‘Good. I think you all better go and get some rest and prepare for tonight’s mission,’ William said.
‘Will do, boss,’ she smiled at him and went with her team back to their living quarters.
Later that afternoon, Frankie saw Gibson sitting on the sofa, tapping away on his data pad. She’d been wondering how he would be feeling knowing they would be infiltrating back into the main Psytech building tonight, but this was the first moment she had seen him to speak to. So she walked over and set herself down on the sofa beside him.
‘How you doing?’ she asked.
Gibson closed his pad down and slid it into his pocket. ‘Yeah, good, thanks. You?’
‘Yeah, you know. Not too bad.’
‘Good. I think the two raids we’ve done so far went really well. I think we might actually be able to do this,’ he said.
‘Heh, yeah. I know, right. This whole thing has been crazy. It all sounded like such a long shot, such a mad-cap plan when Xenox first suggested it, and we were chasing that lead in America. I thought we’d never find Janus,’ she said.
‘It was always going to be something like that, though. Some long shot of a plan that had a high risk of failure before it even really got started. I’m surprised we’ve made it this far along, to be honest,’ Gibson mused.
‘I know, right? I was thinking the exact same thing the other day. Have you been down to see Janus at all? See how he’s doing? With Zhou and the data, we brought in?’
‘No, have you?’
‘Nope. I have no idea about all that. Better to leave it to the experts, I think,’ she said.
‘Yeah, I agree.’
‘How are you feeling about tonight, going back to Psytech?’ she asked.
Gibson smiled, but it was an uncomfortable looking expression that betrayed his thoughts and feelings on the subject. Frankie knew he would be having some conflicting thoughts on this, and she’d be lying if she said she wasn’t a little concerned about him going “off mission” while in the Psytech building.
‘I know what you’re referring to, obviously. But, seriously, don’t worry. I won’t be disappearing off to hunt for my wife and kid. I might be having some nerves about it, but you can count on me, Frankie.’
She looked him in the eyes for a second, holding his gaze with her own, looking for any signs of dishonesty, but saw none. ‘I trust you, Gibson. Out of everyone here in this team, I feel I know you best and can trust you the most. You’ve been there for me from the start and went above and beyond for me when really, you had no need to. I know I can count on you.’
Ω
Frankie grabbed the door on the side of the van, ready to close it and caught Dion’s eye as he looked at her from the terminal he sat behind.
‘Good luck,’ he said.
Frankie smiled at him. ‘We’ll see you back here soon, Dion,’ she said.
Dion nodded as Frankie closed the door and turned to Gibson, who was dressed in the same, ill-fitting, orange workman’s overalls that she was. Cole, Veronica, and Kalypso stood behind him, wearing the same clothes, in front of the vast edifice of the Psytech headquarters. The monolithic building was awe inspiring from this vantage point at the base of the tower. It stretched up into the sky, through elevated highways and pedestrian platforms, up higher than she could actually see. There must be tens of thousands of people within the massive building, it was almost like a city unto itself.
Their van was parked inside an open air parking area at the base of the building and sat amidst other service vehicles. They had already passed through the security gate to get in here, but, to be fair, they only glanced at the ID cards they showed. There were hundreds of cars in here and a large number of people moving about, going about their business.
‘Okay, which way?’ Frankie asked Gibson.
‘Our entrance is down here,’ he said, and led them through the parking lot, along a walkway, and eventually down a ramp towards a service entrance that led under the building. There was a large set of shutters up ahead that were closed for the moment, and a communication point just next to it. Frankie listened as Gibson walked up to it and pressed the button.
‘Hey, how can I help you?’ said a voice on the intercom.
‘Hey, man, we’re from the London City Drainage Department, we’re here to sort out that sewage problem,’ Gibson said.
‘Oh, hang on. I thought that was booked for next week?’
Frankie glanced over, hearing the challenge from the security team and hoping Gibson could handle it.
‘Yeah, it was, but we had a job get moved and we had the parts in, so we came down to get it done now. I can go back and tell them you said no, but that would incur extra expenses for your boss and piss off mine, so, I’d rather just get it done and save everyone the extra hassle. Up to you, though,’ he said, shrugging at the camera that was pointed at him. Frankie smiled, he was a good actor.
‘Aaah, all right, go and get it done,’ the voice said, and the shutter started to slide up into the roof.
‘Cheers, man,’ Gibson said and rejoined Frankie and the others. ‘Okay, let’s go.’
They walked inside and found themselves in an underground car park and service area. There were large cargo elevators in here, a few people unloading a van nearby, and some doors leading who knew where.
‘You the maintenance guys?’ said a man to their left. Frankie looked over and saw a slightly overweight security man leaving his office door with a data pad in hand walking over to them.
‘That’s us,’ Gibson said, stepping forward. Frankie has insisted on Gibson being the one to talk to everyone on the way in. She felt he would be the most convincing of them all in that role. He hadn’t protested at the nomination and was taking to it with enthusiasm.
‘You’re this way, follow me,’ the man said and waited for them to walk over before he led them to an elevator. ‘You’re two floors down. Here, let me give you a map,’ he said, holding his datapad in front of him. Gibson pulled his out and tapped a button. The guard swiped on the screen of his pad, and the map that was displayed there suddenly appeared on Gibson’s pad.
