The Debt Collectors War

Chapter 62

Ellie moved.

She went sideways along the fence, moving quickly, first going behind some crates, then an old shipping container, and then the nearest of the buildings. Sameh followed, staying carefully behind Ellie, watching Ellie’s back and staying out of Ellie’s line of sight, ready to tidy up after Ellie as they moved.

The most important thing was to be away from the gate, Ellie thought. She wanted to be out of sight, and fairly hidden, at least until the sensor net began to work and she knew where all the militia were.

The amount of noise in the compound was increasing. The amount of confusion was too. The shots and screams at the gate had drawn attention. People had begun coming out of the buildings to see what was happening, and shouting to one another, raising the alarm.

It was all starting to become quite chaotic.

Ellie was pleased. Chaos would help them. Now that they were inside the gate, chaos was actually useful. If the kid was here, and still alive, the sensor net would be operational in a moment, and looking for him. It would find secure rooms, rooms with thicker walls and no windows, and rooms which still had people inside them. Since they were going to look for that combination particularly, occupied rooms with thick walls, it was useful to cause as much chaos now as possible, so as many people as were able went outside to see what was happening. Then, in a few moments, when the sensor net became active, anyone still left in such a room would be far more obvious. And then, Ellie and Sameh would go the doors of those rooms and look to see who was actually inside.

Chaos would help with finding the kid, and it would also help keep the kid alive. Confusion kept everyone off balance. It stopped people from making decisions, and implementing plans, and it ought to keep the militia from panicking too much, too. At the moment the militia knew something had happened, but probably no-one yet knew quite what. Probably, this didn’t yet seem like an organized attack, to the militia. Not without helicopters or armoured vehicles or thirty-person assault teams anywhere nearby.

For now it wasn’t an attack. For now it was just confusion. And for the time being, confusion was good, because once someone decided this was an attack, they might also decide to kill their hostage. But for now, there were no sensible reason to, not until what was actually happening became clear.

If the kid was here, and alive, which Ellie very much doubted, then she and Sameh could very likely get to him before the militia got around to deciding to execute anyone.

If the kid was here.

Which Ellie was almost certain he wasn’t.

It didn’t especially change her plan, either way.

For now, they would wait, while the sensor net did its imaging, and while they waited they would spread a little confusion around, to make whatever they had to do next a little easier.

Ellie went sideways along the fence, moving at a quick walk, but not actually running, because running was awkward in tactical armour and best avoided unless it was absolutely necessary. She walked fast, in a careful, controlled shuffle, keeping her torso upright, keeping her submachine gun levelled, turning her head to look around, swivelling her gaze separately from where her body was facing.

She went along the fence, staying behind the junk that was lying around. No-one seemed to have see them. There were shouts in the distance, and doors banging open, but nothing audible nearby. No nearby shouts anyway, which was what concerned her. And no nearby gunfire either.

Ellie kept going around the fence, assuming without checking that Sameh was following.

A man stepped around a corner in front of her, looking confused, as if he was running around with no real idea where he was going. He might have been heading out of a building, towards the perimeter fence. He might have just been joining in the panic, without quite knowing what was wrong.

He came around the corner, looking the other way as he came into sight. He was turning towards Ellie, though, and holding a rifle.

He had an actual rifle, and was a threat, so she shot him.

Her submachine gun was set to fire three-round bursts so she didn’t waste ammunition. She fired, aiming at the centre of his body, and was fairly sure all three rounds hit his chest. He went down without a sound, and she kept going, towards him, and then over him when he didn’t move.

Behind her there was a single gunshot. Sameh making sure the man would stay down, and was not going to be a threat behind them.

Ellie moved up to the corner the man had just stepped around, and stopped briefly, to glance around it. She was between two buildings, a house and what might be a garage. She had two choices here. She could go up the space between the buildings, toward the middle of the compound, or she could keep circling around the fence-line.

She kept circling. It was safer to stay near the fence for the moment, until she had a proper idea of the situation. And better to stay away from the centre of the compound too, where the militia were probably concentrating, and safer beside the fence, as well, where she could be certain there was no-one outflanking them on that side.

They would have to move into the compound soon, but for now, circling made more sense.