‘That’s them!’ he yelled to Foxx. ‘The ones who attacked me earlier!’
‘No shit!’ Vasquez called back.
The craft wheeled about in a steep climb, the neat rows of aerial traffic breaking up to avoid the crazily manoeuvring craft as it turned and plummeted back down toward them. Nathan dashed around to the far side of the roof exit and crouched down as he heard the plasma blasters open up once again. Searing waves of heat washed by as the shots pummelled the roof, leaving pools of molten plasma and pinning him in place.
The flames were higher now, the smoke thick and spiralling upward in dense coils that obscured the view of the city beyond. Nathan peeked around the edge of the exit and saw the attacking craft whoosh through the thick smoke and leave dense vortexes behind as it soared clear of the building and began turning steeply for another pass.
‘They’re pinning us down!’ Vasquez yelled, ‘and the emergency teams won’t come in here under fire!’
Nathan saw through the smoke the craft wheel around high over the city and begin to dive back down toward them, and although they were distant he could still make out the form of the gunman hanging out of one open window, the rifle in his grasp.
Foxx opened fire on the vehicle as it closed in, supported by Vasquez and Allen, their shots rocketing up arrow-straight toward the craft in a stream of plasma as it raced down toward them. The blasts sprayed the nose of the craft and it pulled up sharply as the gunman’s rifle opened up and blasted the low wall behind which Foxx was hiding.
Nathan saw the craft suddenly haul its nose up and move into a hovering position, and the gunman began raking the low wall with gunfire, the weapon crackling with each shot. In an instant, he recognized the gunman's face as Arwin Minter. He could see that Foxx and her team were pinned down, blazing plasma raining down on their position and the rising flames and the heat from the inferno below further blocking them in. With the terrified residents cowering alongside them, they could not leave their position.
Cornered, Nathan realized. With nowhere to go and only moments before the blaze took over the roof of the building, he knew that there was no escape for Foxx.
Nathan looked down at the boxes he was holding and then he set them down on the ground and opened one of them. He reached in, overcoming his disgust at handling the big black insect as he lifted it out and looked at it. It took only a moment to identify the obvious power button, along with a small panel that he popped open to reveal a keypad and what looked like a receptacle for something. He shouted across to Allen.
‘Jay?! C’mere!’
Allen ducked down as a fresh salvo from the gunman showered their hiding place with plasma, the hits dripping white-hot from the ledge and smoldering in pools on the roof around them. Allen said something to Foxx, and moments later she and Vasquez opened fire on the craft. The gunman ducked aside and the pilot pulled back, the smoke enveloping the craft for a few brief moments.
Allen broke cover and dashed to Nathan’s side, crouching down alongside him.
‘They’re pinned down and the fire’s getting worse!’ he yelled breathlessly. ‘What the hell do you want?’ Allen looked at the bug. ‘What are you doing with that?!’
‘It hunted my DNA, right?’ Nathan said. ‘The gunman in that vehicle is Arwen Minter and he’s got the same DNA as me.’
‘It might not work!’ Allen warned. ‘We don’t know how deeply they programmed it. If it can’t distinguish between faces then the thing might just attack you instead!’
Nathan glanced across at Foxx, pinned between murderous gunfire and writhing coils of searing flame now soaring like a curtain around her and Vasquez.
‘They’re in trouble,’ he said to Allen. ‘Do it.’
Allen slipped his scanner’s connector into the bug’s and switched the machine on, accessing his files on Arwen Minter and downloading them into the drone’s internal processor. The big black wasp-like drone quivered and leaped into life as it processed the new data drawn from Allen’s scanner, and then it beeped loudly.
Another blaze of gunfire raked the roof and Nathan saw Foxx and Vasquez pinned against the wall in the rising heat, flames licking at their hiding place. Moments later, they both broke cover and sprinted away from the fearsome inferno in an attempt to draw the fire away from the civilians, and the gunman switched position and opened fire on them.
‘Now!’ Nathan yelled. ‘Cut it loose!’
