Frankie didn’t hesitate, putting two rounds into the heads of both dolls, destroying their CPU’s. They fell limply to the floor and didn’t make any further movements. Another burst of gunfire sounded from behind her, followed by a yelp and some shouting.
Frankie turned and ran the few meters back to the junction and saw the Doll down the corridor in the direction they wanted to go immediately. She fired at it the moment she saw it, and was joined right away by one or two of her teammates, although she was unsure which as she concentrated on the enemy up ahead.
Two seconds later, the third Doll dropped to the floor, riddled with bullets.
The gunfire stopped and Frankie remained still for a second; waiting and listening. She twisted her head and body slowly, looking along each tunnel before she felt satisfied that, at least for the moment, that was the end of the shooting.
Frankie stood and looked back at her team. ‘Everyone alright?’
Gibson helped Veronica off the floor where she had fallen, while Cole and Kalypso slowly lowered their weapons.
‘We’re good for now,’ Cole said.
‘I’m fine,’ Veronica answered her. ‘That third one just caught me off guard for a second there,’ she said.
Frankie nodded. ‘Let’s keep going,’ she said, checking her magazine to make sure she had enough ammunition left in it before she’d need to swap it out.
Moments later, they were moving forward again. Doll’s were formidable opponents not least because they were both unafraid of death, meaning their tactics were often reckless, and they were very intelligent, often out thinking humans.
They were fast, too. Fiction was full of tales of machines rising up and exterminating humanity, but so far, this had proved to be only fiction. Something which Frankie was forever thankful for because androids were deadly opponents.
The corridor continued on for a long way, disappearing into the darkness ahead with four-way junctions at regular intervals. Although they heard distant echoing gunfire a couple more times, they didn’t run across any further groups of androids down the tunnel. Frankie kept an eye on the map and was able to overlay it on an exterior map of the platform. They were inside and the palace was above. Soon enough, they passed beneath the outer edges of Westminster Palace, so Frankie started to keep an eye out for a way up. She didn’t have to wait long before she saw that one of her drones had mapped out a side passage that led upwards.
Frankie shared the map with her team. ‘We’ll try up that first set of stairs on the right,’ she said to affirmative noises from her team.
They soon reached the door, which was closed and had a sign on it which read, “Palace access. Authorised personnel only.”
‘Let’s breach it,’ Frankie said over their link. ‘Gibson, toss a smoker in there the second it’s open, okay?’
Gibson nodded as the team went into their usual routine, positioning themselves around the door as Frankie waited for them to be ready. With them all in position, Frankie stepped up and kicked the door, slamming it open and breaking the lock. She glanced upwards and saw two more Dolls up at the top of the stairs. Suddenly, Gibson tossed the grenade into the room, aiming it upwards so that it sailed up the stairs, trailing smoke behind it. Frankie moved in and leapt up the stairs, her gun ready as the smoke filled the space. As she reached the top of the stairwell, her cyberbrain picked out noises, footsteps, disruption of the smoke and a hundred other tiny details to give her a very good idea of where the two Dolls where. She moved up to the first one and kicked it to the ground, firing off a burst of shots into it before the second one swung for her.
She didn’t know how advanced these Dolls were, but she was making enough noise for it to pick her out. Frankie ducked and slammed the butt of her gun into the Doll, knocking it back. She stepped into it, kicking it to the floor before discharging two more rounds into this one, too.
Apart from the footsteps of her teammates, silence fell in the room as the smoke faded away. As her vision returned and she started to be able to see through the mist, Frankie was able to make out the two broken bodies of Dolls on the floor. Their porcelain white armour plating covered most of the bodies, leaving only thin gaps between the plates where you could see the dark skeleton beneath, along with joints and wiring. Her team were moving up the steps onto the platform with her, covering the Dolls to make sure they were destroyed.
Frankie focused her attention on the door across from her. It was a heavy metal affair with another “Authorised personnel” sign upon it, and it was the only other way out of here besides the way they had come. Frankie walked over to it.
‘What do you think?’ Gibson asked, stepping up next to her and looking at the door as well.
‘If I’m right, we’re still below street level, so this either leads to a basement area, or it’s stairs up into the palace,’ she said.
‘Shall we find out?’ Gibson asked.
‘Of course,’ Frankie answered. She tried the door, having given it a look over and seeing nothing suspicious. It opened easily. The hinges were smooth. It squeaked a little bit, but nothing so loud as to worry her. Sure enough, a set of stairs going up awaited them on the other side.
Frankie nodded at Gibson and moved inside, her gun ready once more as she took each step carefully. It was darker in here than it had been in the previous area, with only a single dim light above each door. She stepped up to the top and the wooden door that awaited her. All four of the drones that she had released had followed her up the stairs, and she directed them to fly ahead. She watched them zip off and disappear beneath the door. She quickly accessed one of them and activated its video feed, directing that one to give her a view of the other side of the door.
Sure enough, she could see the drone was in what was probably the lowest main level of the palace, in a corridor, and she could see two Dolls on the other side of the door, both of which were armed.
