit the wall with a cymbal sound and sat there reverberating for a while. As he sat there, the camera angle panned up to reveal a grand piano hanging on a rope which of coarse frayed and broke. Needless to say, the dog was underneath.

Joe pulled his attention away from the show to look at the pair, the older froze in the act of bending down near the little girl, probably comforting her, they both looked too scared to move.

Meanwhile, the little white dog had got up in the fashion one does when one has been hit by a piano and is as flat as a leaf. He staggered over to a conveniently nearby gas tank and began to inflate himself, unfortunately the tank was labeled `Helium` and immediately the dog began to talk in incredibly high tones just before he floated away...

Suddenly the little girl screamed at a shockingly ear piercing pitch, Joe`s mind was immediately alert, he gripped the gun and pointed it at her threateningly, but then he saw the dark shape heading his way from the babysitters direction, It was too late, he squeezed the trigger.

Beth, at Polo`s signal had clamped her hands over her ears and screamed as loud as she had ever in her life before and the man pointed the gun in her direction only for a moment before the man saw the heavy box of pencils thrown by Polo arcing towards him. The gun shook as a strange throbbing noise came out and the box exploded sending debris all over the room. Beth looked at Polo who was not moving but terribly pale, she fell to her knees. In a shocking realization Beth knew the bullets from the gun had blown through the box and hit Polo standing behind.

Loe heard what sounded like a silenced gun going off, all their guns were silenced. Suddenly he heard a panicky Joe come on loud:

`Nurse, help, Ive shot one.`

Loe and Nurse arrived at the games room at the same time, Tech was still in the control room but listened in, Moe was still off the air.

`Help her Nurse.` Joe cried as Nurse bent over the babysitter checking for vital signs, `She cant die. I...I cant kill someone.` Joe was visibly shaking.

`I`m sorry,` Nurse straightened. `She's dead.`

Beth sat in the corner of the room as far away from the lifeless Polo as possible, she eyed the blanket that covered what was only minutes ago standing and talking and smiling and breathing and...

Oh no, Beth wrung her hands and whispered meaningless phrases to herself, she curled up and buried her face in her hands, she hugged herself in a desperate attempt to shut out what had only just occurred.

Beth looked up and saw three of the men were talking and arguing, the man who had stood guard and shot Polo was shaking and crying out to the others:

`Come on we must leave, this has gone all wrong. I cant stay here.` He said.

`I agree,` Said another. `We've got all the good stuff in the entrance lets just load up and go as soon as possible.`

The third considered thoughtfully. `Ok,` He cocked his head in a way that indicated he was trying to listen. `Moe? Moe. Turn on the radio, Moe.` He looked at the others. `He's still off air. Nurse, you just stay here and check for any evidence it was us who robbed the house, be especially careful.` He indicated the dead body. `Joe, you come with me and we`ll look for Moe.`

Loe reflected bitterly on the death of the babysitter, everything had gone wrong after it happened, Nurse obviously abhorred killing and he, in his underspoken solemn way fumed underneath and pointed invisible fingers of blame with his eyes. That didn't help Joe who had fallen to pieces since the accident, it was clear Loe would have to keep those two apart if he wanted to prevent any more mistakes. It was even an option to consider disbanding the group after this night.

The forth floor was quite strange, not decorated as the rest of the house was, there was plenty of medical equipment lying around as Tech said earlier. Tech`s and Nurse`s conversation crackled off as Loe and Joe went further into the laboratory like rooms, Loe looked around at the strange surroundings, this was definitely out of place on the top floor of a mansion. Joe had gone on ahead, Loe looked at the machines, a hand held cat scan device, an upright trolley that looked like it was built to restrain a very small person, a...

`Oh s**t...` Joe`s voice from the other room broke off. `I think you better see this Loe.`

Loe and Joe dragged the dead Moe into the games room leaving a trail of blood in his wake. Nurse was in the act of scanning the television for traceables, he froze.

`What...what the hell happened?` He finally choked out.

