by Tony Corden
He stared at John for a moment and said, “Not really, but it will do. I’m as confused as ever but I don’t think you’ve ever talked with that level of conviction, or menace, in all the time I’ve known you. You believe she should come, and that’s enough for me.”
Lacey had been staring at Leah and said, “That stick fight we had. Is that as fast as you can go?”
John answered before Leah could respond, “No, and that’s enough. I meant what I said—we do not discuss this! Ever!”
Lacey looked at John in shock at his rebuke but quickly calmed her face when she saw how serious he was. She nodded, “OK, issue closed. Any other questions?”
When no one said anything, she said, “All right, then let’s be off. John, your team first.”
Leah watched as Marie led them south. John’s team had about 300 metres to travel before turning west for 100 metres to get to the Brisbane River. As soon as they were out of sight, Joel led Lacey’s team west. Johan followed, then Leah and Lacey brought up the rear. Although they only had 200 metres to travel it still took them ten minutes to move unseen along the streets. Even though they wore high-tech camouflage gear and the streets were empty, they didn’t take any chances.
When they reached the river, Johan handed each of them a night-vision equipped diving mask and a mini-scuba-canister with a pressure regulated mouthpiece. Each canister had an internal adaptive pressure regulator and held a litre and a half of air at 30000 KPa. They planned to stay at a depth of less than two metres and had enough to get them across and back several times.
This time, Johan led the way and Joel brought up the rear. Where they exited the river used to be a public walkway, but when the area had been rebuilt by developers most of the public areas had been rezoned so the wealthy could have river frontage. Lacey had chosen a property with a small pontoon and basic security. Johan stopped just before the pontoon and let Leah move to the front. John had given Leah Lacey’s notes on the security. There were three sensors on the pontoon, pressure, motion and thermal. Leah accessed the cables, which ran under the walkway, and disabled them.
She was about to leave when she sensed another trickle of current. Turning back, she looked but couldn’t see anything else. She closed her eyes and moved closer to the underside of the walkway and again she could ‘feel’ the current. It took several minutes but she eventually found a hidden panel on the edge of the walkway. Inside was a secondary set of sensor cables. She disabled these and levered herself onto the pontoon before waving Lacey and the others forward.
Lacey whispered, “What took so long?”
“They had a secondary security system installed inside the walkway. The access panel was difficult to find.”
Lacey nodded and motioned Leah to continue. Leah didn’t see the looks shared between the rest of the team. At the end of the pontoon's access walkway was a locked access gate into the main compound. Leah had expected the lock but not one of this quality. There was a new, state-of-the-art keypad. The circuitry couldn’t be accessed without taking the gate apart and it had a transparent shield over the keys made from titanium-silicate nanoparticles. There was no way should she could disable it, or work around it. She waved Lacey forward to have a look when Gèng said, “Leah, move closer to the keypad and try and sense the different currents.”
Leah brought her head closer to the surface of the keypad. She could sense electrical activity but there wasn’t enough information for her to differentiate any circuits. Gèng said, “Take off your glove and hover your fingers over the pad.”
Leah did as she was asked and found that although she could sense the web of currents running through the device, she wasn’t sure what to do with it. Fortunately, Gèng did. “Leah, as I say each number I need you to press it and then hold your fingers as close to the keypad as you can without touching it. Are you ready?”
“One moment, I’ll let Lacey know what I’m doing.”
Leah whispered, “It can’t be hacked or bypassed from this side, so I’m going to enter a code.”
Lacey said, “We can go around Leah, we’ll be a bit late but it’s doable. There is no way to guess the code. Let’s head back.”
Leah said, “Lacey, close your eyes, stand on one foot, and whistle Dixie while I do this. Just whistle softly please.”
Lacey’s eyes narrowed for a minute and she struggled to remain calm, then she nodded and took a step back.
“Gèng, I’m ready.”
