by Unknown
Festus was showing himself to be the practised pro, who had enchanted Jessi when she got to know him. But Pandur had to give the girl her due. Festus was too many things in one. Who was Festus really? An intellectual scoffer? A tough guy who didn't allow himself feelings? A frustrated lover? In any event he represented a latent danger for his chummers as long as the brain maggots were munching away at him. Pandur was glad he had abandoned rigger control of the car and switched to autopilot.
Jessi rested her head on Pandur's shoulder. Pandur enjoyed this little island of intimacy. At the same time this gesture of familiarity almost gave him something like a bad conscience about the other man. We shouldn't give Festus the feeling of being shut out.
But the rigger was not bothering about the two of them. " Let's see if NN7 has anything on the attack on the enclave," he said, switching on the 2DTV.
"...announced he would be producing evidence to support his claim that the Union of the Unemployed was involved in the slave trade."
Advertising: "Tally ho, friends of the chase. The Federation of Bavarian Huntsmen invites you once more to the annual Wolperting hunt for the incredible price of only 5,000 Ecu, including all the sausage and beer you can eat and drink."
Interview with the dragon, Nachtmeister, who is in Frankfurt to found his private bank. Nachtmejg^ter announced a comprehensive restructuring of his business empire.
Advertising: "Gutter Magic" - the men's perfume with that special fragrance, developed by Mage Jussifo. Something magically disreputable for those moments when you want to be an animal. Guaranteed sinful and guaranteed revolutionary."
Murder of the Saxon politician and simsense porn producer Gisbert Treidl, who is alleged to have links with the Iluminati Lodge. The police are not ruling out ritual murder by the Lodge nor a power struggle within the porn industry.
Advertising: "Hobbit Styling". The top address among gentlemen's outfitters for the well-groomed dwarf. We stock blazers in genuine critter leather and a range of extra-large magical belt buckles."
General Juditha Dietzel appointed new commander of the Rapid Deployment Force 2000. In her inaugural speech, the general, known as a hardliner, announced her intention to make the troop a harder-hitting force. It cannot be desirable, she said, for successes to be prevented by misconceived humanitarian considerations. In particular, she demanded, there must be an end to the small-minded thinking behind taking terrorists prisoner in cases of doubt rather than shooting to kill.
Advertising: Something in Russian, showing the Tovarich in Hamburg's Nordstadt district where, according to the pictures, Cossacks danced and good borsch was cooked.
Twenty-three dead at an illegal car-duel tournament in Brunswick. When the police, who had initially allowed the tournament to go ahead, intervened after several duels had resulted in deaths, the victor crashed into a crowd of spectators while attempting to make his getaway. Spectators assaulted the police when they tried to arrest the perpetrator.
Advertising: "Life is better than live! Garters & Co, the brothel with a difference in St Pauli. Wide range, including all types of metahumans. Our ladies and gentlemen, available at all times of the day and night, look forward to your visit."
Six dead in battles between motorbike gangs in Kiel. The "Black Thorn Riders" proved to be especially aggressive, attacking and mutilating their adversaries with vibro-maces.
Advertising: "Every troll has a ball. Rambozambo, the place for the big guys to meet in Hamburg's Neustadt. Riesenhuber Urbock on tap in mega-steins. Tough tusker rough-house with battle-tested ores every Tuesday at 10."
Protests by the Catholic Church against the ACT 6-trid show Wedding Night, in which newly-weds copulate live on television. Cologne's Cardinal Huesgen directed his main criticism at the use of contraceptive devices and the commercials for these products flashed on the screen. Furthermore, he came down hard on the more recent practise of including homosexual couples in the program.
Advertising: "That special date has come round again. The Blankenese Cybertennis Club extends a warm invitation to the Grand Charity Bazaar in the Nixenhotel. We don't talk about money. We have it and we give it. Evening dress required."
Festus left the screen on a while until the first news items were repeated. Then he'd had enough. He passed his hand over the sensor and the screen went blank. Not a word about the bombing of the elf commune. It seemed AG Chemie had succeeded in keeping the incident quiet.
