‘We can minimise your contact with Xenox, keep you two apart if you like. As you guessed, it’s his plan, so he will be around, but I can minimise your contact,’ William offered. ‘Thank about it, do you really want to go back onto those streets and risk being found by Psytech again?’
‘If I could have taken you, I would have,’ Xenox said. ‘I truly am sorry, but there was no other way.’
‘That’s utter crap and you know it. There’s always a way if you want something bad enough,’ Brenna hit back.
‘I will keep my distance if you like. You don’t need to see me, but we do need you, Brenna,’ Xenox said.
‘Please, Brenna,’ Zhou implored.
‘If I catch even the slightest whiff of betrayal from you,’ Brenna growled at Xenox, pointing her finger at him. ‘I will personally destroy this virus of yours, you got that?’
‘Understood,’ Xenox said. ‘I’ll be on my way, then.’
‘You do that,’ Brenna said and watched him walk off into the hanger.
‘I’m sorry, Brenna. I should have told you, but if you had known…’ William said.
‘I wouldn’t have come. I know. I understand. As long as I don’t have to deal with him, I’ll be fine,’ she said, still scowling after the doctor. ‘Get me out of here, show me what you’ve been doing,’ she said and walked into the lift that Xenox had just stepped out of.
The lift ride down was a subdued one, with Brenna standing with her arms crossed and Zhou next to her, looking concerned.
‘That could have gone better,’ Frankie said to William over their link.
‘And it could have gone much worse. At least, she’s staying to help us,’ William said.
‘She just threatened to destroy the virus, does that not concern you?’ Frankie asked.
‘Of course, but what choice do we have?’
Frankie frowned, knowing they had little choice. Brenna was clearly a capable scientist and hacker, but there was some bad blood between her and Xenox which sounded like it might threaten the project. It was a worry, but if Xenox could just keep his distance for a little while, maybe they would get through this.
The lift soon reached the main floor and opened up, letting the passengers disembark and walk along the corridor. Veronica peeled off to go and see Gibson, while up ahead, Kalypso stood waiting for them.
‘Sir,’ she said.
‘Everything okay, agent?’ William asked.
‘Fine, Sir. I have some information, if we can move to a briefing room,’ she said.
‘Of course. Zhou, would you mind showing Brenna to the lab?’
‘Of course, it would be my pleasure,’ he said.
‘Thank you, Zhou. I will come and find you all shortly,’ William said.
Brenna nodded, her face still grim from the confrontation earlier on and followed Zhou on through the corridors.
‘I was wondering, is there a terminal I can use?’ Clare said to Frankie’s right in a quiet voice while William turned to Kalypso, Cole, and Isaac to talk.
Frankie turned to her. ‘A terminal? Err, yeah, sure, over here,’ she said and led Clare to a nearby terminal and logged into it. ‘Here you go, is something the matter?’
‘Oh, no, there’s just something related to Isaac’s work in the media and I want to view it on a big screen,’ she said.
‘Frankie? You coming?’ William said from across the room. She could see Cole, Kalypso, and Dion already in there with the Foreign Minister.
‘Sorry, got to go, we’ll just be in briefing room two,’ Frankie said.
‘I know. I couldn’t go in there anyway, I’m not authorised for that security clearance,’ she said.
Frankie nodded, remembering that she had always stayed outside during the more sensitive meetings. Only her husband Isaac was cleared to be in these sessions.
‘Of course, see you shortly,’ she said before she walked over to the briefing room and entered, closing the door behind her.
‘Everything okay?’ William asked.
‘Yes, fine,’ Frankie said and sat next to Isaac. ‘Clare’s out there on a terminal,’ she whispered to him.
Isaac nodded but didn’t seem to pay much attention, looking instead at Kalypso, who William had just invited to speak.
