‘Is that right?’ the girl said and gave Frankie a look of daggers. ‘Have I seen you somewhere?’ she said.
‘I doubt it,’ Frankie said, her face incredulous.
‘Look, Flare, don’t worry, she’s fine. She’ll be gone before you know it, promise,’ Dion said.
‘She better be,’ Flare said, a tone of finality to her voice as she backed off.
Dion thanked the girl and continued on through the room and over to a doorway leading off the main room. He used a key, unlocked it and stepped inside.
The room was small, about three times the size of the mattress that was on the floor with a small window that looked out to the grey city outside.
Frankie drew some parallels between this dingy little room and her own neglected apartment back before her cyberization.
‘I know it’s not much,’ Dion said.
‘Actually, it reminds me of my own apartment back before all this happened,’ she said.
‘Oh, okay. Hey, Clint, the doorman, said you were a cyborg, is that right? I thought you were a Nat.’
Frankie nodded and turned to face him. ‘I suppose that does deserve an explanation,’ she said. She looked down and sat on the edge of the mattress. ‘Yes, I didn’t used to have any implants, just the nanobots we all have. And that evening you saw me at the lifts the time before I met you on the rooftop? I was still without any implants at all. But all that changed that day. I went to the Undercity. I’d been going down there for months; helping people, the ones who were victims of the Corporation’s greed. But I got caught up in a Jacker Gang attack, got myself shot and when I woke up, I was in a back alley lab with my brain transplanted into this cyborg body,’ Frankie said.
‘It was done, against your will?’ Dion asked.
‘I would have died without it, I’m certain of that, so the doctor saved my life, but, yes, it could have been handled differently, maybe.’
‘That’s bad ass, man. Shit, I never would have known. So, how come the Corporations want you dead?’
‘The doctor who did this to me, he was kidnapped by the Psytech Corporation shortly after I woke up, but I got away, went on the run. That’s when I met you, actually. I knew the cop, Gibson, and he helped me get home, but it became very apparent that the Corps were not going to let me be, and I needed to know more about my body, so, I took the Corporate flyer on the roof of our building and went and rescued the doc. Psytech didn’t like that.’
‘No shit!’ Dion said.
‘One thing led to another, and now we’re fighting back.’
‘Shit. I had no idea,’ he said.
‘Yeah, well, it’s not something I shout about,’ she said, going over the events of those chaotic few days after her transformation. She questioned her choices, wondered if she could have done anything differently, done anything better. A lot of people had died in those few days during her frantic run from the Corporations, and maybe some of them didn’t need to, but what was done was done. She couldn’t change it now. She looked up at Dion and saw how his life looked. He’d seen the devastation that the Corporations could cause, he’d seen the complete disregard for life they had, and been on the receiving end of their justice. So he knew what they were all about.
‘I’ve been fighting them in my own way for years,’ Dion said. ‘I hate the Corps. Me and my friends, we’ve been trying to hack them, shut down some of their operations, you know? Doing what we can. It’s been tough, since my mates… well, you know. You saw.’
‘I did. I get it,’ Frankie said.
‘I couldn’t go back home. I didn’t know how much they knew about me and what I’ve done. I didn’t want to put my mum at risk, you know? I thought it best if I just left, make my own way. That’s how I ended up here.’
‘So, what will you do next? Where will you go?’ Franke asked.
‘I don’t know. Where can I go? The Corporations are everywhere.’
‘Look, I wanted to see you for two reasons,’ Frankie said. ‘Firstly, I promised I would find you when I left you on that rooftop, and I always try to keep my word. I wanted to make sure you were okay, and I’m pleased that you are, but the other reason is that I wanted to offer you a job and some protection.’
‘A job?’ Dion asked, surprise and curiosity on his face.
‘After the events I told you about came to a head, we were approached by a government agent who wanted to recruit us to their Anti-Corporation Taskforce. It sounded good, so we joined up,’ Frankie said.
‘Anti-Corporation Taskforce? A.C.T.? Heh, clever,’ he said.
