Chapter 7: A Bad Stay at a Hotel

September 6, 1996

The earpiece crackled, “There are several hundred Enforcers of God headed your way. I’m not sure where they’re going.”

“That’s all we need, now,” Shield Josie said while she looked around the top of empty building in which she was located.

She and Sword Flavia had taken up a position in a hotel that was still under construction to watch a nearby camp of Enforcers of God. The lower floors had finished exteriors and partially finished interiors, but the upper floors were still open to the environment. They were on the top floor. It hadn’t been enclosed, yet. It gave them a commanding view of everything below them, but was a bad spot to be in if a bunch of Enforcers of God came there.

With the locals attacking any Enforcers of God who were moving around in small clusters, the enemy had taken to gathering in larger groups. The camp they had been studying was one of those of fewer than a hundred individuals. That was a perfect size for a quick raid by Jade Warriors. They would run past, or through, the camp killing as many as they could before disappearing. After a couple of raids like that, and there would be no one left in the camp.

Sword Flavia walked over to the open side across from where she had been watching the forces at the camp. She looked down at the action below. There were trucks parked all around the grounds at the base of the building. Men were getting out of the trucks and milling around.

They looked nervous, particularly since all of the locals had disappeared from the street. Over the past few days, the locals had started attacking the Enforcers of God. They were gathering in groups of ever increasing sizes for the attacks. The Enforcers were starting to lose the war and the locals were getting ever more aggressive. A tipping point would be reached any time now.

Unhappy, Sword Flavia said, “We’ve got company.”

“I hate uninvited guests,” Shield Josie said lightly, trying not to sound as nervous as she felt.

She looked down at the street below. More trucks were pulling up below her. It was impossible to tell how many there were, but there were a lot of them. Two against that many would not be very good odds. The Enforcers of God might be scum, but they were very good fighters. Once they entered the building, life was going to get very interesting and very quickly. Two wasn’t exactly an overwhelming force to put up against several hundred. She wasn’t looking forward to that.

She stepped back and took stock of her surroundings. There was a lot of construction equipment scattered around. Some building materials were stored in nice neat stacks in the center of the room. Nails and panels of glass dropping eleven stories could do a little damage. So would the forklift, if it hit anyone. With the right kind of eye, one could see that the entire place was filled with things that could be used as weapons. Jade Warriors were trained to have the right kind of eye.

Shield Josie gestured to the supplies and said, “We can get a few of them with an airmail delivery of this stuff.”

“Let’s see if they’re going to stay here. They just might be taking a break,” Sword Flavia said, “There’s no reason to attract their attention if they’re passing through.”

“If we drop the glass panes on them, they’ll shatter and send out small shards of death. We could reduce their number pretty quickly.”

“I know we could. What will we do when the rest of them come up here after us? This isn’t a very defensible position. There will still be a lot of them and just two of us.”

“That’s no reason not to see what we have to work with,” Shield Josie said with an edge to her voice.

The last thing she wanted was to get captured alive by those savages below. Women didn’t get treated very nicely when one came to their attention. At best, she could expect to be raped and tortured. She had no idea what the Enforcers of God would do to a Jade Warrior who was captured. She’d probably experience a long slow painful death.

Sword Flavia said, “That’s true, but. Let’s just keep a clear head on our shoulders.”

Shield Josie peeked over the edge. The men were getting their gear off the trucks. She swore, “They’re unloading the trucks.”

“Damn! I guess they’re here to stay.”

“Now what?”

Shield Josie had taken part in the Pirate War. She remembered the battle in the street. Although saying that she remembered it was an understatement. She still had nightmares about that fight. The odds were even worse now. The people in the town were not trained fighters, unlike the guys here.

Sword Flavia considered their situation. She knew that it wasn’t good. They were trapped in a building above several hundred of the enemy, and there was no way out except through the enemy. There were six fire escapes that connected the floor they were on, to the other floors, ... which were about four too many for the two women to control. There was a construction elevator that ran up the side of the building although that would be a death trap for anyone on it.

“We could hide until they leave. If they come up here, we’ll deal with them as they come. There wouldn’t be too many who could face us at one time. Once we’re discovered, then we could take the battle to them.”

“Or we could take the battle to them before they are established in the building.”

“We could do that,” Sword Flavia said thinking about the second alternative.

Hiding would give them a sense of safety for a while, but they would be discovered. The Enforcers of God would search the building. They would wander around randomly. Once discovered, they would be in a poor position to fight. Attacking would give them the offensive advantage, but that wouldn’t last long. No matter what, they were in trouble. They needed a way to get out.

“We need some backup,” Shield Josie said nervously.

Sword Flavia was busy thinking how to get out of this situation alive. The easiest way would be to put as much lead into the air as possible. The streets were too narrow for a gunship to maneuver, so help from above was out. Two other Jade Warriors were in the area. There weren’t many who could be immediately available, but they’d help if given enough time to get there.

