The Debt Collectors War

Chapter 55

Ellie looked at Sameh, and decided their costumes were good enough. Especially if they started with the submachine guns hidden in a bag.

She looked around in the back of the SUV, and emptied out one of their smaller bags, then slipped her gun into it, to make sure it fit. It did, and there would be room for another inside too. She showed the bag to Sameh and said, “We’ll use this at the gate. I’ll go first, and then you hand me my gun once we’re in.”

Sameh nodded.

Ellie looked through the rest of their bags until she found the spare magazines and clips for the submachine guns and their sidearms. She sorted through the magazines, carefully, and picked out two of each, and held them out to Sameh.

“We should use these,” Ellie said.

Sameh looked disapproving. The top round in each magazine had a green dot on the side. That meant it was a hollow-tipped self-crumbling hostage-rescue round, bullets which broke apart inside people, so there was no chance of through-and-through wounds or through-wall woundings and bystanders like the kid getting injured.

They were a sensible choice for this situation, but even so, Ellie already knew Sameh would make a fuss.

“Please?” Ellie said.

Sameh sighed. She thought hostage-rescue rounds were boring. She liked bullets that burst inside people, or went through body armor, or ideally, which set people on fire. She was the only person Ellie knew who had actually tried to use the remote-tracking smart rounds which had been available for several years. The smart rounds never actually worked properly. The sensor packs inside the bullets were too small and delicate, and always ended up failing when they were used because of the explosive shock of the round being fired. The inbuilt sensor packs always failed, and then the smart rounds instantly became nothing more than very expensive, very unstable, and fairly ineffective inert rounds. Sameh had tried them anyway, excited, feeling quite hopeful, and had been disappointed. She had tried them again a year or so later, and still did every so often, always hopeful of some improvement, but she never had any success. Smart rounds just didn’t actually work, but Sameh hoped, because Sameh liked her ammunition fancy.

Just not the kind of fancy that was actually helpful.

Sameh sighed, and made a face, but Ellie kept holding the magazines out. “Use these,” she said. “Please.”

“Fine,” Sameh said, and took them.

“Thank you,” Ellie said, and kissed her.

Sameh shrugged, and went back to clipping equipment onto her tac armor, underneath her jacket.

Ellie tapped her comm earpiece, and spoke to the operations centre, and explained what they were doing in case they were injured or killed. She did so partly so there was some hope of rescue or recovery if things went badly wrong, but also so that the next team to come looking for the kid knew what had happened to them, if need be.

While she talked, because she suddenly thought of it, she also went over and opened the back doors of the SUV, making sure the child-locks on both doors were off again. They were, and she had thought they were, but it was best to be sure.

She finished her report, and glanced around. They had their equipment, and had done what they could to prepare.

Sameh was just standing there watching her.

That seemed to be it, Ellie thought. They seemed to be ready. She closed the back of the SUV, and then she and Sameh got back inside, awkward and a bit ungainly in their bulky armor.