"But you know people. You know the business. Start talking, and you walk out of here. Keep stalling, and you'll be drinking your meals out of a straw for the next few months."
Freddy Flava swallowed. "Now dat you mention, ya boi might've heard a word or two."
"Keep talking."
"Look, I can get killed on these streets for squealing."
"You can get killed on these streets for breathing. So what?"
Freddy Flava winced. "Okay. All I know is the place to lasso some young fillies is a joint called Moneta."
The grip loosened on his collar when Vigil cocked his head as if in recognition. "Moneta."
Freddy Flava nodded enthusiastically. "Right, dun. Nightclub in the Breaks."
"Krazy Eights territory."
"Yeah. Shouldn't be a problem for a killa like you, though."
Vigil's visor pulsed. "I didn't ask."
"Just showing some support, playboy. Freddy Flava gots no prob with you, so howzabout you let a pimp live?"
"Your girl around the corner. Strawberry Dish."
"What about her?"
"She's gone."
"What?"
"I told her to find a new career. Just like I'm telling you right now. Better tell the rest of your girls the same. You're out of business, Freddy. I catch you again; I won't be as nice."
Freddy Flava's face heated. "You just gonna interfere with a pimp's bizness? Freddy Flava don't care who you is, you gots to learn some manners."
Reaching in his pocket, he pulled the pistol. Vigil's hand shot forward, seized Freddy Flava's wrist, twisted hard. The sound of bones snapping seemed extraordinarily loud. Freddy screamed as the pain flared up his entire arm.
Vigil disassembled the gun and tossed it on the ground. "That was stupid."
Freddy Flava squeezed his eyes shut and groaned. "Not my heater. That baby cost me two-thou to customize."
"You overpaid." Vigil released Freddy, who slumped to the ground, clutching his broken wrist. He glared up at Vigil with red-rimmed eyes.
"Whatchoo gonna do, man—shakedown every pimp in the city? We providing a highly appreciated service to the public. Supply and demand. It's how the system works, nucka."
"Not in my city." Vigil towered over him, visor flaring with crimson light. "Not anymore."
Time seemed to slow. Freddy Flava stared in paralyzed fascination as Vigil's boot grew larger and larger until it slammed into his face. The darkness that followed was more than welcome.
Chapter 5: Heretic
Vigil reached the rooftop and uncloaked the Stingray. The sleek vehicle materialized in front of him, gleaming in the dim light. He tapped his earpiece.
"Moneta. Dolos mentioned the name. Maybe I shouldn't have destroyed that phone."
Incognito's voice buzzed over the com. "Caution is never a bad thing, Vigil. For all we know, this could be a setup. You might be walking right into an ambush."
"Only one way to find out."
The top of the cockpit slid backward, and Vigil leaped into the pilot seat and hit the thrusters for takeoff. The roof slid back into place, sealing him inside as the vehicle glided forward, diving between the massive buildings. A short flight later, he arrived at the Breaks neighborhood where the nightclub was located. Sentry cameras and at least two guards were on the roof. He cloaked the Stingray and carefully landed on a rooftop across the street. Exiting the vehicle, he tapped the g-span on his forearm and selected the sweepers. Two tiny devices fired from his gauntlets and hovered in the air. He chose the Moneta nightclub as the target, and they sailed over to infiltrate and map out the building, sending the information back to his op system.
When he looked up, he knew something was wrong.
"The guards haven't moved."
"Could be androids," Incognito said.
"I'm checking it out."
He used his boot thrusters to launch from the roof. Sailing across unsuspecting vehicles and people strolling below, he landed on the ledge of the Moneta building, directly in front of one of the guards. The man didn't move.
Because he was propped up by a stake in his back.
Vigil stepped for a closer look. The rod was thin but strong, stabbed into the guard's spine with the other end sunk into the rooftop surface. The man's face was frozen in shock, his chest a crimson mess from the blood that had poured from his slit throat. A quick glance at the other guard revealed the same treatment.
"This can't be good."