‘Our intelligence operatives in MI6 have come back to me with details about our final programmer, Angela Böhmer,’ Kalypso said. ‘As suspected, she’s working in Berlin at Nano Technic. She spends most of her days at an industrial unit outside the city, but travels back on the same corporate shuttle train each day, usually the same train at the same time of day. She seems to like routine. We feel that her journey on this train is the best time to snatch her. Otherwise, she’s behind a lot of security, which would be very dangerous to bypass. The train is guarded, of course, but it’s nothing we can’t handle. The plan is to be on site in the flyer and use micro drones to spot Angela boarding the train so we can then board the right carriage and do this as quickly as we can. Our intelligence suggests that Angela will not cooperate with us, so you will need to take her by force. Any questions?’
‘When do you propose we do this?’ Frankie asked.
‘It’s too late in the evening, now. I would suggest tomorrow afternoon, on her return trip,’ Kalypso said.
‘Okay, sounds good. Send me the details and I’ll fine tune it,’ Frankie said.
Kalypso nodded.
‘This all seems to be going well, so far,’ Isaac said. ‘The PM is very impressed, by the way, as am I.’
‘It’s going as well as can be expected, yes,’ William said.
‘You’re the agent on the ground, Frankie, leading this team. Are you happy with the missions so far?’ Isaac asked her.
‘Yes, Sir. For something that sounded like such a long shot initially, we now seem to be closing in on the last stages of it. I think Angela could be problematic, and I hope Brenna doesn’t cause too many problems, but, otherwise, so far, so good.’
‘What’s the team for this?’ Cole asked.
‘I would suggest the usual team,’ Kalypso said. ‘Although, I think one of us, me, perhaps, should stay back here, just to keep an eye on things as we gather these programmers together. I would suggest that Xenox goes with you instead of Dion. Best to get him out of the building now that Brenna is here. Sorry, Dion.’
‘That’s okay, I understand,’ he said.
‘You should all go and get some rest,’ William said. ‘Tomorrow looks to be another busy day.’
Everyone filed out of the briefing room, and Frankie made her way back to the living space, one floor up. She might not ever really feel physically tired, but she often suffered from mental fatigue, and right now she really just needed to rest up and try to relax before the next mission.
Ω
Frankie soon found herself back in her tactical stealth suit and in the back of the A.C.T. flyer over Germany, approaching the industrial facility outside the city of Berlin that twinkled in the distance. They circled high and could see the massive industrial complex that was serviced by a train line that arced out of the estate and off towards the city a few miles away.
Frankie held onto the Kevlar webbing hand grips inside the flyer, standing at the side door as several micro drones were launched from the underside of the aircraft and zipped off towards the facility, each one tagged and tracked in her vision.
‘What’s the time?’ Gibson asked.
‘Four forty-eight. We’re a few minutes off from when the train arrives, and people start to board it,’ Xenox said.
Frankie eyed Gibson as he watched the screens above the terminal where Doctor Xenox sat directing the drones. Gibson had stayed inside his quarters all night, only emerging part way through the day today to find out what the next mission was. Frankie had questioned him, but he seemed fine and wanted nothing more than to continue with the plan.
Camille’s rejection of him must surely be playing on his mind. She wondered if he would be fit to continue after such an encounter, but on seeing him today,
she could see no reason to deny him. They needed the manpower, anyway.
‘Have you spotted her yet?’ Frankie asked.
‘Not yet,’ Gibson said.
The screens before Xenox showed a sea of people as the drones swept their cameras over the crowd waiting for the train, hunting for a face that fitted Angela’s description. The terminal marked any who were a close enough match, and it was then a process of manually looking at them and hoping they spotted her.
The train was just pulling into the station when the terminal beeped, and a face had been flagged as a 97.6% match for Angela, way above all the others so far. Xenox brought up the face on the big screen and they gave it a long, hard look. Frankie felt sure that was her.
‘I think we’ve found her,’ Frankie said.
As the woman on the screen moved, the percentage rose while the camera got an ever better look at her.
‘I would agree that’s her. Keep three drones on her; bring the rest back. Follow her, make sure we know where on the train she is,’ Frankie said.
