“That’s different from dolls stripping to use optical cloaking how?”
He turned away as she took hold of the dress again. “That’s a tactical requirement, now you’re just being trashy.”
So that was it. He did think of her as a woman.
With an impish smile, she fixed the strap behind her neck. “Fine… But if this thing gets shot to shit it’s going to come out of the budget.” She sighed. “It’ll probably come off in a fight anyway. Wouldn’t that be a sight?”
Harold walked off, not looking back. “Check the place out and decide. I trust your judgment. By the way, don’t forget to duck.”
Nina pounded the trunk closed, rocking the car, wondering why she wanted her armor so much. Did she fear injury, or was she simply terrified of seeing metal looking back at her from a wound?
That would break the illusion.
he ride ended in less than three minutes, plenty of time to arrange for whispercraft and ground units to provide backup. She set down in the emergency lane just outside the lobby and grabbed her handbag. She stood with an awkward wobble, forgetting she had heels on, but found her footing after a few steps. The lobby door waited about twenty yards of glass wall away and she scanned the interior as she walked along. Two male dolls hovered behind the reception desk, one of whom spoke with a woman holding the hand of a young boy standing next to her. A middle-aged executive sat on a bench in the center of the room, reading a datapad, and five large men had positioned themselves around the room in a suspicious pattern.
Two stood near the door, one by the elevators, and two leaned on columns in the center of the room. Their arrangement made Nina suspect them to be Nemsky’s security team. She wondered if Hardin knew they were here. This dress would raise much less suspicion than her usual attire and he seemed to want her to keep wearing it. Of course, that could have just been the man in him.
She smiled, enjoying the feeling as she walked up to the smoky glass doors. The stenciled words ‘Chimera Apartments’ slid out of her view almost as fast as she could read them. This could be as easy as just walking in and going up to Nemsky’s apartment. He had no idea what she looked like so she could play the part of someone that had gone to the wrong door. Acting like a call girl was too trite and would make him suspicious. The files painted him as a man that held women in contempt, weak things for him to use and discard. She would seem lost and helpless, and play to his attitude. She wanted him alive even if the brass did not care; he might be able to help find Itai.
High heels on stone floor turned every head in the lobby; long bare legs kept them turned. She made no eye contact, wearing a succubus grin as she strode towards the elevators. The five large men exchanged knowing glances, like wolves circling a fawn. Nina had the sense that they had been expecting her, but could not understand how or why.
“That’s her.”
Nina’s amplified hearing picked up the man by the elevator. Things were about to get messy, and the presence of a boy in the room worried her. In the span of one step, she calculated three patterns of attack to drop them all before they could hurt anyone. Of course, the time it would take to recover her weapon from the purse made them all implausible.
A step later, they pulled pistols and converged.
Nina leapt to the right, behind a column, and stooped to press a button on each shoe. The strap went limp and slithered in a corkscrew into the base. The heels would not survive the rigors of combat while strapped to the feet of a doll, not to mention they would get in the way. Cold stone touched her feet with the reassurance of stability.
A tactical overlay floated in her vision, an overhead view of the room with dots representing every person, detected with a combination of thermal reflectivity and acoustics.
“Boss wants her alive.”
One of Nemsky’s thugs moved up alongside her column. His pistol came around the edge of the artificial sandstone.
“It’s over bitch, give it up.”
Nina whirled on him, flinging the purse into the air off her weapon, firing as soon as the material cleared the barrel.
The shot struck just below his nose. Blue muzzle fire licked his face as the massive slug detonated his head into a sluice of gore. Nina darted to the next column, firing three more times. The massive report from the weapon rattled the windows. The man at the far column took all three to the chest, spattering the coarse tan stonemasonry with blood and chunks that rolled towards the floor.
Screaming chased the gunfire as civilians panicked.
Ricochets pinged around her as she somersaulted behind a third column.
“We need her alive, idiots!”
