The woman turned. Her face a picture of curiosity, turning to horror as she saw the Mag pistol in his hand. The weapon cost Dorme a small fortune. Even the slight hum of the magnetic coils was completely cancelled out when he fired. The three shards of spinning metal entered her chest, ripping through her heart, and she fell back without a sound.
Dorme stepped past her, the smile still on his face, and entered the aircar park. The Mag pistol slipped easily back into his hidden holster and a tap of a button on his wristcomp sent out two messages. Filtered through layers of security to make them almost untraceable, they arrived with his contacts at the Zeus Police Department and Solopaca Tower security. In moments all the security camera footage of the last thirty seconds would be wiped, in an accidental system sweep, and the police would not ask any difficult questions. It would all be written up as a botched robbery, despite nothing being taken.
The kill was quick and clean. Dorme saw the very life leave her eyes and he revelled in the moment she realised what was about to happen. He enjoyed the thrill of the hunt, stalking his prey for weeks to find the perfect moment. All the while they were unaware he was there, inside their lives and learning everything about them.
From when he accepted the contract, until he pulled the trigger, the anticipation grew. It was that final few seconds he lived for. The realisation they were to die, followed by the conversion of what had been a human being into nothing more than meat and bone, gave him a feeling unrivalled. In all his life nothing could compare. No drug, sex or even his official kills in combat, for the Legion Commando Devils, came close. It was ecstasy supreme.
Dorme’s gleaming silver aircar sat where he purposely parked it, just inside the aircar park. Climbing in, he activated the anti gravs and slid gently out of the parking bay. With a small boost of the engines, the aircar headed towards Zeus’s crowded skies. Behind him people were rushing to the woman’s warm and bloody body with no clue as to the killer.
The tower’s exit was already high enough for the Yellow band. Dorme entered his destination’s co-ordinates and set the auto pilot, before sitting back with a satisfied smile. Aircars moved all around him and his slipped into the traffic lane, flying gently between the tall surrounding towers. It was only a short journey. The aircar soon banked away from the others and entered another tower.
When the aircar slid into the landing bay, it automatically switched to hover mode and manual control. Dorme leant forward with the smile still in place and took control. This entrance had a valet service. A woman stepped forward when he pulled alongside the open doorway. Stepping out he gave the woman the code key and entered without a word.
“How may I help you, sir?” a doorman asked.
“I have a table booked in the restaurant,” Dorme told him brusquely. He hated having to talk to the Manuals, but sometimes it was unavoidable. Everyone who entered this level of the Artotina Tower must have an escort unless they were a resident.
“Of course sir. Your name please?” the doorman asked politely and waved over one of the youngsters they used for guides.
“Sharif Schwartz.”
There was a slight pause while the buildings computer compared the name Dorme gave, and his biometrics, to the reservation. The doorman turned to the young woman who was to be his guide.
“Please escort Mr Schwartz to the restaurant.” The computer notified him via his com hidden within his ear. “Have a good meal, sir.”
Dorme put the Doorman out of his mind and did not answer. He strode past and the escort hurried to catch up, to take the lead. She must have been experienced at her job. She did not even try to make any platitudes towards him, recognising someone who knew where they were going.
The restaurant was not far. The girl bowed to Dorme and he swept past her, into the large open room. A host was instantly at his side having been notified he was on his way.
“This way, sir,” he said and expertly took over from the girl.
Dorme was forced to follow. He did not know which table was to be his. When booking the reservation, Dorme made several specific requirements and there were a number of tables capable of meeting them. The host led Dorme through the other diners, to a table against the left hand wall set in a recess. He bowed as Dorme took his seat.
“Your guest has not yet arrived. Would you like me to activate the privacy screen now or when they join you, sir?”
“Set it now.”
The host tapped a button on his datapad and stepped back with another bow. The screen was completely imperceptible to Dorme, except for a faint shimmer, from the outside there was now a light blue energy field obscuring him from everyone else. The colour matched the room’s décor to fit in seamlessly.
