Promethean Files 2: The Prometheus Gambit

by Andrew Dobell

  She wanted to be safe rather than sorry, though, so she fired another round at it, putting one right though it’s cranium.

  She relaxed and eyed the android once more. Had it been hacked?

  2.18

  Frankie returned to the large room to find her team on the walkway below, waiting for her. She dropped down to them, and Gibson walked up to her.

  ‘You okay? You look… preoccupied,’ he said.

  ‘I think so. It’s just… I think someone hacked into that doll up there just before I shot it and used it to tell me to continue with the mission,’ she said.

  ‘What? Really?’

  ‘That’s the only conclusion I can come to, yeah,’ Frankie said.

  ‘Okay, that’s odd?’ Gibson said.

  ‘Does our target know we’re coming?’ Cole asked.

  ‘She does, so, it’s possible it might be her, sure,’ Frankie said.

  ‘Or Xenox, maybe?’ Veronica said.

  ‘Possible, but I doubt it,’ Frankie said. ‘We can’t start second-guessing ourselves. We either do this mission or we abort. What's it to be?’ Frankie asked.

  ‘We continue,’ Gibson answered.

  ‘I agree,’ Cole said.

  ‘I’m not going back,’ Veronica commented.

  ‘I’m with you,’ Kalypso agreed.

  ‘All right, let’s keep going then,’ Frankie nodded. ‘This way.’

  They continued on, through the room and into another tunnel on the other side. Before long, they were climbing up through a grate and into another corridor within the building above. The hallway was quiet, well lit, and further up, it widened out before ending in a bank of elevators, which was their next destination.

  With everyone up and out of the sewer, they covered up the hatch they had entered through and made their way along the corridor. They were in some kind of sub-basement, well below the main levels, but it seemed too quiet. It was probably the doll. It had freaked her out, and now she saw conspiracy everywhere.

  Shaking the doubts from her head, she moved up the corridor with her team and soon made it to the lift doors.

  Gibson walked over and pressed the call button while everyone else stood scanning the hall with their guns ready. Frankie heard the elevator car drop into place behind the doors before they opened up to reveal an empty car that she, along with Gibson and Cole, were pointing their guns at.

  If anyone had been in there, they would have had something of a surprise.

  As it was, all was well and they walked into the lift.

  While she waited for her team to follow her in, Frankie scanned the local area and quickly found the wireless port for the lift that would allow her to take control it. This would usually be used for maintenance and allowed a repair crew to use and test the lift car as they needed to.

  Frankie cracked the rudimentary firewall in seconds and quickly opened up some controls within her vision.

  ‘Floor three hundred and twelve, right?’ she asked Gibson.

  ‘That’s the one,’ he said.

  With a few quick thoughts, the lift doors closed and she sent the lift up, overriding its usual programming that would make it stop at other floors on the way up to pick up more people.

  The elevator moved fast, passing several floors each second until it finally slowed and came to a halt, the doors to it opening up and revealing another quiet corridor. Unlike the metal service hallways of the subbasements, with their pipes and maintenance panels on the walls and ceilings, this was clearly more of an office environment with carpeted floors and glass partitions, but again, it was empty.

  ‘Anyone else think it’s strange that these hallways are so quiet?’ she asked.

  ‘It’s a little odd, but it is past usual working hours, so, maybe not?’ Veronica said.

  ‘Well, the office of Brenna is up ahead, let’s find out, shall we?’ Gibson commented.

  ‘Sure,’ Frankie said, feeling very suspicious. She was getting flashbacks to her previous visit here when she rescued Xenox from the clutches of Psytech. That had been a running gunfight from the moment they got here, but she was hoping to avoid that this time.

  So far, they had been lucky. No one was about, but it was precisely that which was making her nervous. Even at this time of night, Frankie felt sure there should be more people in here. Employee’s working late, doll’s doing whatever maintenance needed doing, cleaning crews making their rounds. But so far, nothing apart from the two doll’s in the sewers.

  Frankie steeled herself and walked forward. The office they were heading for was only a short distance ahead along this corridor. They’d chosen these lifts because they were closest to their target and provided the shortest route to her.

