Not a Crazed Gunman

 

Three things happened in rapid succession following Dyna firing her pistol.

The first was the most obvious effect. Having aimed outside the Thai restaurant, the glass window shattered. Dyna had aimed up at the diner’s signboard. She figured that was the safest place to put a bullet. Too high and it would fly off into the night, potentially hitting someone unintentional far off in the distance. Too low and she could hit a customer over at the restaurant. Even lower than that, and the bullet could ricochet off the pavement and still hit someone. Thanks to Ruby, Dyna felt fairly confident in her aiming. As such, she wasn’t surprised when the lights in the signboard vomited a shower of sparks before going dark.

The second thing to happen occurred within the Thai restaurant. People started panicking. That, Dyna also expected. If she didn’t know with absolute certainty what she was doing at this very moment, she would probably also panic at the ear-splitting crack of a gunshot going off a few tables away, the window shattering, and the idea that some crazed gunman had gotten their hands on a gun despite the reforms a few years back.

The third thing involved Dyna’s target. Not what she aimed at, but the reason she fired in the first place.

Harold, across the street, jerked up and whipped his head around for about one second. After that second, it must have registered with him just what that noise had been. And, potentially, who it had been directed at. Dyna wasn’t sure if he actually saw her across the way or if his mind just started imagining the possibilities. Either way, the result was him flailing his arms like he had a particularly vicious mosquito after him as he dove for cover.

The gunman whose perspective came through the mirror tried to follow him with their scope. They didn’t succeed. When he dove to the ground, he went entirely out of their view, hiding behind a series of seats. The perspective turned to the side, but before Dyna could see what they were planning on doing, the mirror went dark.

Mission accomplished?

No… Objective accomplished?

Dyna wasn’t even sure about that.

Her actions saved Harold’s life, probably. At least for the moment. She honestly wasn’t sure if that was a good thing or not.

And she still didn’t have time to think about it.

Dyna snatched Ruby’s phone and the mirror from the table. The former went into her pocket, though poked out awkwardly with the telescope attachment still stuck to it. The other, Dyna kept a tight grip on. It did work. She still didn’t know exactly when or how, but it worked.

More importantly, there was someone on the roof—probably the roof of the Thai restaurant—that might be coming after her now. The mirror could show their perspective. That would help. But Dyna didn’t know what to do or where the person was without them having eyes on… someone she was focused on. Maybe that was the trigger to activating the mirror?

She needed to meet up with Ruby. Dyna couldn’t see her anymore. There were no shadows moving about in the tinted windows of Harold’s car. Had she left it? Or was she hunkering down?

Dyna backed away from the shattered window, only for the mirror to light up again.

She had a split second to react to the perspective rushing toward her.

Dyna stepped aside. One step toward a table that had been knocked over as people tried to get away from her kept her just out of reach from someone trying to tackle her.

A full-on football tackle.

Dyna aimed her gun, only to realize that it was their waiter.

Without her in the way, Earl flew through the air and landed on his face. He hit hard and let out a groan.

“Sorry,” Dyna started, “I was just…” Just what? Shooting a gun in a public space? Trying to save the life of a traitorous slimebag? It wasn’t like she had time to explain anyway. The gunman—the real one, not her—could be coming down from the roof any moment now.

“Sorry,” Dyna said again before rushing to the door of the Thai restaurant. Sticking around was just asking for someone else to try to tackle her.

Dyna didn’t rush out into the street. Not knowing where the gunman was, they could be just about anywhere. They might still be on the roof, just unable to see anything that would activate Dyna’s now dormant artifact, or in the alley, or even a few streets over now trying to flee the location before they got caught.

Keeping close to the building to stay out of sight of anyone on the roof, Dyna hurried along until she was directly across from the small parking lot where she last saw Ruby.

Headlights flooded the street. Dyna tensed, grip tightening around both the mirror and her gun, until she realized that the headlights were coming from across the street. Harold’s car peeled out of the parking lot, crossed the street, and skidded to a stop just in front of Dyna.