A holo menu popped up in the middle of the table. Dorme selected a bottle of wine to be delivered once his guest arrived. He did not have to wait long. He spotted the host leading a very over-weight man looking to be in his late forties. Josef Vagoni puffed and sweated even at the host’s slow and steady pace.
Shaking his head in disgust at a man, who after living for over three centuries, should know better, Dorme put it out of his mind for the moment. After all it did not pay, quite literally, to be impolite to the man who held your Bullion chip. That could always, come after it was handed over.
With a look of apprehension, the fat man stepped through the field. He could not contain his surprise mixed with fear at the sight of Dorme sitting inside quite relaxed. A waitress followed him in with the bottle Dorme ordered. He waved the woman to pour without checking. She filled the glasses expertly and left without a word or acknowledgement, just as Dorme would expect.
“Well?” Josef demanded.
Dorme inhaled gently the aroma rising from his wine and took a sip before answering.
“Well what?”
“Is she dead!?”
The sigh was deliberate though the reason behind it wasn’t.
“Of course. I would not ask you to meet me if not.”
“I haven’t heard anything.”
“That is because she has been dead for,” Dorme checked his wristcomp’s chrono with an exaggerated gesture. “Twenty-nine minutes precisely.”
The fat man’s eyes widened. “But we booked this meeting a week ago.”
“Yes, and I knew where she would be a week ago, so it is done. I do not believe in wasting time.”
“Hah. Good. They said you were the best.” Glee would be how Dorme would describe Josef’s expression. The idiot even rubbed his sweaty palms together. “That‘ll teach the bitch to angle herself to take my job. Who the fuck did she think she was? I’m a Vagoni. We don’t take kindly to that.”
“Yes, yes and so forth.” It was a speech Dorme heard many times, with no inclination to hear it again. “Our business is almost complete.”
“Of course, of course. The payment. I took you at your word.” Josef placed the one centimetre thick bullion chip on the table in front of him and slid it over to Dorme. A small readout in one corner displayed the amount. It matched their agreement exactly and Dorme slipped it inside his jacket.
“We should celebrate,” the fat man gushed. “I’ll order their finest champagne to go with our meal.”
“No. I am eating. You are leaving. Our business is complete,” Dorme said in a cool voice. He had no intention of eating with this man and there was no need for any courtesy.
“What I thought… Why else would we meet here?”
“We met here as I knew I would be hungry and it serves a tremendous side of veal.” Dorme allowed his voice to cool further. “There is no other reason.”
Licking his lips, the fat man hesitated before deciding the man he hired, who completed his job less than half an hour before and now wanted to eat, was not someone he should antagonise. Josef hurriedly left the table and exited the privacy screen. In his rush he almost knocked a waiter, who had not been able to see him, flying.
Safely behind the screen, Dorme allowed himself a smile. The fat man shouted at the waiter
before almost running out. It was probably the fastest he moved in over a century. The assassin shook his head at the vagaries of life in the Pantheon. From his research it was obvious the target, Nina Hearnshaw, was far better at her job, by several orders of magnitude, than Vagoni. The fat man must be adept at getting his subordinates, like Hearnshaw, to do all the work while he took the credit. None of it mattered. Vagoni hired Dorme and not Hearnshaw.
Perhaps Vagoni’s boss would like to hire him to get rid of the lazy leech. Putting it from his mind, he deactivated the privacy screen and ordered his veal.
CHAPTER ELEVEN
“Milicevic!” Hanna’s voice called through the building, using Valerie’s pseudonym. “Someone here to see you.” Valerie looked up with a frown. Hanna never did that. She would either come herself or use her com. Putting down the screwdriver she was using to fix a much heavier door onto one of the rear rooms, Valerie walked down the corridor to the stairs.
