Remote Control by Jack Heath Page A

pushed the button and waited for the doors to open. His heart was pounding in his chest as he felt the Spades agent draw nearer. They were sure to have seen him by now, so his fate depended on their orders. Apprehend and arrest King? If so, they would go to King’s office and leave Six alone. Locate and apprehend Agent Six of Hearts? Then they would attack him in a matter of seconds.
    The elevator doors slid open. Six walked in as casually and calmly as he could, and pushed the button for the ground floor.
    He waited for the doors to shut. Footsteps were drawing closer from either side—the agent who had been headed towardsKing’s office evidently hadn’t gone in. Both Spades were coming towards the elevator. Six jabbed the button for the ground floor again, even though he knew that wouldn’t make the doors close any quicker.
    The footsteps were very near now.
    Six sank into a close-quarters boxing stance: knees slightly bent, most body weight resting on his back leg, one forearm extended to guard his torso and his other fist hovering next to his cheek. A punch, no matter how strong or well placed, was inadequate next to an accurate bullet, but it seemed to be his only option. The setting was on his side—the enclosed space of the elevator leveled the playing field a little—optimum range for most pistols in combat was between two and eight meters, and the elevator was less than two meters square.
    The quiet footsteps stopped. Six sensed that the two agents were standing on either side of the elevator. He squeezed his fists tighter.
    The doors began to slide shut. There was a grunt of dismay from one of the Spades, who tried to stop them with his free hand. His fingers didn’t find the laser in time, and he pulled his hand back before it could be crushed between the doors.
    Six took a deep breath. There would be more Spades waiting for him in the lobby. He needed a plan of action.
    He had nothing he could use to disguise himself. He was still in the civvies he had worn to Shuji’s house—a long black coat, dark blue jeans, and grey running shoes. He couldn’t pass himself off as another agent.
    He could fight his way out, but where would that lead? The lobby could be full of people—Hearts and Diamonds. If Six tried to fight a squad of Spades in the presence of so many of his colleagues, some of them would almost certainly be hurt or killed.Enclosed gunfights always had collateral damage. Procedure dictated that once an agent was implicated in Code-breaking behavior, he was not allowed to leave Deck custody until he was proven innocent; all other considerations were secondary, including the life of the agent in question and that of any bystander caught in the cross fire. And it wasn’t as if the other agents could just leave for their own safety when the Spades showed up, because standard protocol was to put the Deck into lockdown status as soon as an agent became a suspect. No one could enter or leave.
    And then Six realized why the elevator hadn’t started moving towards the lobby yet. Lockdown status also means that all the elevators were frozen in place and could only be moved between floors with the approval of the Queen of Spades.
    He jammed his thumb against the door close button to stop the doors from sliding open when the elevator’s computer registered that it couldn’t leave the floor. Presumably the button could be remotely overridden by the Queen of Spades too, but with the two Spades waiting for him on the other side of the doors, he needed all the time he could get.
    “Why aren’t the doors opening?” one of the Spades outside the elevator whispered into his collar mike.
    “The system says the manual override has been engaged , ” his earpiece crackled. “The suspect must still have his finger on the CLOSE button. Give us five seconds to reconfigure access.”
    The Spade signaled to his counterpart on the other side by pointing his index finger at the doors, holding his fist in the air, and