“Get in!” Ruby shouted, barely audible with the windows closed.

Dyna didn’t hesitate. She pulled open the rear door and climbed inside as quickly as she could manage. Ruby slammed on the accelerator before Dyna even had the door closed.

“What happened? Are you alright?”

“We need to go back!”

“What? Why? Somebody shot at you.”

“I’m fine,” Dyna said. “I was the one who shot. I saw Harold hand over what looked like an artifact to someone. After, my mirror turned on and I saw someone taking aim at him through a scope from the roof. I figured me shooting would startle either him or the sniper and it worked, but I think they’re going to kill him!”

“So what? You said it yourself, he’s a traitor.”

“Yes,” Dyna said, “but… shouldn’t we figure out what he knows or what information he sold off? Make him stand trial? That was the first thing that popped into my head when I saw someone taking aim at him.” Ruby made a long, low grumbling noise as Dyna spoke. “And the artifact… If it is the Aztec calendar, Doctor Cross said it was extremely danger—”

Ruby let out a long groan. “Em and I spent six months tracking that thing down. Fine.”

The car continued down the road for just a few seconds before Ruby slammed on the brakes. It hadn’t even come to a full stop before she spun the wheel and hit the gas again. Dyna bounced around in the rear seat, having to grab hold of the passenger seat in front of her to try to stop herself. Throughout it all, she kept her grip on her mirror and gun.

In moments, they were rushing back down the street toward the diner and restaurant. People were slow to emerge from the restaurant even with Dyna’s departure, but there were a few people walking about outside, waving their arms and gesturing to the window as they probably told tall tales about how insane that crazy woman with the gun had been.

“I’ll handle the artifact. Send a text to Emerald—just tell her the street name and she’ll find us—and then find that traitor.”

“You’re leaving me?”

“I apparently have an artifact to track down. Again. And Emerald will be here literally instantly. Until she does appear, get inside and keep him away from windows until I or Emerald get to you. If he complains or doesn’t follow your orders, shoot him in the foot. It’s nearly impossible to kill someone by shooting them in the foot, so don’t worry. If he tries to attack you, shoot him center-mass. Several times.”

Dyna took a breath.

Her heart felt like it was trying to hammer its way out of her ribcage. It had only been a minute since she pulled out her gun and fired. Two at the most. Things were happening so fast.

And now she had to go find someone who probably wasn’t going to be at all happy to see her? Dyna was the one who said they needed to go back. She knew that. But…

Dyna took another breath. “Your phone,” she said, pulling it out of her pocket just in time for Ruby to skid the car to a stop in front of the diner’s main doors.

Ruby raised her eyebrows, looking a little less tense. “Glad I don’t have to explain why I lost that to Emerald,” she said, grabbing it, detaching the telescope, and slipping both parts into separate pockets of her jacket. A small pistol came out in the phone’s place. “Come on,” she said.

“I haven’t texted—”

The door slammed shut as Ruby left, rounded the car to the passenger side, and waved a hand for Dyna to join her.

Dyna hesitated, looking around both with the mirror and with her own eyes. There had just been a sniper around, and yet Ruby stood out in the open. She had mentioned that, right? It didn’t slip Ruby’s mind, right?

Finding no immediate cause for alarm, Dyna switched the mirror to the same hand she held the gun with. It was a bit awkward to hold up against the grip, but let her see its currently dark lenses and open the door at the same time. The moment the door was open, she pulled out her phone. Dyna wouldn’t claim that one handed texting was a specialty of hers, but she had a short message sent off to Emerald before they reached the door to the diner.

“He gave the artifact to someone dressed like an employee, right?”

“In a takeout box.”

“What did the guy look like?”

“I… took pictures?”

Ruby nodded. “Find your traitor.” With that said, she sprinted off toward the kitchen area of the diner.

