mosaic of texture and shade that reminded Persey of a piece she’d once seen in a modern art museum.
But…Mackenzie mouthed rather than said; the words had no sound, just air. But you…
Persey had no idea what she was going to say. With a groan, Mackenzie collapsed onto the floor.
“Is…Is she…?” Neela swallowed. “Dead?”
“I sincerely hope so,” Kevin said. He approached Mackenzie’s body, gun still gripped in his hand, and bent down, feeling for a pulse. With a sharp exhale, he leaned back on his heels, the gun dropping to the floor, forgotten. “She’s dead.”
“I should feel something,” Neela said, her calm returning. “But I really don’t. She wasn’t a very nice person, and apparently, she’s the reason we’re here.”
Kevin pushed himself to his feet. “I’m going to fire up the wood chipper, and then maybe we can all go home?”
Persey cringed. “Is that really necessary?”
“I don’t make the rules.” He pointed to the domed camera. “Don’t worry. You ladies just chill. I’ll take care of this.”
He walked over to the wood chipper and began searching for an on button while Persey continued to stare at Mackenzie’s body. She half expected to see her move for the gun, and despite not wanting to go anywhere near the body, she inched toward it and snagged the gun away.
A deafening roar erupted in the room, like metal grating against metal, and Persey and Neela both jerked away from the wood chipper, wedging their backs to the white wall. Persey tucked the gun into the waistband of her cargo pants before shoving her fingers into her ears, desperate to dampen the noise. She stood huddled against the wall until she felt Neela nudge her with an elbow, motioning toward the opposite side of the room. Right. They didn’t want to be anywhere near that chute when the body went in. The last thing she needed was to be body-painted in Mackenzie chum.
They sidled down the wall to the opposite side of the room while Kevin returned to the body and gave them a thumbs-up before lifting Mackenzie and throwing her over his shoulder. Persey wanted to close her eyes, and yet somehow she couldn’t. It was like watching news footage of a multi-car pileup: you knew it was going to end badly, but you can’t look away.
Kevin was debating the best way to insert the lifeless corpse into the wood chipper, when Persey felt something. A thud against her back.
At first she thought it was Neela trying to get her attention, but a glance to her right proved that Neela was practically in the fetal position by her side, head tucked beneath her arm, refusing to watch.
She felt it again, stronger this time. And more than one. It felt like something or someone was pounding on the wall from behind them.
From the other side.
From the exit.
“Neela!” she screamed into the deafening roar. “Do you feel that?” She couldn’t even hear her own voice and was pretty sure that Neela couldn’t either. But her heart began to race as Kevin decided that headfirst was the way to go. Someone was outside this room trying to get inside.
Lifting with his legs, Kevin managed to flop Mackenzie’s body off his shoulder and onto the short conveyor belt. It took all of five seconds for the belt to drag the corpse into the machine and then the metal grinding that filled the room shifted to a heavier, wetter sound, and instantly, a splatter of chunky red gore shot out the other end, spackling the white wall like a giant paintball pellet.
Kevin stared at the wall, nodding in appreciation of his handiwork while the wood chipper’s deafening roar continued to fill the room. Persey dashed over to the control panel and switched it off, letting out a slow breath as the gears wound down. Maybe now she’d be able to tell where that pounding was coming from.
“Tango Yankee,” Kevin said with a salute.
“Huh?” Persey asked.
“It’s the NATO phonetic alphabet,” Neela explained. “Tango for T. Yankee for Y. Meaning, thank you. For turning off the chipper.”
“What’s the word for the letter L?”
“Lima.”
Persey didn’t even pause to offer an explanation. The word was hardly out of Neela’s mouth when Persey yanked the gun from the back of her pants and pointed it straight at Kevin. “You.”
Kevin stood preternaturally still. “What about me?”
“Mackenzie was right. There was someone working the inside, making sure that Wes did most of the dirty work before getting rid of him too.”