Huge metal tanks covered in pipes and valves rose up around them until the flyer bumped down with the rear hatch already most of the way open again. Frankie surveyed the area immediately outside, but saw nothing.
‘Dion, anything on your scans?’ she sent through the team's link.
‘Affirmative, we have movement to our south, which fit’s the coordinates we were given for the meeting,’ Dion said.
South, Frankie thought, checking her GPS, and noting that south was in the other direction, where the flyer was facing.
‘Tyler, you’re up. Treat this as your mission now and take the lead,’ Frankie said.
‘Copy that,’ Tyler said. ‘Okay, you heard the lady. Now move out and set up a defensive perimeter around the flyer.’
Frankie did as he asked and trotted down the ramp, taking a knee on the dirty concrete outside until everyone was out of the flyer. Tyler then directed them to move around to the south side of the flyer and split the team up to advance on the coordinates they had been sent. Frankie was close to the front as they moved beneath the clusters of pipes that crossed above and around them, and climbed up the side of large container cylinders of gas or something. She wasn’t sure. There were warning signs everywhere as the factory hummed, the machinery working away at its day to day task.
Ahead, beneath another bridge of pipes, she could see what looked like another squad of operators led by three or four agents. They were all heavily armed and waiting out in the open, surrounded by the factory towers. She could also see two flyers behind them.
Tyler led the way, bringing his squad in closer to him as they approached the nearby team. Frankie recognised Zealotte from when she had seen her at the Palace of Westminster, along with at least one of her agent lieutenants. Frankie moved in closer to Tyler, her gun at the ready.
‘What do you want me to do?’ Tyler asked through the link.
‘Nothing yet, just keep up the ruse,’ she answered him.
‘Tyler,’ Zealotte called out as he grew closer to her. ‘Where have you been exactly? There were signs that your safe house had been attacked.’
‘It had, but a few of us managed to escape,’ he said.
‘And get your hands on a flyer?’
Tyler looked back at the unmarked black flyer they had come in. ‘That’s right. We took it from the idiots who attacked us,’ he answered.
Good answer, Frankie thought.
Zealotte seemed to think on this for a moment before she smiled. ‘Okay, well, it’s good to have you back on board with us,’ she said. ‘We’d best get out of here before we’re noticed,’ she said, and turned to leave before pausing and looking back again. ‘Leave that flyer there, we’ll destroy it from the air. You can come with us.’
Tyler glanced sideways at Frankie, the look on his face asking her what they should do now? Tyler needn’t have worried. Frankie had no intention of letting Zealotte blow up their flyer, along with Jude and Dion in the process.
Frankie shouldered her weapon. ‘Here we go guys,’ Frankie sent through the link to everyone in her and Tyler’s teams. Frankie aimed at the back of Zealotte as she walked away, knowing that her team were also bringing their guns to bear on everyone else over there. ‘No one’s going anywhere,’ Frankie said out loud, projecting her voice so everyone would hear her.
Zealotte stopped in her tracks and turned around slowly to face Frankie and Tyler. She spotted the gun right away and raised her hands slowly above her head.
‘And who might you be?’ she asked.
‘You can call me Frankie, we’re here to take you in,’ she said. ‘So, please, drop your weapons. Let’s not make this more complicated than it needs to be.’
‘So, that’s how it is? You’re showing your true colours now, Tyler,’ Zealotte said.
‘You need to listen to her,’ Tyler replied. ‘We’re going about this all wrong. You’re fighting the wrong people, Zealotte.’
‘In who’s opinion? Yours or hers?’
‘Mine. I’ve merely seen a bigger picture, that’s all. Come in with us, we can talk it through.’
‘You know, when we agreed to this meeting, I told Arden and Destine here that there was a significant chance of this being a trap. Luckily, we had some inside information and I think you might start to see things our way in a moment,’ Zealotte said, snapping her fingers. Frankie saw some immediate movement from the back of one of the two flyers parked up beyond Zealotte’s group as maybe two or three people approached them.