The entire building had changed a lot in the past two weeks. Deni got the power on within a few hours and after a couple of days scrubbing everything, it became quite habitable. It helped of course, by Ghetto standards, Valerie brought a small fortune with her. Items like beds, tables, chairs, kitchen units, cooker, fridge, freezer and all the other things a home needed, were easily obtained. The permacrete plugs for the windows in the rear section took a bit more work, but a few bribes at a construction site had fixed that. Once the door Valerie was working on was in place, it would almost be impenetrable.
Deni and Hanna were in their element. Zeus wasn’t their home turf of Inferno, but as Hanna pointed out on their way in, it was almost the same. In days they connected with the local street kids, swapping food, cash and sometimes just a safe, dry place to sleep, for information. One of the downstairs rooms was converted to a dorm with bunk beds. It hadn’t even occurred to Valerie that was how you would go about getting the local kids’ loyalty. The girls drew on their own experience and knew how important a safe place to sleep was.
When she got to the top of the stairs, Valerie took in the situation. The bay doors were open, as they normally were when it wasn’t raining. Hanna stood at the bottom of the stairs, her pistol visible in its holster at her waist. Deni was at the back, behind one of the old wrecks, the Mag rifle kept there for just this reason, propped on the hood and aimed past Hanna.
A man stood smiling in the yard, a few metres from the door. A reasonably new and well maintained wheelie parked behind him, two men and a woman stood by it. All were armed, the three obvious Enforcers by the car, with Mag rifles and the Boss with a pistol at his waist. The rifles were all pointed casually the ground.
There was no threat here. As per Valerie’s standing instructions to whoever got there or to the other defensive positions, Deni would have her rifle aimed at the one furthest to the left she could get a clear shot on. Glancing behind her as she made her way slowly down the stairs, Valerie could see the four or five kids, who were always hanging around had made it to the bunk room and were peering round the doorway. As long as they kept their heads down, the permacrete walls would protect them from any stray shots.
Hanna was the most vulnerable. She was out in the open, but Valerie solved that by stepping past her so she was now in front of the girl.
“You’ll be Ripper, I presume?” she asked nonchalantly.
“Oh, you do know who I am and yet you set up in my territory, in somewhere I’ve said is off limits, without asking my permission.” Ripper said harshly. Valerie decided as he finished, it wasn’t worth leaving him alive. He wouldn’t deal. The question was, could she kill him and take over his gang without destroying it completely? Having his network working for her would be much easier than building their own from scratch, no matter how well the girls had done already.
“Yes,” she said in the same nonchalant manner. “The kids around here did mention you and the fact this place used to belong to the previous Boss. You declared no one was to use it after you took over. I just didn’t think someone that petty was worth my time.”
He reacted just as she thought he would and reached for his pistol. In a blink of an eye, her left hand was clamped on his right, his fingers only just on the pistol butt, and held it in place. In the same movement, she drew her pistol with her right and jammed it beneath his chin, pushing his head back.
“Move and he dies!” Valerie shouted.
Caught completely off-guard, the Enforcers all froze, their rifles still aimed at the ground. Deni waited and held her fire. All the continuous training worked. If she killed one of the Enforcers, they would not have frozen. All of a sudden, they saw Deni’s rifle and Hanna’s pistol pointed at them, while their Boss was held completely at Valerie’s mercy.
“Is Ripper a good Boss?” Valerie asked the Enforcers.
He may not have realised what he walked into, but Ripper wasn’t stupid. He immediately saw what Valerie was doing.
“Don’t... Ack.” She squeezed his hand tighter, the bones rubbing against one another, shutting him up.
“Well?”
“He, erm. He’s alright, as they go,” one of the men replied, his bald head starting to glisten with sweat.
“Pay OK?” Hanna called.
“Could be better,” the same man answered. His eyes darted to his colleagues, but they kept quiet. Their attention was all on the two girls who had them squarely in their sights.
