The End of the Beginning
Chapter 44: Breaking Through

Taking two people to operate, William and Mario lifted a ninety pound rescue device called the Controlled Impact Rescue Tool from the case and held it up to the concrete. It had a black oval cylindrical body the size of a fire extinguisher. A black and yellow striped hexagonal safety cage surrounded it. Inside was a barrel that fired specially built ammunition into whatever it was up against, ramming right through it by creating shockwaves, even in reinforced concrete. With both of them holding on to two of its four yellow circular handles, Mario and William lined the devices laser pointer up and braced themselves.

“This will kick,” Mario said anxiously.

“Time check, Miller?”

“Six minutes, Captain.”

“Bossman, it takes two minutes max to plow through. We got this. It fires twenty rounds a minute. Big rounds.” “So it’s no M16?”

“No, Boss. More like the biggest shotgun you’ve ever had,” laughed Simba. “Slow and steady wins.” “Ready, Mario?” William asked, holding the device with his straining arms.

“Ready, sir,” Mario gritted.

“Fire!”

Mario pulled the trigger. The impact announced its power with burst of dust and fines, kicking the two men holding it. Both of them groaned with each impact. Before long, they were covered in white dust and dirty gray sweat beads. Simba continued to monitor the impactors progress with his spaghetti camera on the other side.

“Almost through, Boss. Just a few more shots!”

“Come on, Niccolo, come on!” encouraged William.

His arms hurt more and more with each impact, the shockwaves moving up his arms and into his head. Eyes watering, mouth dry, and muscles shot, they broke through when a person sized hole crumbled before the machine; its laser shining onto the floor beyond.

“We’re in! Pate, Phillips, Jinping, go! Secure the vault,” William ordered.

William and Mario put down their new favorite tool and got ready to enter the new hole after the other three rescuers. Packs in first, they swung themselves in one leg at a time and then ran to the vault. With light feeble at best, DJ put his smart glove to the vault door.

“My glove is sensing movement inside, and noise… talking.”

“Mine says the same thing,” said Dao.

William caught up to everyone. “What we got?”

“Gloves are indicating civilians are definitely inside. Picking up at least ten different voices,” informed Dao.

“Good. Can you open it, Jinping?”

“Yes, sir, I think so. The lock still has power. Backup generator.”

“Do it! Miller?”

“One minute, sir.”

Dao was fiddling with the digital locking control console, which was cracked and flickering.

“Any time, Jinping,” hurried Heather.

Despite the time crunch Dao was calm. “Almost there.”

Less than thirty seconds were left but Dao was in complete control of his focus and plugged away.

“Twenty seconds!”

“Rescue Officer Jinping, can you do this?”

“Yes Captain, but how about less distractions and more light, with respect.”

William stepped back, beamed his LED earpiece atop Dao’s hands, and let his rescue officer do his work. He trusted him; he trusted all of them. Dao knew computers; in another life he was a systems analyst working for the Beijing government.

“Got it,” Dao said plainly, as if he had done nothing amazing.

“Get it open, come on! Everyone pull.”

All of them grabbed the vault’s door handles and slowly opened it with much pain to their vocal cords as groaning seemed to help them open it faster. Wasting no time, William took his hands from the vault door and shined his head mounted LED into the vault. He counted twelve people. Heather rushed in to treat injuries. A few actors inside were standing; others were sitting in fake blood pools. Fake or not, all of them were happy to see William’s team.

“This is Emerson to all UNIRO personnel, we have twelve people accounted for in the vault. Does anyone have the thirteenth?” No one answered.

DJ looked at his watch. “It’s time, sir. I think we are thirty seconds over, now.”

Collectively they all sighed. Mario fell in exhaustion against the vault wall. “All that for nothing,” he said sadly.

Hansen was going to walk in any second and rip them, destroying the hope of the day. But, as they all seemed to fall at once there was a rise on the radio. Crackles and spits came through.

“Th… em… 2”

“Hello?!” William shouted, pressing his earpiece in.

“...repa… is Buddy Tea… 2. Captain, do you re… we have the…”

“Hello? I do not copy. You’re coming in weak. Say again, over.”

The crackles and spits cleared and Vega’s voice came through finally. “This is Buddy Team 2, we have the thirteenth civilian. They’re okay. I repeat we have the thirteenth civilian.” “Sergeant Horbert, is that you?”

“Yes, we have the thirteenth civilian! We found them with a minute to spare but the radio did not work.” “Excellent, Sergeant! Great work. Get them down here for medical attention!” They all cheered, even the actors. They had passed.

“Yes, Boss! Yes! Yes! I told you we were awesome. Oh my God I have the best job in the world.” “Yeah, Captain, good job,” said Mario, rubbing his arms on the floor, “but I don’t want to use that machine again for a few days. A beach and a few glasses of white wine would be a nice replacement. That will give you a kick, too, just one that doesn’t hurt as much.” Accomplishment shook them like the hypothetical earthquake that destroyed the building they were in. It moved them all and rearranged them further into a team. Strident lighting came on overhead inside the bank and a buzzer went off to indicate the test was over.

Over the radio came Major Hansen, “All squadrons return to the trucks for immediate debriefing, now! All actors return to your original locations and reset!” The bank vault actors fussed back into their places with one saying, “He’s such an ass sometimes.” William heard that and turned, “Don’t worry, we think so, too.”

Shampoo suddenly rushed in wagging her tail. Amanda was close behind. Shampoo was holding something in her mouth like a toy. She sat down and placed the object in front of William.

“Miller, please tell me Shampoo found the thirteenth civilian.”

“No, Captain, she found that,” said Amanda, pointing to the object Shampoo had had in her mouth. It was a charred shoe.

“Crap,” muttered William.

“Are we going to call her shoe now?” joked Simba.

“I’ll work on her, Captain, don’t worry. She seems to replace things related to humans at least, just never… humans.” Shampoo looked up at William with wide brown eyes and gave a playful bark.

William rolled his eyes at the dog. “It’s going to be a long day.”