‘Some of the guys who had worked with you before were convinced that you were incapable of such deception. It’s a good thing I didn’t listen to them, isn’t it?’ Zealotte said as an operative shoved someone forward to stand next to her while another pointed a gun at him.
Frankie felt a wave of shock pass through her body as she looked at the bloody and beaten man who stood before her.
‘Dad?’ Frankie asked, recognising him right away.
‘I mean, as strokes of luck go, this was a doozy. Hell, he was the one to came to us asking us for help against you. Of course, we had to show him who was boss around here, but things seem to have worked out just fine, don’t you think?’ Zealotte said. ‘Now, if you don’t mind, how about you lower your weapons.’
Frankie heard Zealotte talking, she heard the words and understood what she said, but she only stared at her dad. He glanced up at her a few times, but spent most of the time looking away from her, hiding his head in shame, it seemed.
Frankie had no choice. She didn’t want anything to happen to her dad, no matter how misguided he was. Given time, she felt sure she could make him see sense and show him the pain that the Corporations caused. But she couldn’t do that right now, and certainly not if he died here.
Frankie lowered her gun, letting go of it so that it swung from the strap that was attached to her.
Tyler and Gibson and all the others followed suit, dropping their guns and raising their hands to a muttered chorus of complaints.
Zealotte smiled. ‘There, that wasn’t so tough was it,’ she said, and reached over to Frankie’s dad’s gag, and jerked it off his face. It came away easily. The man who had been pointing the gun at Mark adjusted his aim to Frankie, while another uncuffed her dad’s hands.
Frankie frowned, confused for a moment, before suddenly catching on and letting out an exasperated sigh. ‘You were never a hostage,’ she said.
‘Ding, ding, ding, we have a winner,’ her dad said sarcastically. ‘I knew you would take the bait. You always were one step behind and just way too easy to trick. So, where’s your mum?’
‘What do you mean? She’s not with you?’
‘Don’t play coy with me. You guys picked her up at the apartment.’
‘Um, no, when we got there she was gone,’ she said.
‘More lies! When will you learn to see the truth, Frankie? Fighting the Corporations is both misinformed and futile. You’re being lied to, Frankie. The Corporations are not the enemy of the people; they’re not your enemy, either. The enemy is the governments of the world as they try to stifle free trade and steal the profits from people who have worked hard to build their companies up into the Corporations you know today. But somehow, you have infected your mum with your bullshit lies,’ he yelled as he stepped up towards her.
Nearby, Zealotte walked up to Tyler with the cuffs they had removed from her dad and started to restrain him. She could see Tyler talking to Zealotte as she stood next to him, but she couldn’t make out anything they were saying above her dad’s rant.
‘What are you talking about, Dad? Can’t you see what’s going on around you? Can’t you see who you’re working with right this moment? How blind do you have to be?’ Frankie answered him back.
‘Says the girl in the stealth suit holding a gun. The government is certainly no better, Frankie, I can assure you of that.’
‘Ur, guys, we have incoming,’ Dion said over their link, his voice urgent. Frankie suddenly started to listen to the world around
her. She’d been so intent on focusing on her dad that she’d not really been paying much attention to anything outside of that. But now that she listened, she could clearly hear the sound of several flyers on approach. The roar and crack of a missile streaking through the sky grew from nothing to an all encompassing roar as several of them streaked towards them. The first one rammed into one of Zealotte’s flyers, blowing it to kingdom come before a second later another slammed into the second aircraft. Two fireballs lit up the factory while two shockwaves of energy washed over her. Frankie ducked on instinct before quickly looking back towards their own flyer in time to see a third missile blow that one up, too.
‘Dion, Jude?’ Frankie yelled.
The incessant beating of rotors in the sky rose up to fill the void of noise as the explosions died away. Looking up, Frankie saw several large black Corporation flyers hovering above her and descending down out of the dark, cloud-filled night sky.
One quite close to Frankie alighted atop a nearby building, allowing black clad operators to disembark and move to the buildings edges, their guns up and covering them, ready to fire.
