“Yeah. And that lesson is not to fuck with me.”
-6-
It had taken the three of them diving for three hours to get what Regina thought was enough to pin Koto Daniels for everything, then another two to assemble a thirty minute 'special' about Mr. Daniels to broadcast to the world. Yosha, Artemis, and Regina now stood on the platform and watched as the two biggest news stations in the country, and four of the biggest in the region, started broadcasting their special to everyone who was watching. It seemed that the SecFor Chief that Koto was working with had contacts at the Aeroyin Defense Company, who was looking to sell some new equipment to the region’s security services. A contract that would have to be approved by the Prime Minister's office. It also turned out that more than six hundred million had been working its way into pockets of several elected officials from lobbyists working for Aeroyin. It went deeper and darker, but the biggest fish would definitely be fried. A few industrious and dedicated net rats had even pieced together a small scandal involving Koto Daniels and a local mobster who were running a sex slave trade.
“Ya know, I don't think we even had to put this together. I think the news orgs would have pieced this together on their own,” Artemis said.
“Maybe. But it might have taken them a few days,” Regina replied.
"You don't give the news outlets enough credit. They aren't all owned by politicians and billionaire playboys. Some of them actually earned their reputations as great news organizations," Artemis said assuredly. "Take, for instance, WMGNG already had a reporter outside of Koto's office. Granted, they were literally just standing there, talking about nothing, hoping to catch Mr. Daniels if he left the building. But they were trying."
"You wanna give them back their feed?" Regina asked.
Artemis tilted his head at the screens. "Nah."
Regina laughed a bit. “And you said it yourself. Time was of the essence.”
“It still probably is,” Yosha said. “We broke just about every net law we could today. Now that this is playing, we should probably get the hell out of here. I would assume it will only take them about thirty or forty minutes to figure out who has hijacked their feeds. Then another twenty or so to rain hell down on us.”
“I really wish you were right, but I don't think you are,” Grendal's announced over the comms. "Looks like someone was tracking us down before your little pirate broadcast started."
“What!?” all three on the platform blurted out.
“Yeah, the power is being cut in this sector, one block at a time,” Amina said over the comms. “We need to go, like right now. Melt the system, and get the fuck out!”
“They got a couple of attack choppers coming in from the south it looks like. This shit is about to get real. Take the hogs. We'll play caboose,” Grendal continued.
“Kuso!” Artemis cursed as he picked up a few things. “Galatea, go ahead and transfer to the secure server.”
“Understood,” Galatea replied.
Regina looked around. “Where's Thomas? Thomas!”
No reply came.
"Why can't he hear me?" Regina asked furiously.
"Looks like our area is being jammed. Give me a sec," Amina replied.
"Thomas doesn't have a sec," Regina stated.
“Do you want help finding him?” Yosha asked.
“No, go ahead. Get the frack outta here. I'm sure he heard me yell, and is heading back this way,” Regina replied, as she picked up her trench coat and her belt.
"It looks like they are using the same kind of disruption field they used when Thomas was picking up the drop. We only have access to each other on the short range frequencies at the moment," Amina announced unenthusiastically.
"He probably went out for more food. I'll go get him," Regina stated bluntly.
“Okay. We'll see you there,” Artemis said as he started down the ramp.
“No, go ahead. Leave the second you get it. There are two road hogs down there, I'll just take the second one,” Regina replied quickly.
“She's right. And we need to go. Now,” Yosha yelled, already headed towards a door.
Regina yelled again. “Thomas!”
Still she heard no reply.
"How much time do I have before they are on us?" Regina asked.
"Not much. Thermals are already showing incoming ground troops to the east," Amina replied quickly.
“Thomas!” Regina yelled a third time, as she started running down the hallway Thomas had brought her the rat through earlier. Hoping perhaps that he had gone out again to find him and her some food. They hadn't been eating regularly today.
The main lights went out, and small red emergency lights came on in their place.
“Thomas!”
“Here,” came the faintest of replies from Thomas over the comms.
“Where is here, Thomas!?” Regina yelled, continuing down the hallway.
"Front office," Thomas replied hurriedly.
"Head to me, Thomas. We're under attack!"
"Yep," Thomas replied.
As Regina exited the hallway, she saw Thomas about eighty meters away exiting a doorway to her right, and heading towards her.
An explosion rocked the building in front of Regina, knocking her to the ground.
Regin sat up quickly so she could see what had happened. A large hole had been blasted in the side warehouse. Looking to Thomas, she saw him stand to his feet and start towards her again. Regina looked back at the hole, and then through it. There she saw several black-clad Enforcers heading towards the opening.
"Stop," Regina yelled. She then made a hand a quick hand signal towards Thomas.
Thomas stopped, and tilted his head at Regina.
Regina again, more angrily repeated the hand signal, as the intruders reached the opening.
The Enforcers quickly spotted Regina and Thomas, and raised their weapons to fire. Regina watched for a short second, to see that Thomas had started running away.
"Run, Thomas," she whispered, as her dearest friend disappeared back through the doorway he had come in. Satisfied that Thomas would not be caught in the Enforcer's fire, she closed her eyes, and waited for the explosion of gunfire.
Regina listened as a second explosion rocked the ceiling above her, and the gunshots rang out. This was followed by the sound of bullets breaking hard against metal and concrete.
“Move!” Amina shouted.
Regina looked up. Standing between her and the Enforcers was Amina in her armored suit.
“I said RUN!” Amina shouted again.
With no time to think, Regina simply reacted. She got to her feet and started sprinting down the hallway. A second later she heard the metallic footstep of Amina's armored suit behind her. The sound of bullets had yet to cease, and they were now being accompanied by heavy-booted running.