"This is really outrageous!" said Magnus. "You just can't bomb houses and kill people in the middle of Germany without those responsible being called to account for their actions."
"And how you can," said Jessi bitterly.
"The megacons can work magic, you see, without using mages," put in Festus. "If you give them enough time, black becomes white. And some things simply didn't take place, or did, but quite differently. Maybe tomorrow the media will be reporting that a few elves blew themselves up as they were preparing a bomb attack on AG Chemie."
Pandur thought several more times he heard a helicopter rotor. His ears probably weren't even playing tricks on him. There were other people in the air. Once he saw a helicopter appear off to the side. But the aircraft was a sky-blue Dornier Intercity moving away from them. He still had the feeling that the elves were around. The hairs on the back of his neck told him. But he couldn't prove it. He wasn't keen to, either. He preferred to believe that his neck hairs were reacting to his inner unease.
They reached Wurzburg. The rigger deactivated ALI. To Pandur's relief he didn't drive the Mercedes himself. He programmed the autopilot for the new heading: downtown, Transrapide station. It was 8.38 pm, rush hour was over, the city center almost deserted. The station came into sight, a dingy concrete box. On top a heliport, in the middle the station, at ground level an ALDI REAl store, on the first sub-level a dormacoffin hotel and a whorehouse. Festus took over the car and guided it straight into the underground garage of the building, past a group of almost naked whores guarded by pimps, leered at by rumblekids gliding round on turbo-rollerskates, and members of a motorbike gang, indolently lounging on their machines. He parked on the second sub-level. It was only a few steps to the elevator.
"We'll go upstairs with you," said Pandur as Magnus, Imogen and Tassilo got out.
Tassilo tapped his breast pocket. "No need. I can keep the kids and cats off my back with my P48."
"We'll come with you anyway," Pandur replied. "I need new clothes, since we weren't able to do justice to your collection, Tassilo. All my things stink of chemicals. A small memento of soggy Hamburg. Can't stand to smell myself anymore."
"You gotta take better care of yourself, chummer," said Festus. "Women don't like men to stink. So ka, Jessi?"
"Shut your trap!" Jessi snapped.
When Festus had secured the car, the group went to the elevator. Jessi operated the sensor. The elevator was on its way to them.
At the entrance to the underground garage, an engine set up a howl. In the first instant, Pandur thought the bike gang had decided to see what kind of little games the characters who had pulled up in the Mercedes were good for. But at the same moment he realized that the high-revving engine didn't belong to a motorbike but to a car of Chinese construction. A Mandarin7, an armored limousine favored by mafiosi. Pandur's neck hairs already claimed to know who was in the car.
While the Mandarin was still in the entrance, the barrel of a machine gun poked out of the crack of one of the windows. The gun began to spit ammo in the next second.
Pandur got out a warning, ducked and looked round for Jessi. The girl had spotted the danger in the same moment. With great presence of mind she pulled Imogen, who was standing next to her, to the ground. With a mighty bound, Festus leapt behind the nearest concrete pillar. While still in the air he jerked his Combat Gun into firing position, and the first ammo mix left the gun almost the same instant he hit the garage floor again. Only Professor Magnus hadn't moved. He stared in disbelief towards the car and the burst of fire.
&nb
sp; Magnus was incredibly lucky. The gunman must have had Pandur and Jessi in his sights. The first bullet missed the professor's head by two centimeters, and all the others slammed into the concrete at an angle of spread opening out to his right.
"Get your fuckin' ass down, Prof!" Festus screamed.
Finally the mage got moving. He didn't show his expensive robe any consideration, but threw himself down full length on the floor. The second burst sieved the air that had just closed over his head.
Festus hit the full width of the Mandarin. The 30-mm rounds bounced ineffectually off the bodywork, but the two mini-grenades had a greater impact. One hit the windshield, shattering it opaque. The other shredded the car's left rear tire. The Mandarin, which had just taken the bend at the entrance, skidded and its right front wing slammed into a concrete support. Metal screamed, concrete crunched, the engine howled and fell silent. Festus fired off the next five-round magazine, instantly shoving a new one after it.
