Hammers and Nails

by Andrew Vaillencourt

  With her frustrations mounting, Lucia turned again to engage the man behind her, needing to halt his advance before he could land a lucky shot. A slip to the left and a committed stomp to the side of his knee sent him to the floor howling in agony, his leg twisted in a manner nature never intended and his armor could not prevent.

  With a snarl of triumph, she faced Paulie again, this time prepared to serve him the way she had just dispatched his man.

  The dart struck her in the thigh, launched by the man who had grabbed Sid. Lucia’s hyperkinetic movement had spoiled his aim, but the small non-lethal pacification dart did not need a good hit to do its job. One twentieth of a second later Lucia’s leg went numb and dead and she crashed to the floor. With a scream she tried to right herself and remove the offending barb, but Paulie and his man were on her in a flash. Two more darts struck her, one in her back and the other in her neck.

  And then everything went black.

  CHAPTER SIXTEEN

  Roland ran a full half mile down the tram lines just to get clear of Belham before emerging to street level. He had no issues with the New Boston Police Department’s Uptown division, but he was certain there would be hours of statements and interviews to get through if they found him at the scene. That was the sort of thing he would rather deal with in the morning. For now, he needed to regroup with his team and debrief the night’s calamity.

  His internal repair systems were closing the holes in his armor rapidly, as they had been designed to do, but the damage to his leg and chest was going to need some time to heal. This would have bothered him less if he could have been at all certain he was going to have that kind of time. Truthfully, the injuries did not amount to anything likely to shut him down, but his combat efficacy had been reduced by a good twenty percent. Eighty percent of Roland was more than most enemies could ever handle, but he had just lost a brawl with a heavy armature. Eighty percent was not going to cut it. This was causing him no end of irritation to say the least.

  He keyed for Lucia on his comms and swore with vehemence when there was no answer. There were any number of benign reasons her comm could be down, so he did not exactly panic. A cold hard lump that had nothing to do with a lodged flechette formed in his gut, all the same.

  He switched to Mindy’s code and got an answer on the first chime. Mindy’s signature chipper and ditzy inflection was nowhere to be found, and her words snapped across the airwaves with clipped efficiency. “Roland! Lucia is off comms. Last known location is underground parking for Three Centre Plaza. Sending location to your comm now. I am en route to intercept.”

  “Location ping on her?” It was a stupid thing to ask. Mindy, for all her silliness, was a seasoned professional hunter and assassin. If she knew where Lucia was, she would be going there already.

  “Nothing, Roland. But I’m on it.”

  “Roger that. I’m headed to last known location. Tank out.”

  Roland ran.

  He ran as fast as his damaged chassis could move. He ran without thought for collateral damage, pedestrians, or the sanctity of private property. No one died during his headlong flight to the parking garage, but more than a few people caught in his path would need some bone weave afterward. He traversed the three and a half miles in just over five minutes and skidded to a halt at a spot littered with the detritus of a pitched battle. His professional gaze took in the whole scene in an instant, and his heart leapt in his chest.

  Lucia had been taken.

  A ground transport with a smashed hood and broken lamps told the story of something heavy and hard being thrown into it. The garage floor was marred with scrapes and scuff marks alongside the dented vehicle as well.

  Armored man got thumped. Roland correctly surmised.

  Another dusty section of floor bore the telltale scuffed footprints and gouges of a heavy person in heavier gear taking a hard fall further away.

  She got two of them, even wearing a cocktail dress. Though terrified for her safety, Roland could not suppress a bit of professional pride at the thought of tiny Lucia in her little black dress and heels putting the boots to armored men in a straight fight.

  Next, he found Lucia’s comm, smashed and abandoned where it had fallen under another car. He paused when it occurred to him something was missing from the tableau.

  No bead impacts. No flechette holes. No sign of gunfire at all.

  It was obvious Lucia was giving as good as she got in the scrap, so why no guns? He could not accept squeamishness on the part of those raiders as the reason for that omission.

