Part 455: The Assault Begins
3:01 pm
Mandy walked down the hallway of the building. She was whistling a happy tune, because market share had increased. She was happy to be working for the box company. Every time she brought home a fat paycheck, it made her appreciate her life. She bought nice things for Alexander and Bridget. She often wondered if the former lost boy was upset that he wasn’t the bread winner of their little family. However, since he came into the real world a little “differently” than most men; he was happy with his life the way it was.
Mandy turned a corner and walked into the break room. She was looking forward to her mid-afternoon snack; since she did it ever day. She calmly pulled out some change from her pocket and walked to the vending machines. The blonde woman practically giggled at the thought of the Sugar Babies she was about to consume. After the bag fell down into the slot, she picked them up and began to consume them. “Aren’t you worried about diabetes?” Gordon asked her.
Mandy playfully threw one of her pieces of candy at him, making the man dodge it. “This comes from a man who eats a Bear Claw with a diet coke every morning.” She teased him.
“She’s been the best manager we’ve ever had, Gordon.” Sweeny walked in, helping himself to come coffee, “Let her have her Sugar Babies.”
“Thank you, Sweeny,” Mandy laughed, “You may have the rest of the day off.”
“See?” he asked Gordon.
“You two, I swear.” The man laughed, pushing up his glasses.
“Speaking of benefits, Sweeney, how are those ITS Reports coming out?” Mandy asked him.
“Should have them to you within the hour.” He said, proudly.
“Thank you,” she said, sitting down at the break table, “Now sit down, Gentlemen. I have something I wish to discuss with you.”
“Oh, God,” Gordon moaned sitting down.
“Just for that, Gordo, I’m going to put you in charge.”
“In charge of what?” he asked reluctantly.
“Valentines Day.” She said, proudly.
“Aw, man.” He grunted, burying his face in his arms on the table.
“What are we doing for Valentines Day?” Sweeny asked.
“What we will be doing is going to simply be like the Secret Santa. We will have names of everybody in the office and put them in a pile. Whoever pulls out the name of the individual, most do something nice for them to let them feel loved.”
“Like what?”
“Like whatever, Gordo.” Mandy shoved him, “Buy them a Coke, take them out to lunch, leave them a valentines day card. Whatever makes you comfortable.”
“Bloody lovely,” he moaned.
The three friends then heard another person enter the break room. It was the lovely Jessica, Locke’s secretary. The striking brunette walked over to the coffee machine and helped herself to a cup. Afterwards, she leaned on the counter; smiling at her friends. “How you doing, Jess?” Mandy asked.
“Not too bad,” she smiled, blowing on her hot coffee, “Just a little bored.”
“Yeah, I know,” Sweeny agreed, “I use to love auditing week, because we got sent home while the auditors went through our books. Now that Locke promoted us we got to ride it out with a skeleton crew.”
“I know,” Gordon leaned into his chair, “I could be at home playing my X-Box right now.”
“You have such a fantastic life, Gordon.” Jessica said in complete sarcasm.
Gordon just waved her off. Mandy finished up her Sugar Babies and looked to Jessica. “Is Locke bored out of his mind too?” she asked, throwing the wrapper in the trash can.
“Yeah but not for long.” The brunette smiled, “I had to show some of the auditors were his office was. They probably got to show him what’s going on.”
“What do you mean?” the blonde inquired.
“They were walking in there with briefcases. Never seen that before.”
“Auditors don’t come with briefcases,” Gordon corrected her, “They are temps and they come with the van that has all the auditing equipment.”
Mandy looked back at Gordon. He made a valid point. They got through this every year and the auditors always went down to accounting to take their tally of what the company made, while the rest of the staff got a week off for them to complete their task. They always arrived and they always just went typing away on their big calculators. Mandy decided to go ask what they were up, just to see if Locke needed any help. She began to walk out of the break-room.
And stopped at it’s doorway the moment she heard gunfire.
Gordon and Sweeny jumped up from their desk like merkats poking out of the ground. Jessica dropped her coffee; spilling it all over her feet. She was in such shock, she never noticed the scorching pain. Mandy looked back at them, then hugged the way. She cautiously peered down the hallway. The gunfire sounds and flashes of light was coming from Locke’s office. The blonde was incredibly worried but she was also afraid. Who were these men and why did they want Locke dead?
