Chapter 02: After the Fall

“I thought you said you had this under control!” Alexa yelled over the ringing of the fire alarm.

“I did! How could I have known they placed a server redundancy that encrypts and moves the data offline?” he asked as he pulled a hard drive from one of the cabinets.

“Damn it, K!”

“Well the good news is I was able to secure a portion of the data before the alarm sounded. The bad news: it may not be enough for what we’re after.”

“We’ll worry about that later. Our only concern now is getting out of this building alive!”

“And how do you propose we do that? Those doors are designed to remain shut until the servers are back online OR the ‘fire’ has been taken care of.”

“Isn’t there something you can do? Some network you can hack or controls you can override?” Alexa tugged on the latch but it wouldn’t budge. Using the butt of her weapon, she tried hammering the lock off, but again no success.

Meanwhile, Kasper navigated through the backdoor of the servers hoping to find some digital key to unlock the doors and let them out. From the small window beside her, Alexa could see groups of employees running passed them towards the nearest exit. It would be easy to call out for them but it would also be damnable considering neither of them belonged in that room. “It’s no use,” Kasper said, shutting the lid on his laptop. “I’m completely shut out. Nothing’s gonna work.”

“Fine,” Alexa sighed and moved into the center of the room. “Stand back!” she shouted over the din of the alarm. She aimed her weapon at the glass window and fired.

“WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING!?” Kasper yelled, ducking down behind her as the shot ricocheted. “Those windows are shatterproof!”

“Yeah? One thing you should know about shatterproof glass, it can and will break. They’re all built with a weak spot; a second layer of rubber film between the sheets of glass. It’s designed to keep the glass from flying everywhere and causing injury when it ‘breaks’. I…just…gotta…find it,” she replied, shooting between each word. Her hard work paid off. The bottom right corner of the window cracked and again, using the butt of her weapon, she cleared the remaining glass from the windowsill enough for the two of them to slip out.

“Come on,” she said, sliding to the floor as another group of panicked workers fled through the hall. Doing her best to blend in, she ducked low and moved with the pack as they navigated the red lit corridors.

One more corner. That was the final hurdle they needed to get over before they were in the clear; outside and above suspicion. “Melanie?” Alexa turned to see the security guard from before staring at her from the end of the last hallway. “What are you doing here?” he asked, eyeing Kasper standing at her side.

“What do you mean?” she asked, feigning ignorance as she inched closer, making herself the visible target. “The building’s being evacuated. I’m getting out of here.”

“Right, but…you’re in R&D, that’s upstairs. The direction you’re coming from is the server room…where the alarm sounded.” His hand moved to his hip, an action she’d seen many of her opponents perform time and again. He knew something was up and there was no bullshitting her way out of this one.

Damn, she thought. Of course he looked her up. After their little tête–à–tête earlier he probably wanted to learn as much about her as he could. Oh well. Plan B. Alexa’s mind raced through her options. None of them were good. To protect Kasper, she needed to eliminate Randy. She had no doubt that her fighting skills far outmatched his, but he was a foot taller and outweighed her by roughly 100 pounds. Any fight between them was sure to cause damage and if there were more guards waiting, she needed to stay on top of her game.

On the other hand, she could let him live, but if she did he could tell his bosses about them and they would easily undo whatever it was Kasper had done. The two of them had already been inside longer than she’d anticipated and now it was a matter of getting out without the mission completely unraveling. That settled it. There was only one way out of here and it was through Randy. “Who are you?” he asked, unclipping the weapon at his side.

“What are you talking about?” She replied, turning on her megawatt smile as she moved a few feet further. “You know who I am.” A rolling cart was stationed outside one of the small offices. It was cluttered with miscellaneous electronics and computer parts. If she could just get closer…

“FREEZE!” he shouted, aiming his weapon at the duo.

“Now that was a mistake.” With a quick glance over her shoulder to check Kasper’s position, Alexa made a move for the cart, giving it a hard kick. It rolled fast right towards Randy. He tried to jump out of the way but the corner of the cart caught his right foot. His gun dropped to the ground and Alexa was on him before he could scramble for it. Kicking the fallen weapon towards Kasper, Alexa got Randy into a chokehold and squeezed as he struggled to free himself.

Like a boa wrapping itself around its meal, Alexa constricted and strengthened her grip around Randy’s neck. The harder he fought the tighter she held. Randy twisted to the left, his face becoming bright red from the lack of oxygen. He tapped at her hands, frantically trying to pull her off but it was no use. Alexa was set in and wasn’t stopping until he was out. 

When he jerked again, this time to the right, Alexa held his neck to the left until she heard it crack. Randy’s body went limp and she slowly lowered him to the ground. “I’m sorry,” she whispered, touching her fingers to his eyelids to shut them.

“We need to go, A,” Kasper said, tossing the guard’s gun into his bag and rushing for her. “A? You with me?”

“Yeah,” she sighed, taking one last look at Randy’s lifeless body. “Let’s go.”

“You were right,” Kirk said, bursting into Gavin’s front door. “The woman in the morgue is NOT your girl.”

“I knew it,” he said standing, meeting Kirk in his dining room.