  The answer, obvious when he thought about it, presented itself in the form of a spent pacification dart found next to a column, the barb still stained red with blood.

  They took her alive, he realized, and relief washed over him. But only for an instant, as he understood all too well that this could be just as bad, or even worse.

  Roland studied the floor of the garage some more and found the black streaks of ground vehicle tires. They were both wide in stature and spacing.

  Something big, he reasoned. A van or a truck.

  He keyed Mindy again, and she answered on the first chime, “Go for Mindy.”

  “It looks like they took her alive, at least. We are looking for a ground transport. Large. Tread says a truck of some kind, possibly paramilitary. Where are your eyes?”

  “I’m gaining altitude as we speak. Manny is on the clock, too. He should know how to track a vehicle.”

  “Good. They have a seven-minute head start on us. Ideas?”

  “They took her alive, so all we have to do is figure out what makes her important. That should give us a clue.”

  “Shit!” Roland spat. Lucia was not that important. Someone else was though.

  “What?” Mindy sounded concerned.

  “Sid! They were after Sid, not Lucia!”

  Mindy understood right away, “Got it. Contacting Sid’s people now. Stand by.”

  Roland had to stay there and wait for interminable minutes because he did not know which direction to go. Without warning, his comm chimed in his ear, startling him, “Go for Tank!”

  Mindy's voice came through with force, “It’s her bodyguard! Her own people confirmed that he went off the reservation tonight and hit the party with a squad of mercs. It looks like he has them both. Manny found his registration and has locked onto the transport. They’re heading for The Sprawl, Roland.”

  Manny cracked the transport grid? He is good! Roland could forgive the former terrorist anything if he helped get Lucia back alive.

  “Send the location to my comm and meet me there as fast as you can.”

  “I’m way out in front of you, Roland. You want me to engage?”

  “Holy fuck, yes. Engage as early and as hard as you like.” This came out as a growl. Mindy irritated him, but Roland respected her skills enough to let her work.

  “Understood, Boss. Don’t worry. We’ll get your girl back.” Mindy’s slip of the tongue was telling. She almost never called Roland ‘boss.’

  Roland cut the connection and ran.

  Across town, Mindy had already triangulated an intercept point for the APC based upon its current patterns. The kidnappers were not doing anything to avoid pursuers, which indicated supreme confidence in the cleanliness of their getaway. This was not really an oversight on their part as no one could have reasonably expected someone to hack the transport grid and tag their vehicle. It was only through the most random confluence of events Roland’s people had that capability. But in hindsight, Mindy figured it was exactly the sort of skill a highly regarded infiltrator and urban scout would probably need. She had avoided thinking too much about Manny’s skill set, because she was still very uncomfortable with his past ties to notorious terrorists. Instead of worrying about this, she filed it away for later reflection while speeding onward to the downtown section of the sprawl, and a likely intersection for her ambush.

  She paid extra for an aerocar, and even following all traffic rules, she anticipat
ed arriving long before the APC did. Being in something of a rush, Mindy had left the office before knowing how the opposing force was equipped, and that meant she had neglected to bring along anything capable of puncturing the skin of an armored truck. Not from a safe distance, anyway. She did have an 8mm mag Rifle and her high-tech armored blue jumpsuit. The thin material hugged her body with shameful faithfulness, yet the deceptive armored weave provided ballistic protection from most sidearms. On-board systems monitored her vitals and it would automatically administer compression for injured limbs and staunch bleeding as needed. She also looked fantastic in the too-tight bodysuit, and she was not above working that to her advantage in a fight, either.