`This weren't no accident.` Loe reported firmly. `He was murdered.`

The little girl gasped when she saw the jagged piece of metal jutting out of the second body in the room. Moe was covered in his own blood but his eyes were still wide open. Nurse dragged the body over next to the babysitter and covered both bodies with the blanket, it wasn't quite large enough and Moe`s hand poked out from underneath showing a broken and cracked watch spattered with blood.

Loe strode over to the little girl and grabbed her arms so she would face him, her gaze would not be torn away from the telltale shapes under the blanket.

`What do you know about this?` He demanded. The girl only kept staring at the body's and murmured to herself. Loe shook her a little to force her to look at him. `What is on the top floor? what is all that stuff? why is it there?` he asked with a less threatening voice.

`M..My brother.` she got out.

`What?`

`My brother lives there.` she repeated.

`She lies.` Tech who was listening on the radio stated. `These records show her only brother died three years ago, at thirteen years of age.`

`Your brother is dead.` Loe said to the girl.

`No.` she disagreed, `Daddy wanted everyone to think that after he killed a whole lot of people, daddy kept him here, locked up.`

`Yes!` Nurse exclaimed. `The Salton mall killings three years ago, witnesses that survived said he was a very small person, and the report said he died in the resulting police shoot out. This must have been who it was.`

Loe did remember hearing about it, but there was something strange about the killings that Loe couldn't quite remember and it nagged at him.

`Lets get out now.` Joe cried, `This guys a psycho and he took on Moe fully armed with only a piece of metal.`

`He's right.` Loe decided. `Tech,` speaking into the radio, `pack up, were leaving, now.`

`Ok.`

Walking down the halls towards the control room was nervous. A psychotic killer was on the loose in the house, he had killed once and if the past was anything to go by, he didn't stop at one.

`Everything going to plan?` Loe checked up on Tech.

`Sure is,` He assured, `I just have to check...` He stopped.

`Whats the matter?` Loe demanded.

`Dunno, this front door control isn't working, I cant get the b*****d open.` Tech exclaimed.

`Sabotaged?` Nurse asked calmly.

`Could be.`

`Well the laser cutter is still sitting next to the door,` Loe noted, `We`ll get out the way we got in.`

`Ok.` Tech sounded dubious. `I`ll just keep working on it from... HOLY SHI....`

`What?` Loe broke into a run towards the control room. The only sounds coming over the radio was a dull crunch and a clatter that sounded like a roll of wire had hit the floor, then another crunch, and another, crashing, and then nothing.

Loe reached the door, it was locked. Summoning all his strength, he kicked the door squarely next to the doorknob to reveal Tech sprawled over the console, blood from numerous gaping wounds, ran down the desk and dripped into a pool on the floor. There was no sign of the killer.

Joe looked in and gagged. Nurse came in and drew a deep breath. `Time of death, twenty five minutes past nine.` He said.

Beth looked around the deserted games room, the two bodies lay there silent, patient, waiting. Beth hugged herself tighter as if it might protect her should the dead people rise up and walk towards her, she sat there listening, they lay there listening. She had to get out but her legs wouldn't move, her arms would not propel her to a standing position, all she could do was sit and look around her, what was worse, out there with her brother or in here with the bodies.

Then her eye caught the dim shape of the phone on the wall, could she phone the police? could she bear to sit and wait for help? in here? Beth looked at the phone, she concentrated, she had to get up and just walk to the phone.

Pushing up with her arms she stood and took a few shaky steps, to get to the phone she had to walk past the bodies. She kept going. As she neared the blanket she pressed herself against the wall so to get as far away as possible, she pushed past and almost fell the rest of the way in her rush to get away. The receiver was in her hand and she backed against the wall so she could see the bodies, she pressed the `Emergency` button and.... nothing. No sound, the screen was black, there were no standby lights, the phone had been cut off.

Beth had heard on the news and from pieces of conversation between her parents and the doctors that she wasn`t supposed to hear that during the Salton mall incident he had programmed the entrances to shut everyone in and cut off all the communication in or out, if he had done it here, they were done for.

