The rod whooshed through the air and struck a critical point on the runner’s skull. The runner fell back down the stairs, wordlessly, apparently rendered unconscious before his awful tumble.
Having witnessed agent Branson’s single-handed heroics in the front foyer, the teams proceeded along their divergent courses with renewed conviction. Narrow passages, successive doors, and dimly lit hall lights were all elements of familiar exercise settings that helped to ameliorate the tower assault. Few of the inhabitants in this part of the cluster were implanted with a Uewn Chip, so there was little worry of the building’s upper floors being contacted by any communication devices.
The teams continued to conduct themselves with exemplary precision and tactfully enforced the confinement of tenants to their dwellings. They dealt with each disturbance equitably and rose to the challenges that presented themselves as they advanced. When they arrived at the building’s fifth floor, they realized that the eastern staircase had been destroyed.
The steel beams and cement slabs that made up for the steps above the fifth-floor landing had been demolished and left in the front foyer, likely to frighten strangers from venturing too deeply. What members remained from both Alpha and Bravo regrouped on the western stairwell, where they scrapped their two-pronged assault.
The raiders huffed and jittered in the staircase.