  But no quantity of sexual distraction was going to change the fact that there was really only one way for Mindy to get into the truck. The assassin acknowledged, to her chagrin, that this was a task likely to be neither safe nor fun. Strapped to her thigh was a scabbard twenty inches long, and nestled inside was the sasori dagger she had pulled from the dead body of her best friend and former partner. Designed as a silent and untraceable tool for a new model of assassin android, the blade was capable of carving through even the heaviest of armor. Within the slim knife's blade, a plasma conduit heated a monomolecular edge to almost 50,000 degrees while the edge vibrated at over 20,000 oscillations per second. It carved through steel like so much wet cardboard and she knew with absolute certainty it would open the APC like a tin can. The main problem with her plan was the inescapable reality that she was going to have to be in close physical contact with the vehicle to accomplish this. Probably while it was still moving.

  The aerocar descended to a rooftop landing pad and Mindy leapt from the passenger compartment before the door was fully open. The tiny blond killer sped to the edge of the building and took a graceful leap from five stories up and sailed across thirty-five feet of empty air with a drop exceeding twenty feet. She struck a covered walkway that crossed the road and took the landing with both knees braced. The experienced assassin bled the energy of the jump with a diving roll that left her in a crouching position and skidding to a halt. She imagined the folks inside the bridge would have jumped with fright at the heavy crash of her landing, but they would be none the worse for wear, and she now held a perfect position to engage her quarry. Her lithe form rose, and from her vantage point she could see all traffic going both ways from atop the span. The foot bridge took travelers safely from one corner of a crowded intersection to the other while six lanes of traffic from four directions crisscrossed and wove in and out of the busy interchange below. Complicated signals and illuminated lane markers directed the flow of vehicles in a carefully choreographed dance as they meandered through the complex maze of flashing lights and holographic signage. Mindy acknowledged this with silent professional approval. Choosing this place to make her move had not been a random choice. The combination of tight quarters and complexity made this the perfect spot for an ambush, and the fierce little killer was stacking the deck in her favor. She checked her visor for the APC’s position and sure enough, her hunter’s instincts had been perfect. The truck would pass directly underneath her perch, and at a rate of speed acceptable for her daring assault plan.

  Mindy checked Roland’s position. He was moving her way at thirty miles per hour, and would be there in eight minutes.

  Plenty of time, she grinned to herself. Mindy planned to extract Lucia prior to his arrival. She felt this was prudent since she did not trust the giant cyborg to maintain professional decorum where Lucia’s safety was concerned. A bloodbath was not something they needed here.

  Her visor blinked the proximity warning and started the countdown for her attack. She drew the dagger from her thigh sheath and thumbed the activator stud. A small smile turned the corners of her mouth as a soft hum and the smell of ozone filled the surrounding air. The dull black edge glowed a dim, faint, ghostly orange as the deadly little knife surged to life. Mindy didn’t notice. She was watching while the countdown clock in her visor ticked down to zero.

  Then she stepped of the roof of the foot bridge and dropped onto the top of the APC.

  When tiny assassin’s feet struck the roof of the truck, it made a terrible bang. The mercenaries all jumped as one and Sid screamed in terror. Lucia kept calm and continued to work on her restraints. The men had tied her up with Denti-Kuffs, and the narrow bands bit deeply into her wrists, making any attempt to break them excruciatingly painful. They were designed not to hold with durability alone as any number of augmented folks were capable of truly impressive feats of strength. These restraints responded to tensile stress by aligning interior teeth against the captive as they pulled. The harder one pulled, the sharper they got. A person would cut their own hands off before ever snapping the insidious devices.

  Lucia had figured that out on her own already and was working a different tactic now. Her sense of touch and her proprioception were as augmented as the rest of her senses, and she was oh-so-carefully twisting the restraints until they were inside out. This had taken her most of the ride up this point, and when she heard the crash of booted feet against the roof of the APC, she gave a final twist and then folded her wrists over each other, pulling the 'kuffs against each other as tightly as she could manage.

  Then she pulled. The ‘kuffs’ teeth extended as the material stretched, and Lucia ground the serrated strips against each other as hard as she could. A hundred needles of agony followed as her imperfect positioning resulted in several teeth tearing through the meat of her palms, but the restraints snapped all the same, and suddenly her hands were free.

