Enlightened Ignorance

by Michael Anderle

  That same intelligence meant Alina needed to get information without tipping anyone else off. The scale of the current raid was too vast, and the information was not locked down tightly enough. Doing things officially might end in a leak, and her trail might grow cold.

  She would be forced back into being reactive.

  Alina kept to the left rear flank of the squad as they trundled deeper into the darkened warehouse. The crates and cargo pallets were stacked high, many all the way to the ceiling. The now fully deployed targeting drones circled the area, scanning on different wavelengths. They revealed hidden criminals, sending highlights, outlines, and thermographic traces to the team’s smart lenses.

  There were no exoskeletons, but a decent number of men hid in the room, armed with a variety of weapons, including a few rocket launchers.

  Alina clucked her tongue. The CID had almost been too cautious. The large number of men didn’t matter, given the small number of men deploying decent weapons. Against a heavily armed exoskeleton squad, the criminals might as well have been children throwing rocks. If they were smart, they would surrender. But they had to have seen the squad coming and were still hiding, which meant they weren’t going to do that.

  Alina bet they were all suffering from being brave but myopic, a common affliction of cornered men with weapons.

  You don’t have to die here, she thought.

  Taking down random scum wasn’t of much interest to Alina. She would have preferred to be keeping an eye on Detective Blackwell, but he’d been assigned somewhere where she couldn’t complete her primary mission, the main reason she’d faked her way onto a CID squad.

  Knowing him, he’s probably the one who tangled with that exoskeleton. Figures.

  Alina let out a quiet sigh.

  She needed to get Blackwell away from Neo Southern California and soon. Her last few dealings with him had only reinforced that belief.

  He would be far more useful to the UTC if he weren’t on such a tight leash. Police had their place in supporting order, but both Erik and his partner were wasting their talents on such a limited stage.

  She just needed to entice the two of them with the right bait.

  “This is a Criminal Intelligence Directorate High-Threat Response Team,” shouted Agent Rael, his voice amplified by his exoskeleton. “We know you’re in there. Lay down your weapons and come out with your hands up. Any resistance will be met with lethal force. We know you do not have exoskeletons deployed. Don’t be idiots. Give up.”

  Their HTR team was supposed to perform the primary clearance of their zone. Regular agents and police would follow. Other HTR teams had met only token resistance, the small number of criminals surrendering. Now Alina understood why.

  The men were all making their stand in the main warehouse.

  A man stepped out from behind a tower of crates with a rifle pointed at the team. “You think we should just give up because a bunch of slick CID agents show up and tell us to?”

  “Other members of your organization have already surrendered,” Agent Rael replied.

  “They’re cowards,” he shouted back. “We’re not!”

  “Drop your weapon,” Agent Rael ordered, “or you will be fired upon. This isn’t a negotiation. You’re under arrest.”

  The man slapped his hand on his chest, the gold chains around his neck rattling. “Confed cops or local cops, it’s all the same. You don’t know anything about real loyalty or bravery. You want me to come with you? You better kill me first and drag my body out of here.” He pulled the trigger. The combined firepower of the squad blasted him backward with sizable holes in his chest.

  Other men jumped from cover, screaming their defiance. They showered the exoskeletons with bullets, but the team stayed close together, their shields overlapping and only the narrowest of gaps exposing the operators. Even if a bullet slipped through, their tactical suits could take hits from the criminals’ ammo. Thug after thug fell, bullets ripping through them.

  Brave but futile.

  “Screw you!” Another thug popped up from behind a crate with a rocket launcher on his shoulder. A burst from Alina’s rifle sent him to the ground, gurgling blood. His launcher tipped up as he fell, and the rocket erupted from the tube. The projectile exploded against the ceiling in a deafening boom, sending down large chunks of the roof. They crashed into a stack of crates, initiating a wave of avalanches. Men screamed as the huge containers crushed them.

  “Watch out,” Agent Rael shouted.