The shooting stopped.
“Dmitri, did you see the size of the bitch’s gun? You go take it from her!”
She squatted behind the column, holding her weapon with both hands, tucked against her cheek. The fake sandstone scratched her exposed back. She let her left knee touch the ground, peeking around the column.
Dots went everywhere.
The doll clerks continued behaving as if nothing happened. One turned toward the fleeing mother, asking her something about her reservation. Other people screamed and ran for the door. A shot bounced off the stone, making her duck. A red dot merged with a green dot. The sound of a small boy wailing confirmed her fear.
“Give yourself up or watch me kill this little bastard.”
The shrieking mother fell silent with a fleshy thud, the sound of a gun upside the head. The boy cried louder.
Nina watched the room in reflection on the front windows. One of the men took handcuffs out of his jacket. The one by the counter held the boy up by his shirt, no doubt with a pistol in his back. It made no sense to her that they would be looking to capture her alive, but maybe they would take her to Nemsky. She squinted at the cuffs, a sure sign they did not realize she was a doll. She would play along if only for the child’s sake.
“Okay.” She held her gun out to the side and lowered it to the ground.
“Get up.” One of them yelled. “Do it before the fucking cops get here. If I see one damn cop, you and this brat are dead.”
She stood up into view, holding her hands out to the side. Rage simmered at the sight of the boy reaching for his unconscious mother, but Nina kept a calm face. Of the three left alive, the two men not holding the boy approached. They ran up and shoved her face first into the column. She did not resist, letting them continue to think her normal. After locking her hands behind her, one grabbed her by the shoulder and flipped her around, shoving her against the stone. The one on the right put his gun away, the one on the left kept it out, but down. The man in back continued to hold the boy but seemed to relax.
“You got a lot of nerve.” The man on the right glanced at the bodies. “The boss is gonna take that out of your ass when you get home.” He leaned in close. “Just how far did you think you could run before we found you? You’re lucky the boss has a soft spot for your skinny ass.” He brushed her cheek with the back of his hand. “That won’t stop us from using you for a little while until we get you home.” He turned to his remaining associates and grabbed her arm. “Let’s get the fuck out of here.”
“What the hell are you talking about? What boss? Do you idiots work for Nemsky?”
“Stupid bitch. Don’t play dumb.”
“How did you know I was going to be here?” She stared as the two men continued holding her by the arms.
“The boss got a tip.”
“Where are we going?” She squirmed, wishing the dress was longer.
Embarrassment felt strange.
He caressed her cheek before seizing a fistful of hair. “Damn bitch, you ask a lot of questions for a hole. The boss owns your ass till you pay back your debt. Did two days of freedom make you forget?”
Nina winced. “I guess you could say that someone does own my body, but I’m not who you think I am.”
He put a hand on her knee and rode it up her inner thigh. “Oh I’m pretty sure you are, and I thin
k by the end of the night you’re going to have some trouble walking.”
Nina gave him a dire glare, having had about enough. The feeling of the hand going higher and higher up her leg was devoid of any of the pleasure of being mistaken for a normal person. The unusual sense of being happy to have this body came over her. With a snarl, she kicked him in the crotch. Her ankle stopped just below his ribcage, sending a spout of blood from his nose and mouth. She tried not to think about the feeling of her toes squishing around inside him as she pulled her leg out with a slurp. Her reflex booster kicked on, plunging the room into slow motion. She spun, using the momentum to kick the same man again in the face, leaving a bloody footprint across his cheek as the strike crushed his faceplate into splinters.
She continued the motion until her foot landed where it started, and pulled her arms apart. The cuffs shattered like a plastic toy. The other man only managed to lift his weapon a few inches in the span of two kicks. His face contorted with panic as her hand swung around and seized his gun. She grabbed it as if he did not exist, crushing his fingers to pulp against the grip. She dragged him around like a puppet, sighted, and fired. The bullet flicked the boy’s hair and went into the right eye of the man holding him.