Pandur, Jessi and Tassilo had drawn their pistols and also opened fire on the Mandarin, which had come to a halt thirty meters from them. Neither they nor the rigger, however, were able to prevent the car doors on the far side from being opened. Three figures piled out. Pandur saw stubbly ash-blond, wavy black and frizzy black hair appear and then disappear in succession. His enemies had changed neither hair color nor hairstyle. He shot at each of the heads, but his reflexes were much too slow, and good fortune didn't grant him a lucky hit. The three killers took cover behind the wreck and returned fire. Even the ash-blond elf was using an automatic rifle instead of a bow this time.
The chummers took advantage of the cover of a parked pick-up to shelter from the hail of bullets. Even Magnus had managed to take himself out of the line of fire before the dance resumed. Only Festus had stayed at his advanced post behind the pillar and was raking the hit squad with his Combat Gun. With his ammo mix, he put them off their aim and thwarted any attempt they might make to break from cover.
It was shaping up to be a miserable jockeying for position. Pandur was seized by an ice-cold fury. Again and again the elves had dictated the nature of the fight. They attacked and then hunkered down somewhere, holding their position, waiting for their opponent to make a mistake, forcing him to leave the safety of cover.
"We're going to attack them!" he called in a subdued tone across to Tassilo. "I'll try to come from their right flank. You go left."
When Tassilo nodded and went into a crouch, Pandur shouted out loudly, "Cover us, Festus! Give 'em everything you got!"
Pandur had been sheltering in a stooping position at the rear of the pick-up. He fired the last round in his Secura and slipped in a fresh clip.
"Here!" said Jessi, pressing her loaded Caveat into his left hand. "Be careful, Pandur! You're still needed!"
"Now!" Pandur shouted, leaping from cover in one bound and running hunched over to a concrete pillar. Festus gave them all he had. Out of the corner of his eye, Pandur saw Tassilo break away from the left-hand side of the pick-up and throw himself behind a parked VW Integra.
The killers had spotted the attempt to break out and replied at once. The bullets whistled round the two men's ears. Although they were being raked by Festus, the killers still found plenty of opportunity to shoot. The rigger was at least preventing them from aiming accurately. Pandur was unhurt, and Tassilo didn't seem to have caught a bullet either.
Jessi had stood up behind the pick-up and fixed her eyes on the enemy. She raised her right hand and concentrated. Her lips moved. An orange-red fireball left her hand, curved through the air and then hurtled towards the Mandarin7. It landed just below the roof, shattering the windows and sending what looked like a fountain of lava shooting up to the ceiling.
Pandur hoped the rain of fire and the shards from the shattered glass had injured the killers. At any rate, they were dazzled by the mana projectile. He darted forward, sprinted a good fifty meters angling forward and then pressed himself into a recess. Just in time. One of the killers had recovered from Jessi's magical assault amazingly quickly. He fired in Pandur's direction.
Pandur cursed softly. The recess hadn't been a good choice. Only the outer corner of the wall gave him any protection. Part of his body was in the opponents' field of fire. Far and wide there was no chance of improving his position.
Tassilo, who had also charged forward when the mana projectile hit, had had better luck. He was crouching behind a wide concrete plinth and firing to take some of the heat off Pandur. The rigger was likewise doing what he could and aiming his fire at the gunman threatening Pandur.
Despite this support, Pandur was under no illusions. The killer who had him in his sights would need only two or three seconds when he wasn't being hampered. An aimed shot, a burst of fire from an MG at the right angle, and Wurzburg Cemetery would be able to take charge of a cardboard box containing the remains of flesh and bone and marked with a P.
Jessi had realized his predicament. She let out a muffled scream. With ashen face, she stood up way too far out of cover, stretching both arms into the air, and moving her lips. Red flashes left both her hands, whizzed through the air and struck the wrecked Mandarin. But the girl was only a mage adept, not a fully-fledged combat mage. The mana projectile had already exhausted her. The flashes did hardly any damage, not even dazzling the enemy, and vanished in a puff.