Allen yanked the scanner’s connector from the drone’s back and the drone lifted off, its wings beating the air and humming loudly as it hovered directly in front of Nathan’s face. He stared into the soulless black eyes that reflected the flames licking around the edge of the roof, its antennae probing the air and its body gyrating on the hot up-drafts from the fire and the gusts from the gunman’s vehicle.
Nathan swallowed thickly, and then the drone’s wings beat harder and it rushed toward his face only to veer off at the last moment and turn away toward the vehicle hovering close to the burning building.
Nathan heaved a sigh of relief and watched as the vicious drone shot over the heads of Foxx and Vasquez as they fled and rocketed through the tumultuous veils of flame and smoke. Through the coils of flame Nathan saw the gunman suddenly jerk away from his rifle as he spotted the drone zooming toward him, and he shouted a warning to the driver as he ducked back inside the vehicle and tried to close the window.
Too late.
The drone shot into the vehicle’s interior and the craft banked wildly and veered away from the burning building. Nathan saw it career sideways, tilting steeply to one side as its internal mass drive struggled to keep it airborne and stable. A whining sound burst from the craft as it climbed sharply, and Nathan heard gasps of alarm and distress from the crowds below as the craft flipped over in mid-air and suddenly plummeted down toward a landing pad nearby.
Several bright flashes of panicked plasma fire erupted inside the vehicle.
Nathan saw the craft plunge nose-first toward the pad and he knew that it wasn’t going to pull up in time. He saw the faint image of scrambling figures inside the vehicle and then it smashed into the platform and vanished amid a blossoming fireball that burst like a bright halo and ejected supersonic debris across the city. Nathan threw himself face-down on the hot roof as chunks of metal, plastic and glass shot by them, Allen ducking down behind the roof entrance with his hands over his head.
The shower of debris sprayed across them and then the deafening blast faded. Nathan lifted his head from beneath his hands to see a rising ball of black smoke billowing up from the impact site as the crumpled remains of the vehicle burned furiously.
Foxx and Vasquez emerged from their hiding place as Nathan saw aerial fire-fighting vehicles rushing toward the scene. Painted bright red and white, they roared overhead and dumped vast quantities of water down onto the burning building as Nathan and Allen sheltered in the roof exit and covered their faces to protect themselves from the smoke and the heat billowing up from within.
Four fire-fighting craft in succession blasted the building with water bombs, the flow cascading across the roof and crashing into the sides of the building as further teams on foot rushed in with hoses and began bringing the blaze under control.
Nathan emerged from the roof entrance to see Foxx and Vasquez crouched on the roof, both of them drenched but clearly relieved. Police cruisers, their lights shimmering, arrived overhead and began landing on the available platforms around the burning wreckage of Minter’s vehicle as Nathan felt Allen’s hand on his shoulder. He turned to look at the young detective, those cool blue eyes looking back at him.
‘Gutsy move,’ he said simply.
Nathan nodded, and together they walked across to Foxx.
‘What happened?’ Vasquez asked. ‘I thought we were toast.’
‘Nathan here had the idea of reprogramming one of the drones to chase Minter, who had the same DNA profile,’ Allen announced. ‘Looks like it worked.’
Foxx stared at Nathan, a glimme
r of admiration in her expression. ‘Smart,’ she said. ‘Means we lost our latest lead though.’
‘And my only living relative,’ Nathan lamented as he looked across at the burning wreckage now surrounded by police officers.
‘We’ve still got the other drones,’ Allen said. ‘Let’s get them back to the precinct and have Schmidt check them out. Maybe they can tell us something about who sent them to hunt Nathan down.’
‘Agreed,’ Foxx said as she holstered her blaster, the magazine of which was lost in a cloud of rapidly evaporating ice. ‘And more importantly how a loser like Minter got himself military hardware for personal use. Viggo’s got some serious questions to answer.’
***
XXIV
Nathan followed Foxx into the precinct office and watched as she dumped her pistol back into her desk drawer and peeled off her sodden jacket. Vasquez likewise slid out of his jacket, still dripping water as he hung it over the back of his chair.