The smaller weapon did not cause the same cranial detonation as Nina’s, but a trench through the skull proved every bit as fatal as an exploded head.
She swung the man around by her grip on the pistol and pounded him into the floor with her knee on his back. They hit the floor before the child even realized the man holding him was dead on his feet.
“You boys just made the worst mistake of your pathetic lives. I’m going to ask you one more time: why here, why now, why me?” Nina grasped the back of his skull with just enough force to let him know she could crush it.
The boy dropped to the ground as his captor fell over backward like a plank. He jumped on his mother, shaking her until she woke and dragging her out of sight behind a row of synthetic plants.
A young blond man’s bust appeared in Nina’s view.
“Ops, I need a status report from Whisper 3 at the Chimera Apartments building. Has the subject been spotted leaving?”
“Copy that Lieutenant, stand by.” He stared into space.
“You’re not Sophia?” the thug murmured through his cheeks, mashed into the floor.
“Not even close. Keep talking.” She snapped what remained of the handcuffs off her wrists, making sure he saw her do it.
“We work for the boss. One of his girls decided to run off with some of his money.”
“Prostitute?” Nina edged to grab her purse while keeping the gun on the man.
“Sort of…”
Nina leaned into him just a little more. “What do you mean by sort of, forced?”
“That would be one way to describe it. I mean, she owed him for getting her into the country.”
“Who is this boss?” She frowned.
He blinked. “You don’t know? The boss. Vladimir Kovalev.”
Nina sighed. The name was from the organized crime world. A man well connected within as well as outside of the law, the kind of man that Division 9 usually retired. So far, he had not been enough of a nuisance.
“Who told you I was your runaway sex slave?” She grabbed a fistful of his shirt and drilled him into the floor again, pressing the gun into his neck.
Now, she was offended.
What color he had before had fled, replaced with sweat. “I didn’t see him.”
Nina one-armed him to his feet and whipped him into the column.
“Lieutenant. Whisper 3 confirms subject has not left the location. The perimeter is secure.”
“Acknowledged. Send a feeler over to Division 1, there’s a small mess to clean up here.”
“Roger that Lieutenant.”
Nina’s attention returned to the thug in the lobby. “Okay shithead. You’ve got one chance.” She slid to the right and retrieved her gun and purse while keeping the borrowed weapon aimed. “Someone set you up. Call your boss now, I want answers.”
The man fumbled one handed with his NetMini. The holographic head of a man appeared, in his early fifties with eastern European features.
“Did you get her?” An imperious Russian-accented voice echoed.
“No, sir.” Sweat ran down his face.
The ops agent moved. “Lieutenant, Division 1 units are en route.”
“Copy that, Ops, request a MedVan as well.” Nina waved at the thug. “Turn it.”
He trembled like a frightened boy, pivoting the tiny slab of technology in his grip to face her.
“What are you doing, you incompetent? That’s not her.”
An oversized glass in his right hand crept into view, an inch of dark liquor swirled around. Several women, in various degrees of dress, lay draped on furniture behind him; most looked high.
“Ops, I need a trace on this PID,” she said with a thought. Text shimmered in her left peripheral vision as her hardware lifted it from the device.
The virtual man smiled. “Copy that.”
“I don’t know who you are, but you had better explain yourself before I become angry.” The hologram shifted, he got closer while the background drifted away, as if using a stationary terminal.
“I want to know why your men showed up here looking for me. Who gave you that information?”
Vladimir laughed. “Bitches don’t make demands of me. You’ll soon learn that.”
“You’re pissing into the wind if you think you can intimidate me.” Nina moved her ID close enough to see over the call. “Fuck with me and no lawyer in the world will be able to reattach your balls.”
His confident smile fell to a flat line. Worry shimmered in his eyes, hidden behind liberal amounts of abject rage. The thug kept quiet; his terror caused the hologram to wobble.