"Looks like someone beat you to the punch," Incognito said. "Abort the mission before you get blamed for this."
Vigil glanced at the stairwell doorway, which had been ripped from its hinges. "Negative. I'm going in."
Incognito sighed. "How did I know you were going to say that?"
Vigil pulled his neothermic handgun and entered the stairwell, glancing at the readout from his g-span. "Sweepers indicate a private lift to my left."
"You'll need access. Place your hand on the palm reader."
Vigil put his hand against the screen. "What next?"
"I'm hacking the system remotely through the sensors in your gloves. Should gain access right about … now."
The panel turned green, and the elevator door opened. Vigil stepped inside, studying the diagram on his g-span. "Looks like an unmarked section under the building. Gotta be where the illegal business takes place. I'm reading a lot of thermal energy down there."
He hit the unmarked button on the lift panel, feeling the temporary dropping sensation as the elevator descended. The walls rattled from the pulse of a booming beat from the dancefloor. After several minutes, the chime dinged, and the doors slid open.
Everything was blood and chaos.
Screams echoed off the walls, and people ran in panicked circles, looking for an escape. Women, teen girls and boys, most in ultra-tight, near-transparent latex catsuits covered in sensors. They were all shaved bald, with more sensors attached to their scalps. Seeing him, they screamed louder. He walked in the chamber, fanning the room with his handgun, trying to see past the shuffling bodies. Several men lay on the floor, guards bleeding out from gruesome wounds. Along the wall, a line of women and girls were secured to Immersion chairs, shackled by their wrists and ankles. Seeing him, they shrank back with horrified shrieks. He gave them what he hoped was a reassuring gesture.
"Hold on. I'll free you in a minute."
Completing his sweep, he found no sign of the attacker. There was only an exit door, wrenched off the hinges. Glancing through, he saw a set of stairs leading up to the street level. Some of the women had formed a line going up, holding on to one another. The ones left in the basement tried to free the ones still shackled. He waved them back and used a cutting laser on his g-span to burn through the chains in zigzag patterns, allowing the women to help their friends.
He spotted a computer center in the corner. Extracting a takeover drive from his belt, he plugged it into one of the ports, tapping his g-span to communicate with his auto-assistant.
"Proto, I need you to unlock the manacles on those chairs. After that, retrieve everything in the system that refers to illicit activity. Records, locations, names. Anything that can incriminate more of their operation."
"Right away, Vigil."
A series of clacking sounds followed as the manacles snapped off the captives. The women quickly ran to their companions, hugging one another and crying. While the info downloaded, he turned to a group of women who cowered away, clearly terrified. He held up his hands in a disarming gesture. "I'm not going to hurt you. Okay? What happened?"
One of them blinked tears from her eyes. "The Angel."
"Angel?"
She nodded. "Angel of Death." She pointed to the corner of the ceiling, where a sinister-looking device was implanted.
Vigil focused his visor, magnifying the view. "Incognito, you seeing this?"
"Looks like a C8 explosive, Vigil. Enough to level the building. Appears armed for remote detonation. You need to get out of there now."
"Make it fast, Vigil. Whoever planted that can blow it up whenever they want to."
Vigil turned to the women. "Everyone up the stairs now. This place is going to explode!"
Proto's alert buzzed on his g-span monitor. "Your download is finished, Vigil."
He retrieved the data drive as the women streamed up the stairwell, assisting one another along the way. He scooped up a teenage girl who could barely walk, carrying her at the end of the line.
"Hurry. Move faster!"
They scrambled upward until they reached an access door in the alley beside the building. Hundreds of the former captives were packed together, staring around in paralyzed shock. Vigil activated his visor so that it flashed brightly, painting them in crimson light. His voice amplified, echoing off the walls.
"Move as far from the building as you can. Go, now!"
They scattered, running into the street, where they joined crowds of partygoers fleeing from the fire alarm in the nightclub. People stared in shock and confusion, cars screeched to a stop, passersby on the sidewalks stopped, removing holovisors to gape at the scene. Bodies collided, women screamed, cameras recorded the chaos.