‘Thanks,’ Gibson said.
‘I’ve marked the places where we have the leaks on the map. It should be obvious when you get down there,’ he said.
‘You’re not coming with us?’ Cole asked.
‘Can’t. Got too much going on up here to waste three hours following you around. I’ll pop down in an hour and check on you, though. How long do you think it will take?’
‘Oh, a few hours, I think. No need to rush down to us if you’re busy,’ Gibson said. ‘I can message you updates, if you like. Keep you informed of our progress?’
‘That would be great. Here’s my number,’ he said, swiping his pad again.
‘Thanks,’ Gibson said as they boarded the lift down.
While the elevator descended, Gibson tapped away on his pad, refusing to be interrupted. They waited on the lower floor by the elevator door after they exited it for Gibson to finish what he was doing, and, eventually, he closed his pad and put it back in his pocket.
‘What was that?’ Frankie asked.
‘I’ve scheduled a message every forty-five minutes to him about our “progress”, so we shouldn’t have to worry about him for a while,’ Gibson said.
‘Good thinking,’ Kalypso said.
With that, they set off down the corridor, Gibson leading the way again. Frankie had read the mission briefing they had been given by William, which had come through the intelligence links they now had. They couldn’t reach the elevators they needed in this part of the building, so they would need to drop into the sewers and drainage pipes beneath to move to another part of the building, which would avoid security. From there, Brenna was a lift ride away. It all looked way too easy, to be honest, and the whole thing could fall apart so quickly if they weren’t careful.
Still, Frankie trusted that William knew what he was doing and hoped that his research was accurate.
‘Hey, hey, come here,’ Frankie said and moved in front of the grate as Gibson stepped away. She gripped the bars and gave it a pull. It shifted but was more securely stuck in place than she had anticipated. Frankie shifted her position, planted her feet more firmly, and gave another, bigger yank. It took a couple of seconds, but it suddenly gave way with a loud scraping of metal on metal.
Within moments, the team had pulled out weapons from their tool boxes and the wheeled cart they were pushing and had dropped down through the hole to a ledge beside a river of dirty stinking water and sewage.
‘That smells lovely,’ Veronica commented.
‘Just don’t fall in it,’ Gibson added.
‘Right, you’d never get the smell out then, would you,’ Veronica said.
Frankie took the lead, moving through the tunnels of the sewers, following a map they had been able to find that she now had displayed in her vision with their location marked on it.
They had a few turns to make, but it wasn’t far. They had been warned there were security patrols down here, though, so Frankie kept her weapon up and ready, moving quietly and watching all the branch tunnels.
Frankie followed her map, taking the next right turn, being careful to avoid stepping in some of the less savoury bits of detritus on the ledges they were walking along. She’d already seen countless cockroaches skittering about, as well as a few rats, including a few dead ones being eaten by crawling white maggots.
It was dark down here, with just the occasional light hanging from the roof of the tunnels to light up a few key junctions. Otherwise, they were using their own lights or night vision.
Continuing on down the current tunnel, it suddenly opened up into a huge room, rising at least three stories up above them with large side tunnels opening out into it with waterfalls of brown sewage falling into the large body of water at the bottom another two stories down. Walkways and gantries crossed the room above and below them while some lights scattered about the room gave it a murky atmosphere. Even so, it was the brightest section they had been in, and Frankie was able to switch back to her normal vision for the first time down here and still see the whole room.
‘Wow, for a smelly shit hole, that’s kind of impressive,’ Cole said through the group’s neural link.
‘Still stinks, though,’ Veronica commented.
‘It’s all about the smell with you, isn’t it,’ Gibson said to her.
‘Hell yeah. Look, what can I say, I have a sensitive nose,’ Veronica answered him.
‘I’ll say,’ Gibson said. ‘She’s like a bloodhound, this one. She can almost smell danger.’
‘Not down here, though, jeez. It’ll take me a week to get rid of this smell.’
Frankie wasn’t listening, though. Instead, she watched the room. She felt sure she’d heard something, so she muted the link channel and concentrated.
Sure enough, she could hear footsteps on metal coming from higher up in the room. Looking up, she saw two doll’s walk out of a side tunnel and onto a gantry that crossed the room above them. Frankie opened the link channel again.
‘Quiet, get back,’ she hissed through the link and pushed her team back into the tunnel entrance. The chatter on the channel stopped as everyone looked up to the dolls as they hid in the shadows.
‘Did they see us?’ Veronica asked through the link.
‘Don’t think so. As long as they don’t use their thermal vision, we’re good,’ Frankie said.
‘You’re saying you didn’t smell them, Vi?’ Gibson said.
‘Piss off,’ Veronica hissed back.
Frankie watched as the pair of dolls walked out into the middle of the room and stopped.
‘What are they doing?’ Veronica asked.
‘Guarding the room at a guess,’ Kalypso answered her.
‘We can’t stay here long; we’ll have to take them out if they don’t move,’ Frankie said.
‘How long do we wait?’ Gibson asked.