  Barely a minute later, and they found themselves standing outside Brenna Preston’s office. Her name was engraved in black on a gold plaque on the door.

  Frankie stood outside the door, slightly to one side, her gun pointed at it as the rest of her team moved into flanking positions, covering the door with her, or the corridor.

  ‘Ready?’ Frankie sent through their link.

  The door opened suddenly from the inside, and a voice issued from within.

  ‘Don’t shoot,’ the feminine sounding voice said.

  The door slowly swung open and a brown haired girl in a lab coat stood there with her hands up.

  She smiled. ‘Hi. I’ve been expecting you,’ she said. ‘I hacked that doll and tried to clear the way for you as best I could. Hope you don’t mind?’

  Frankie lowered her gun. ‘No, but it would have been nice to have some warning,’ she said. This whole time her paranoia had been growing, and it was their target’s doing all along.

  ‘Sure, sorry. Next time,’ she said.

  ‘Right, let's get you out of here before we’re noticed,’ Frankie said and went to move towards the lift.

  ‘Err, well, there is one thing…’ Brenna said.

  Frankie stopped and looked back at her. ‘Yes?’ she said, suspicion in her voice.

  ‘Well, I’ve been following you guys, what with the recent capture of Xenox the other week, and, well, I know where your wife and child are,’ she said to Gibson.

  ‘You do?’ Gibson said. ‘Where are they?’

  ‘You knew about Xenox?’ Frankie asked.

  ‘Word got back to me about that, yes. Not surprising, given my history with the doctor, I suppose. Haven’t heard much since they brought him in, though.’ she said to Frankie. She then turned to Gibson, her expression becoming softer. ‘They’re here, in the building. They’re being… looked after, I think.’

  Frankie raised her right eyebrow. So Brenna thought Xenox was still being held here and hadn’t heard of them rescuing him? That was interesting. Not totally surprising, though. The Corporation would want to keep a lid on that fumble. She also knew that Xenox had a history with Brenna and had made a point of saying to Frankie not to talk to Brenna about him as they hadn’t parted on good terms. Which would make it interesting when Xenox did show his face, she thought.

  ‘Can you take me to them?’ Gibson asked.

  ‘Wait, wait,’ Frankie said. ‘We don’t have time for this.’

  ‘We have time. They don’t know we’re here. We’re good, right?’ Gibson said to Brenna.

  ‘We’re good on my end. No alerts have gone out yet,’ Dion said over the link to everyone but Brenna.

  ‘Well, yeah…’ Brenna said. ‘But I wouldn’t want to tell you what you can and can’t do, you know. This is your mission.’

  ‘Yes, it is, and going after them is taking a huge risk. We still have to get out of here… somehow.’

  ‘I can get you out, no problem,’ Brenna said.

  ‘See! She can get us out, it’s not a problem,’ Gibson said.

  ‘Of course, it’s a bloody problem. We didn’t plan on this. It’s a massive risk.’

  ‘We fought our way through this place once before,’ Gibson said. ‘We can do it again.’

  ‘What? You think
I want to do that again?’ Frankie said.

  ‘That’s not how I meant it,’ Gibson explained.

  ‘I don’t care how you meant it.’

  ‘This is my family, Frankie. We’re so close. If I can just see them, maybe we can get them out,’ he said.

  ‘I don’t like this.’

  ‘I know, I don’t, either. I know how risky doing this will be, but I have to do it. I’ll go alone if I need to, but I’m not leaving here without at least trying to get them back.’

  Frankie sighed. She looked at the others. ‘You know the way out. You can leave now if you want. This is not part of the mission, and there’s no obligation to come with us. Your choice,’ she said.

  ‘I’m with you,’ Veronica said. ‘I know how important this is to you,’ she then said to Gibson.

  ‘Thanks,’ Gibson smiled.

  ‘Missions change, parameters shift, this is no different. My squad is my family: my brothers and sisters. I’m not leaving,’ Cole said.

  Kalypso just shrugged and smiled.