‘I didn’t name it, but, we’re in need of… someone like you, with your skills, to join us. We can give you some protection, but you will be associated with us, and when the Corps find out about the A.C.T., I’m sure they will want to stop us. So, it might not be for you, maybe…?’
‘Wait, no, I like it. You want me to hack and get paid for it? Sign me up.’
‘Oh, really? I thought you might need a little more convincing than that.’
‘Hell no. It’ll be better than living here. I bet.’
‘Marginally, and I’ll talk with Gibson. It might be that we can help protect your mother as well,’ she said.
Dion gave Frankie a slight smile. ‘That would be good,’ he said, trying to hide the emotion that rose up within him.
Frankie frowned as she heard the sounds of commotion just at the edges of her enhanced hearing, but it quickly grew louder and closer. Frankie stood up and moved to the door, pulling it open slightly and looking outside into the main room.
‘What’s that noise? What’s going on?’ Dion said, now that he could hear it, too.
‘I think I can guess,’ Frankie said, as she peered out into the hacker den where people were standing up and looking around, confused and worried. At the far side of the room, through the door Frankie had first come through, an object trailing an arc of smoke flew into the room, followed by another and another. They disappeared out of sight onto the floor, and suddenly, with an intense hissing, smoke billowed up and out.
Just before the smoke concealed the opposite door entirely, she spotted the familiar sight of men in black tactical gear with combat webbing, armour, a side arm, and helmets moving into the room with rifles held high. They started to shout at people to get down and lay on the floor.
‘Shit,’ Frankie cursed. Her day was about to get a bit more interesting.
2.05
‘Who the hell are they?’ Dion asked, peering over her shoulder at the growing scene of chaos in the room outside.
‘If I had to guess, I’d say they’re C-SWAT operators, Corporation Special Weapons and Training. They’re the guys that the Corporations use to do their dirty work, such as destroying hacker dens, like this one,’ she explained. Frankie pulled the gun from the back of her waistband and checked the chamber before a gunshot snapped her attention back out into the room outside. There was shouting and screaming now, followed by a couple more shots.
‘Wa… are they killing people?’ Dion asked.
‘Yes, I think so,’ she said as she got her gun ready. This looked bad. They needed to get out of here fast.
‘Aaah, crap, not again,’ Dion muttered.
A dark shadow emerged from the smoke close to where Frankie was taking cover in the doorway.
The C-SWAT operator raised his gun, but Frankie was quicker and put two rounds into him, dropping him to the floor.
‘Damn it,’ she hissed to herself, her gun up in both hands and pointing out the door at the man she had just shot.
Something solid suddenly smashed into her hands and knocked them sideways. She managed to keep hold of the gun as another man in tactical gear appeared in the doorway. He’d used his rifle as a club on her hand and followed it up with a backhanded strike across her face with his fist.
The man flinched and grabbed his own hand, looking at it in horror as he started yelling in pain. He hadn’t expected her skull to be made of super strong carbon, covered in ballistic
polymer that hardened on impact.
Frankie smiled, and punched the man once, hard in the face. His nose exploded with blood as his eyes rolled back into his skull and he dropped to the floor unconscious.
‘Holy shit, that was incredible,’ Dion said.
‘Dion, focus, is there another exit out of here we can get to?’
‘Um, I don’t think so. Not that I know of,’ he stammered.
Frankie glanced around the room and noticed the window two meters above Dion’s Mattress. It wasn’t huge, but she felt sure she could get through there. She closed the door and grabbed the small table and chair that were the only two other bits of furniture in the room and shoved the table against the door.
‘Grab your things, we’re leaving,’ she said as she barricaded them inside. She then turned to the opposite wall, picked up and then threw the mattress against the door as well before placing the chair beneath the window. The chair creaked as she stepped up onto it, but it held her weight for now as she smashed the glass and the frame out of the aperture.
She turned to see Dion looking at her out of the corner of his eye.
‘Jeez, how strong are you?’ he asked.
