Without warning

Heather stared around the car park as if seeing it for the first time. Her face contorted and Kip was sure she was about to start crying again, but she got it under control. Her voice was small and seemed forever on the edge of breaking into a thousand little shards.

‘Th… they were just fine, everyone waiting their turn, until these three pick-ups arrived.’ She pointed with a shaky hand at a couple of abandoned trucks a hundred yards away. Kipper could only see two of them, but didn’t interrupt her. ‘A-about a dozen guys,’ she stammered. ‘All armed, and they like, just pushed in.’

Kipper shook his head. ‘What about the army, the cops – where were they? There was supposed to be a platoon of soldiers here to help out.’

Heather volleyed back his headshake with one of her own, throwing in a nervous, exaggerated shrug for good measure. ‘I don’t know. But these guys, like I said, they just started pushing their way to the front, and some people are yelling at them, some are just getting out of the way. And this one guy, some big guy in a lumber-jacket, a big red lumber-jacket, he just steps in front of them and puts his hand up like a traffic cop or something.’

‘Okay,’ said Kipper. ‘Go on,’ he added in a quiet voice.

‘Well, one of these jerks, from the pick-ups, he had like an axe handle or something, and he just butt-swipes this dude with it. Totally wipes him out. He goes down and then the shooting starts.’

‘The pick-up truck guys, the looters, they started shooting people?’ asked Kipper, his voice rising.

‘Nope. They got shot. Or at least the one with the axe handle did. He dropped the lumberjack dude, looked like he was about to start pounding on him with that club, next thing you know, somebody blew him away. Two or three shots – I’m not sure. But there’s blood everywhere, people screaming and then the real shooting started.’

Kipper felt as though he was going to vomit. There had to be more than a dozen lifeless bodies lying around in the parking lot. There’d probably be more in the streets beyond. Where the fuck were the army guys? They were supposed to have been here-they’d insisted on it, in fact.

‘How about you, Heather?’ he asked her. ‘Are you okay? You got a little blood on you, darlin’. You’re not hurt, are you?’

‘I don’t know where all the guns came from,’ she said, ignoring his concern. ‘But once they were out, it was like everyone was armed. Everyone was shooting. I’ve never seen anything like it. There was a little girl… standing just near me… She was screaming and crying for… for her mom… and…’ The young woman broke down completely now, as the morning’s blood and horror overwhelmed her.

Barney reappeared with a police officer, an older-looking man with sergeant’s stripes. ‘You in charge here, sir?’ the policeman asked, almost accusingly.

‘What? Yes, no… well, I…’ Kipper pulled himself together. ‘My name’s Kipper,’ he said. ‘James Kipper, city engineer. We were starting our food aid program here this morning. The city’s running the program, with help from Costco, here at least, but the army were meant to be doing the site management and security. So, no, I’m not in charge. Nobody was, by the look of things.’

The cop took in the scene with unalloyed disgust on his face. ‘You know, the fucking city could have just used us. This wouldn’t have happened on my watch, I tell you.’

More cops were arriving and the first of the paramedics were charging around, doing triage.

‘I don’t make these choices, Sergeant,’ Kip replied. ‘I’m like you – a civil servant. We do as we’re told.’ It sounded weak and worthless as it came out of his mouth, and he immediately regretted speaking.

The cop fixed him with a baleful glare. ‘Well, don’t you be wandering off, Mr Kipper. I’ll be needing to speak to you again.’ He turned his back on the three engineers with that, and trotted over to a couple of uniformed officers, barking orders as he went.

‘Jesus, what a fucking mess,’ said Barney.

‘Uh-uh,’ grunted Kip. ‘We’d better find out what broke down, do what we can to help, then get back to council. We’ll call the city councillors, tell them what’s happened.’

Tench looked troubled. ‘I tried, Kip. But none of them are available.’

‘What d’you mean?’ he snapped, instantly regretting it. ‘Sorry. It’s just I keep hearing this – it’s bullshit. Where are they?’

His friend shrugged. ‘I even tried a few home phones and their cells, but nothing. And if you call Municipal Tower you just get routed into phone-menu hell out at Fort Lewis.’

‘Why? How come our calls are going out there?’

‘Not ours, just the councillors’. When you call them direct, I mean.’

Kip started walking Heather over towards an ambulance. She had zoned out. She was looking shocked and pale and he wanted to get her cared for as quickly as possible. The paramedics, however, had their hands full with more serious casualties.