Beth heard noise outside and ducked behind the couch before whoever it was saw her. In strode three of the men dragging another inside, also dead. She gasped at the horrific wounds and they saw her.

The three sat at a table and said nothing, one toyed with a small knife, another cradled his head in his hands, finally the third spoke:

`There has to be another way out.` He turned to Beth. `Do you know of any ways out other than the main doors?`

She shook her head, there were none that she knew of.

The one with the knife exclaimed: `Damn! we need that laser cutter. How would he know we needed it?` he turned to her, `Would there be any sort of tools in the house somewhere?`

She nodded `In the storeroom.`

Beth led the way to the storeroom, all three left alive came along to avoid splitting the group up, they had their guns ready but they weren`t pointed at Beth. The storeroom was cool and musty and full of things Beth`s family never used, the tool rack on the wall held only simple things, screwdrivers, hammers and wrenches but the drawers underneath held larger items. The men pulled them all out, cataloging, discarding, choosing, the tall man who acted like the leader exclaimed:

`Damn, no power saw, no cutter, nothing.`

`We have an arc welder though,` another said, `We could try using that to get through to the door CPU.`

`No.` The first disagreed, `That would really damage the circuitry and we don't have replacement parts this time.`

`Well lets just take all this stuff and go back to the games room, that's the most defensible room.`

Loe looked at Nurse who was speaking, `We need to know who we are up against.`

`How do we do that?` Joe asked raising his head up from the table.

`We have to go to where the laboratory was and search the records, they might have put down what he does, his habits, even weak points in his methods.`

`Its all we have.` Loe agreed, he turned to the girl, `Stay here, we wont be long.`

The lab was deserted. Nurse sat down at a computer terminal and logged in, `You two look in the cell, look for, say, sketches or something.`

The cell was lined with a strange material, a smooth white fabric and if you looked closer you could see fine bare wires woven in. `Electrified.` Joe said almost to himself.

`When we cut the power to the surveillance circuit, it must have malfunctioned and turned off the power to the cell, that is how he escaped.

`Guys,` Nurse called out, `The records are in a safe in the next room, I`m just going to get them, keep looking around.` The sound of his footsteps became fainter as he left.

Loe looked at the desk by the hard bed, there were heaps of sketches laid out, some were pictures of calm scenic views by the water or in the country, something unexpected of someone who could kill so ruthlessly. Other drawings were of the human body, muscle cross sections, bone structure the teeth against the skull and jaw bone. There were even a few sketches that were unidentifiable whichever way you turned them...

`AAAAAARGH!` The blood curdling cry came from the direction Nurse went in search of the records, Loe and Joe grabbed their guns and ran to try and help.

Loe rounded the corner first and there he was, standing over the dead Nurse, barely a man, barely human, he was terribly white with huge dark circles under his eyes, he was not thin but wiry, having an awesome agility and sense of strength, he was in the act of ripping up the last disk. Loe aimed the gun but the boy was gone, disappeared. He cursed, and ran under the hole in the ceiling that the psycho killer had leaped up with no difficulty but all he could see was blackness.

The clock on the wall clearly read 10:25.

Only two men returned this time and Beth could see the fearful expressions on both of their faces, they paid no attention to her whatsoever, they sat at the table and said nothing, it was clear that they were the only ones left.

Loe stared at the gun in front of him, it was ages ago he had chose that gun, it was only to use to keep prisoners at bay and for emergencies, he looked at Joe`s gun, almost the same model but lighter, it had less magazines, four to Loe`s seven, would the extra weight be the reason for his own death? He had not really expected to use up seven magazines of ammunition on one night, and if he needed to, would the gun work properly, would the empty magazine drop off and make room for the next to run down its track and fall in place ready for use in the half second the black market dealer promised? Or would it stall Loe long enough to allow the boy to get through? It was strange how these sort of coincidences popped up all the time, Loe tried to change the subject in his mind, Tech dying at nine twenty five and Nurse dying at ten twenty five....