“Good, I’ll say each number slowly, only once. The code is two, four, two, nine, six, seven, hash, three, six, one, five, star, three, hash, and hash.”
Leah heard a slight click she opened the gate. Joel went through first, then Johan, Lacey and Leah. As she came through, she closed the gate behind her. Gèng said, “You should reset the gate as it is most likely on a timer.”
Again Gèng talked Leah through the process before Leah followed the others. Gèng repeated the process at the front gate. None of the team said anything but their occasional glances at Leah showed how rattled they were. The rest of the journey was uneventful. It was just going eleven thirty-eight when they reached 11 Mackellar Street. Marie was watching the front entrance and waved them through. Then she shut the gate and followed them to the north-west corner of the property.
Once everyone had gathered around, Lacey said, “Four other teams are in position and will start their assaults in eleven minutes. It is unlikely they will be successful as we are almost certain they are being watched. They are a diversion and so we need to be in position to begin our insertion two minutes after theirs. They are all mounting frontal assaults. The aim is to distract the guards and police and make our approach easier. If nothing else it will spread the authorities thinly, and it may be our only chance to get away clean. We expect them to meet strong resistance and all of them have orders to disengage and retreat at midnight if they haven’t already done so.
“Marie, you will be on point. Joel, I want you twenty metres behind her. We go from here as one group. We’ll head through Teneriffe Park to the rear of the target compound.
“The compound is one of the new mega blocks formed in the redevelopment. It sits at the top of the hill and is six and a half metres above the level of the park. It has a vertical retaining wall and a two-metre perimeter fence on top of that, Both have recently been resurfaced with the latest generation of intelligent cladding. The entire service is coated with a mixture of graphene and diamond nanoparticles. The nanoparticles give the wall an almost frictionless surface. Embedded into the cladding is a fine array of sensors which register pressure, heat, sound, and light—they are controlled by a developed AI whose only function is to interpret the data. The total height is eight and a half metres.
“Leah, your job is to get over the wall and inside the compound without setting off any sensors. The grounds cover one point two acres and our informant says it is constantly patrolled by twelve guards. They have firearms and are in constant contact with each other. You need to find a defensible position and set up a hoist so we can join you. Once inside the grounds we need to disable the guards and secure the ground floor of the building before either of the two inside personnel can make their way to Lin and harm her.
“Lin is kept in a secured Pod unit at the north-western corner of the second floor. When no one is on the floor, it is patrolled by four robotic guards. These are top of the range, and though they supposedly have no firearms installed, the informant said he wouldn’t bet on it. Once the guards know we are here, we have five minutes to get Lin off the property. That is the most likely police response time. Also, you all know Lin and know that she will be horrified if anyone dies, even the bad people. So, if we can, let’s keep it to maim and mayhem. Any questions?”
Everyone just looked at Leah and shook their heads. Lacey nodded and said, “OK, we now have eight minutes to get to the base of the wall. Marie, lead us out.”
The park was empty. As Leah thought of what she had to do her heart rate increased and she
automatically began to increase the speed she processed her environment; the world began to slow down. Suddenly she felt her control weaken and everything returned to its normal speed. Gèng said, “Leah, you don’t need to access those skills just yet. Trust John and the others to get you to the wall. Even that small effort irritated your system. If you aren’t careful, you will overheat your nervous system again. Save it until it is necessary. Most of the battle tonight you can do without increasing perception to its maximum level.”
Leah, feeling chastened, and already feeling her head beginning to ache, said, “You’re right. Thank you for the reminder. I will try and leave it to you to moderate how much it is enhanced by.”
“You’re welcome. Now, when you get to the wall, talk to John. Tell him I said you need the full package. Take all the medicine he gives you.
“What’s in the full package?”
“Pain relief, concentrated nutrients, antihistamines, anticoagulants, several ultra-high energy supplements, and several pyrogen suppressors. Dr Roberts suggested if you were going to do anything stupid—and those were her words, not mine—then we need to slow the swelling around your brain and have a plan in place to reduce your temperature. It is still higher than it should be.”
