Caught

30.

The roof of the hotel, easily reached by a staircase hidden at the back of the suite, appeared empty.

At least that was what I thought for the first two seconds before a bullet whizzed past my head.

Two soldiers lurked behind one of the ventilation shafts. They weren't expecting us here any more than I was expecting them. I fired several rounds at them and they disappeared somewhere behind the low wall that ran along the edge of the roof.

"There's a fire escape stairs," Shira informed me, slowly approaching the spot where the two enemies had disappeared from sight. "I expected them to try this way."

He peered cautiously over the edge of the roof. He ducked immediately, and a spray of bullets followed.

"There they are. Five or six," he said, the assault rifle slung over his shoulder. "But they seem to be backing off now that we know about them."

It was ten floors down. From the roof I could easily survey the area around the hotel. I watched with concern as more and more soldiers arrived, surrounding the building on all sides. There were dozens, maybe hundreds of them.

We were relatively safe on the roof. As long as we didn't get too close to the edge, they wouldn't be able to hit us from below.

They'd have to come up. And I doubted anyone would stick their head up here now that they knew Shira was guarding the place.

The former assassin of the Emperor reached for his rifle and scanned the area, especially the nearest buildings, even though the hotel was by far the tallest structure here.

"Snipers?" I asked.

"Hm, they don't seem to have sent anyone here yet. We're in a better position against them. They're more likely to try after dark, when we'll be at a disadvantage without night vision."

I looked slowly over the edge of the roof. The fire escape was clear, the soldiers had retreated completely. But a small group was approaching the main entrance along the walls.

"They're coming in," I warned Shira, who immediately aimed down and hit several soldiers in quick succession as they tried to sneak into the building. The rest of the group quickly retreated out of range at the sight of their fallen comrades.

Shira put down his rifle and took out his communicator.

"I told you to stand down," he said in a tone of voice not accepting that his order would not be obeyed. "No one comes within a hundred metres of the hotel, or the next thing I send you will be the Emperor's head."

"And... yes, we understand," came from the microphone. "One hundred metres."

"Will they obey?"

"For a while," Shira said, and I watched the soldiers in red uniforms backing away from the building. "Eventually they'll break in."

I nodded my head bitterly. The Resistance would act the same way.

"Under normal circumstances, they wouldn't negotiate about the hostages and would attack immediately. Those are the orders," he explained. "But this is an unusual situation for them. We have the Emperor, their supreme commander, and the second-highest..." he grinned, "is the one holding a gun to his head."

This must have been a real headache for the Imperial soldiers. They certainly didn't have manuals for this sort of thing.

From above, the view of the surrounding city was perfect. In the distance, I could see the ruined factories of West Kashima and wondered if the Resistance could help us.

"I'll contact the headquarters."

Shira gave me a close look. "I thought you'd already sent a message."