Then the gunfire stopped abruptly, and she could hear men crying in pain. Then she heard single gunfire at that second. A loud thud echoed and then more automatic fire erupted only to be stopped. She, Jessica, Gordon and Sweeny stared down the hallway. Small pillows of smoke oozed from the doorway to Locke’s office. Then abruptly the old man walked out of the room, holding a pistol by his side. He looked around and spotted his loyal co-workers. “MANDY!!” he called to her,” GET DOWN HERE! WE HAVE A PROBLEM!!”
Mandy then ran down the hallway as fast as her high heels would take her. The other three paused for a moment, then ran to follow her. The blonde stopped at the entrance to Locke’s office and screamed. There were two dead men laying on the floor inside his office. One was blonde and the other was a black man; both dressed as auditors. They both had strange automatic weapons by their side, plus one or two bullet holes. Mandy then looked at Locke’s desk, which was riddled with dents. Three years ago, for the taking the corporation up the ladder; Hurley asked him what he would want to celebrate. Locke requested a titanium desk. And here they thought they he was just being eccentric. “The desk is bullet proof.” Gordon said, drawing the same conclusion.
“They stopped firing the moment the ricochets were hitting them.” Locke said, leaning on the desk and catching his breath.
“Sir, are you all right?” Jessica asked.
“Yes, I’m fine. Just slightly deaf.” He said, immediately taking off his sport coat.
“Locke, who are these guys?” Mandy asked.
“The Liberation.” He said, as if he was talking about the weather.
“The . ..the . . .THE WHAT??” the blonde yelled in disbelief.
“Jessica, I need you to go toward your desk and get your running shoes for Mandy.” Locke said as he sat down on his chair.
“Sir, shouldn’t I call the police?” his secretary asked in shock.
“yes, but I don’t want you to call them right now.” The bald man said, taking off his dress shoes and putting on tennis shoes, “Please, Jessica . . .get your shoes for Mandy.”
“Locke . . what . . .WHAT IS GOING ON???” Mandy screamed.
“Mandy, calm down,” Locke told her, “And please . . .you might need to be calling Alexander right now.”
“Why?”
“To make sure they are safe.”
Mandy blinked rapidly. Locke’s statement brought her back into reality. She then quickly ran over to the side of the office, where the other desk was; connected to a phone. She picked it up and quickly dialed Alexander’s cell phone. The ringing continued and continued but no answer. Then an automated message came on, “We’re sorry. The recipient can not be reached at this time. This may be due to low battery or long distance range.”
“I’m getting a message that his phone is not available,” the blonde gasped, “That’s not possible. Not while he is . . .babysitting . .”
Mandy immediately hung up and then dialed the day care. Within two rings, someone picked up. “Whale Tail Day Care.” A pleasant voice said.
“Hello, this is Mandy Burke. I was calling to make sure that my daughter Bridgett Carlyle has been picked up by her step-father Alexander McKay?”
“Yes, Ms. Burke, he and his sister picked her up about ten minutes ago.”
Mandy then immediately hung up the phone. She tried to hold in her tears, mixed with rage. Had it happened again? Had Bridget been taken away from her? Was Alexander and Flower even alive? Then blonde then took a deep breath, and wiped her tears; then started to remove her high heels. “JESSICA!!” she called, “I need those shoes!”
Jessica whimpered as she stepped over the dead bodies and shell casing; handing her co-worker her running shoes. Locke then walked over to the bodies and picked up the automatic rifles. He started to then search the two men, pulling out extra clips. The big one had a cell phone but nothing else. No id, no anything to say who they really were. Mandy sat down on stool, putting on the shoes. “Locke, how did you know they were Liberation?” she asked.
“Before they pulled out their rifles, they asked me if I enjoyed watching Fender die.” The old man said, standing up with the two rifles.
“Who was Fender?” asked Gordon.
“An insane colonel who had his own outpost at the Island.” The bald man said, as he walked over and gave one of the rifles to Mandy.
“The Island?” Jessica said, “ THAT’S what this is about?”
“Listen, you three, I don’t have time to explain so here is what I want you to do.” He pointed to this co-workers,” Jessica, I want you to head down stairs to accounting and stay with the auditors. Sweeny, you go with them. When 30 minutes has past, THEN call the cops.”
“Okay, sir,” Sweeny said, not arguing.
“GL13?” the bald man smiled at Gordon.
“Yeah . . yes, sir?” the nerd listened up.
“Remember the SIT program I had you make three years ago?”
“Yeah?”
“Run it now.” Locke commanded.