  Alina leapt to the side to avoid being buried, the exoskeleton magnifying the jump. She landed near a quartet of wide-eyed gangsters, who opened fire. Their bullets struck her shield. She didn’t waste ammo on a burst.

  The men didn’t have tactical vests on.

  Four targets. Four bullets. The threads of four lives snipped just that fast.

  That was all it took.

  Once the targets were down, she looked around. A wall of crates, some with thick smoke coming out, separated her from the rest of the squad. More gunshots and screams sounded. More explosions rocked the warehouse.

  The sharp, overlapping crack of gunfire became a continuous din. Men began firing at the targeting drones. That proved the criminals weren’t total idiots, but it would have made more sense for them to do it before the fight began. Their one chance of winning against the CID squad required surprise, and they’d lost that upfront.

  Agent Rael growled over the comm, “These guys sure are stubborn. Agent Yves, you okay? Your vitals seem fine, but it looks like you got stuck on the other side of the trash mountain.”

  Yves? It took Alina a moment to remember “Yves” was her cover identity. That was why she didn’t like going straight into undercover assignments.

  “I’m fine, sir.” Curious, Alina checked the shared drone feeds. The ones covering her current position had gone dark, which was the opening she’d been waiting for. She fed in a quick command to activate a program installed in her exoskeleton shortly before deployment.

  “Yves, all your feeds just went dark,” Agent Rael barked, concern filtering into his voice. “Status report.”

  “Everything’s fine on my end.” Alina smiled. Maybe she did enjoy tricking the CID, but just a little. A tall door a few meters away from her slid open and a thug holding a small black sphere rushed out. He raised his arm. She didn’t wait to see what his gadget did before gunning him down. “I just spotted one of the high-value targets from the briefing,” she lied. “He’s running. Permission to pursue, sir.”

  “Damn it,” Agent Rael snarled. “Get him. We can handle the rest of these guys. We’ll catch up with you one way or another.”

  Several more explosions shook the warehouse. Pallets and crates flew all over. One crate smashed open beside her, and dozens of smaller boxes filled with opaque vials spilled out. She was sure they were something illegal, but she would leave that worry to the CID.

  “Roger that.” Alina charged toward the open doorway and stepped through into a wide office area filled with desks and chairs. Even criminals had to deal with logistics and bureaucracy.

  Several men stood on the other side of the room. “Oh, for fu—” They peppered her with rifle fire, and bullet after bullet bounced off her shield or exoskeleton.

  One man sat near the back and frantically tapped on a virtual keyboard. Data windows floated in front of him. “Come on,” he grumbled. “Faster, faster, faster. Must go faster.”

  That looks like a present for me, Alina thought. She methodically downed the other men with aimed single shots before advancing. The heavy, thudding steps of her exoskeleton shook the desks as she walked past. It was disappointing that she was finding so many brave men working for a disgusting criminal organization.

  It was a waste.

  “Everyone’s down,” she called. “Unless you’ve got a miracle queued up to save you, it would be a good time to surrender. I’m not here to kill you. I’m here to arrest you.”

  Sweat covered the typing man’s f
ace. He continued work until she closed to only a meter away and pointed her rifle at his head.

  “Put your hands up,” she ordered. “Right now. I’m trying to be nice about this.”

  The man swallowed and complied. “I-I… But…”

  “I had a little respect for how you kept working after what I just did, but now you’ve disappointed me. It’s not like you picked up a rifle and tried to get a lucky shot in.” Alina clucked her tongue. “You’re hardly Horatius guarding the bridge against the Etruscans, now, are you?”

  “Huh?” The man blinked. “What the hell are you talking about?”

  “No one’s educated anymore. It’s a pity. As the worlds of humanity spread out, it’s all the more important to remember our past, but we can talk about that another time.” Alina took another step forward, the barrel of her huge weapon now right up against the man’s head. “What are you doing? I’m stopping you. I’m assuming you’re trying to purge something? Or maybe transfer something? It doesn’t matter. Whatever it is, it’s over. Understood?”