“Someone sent your attack dogs after me, I want to know who. Whoever it is has just put your misogynistic ass on our radar. Your ghost can blame them for what happens to you if you don’t cooperate.”
Vladimir threw the glass off screen; the shattering noise elicited a reaction from only two of the eight women. He growled, spinning his arm across a desk, sending its contents to the floor. After a moment of seething, he stomped back to the VidPhone.
“The man’s name was Anatoly, a general. He gave no last name.”
A holographic image of Nemsky’s head appeared over her NetMini “Is this him?”
Vladimir narrowed his eyes at her. “Yes. I don’t forget things easily.”
“Lieutenant, we got a hit on that PID. Penthouse suite 8 at the Olympian Tower.” The floating comm panel flickered.
“You’ve been helpful, but you’re irrelevant.” Nina hit the button on the thug’s NetMini to end the call. She hoped added salt hurt.
The thug cringed, waiting for his execution.
“Stupidity is not grounds for a death sentence. You’re going down for attempted kidnapping, reckless endangerment, assault of a government agent, endangering the welfare of a child, reckless disregard…” She continued to ramble through possible charges.
“It doesn’t matter… The boss is gonna fuckin’ kill me anyway.”
Nina smiled. “I wouldn’t bet on that. Sit there and don’t move.”
“Ops, you still there?” Her gaze shifted to the floating image.
“Go ahead, Lieutenant.” He nodded.
“I need to make some vacation arrangements. I need a ticket to Miami for a friend of mine, Kovalev, Vladimir N. He has a file already with the OC task force, and has made himself enough of a threat to warrant action. Tell the travel agent that there are civilians present. If there’s any questions have Hardin call me directly.”
“No problem, Lieutenant.” He nodded. “Whisper 3 confirms no contact has left the building.”
“Roger that.” Nina looked up as the sound of sirens began to filter in from in the distance. “Whisper 3, stay sharp. Division 1 is almost on site, he may bolt.”
“Copy, Li
eutenant.” A confident female voice came through, audio only.
“If Nemsky runs, you are clear to terminate.” Nina helped the woman and her son to her feet as she spoke in her head. “But try to wing him if you can.”
“Understood Lieutenant.”
Nina closed the comm and examined the red mark on the woman’s face. “Come on; let’s get you out of here, there’s a medic on the way.”
She walked with them to the arriving Division 1 team, approaching their sergeant. Two officers took the woman and boy outside toward an arriving white hover van.
“Five idiots in the employ of Vladimir Kovalev did something stupid, one survived. Have your men secure the area. I have a date upstairs.”
“Nice dress.” He winked.
ot trusting the confined space of an elevator, Nina bounded three steps at a time through the stairwell. For this body, climbing forty-four flights was just a time sink. She slid through the door with her gun in one hand and her shoes in the other, training the weapon left, then right. A dark green rug ran the length of the corridor under bas-relief chimera that decorated the white plaster walls every dozen yards or so. Everything basked in a yellowish glow cast by fancy silver lamps. Satisfied the hallway was clear; she crept up to the door and glanced at the virtual comm panel.
“Whisper 3, this is Duchenne. Can you get eyes inside the apartment?”
A woman’s head appeared, covered by an armored black pilot’s helmet. “Negative on all scanning modes; the apartment’s empty.” The pilot looked to her right and muttered. “Dave’s got the same reading… it’s clear.”
Nina closed her eyes and a tremble of rage ran through her arms. Whisper 3 would have detected him leave, unless there was an underground exit. Of course, this may all have just been an elaborate trap to bait her into those morons downstairs. If that was true, it brought up another issue―Nemsky knew she was coming.
Even worse, he knew who she was.
She took her anger out on the door, and entered through a cloud of splinters.
How the hell does he know where I am but I can’t find his damn face on a single cam?
Virtual Immortality Page 36