Others followed suit nearby on other buildings and on the ground, but Frankie focused on the closest one as she saw the blonde haired Hellion saunter off of it, a gun in her hand and a sword strapped to her back.
Frankie glanced back at the burning wreckage of their flyer. Had Dion and Jude escaped, or had Hellion killed them?
Frankie looked back up at Hellion, noticing that her dad and Zealotte were looking equally as surprised and shocked as she felt.
At the edge of the building, Hellion put one foot up on the ledge and her opposite hand on her hip and smiled down at Frankie.
‘Checkmate,’ she gloated.
4.17
Hellion chuckled to herself as Frankie looked on. She got the distinct impression they had all been played by Psytech in some way. She cursed to herself as she scowled at Hellion.
‘Look at you all here, arguing like it matters or means anything. It’s just too easy,’ Hellion said as she signalled to someone behind her. An operative appeared, marching Fiona, Frankie’s mum, forward over the roof before throwing her down at Hellion’s feet. Frankie caught her breath for a second as she landed very close to the edge of the roof they were on.
‘Aaah, Frankie, I will honestly miss this once you’re gone. You’ve been a hell-bound bitch for sure, killing my sister, but you have also provided me with something to really get my teeth into, someone who’s a bit more of a match for me. It’s not often I find someone like you, so don’t think I don’t appreciate it,’ she said.
‘Let my mum go,’ Frankie growled.
‘This is the second time I’ve seen you, who the hell are you?’ her dad yelled as he stepped up beside her.
‘Dad, don’t…’ Frankie warned him.
‘I’d listen to your daughter, Mark,’ Hellion said.
‘Fuck you. Who do you think you are? What do you think you’re doing with… It was you. You took Fiona from the apartment. What is this?’ he yelled.
‘Isn’t it obvious?’ Frankie said, putting the pieces together in her head. ‘We’ve all been set up.’ Frankie glanced at Tyler and Zealotte as she said it. ‘Psytech has used Zealotte and her team as bait to draw my team and I out. They knew we were looking for them, and they let us make contact with them and arrange the meetup. The fact that you knew of Zealotte from Nano Technic and contacted her to find me was a nice little bonus, I bet. Is that right?’ she said as she turned to face Hellion.
‘You used me?’ Mark yelled. ‘You bitch, do you know who I am?’
‘Yes, I do,’ she said, and suddenly her gun was up and barked once. Blood and brains exploded from the back of her dad’s skull before he suddenly dropped to the floor, his body crumpling as he fell limp.
‘No!’ Frankie yelled while her mother screamed. Frankie knew he was dead. There was nothing she or anyone could do for him now, but all she could do was stand there and look down at him, at the broken remains of her dad lying in the dust and dirt as thick dark blood seeped from the entry and exit wounds on his head.
‘Frankie?’ said a voice in her head. It was Tyler contacting her through her link. ‘Unlock our guns and be ready to move,’ he warned her.
Frankie looked up at Tyler in confusion and then noticed that Zealotte was looking at her. She winked once. Frankie sent the unlock code to Tyler’s team’s weapons.
Suddenly, everyone on Zealotte’s and Tyler’s teams lifted their guns and opened fire on the surrounding Corporation forces.
‘Run!’ Tyler shouted and shoved Frankie with his hand, pushing her away. Frankie hesitated for a moment, but seeing Zealotte and Tyler standing there, side by side, firing up at Hellion made it crystal clear. They were on her side now.
What had it been? She’d seen Tyler talking with Zealotte, had he convinced her of his side of the argument? Had it been the arrival of Hellion and the reveal that they had been used by Psytech? Most likely, it was both. Ultimately, she didn’t care. With Zealotte’s operators on her side now as well, they actually had a formidable force to fight Hellion and Psytech with. Frankie ran for the nearest cover as gunfire peppered the ground by her feet. She saw three operators drop from the roof ahead and move around the machinery she had run for.
