I moved as quickly as I could to the basement on the off-chance that they decided to wait to see if the fire was legit, or if they hadn't finished loading Rarity yet. Thankfully, the building had cleared out, so I had a clear path to my destination. I held out my shotgun in front of me, quickly looking around corners to see if anyone was coming before walking down every hallway. Somehow I managed to do that and be speedy on my way down to the basement. If Stephenson hadn't called down, and, injured as he was, I was pretty sure he hadn't, then I could make it with no incidents.
I reached the final floor and gently opened the door noticing the right that Stephenson had pointed out for me. The basement itself was empty, though. I did see, with some chagrin, tire skid marks leading away from me. Fresh, too, if the coloration was an indication. I gritted my teeth and quickly walked up to the door with the keypad, keeping my shotgun level the whole time. I reached it and punched in the key code: 7-9-4-9. The red light next to the keypad instantly turned green, and I heard the sound of a lock being undone. I threw the door open and rushed inside, not even caring that if they had laid a trap for me in here, I'd be screwed.
At first glance, though, the laboratory seemed as empty as the rest of the garage.
I cursed and began doing a sweep of the rooms. Nobody around, but I could tell that they had left in a hurry. Papers had been scattered all over the floor, while filing cabinets and closets had been flung open and emptied. I moved further into the laboratory, stopping when I felt my foot hit something. I looked down, and my eyes narrowed.
It was a vial of blood marked "Rarity sample 15".
If they thought that I wasn't going to start using force before. I know Stephenson said something about them tracing the magic in her blood, but seeing it laid out before my like this... Somebody needed to die for this. If I wasn't in a hurry, I'd run back up to Stephenson and finish him off. This... no. Too far.
The rest of the search proved uneventful. Everyone had left. I'd probably missed them by twenty minutes. But that meant that I was only twenty minutes behind them. I ran back through the laboratory to get back to my car, when something caught my eye in one of the half-open containers. I knelt down and picked it up, smiling when I realized what I held.
A bullet-proof vest.
That'd probably come in handy if push came to shove. If I got Rarity and found myself in a firefight, then it'd be good protection for her while I tried to deal with things. I stood up and threw the vest on before continuing out of the laboratory, feeling a little emboldened with the extra protection.
I ran in the direction of the skid marks until I reached a large garage door. I found the control panel for it and raised the door, sliding under it when I had enough room. Still no sign of anyone setting a trap for me. Good, that meant that they didn't know why the fire alarm had gone off, and thus didn't expect me to be following them. That would give me a slight advantage. Seeing no one who posed a threat, I put my shotgun back in my bag and ran towards my car. I hoped that any responders were letting people leave, otherwise I'd be in trouble. I'd do whatever I had to do to get out of the area and to the people holding Rarity, but the cops getting involved would significantly impede my progress.
I circled the building until I reached the front, where a large crowd had gathered. I couldn't see any smoke coming from inside the building, so the sprinklers seemed to be doing their job. It didn't matter to me by that point. I'd gotten the information I needed.
As I made my way toward my car, I saw a group of paramedics running out of the building, rolling a stretcher alongside them.
A stretcher carrying Stephenson.
He didn't seem to be responsive, as I saw no movement from him. He already had an oxygen mask on, and a few medics had started working on his knees to stem the bleeding. When one of them put pressure on his left knee, he groaned and began convulsing a little from the pain. His eyes open and he looked around the crowd as a nurse tried to comfort him.
We made eye contact for a brief moment.
His eyes widened, and he looked up at the nurse and began slowly pointing a finger in my direction, trying to make some kind of noise. Being strapped down and undoubtedly in a ton of pain, his efforts didn't have the most success, something that suited me just fine. Still, I didn't need to hang around in case he did manage to get their attention, so I resumed my trek back to my car. Thankfully I'd parked it far enough away that nobody really paid attention to it, allowing me to get in and start it up. A few people looked in my direction, but no one made any effort to stop me. No cops had seen me yet, so I pressed the gas pedal and drove away, trying to hurry yet remain inconspicuous.
Every few seconds I glanced into my rear-view mirror, half expecting to see a fleet of police cars starting to chase me. That would be pretty much the worst. I couldn't save Rarity if I was doing life in prison. If I made it that far. If this company was the kind who had no problem sending assassins after twenty somethings if they thought that they were a threat, then I'd be shivved in prison no question. Seeing no one follow me, though, I pressed down on the gas pedal a little more and sped away from the chaos of my own making behind me.
* * * *
I started gaining speed once I reached a more deserted area of the state. I began to hope that I would reach the convoy before they got to their base, otherwise I'd probably never get Rarity back. I might as well be infiltrating a fortress. I quickly came to realize that if I could get Rarity back before they arrived, I'd have a much better chance of getting away with her.
Of course, they already had a nice head start on me, and probably wouldn't be moving very slowly to boot. I grimaced and pushed the gas pedal down a little more.
An hour went by. Nothing. Another hour. Still no sign of a convoy, or any other cars for that matter. Either they had an even bigger head start than I thought, or Stephenson was lying about where they were going, and I shattered his knees for nothing other than catharsis. With him unavailable, I'd never be able to get Rarity back. Not without serious luck, and a lot of help I had no reason to suspect would arrive.
Gosh, I was starting to miss Celestia. I hated that a lot.
As I continued to drive, I saw something in the distance. Something that looked like... dust. As in the sort of dust that a car that was moving rather quickly would make. I made sure that I could reach my gun if I needed it and sped up. Within minutes my suspicions were confirmed: I had found a convoy of four black SUVs, all driving in the direction of the lab I'd been told about.