‘Any word on the crash victims?’ Foxx asked Allen as he accessed his ocular implant.
‘Nothing from paramedics on the scene other than to confirm that both occupants of the vehicle died in the impact,’ Allen reported. ‘The cruiser’s been totalled but the crews recovered what’s left of the drone and confirmed that it had pretty much emptied its venom supply into both victims. The coroner’s report won’t be available for at least twenty four hours, but I think it’s safe to say that both of them would have died anyway from blood poisoning from the drone’s stinger.’
Nathan shivered as he considered the horrible fate suffered by the two gunmen.
‘What about the drones we found in the apartment?’ he asked.
‘Fascinating,’ Doctor Schmidt announced as he worked nearby, already enclosed with the drones within a ray-shielded cube in one corner of the office.
Nathan knew better than to try to walk into the cube, the walls as hard as though they were made of steel. Yet he could hear every word that Schmidt said, the transparent walls vibrating with the frequency of the doctor’s voice and transmitting that exact same vibration out into the office as though there was nothing in the way.
‘Can you identify who worked on them?’ Vasquez asked. ‘We need something concrete before we can go lean on Viggo.’
‘I can do better than that,’ Schmidt announced. ‘I can tell you everything that happened to them. These drones carry black-boxes, data storage systems that record every event that occurred in their programming history. It was incorporated into the design during the Aleeyan War after concerns were raised about the use of these drones against civilian targets: including the storage units ensured that any misuse of the drones in combat could be traced back to the individuals who programmed them.’
‘What do we got?’ Foxx asked as she walked to the edge of the cube and observed the doctor rummaging about inside the drones using biomechanical robotic arms attached by data link to the doctor’s processors. As his holographic arms and hands moved, so did the robotic ones in precise concert.
‘These drones are very old,’ Schmidt reported, ‘almost a hundred years in fact, and they’ve had their construction data erased as well as the manufacturer’s stamp.’
‘So somebody’s trying to hide their trail,’ Nathan said.
‘Perhaps,’ Schmidt conceded, ‘however these drones were used by warlords prior to the Aleeyan Wars remember, to hunt and eradicate plague sufferers. These examples of the drones could be older devices later used by the military, reactivated and assigned new numbers that have since been erased. It will be tough to track down precisely where they came from, but what I can say for certain is that Viggo Polt and Arwen Minter’s DNA and prints are all over them, both inside and out. Viggo’s your man.’
Nathan could see a bright spark of victory flare in Foxx’s eyes as she watched the doctor work. ‘Okay, anything else?’
Schmidt peered inside one of the drones and frowned.
‘The data streams indicate that these drones have not been on earth for some time,’ he revealed. ‘Wherever they were stored it wasn’t on the surface, which means likely there could be more of them cached anywhere in the city or even beyond.’
‘That’s not good,’ Vasquez said. ‘If we get a pre-programmed swarm of those things let loose in the city with melee programming they could take hundreds of lives before they’d be brought under control, maybe even thousands and they won’t discriminate between men, women or children.’
Foxx pursed her lips thoughtfully.
‘Do you think that we could be looking at the early stages of some kind of terrorist attack here, doctor?’
Schmidt looked up at her from his work and nodded.
‘That’s precisely what I feared might be the result of this,’ he admitted. ‘Pre-programmable drones, left over from the wars, designed to hunt out individuals or even the general populace. The question is, why? And why would they also be programmed to target Mister Ironside, who would not be thought of as a target in this day and age despite his dislikeable nature.’
Nathan offered the doctor a dirty look as Foxx turned away from the cube. ‘Let’s go talk to Viggo.’
Nathan hurried after her. ‘I want in on this.’
‘In on what?’ Foxx asked as they walked.
‘In on the interview,’ he said. ‘This guy’s something to do with the attacks on me and I want to know why.’
‘You’re not a police officer or legal representative,’ Foxx said as they marched toward the interview room. ‘It’s not like I can just let you come in for a chat with Viggo, especially if he knows who you are. It might result in us losing the advantage.’