Sword Flavia looked over at Shield Josie with concern. She said, “You know they are already on their way.”

“I know,” Shield Josie said.

Sword Flavia went over to the edge and looked at the smaller camp they had been watching. Things looked normal there. It was like they didn’t even know another larger group was nearby. She didn’t know if that was a good sign or not.

She touched her microphone and said, “This is Sword Flavia. I would like to request a raid on Camp 34. There’s a large force situated at our location who would come in response to a raid of Camp 34. Anything that can be done between Camp 34 and our location to thin out the numbers here would be appreciated.”

“I need details for Camp 34,” was the only response.

For the next few minutes, Flavia described the location and layout of Camp 34. She was able to give out details about where guards were stationed, and the activities that were going on in the camp. She also transmitted several images of the camp.

“We’re really swamped. It will take two hours to set it up,” came the response.

“We’ll wait,” Sword Flavia said not entirely happy with the answer.

“Two hours? Anything can happen in two hours,” Shield Josie said starting to panic.

She was ready for this to end, one way or another. She swore to herself that they weren’t going to capture her alive.

Sword Flavia looked around the room. She smiled when she saw the stacks of building materials wrapped in tarps. She got an idea. It was crazy. It would probably kill them both, !but But, it gave them an option for a time when any option, even an insane one, might be a good one.

“How’s your plumbing?”

“My what?

“Yes. Are you any good at plumbing?”

“I did all right with it in class.”

“You’re going to build two hang gliders, while I’m scouting around.”

“Are you out of your mind?”

“All they have to do is get us down to the ground, and about two hundred meters down the road, without killing us. We might drop like rocks, but hopefully we’ll be slow falling rocks. I’ll accept a broken leg or two so long as there is someone who can pull us out of here.”

“I wouldn’t even know where to begin,” Shield Josie said.

“We’ve got tarps, aluminum studs, thin PVC water pipes, glue, an acetylene torch, staple guns, and who knows what else in here. A hang glider isn’t that complex.”

“I don’t know how to build hang glider.”

“Get on the radio and talk to someone who does know. I’m going down to see what they’re doing,” Sword Flavia said.

“I hate you,” Shield Josie muttered thinking that the quickest way to die was to fly a homemade hang glider.

Sword Flavia went over to the fire escape closest to the entrance of the building. Making as little noise as possible, she went down the stairs, keeping out of sight of anyone who might be coming up the stairs. She could hear noises echoing up the stairwell, but it sounded like they were coming from the ground floor. She was hoping they hadn’t sent someone up the stairs to make sure the building was secure.

She stopped on the seventh floor. It was the lowest floor without interior walls, just a forest of aluminum studs marking out where the walls would be. If anyone entered the floor she would be able to see them. She looked around at some of the building supplies scattered around the area thinking that she should build a little wall she could use for protection in case things went badly. The problem was that moving things around would probably make too much noise.

Sitting next to the open door to the stairwell, she could hear a couple of people climbing up the stairs talking to each other. The stairwell tended to muffle the noises, so she could hear them talking, but not make out what they were saying. She could hear the echo of a door opening and then slamming closed. The conversation was cut off when the door closed. They weren’t wasting any time checking out the building. Fortunately, it appeared as if they were going to check it out a floor at a time rather than send up a bunch of different crews to look at each floor.

She tapped out a message on the microphone letting Shield Josie know that the Enforcers of God were starting to search the building. Josie answered that she was starting on the frame for a hang glider.

Sword Flavia waited while listening for any noises that might drift up the stairwell. Five minutes passed before she heard the sound of a door opening and the men stepping back into the stairwell. At the rate they were searching floors, she’d have thirty minutes before they reached the seventh floor. She listened while they climbed to the next level. Even the small change in distance affected what she could hear. Their voices were much clearer now. They were complaining about having to climb so many stairs.

The situation was uncertain. She didn’t know, for a fact, if they were the only group searching the floors. There were five other stairwells and other teams could be headed up them. She turned to watch the open area while keeping an ear open for noises from the stairwell. She glanced at her watch. The second hand was sweeping around the clock face, but it seemed to her like it was moving in slow motion. She and Shield Josie had to wait two hours before there would be anything to distract the men in the building.

She knew from experience that the men below were going to require a great deal of time searching the various floors. The building was going to be a hotel when it was finished. The first floor was mostly lobby and large rooms, along with some offices tucked away here and there. The second floor was mostly conference rooms and store fronts which were easily searched. The partially finished floors on the third and fourth floor had a lot of rooms in which people could hide. She figured it would take them a bit of time to search the third and fourth floors since there were a lot of places where a person could find concealment. hide. The fifth and sixth floors were also hotel rooms, but they were still in the process of being finished. They wouldn’t spend as much on them as with the third and fourth floors.