I'd bet my life that one of them had Rarity in them.
I pulled out my gun and rolled down my window, ready to open fire on the cars if need be. I found my suspicions confirmed rather quickly when a man in a suit leaned out of the back windows of the car directly in front of me holding a pistol.
I swerved to avoid the incoming gunfire, and ducked behind the steering wheel as the bullets shattered my windshield. I popped my head up and returned fire, causing the other guy to duck for cover. The convoy sped up, causing me to do the same. I needed to find out which car had Rarity. Then stop the convoy and get her out. Then get away. Ideally without killing anyone. If I caused the cars to crash, Rarity could be hurt. I needed to make them stop before the situation got too far out of control.
I floored the gas pedal and rammed my car into the back of the one in front of me, just as the guy with the gun popped out of the back window again. He struggled to stay in the car, but in the process, he dropped his gun on the road. One less problem, I guess. I rammed the back of the car again, causing it to ram into the car in front of it. The driver of the second car swerved a little bit, but managed to get back in formation without going off the road. Good thing, too, as I suspected that Rarity would be in one of the middle cars. Given the damage to the back car, it slowed down enough that I managed to speed past it to get on the side of the car in front of it. The driver and I exchanged glares before I rammed my car into his, making him swerve again. He didn't manage to get control before the car behind collided with him, knocking them both out of the running.
Before I could stop to see if either car had Rarity, I took a glance at the third car in the convoy.
What I saw made my heart stop.
One of the men inside had a gun drawn, but not at me. Instead, he had it pointed at the temple of a muzzled, sobbing Rarity. Ignoring the other cars, I sped up to meet this one, but the man jostled Rarity in his grasp. The message was clear: stop this or I'll kill her.
I had mere seconds to make a choice. On one hand, he might kill her as revenge for everything. On the other, Rarity was one of the most valuable commodities in the world right now. She had made several people extremely rich. If this jerk killed her, they'd never find the pieces of him, and I doubted that he didn't know that.
I had one shot at this. If it failed, I'd get us both killed.
Taking a deep breath, I let go of the steering wheel and grabbed my gun with both hands, even as my mind screamed at me that this was a stupid thing to do. I took aim at the guy holding Rarity and squeezed off one shot just as I released my breath.
Time slowed to a crawl as the bullet sailed forward. My car began swerving now that I had let go of the steering wheel at this speed, but I didn't focus on that. I focused on my target. Just like my job in the shooting range. Steady, relaxed, deep breath. Focus on where the target will be when you fire.
The man's head snapped back as the bullet entered his forehead. He instantly went limp and dropped both his gun and Rarity. I gasped and grabbed my steering wheel, just as my car began spinning out of control. Now that I knew Rarity's location, I needed to get her out of there. It took me a few precious seconds, but I finally managed to regain control of my car. I floored it again and reached the SUV holding Rarity. I pointed my gun out of the windshield once more and fired a shot right into the back left wheel.
Now, action movies would have you believe that such a shot causes the car to swerve and flip over a dozen times before blowing into an abstract shape that vaguely resembles Michael Bay. While it's naturally not good for the tire to lose air that rapidly, it won't quite do that.
Except for maybe the swerving part.
The driver tried his best to get control of the car before I could get to him, but he spun out of control just long enough for me to pass him and move my car in his way. The lead car in the convoy slammed on its brakes before turning around to deal with me. Now that I'd taken the car holding Rarity out of commission, they didn't have any reason to keep going forward. I quickly grabbed my gun bag and hopped out of the passenger side of the car. I pulled out my Smith & Wesson and emptied the chamber into the windshield of the car coming at me. It started swerving wildly out of control. Seems I'd hit the driver. It crashed into a ditch on the side of the road, and when nobody got out of it to get after me, I turned around and ran towards the car holding Rarity, shotgun in hand. The driver saw me coming and started backing up, but pointing my gun at his head seemed to stop that nonsense. He hit the brakes and raised his hands to his head.
I took a deep breath and rushed up to the car, keeping my gun trained on the driver. Once I got close enough, I opened the door and backed away, motioning for the driver to get out with my gun.
"If you cooperate, no one else has to get hurt," I said, glaring at him. "You and everybody else in there had better get out of the car before I start getting annoyed."
"Yeah, sure," the driver croaked out.
"And no guns, of course. That should go without saying."
"Of course."
I took another step back and watched as the car doors opened and three people in suits got out. They opened up their jackets and turned their pockets out to show me that they were unarmed.
"On your knees, and don't try anything funny," I said through gritted teeth. "I really don't want to have to spill any more blood than I already have, but I will if I have to, got it?"
The three nodded and got on their knees, keeping their hands at head level. Content that they wouldn't give me any problems, I rushed to the back of the car and threw the trunk open.
And there she was.
Rarity lay curled up into a ball, shivering next to the corpse of the guy who had a gun to her head. I put my gun down on the floor of the car, reached forward, and gently took her muzzle off. Her speech returned, her sobs grew louder as I put my hand on her back.
"Hey, it's okay, Rarity. I've got you now," I said in my best soothing tone. She flinched back when I touched her, but at the sound of my voice, she stopped shivering and looked up at me with wide, watery eyes.
"F-Father?" she whispered after a moment. "Is it really you?"
I smiled, already feeling tears welling up in my own eyes, and nodded. "Yeah, it's me. I'm here to get you out of here, okay? I'm going to make sure that nobody ever even thinks about taking you away from me again. You're safe now."
Rarity sniffled and wiped her eyes with her hoof as I reached into the car and lifted her out of it, holding her close to me and letting her rest her head on my shoulder.
And for a brief moment, we both allowed ourselves to cry.