Dyna took a good look around. The diner was less crowded than the Thai restaurant had been, and that hadn’t been all that crowded at all. A uniformed staff member stood behind a glass counter filled with pies, cookies, and other deserts, looking around like he wasn’t sure what to do. A small family sat at a corner table, watching out the window at the activity across the street. A few other customers sat around, either staring out the window or looking toward the side of the diner where Harold had been. Nobody was in any amount of panic.

Was Harold the only one to realize that the sound had been a gunshot? Being across the street and behind fairly thick glass, it had probably been muffled, but guns were loud. It couldn’t have been muffled that much.

Dyna turned to where Harold had been, keeping her gun down at her side and hopefully out of sight while still keeping it ready. He wasn’t up in the seats, of course. Dyna didn’t see him at all. With one of the employees having rushed after Ruby to, presumably, keep her from getting into trouble in the back, Dyna was free to walk across the diner floor. She kept well away from the windows. Although she trusted the mirror a little more than she had a few hours ago, she still didn’t want to take any chances.

If she couldn’t see the rooftop, whoever was on the rooftop wouldn’t be able to see or shoot her.

Hopefully.

Harold wasn’t at his table in the diner. He wasn’t hunkered down beneath it. Nor was he hiding around any of the nearby booths.

Where would he have gone?

If Dyna thought someone was shooting at her, she would have gotten as far from the windows as humanly possible. Harold wouldn’t have known that someone was on the roof. If he saw the shattered window across the road or if he saw Dyna holding a gun, he would believe the shooter was on level floor with him. That meant getting away sooner rather than sitting around and waiting for someone to show up.

Ruby had hijacked his car. He wouldn’t have known that without rushing out into the open, however.

Speaking from personal experience, Dyna would have rushed off into the back alley, heading as far from the noise as possible. Perhaps while trying to call up Beatrice again. Or Emerald. Wasn’t the woman supposed to be able to teleport? She should be here by now.

Dyna almost pulled out her phone to try one of the two of them—either for Beatrice to try tracking Harold down or just to find out where Emerald was—but her mirror lighting up made her jump to the side preemptively.

Except it wasn’t someone attacking her this time. Nor was it someone attacking anyone else.

Someone peeked, carefully and slowly, through a narrow crack in a door. They spotted Dyna and promptly slammed the door shut once more.

Dyna heard the door with her own ears. And before the mirror blanked once again, she caught sight of a sink and a toilet.

Her head whipped over to the restroom.

That would have been the proper angle for the perspective. Someone had looked at her, presumably with less than pleasant intent, from there. Given the skittish mannerisms, she doubted it was an assassin.

Hurrying to the bathroom, Dyna stopped in front of the door, keeping just to the side. Was Harold armed? She hadn’t seen any evidence of that, but that didn’t mean he wasn’t. With him obviously under stress, barging in could wind up with her being shot before he even realized who it was. Or maybe he would instantly realize who it was and shoot anyway thinking that she was here to kill him.

“Here, try this.”

Dyna leaped at the pleasant tone behind her. She managed to twist in the air, raising her pistol on the way back down. Her finger tightened around the trigger before she could stop herself from shooting at the green-haired woman.

But by the time the bullet tore through the air, Emerald wasn’t there any more. The bullet ripped through an empty space before harmlessly hitting the painted brick wall not far from an empty booth.

“Decent reflexes. You would do better if you hadn’t jumped, though.”

Dyna whipped back around to find a smiling woman tossing a small, cylindrical grenade up and down in the air. “Emerald,” Dyna hissed. “What the fu—”

“Dyna,” Emerald started in the most admonishing voice Dyna had ever heard. “Here, toss this in there. I’ll handle the people.”

“Wha—”

Emerald tossed the grenade up in the air one more time, this time turning away without catching it. Dyna, hands full with a gun and mirror, fumbled with the heavy cylinder before managing to pin it to her chest with her mirror arm.

Meanwhile, Emerald called out to the diner. “Apologies, everyone. Don’t worry. Everything is under control.” She waved around a… badge? What kind of badge did she have that would explain this situation?

Probably not a real badge, given how quickly she hid it again.

“While everything is under control, I recommend everyone please depart in a calm and orderly fashion.”