‘Not now, Dion. Are you ready?’ she asked.
Dion threw a couple more things into a backpack and fastened it up. ‘Ready,’ he said.
Frankie looked out the window and noticed that on this side of the building, there was a three-story drop to the street below. Glancing around, she saw pipes fastened to the side of the building that she could reach. She looked back at Dion, whose gaze was flicking back and forth between watching Frankie and looking worriedly at the door.
Frankie could hear the gun shots and screams out there. They needed to move.
‘Follow me out, quickly,’ she said and climbed through the window. She grabbed hold of the piping to her right and used it to hang from the side of the building as she watched Dion climb up into the frame.
‘Watch the glass,’ she said, warning him of the shards that were still stuck in the frame. She offered her hand to him. ‘Come on, climb onto my back.’
Dion looked terrified, and grabbed her arm, reaching out for her to try and get to her back. He was shaking like crazy and wrapped both his arms and legs about her as he finally made it.
She adjusted his hold of her to be a touch more comfortable and started to descend down the piping until it turned off and disappeared back into the wall. She looked down to the street and knew she had to jump.
‘Keep a hold of me. This will feel a little strange,’ she said and pushed herself off the wall. Dion yelped as they fell nearly ten meters. She landed cleanly in the back alley between this and the next building, with Dion still gripping to her as tightly as he could.
‘Hey, it’s okay, we’re down now. You can let go,’ she said as she gently pried him off from her. Dion’s eyes were wide and filled with fear, something she could sympathise with, but they still needed to leave. ‘Dion? Look, we need to get out of here, are you okay to move?’
‘Y… y… yeah, su… sure, lead the way,’ he said, as he slowly began to relax. Frankie looked about her, but there was only one way out of the alleyway. She took Dion’s hand and started to move, only for a door to her right from the building they had just exited from to slam open. A man in black tactical gear lowered his foot from kicking the door and moved quickly out into the alleyway, followed by two others who held Flare, the girl with pink hair, by her arms and marched her outside.
The lead C-SWAT operator spotted Frankie, who had stopped and held Dion behind her, her gun up and pointed at him before he’d even seen her.
The whole group of them froze the moment they spotted Frankie, moving to protect Flare.
‘Back up, and get behind that rubbish cart,’ she whispered to Dion.
‘Flare? Are you okay?’ Dion yelled.
‘Dion?’ she said.
‘What’s going on?’ Dion asked.
Flare stepped out from behind the two men who were closest to her.
‘Miss, this is not wise,’ said one of them.
‘It’s fine,’ she hissed back. She then looked back at Dion and sighed. ‘I’m sorry, Dion, I didn’t want for it to go this way,’ she said. ‘But, I recognised your friend here, so, I had to call it in.’
Well, that explained it, thought Frankie. The Corps had a spy in the hacker den who was up to date with recent goings on. She could have guessed as much, really.
‘How much are they paying you, Flare?’ Frankie asked.
‘Like you care! Look, I don’t know you from Eve, but I know you’re wanted by Psytech, so, why don’t you give up? It’s three against one, after all,’ she said with a smug grin on her face.
Frankie slowly cocked her head to one side. She was confident enough in her skills now that she didn’t feel too threatened by these three. She didn’t want to hurt these guys, but Flare seemed to be spoiling for a fight.
‘Get out of here, Flare, and enjoy the money,’ Frankie said.
‘Fuck you, no. Shoot her, will you?’ she said to the lead operator.
‘Miss, you’re just an informant…’ the lead guy started to say, but Frankie was already getting a little stressed by the standoff. She needed to get Dion out of here, and the longer this confrontation lasted, the greater chance that reinforcements would arrive, so the moment that the first operator was distracted, she moved. Arcing left to get out of the field of fire, she stepped into the first operator before he realised she was there.
Grabbing his rifle with one hand, she slammed her other hand into his elbow, breaking his arm with an audible crack before she rammed the butt of his gun into his face. With the rifle in her hands and the man off balance, she gave him a solid kick to his sternum and sent him flying backwards into the operator on Frankie’s left.