‘Let’s give it ten minutes,’ Frankie said.
‘Sure,’ Gibson said as the team moved quietly back into the tunnel.
‘So, what do we do while we wait?’ Veronica asked.
‘Anyone got any cards? We could play some Poker or something?’
‘In a sewer tunnel?’ Veronica asked.
‘Why not?’ Gibson answered, challenging her.
‘Next thing, he’ll be suggesting Strip Poker,’ Veronica said to Kalypso.
‘Oh, really?’ Kalypso said.
‘Nothing wrong with some healthy adult fun, that’s what I say,’ Gibson laughed.
Frankie listened to her team's banter and smiled, she felt happy that they were all getting along as well as they were. They were still a relatively new team, with Cole and Kalypso only having been with them for a few days. Of course, Veronica and Gibson had been working together for a year before she had become a cyborg, so, they had a working relationship already, and they were frequently chatting about nothing in particular, just trading some friendly insults back and forth. Frankie enjoyed listening to it. She kind of envied their relaxed friendship and hoped she could have that with all of her team one day.
For now, though, they were on a mission and had a small problem to deal with.
Frankie stayed near to the tunnel entrance and kept an eye on the pair of dolls up on the gantry above them. They’d been there for over five minutes now and were showing no signs of wanting to move on. If anything, they had settled into a routine.
‘Any change?’ Cole said through the link from just behind her.
She looked back at him. ‘No, they’re still there, and it looks like they’re not moving,’ she said.
‘So, we need to take them out, I guess?’
‘Looks that way. With some carefully placed shots, we should be able to do it without issue. There’s practically no signal down here, so, providing we get both, we should be all right. Inform the others of the plan; let’s get this done,’ she said.
Cole merely nodded and went back to talk to the others.
Frankie stayed where she was and watched the dolls for any change in their routine, but saw none.
She figured the best thing was to try and snipe them both from here, take them by surprise. After a few more seconds, Gibson and the others were all up next to her.
‘So, what’s the plan?’ Gibson asked.
‘Veronica and I will attempt to take them out from here. A head shot each should do it,’ Frankie suggested.
‘Okay, let’s do it,’ Veronica said and moved up. She took a knee next to Frankie and settled herself into aiming up at the dolls. Frankie remained standing next to her and aimed her own rifle up there as well.
‘I’ve got the right hand one,’ Frankie said.
‘I’m on the left,’ Veronica said.
‘Say when you’re ready,’ Frankie sent through the link, and waited calmly for Veronica.
With her eye to the scope on top of her rifle, Frankie tracked the doll, keeping the crosshairs centred on the doll’s head to the best of her ability. Thinking back to when she was purely organic, she doubted she would have been able to do this. Just the weight of the gun alone would have been too much for her. Her human muscles would have been shaking by now, but with her cyborg body, she could hold the gun rock steady and track the doll smoothly and calmly. The doll’s movements did throw her occasionally when it suddenly changed direction, and she had to re-acquire her target, but she felt pretty good about her abilities with a gun now.
‘Ready,’ Veronica said.
‘Three, two, one… Fire!’ Frankie sent through their link.
She knew she’d missed the second she pulled the trigger. The doll had chosen that exact second to change its patrol routine and turn when she had least expected it. He
r doll had been right next to Veronica’s when she had called fire. She watched the other dolls head explode in a shower of circuitry and wires to one side of her cross hairs. At least Veronica’s shot had hit its mark, she thought.
‘Shit,’ she cursed as she tried to get the doll back in her sights, but it was moving erratically now, ducking for cover as it assessed the situation before suddenly breaking right and running for the safety of the tunnel in the wall. Veronica and Frankie both fired at it, but their shots went wide or pinged off the android’s armour.
Frankie dropped her rifle to the walkway floor and sprinted from the tunnel they had hidden in, she crossed the elevated walkway, dropped into a crouch and leapt with all her might for the gantry above. She reached it without issue, taking hold of the railing and dropping onto the doll’s catwalk next to the first destroyed android.
Frankie sprinted right and could see the doll up ahead. She pulled out her sidearm and ran for the tunnel. She was quick, probably quicker than the doll, but with the lead it had, there was a good chance of it taking a turn and her losing it. While she had it in her sights, she raised her gun with both hands and did her best to aim and fire at the robot.
Her first two shots went wide, due to a mixture of her own movement and the doll’s, but her third found its mark and slammed into the doll’s back.
The doll dropped to the floor of the walkway it was on and attempted at raise itself up, but its arms were twitching and apparently not able to carry the weight of the thing anymore. She must have hit something vital.
Frankie didn’t slow down until she was right next to it, and aimed her gun at the doll.
‘Intruder alert. Trespassers will be prosecuted. Please report to the nearest… zzzt…zzzt. Doll will shut down momentarily. Please proceed with mission. No transmissions have been made from this unit,’ it said.
Frankie cocked her head to one side. ‘What?’ she whispered. That almost sounded like a message to her. As she watched, the doll juddered once more before dropping silent and collapsing to the floor.
Frankie prodded the thing with her toe, pushing it, but it didn’t respond.
Promethean Files 2: The Prometheus Gambit Page 18