  Frankie nodded and turned to Brenna. ‘Lead the way.’

  Brenna nodded. ‘Come with me,’ she said and led them through some more corridors on this floor.

  ‘I cleared the floor earlier and told the cleaning crew to skip it tonight. So, we’re safe here,’ she said. ‘I also put the security cameras on an endless loop of empty office space, so, we’re free to move about here however we want.’

  ‘Clever,’ Frankie commented.

  ‘Not really,’ Brenna said. ‘Most hacker kids could do this in their sleep.’

  ‘That’s true,’ Dion said over their link with him.

  Brenna led them to a set of windows that looked out over the city and proceeded to open one up, letting a gust of wind blow into the office, sending paper and notes flying up onto the air.

  Frankie stepped up next to Brenna and looked out. There was a fire escape out here that led down the side of the building, and below them, a rooftop where the Psytech building widened out several hundred meters. She could see four or five skylights on that roof, glowing from within as well as air conditioners, vents, fans, elevator cable housings, aerials, satellite dishes, and less identifiable rooftop machinery and electronics.

  ‘Down there, the circular windows, they’re in there,’ Brenna said.

  Gibson was up next to them and craned his neck to bet a better look. ‘Can we go down there?’

  ‘Sure thing,’ Brenna said and started to climb through the window.

  Frankie grabbed her by the arm. ‘Wait,’ she said. ‘If we do this, we do it right. I’ll go first with Gibson and Kalypso. Cole, Veronica, you bring up the rear. Brenna, you’re in the middle.’

  Brenna nodded. ‘Of course,’ she said.

  Frankie climbed through, carefully checking all around her as she went, looking for security systems that might give them away.

  Seeing nothing, she motioned for the others to come through. ‘Anything we should be aware of out here?’ she said to Brenna.

  ‘There are security systems out here, but I took the liberty of disabling them earlier as well. I figured that you’d want to do this, so…’

  Frankie looked over at Brenna. She reminded her of Doctor Xenox in the way she was: her persona, everything. She seemed a little bit of a know-it-all, and there was something about her that she just didn’t trust, or like. One or the other. She wasn’t sure which at this point. She seemed to have their best interests at heart, but she just didn't fully trust her.

  Until she did something to force Frankie to see her as an enemy, though, there was no real reason to not continue as they were.

  Frankie moved to the top of the first flight of steps down and, once everyone was ready, she started to descend.

  They moved quickly and quietly and zig-zagged back and forth across the fire escape, moving ever downwards until they reached the rooftop below.

  ‘Dion, be aware that our mission parameters have changed slightly. We might be forced to exit via a different route. I’ll keep you informed. Copy?’ Frankie said, over their link. At this point, she just didn’t know which way this mission would go, but felt it prudent to warn Dion sitting down there alone in the van that things were shifting.

  ‘Copy that,’ Dion said.

  ‘So, which one?’ Frankie asked Brenna.

  ‘The domed one, over there,’ she said, pointing further up the building.

  Frankie led her team and Brenna over the rooftop, weaving between the vents and communications arrays, towards the edge of the rooftop and the domed window that glowed from within.

  When they were close enough to see there were no other obstacles and no hidden security dolls, Gibson ran up to the skylight and peered through. Frankie followed him up and stood next to him, looking into the room below.

  It was a huge room, with painted murals on the walls, lots of kids toys and games, a ball pit, slides, swings, and more. There were also sofas, cushions, and a huge Vid Screen playing cartoons.

  It was a kids paradise, and within it, two figures were oblivious to Frankie and her team’s presence. A woman and a little girl were in the seating area. The girl was on the floor, drawing with paper and coloured pencils, and the woman sat close by, watching.

  ‘Stephie…’ Gibson muttered to himself.

  ‘What do you want to do?’ Frankie whispered to him.

  Gibson sighed and thought about it.

  ‘They look like they’re being looked after,’ Frankie offered.

  ‘I’m going in there,’ he said.

  Frankie was about to say something, but she then noticed the hard expression on Gibson’s face and thought better of it. Instead, she just nodded. She could see there would be little use in trying to talk to him, not now after he’d seen them.