The wall rose above them. Johan and Lacey brought forward the two parts of the hoist. One was for Leah and the other would remain with the team. Leah motioned to John and whispered, “Gèng says I need the full package.”
He nodded and took a bag out of his pack. He reached in and handed her a container with a range of tablets, several vials of liquid and two energy bars with red warning labels. After she’d taken the various drugs, she had Johan help fit the harness holding the upper end of the hoist on her back. She checked her knives and sticks and rechecked her facemask.
She asked “Gèng, do I have access to all the new muscle and nerve connections?”
“Yes, I suggest you let me overlay the best run-up, position and angle to clear the wall. I’ve reviewed your usual movements and have used them to determine the best path.”
Leah nodded. She’d checked the physics when John had told her what he expected. Gèng calculated that using her new carbon fibre muscles, she was capable of exerting over eighteen times the force that she could naturally. That she could survive was due not only to her newly strengthened bones, ligaments and tendons but because Gèng had retasked the nanites to strengthen the connective tissue around her organs, including her lungs and heart. Although her mass had increased, she was still only 20% heavier than previously. The simplified equation for how high she could jump was
Before the changes, she was capable of a running double leg jump of between sixty and eighty centimetres. Even using the lower end, she should be able to clear nine metres easily. The hoist was light and didn’t effect the overall result.
Leah moved back and planned her run with Gèng’s overlay in mind. Gèng increased Leah’s perceptions as she took five steps, planted both feet and brought her pelvis low towards her heels. She pushed off the ground and when her toes left the ground, she was travelling at just under fifty kilometres per hour. She cleared the wall with more than a meter to spare.
Leah landed, crouching low. Her perceptions enhanced she looked for any reaction from the guards but couldn’t see any. There were no trees or shadows near the wall, so she set the hoist up near where she landed. First, she spread its three foot-plates as wide as they could go. She connected the expandable vertical extension rod to a centre plate and clipped in three stays to brace it. Next, she inserted a horizontal arm in the top of the vertical rod. Once it was clipped in, she lengthened it so when it was positioned over the wall, it would sit a metre past the wall. Finally, she extended the vertical rod to three metres and swung the arm over the wall. When it was in place, she depressed the starting mechanism and moved several metres away to provide cover for the team.
The hoist tightened all the connections and inserted internal rods across each join to increase its structural integrity. From the end of the horizontal arm, a laser shone on the ground where the team was waiting. Johan placed the second part of the hoist directly under the laser. He’d already prepared the stabilising legs. As soon as the laser signature was recognised by the lower section, it extended a telescoping pole vertically until it connected with the upper arm. As soon as it clicked into place, small bars dropped horizontally along its length and John began to climb.
Gèng had decreased the rate at which Leah evaluated sensory input and increased the level and type of analysis she provided to Leah. Gèng highlighted movement and used complex graphic analysis to outline different shapes. She overlay the garden with a wire frame and began to build a picture of the whole compound. It was Gèng’s analysis that warned Leah of a guard’s approach just as John swung down onto the lawn. Whatever it was that registered in the guard’s mind, they were well trained and their weapon began to rise. Leah’s reaction time, however, was enhanced as Gèng had accelerated her perceptions and connected her enhanced musculature. As she accelerated from a crouch her right arm came past her calf, unsheathing one of the throwing knives and propelling it in front of her as she moved. Before the guard’s weapon had travelled through thirty degrees, her knife slammed into their right shoulder.
