‘Excellent, we might be able to get a lead on your family too,’ Frankie said.
Gibson acknowledged her comment but said nothing. She understood this was a pretty difficult subject for him. But, they had a purpose now, and a small glimmer of hope that they might get through it.
1.14
‘We’ll take my car,’ Gibson said. ‘Come on.’
Frankie followed Gibson out of the Apartment and back to the lifts, they didn’t run, but they moved quickly, wanting to leave the building in as swift a manner as possible but not to arouse too much suspicion or interest.
‘What’s the plan then?’ Frankie asked as the elevator car dropped back down to the car park level.
‘I have some ideas,’ Gibson said, ‘but we need to get there and see what the situation is.’
‘Agreed. What do we have in terms of weapons and equipment?’
‘I have a few things in the back of my car. Hopefully, that will be enough until we get inside the station and find an armoury,’ Gibson said.
The lift slowed to a stop, and the three of them walked out into one of the parking levels. Gibson led the way to his car, As he approached, it unlocked, and he climbed inside.
‘Jump in,’ he said.
Frankie took the front passenger seat again as Gibson pulled out of the parking spot and started to make his way through the ranks of cars, eventually finding the exit ramp and joining traffic.
Gibson knew where he was going so Frankie left him to it and gazed out at the urban landscape of massive dark towers covered in glowing golden lights. Since that fateful visit to the Undercity camp to see Jude and how he was getting along with his prosthetics, it had been one thing after another as the Psytech corporation hunted them down. She would have to admit that she provoked them by rescuing Doctor Xenox from their headquarters, but that break in was in itself provoked by the actions of the corporation anyway when they kidnapped Doctor Xenox.
It was cause and effect the whole way through these last few days, and now they were reacting to the corporation once more.
When would it end?
Gibson’s car sped along several highways, most of them quite empty during these early hours of the night, until he slowed and, turning on some flashing blue hazard lights, turned off the elevated highway onto a service road that connected this motorway with another for the maintenance crews. The ramp wasn’t open to civilian cars, meaning it was otherwise deserted.
Once onto the ramp and away from traffic, Gibson turned off the Police lights and moved forward, driving through the debris that had been scattered here over the years.
As they moved through the darkness, their cars dipped headlights picked out a figure. A woman in trousers, boots and a jacket, leaning up against the waist-high side wall.
As they approached her, she stood away from the wall and walked forward, Gibson bringing the car to a stop alongside her.
‘Evening, Veronica, what kind of shit have we found ourselves in now?’
‘Take a look for yourself,’ she said and led Gibson from the car to the side barrier. Frankie followed, keen to see what was happening.
The service ramp looked over a section of the bottom of mid-town, with the closest building to the ramp being a quite squat tower surrounded by much smaller buildings before the Mega Skyscrapers crept in once more.
Sitting atop the cylindrical building, a Corporation flyer sat waiting, while around the base of it were some corporation Mechs, most of them with their spotlights trained on the building. Frankie could also make out some support vehicles, most of them being the vans that carried the Mechs.
Other than these guards, where wasn’t much in the way of action happening for the time being.
‘Do you have any idea what all this is about?’ Veronica asked. ‘It was all a little strange, they let most of the officers go, they were only really interested in the people on our floor. I only escaped because I was elsewhere in the building, and they’ve now sat there for the best part of an hour waiting for something.’
‘They’re waiting for us, well, these two. That’s what they really want, and I guess by taking you guys hostage, they’re hoping to get some leverage over me.
‘What the hell have you gotten yourself into Gibson?’
He sighed, and looked incredibly sad to Frankie’s eyes.
‘We’re in some shit, that’s for sure. This is Doctor Xenox, he’s a former employee of Psytech.’
‘Doctor X? The one you’ve mentioned to me before?’
‘The same. This here is Frankie, I’ve known her for about a year, she spends a lot of time in the under city helping some of the less fortunate down there.’
‘Yeah, you’ve told me about her before as well I think,’ Veronica said.
‘Probably. Anyway, a few nights ago Frankie gets herself into the middle of a Jacker Gang attack and gets shot up, the Doc here saves her by giving her a Cybernetic Body before Psytech find them and kidnap him. Frankie, on the run, finds me and I help her break into the Psytech building and rescue the Doc. This is their revenge,’ he said, gesturing to the Police Station. ‘This and the kidnapping of Camille and Steph,’ he said, his voice breaking a little as he said it.
‘Holy shit, you’re up to your neck in it. Why the hell did you break into the Corporation? That was never going to be a good idea.’
‘They’d already attacked me, by then… I was angry maybe? I don’t know, it seemed like the right thing to do at the time, and… I wanted to help Frankie.’
‘That good Samaritan streak is going to get you killed one day Gibson!’
‘Tell me about it.’
‘So what’re you going to do now?’
‘We,’ Frankie interrupted, ‘are going to get in there and make sure that Psytech doesn’t kill anyone else, that’s what we’re going to do.’
Veronica turned and smiled. ‘Good, I’ve had with these Corporations as well. I’ll provide some backup,’ she said and reached down. She picked up a long plastic case from the floor by her feet that had not been obvious in the darkness. She placed it on the service ramps side wall and flicked open the catches.