‘I have her,’ Xenox muttered.
They watched the crowd of people walk onto the train, which moments later, pulled out of the station, moving slowly at first, but picking up speed.
‘Take us in,’ Frankie called out to the doll piloting the flyer. Immediately, the flyer banked right and came around on a curving path to end up above the train car they had tracked Angela to. They hovered a few meters above the roof. Frankie grabbed the shaped charge that would cut a hole into the train and walked to the edge of the rear ramp.
‘Let’s go, guys,’ she said, and stepped out the back of the flyer, landing in a crouch on top of the train. Moments later, Gibson, Cole, and Veronica landed close by as Frankie placed the charge and turned away. The explosion was short and sharp, and when Frankie looked back, there was a neat square hole in the roof of the train car big enough to drop through.
She could already hear screams coming from inside as frightened passengers started to panic. Frankie moved and dropped through the hole, stepping quickly out of the way so Gibson could follow her down. People had already surged away from the section of roof that had fallen into the car, although a couple of passengers sat close by with bloody heads. They were alive, but they had apparently been hit in the head by the falling debris.
Frankie’s rifle was up the second she’d landed as she scanned the crowd of faces. They were at one end of the car and started to move through it. She’d walked maybe four or five meters before she’d suddenly spotted Angela amidst the sea of faces.
‘Got her,’ Frankie said through the team's neural link.
‘Where?’ Gibson asked.
‘Middle of the car, follow me,’ she answered and moved directly towards Angela. ‘You,’ Frankie shouted, walking up to her. ‘On your hands and knees.’
Angela nodded and did as Frankie had asked.
‘Freeze!’ shouted someone from further up the car. Frankie tilted her head to get a look and saw a security guard with a gun, standing a little further up the car. People moved away from him as he pointed his gun at Frankie and the team. He was twitchy and nervous, switching his aim between her and her teammates behind her.
‘Easy now,’ Cole said to the guard from behind her. ‘You’re outgunned, put it down.’
‘You drop yours, I got you dead to rights,’ the man said.
They did not have time for this, the train was speeding into Berlin and towards reinforcements, and they would certainly have been noticed by Nano Technic by now. Frankie waited a few more seconds until he had moved his gun furthest away from her, before twisting in a sharp motion and firing off a round into the man’s shoulder. He spun and dropped to the floor with a howl, but Frankie was already focusing back on Angela, who looked even more shocked by what was happening.
Gibson moved up and stood behind Angela, pulling out some cuffs which he placed on Angela’s wrists while Cole placed shaped charges on the doors. Veronica stood near Frankie, watching the crowd while Frankie oversaw the whole operation and also watched the crowds.
‘Francesca?’ said a voice from behind her that Frankie recognised immediately.
Turning on the spot, Frankie saw two people, a man and a woman, stepping forward towards her through the crowd.
‘Mum, Dad?’ Frankie muttered.
2.20
‘What are you doing here?’ Frankie asked the two approaching people. Her mother looked older, tired, and not quite as youthful as she previously had. They both wore their usual lab coats and had clearly just finished a long day of work.
‘What are we doing here? What are you talking about? I should be asking you the same question. What’s with the gun and that guard you just shot? What the hell is this?’ her mother said.
‘What are you doing, Frankie? Where have you been? You just disappeared,’ her father said.
‘I couldn’t live with you anymore, not after I found out what you… What the Corporations do. I couldn’t stay there and live with myself. I wanted nothing more to do with you,’ Frankie said.
‘What are you talking about? We make nano machines, we save lives, Frankie. What’s to dislike about that?’
‘Fire in the hole,’ Cole yelled behind her, followed by several small explosions as the doors flew off the side of the train, making the roar of the wind even louder.