  When the ceiling grew an orange blossom that immediately sprouted a black thorn, Lucia correctly assumed that Mindy had arrived. The mercenaries reacted to this with professional alacrity. Three bead rifles aligned their muzzles on the threat before the first cut was complete, but Lucia denied them their opportunity to shoot with a hasty surge that had her tangling the weapons in a flurry of strikes, shoves, and attempted disarms.

  The merc with the dislocated knee was out of the fight first because Lucia punched the injured joint with all her impressive strength. She did not stop to evaluate the result of her attack, but rather relied on the keening shrieks of purest agony to relay the news of its success. The second man lost his rifle when she yanked it from his startled hands and used the butt of the large weapon to bash his head into the bulkhead. He didn't go unconscious, but he fell backward against the seat when the APC lurched to a halt.

  The hatch between the driver’s compartment and the troop section burst open while Lucia was still managing the final standing mercenary. Paulie and the driver were struggling to get through the narrow opening when Mindy dropped into the back and took the whole scene in with a glance.

  Her blade hummed like a demonic wasp and the driver met his end with a black dagger through his chest. It parted the layers of his armor as if they were not there at all and opened the doomed man from sternum to clavicle. He collapsed in a gurgling fountain of blood and blocked the hatch long enough for Mindy to finish Lucia’s opponent with a stroke through the back of the neck. The tip of her blade protruded from the mercenary’s mouth for the briefest of instants and then withdrew with a practiced sweep that spattered the walls with crimson grease.

  “Leader’s yours,” Lucia barked to Mindy as the pair stood back to back in the confined space of the troop section. The man Lucia had butt-stroked was springing to his feet, and Lucia did not want to try her luck with Paulie again without her gauntlets. She sent the rising mercenary back into the wall with a front kick and then fell on him before he could rise. Her dilated perception of time allowed her to pick and choose her targets, and her surprising strength made each strike brutally effective. She pummeled any exposed flesh she could find, and before long the man's lips and teeth were a smashed and bloody mess. When he tried to push Lucia away, she grabbed his arm and twisted it hard against the elbow joint and was rewarded with a traumatic dislocation that tore a roar of pain from the man’s
ruined mouth. Unable to defend himself on that side anymore, Lucia put him to sleep with four cruel punches to the side of his jaw.

  At the other end of the compartment, Mindy and Paulie clashed in a terrifying dance. She had sliced through his raised sidearm, but he had locked her wrist in a vice-like grip and was keeping the blade far from his body.

  With their off hands, the two were striking at each other with blows so fast their arms blurred like hummingbird wings. Five or six strikes, parries, and counter strikes tore through the air between them every second. Their limbs wove complicated patterns and snapped like snakes as each tried to stun the other enough to gain an advantage.

  Lucia observed this exchange with academic detachment and pondered how to assist. She was faster than either of them, but weaker and less durable. Both of them wore armor, and she was still in her cocktail dress. There was barely enough room to stand all the way up inside the truck, let alone maneuver at high speed. She briefly considered shooting at Paulie, but loosing high-velocity ceramic beads inside a tiny, armored, and enclosed space felt like a bad idea.

  She was spared from having to make a decision when the truck lurched to one side as if struck by something huge. This was followed by the loudest most horrible screeching sound ever, deafening all of them. Mindy and Paulie both stumbled, and the little blond lost her grip on her dagger. She disengaged and tried to retrieve it, but the mercenary commander was just too fast and his knee grazed her face. She spun off to the rear and Lucia surged ahead to occupy the man while Mindy reacquired her equilibrium.

  The truck heaved again, and the back section of the troop carrier twisted and deformed as the door and its opening mechanism suddenly peeled outward, taking much of the surrounding floor with it. Giant black shoulders hunched inside and braced themselves against the ceiling. With a roar that shattered eardrums, an onyx titan planted its feet and tore the armored roof off the APC, opening the vehicle to the night sky with the shriek of tearing metal. The monster hurled two thousand pounds of steel to the side with a growl and surged into the truck.