‘Okay, this is it; we’re into the lowest main level of the palace now, and we have two more guards on the other side of…’ Frankie broke off as the drone swung to show the corridor, only for there to be a flurry of movement before the drone abruptly disappeared from her icons. It had been destroyed.
‘What’s up?’ Gibson asked, noting her sudden change in demeanour.
Frankie looked up at the door a few steps before her. ‘I think…’ she started to say.
The door before them exploded with gunfire.
4.06
Wood chippings flew everywhere as Frankie ducked down, dragging Gibson down with her while lifting her gun at the same time and firing back.
Further suppressed gunshots sounded behind her as her team fired back. Frankie stayed in a crouch, but took a step up to stand in front of Gibson in an effort to protect him as she shouldered her rifle and looked up. There were three Dolls up here, one on either side of the door and another in the middle, in full view that was being hammered with gunfire from her teammates. Frankie aimed and put two rounds into its head, knocking it backwards. She then adjusted her aim and fired through the walls to the right side of the door. Half a second later, the Doll on that side stepped out as its companion fell, but Frankie was ready for it and fired again. The Doll dropped to the ground.
‘Moving up,’ Frankie said over their link and stepped to the right wall before taking the last few steps up. The final Doll was just coming into view when it stepped out, twisting to spin its gun at Frankie, but she was already set up and aiming at it. She almost had time to spare as she put a single shot through its head. Frankie was about to fire again, but it dropped limp right away and collapsed to the floor.
Frankie stepped up and peeked out, looking each way along the corridor to confirm they were alone. All the guns in her team had suppressors attached, which these days, along with subsonic rounds, made them almost entirely silent. Only the mechanical action of the weapon made a noise.
The Dolls’ guns, however, were not silenced, and had likely rung out loud and clear through the palace. Frankie had n
o idea if that would give them away, but she didn’t want to wait around here to find out.
Her drones were already well ahead of her and mapping out the interior of the palace. She also added a new command to their program and requested that they search for a large group of people. She guessed that the terrorists would more than likely want to keep all their hostages in one place, which would make them easier to control and keep watch over. Frankie led the way down the corridor, and as the map in her vision took shape, she realised this level consisted mainly of offices and didn’t house the large debating chambers. As the commons was in session when the terrorists stormed the building, it was the most likely place to find the hostages.
The closest set of stairs leading up was very close by. Frankie led her team as quickly as she could while still being cautious and making her way to the stairwell. On reaching the bottom of it, a burst of gunfire echoed through the corridors.
Frankie paused and looked around her; her teammates were doing the same.
‘Anything?’ Frankie asked.
‘Can’t see anything, no,’ Gibson said. Her other teammates agreed.
‘Well, at least we’re not the only ones firing, maybe our entrance up here might have gone unnoticed,’ she said.
‘Here’s hoping,’ Kalypso said.
‘Okay, let’s go; we have hostages to free,’ Frankie said and started up the steps. She reached the top and checked her map. They were in a side corridor off the main corridor that ran through this level of the building and connected the House of Commons to the House of Citizens. Looking each way in the side corridor, she saw no one here, and it seemed like the lights were off in this section as it was quite dark compared to the main hallway to her left. Something that worked in her team's favour. The corridors below were well fitted with carpets and wooden doors set into modern walls. Up here, everything seemed to be made of metal and glass, while bits of decorative stone filled in here and there. The floor was gleaming white marble, which even in the shadows of this corridor meant that it didn’t get too dark with all the light bouncing around.
Frankie directed two of her team to the far side of the corridor they were in before they all moved up towards the main corridor. Reaching the junction, Frankie looked left down the main vaulted hallway through the building and could clearly see the main entrance to the House of Commons about seventy or eighty meters away with two armed men standing outside.
Frankie raised her eyebrows slightly on realising they weren’t Dolls, which meant, these were the terrorists. One of the icons for her drones flashed up in her vision, so she accessed it quickly to see a video feed of the inside of the House of Commons. Sure enough, she saw the room was filled with people in smart clothes: office worker attire, although many of the men had removed their jackets and most people were looking a little ragged around the edges. Frankie ordered the drone to stay on site and directed the others to converge on it and map out the surrounding area. She wanted to get as much information on the situation in there as she could.
Movement and noise to her right drew her attention, and Frankie saw four more operators, all of them well armed, step out into the main corridor, marching three hostages along with them. They were probably taking them to the others in the House of Commons.
Frankie looked left at the two guards she could see, and then back right again. She wanted to save these three people and start taking out these terrorists.
‘Everyone to that side,’ she sent through the link and moved over to the right wall of the side corridor, joining Gibson and Veronica who were already there. ‘Vi, can you take out those two guards over there when I say so?’
Veronica peered at them through the scope on her rifle. ‘Yeah, I can do that,’ she said.
‘Good. Everyone else, get ready. Two rows, front pair crouch, we each take one of these four,’ she said. A few seconds later, everyone was in formation, tucked into the side wall to keep hidden for as long as possible, with Veronica aiming at the two guards. Frankie sent a video feed of the four terrorists from a passing drone she re-tasked briefly to spy for them, tagging each one and assigning them to her team.
