Out of the Black - Lee Doty [30]
Her gun left her holster quicker than the eye could follow. The draw was textbook perfect, no telegraphing, almost silent, directly on target with little wasted motion. Ping made a mental note to compliment her on it if they both survived the next few moments.
There was only one person in the room who had a better draw. Ping's left hand intercepted her gun so softly she didn't at first register that she'd lost control of the weapon. His left hand drew her pistol across her body and off the fighting line between them while his gun left his holster. His right hand extended out over his left arm and his gun stopped, hovering before her right eye. The small 2mm hole in the barrel hung cavern-large in her vision.
"That was a pretty good draw." He said conversationally.
"You too." The woman said with only slight pause to find her voice.
"Shooting a police officer is a serious offense." Ping continued as if discussing the weather.
"Yeah, so I'd advise you not to do it." She came back right away. Her hard eyes were still dusted with tears, but they didn't flinch away from his, despite the intervening and presumably distracting gun before one eye. She was tough, which made her even more distractingly beautiful, if that were possible.
She glanced aside to Ahmed quickly, "So much for your Amp."
"Told you he had a killer draw." Ahmed said, pressing himself farther back into the couch.
Ping favored them with an amused smile, "Why'd you try to shoot me?"
"I wasn't going to shoot you... maybe just tie you up."
"I am greatly comforted."
"You don't get it!" she said, defiant in her desperation, "They should have already been here! No way are they going to take out Ivo and Roy and leave Alex alive."
"Disgruntled history students?" Ping droned out the irony.
"Listen! If we don't get out of here right now, we'll end up like Ivo."
"Then you'd better start talking. Let's start with the dreaded 'they'. Who would 'they' be?"
"No, detective," Alex said with an air of finality, "not here, not now. If three SWAT teams were here with full air support, they wouldn't be able to help us."
"I'm listening."
"No, you're not." The woman said, "We've got to go! Now!"
"This is getting us nowhere." Ahmed said, "I'll have to show him."
"Show me what?" Ping arched an eyebrow and shifted his gaze to Ahmed.
Ahmed gestured to the computer desk.
"If you let go of the gun, he can show me whatever he wants." Ping said.
The woman nodded and released her pistol, which was already under Ping's hand. He slid it into his jacket pocket. He moved his pistol back to the ready position, parallel with the ground near his ribs, not pointing it directly at either of them. He backed up a step "OK, slowly now."
Ahmed stood and went to the computer desk. Ping gestured for the woman to follow where he could keep an eye on her. At the desk, Ahmed placed his palm on the lock plate and the desktop bloomed to life with multiple 3D windows of something that looked like visualizations of abstract math or particle physics.
"History papers?"
"Research Ivo had me working on." He gave a tight smile over his shoulder as he closed the visualizations. "I really don' know what it is yet, but that's a longer story than we have time for." He opened another application and began some simple configuration. Ping jumped as beat-heavy trance music filled the air and colors began to pass over the display in syncopation with the rhythm.
"You are not about to play me your favorite song or something..." Ping said, surprised for the hundredth time since midnight.
That got an amused chuckle. "This will only take a few seconds, but I'm going to need to concentrate. Please try to whisper if you need to talk, and absolutely no flash photography is permitted." He cracked his knuckles and hunched toward the display.
The music was jarring at first, but then became hypnotic... Ping rather liked it. It was deeply layered and filled with complimentary beat structures. He holstered his weapon and looked at the woman inquisitively. She raised her hands and shook her head with a "don't