Suddenly Loe remembers what was strange about the Salton mall killings, someone was killed on the hour, every hour. Loe leaped to the dead Moe and looked at the broken watch, destroyed when he was killed, it read twenty minutes past eight.

`Joe.` Loe felt weak. `one of us is going to die at twenty five past eleven.`

`We have to get out of here!` Joe almost screamed.

`How?` Loe yelled back, `He has us trapped, we have to fight.`

`There's no way. He doesn't use guns and still he has killed three of our men.`

`That's because he was prepared, he set up ambushes and came out from behind, we have to set up an ambush for him.` Loe stated.

`Where?`

`This is the only place.` Loe indicated the games room, there is only one door in or out.`

`He`ll have us trapped!`

`No way, when the twenty five minute deadline comes around, he will have to come in and look for us, and we`ll be ready, we know when he is going to attack.`

`And then what?` Joe asked calming down somewhat.

`We shoot him as he tries to get in the door.`

`And if he decides to wait outside the door?`

`We wait inside.` Loe declared.

Twenty three minutes past eleven and all was silent. Loe and Joe had cleared all the furniture away from near the door and pushed the couch so it faced the door, in that position they could steady their weapons on the top of the couch and use it as a sort of shield should the killer decide to use projectiles this time.

Twenty four minutes past eleven and still silence, the two focused all their attention on the only door to the room. The only way an attack could be made is if he ran in here so fast there was no time to react and jumped over for most of the way so the pair would have to readjust their aim in which time it would be too late, it would take an extremely fast runner and an extraordinary jumper to complete that sort of feat, but Loe braced himself should he need to point the gun up in a short time anyway.

Twenty five minutes past eleven and nothing, no movement, no sound... wait, a scratchy noise from somewhere, not the door, but... Suddenly Joe was lifted off his feet, he dropped his gun and was clawing at his neck, the killer had draped a loop of wire around Joe`s neck and was hauling him into the ceiling. Loe ran under trying to do something but nothing could be done, Joe disappeared into the hole in the ceiling though the noise of his struggling continued, abruptly, it stopped. A stream of blood soaked through a seam in the ceiling.

`B*****d!` Loe screamed and opened fire on the ceiling, spraying it constantly, riddling the white surface with gaping holes. Then the stream of fire stopped, the emptied magazine fell out and the next in line clicked in, the shooting began immediately until that magazine was empty, half a second later the third was in use, then the forth, then the fifth but Loe didn't care, all he wanted to do was nail this guy. Suddenly the fiery rain upon the ceiling stopped forever as the seventh magazine fell to the floor empty.

The last man stood looking into space for what seemed to be hours, the gun that had run out of bullets fell from his limp hand, he dropped to his knees and cradled his head in his hands, muttering something Beth couldn't quite hear. Finally he looked up around him, at the hole in the ceiling, the clock on the wall, the door, Beth and then the camera jutting out of the top corner of the room.

`So thats how he knows where we are.` He exclaimed. `The damn cameras.`

He picked up a spraycan, shook it, and sprayed thick black paint all over the camera lens, he left the room and Beth could hear him do the same to the camera in the hall, it seemed he was going to do as many cameras as he could before twelve twenty five. Suddenly he ran back inside and picked up the smaller gun the other guy had dropped when he was attacked, then he ran back out, maybe he was going to spray every camera in the house, Beth supposed it was possible. The man's footsteps sounded further and further of, now Beth was alone again.

Beth read the clock, twelve twenty. The man had not returned, maybe he had decided to hide somewhere in the large mansion hoping her brother went for Beth first, she should start thinking of better places to hide than the games room, with the hole in the roof and all, maybe she could lock herself in the toilet and hope he doesn't find her. Beth heard foot steps outside the room and hid behind the table, it was the man.