Vigil ran through the crowds, still carrying the girl, who sobbed into his chest. His augmented voice thundered over the chaos. "Keep going. Clear the area. The building is about to—"
The explosive detonated behind him—shattering glass, scorching brick and steel, hurling burning debris across the entire city block. He ducked behind a taxi, clutching the girl tightly as the vehicle rocked from the impact and broken glass showered on his head and shoulders. Screams rang in the air, and thick clouds of smoke and ash rolled through like dirty fog. He stood and looked around.
The Moneta building was just a broken shell, gutted by flames that roared with intense heat. Smoke rose swiftly, blackening the night sky and smothering the light from nearby buildings and streetlamps. Bodies littered the ground—people who didn't get far enough from the building. Some of them dragged themselves away, too dazed to look after their wounds. Others sat in the debris, crying. Screaming, covered in soot and ash. Some didn't move at all. The bodies lay still, burning in the rubble.
Emergency lights flashed as RCE vehicles converged on the scene from the sky and ground. Responder androids emerged from buildings to assist the wounded. Vigil placed the crying girl in the arms of one of the automatons, scanning the nearby rooftops. His com buzzed.
"Vigil, you need to get out of there."
"I'm leaving." He glanced up when a movement caught his eyes. Directly above him, a silhouette on top of the building, some sort of light above its head. The figure looked down at him, then quickly turned and vanished.
Vigil ran into the alley, activated his boot thrusters, and propelled to the top of the building just in time to see the figure leap to the next rooftop. He followed quickly, thrusters pulsing to cover more ground. Sailing through the air, he landed within yards of the runner. Squeezing his fists triggered stun blasts from his g-span. The impact bowled the other man over. He fell, rolled, and leaped back to his feet, turning to face Vigil.
His face was covered by a scarlet helmet fashioned like a cyber-enhanced medieval knight, and his loose-fitting white tunic fluttered in the wind, adorned with a large glowing red cross that glowed on the chest. He looked like a combination of a ninja and a priest with his lightweight crimson armor and free-flowing outfit. Topping the religious look off was a golden halo that glowed just above his head.
"Nice outfit," Vigil said. "Points for looks, deductions for lack of stealth."
They circled one another, sizing each other up. Vigil's fist glowed with charged energy. "So, you have a name, or do I just call you Halo?"
The man's voice was deep in timbre, reverberating as if from canyon walls. "My name is Heretic. That doesn't matter, though. My actions do."
"Your actions." Vigil cocked his head. "You mean blowing up buildings full of innocent people."
"Those people weren't innocent. They used their business as a cover to enslave and traffic women and girls. Do you know what the ones in the chairs were there for? Virtual rape. You call that innocent? You're either terribly misguided or just a bad as they are."
"Those women and girls were still in the building after you left."
"Which is why I didn't blow it earlier. I was waiting for them to clear the area."
"They were terrified. If I didn't show up, some of them wouldn't have made it. And you never freed the ones in the Immersion chairs. You must be new at this."
Heretic said nothing, eyes dark from the visor of his helmet.
Vigil stepped closer. "A lot of the people in the nightclub were just there to dance and let off some steam. You would have killed them too."
"No one would have missed them. This place was well known as a center for drugs and prostitution. The people in there were sinners, insulting God with their flagrant incontinence and fleshly lusts."
"And you're supposed to be what—God's personal executioner?"
"I'm just a worker in the field, separating the weeds from the wheat. I would think you'd understand, but I see that you're blind like the rest of them, wasting your pity on carnal malefactors instead of protecting the lost sheep."
Vigil pointed a finger. "I want you to stop. I may have inspired your … work, but I won't allow you to go around slaughtering people."
"You flatter yourself." Heretic gestured, and a cross-shaped sword appeared in his hand, blazing like sunlight. "This is God's work, not that of any man. And certainly not you. Fall back, or I'll cut you down and beg for forgiveness later."