“Preliminary DNA test taken from the toothbrush you provided and Jane Doe’s blood show completely different genetic markers.”

“So she is still out there,” Gavin sighed and leaned down over the table and the test results Kirk had delivered. “This is good. This is really good.”

“I don’t know about that since now there’s an unidentified body in the morgue that appears to have been murdered. On top of that, she was found in an area where Hannah was last seen, wearing Hannah’s clothing and looking an awful lot like her.”

“Wait, what are you getting at?” Gavin asked, growing defensive to Kirk’s train of thought.

“I’m just stating the facts, man. The coroner suspected homicide due to the extensive damage and if Hannah IS trying to hide from her attackers, who’s to say she wouldn’t…”

“Wouldn’t what? Kidnap an innocent woman, stab her to death and set her body on fire in order to cover up her tracks? Dude! Who the fuck do you think she is the Godfather? Hannah’s not some criminal!”

“How do you know that, Gavin? This woman appeared out of nowhere and before either of us knew it you were head over heels in love and proposing. I mean, think about it. What ‘average’ woman do you know has murderers tracking them down like this? We already know she’s changed her name at least once before. For all we know she could be some con artist scamming her way into the hearts and wallets of wealthy bachelors around the country!” The comment earned Kirk a hard right to the face. He fell back, dropping another folder to the floor. Papers loosely scattered on the ground around him as Gavin stepped back quickly realizing what he’d just done.

“Kirk! Man! I’m sorry. I didn’t mean…”

“Forget about it,” the detective sighed, pulling himself from the floor. “I was out of line. I get it, you don’t want to think the worst of her. I just feel, as your friend, it’s my place to get you to see all possibilities.”

“The only thing I see is the woman I love in trouble, Kirk. You gotta understand that.”

“Sure. Of course,” Kirk said, rubbing his jaw as he retrieved the contents of the fallen folder. “But I think you oughta take a look at this before you start naming her ‘saint of the year.’”

“What’s that?”

“Prints; also pulled off the toothbrush. They came back as ‘match not found.’”

“So? Like I said Hannah’s not a criminal. It doesn’t surprise me you couldn’t find her in your database.”

“You don’t get it, Gavin. IAFIS searches ALL fingerprint databases including that of legal firearm purchases and the American Bar Association. There is no record of a Hannah Taylor ever being entered into their system. However, I cross-referenced with a name search and I did find one Hannah JoAnn Taylor, age 43, as having purchased and registering a couple of firearms.”

“So you’re saying she’s not a lawyer but, she is a gun toting maniac who looks good for her age? I don’t think that’s the same person. Was there a picture of Hannah JoAnn Taylor, age 43?”

“No. And I’m only saying there’s no record of her completing the bar, make of that what you will.”

“Wait a second,” Gavin paused as he gave thought to what Kirk said. “There wouldn’t be, ‘Hannah’s’ not her real name. Nolan, her ex, he called her ‘Eva.’ Maybe that’s why you can’t find anything on her. It’s a fake identity.”

“Eva what?” Kirk asked, making note on the outside of a folder.

“No clue,” Gavin sighed, closing his hands on the back of his head as he paced away a few steps. “But I mean she was trying to hide from this guy and she told me he scared her. If she did buy a gun it would make sense why right?”

“Sure,” Kirk replied, not exactly buying into Gavin’s theory. Tucking his pen into his pocket he closed the cover of the folder and worriedly eyed his friend. “You good, man?”

“Yeah. Thanks,” Gavin replied. “I really appreciate this stuff.”

“Don’t mention it. Now I need to get back to the station.”

“Hold up, you haven’t told anybody about Jane Doe, have you?”

“Not yet, but, I am obligated to by law. We need to put a name to the face.”

“No. Kirk, you can’t do that.” 

“Yeah, Gav, I can. I don’t know if you remember or not but Hannah is wanted in connection with the shooting downtown. If she’s alive, that warrant is still active.”

“That warrant is bullshit, Kirk! That was my asshole of a father making a play for office by stepping on the throats of the people who helped get him there!”

“Ok, I don’t know what the hell you’re talking about but, what I do know is I could lose my job or worse if I sit on this kind of information.”

“Can’t you buy me some time? Let the police keep believing that body in the morgue is in fact Hannah at least until after I find her. I mean what’s the harm in that? They already think it is. And once she’s home again you can come forward and let them know the body was just misidentified. Look, Kirk, whoever came to my parents’ place the night Hannah disappeared meant business. They were working with some serious fire power and if they learn she’s not really dead, they may go looking for her again. I can’t let that happen. Please? I can’t lose her twice.”

“Fuck!” Kirk groaned and ran a hand across his neck. “Do you have any idea what you’re asking me to do here?”

“I do but, you know I wouldn’t if I didn’t believe 100% Hannah was innocent. I came to you with this, Kirk. Do you really think I would do that if I didn’t trust her?”

“Fine I’ll…I’ll see what I can do.”

“Thank you.”

“So what are you going to do in the meantime?” Kirk asked, setting the folder on the table.

“I don’t know yet,” he sighed. “But I have to find her.” 

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