Veronica opened it up to reveal a very serious looking Sniper Rifle sitting in the foam covered interior.
‘Nice,’ Frankie said.
‘So how do you plan on getting in there?’ Veronica said, lifting out the gun and starting to assemble it.
‘I have that covered,’ Gibson said, and walked to the rear of his car and opened it up.
Frankie and the Doctor followed. She started to see another side to Gibson on seeing the small arsenal that filled rear of his car. Along with armoured vests and webbing, there was a range of weapons in there to choose from as well. From the side of the car’s trunk, Gibson pulled out a weapons case, similar to the one Veronica had just revealed, and opened it up to reveal a curious looking device that looked like a shoulder mounted Rocket launcher, but with some fundamental differences.
‘What’s that?’ Frankie asked.
‘It’s a Zip Line Launcher, and this is how we get over there, Gibson said.
‘Impressive,’ Frankie said.
‘Are we good to go then?’ Veronica asked from where she stood by the wall, her gun assembled and looking massive in her hands.
Frankie nodded, feeling somewhat more confident all of a sudden, and that they might just be able to pull this off, by some minor miracle.
‘Then let’s gear up people,’ Veronica said.
Frankie reached in and pulled out a tactical vest and webbing from the back of the car, pulling them on and clipping them into place. Having left the pair of guns she’d found on the Mech in their last car, she then picked a handgun with a silencer and some extra magazines, slipping them into the relevant parts of her tactical gear. There wasn’t much else in the back of the car by the time Gibson and the Doc had taken the weapons they wanted, and given that her body was as much of a weapon as anything else, she didn’t want to deprive the boys of some much-needed we
apons.
With everyone finished, Gibson slammed his car boot shut, and the four of them walked back to the side wall where the Detective placed the launcher on the concrete side barrier.
Frankie looked over at the building and scanned the local signals for access to the buildings net, but didn’t pick up any. They might be shut down, or encrypted, she wasn’t sure.
She would be looking to hack into it once she was inside, though, in the hope that it might help her in this mission.
‘I think you should shoot this,’ Gibson said to Frankie as he tapped the launcher with his hand. ‘You’ll be much more accurate than any of us could be.’
‘Sure,’ Frankie said, agreeing that with her augmented body and vision she would likely be the best choice for setting this up. ‘How does it work?’
Gibson picked it up and demonstrated how to hold it and shoot it. It seemed simple enough.
‘So, what's the plan? Where are the hostages being held?’ Frankie asked.
‘The Hostages are on the eighteenth floor,’ Veronica said. ‘I’d guess that most of the Corporations forces would be there as well.’
‘Do you know how many of them there are in there?’
‘Of the Corporation forces? I don’t know, but a lot,’ Veronica answered.
‘Any Agents?’
‘I don’t know.’
‘Probably then,’ Frankie guessed. She doubted that Psytech would pull something like this and bait them without putting at least one Agent in there with them. ‘Okay, I’d suggest that we go in a few floors above the eighteenth and make our way down,’ Frankie said.
‘Yes, actually if we breach on the twenty-fifth floor, there’s an armoury in there which might have some useful things inside it.’
‘And how do we then get down to the eighteenth floor?’ the Doctor asked.
‘I have an idea about that,’ Frankie said.
‘As do I,’ Gibson said. ‘But, I need to get in there first and see what we have available to us.’
‘So… we’re heading over there with only half a plan, do I have that right?’ the Doctor said.
Frankie smiled at him. ‘Half a plan and some good intentions, don’t forget that last part.’
‘Oh, absolutely not, why would I forget that part, that makes all the difference that does, I feel so warm and fuzzy inside now.’
Frankie picked up the launcher and positioned herself just in front of a large support strut for a highway up above and pressed the first of the guns two triggers. With a bang, a metal harpoon fired out the rear of the launcher and buried itself in the strut behind her. The loose wire attached to the harpoon was then pulled back into the launcher, and a light in the sights blinked green, indicating it was ready. Frankie aimed while her enhanced vision and Cyberbrain calculated the shot, the best angle, the drop of the harpoon over the course of its trajectory, wind speed and more. She did this without actually thinking about it, and all within a matter of seconds before she gently squeezed the trigger.
The launcher fired again, the second harpoon shot over the gap between the service ramp and the side of the Police building trailing its high tensile strength wire behind it. The Harpoon hit within a couple of feet of where Frankie intended it too, just above the windows of the twenty-fifth floor, which she was satisfied with. She couldn’t predict and compensate for everything that would affect the shot after all.
The launcher then reeled in the excess wire making the whole Zip Line pull taught. The Launcher itself then split, becoming some hand grips for them to use to ride the line over there.
‘I’ll go first,’ Frankie offered.
‘Good idea,’ the Doctor said.
She could hear the fear in his voice making it wobble as he spoke. He was the least combat-ready of the lot of them now, and taking the fight to the Corporation was probably spooking him more than he’d ever let on. He wasn’t without any combat experience, though. He’d held his own against the Corporation forces back in his lab, but she got the feeling that he preferred not to go looking for trouble whenever possible.