  The man swallowed, his eyes crossed, focusing on the rather large barrel against his head. He nodded slowly.

  Alina’s left fingers danced and tapped on her internal controls. It was time to access one of the few ID hacking toys she’d managed to hide on her exoskeleton. She hadn’t been sure if she would even be able to accomplish her mission on the raid, but things had worked out nicely.

  “I surrender,” the man insisted. “You can arrest me, but I’m not saying anything.”

  “You’re a boring one, aren’t you? But that’s not a problem. I’m not really interested in you saying anything right now. I’m far more interested in what you were trying to do.” Alina extended a stun rod from underneath the right arm of the exoskeleton. She smacked the man on the head and he tumbled to the ground, his eyes rolling up.

  “Yves?” Agent Rael transmitted. “You still with us? We still don’t have any of your feeds coming across.”

  “I’m fine,” Alina replied. “I’m better than fine. I caught someone who might have some high-value files. I’m securing the prisoner now, or do you need me there? I can try to break through the crates.”

  “Don’t worry, we’re good. We’ll catch up to you. These idiots are finally accepting they’re outmatched and are surrendering.”

  “Took them long enough,” she grumbled.

  Alina’s hacking bypass would funnel the information via a transmitter to her systems. All she needed to do was make sure the criminal wasn’t going anywhere, and the computer would do all the work.

  For now, ripping every possible file off the system was her most efficient, if ugly, strategy. She could worry about filtering and decrypting the files later.

  If her device worked properly, she would get at least near the files she wanted, thanks to the criminal who had been plugging away when she had entered. The CID might eventually pass along all the information anyway, but this way she could respond to it in days instead of weeks or months.

  Alina smiled. They were taking down criminals, and she would get the data she needed.

  I wonder how the detectives are doing? she thought. I bet Blackwell is bored because they sent him to scare some suits into giving up. He’s probably standing around yawning about now.

  Chapter Twenty-Six

  Erik and Jia peeked around a corner.

  It turned into a hallway that would bring them closer to the CEO’s office, so they stepped forward.

  Without access to working cameras, they had no idea who or what might be between them and their destination. They’d encountered some stragglers along the way, and few of them had been willing to surrender. Erik could have been wrong, and a squad of exoskeletons was waiting to shower them in rockets.

  The more he thought about it, the less he believed that.

  “If they’ve only bothered to take out the cameras near the CEO…” he considered, “that means they don’t have a bunch of hidden exoskeletons. They’re trying to make us hesitate, which means they are stalling for some reason.” He pondered that before transmitting, “All teams advance. We’re about to make our push toward the CEO’s office. He’s up to something.”

  “TPST is close to touchdown,” Emma reported.

  “And a few minutes from getting to where we are,” Erik responded. “We don’t need them at this point. We just need the other cops to tighten the net. It’s time to bust up whatever last-minute plan these guys have.” He ejected his magazine and dropped it into a pocket, then slapped in fresh AP rounds. He reached into a pouch and handed Jia a stun grenade. “This is my last one. I doubt they have another exoskeleton, but they might have decent armor. You toss the grenade to distract them, and I’ll mop up.”

  Jia eyed the grenade. “Before I joined the police department, I imagined it with far fewer grenades. You can’t protect and serve with explosives.”

  “Really?” He smiled at her. “I always imagined it with more. Guess that comes from thirty years as assault infantry. And it’s a stun grenade, so it doesn’t explode in the same way. You often protect and serve by stunning people.”

  She accepted his gift. “If you had stun grenades, why were we tossing plasma and frag grenades before?”

  “Because any halfway decent exoskeleton’s going to have a stun dampener, and it’d be a waste.” Erik shrugged as if it were self-evident.

  “And if there are exoskeletons around the corner?” Jia raised an eyebrow in challenge.