Gordon pushed up his glasses and darted out of the office toward his own desk. Sweeny then held onto Jessica as they started to walk toward the elevators. Locke then looked over to Mandy who was checking the rifle; making sure it was loaded, based on the tutelage of McKay. The blonde then set it down and began to tie her hair back in a ponytail. “You knew this would happen one day, didn’t you?” she asked.
“I hoped it wouldn’t.” the old man sighed, “It’s the price I pay for being paranoid . . .and right.”
“I remember you talking about the SIT program a few Thanksgivings ago.” She said, walking out of the office with him, “I hope everybody remembers it.”
“They will,” Locke said as they stopped at her office.
Mandy quickly picked up her coat and wrapped the rifle into it. The two friends began walking down the hallway past the cubicles and wound up at Gordon’s office. The programmer then typed in a special code and some numbers began to flicker on the screen. Mandy looked at the codes. The program was dialing everybody phone numbers.
Mia Riggs > 555-6809 > Code Sent . .
Tony Largo > 555-8554 > Code Sent . .
Jack Shepard > 555-6321 > Code Sent . .
James Ford > 555-5742 > Code Sent . .
Ana-Lucia Cortez > 555-8774 > Code Sent . . .
Seth Butler > 555-7575> Code Sent . . .
Kellye Schroeder> 555-6322 >Code Sent . .
“Thanks, GL13.” Locke patted him on the back, “Now get down to accounting with the others.”
“Good luck, sir,” the loyal co-worker said as he ran out of his office to the stairs.
Mandy and Locke then proceeded toward the service elevator. The plan was to go down, get in Locke’s truck and make a drive by the route for the Day Care, to make sure Bridgett was okay. The blonde woman held the rifle close to her chest; vowing she wasn’t going to take anymore. She was not going to live her life in fear and she will get her daughter back, if she was taken.
Locke looked at his watch and hoped the his friend would remember the SIT protocol he talked about so long ago. The older man was fairly certain that the Liberation was bigger than Fender. He recreated a special backup plan if they were ever attacked. Locke had been playing military games all his life. If he was the Liberation, he wouldn’t just attack specific people. He’d attack all of them. He made Gordon create a special program that would dial everybody’s numbers, give them a computerized message and then they all regroup at a special beach house that Hurley purchase. From there, they would see who was alive and regroup against the Liberation.
Locke prayed all his friends would be waiting for him.
Mandy walked down the hallway of the building. She was whistling a happy tune, because market share had increased. She was happy to be working for the box company. Every time she brought home a fat paycheck, it made her appreciate her life. She bought nice things for Alexander and Bridget. She often wondered if the former lost boy was upset that he wasn’t the bread winner of their little family. However, since he came into the real world a little “differently” than most men; he was happy with his life the way it was.
Mandy turned a corner and walked into the break room. She was looking forward to her mid-afternoon snack; since she did it ever day. She calmly pulled out some change from her pocket and walked to the vending machines. The blonde woman practically giggled at the thought of the Sugar Babies she was about to consume. After the bag fell down into the slot, she picked them up and began to consume them. “Aren’t you worried about diabetes?” Gordon asked her.
Mandy playfully threw one of her pieces of candy at him, making the man dodge it. “This comes from a man who eats a Bear Claw with a diet coke every morning.” She teased him.
“She’s been the best manager we’ve ever had, Gordon.” Sweeny walked in, helping himself to come coffee, “Let her have her Sugar Babies.”
“Thank you, Sweeny,” Mandy laughed, “You may have the rest of the day off.”
“See?” he asked Gordon.
“You two, I swear.” The man laughed, pushing up his glasses.
“Speaking of benefits, Sweeney, how are those ITS Reports coming out?” Mandy asked him.
“Should have them to you within the hour.” He said, proudly.
“Thank you,” she said, sitting down at the break table, “Now sit down, Gentlemen. I have something I wish to discuss with you.”
“Oh, God,” Gordon moaned sitting down.
“Just for that, Gordo, I’m going to put you in charge.”
“In charge of what?” he asked reluctantly.
“Valentines Day.” She said, proudly.
“Aw, man.” He grunted, burying his face in his arms on the table.
“What are we doing for Valentines Day?” Sweeny asked.
“What we will be doing is going to simply be like the Secret Santa. We will have names of everybody in the office and put them in a pile. Whoever pulls out the name of the individual, most do something nice for them to let them feel loved.”
“Like what?”
“Like whatever, Gordo.” Mandy shoved him, “Buy them a Coke, take them out to lunch, leave them a valentines day card. Whatever makes you comfortable.”
“Bloody lovely,” he moaned.