“Head to the sewer exit," Amina said, as she pointed one of the suit's guns behind her and fired three quick rounds.
"What about the others?" Regina yelled back.
"Yosha and Artemis have already left. Grendal went with them, but they'll be covering that exit now. So we have to take the backup exit,” Amina shouted.
“Thank you,” Regina shouted as she exited the hallway and took a left, going past the dive platform. She could see the small fires and sparks coming from the rigs, and smell the melting electronics inside as she passed.
“Thank me if we live,” Amina shouted as she continued to keep pace behind Regina.
Regina smashed into the next doorway, forcing it open as she went, and ignoring the pain that was starting to build in her chest. For the first time since seeing Amina appear before her, she started thinking that she might actually see Thomas again.
Two seconds later she heard Amina start tearing through the narrow doorway behind her. She kept running though, she knew Amina would catch up quickly once she got through. As she turned the last corner of her escape path, she saw two Enforcers coming towards her position from the sewer elevator. With instinct driving her motions,
she dropped into a slide, as bullets flew above her. She landed near a crate, and rolled behind it as more bullets found their way to her.
"Fuck," she cried, as bullets continued to rip through the crate. She glanced towards the hallway she'd just exited, and Amina was tearing through as fast she could, but it would still take her a bit longer to work the large armored suit through.
Regina reached as fast as she could to her belt, and pulled out a small laser pistol. But the hail of bullets still had her pinned down, and the crate was quickly being torn through. She couldn't move, she could only wait, and hope Amina made it through the hallway faster than the bullets made their way through the crate.
A bullet cut through the crate and tore through Regina's right upper arm.
Regina let out a scream in pain, as bullets shredded the air near her.
"Here," came Thomas's voice in Regina's headset.
Regina heard a guttural growl, followed by one of the Enforcers screaming in fright. As the bullets stopped flying, Regina heard the wet squishy sounds of flesh being torn. Regina gripped her pistol tight. She knew the second Enforcer would already be training his weapon on Thomas, and she couldn't let that happen.
Regina leapt from behind what was left of the crate. But, she hadn't needed to worry. A half second scream was all the second Enforcer was able to get out before the large outstretched metallic hand of Amina's armored suit crushed the life from him.
“Get in the hog!” Amina yelled, as she burst the rest of the way into the room from the passageway.
Regina glanced at Thomas, who was still tearing at the throat and chest of the Enforcer. “Forget him, Thomas,” Regina said as she bolted towards the vehicle.
Thomas let go of the Enforcer, and jumped into the hog's truck bed.
The sounds of the Enforcer squad coming up behind her gave Amina little time to pause. She took a few steps forward, kicked the mechanical release to drop the elevator, and the small truck holding Regina and Thomas, down into the sewer below.
Regina, who had just closed the door of the hog, grit her teeth in anticipation of the landing. A few seconds of rapid elevator sickness later, and the platform landed hard. Regina hit the accelerator and tore off through the sewer tunnel. She heard the sound of Amina landing behind her the moment she had gotten the hog off the platform.
“Thomas!?” Regina shouted.
“Yep,” Thomas said as loud as he could.
“Okay,” Regina replied.
Regina turned her focus to the hog, and to the slick tunnel in front of her. The pain in her arm was intense, but she couldn't afford to focus on that, a junction was quickly up in front of her.
“Turn right,” Amina ordered.
Regina did as she was told.
As Amina came into the new tunnel behind the hog, she shot several high caliber rounds into the tunnel's ceiling, and continued running as the dirt and debris above and behind her started to fall.
Regina looked back to see what was happening. Quickly ascertaining the reason for the rounds being fired, she turned back around and started driving faster as the sound of falling dirt, and who knows what else, echoed behind her.
“Let me in front,” Amina said as she closed the gap between them.
“Hold on, Thomas,” Regina said as she drove the hog up and sideways along the curved tunnels to let Amina pass by. She watched Amina sprint past in her the armored suit, and then she leveled the hog back out at the bottom on the tunnel.
Amina took a quick look at the panels and readouts of her armored suit. She could see that Grendal had already blown the whole warehouse shortly after they had dropped into the sewer, hopefully slowing down any pursuers they may have had. “We should be in the clear. We're about two kilometers away from the warehouse now. They won't be able to follow us down this tunnel, so we should probably plan to ditch our rides in about six more kilometers when we're beneath the Azamur district. From there, we'll head on foot to a safe house. There are some clothes, paint, and hair pieces in the hog's storage compartment that we can use and change into. Sorry, I know you dig that 1990's look, but we're gonna have to blend in to the crowd.”
Regina laughed as she caught her breath. “That's fine.”
“Blend?” Thomas asked.
“Come here, Thomas,” Regina said, patting the passenger seat next to her.
Thomas worked his way under the roll bars and into the seat.
Regina looked him over. “Are you alright?”
“Yes,” Thomas replied.
Regina let out a sigh of relief. "Good."
“That was a nice takedown, Thomas. The Enforcers are going to have to start giving anti-feline combat lessons now,” Amina said over the comms.
“They sure are,” Regina agreed.
Thomas displayed his toothy grin in response.
Regina smiled. "You're crazy, you know that? Speaking of crazy, why didn't you listen to me when I told you to leave?" she asked, reaching over to pet Thomas.
Thomas retracted his head from her reach, and then put one paw up on her arm and started pushing it back down.
Confused by the reaction, Regina let her arm fall. "What's wrong?"
Thomas put his paw against Regina's arm, where the bullet had hit her, and then looked up at his friend. "Accidents happen lot."
To Be Continued...
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by Amber Neko Meador at:
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Special Thanks
Leslie Gray Kilgore
Bonnie Bobo
RETALI8ION: The Cobalt Code Page 7
