Subject Nightingale 1: Birth and Death by Tim Cody Page B

swiftly to the crate, pistol held in both hands as he looked all around, and Nightingale matched his movements. Jonny turned his back to the crate and leaned against it, and let out a quiet breath once they were behind cover. He crept along the crate's side and eased his head around, scoping out the guards. They were distracted chatting with each other, so he and Nightingale moved to an adjacent crate.
    “What do we have here...” Jonny muttered to himself, looking down at a green steel footlocker lined up with the edge of the next crate they hid behind. He flipped its latches and lifted the lid, and his eyes went wide with surprise. “Holy crap, it's like Christmas!” he exclaimed quietly when he saw the chest packed with tan bricks labeled C4 . A plan immediately took shape.
    Nightingale tried to look over his shoulder at what he was so excited about, but didn't recognize what she saw.
    “Kid, keep lookout,” he said.
    “ Lookout?”
    “ Yeah, poke your head around that crate and tell me if anyone's coming.” Jonny turned toward the footlocker and began stacking the C4 on the ground. Their detonators were in the same case, so he began inserting the small rods into the putty and connecting the appropriate wires.
    Nightingale nodded slowly and gulped nervously. She didn't exactly know what made a good lookout, and was worried she would catch a bullet. She leaned her back against the edge of the crate and eased her head around its side, and then breathed a quiet sigh of relief when she saw the four guards still just chatting. They weren't looking in her direction, and she hoped they stayed that way.
    “They're just talking,” she said quietly.
    Garland looked experienced. He wore his tactical gear well, carried himself like a true veteran, and the others seemed to hang on his every word. His gray mustache seemed particularly at home on his face, and it helped to accentuate his strong features. One could read countless war stories just by looking at his face.
    Jonny began lobbing the prepared explosives over the crate. They landed near the center of the lobby, some slid under the furniture, and then he slid several across the floor along the wall to spread them out as evenly as he could.
    “ What are you doing!?” Nightingale whispered when she saw the explosives landing all over.
    Garland noticed the noise. “Go check it out,” he ordered, and two split off to investigate.
    “Come on!” Jonny grabbed Nightingale's wrist and rushed along the crates. He remained crouched low, but moved much quicker than before.
    “ Contact!” one of the guards shouted, and instead of ducking behind cover, Jonny sprung to his feet to reveal himself.
    “ C4!” he immediately shouted back, and showed Heavy Guard the detonator he held in one hand.
    Nightingale shot up along with him, but her eyes went wide when she looked between the four members of Heavy Guard and Jonny all aiming guns at each other. She immediately ducked back behind the crate.
    Jonny's sidearm was clenched in his other fist, arm extended, sights square on the squad member who called contact.
    “ Glitch squad, stand down!” Garland shouted, his rifle raised and trained on Jonny.
    Jonny changed his target to Garland.
    “Secure the experiment,” Garland ordered one of his squad members, and he began to approach without hesitation.
    Jonny adjusted his target again and fired a single shot, taking him out with a single bullet to the head. The rest of the squad opened fire, but Jonny took cover behind the crate just in time. “Maybe I should clarify,” he shouted, “I've got primed C4 charges spread all over the lobby, and I'm holding the damn detonator!”
    “Sir, he's telling the truth,” one of the squad members told Garland, showing him the brick they had spotted earlier. He plucked the pins out of the putty to disarm it, but there were still who-knows-how-many primed and ready scattered around the lobby.
    “ I've got my thumb on a dead-man's switch,