The three friends then heard another person enter the break room. It was the lovely Jessica, Locke’s secretary. The striking brunette walked over to the coffee machine and helped herself to a cup. Afterwards, she leaned on the counter; smiling at her friends. “How you doing, Jess?” Mandy asked.
“Not too bad,” she smiled, blowing on her hot coffee, “Just a little bored.”
“Yeah, I know,” Sweeny agreed, “I use to love auditing week, because we got sent home while the auditors went through our books. Now that Locke promoted us we got to ride it out with a skeleton crew.”
“I know,” Gordon leaned into his chair, “I could be at home playing my X-Box right now.”
“You have such a fantastic life, Gordon.” Jessica said in complete sarcasm.
Gordon just waved her off. Mandy finished up her Sugar Babies and looked to Jessica. “Is Locke bored out of his mind too?” she asked, throwing the wrapper in the trash can.
“Yeah but not for long.” The brunette smiled, “I had to show some of the auditors were his office was. They probably got to show him what’s going on.”
“What do you mean?” the blonde inquired.
“They were walking in there with briefcases. Never seen that before.”
“Auditors don’t come with briefcases,” Gordon corrected her, “They are temps and they come with the van that has all the auditing equipment.”
Mandy looked back at Gordon. He made a valid point. They got through this every year and the auditors always went down to accounting to take their tally of what the company made, while the rest of the staff got a week off for them to complete their task. They always arrived and they always just went typing away on their big calculators. Mandy decided to go ask what they were up, just to see if Locke needed any help. She began to walk out of the break-room.
And stopped at it’s doorway the moment she heard gunfire.
Gordon and Sweeny jumped up from their desk like merkats poking out of the ground. Jessica dropped her coffee; spilling it all over her feet. She was in such shock, she never noticed the scorching pain. Mandy looked back at them, then hugged the way. She cautiously peered down the hallway. The gunfire sounds and flashes of light was coming from Locke’s office. The blonde was incredibly worried but she was also afraid. Who were these men and why did they want Locke dead?
Then the gunfire stopped abruptly, and she could hear men crying in pain. Then she heard single gunfire at that second. A loud thud echoed and then more automatic fire erupted only to be stopped. She, Jessica, Gordon and Sweeny stared down the hallway. Small pillows of smoke oozed from the doorway to Locke’s office. Then abruptly the old man walked out of the room, holding a pistol by his side. He looked around and spotted his loyal co-workers. “MANDY!!” he called to her,” GET DOWN HERE! WE HAVE A PROBLEM!!”
Mandy then ran down the hallway as fast as her high heels would take her. The other three paused for a moment, then ran to follow her. The blonde stopped at the entrance to Locke’s office and screamed. There were two dead men laying on the floor inside his office. One was blonde and the other was a black man; both dressed as auditors. They both had strange automatic weapons by their side, plus one or two bullet holes. Mandy then looked at Locke’s desk, which was riddled with dents. Three years ago, for the taking the corporation up the ladder; Hurley asked him what he would want to celebrate. Locke requested a titanium desk. And here they thought they he was just being eccentric. “The desk is bullet proof.” Gordon said, drawing the same conclusion.
“They stopped firing the moment the ricochets were hitting them.” Locke said, leaning on the desk and catching his breath.
“Sir, are you all right?” Jessica asked.
“Yes, I’m fine. Just slightly deaf.” He said, immediately taking off his sport coat.
“Locke, who are these guys?” Mandy asked.
“The Liberation.” He said, as if he was talking about the weather.
“The . ..the . . .THE WHAT??” the blonde yelled in disbelief.
“Jessica, I need you to go toward your desk and get your running shoes for Mandy.” Locke said as he sat down on his chair.
“Sir, shouldn’t I call the police?” his secretary asked in shock.
“yes, but I don’t want you to call them right now.” The bald man said, taking off his dress shoes and putting on tennis shoes, “Please, Jessica . . .get your shoes for Mandy.”
“Locke . . what . . .WHAT IS GOING ON???” Mandy screamed.
“Mandy, calm down,” Locke told her, “And please . . .you might need to be calling Alexander right now.”
“Why?”
“To make sure they are safe.”
Mandy blinked rapidly. Locke’s statement brought her back into reality. She then quickly ran over to the side of the office, where the other desk was; connected to a phone. She picked it up and quickly dialed Alexander’s cell phone. The ringing continued and continued but no answer. Then an automated message came on, “We’re sorry. The recipient can not be reached at this time. This may be due to low battery or long distance range.”