“How about a fifty percent increase and you all work for me?” Valerie asked. “I’m sure you’ve heard how I treat the street kids. Do I sound like someone you would want to work for?”
They all looked at each other nervously. A few shrugs and nods went between them before the bald man turned to Valerie.
“Alright. We’re in. Erm. What about him?” he said waving in Ripper’s general direction.
“Oh, don’t worry,” Valerie replied as she holstered her pistol and kept his hand still in a vice like grip. “He’s not a problem anymore.” Her right hand slammed forward, palm out, up into his nose. His head snapped back with a small burst of blood and his body collapsed to the ground, the bone from the nose driven into his brain.
Turning to the three Enforcers she asked. “Do you know anyone who would have a problem with any of that?”
***
Pulling into the bustling yard, Valerie parked the wheelie, previously belonging to Ripper, to one side and got out. Cracker did the same from the passenger side.
“Any problems with that lot?”
“No, Guv,” the head of her new Enforcers answered. “I’ll make sure our people keep on top of it.” Cracker had been the one to speak up before she killed Ripper. There was certainly more to him than most people would see from his appearance. Shaven headed, broad and thickly built with a broken nose, he gave the impression of the typical thug. He reinforced this by leaving his forearms bare to display his tattoos, which were common in the Ghettos of Zeus. It was one of the differences not readily apparent when they first arrived.
“Good. You know where to find me,” she told him and headed into the Workshop. It had now been fully open for business for a month. Mechanics were hard at work on several vehicles. Music from a local radio station played loudly in the background.
With Ripper out of the picture, Valerie left the girls at the Workshop and went with the Enforcers to Ripper’s former base. There was some resistance at first, but it hadn’t really taken much persuading to convince the rest of his gang to fall in with her, particularly after she dealt convincingly with Ripper’s number two, who took it quite personally, and promised them all a larger cut of the profits.
It didn’t take much time to secure the territory, making sure everyone knew she was the one in charge. Deni suggested opening the Workshop up as a legitimate business, to make all the comings and goings less obvious. It was a good idea and even made a difference to the local area. Valerie learned Ripper’s Protection cut from the local businesses was actually far too high. They struggled to stay afloat and a lot of them c
losed down, including all of the local workshops.
Out of work, experienced mechanics were easy to find and now, people had somewhere close by to bring their wheelies in for repair, business was brisk. Several people came to her for loans to start up shops, bars, tattoo parlours and other enterprises. Valerie was certain she would not be around to see it, but it was nice to think she might leave this area behind, in a better state than when she arrived.
Several people greeted her as she came in. She nodded back at them before heading up the stairs two at a time. The first two rooms were the offices for the Workshop itself and Deni waved from her desk. It was all her idea, so Valerie gave it to her to run. It would be good experience for her and Valerie really had no idea how to run a business. Deni hired some good people, including Cortez, a mechanic with experience as a supervisor elsewhere.
The back rooms were sealed off by the very heavy metal door Valerie installed. The lock was state of the art and the encryptions had been improved by Hanna. No one would be able to get in who wasn’t supposed to be there. The gang members and legitimate workers realised early on Valerie was a private person, though not nearly as bad as she had been on Blaze, so they presumed the back rooms were just her and the girls private quarters. If they knew the truth, they would have run as far away as they could manage.
A short corridor led to a second identical door. Valerie made sure the first was shut before going through the second. On her right was a solid wall continuing past two doors on the left before turning right. Along there were the actual living quarters, made up of three small bedrooms and a kitchen unit. The first room on the left held their weapons, ready for easy access and included Valerie’s FPBA. The second one was Valerie’s destination.
Inside, banks of the most powerful servers they were able to buy commercially lined the walls. In the centre sat a purpose built desk with wires sticking out all over the place and open ports, showing the solid state circuit boards. Hanna’s legs stuck out from the bottom.
Crusade For Vengeance (Dark Vengeance Book 2) Page 9