He grabbed her arm, `We have to go.` He propelled her along the hall with the gun in one hand and Beth`s arm in the other, he walked so fast Beth had to run to keep up and now and then she tripped, he just held her aloft by the arm until she got her footing. His grip hurt her arm.

If he planned to use her as a bargaining tool, it wouldn't work, she hadn't seen her brother in years and the doctor`s reports said he held no love for his family. If the man planned to use her as a human shield, throw her at the wolves in hope that he might be satisfied with one death in the hour then she was done for anyway.

The man took her to the entrance hall, a huge grand staircase ran down to a polished floor. This was the most dressed up and least used room in the entire house, now however it was covered with all the electronics and artworks and other expensive things the five men had stolen. Beth had a terrible feeling she was going to die very soon.

The man looked at his watch. `Its time where are you?` The entrance was a good choice for a stand, being a good two stories high there was no way to hang him like the last attack, to attack in this case one would have to either come in through the ground floor doors and run across clear floor for about twenty meters or enter by the first floor doors and run down the grand staircase being in sight all the way, there was a good chance he would get shot attacking, unless he thought of a better way to attack.

The wall clock flashed onto twenty five past. Suddenly a blur dropped from the chandelier into the centre of the room, it was him. The man pushed Beth back, not forwards and stood in front of her in a protective manner and took aim.

In one hand the psycho killer held a huge hooked club commonly used in sport, on the other, a thirty centimeter iron bar. As Loe took aim he threw the iron bar in a smooth underhand throw, before Loe squeezed the trigger the bar landed on target, with a scream of tortured metal the second last magazine in Joe`s gun snapped off, but not cleanly. The boy took the hooked club in both hands and began charging Loe. Loe, was trying to get the next magazine into place but small parts of metal remained in the mechanism preventing the operation to take place.

Suddenly the club was swinging towards him and holding the muzzle of the silencer Loe smashed it away but he swing too wide and wasn't fast enough in coming out of the swing, the boy was, bringing around the club a much more appropriately weighted weapon for swinging he landed the club with a severe crunch into Loe`s arm. Crying out in pain Loe deflected the next shot and the next but didn't have enough time to counter attack.

Loe realized the boy was between him and the little girl, he had to get the fight away, carefully he backed off. The boy still attacked ferociously, spinning and attacking, Loe deflected that and threw the butt of the bun into the killers face, he hardly flinched. Loe felt the first step under his foot and began to climb the grand staircase backwards deflecting the deadly swings of the club.

The boy swung with the club again which Loe deflected with the gun but this time he also kicked at Loe`s face stunning him momentarily and sending the gun spinning over the side of the banister to clatter on the polished floor below, Loe was thrown against the banister and he saw the gun land so far away with chagrin, the next blow would be the last.

Loe saw as the gun land it sat at an angle as if partly lying on a out of place bump, the jammed magazine, then it fell flat with a click. The gun was operational again.

The boy swung and Loe kicked at it diverting its trajectory so it swung wide only glancing his already wounded shoulder. Loe ignored the pain as he vaulted the banister and jumped to ground level, his eyes were on the gun as he tried to jump out as far as he could, when he hit the ground his foot rolled out from under him in a sickening twist and he hit the ground a meter short of the gun. Behind, the boy fell expertly to the ground in a crouch.

Using one leg and his arms Loe propelled himself at the gun hoping to get there before the boy reached him, he felt the cool metal in his hands, gripped the hand positions, had his finger in the trigger guard... Suddenly the madman was upon him and they struggled for control, Loe twisted around and opened fire...

Beth watched the two grapple for control of the gun, suddenly there was a volley of shots ringing out and blood sprayed out, both stopped moving. One raised himself above the other, it was the man.

The control room stank of blood, the man had led her here wordlessly, holding her hand rather than her arm he walked around the blood spattered console and repaired some wires.

`What`s your name?` He asked.

`Beth.`

He came around the console and said. `I`m sorry.` before picking up the phone and pressing the emergency button. Beth watched him leave in silence as the tinny voice of the operator broke the silence:

`Hello? hello?....`