With the rifle now firmly in her grip, Frankie fired two rounds into the third man’s knees, dropping him to the floor, where he yelled in pain, clutching his bleeding legs.
Frankie moved quickly towards the second man she had kicked the first into. He’d been knocked back by his friend and had dropped to one knee, but was recovering swiftly. He looked up at Frankie as he attempted to bring his gun up to bear, but he wasn’t quick enough, as Frankie’s boot swung into the side of his face, knocking him sideways to the floor where he lay unconscious, blood leaking from his mouth.
Frankie turned and looked up at Flare, who stood no more than a meter away, her expression one of shock, with her mouth hanging slightly open and her eyes wide.
‘You were saying it was three against one, right?’ Frankie said, her face grim.
Flare’s mouth moved as if it were attempting to form words, but nothing came out other than a few unintelligible noises.
Frankie gave her head a slight shake in exasperation. ‘Dion, we’re leaving,’ she said and turned towards the end of the alleyway again.
‘Pilot, we need picking up. Where can you get to?’ Frankie sent through her neural link.
Ω
Frankie sat at the meeting table in one of the briefing rooms within the A.C.T. building, listening to William. In here with her were Gibson, Veronica, and Doctor Xenox. Cole was also in here, having taken a room here the other day after the meeting with William a few days ago. As had Dion, who was now a part of the team and sat down the far end of the table, listening intently.
Isaac Hughes, the Foreign Minister, was also sitting at the table opposite her. He’d come here in a blacked out flyer with his wife, who, it turned out, was also his secretary, so they didn’t know where the A.C.T. base was. They both also had neural nets, so they had been given a plug that inserted into one of the sockets on the backs of their necks and disabled their GPS and other processes which would tell them where they were.
It was better for everyone if the base location remained secret.
Although Isaac was in here, his wife stayed outside. The meetings of the A.C.T. were top secret, and a secretary would never be allowed into them; the fact s
he was his wife made no difference to that.
‘…so your mother is safe now where the Corporations can’t get her, and she’s aware that you’re alive and well,’ William said to Dion.
‘Thank you,’ Dion said, clearly pleased with the news that his mum had been taken into protective custody with a new identity. Xenox had also de-registered her Psytech nanobots, meaning she, like everyone in this room, was entirely independent of the Corporations.
Frankie looked down the table at Dion, who smiled back with a nod. She’d promised him that his mother would be looked after, and to have it finally happen after a few nervous days was a relief. She didn’t want to break her promise to him.
‘So, are you all settled in, Dion?’ William asked.
‘I am, thank you, sir. Thank you for your help and this opportunity,’ Dion said.
‘My pleasure, Dion. Frankie has spoken very highly of your abilities with computers, so I’m looking forward to seeing what you can do,’ William said.
Dion simply nodded.
‘Now, Doctor, you said you had something you wanted to share with the group, and asked that the Prime Minister, or someone representing her, be here. So, what would you like to share with us?’ William said.
Frankie turned to face Xenox. She had no idea that this was the reason for the meeting today, and, judging from the faces of the others in here, they didn’t either. Xenox stood up and moved around the table.
‘Thank you, William. I did call this meeting and I had good reason, too. Hopefully, by the end of it, you will, too. So, look, the reason for the A.C.T. is to take on the Corporations, right? Our mission statement is to try and take back some of the power the Corporations have, to make them more accountable and less able to bribe and blackmail everyone. Right?’
‘That’s right,’ Isaac said.
‘Okay, but so far, we have not really done that, or don’t have a plan for it. At least, not yet. Now, I know we’ve been moving in here and setting up, but I think we need to be planning how we’re actually going to achieve this goal, or at least start to take the first steps along that path. And I’m right in thinking we have a degree of autonomy here where we can come up with our own missions to achieve this? With consultation with you and the PM, of course,’ Xenox said to Isaac.
Promethean Files 2: The Prometheus Gambit Page 7
