When the rains may come (Science Fiction)

62. This was the easy part

The Line tower was seven stories tall and the residence of all the important bureaucrats and officials working in Kraunberg. However, calling it a residence was being too generous. It was more of a second workplace to everyone who lived there.

Clerks from the embassy or the officers from the Seat of Authority kept visiting the place with files in hands, papers to sign, decisions to be made off the bureaucratic setting. Hardly anyone living there was a normal civilian coming back to his family after a long day at work. Hardly anyone living there kept their families in the tower. It wasn't a home to anyone. It was just a place to rest before going back to work.

So Line was no stranger to being a busy hive of activity. But that evening, the tower was quite empty.

Griess and Neiman were the steel heads guarding the front entrance of the place during the seven o'clock shift. They had their rifles on their shoulders and their hands hung at their sides.

"It's really boring today, Neiman."

"It is."

"I mean, I've been coming to stand here at this gate for the past month at the same time. Even though it's just standing around with a gun, it has never been this...quiet." Griess looked at the huge empty parking lot he was facing. Just a single sedan stood at a spot. That made the lot look emptier somehow.

"Gotta agree with you on that one."

"Why is it so quiet today?"

"Just rumors, but I heard the Seat is up to something big."

"Like what?"

"I don't know exactly. It's just something really important that is keeping everyone busy. Something related to the war, I hear. That's the reason why this place looks so empty today." Griess swept his hand over the empty parking lot.

Neiman was frowning at the lone car. "That's his car, isn't it?"

Griess nodded. "Yes, it is."

"He is a weirdo."

"He is."

"How many times have you ever seen him leave the building?"

"In the past month? Just five times. I've been keeping count."

"Seems like the least busy guy living at Line."

"Or maybe the most important one. Who knows?" Griess shrugged. "Maybe he has all the people coming to visit him."

"Still a weirdo."

"Agreed."

After a brief pause, Griess said, "How long do you think the war is gonna go on for?"

Before Neiman could answer, bright light exploded into their visions, making them wince and squint. And then the machine gun went off.

The two steel heads only had enough time to dive away from the main entrance, their visions still hazy. The machine gun was still unloading its ammo into the big entrance door, stripping it bare of all its glinting glass.

Griess had to blink several times as he crouched behind a trash can a few feet away.

"What the hell is that thing?!" Neiman shouted over the sound of gunshots.

"Damned if I knew!"

The blinding floodlight still blocked the visibility of the vehicle but after straining long enough to see, they made out the silhouette of a truck and the auto machine gun turret on its roof and the face of the floodlight under its muzzle. But that was about it.