Was it really that easy? Flash a fake badge around and everyone just up and files out? Given the ashen faces on the small family, they probably would have been leaving one way or another after a gun just went off—the second gunshot of the evening. Probably in a far greater panic than they were now too.

Really, Emerald didn’t even look all that trustworthy. She didn’t have a uniform or even the mildest of authoritative tones to her voice. Emerald was just a woman in a light green cardigan and simple dress. It looked more like she was on her way to church than anyone who should be waving around a badge.

Despite Dyna thinking that she wouldn’t trust Emerald in such a situation, it worked. Maybe her psychic ability was actually a bit of mind control.

“Well? Why haven’t you tossed that in yet?”

Dyna blinked and looked down at the grenade still pinned against her chest. “I don’t know how to use this.”

“Easy. Just pull the pin and toss.” To demonstrate, she grabbed the grenade back, pulled the pin, slammed her shoulder into the door, threw it inside, then grabbed hold of the handle and pulled the door shut. All in one smooth motion before Dyna could even try to stop her.

“I didn’t want to kill him!”

“Relax,” Emerald said despite the frantic hammering on the door. A thundering boom shook the walls. She gently shoved the door open, revealing a room filled with misty white smoke and Harold.

Harold wasn’t on his feet, but groaning on the floor with his hands clamped over his ears.

“Stun grenade. Mostly non-lethal. His ears will be ringing for a good ten minutes at least, he probably won’t walk straight for a bit, and he’ll be blind for the next ten seconds with some afterimages burned into his eyes for a few minutes longer.”

“I…”

“Zip ties?” she said, producing a few long and thick strips of plastic. Instead of tying him up herself, she held them out for Dyna. “Where’s Ruby?”

“He handed an artifact over to someone,” Dyna said, nodding down to Harold. “The Aztec calendar, I think it was? She’s tracking it down.”

Emerald’s eyes widened for just a moment before she nodded her head. “I’ll be right back,” she said as she wound the stem of her pocket watch.

“Wait!”

Emerald didn’t. The woman vanished, leaving Dyna with a groaning Harold and a small collection of zip ties. With a long groan, Dyna flicked the safety on her gun and slid it back into the holster under her jacket.

“Hands behind your back,” she said, kneeling with one large tie at the ready.

He didn’t comply. Dyna wasn’t even sure if he heard her. The smoke made her cough a bit as she stepped into the room, but he didn’t put up more than a token struggle as she dragged his arms behind his back. Rather than try to keep him still while she tried to figure out how best to tie his hand with one zip tie, she put one around each wrist like a tight bracelet then hooked both bracelets together with a third.

That should keep him. At least until Emerald or Ruby returned.

Now…

Now what? Dyna couldn’t relax yet. There was still that sniper out there. Probably more people than just that who wanted Harold dead before he could spill the beans on his conspirators. At least one person in the restaurant was a traitor too. Probably from the same group that wanted Harold dead. They might have fled with the artifact—probably had given that neither Emerald or Ruby had come back—but that didn’t mean that they were the only ones out there.

Just as Dyna wondered who might show up to finish the job, a loud beeping noise started up.

She tensed, only for a heavy deluge from the overhead sprinklers to crash down on top of her.

“Great. Lovely.” It took mere seconds for her to wind up completely soaked. The water wasn’t warm either. “Can you stand?” she shouted down at Harold. “We need to get you out of here.”

His car was the best option. It was the fastest way of removing themselves from this spot. The sniper might still be outside, but with the mirror, Dyna would have a heads up.

She could make it. They could just drive off aimlessly. Maybe toward the arcade? The long open stretch of road between the city and the institute didn’t sound like a good direction to go. Yes, the arcade would be best. She would be able to communicate where she was to Emerald and Ruby when they contacted her. The mirror would warn her of any approaching danger. And… that was it?

Nothing could go wrong.

Grabbing Harold by the back of his collar, Dyna hauled him to his feet.

She had a plan. Now she just needed to follow it.