Someone else had registered Pandur's position.
"Imogen!" Magnus called. "Your final exam! Miraculus murus rex maximus! You can do it!"
Imogen had flinched in fright when the professor called her name. But then she nodded, crawled along the floor to the front tire of the pick-up. She squatted down, peered round the tire and fixed on a spot between Pandur and the Mandarin7. Then her eyes took on a strangely distant expression. She mumbled a very long and very complicated spell.
Festus stopped firing. He had to reload his Combat Gun. Tassilo tried to fill the gap, but from his side he couldn't achieve much. Pandur saw the black elf woman straightening up behind the wreck of the Mandarin. She raised her rifle to her shoulder. Pandur took in every detail, even registering that it was an Ares MA 2100 that would send him to the eternal shadows. Desperate, he fired in her direction from both hands, but his shots went way over her head. The elf aimed at her leisure. Her targeting laser locked onto Pandur's chest. Her finger crooked round the trigger.
Imogen was mumbling the last syllable of her mile-long spell.
The bullet left the barrel of the markswoman's rifle.
The air that the bullet cut through was suddenly no longer air but molecularly compressed energy. From one instant to the next, a white-blue wall rose up between Pandur and the elf woman. Flickering, interlinked threads of energy, a seething, foaming energy, scurrying discharges, the acrid smell of ozone.
The bullet bounced off the wall and was flung back, missing the riflewoman's shoulder by a whisker.
Pandur was immobile, having to accustom himself to the thought that the Grim Reaper's scythe had missed him again. Then he leapt forward. He didn't know how long Imogen could maintain the energy barrier. But he was determined to seize the opportunity. He ran along the wall, his Secura and Caveat pointing ahead, ready to fire. He studiously avoided contact with the wall of energy. He was surprised. He had expected scorching heat, but the wall seemed as cold as ice. Or it was the wind he himself generated as he ran that created the illusion of a cold breath.
He reached the end of the five-meter-long and three-meter-high wall, a clean, smooth edge, like that of a block of blue-white marble cut to size by a laser. It was indeed a block, as he now realized, not a curtain of energy. The side section was about a meter across.
The wreck of the Mandarin7 was now only six meters away from him. Pandur spotted the faces of the dark-skinned elf woman, the ash-blond hitman and Ricul, all with guns held ready between the twisted transoms of the vehicle. Before one of the three could pull the trigger, Pandur fired off a shot at the face of Ash-blond and at the same time swiftly took cover behind his sid
e of the wreck. He hadn't scored a hit. The ash-blond elven hitman straightened up and tried to riddle Pandur with his MG, but he was already in the gun's blind spot.
Pandur crouched near the shot-up front tire. The body of the car had been pressed against the floor by the impact with the concrete pillar. Pandur had no need to fear that one of his enemies could fire at his legs underneath it.
Tassilo worked his way forward past several parked cars on the left and was preparing to jump behind the Mandarin with Pandur to rout out the killers. Festus had leapt up. He had had good cover behind the concrete pillar, but had not until now seen a chance to charge forward. Now he exploited the wall of energy.
"Fucking rabble!" he shouted. "We're gonna get ya and bust your ass!"
He charged out from behind the energy wall and jack-knifed against the Mandarin. Pandur and Tassilo jumped up, rounded the wreck from the left. Festus came from the other side.
The killers shouted something to each other. Shots. A staccato patter of shoe soles and the click of heels. The killers were on the run and trying to cover their retreat with rifle fire.
The chummers reached the other side of the wreck almost simultaneously. The killers were already some distance away, had reached the up-ramp and were diving behind a projection of the building. Festus was firing his ammomix. Pandur and Tassilo were emptying their pistols. Ricul and the dark-skinned elf woman were mere diving shadows. Only the ash-blond elf provided a target. He was standing at the corner of the projection, suddenly had his composite bow in his hand instead of the MG and loosed an arrow at Pandur. Pandur ducked and sent the last bullet flying from Jessi's Caveat.