  ‘Okay, but we do this carefully. Can you see any security?’ Frankie said as she took off the overalls that she wore over her black stealth suit.

  The team's stealth suits were form fitting, black, and covered with tactical webbing that could hold guns and weapons and other tech they might need. The suits themselves were also packed with technology and neat little tricks.

  Gibson started to move around the skylight and looked all around the room below to see if he could see anything.

  ‘I couldn’t hack that room,’ Brenna said from the rooftop nearby. ‘That would have been noticed.’

  Frankie nodded. ‘I understand,’ she said. These two were, at the moment at least, high-value prisoners and they would be under constant surveillance, so, trying to bypass that security would have been nigh impossible.

  Still, Brenna had done well to get them this far.

  ‘Anything,’ Frankie said to Gibson over the link as she checked her weapons.

  ‘Yeah, we have four guards in there with them. Dolls, I think, but I can’t be sure,’ he answered her as he removed his own overalls and checked his guns.

  ‘Right. I’m going with you. In fact, I’m going first. You follow me down. Veronica, can you help us take out the guards?’ Frankie asked.

  ‘Sure can,’ she said and set herself up. ‘I’ll take the two on the north side,’ she said.

  ‘Copy that,’ Frankie answered her. ‘Okay, guys,’ she said to Cole and the others. ‘I have no idea how this is going to go down. The moment this starts to go south, and I think it will, you get Brenna out of here. She’s the priority, okay?’

  ‘Of course,’ Cole said.

  ‘All right,’ Frankie said, and pulled out her rappelling line from her waist pouch, securing it to a railing and her belt. ‘They’re bound to be under surveillance, so I think we can expect company before too long. We’ll see how it goes, but I have a few ideas to get us out of here. Are you ready?’

  Gibson was already set up and stood next to her, an expression of fierce determination on his face. Frankie crouched down and aimed her gun at the first of the two security guards she could see. Veronica was opposite her, aiming at the pair that Frankie could not see.

&nb
sp; ‘Three, two, one, fire,’ she said.

  Her gun barked, the glass of the skylight smashed and the two doll’s she could see dropped to the floor, their heads in bits.

  With her shots taken, Frankie jumped through the window and using only her hand as a brake on the line, dropped to the floor of the playroom, her gun up and ready. She scanned the room, looking for movement, and ended up facing the woman who was now standing up and holding her scared daughter in her arms while looking at Frankie with wide eyes.

  Gibson landed on the floor beside her and detached himself from the rope. He had already dropped his rifle to his side and held his hands up to show he meant no harm.

  ‘What the hell…’ the mother yelped.

  ‘Hey, it’s me,’ Gibson said. ‘We won’t shoot you, don’t worry.’

  ‘Richard? Well, tell that to her,’ Camille, his wife, said.

  Gibson looked down at her. Frankie was still kneeling and had her gun pointed at Camille. She might be his wife, but if she was at all on the Corporation’s side, there was a chance she could be armed and might attack. Frankie didn’t want to take that chance.

  ‘Lower your gun, Frankie,’ Gibson said out loud.

  ‘On your head be it,’ Frankie said and did as he asked her, standing up behind him.

  ‘Oh, so that’s Frankie, is it?’ Camille commented.

  ‘We’ve come for you, to get you out of here,’ Gibson said.

  ‘You’ve come for us?’ Camille answered, looking slightly incredulous. Frankie didn’t like her tone at all.

  ‘Yeah, we need to get you away from here, away from Psytech,’ Gibson said.

  ‘And why would I want to do that?’ Camille asked.

  Frankie felt her stomach sink. She could already sense where this was going.

  ‘They kidnapped you; we’re here to save you,’ he said, his voice sounded pedantic.

  ‘Stop, Richard, just stop. You can’t do this. Psytech aren’t the bad guys here. She is,’ she said, pointing to Frankie. ‘Her and her friends, and you’re all mixed up in it. What happened to you? You used to be a cop, a good man. What are you now?’

  ‘What are you talking about?’ Gibson said. ‘They kidnapped you…’