‘Those bots only save the lives of those who can pay. What about the others? What about those who can’t pay and end up in the slums in the Undercity? What about them? What do they do when the Corporation that said they would protect them switches the bots off? Typhoid is not a pleasant illness, Dad, but a preventable one. You don’t save lives, you work for a faceless monster that uses the fruits of your labour to control the masses and remains unaccountable for the horrors it commits. You aid and abet a murderous Corporate elite who couldn’t care less about humanity and who frequently commit murder,’ Frankie yelled over the wind.
‘We don’t do that,’ he said.
‘Maybe not you specifically, but you know it happens. You know what goes on, and you do nothing.’
‘You had a good life, Francesca. We gave you everything you could ever want, money, opportunity, education…’
‘So what? I don’t want your blood money. I want to live my life knowing I worked for something better, knowing I tried to help and didn’t stand idly by as those less fortunate than me were crushed by the system. I don’t understand how you live with yourself, how you sleep at night knowing there are people in Neo-London right now dying from preventable illnesses. You make me sick.’
‘But, Fran, we love you, you’re our daughter,’ her mother pleaded with her. ‘There’s nothing we can do to change the way things are.’
‘We’re going, Frankie,’ Gibson called out to her.
‘There’s always something you can do, Mum. Always,’ Frankie said, and turned towards the door, taking hold of the rappelling line hanging from the flyer up above.
‘Francesca…’ her father called out.
Frankie looked back at her dad. ‘My name’s Frankie,’ she said and leapt out the doorway, leaving her shocked parents behind as the flyer pulled away.
Frankie climbed up the rope and clambered up onto the rear ramp of the flyer behind Gibson. Further in, Cole and Veronica were securing Angela to the seat of the flyer.
Gibson offered his hand and Frankie took it, following him into the belly of the aircraft.
-New Link Requested. From: Richard Gibson-
The message flashed up in her vision. Frankie accepted and opened the private link to Gibson.
‘So, they were your parents?’ he said.
‘That’s right,’ she said. She’d known this would be coming. She’d never really spoken about her family much, preferring to keep that to herself, but there would be no getting around it now.
‘Seems like a tense relationship you have there. They work for Nano Technic, I take it?’
‘That’s right. They do. And, yeah, I ran away from
them after University finished and I’d discovered what the Corporations do to those… well, you know the rest. You’ve seen it. When I found that out and knew that my parents were aware of it, I just… I couldn’t stay there anymore. It wasn’t right.’
‘I see, and that’s how you ended up visiting the Undercity?’
‘Something like that,’ she said, thinking back to her friend Mal who had shown her the truth, taken her to the Undercity for the first time, opened her eyes to the horrors that were being committed down there. Then she thought about how Mal had died. How she had been murdered for trying to do the right thing, for trying to stop the countless deaths.
‘Sorry, I… I didn’t mean to upset you,’ Gibson said.
She wasn’t sure if she could cry in this body or not, but he clearly noticed that she was becoming upset.
‘You didn’t. It’s the memories that get me,’ she said.
‘Of course,’ he answered her.
Frankie got up and went to sit by herself. Gibson didn’t say anything, he let her go, and she was grateful to him for respecting her privacy.
The flight back was quick, just a little over an hour and they were coming in to land at the A.C.T. base. Gibson and the others left her alone for the flight, apparently understanding that she needed some space. They had all heard the exchange between her and her parents, there was no need to explain it further.
The flyer landed in the hanger and the rear door opened up. William stood close by as Cole and Gibson walked Angela down the ramp with Veronica following. Frankie stepped down and watched her teammates lead the final programmer off towards the lifts.
Xenox stepped up next to her.
‘Hopefully, that’s all of them,’ he said.
Frankie nodded.
‘Sorry to hear about your parents. We all have skeletons in our closets though,’ he muttered.
Frankie looked up at him sideways, feeling incredulous and a little offended by his presumptuousness at coming to talk to her about this.
‘Speaking of which,’ he said, looking at something across the hanger.
Frankie followed his gaze and saw Zhou striding from the second elevator and over towards them. He passed by William, who looked a little surprised by his appearance and walked right up to Xenox.
Promethean Files 2: The Prometheus Gambit Page 21
