At Your Service (Book Two)

Chapter 22: Pragmatism In Motion

Eventually, after fleeing from the uniformed mob that chased them down all over backstage, Swift and Tom ended up in a strange, massive room. The air felt warmer and the scent was different, bitterly stabbing their sense of smell. The both of them winced as soon as they stepped into the room. They noticed what they stepped on, which was a piece of hay bale.

"Oh, shit," Swift remarked, scanning the massive room further. The huge space held dozens of animal cages, with various circus animals within such as birds, lions, dogs, tigers, horses, monkeys, and even elephants that were in the biggest cage. The caged animals kept on making noises that dampened the music playing in the main stage area.

One of the tigers growled at the two boys' presence, which startled Tom slightly that he backed away as if the echo of its growl pushed him.

"They went through here!" A man shouted back in the corridor. The two of them acknowledged the voice and ran into the holding room. They took cover behind one of the animal cages that held more than three monkeys that hung around the cage, not making any noise, unlike the other animals. The monkeys didn't look that dangerous, but they still kept their distance nonetheless.

Eventually, a uniformed man entered the animal enclosure with a circus cane in his hand. He was expecting to see Swift and Tom right in the open, who was unbeknownst to him was hiding behind a cage. They had their heads peeking around the corner, patiently waiting for the man to take his leave when suddenly, the monkeys yelled out.

They screeched and screamed in a high volume, alerting the uniformed man to glance at the cage, spotting Swift and Tom behind it. "Hey!" He shouted, charging at them with his cane ready.

Out of the blue, Swift had an idea after spacing out scanning the room and its entirety. He particularly took note of the animals that were held. Wild animals. Wild enough to cause a ruckus and panic in the circus. If that wouldn't be enough to destroy Santiago's ego, he's unsure what would. After all, he noticed Tom was running short of bullets. A little helping hand would be nice.

"Give me that!" Swift then took the gun from Tom's hand and shot the door lock on the monkeys' cage, a metal ricochet resulted. Then he pulled open the cage door outwards, making sure he and Tom were on the other side of the door to not attract the monkeys' attention.

When the monkeys let themselves out of the cage, they were somewhat perplexed, crawling all over the floor because of how easy it was to just walk out. Then the monkeys looked to their left, having the uniformed man in sight. The man, not taking it seriously, chuckled. "Really? What do you think that's gonna do?"

"This." After unplugging the suppressor from its barrel, Swift takes a shot at the floor next to one of the monkeys. The loud gunshot was enough to startle the monkey and indirectly command it to shriek, continued by a set of loud screeching and prompting by the other monkeys to do the same.

Erratically, the monkeys ran here and there with unpredictability. Even one of them climbed one of the cages and darted across the narrow metal bar before jumping off from it onto the man's face, causing him to panic and move aimlessly until he ran out of the room. Several of the other monkeys followed the panicking man.

"Well, that worked," Swift commented. He shared a mischievous look at Tom afterwards, who immediately knew what he was up to, something dangerous and irresponsible

"Oh, hell no. You're not doing that." Tom warned.

"Oh, hell yes I am!" Swift pushed the door allowing him to run out of the corner followed by Tom. Without listening to Tom's pleas, Swift effortlessly shot the cage locks one by one as he ran across the room. He figured the animals were smart enough to push the door by themselves. The locks bounced off their cages against the bullets Swift sent to them.