‘Let me get over there and make sure it’s clear, I’ll signal you once we’re good,’ she said.
‘Gotcha,’ Gibson said as he checked his weapons.
Frankie stepped up onto the side wall and took hold of one of the grips in her left hand and drew her gun with the other.
‘You might want to shoot out that window before you hit it,’ Veronica said. They’re reinforced, but you should be able to weaken it enough with the gun for you to break through. Oh, and here’s my comms channel,’ she said, her Neural Net offering a connection to Frankie which she quickly accepted.
Frankie stepped out into the void, the grip starting to slide down the line. There was a trigger she could pull on the handle that would apply a brake if she wanted to slow down, but she didn’t use it, she wanted as much speed as she could build up.
About half way over she raised her gun, took aim at the window, and fired.
She shot it several times, and after a few hits, she could see the tell-tale spider web cracks appearing in the armoured glass.
In the last few meters, she lowered her gun and raised her feet up, kicking forward at the last second to hit the glass as hard as she could.
The pane of glass shattered into a million tiny pieces and Frankie sailed on through the hole rolling on the floor into a crouch with her gun up.
Two armed men ran into the room from a side door, both of them wearing tactical gear with their submachine gun’s up and ready. Frankie’s lightning reflexes calmly fired off two more shots, both of them hitting their targets cleanly in the head and dropping them to the floor.
Frankie’s regular scans picked up the signals to the comms devices the two men were wearing and hacked into the communication band that they were using. The defences on their coms were rudimentary and not really a match for Frankie’s hacking algorithms, allowing her to break through the digital barriers relatively quickly. A little icon with a waveform popped up in her vision along with a message.
-Breach successful–
She un-muted the signal and suddenly heard a voice over the intercom.
‘Stevens, what the hell happened up there, come in…’ the man was shouting.
Frankie looked down at the two figures, both were men, so she applied a filter to her voice to mimic a generic male voice.
‘We’re here boss, all clear, false alarm,’ she said.
‘Oh, good. Check around, report in if you see anything suspicious,’ the man said.
‘Will do,’ Frankie answered in her modulated voice and muted the channel again. She then set up a subroutine to monitor the chatter over the comms and to alert her if anything important was mentioned.
Frankie glanced through the two doors out of the room but saw nothing to worry about and walked back to the window. As she moved, she scanned for and found the ports to the buildings intranet and set some of her more advanced hacking programs to start breaking into it. It would take a few moments to get in.
Reaching the window, she waved at Gibson and the Doctor, signalling them to slide over. She could also see that Veronica was now set up with her rifle pointed at the building.
For a fleeting moment, she thought that Veronica might shoot her, and felt suddenly very vulnerable, but that irrational thought soon passed.
She watched as first Gibson and then the Doctor held onto the grips and flew along the wire, over the gap and dropped in through the window. Gibson landed competently on his feet, while the Doctor stumbled and fell.
Frankie walked over and helped him up. ‘You okay?’
‘I’m fine,’ he said. Clearly, a touch embarrassed.
‘Are you hacked into the Net yet?’ Gibson asked her.
‘Getting there, let’s find this armoury, I should be in by then,’ Frankie said.
Gibson nodded and led the way out of the room and through a corridor before turning another corner and walking up to a metal door with the word “Armoury
” stencilled onto it.
Gibson tried the door, but it held firm. ‘Shit,’ he cursed and patted his pockets looking for his keys.
Frankie didn’t have time for that, though, so she stepped up to the door and gave it a quick look over. It opened out into the corridor, so she took a firm grip on the handle, placed her right foot on the wall, and pulled.
‘Hey!’ shouted a voice from further up the corridor.
Frankie looked up to see an armed man had just stepped into the hallway. Silhouetted against a window just behind him, he sank into a more ready stance and raised his gun. His movements were almost in slow motion, he had caught them completely unawares, and there was little they could do to avoid getting shot.
The window behind him exploded in a shower of glittering shards of glass while the man’s face did the same with a blossom of blood and bone as he dropped to the floor.
‘Holy shit,’ Frankie cursed.
‘You can thank me later,’ said the voice of Veronica in their heads.
‘That’s one drink I owe you,’ Gibson quipped.
Catching her breath again, Frankie went back to pulling on the door, and with a few more seconds of applied force and the sound of stressed metal creaking against the pressure that was being used against it, the locks finally gave way, and the door swung open.
As she let go, her hacking software alerted her that she had broken into the building Intranet.
‘Gibson, I’m in,’ she said, making him stop in the doorway of the Armoury.
He turned to face her. ‘With your hack you mean? Are they on floor eighteen?’
‘One moment,’ Frankie said and hunted for access to the building security cameras. She quickly found it and scanned through the floors, finding eighteen, and then the sections of that floor until she found a feed from the main open plan work area where she could clearly see the hostages surrounded by Corporation strike force members. ‘Yeah, they’re on eighteen, there’s quite a large number of Corp security forces in there too. This won’t be a walk in the park.’
‘I never expected it to be,’ Gibson smiled back at her. ‘Where would be the fun in that?’
Promethean Files 1: The New Prometheus Page 14