“I’m getting a message that his phone is not available,” the blonde gasped, “That’s not possible. Not while he is . . .babysitting . .”
Mandy immediately hung up and then dialed the day care. Within two rings, someone picked up. “Whale Tail Day Care.” A pleasant voice said.
“Hello, this is Mandy Burke. I was calling to make sure that my daughter Bridgett Carlyle has been picked up by her step-father Alexander McKay?”
“Yes, Ms. Burke, he and his sister picked her up about ten minutes ago.”
Mandy then immediately hung up the phone. She tried to hold in her tears, mixed with rage. Had it happened again? Had Bridget been taken away from her? Was Alexander and Flower even alive? Then blonde then took a deep breath, and wiped her tears; then started to remove her high heels. “JESSICA!!” she called, “I need those shoes!”
Jessica whimpered as she stepped over the dead bodies and shell casing; handing her co-worker her running shoes. Locke then walked over to the bodies and picked up the automatic rifles. He started to then search the two men, pulling out extra clips. The big one had a cell phone but nothing else. No id, no anything to say who they really were. Mandy sat down on stool, putting on the shoes. “Locke, how did you know they were Liberation?” she asked.
“Before they pulled out their rifles, they asked me if I enjoyed watching Fender die.” The old man said, standing up with the two rifles.
“Who was Fender?” asked Gordon.
“An insane colonel who had his own outpost at the Island.” The bald man said, as he walked over and gave one of the rifles to Mandy.
“The Island?” Jessica said, “ THAT’S what this is about?”
“Listen, you three, I don’t have time to explain so here is what I want you to do.” He pointed to this co-workers,” Jessica, I want you to head down stairs to accounting and stay with the auditors. Sweeny, you go with them. When 30 minutes has past, THEN call the cops.”
“Okay, sir,” Sweeny said, not arguing.
“GL13?” the bald man smiled at Gordon.
“Yeah . . yes, sir?” the nerd listened up.
“Remember the SIT program I had you make three years ago?”
“Yeah?”
“Run it now.” Locke commanded.
Gordon pushed up his glasses and darted out of the office toward his own desk. Sweeny then held onto Jessica as they started to walk toward the elevators. Locke then looked over to Mandy who was checking the rifle; making sure it was loaded, based on the tutelage of McKay. The blonde then set it down and began to tie her hair back in a ponytail. “You knew this would happen one day, didn’t you?” she asked.
“I hoped it wouldn’t.” the old man sighed, “It’s the price I pay for being paranoid . . .and right.”
“I remember you talking about the SIT program a few Thanksgivings ago.” She said, walking out of the office with him, “I hope everybody remembers it.”
“They will,” Locke said as they stopped at her office.
Mandy quickly picked up her coat and wrapped the rifle into it. The two friends began walking down the hallway past the cubicles and wound up at Gordon’s office. The programmer then typed in a special code and some numbers began to flicker on the screen. Mandy looked at the codes. The program was dialing everybody phone numbers.
Mia Riggs > 555-6809 > Code Sent . .
Tony Largo > 555-8554 > Code Sent . .
Jack Shepard > 555-6321 > Code Sent . .
James Ford > 555-5742 > Code Sent . .
Ana-Lucia Cortez > 555-8774 > Code Sent . . .
Seth Butler > 555-7575> Code Sent . . .
Kellye Schroeder> 555-6322 >Code Sent . .
“Thanks, GL13.” Locke patted him on the back, “Now get down to accounting with the others.”
“Good luck, sir,” the loyal co-worker said as he ran out of his office to the stairs.
Mandy and Locke then proceeded toward the service elevator. The plan was to go down, get in Locke’s truck and make a drive by the route for the Day Care, to make sure Bridgett was okay. The blonde woman held the rifle close to her chest; vowing she wasn’t going to take anymore. She was not going to live her life in fear and she will get her daughter back, if she was taken.
Locke looked at his watch and hoped the his friend would remember the SIT protocol he talked about so long ago. The older man was fairly certain that the Liberation was bigger than Fender. He recreated a special backup plan if they were ever attacked. Locke had been playing military games all his life. If he was the Liberation, he wouldn’t just attack specific people. He’d attack all of them. He made Gordon create a special program that would dial everybody’s numbers, give them a computerized message and then they all regroup at a special beach house that Hurley purchase. From there, they would see who was alive and regroup against the Liberation.
Locke prayed all his friends would be waiting for him.
posted by Jason | 5:21 AM
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