They waited, the tension growing as the moment they would come into view grew closer. Frankie held her rifle up to her eye, sighting along it while keeping her other eye open so as not to miss them. Not needing to breathe was something that came in really useful for aiming, and she was able to keep her rifle nice and steady.
The four terrorists, unaware they were being watched and targeted, walked into view. Frankie waited for just the right moment, and with a thought, sent a single word through her neural link.
‘Now.’
Their guns made a series of mechanical clicks and sounds that wouldn’t be heard from very far away, and all four guards in the group dropped.
Frankie flicked her eyes left in time to see Veronica fire off her second shot at the second guard who was looking at his fallen comrade in confusion. Another suppressed shot from Veronica’s rifle later, and he dropped, too.
‘Fan out, make sure we weren’t seen,’ Frankie said as she stood and walked out towards the three hostages. Two were women, the third was a young man, and they all looked quite shocked, their mouths hanging open.
‘W…w…what the… w…’ one of them stammered as they looked around. They saw Frankie right away and looked just as scared, but Frankie held a finger up to her lips, urging them to be quiet.
‘Keep your voices down, go and find an office and hide. Barricade the door. We’re here to help. Got it?’ she asked.
They all nodded dumbly, clearly too scared to question her.
‘Th… thank you, thank you so much,’ one of the girls said.
‘Don’t worry about it. Go,’ she said and urged them to move with some sweeping gestures with her hands. They moved, and within a few steps they were running. Frankie kicked the bodies of the operators on the floor to make sure they were dead before she checked to see where the hostages went. She saw them enter a side room and close the door a short distance away and smiled to herself.
‘Are we clear?’ Frankie asked her team over their link.
‘Clear,’ they each answered her in turn.
‘Okay, let’s free these hostages,’ she said and started to move down the main hallway towards the House of Commons. Checking on her drone as she moved, she could see that they had fully mapped the area around the commons chamber, and she now also had three separate views of the inside of the room, and the terrorists in there were clearly tagged.
She could see the crowd of hostages sitting in the centre of the chamber while twelve terrorists, all of them armed, stood watch over them. She could see six of them on the two opposite balconies up above the main floor, and six more on the ground floor.
Frankie shared the video feeds and information over the link with her team as they crept along the hallway towards the two dead guards up ahead.
‘We have twelve guards in the room, six up top, six on the ground floor. Cole and I will take a balcony each and deal with the three on either side up there. Gibson, Kalypso, you guys enter from either side of the room on the ground. Veronica, you can enter the room from one side, half way along. I’ve marked your routes, targets, and entrances on the map. Let’s go,’ she said over the link and headed to a side corridor. She stopped at the entrance to it and watched to be sure her team were moving into place and that no one out here had spotted them. Happy with their progress, she walked into the hallway and found the stairs leading up immediately on her right. She moved cautiously up them, taking them slowly and quietly.
‘Gibson in place,’ he called out through their link.
‘In place and ready,’ Veronica said a few second later.
Frankie kept going, and entered the corridor at the top of the stairs, finding it empty, she moved towards the door closest to her that would put her at one end of the balcony.
‘I’m ready,’ she said over the link, followed moments later by Cole and Kalypso saying the
same thing.
‘On three,’ she said. ‘One, two, three.’
Frankie kicked the door with her booted foot, slammed it open, and stepped through, her gun aimed towards where she worked out the nearest guard would be standing based on the video feed she could see from her drones. She was slightly off, but adjusted accordingly and calmly put two rounds into the nearest man. He dropped, having barely registered the door opening before being shot. Frankie adjusted her aim and filled her sights with the next guard along before squeezing two more rounds off. This second guard had turned and fired wildly at her, but missed entirely.
As she shifted her aim to the third and final guy on her balcony, she sidestepped to her left, giving him a moving target as he turned and fired at her. Bullets struck the benches and panelling behind her, sending fragments of wood flying everywhere as she took her time and aimed at her target. He was a good distance away, so she squeezed the trigger and held it, firing off a four round burst at the terrorist, feeling sure she would hit with at least two or three of them.
The guard stopped shooting and dropped to the floor as gunfire rang out through the room. She looked over to see Cole on the far balcony score a hit on his third and final guard. Frankie stepped up to the edge of her balcony and looked down to see her team dealing with most of the guards, but one had someone managed to grab one of the hostages and was trying to back out. Frankie aimed at him, having a good shot on him from her elevated vantage point and tracked him as he backed up away from where Veronica would be.
As he moved, he twisted to manoeuvre around a bench and guard himself against Kalypso, but he suddenly exposed his right side to Veronica, which was a big mistake. Frankie heard the sudden metallic actuation of Veronica’s suppressed gun and watched as the guard went limp and dropped to the floor, leaving the hostage he had grabbed standing there with a look of horror on her face.
Prometheus Vengeance (The New Prometheus Book 4) Page 8