"That's not exactly virtuous," Vigil said, dropping to an offensive crouch.
Bright light flooded the rooftop, flaring from the RCE jet chopper that hovered above them, pushing back the hazy smoke and scattering trash. A commanding voice blared from the vehicle's loudspeakers.
"Drop your weapons and surrender immediately, or we open fire. Do it now!"
Vigil and Heretic ran in opposite directions, Heretic sprouting metallic wings from the pack on his back when he leaped from the rooftop. They glimmered in electric hues as he glided into the narrow alleyway, forcing the jet chopper to turn and track his movements. Vigil used the distraction to leap off the roof as android enforcers rappelled from the helicopter, firing auto-rifles. Narrowly avoiding the barrages, he dropped twelve stories to the alley, firing his boot thrusters at the last minute to break his fall.
Activating his cape, he rolled to the side of a garbage dumpster as it unfurled from its housing. Wrapping the fabric around himself, he placed his palm against it and discharged an electric signal, activating the cape's adaptive camouflage. With his body heat shielded and the fabric reflecting light, it essentially made him invisible to most sensors.
He held his breath when the drone soldiers swept searchlights over the alleyway. The lights passed over him without detection, continuing to search the corners and crevices.
"Nothing here. He's gone."
"He couldn't have gone far. Set up a perimeter and keep searching."
"What about the other one?"
"Still tracking his flight."
Vigil stayed motionless until their voices faded away. He tapped his earpiece. "And you said a cape was a waste of time."
"I stand corrected," Incognito said. "But you're surrounded by movement right now. I took the liberty of moving the Stingray a few blocks from the scene, but I don't see how you get to it with all the RCE movement out there."
"I'll just have to stay put for now. Not the first time I've been pinned down. The key is keeping your cool and staying still until things blow over. Are you tracking Heretic?"
"Is that he's calling himself?"
"Something like that."
"Huh. I'm more partial to Dark Angel."
"Maybe you get to name the next one. They're sprouting like weeds."
"Well, ou
r religious friend went to ground somewhere by the river. Figure he might have a water route for escape. Regardless, few cameras in the area, so he's in the wind for now."
"Fine. But we have to find out who he works for."
"Does it matter? He's obviously not a fan of sex trafficking."
"He killed a lot of people tonight. Some of them weren't specifically part of the business. Collateral damage isn't acceptable, Incognito."
Silence over the line for a moment. "You know it's only a matter of time before it happens to you, Vigil."
"Not if I'm careful."
"You've put a lot of pressure on the system that makes this city tick. It's bound to blow up in your face sooner or later. Just saying."
Vigil shifted, peeking around the corner at the chaos. Injured people were loaded into ambulances and medical choppers. Enforcement troopers curtailed the area. Emergency services rounded up hundreds of terrified women who still had no idea what was happening to them. Then there were the people that would never move again, smoke still rising from their bodies. He shook his head.
"Not like this. Not if I'm careful."
Ⓥ
Ronnie Banks sighed as she exited from her RCE aerodyne into the sweltering heat. Even at night, the temperature barely lowered, and the burning building didn't make things any better. The scene was contained, but Rescue personnel were still assisting injured people out of the rubble. A line of bodies lay on the fractured steps, waiting to be loaded into body bags. Ronnie slipped an oxy-mask over her nose and mouth, filtering out the choking smoke that settled over the vicinity like a foul mood.
"So, they're saying Vigil did this?"
Isaac stepped out the other side of the vehicle, lights glinting from his metallic face. "The initial reports were confused. Vigil was here, but now it's confirmed he assisted the escape of captive women from a den in a hidden basement. The blame for the explosion has now been attributed to someone else."
"Who?"
"I'm sending you footage now. Moneta had surveillance that fed to cloud storage, so we have video of what happened minutes before the explosion."
Ronnie pulled it up on her holoband. "Whoa."
Vigil: Inferno Season (The Cyber Knight Chronicles Book 2) Page 8
