Story 07 – Part 3 – Rescuing Children

“Strike teams are in position,” Agent Driver’s voice came on over the radio.

“Jackpot,” Regg said as he continued to dig through the dumpster.

It was, unfortunately, not one of the worst things he had done in his job. Because the building had several exits, it was important to have agents waiting nearby. Of course, this entire attack had been planned in only a few hours. Still, with Dev directing it they had a chance of pulling it off. Once the signal was given, Regg would begin his mission.

Several agents were spread around with nothing to do but wait and take down anyone who tried to escape. Agent Michaels, on the other hand, had specific orders. The locks of the nearby exit were sturdier than most and Agent Driver and requested Regg break in. Once the signal was given, Regg would have to trust that the computer crew had jammed any security cameras. In the mean time, he needed to continue searching the wonders of the dumpster.

“I like,” Regg muttered to himself as he rolled out of the dumpster to study his treasure.

Three broken watches, a half empty package of gum, some unused movie tickets, and ten lottery tickets later, the signal finally came. The actual strike would not happen for a few more minutes, so Regg had to get in quickly. With quick strides, Agent Michaels made his way to the old looking wooden door next to the dumpster.

That first door was a fairly easy lock. If it had been too secure, than it would have been obvious that this was not a store’s alley exit. As it was, there were three doors to get through just to get inside the building. Deadbolts were no problem, but one of the doors did have a chain latch which slowed Regg down. It felt like too much time had passed when he was finally sprinting through the narrow hallway that the doors had led to.

At the end of the hallway were some elevator doors, and a keypad lock. Pulling his tools out, Regg quickly pried off the lock. He really hoped that the security system was being jammed since he was not taking the time to be too careful. He probably could have contacted the computer squad on the radio and ask them to open the doors, but that would have taken too long. Besides, they were probably busy with other things and paying him no attention. With a satisfied smile, Agent Michaels hotwired the elevator doors open.

The elevator shaft looked more liked it housed a dumbwaiter rather than an elevator. The elevator itself was two floors above, but Regg figured that what he was looking for was down. Wrapping pieces of his dumpster diving outfit around his hands, Regg reached out and caught hold of the cables and slid down to the bottom of the shaft. He was definitely getting more comfortable with his job.

Through the bottom elevator doors and sneaking down a hallway, Regg found his goal. A guard with a gun stood, watching the kidnapped children work away as slave labor. At least, Regg hoped that he had found all of the children. He nervously glanced at his watch, wondering where the rest of the strike crew was. Crouched around the corner, Regg kept his ears open for any sound other than the children at work.

After a minute seemed like forever, Regg finally got frustrated with sitting still. There was only one guard. All he needed to do was figure out a way to disable the man. Dev would probably have wandered in like a lost drunk to confuse the guard. Others would go in with guns blazing or martial arts with some kung-fu or other sort of action. Regg doubted he could pull those off, but he was tired of sitting there when he was so close.

“Excuse me,” Regg called out as he finally decided to just make it up as he went. The guard pointed his gun, but looked really confused at the sight of a dumpster diver walking from around the corner and toward him. Regg smiled. “Um, just thought I would give you some fair warning, but we rescued one of these kids and are now in the process of destroying your entire organization. So, it’s probably best for you to just surrender. Um, yeah. I think that’s it.”

“What?” the guard asked, confused.

“My agency is taking this operation down,” Regg said calmly. “I am here to save these kids. In other words, if you even try to point that gun anywhere near those children, your head will be blown off before you have a chance to flinch. I’m allowed to do something like that in this situation.”