Nathan bit his lip. ‘Let me watch, then. You guys still have two way mirrors, right?’
Foxx looked at him strangely as she pointed to an adjoining room. ‘You can observe from in there. Allen, go babysit him for me while Vasquez and I lean on Viggo.’
Allen led the way into the observation room, Nathan following him into a small room with a large screen embedded into the wall that was presenting an image of the adjoining interview room of such extraordinary clarity that for a moment Nathan tried to conceal himself lest Viggo see him moving.
‘Relax,’ Allen said as the door rematerialized behind them. ‘It’s an optical stream, perfect clarity. Viggo can’t see or hear us and there’s nothing but a blank wall staring back at him.’
*
Foxx walked through the shimmering remains of the interview room door, Vasquez following as they sat down opposite Viggo Polt, or what was left of him.
Viggo’s complex biomechanical enhancements made it tough to figure out sometimes where the man ended and the machine began. His left eye was fitted with IR sensor and internal telescopic lens, giving him bionic vision, while the skin on his torso was a glistening sheen of titanium biomesh designed to withstand even a direct hit from a plasma blaster. A couple of score marks visible beneath the neck of his shirt suggested that his life had been saved on at least one occasion by the enhancement. Viggo’s right arm was also a prosthetic, rock hard titanium beneath the sleeve of his jacket, which was heavily marked with the tags of his Prime Time gang.
‘You got about two minutes before I press charges,’ Foxx announced to him as she sat down. ‘Either talk to us or by sundown you’ll be in jail awaiting trial. We know everything, Viggo, so spit it out.’
Viggo looked at her, his one red eye and one natural eye contrasting sharply between amusement and permanent, emotionless observation.
‘You got nothin’,’ he said. ‘You did, you wouldn’t be here wastin’ yo’ time talking to me, you’d have me in chains.’
Foxx didn’t betray any emotion as she went on.
‘We know about the drones,’ she said, ‘and the apartment on North Four.’
Viggo shrugged but said nothing, a lazy indication of ignorance.
Foxx leaned closer. ‘I don’t think you understand what’s going on here, Viggo. You think you’ve been pulled for evading arrest and the
assault on an officer, me, in the line of duty.’
‘You attacked me,’ Viggo said, ‘in broad earthlight.’
‘Lieutenant Foxx didn’t fire a shot,’ Vasquez pointed out, ‘unlike you.’
Viggo shrugged. ‘Man, that’s just her word ‘gainst mine. I saw you shoot, lieutenant, and we all know how the cops lie in court.’
‘The fact that my blaster’s magazine was still full when it was examined after the firefight says otherwise,’ Foxx replied calmly. ‘As do the witness testimonies gathered from thirty civilians after you escaped.’
Viggo’s casual disinterest didn’t slip. ‘Hear say, officer. They missed the shot, only saw you fall.’
‘Like I said, you’re not in here for that,’ Foxx went on. ‘You’re in here for second degree murder.’
Viggo’s expression sharpened and the piratical glint in his eye vanished. ‘Say what now? I din’ kill nobody.’
‘Second degree, premeditated homicide,’ Vasquez said, leaning against the wall with his arms folded across his chest as he spoke. ‘Couple of your boys took a dive this afternoon, and it was one of your little toys that killed them.’
Viggo slammed his hands down on the table and leaned forward. ‘I didn’t kill nobody and I din’ send no drones out neither!’
‘So you know that they were killed by a drone,’ Foxx replied, ‘which was a military grade drone banned under international law and also from public use.’
Viggo fumed in silence, then leaned back in his seat again. ‘I knew ‘bout ‘em, never used ‘em though.’
‘Talk,’ Foxx said, ‘or I’ll have the DA string you up by the balls and take the rap for all of this. Two people are dead Viggo, and you’re the only link.’
Viggo hissed and looked sideways at the wall as though he wanted to glare a hole right through it and run.
‘No way out of this Viggo,’ Vasquez pressed. ‘You’re looking at twenty to life unless you can tell us something that definitively proves you were nothing to do with those deaths out there.’
Old Ironsides Page 16