The guard’s bullet and stab-proof armour was at least as good as Leah’s and it deformed the knife’s point, preventing it from penetrating the shoulder. What made the difference was that while a normal bullet might have around 5.5 kgm/s of momentum, Leah’s knife had almost 100 kgm/s. The guard was swung around by the impact and lost their balance. Before the guard reached the ground, Leah brought a fighting stick down on the edge of their headgear. Gèng had reviewed the specifications for the guards' armour—Lacey had prepared a whole list of relevant information—and determined the force required to transfer enough energy through the helmet to knock the guard out. She graphically provided a suggested path and velocity for Leah.
Leah lifted her head to check on John when a bullet impacted her midway between her shoulder blades. Milliseconds later a second hit, her several centimetres higher. Gèng applied the full range of Leah’s abilities and the third only clipped Leah’s left shoulder as she turned and headed for the second guard. Before the guard could bring their weapon around, Leah’s right fighting stick had dislocated the guard’s left knee, snapping the medial collateral ligament while her left stick cracked the helmet and knocked the guard out.
Leah was moving before the guard hit the ground. Gèng catalogued and triangulated the sounds of footfalls heading in their direction and plotted the most efficient path to deal with each of the guards. As the third guard collapsed with a broken arm, severe concussion, and a dislocated jaw, four guards were within sight of Leah. She was hit twice more as she finished guards four, five and six. One of the bullets shattered against the outer layer of her face mask and cracked the surface of the lens over her right eye. With her vision compromised, she used Gèng’s wireframe to guide her as she dove and slid under two more shots before snapping both of the guard's shins with her fighting stick and brought her legs under her to stand. As she went past, she clipped the guard on the back of the head—seven down.
She was now in range of the remaining five guards. Gèng applied a filter to Leah’s right eye and the distortion disappeared. Gèng’s analysis of the best path abruptly changed as she reclassified one of the weapons the last guard was carrying. The guard not only had the latest in supersonic weapons but also had an underslung mini-grenade launcher. Leah bypassed two guards, and slipping her right fighting stick back in its cradle behind her back, she took a fighting knife from beside it and left it in the shoulder of the guard between her and the grenade launcher.
Her thrown knife hadn’t been able to penetrate the stab-proof material because it had weighed only 250 grams and had a momentum of 100 kgm/s. Leah’s fighting knife impacted with not only its 350 grams but also the weight of her airborne body. The point deformed crushing the armour and ripping
the fibres apart. Leah let go when her blade scraped against the scapula.
She was still ten metres from the guard when Gèng indicated a projected grenade launch based on the position and movement of the guard’s finger. Gèng’s projections were based on average grenade velocities, as she did not have the details for this particular weapon. With an expected velocity of 75 m/s and at Leah’s distance, she would have 130 ms to respond. Most of the micro-grenades on the market were fitted with inertial fuzing systems which armed the grade only after it had rotated a set number of times. Leah brought her stick up and placed it in the projected path which was just over her shoulder. Gèng recalculated the path of the grenade as she observed the first 3 ms of its flight, Leah made a minute adjustment and the grenade fragmented as it hit the stick. Several fragments peppered Leah but she ignored them to bring the stick down behind the guard’s left wrist, snapping both the radius and ulna. She pivoted, struck again, and then there were three.
Following Gèng’s revised path, she quickly dispatched ten and eleven and was eight metres from twelve when Geng’s projection changed and took Leah directly toward the house. Leah obeyed without question and Gèng said, “You need to get inside quickly. Pivot as shown and use one of the throwing knives on the last guard. It should leave them vulnerable to the rest of the team, and now.”
Leah took off on her left foot, rotating her body as she brought her arm around in a throwing motion. Her rotation meant she didn’t see the knife land but Gèng continued speaking, “I observed a face at one of the windows which suddenly ran towards the inner parts of the house. Head for the main entrance, it has a double doorway. Aim to hit the point six inches below the midway point along the line where the doors intersect. Use your left shoulder. With your enhanced skeleton, I calculate a thirty-eight percent chance you will break your scapula, upper humorous or the joint itself and a seventy-two percent chance of gaining access. You should still have sufficient mobility to pursue the subject.”