Frankie ploughed into them, drawing her sword and slashing at the one to her right as she slid into their midst on one knee. With a twist, she stood up and cut at the second man, severing his arm as blood sprayed. The third man tried to turn and bring his weapon to bear on her, but Frankie was just too quick. Adjusting her grip, she plunged the blade into the third operator’s chest before withdrawing it and letting him fall, too.
Looking up, Frankie could see chaos and movement on the rooftop and two men picking up her mother and moving her back towards the flyer. Hellion was nowhere in sight, though. For now. She would show her face soon enough, she thought, feeling confident of that. Hellion wouldn’t be able to leave here without trying to kill her at least once.
Movement to her right caught her attention. Reacting on instinct rather than with any kind of planning or fore thought, Frankie twisted as gunfire erupted from an operator who had just spotted her. She swung her blade in front of her and deflected several bullets with it before drawing her pistol and firing off two shots at her attacker, one to the chest and another to his head, dropping him to the floor.
Frankie looked at her sword, raising her eyebrows in surprise and amazement. Xenox had said she was faster now, she had not really thought just how fast she might be.
Two more bursts of gunfire sounded from the same direction suddenly, breaking Frankie from her daydream in time to look up and see two more operators fall down dead, revealing Dion and Jude behind them, holding their pistols up.
‘You’re alive,’ Frankie exclaimed over the link, suddenly noticing their singed clothing and blackened faces.
‘Just,’ Jude said.
‘Barely,’ Dion joined in. ‘Oh, and you’re welcome,’ he added, nodding to the two dead operators on the floor before them.
‘Thanks, guys. Stay out of trouble. Let us deal with this okay?’
‘Anything you say, boss,’ Jude said and urged Dion to back off with him.
Frankie smiled. At least, they had managed to get out of the flyer before it blew. She looked up to the roof of the nearby building and dashed for it, seeing an operator firing down from its edge.
Leaping, Frankie sailed up in front of the operator and sliced at their neck. She landed beside the decapitated female operator and looked across the roof. Three more men in black stood around the back of the flyer, one quite close to her, guarding it as two more operators and another person, who she guessed to be an agent, escorting her mum towards the aircraft.
Frankie sprinted to the nearest man, slashed left with her sword, spinning him as his severed arm fell to the floor before she stabbed him through his back. Using him as cover, she fired at the other two guards. She killed the fi
rst one without issue, but took some incoming fire from the second before she managed to take him out also.
The agent with her mother turned to face Frankie, who suddenly recognised her as one of the agents who had been in the support building with Hellion. She remembered her name as Arcana, and she wore the same long black coat and the same long dark hair.
Arcana spun and fired on Frankie, the bullets hitting her human shield cleanly. She was a good shot. Frankie stepped out and rushed towards her, firing her own gun at the agent, who dodged her shots and moved to get some cover behind a squat air vent.
Frankie ran at her as Arcana fired at her again, but this time Frankie caught the bullets with her sword, knocking them away before they could hurt her. Frankie stepped in and swung the blade at the agent who smashed it away with her gun once, and then twice until Frankie feinted left before swinging right. Arcana's gun hand wasn’t in the right place, but she raised her other hand instead, which Frankie promptly severed just below the elbow.
The agent looked at her arm in shock, pausing for half a second, but that was all Frankie needed. Her blade whipped out and severed her head from her body, dropping the agent to the floor.
Gunfire sounded from behind her, and two bullets hit her before she could spin and deflect the rest away. Her cyberbrain registered the hits, but they were merely flesh wounds and no threat to her at all.
Frankie fired back with her pistol and caught the shooter in the body, dropping him quickly. The second operative let go of her mum and raised his hands in surrender. Frankie strode over, pointing her gun at him the whole time.
‘Drop your weapons and go,’ Frankie said, and watched him do as she asked. With him gone, she looked around and saw no one else up here, but the sounds of fighting continued on the ground below. Frankie crouched down next to her mum, who had fallen to her knees. She was bloody and bruised, and her clothes were ripped, but she looked like she would survive. ‘Are you okay, Mum? Can you walk?’
Prometheus Vengeance (The New Prometheus Book 4) Page 17
