by Chaz Hamilton
Chaz put his computer into sleep mode after he tucks his notes into his leather laptop case.
Public records had not revealed much. Chaz searched what he could to get the dirt on The Bakers Dozen or Poundcake’s arrest. All he could unveil was they attempted a robbery at a manufacturing company outside of the New Amsterdam city limits. No names were revealed and for some unknown reason, the court records were sealed. He rolled his shoulders and leaned back, unsurprised to find that most, if not all, of the other people in the office had called it a day.
Streaks of a brilliant sunset filtered through the windows as Chaz heads to the elevator.
“Evening, Romana,” he said as he passed by the night receptionist’s desk. An attractive, young Italian with long, blue-shaded black hair, Romana recently started at the Sentinel on a work-study program through the university. Her dark eyes and statuesque features added an element of mystery to her overall demeanor that Chaz found extremely alluring. “How are you enjoying the city so far?”
She gave him a radiant smile, causing an immediate warmth to sizzle beneath Chaz’s collar and up his cheeks. “Good evening, Mr. Hamilton. I’m finding New Amsterdam very welcoming.”
“That’s great,” he said, returning a smile of his own as he rested his arms onto the counter around her receptionist's desk and leaned forward. “I’d love to show—”
She pressed a button and spoke into her headset, a mild accent adding character to her greeting. “Good evening. This is the Sentinel news desk. How may I assist you?”
Chaz stepped back, waved a casual farewell as he turned and walked away, both disappointed and relieved. She’d probably say she’s too busy anyway. He tapped the elevator button and waited for it to arrive.
“Mr. Hamilton,” Romana came up from behind him. She wore a form-fitting pair of jeans and a shirt with multi-colored panels, giving her a trendy, 1980-esque vibe. “You were saying something… about showing me around town, perhaps?”
“Why… um, well, yes, I was,” Chaz stammered. “If you’d like to?”
The elevator panel dinged. As the brassy metallic doors parted, three masked figures became visible.
Chaz recognized one of the masks from the photograph with Poundcake. He grabs Romana by the elbow and pulls her back into the main room of the office suite. “I don’t think these guys made an appointment.”
“What is going on? Who are they?” Romana asks, moving alongside Chaz as they swerve around her desk.
“There he is.” A man’s voice orders from behind them. “Grab him!”
Chaz leads Romana through the rows of cubicles, weaving toward the hallway connected to a collection of conference rooms, keeping a low profile. He glances behind for signs of pursuit. Seeing none, he points beneath a desk and whispers to Romana. “Here. Hide under this desk. I’ll lead them away.”
“But I can help,” she whispers back, reluctant to crawl into the cubby.
“Shhhh. Call 9-1-1 after they’ve followed me.” He darts away into an adjacent walkway between cubicles. He stands tall, making his head clearly visible over the partitions for an instant, and calls out before sprinting to the back corridor. “We can make it to the emergency exit down that hallway. Run.”
Rapid footsteps tromp toward him as he flees into the hallway and weaves his way to the office’s emergency door that leads to a stairway. Shoving the door open, he races through as an alarm siren begins its clamor. He makes it down three landings before one of the masked figures drops down from above, flying through the empty space of the stairwell and blocks his path. The lower half of her body is completely hidden by a spinning whirlwind which stirs the air around Chaz, tugging at his hair and clothing as if caught in the pull of a vacuum cleaner.
“I’m so glad you chose the hard way,” a woman’s voice smugly coos at him. Her whirlwind slows its revolution and reverses in rapid fashion. A gust of hurricane force wind smashes into Chaz. It throws him up into the air and against the wall one tier above.
Dropping to the ground like a sack of potatoes, Chaz raises his head to see the two other intruders stepping down the flight of stairs onto the platform he landed on. His body screams at him, asking why he let a truck just plow into his side before he falls unconscious despite the loud klaxon annoyingly ringing out in the air from every direction.
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