  “Then we might have to wait for TPST after all.” Erik moved to the wall and peeked around the corner. Six men in gray armor and helmets were positioned near the end of the hall. He jerked his head back as they opened fire, and bullets whizzed through the air for several seconds. He flipped his gun to three-barrel burst mode. “No exoskeletons. Probably mercs.” He eyed her. “Should we give them a chance to surrender?”

  “We made it this far,” Jia thought it over for a second. “They have to understand that their exoskeleton is down. It’s worth a shot.” She cleared her throat and shouted. “This is the NSCPD. You’re not escaping. All of your associates have been captured, arrested, or killed. If you put down your weapons immediately, that might be taken into account in your sentencing. If you continue to fire on us, lethal force might be used.”

  Erik eyed her, one brow raised. She rolled her eyes, calling once more, “Ok, lethal force will be used.”

  There was no response.

  “Oh, well.” Erik shrugged. “We gave them a chance. Ready?”

  Jia raised the grenade in her left hand and her pistol in her right. “More explosions. Semi-explosions. You know what I mean.” She walked past him, brought her arm back, and hurled the grenade into the corridor. A few gunshots rang out, but she was behind the wall before the grenade had made it to the thugs.

  Mr. Live Grenade is no one’s friend.

  Shouts and footfalls followed, then the loud whine and buzz of the grenade reverberated through the hallway. Erik turned the corner. Two men lay on the ground, their weapons out of their hands. Several others were rushing toward a huge ornate door emblazoned with the corporate sigil, a tree with deep roots. They turned to fire, but Erik pulled the trigger first.

  He’d given them their chance.

  Erik grunted as he took a round in the chest. “That stings!” he called, but his vest held. He repaid the favor by sending a burst into the chest of the man who’d shot him.

  Erik’s AP rounds ripped through a man’s armor, and the victim tumbled forward. Jia rounded the corner. The other three turned and also opened fire. Armor could only do so much for a man when he was pinned against the wall taking bullet after bullet.

  The men fell to the floor, blood pooling under them.

  Jia jogged over, not lowering her gun. She went to one of the stunned men and nudged him. “We should bind them, then see who is inside.”

  Erik moved forward. “Sure. Let’s be quick about it. For all we know, the guy’s calling in an airstrike. I wouldn’t be
surprised at this point.”

  Heavy footsteps sounded behind them. They spun to face the source. Several uniformed NSCPD officers entered the hall, guns drawn.

  One of them eyed the downed men in armor. “Guess you didn’t need our help after all.” He smiled. “Should have known.”

  “A few of you secure those prisoners, and stabilize the ones we shot if you can,” Erik ordered. “The rest of you, with us.” He marched to the large door. “This isn’t over yet.” He pointed the gun and nodded at Jia.

  She moved to the access panel and slapped it. Nothing happened. She hit it again.

  “I can open it anytime you want,” Emma informed them. “I have sufficient systems access for that.”

  Erik shifted his gun and narrowed his eyes. “Do it.”

  The door slid open with a loud hiss. A man in an expensive navy blue suit sat behind the sprawling wooden desk. Paintings covered the walls. Another man in a suit lay on the floor in a pool of his own blood, a hole in his head, his hand clutching a gun. A small black box sat midway between the doorway and the desk.

  Erik recognized the man behind the desk—the CEO of the company, Jorge Morales. The suicide victim looked like one of the VPs from what he could remember. Morales held a large pistol in one hand, but it wasn’t pointed at the police. Several data windows and a virtual number pad floated next to him.

  “It’s over,” Jia declared. She holstered her slug-thrower and pulled out binding ties. “Jorge Morales, you’re under arrest. All Article Seven rights apply. Do you need these explained to you?”

  Jorge laughed. An almost maniacal glee afflicted his face. “I should have known you two would come here. Everyone knows you’re hunting corps. Everything was fine before you two messed things up. This city was in perfect equilibrium, and you two arrogant cops think they’re going to upend everything because of your stupid sense of justice?”

  Erik shrugged. “What can I say? I needed a hobby.”