“Hey,” Erik announced. “It’s me, the guy looking for Chetta Sukorn. I’ve come into some information that he’s here. I’m not looking for trouble. I’m just looking for him. You bring him here right now, and I’ll take off, and you’ll never have to see my ugly face again. Otherwise, there will be trouble, and trust me, you don’t want trouble from my friend and me.”
The guard glared at the MX 60 from the front of the gate. It opened, and a surge of other men stepped through, all holding their rifles at the ready.
Erik killed the loudspeaker and grabbed his TR-7 with his right hand while preparing to open the door with his left. “They don’t even know who we are. If I announced the Obsidian Detective and Lady Justice were here to knock down their gate, you think they’d surrender?”
“Honestly? I doubt it.” Jia shook her head. “Some people have committed their life’s work to poor choices.”
“Think of it more as bad luck. They just happened to grab the wrong man. I almost feel bad for them.”
“I don’t. No one forces someone to become a criminal, let alone a trafficker.”
The gangsters lined up, all aiming their guns at the MX 60. The guard from before swaggered forward, the cocky sneer on his face not doing anything for his looks.
“Get out now!” he bellowed. “If you leave in the next ten seconds, you don’t die. If you try to fly away, we’ll blow you out of the sky. That’s what you get for coming here and spitting in our faces, you arrogant bastard.”
Erik threw open his door. “You don’t want to do this. You have no idea what you’re getting into.”
“The odds are against you.” Jia opened her door. “Very much so.”
The guard gestured to the MX 60. “Get a load of these assholes. They come up to our base, and they start making demands of us.” He made an obscene gesture. “By the time we’re done with you, there’s going to be so little left, they’ll need to identify your body with DNA.”
“This guy likes to talk.” Erik flipped the TR-7’s safety off but didn’t pull it out of the vehicle. He edged out, staying behind the door. “Last chance before the pain comes.”
“Kill that asshole!” the guard shouted and fired.
The gangsters opened fire. The first volley was simultaneous, producing a roar like a great beast. The bullets bounced off the windows, body, and doors of the MX 60 in a rain of crushed metal. Jia and Erik stayed low, protected by the flitter’s armor.
“I think negotiations have broken down,” Jia shouted over the gunfire and loud alarm.
“Yeah, seems that way.” Erik grinned. “You can’t say we didn’t give them a chance.” He pulled a frag grenade out of his pocket and primed it. “Emma, the quicker you can hack their systems and find Sukorn, the better it’ll be for us.”
“Duly noted,” Emma replied. “Or you could just kill them all and take your time searching.”
“It’s a viable alternative.” Erik tossed the grenade. “Let’s get started.”
The men shouted and scattered, but it was too late. The explosion parted the men like freshly cut grass. Shrapnel shredded them, leaving a pile of mangled bodies on the ground. The scream of an alarm ripped through the air, accompanied by shouts and closing footfalls. The outline of Emma-tagged targets closed on the gates, brave but foolish reinforcements.
Jia primed a plasma grenade and hurled it toward the front gate before throwing open the back door of the MX 60 and grabbing the carryaid with the laser rifle. Erik pulled out the carryaid with the rocket launcher and slipped it over his shoulders.
The white-blue explosion of the plasma grenade consumed the newly arriving thugs before they even had a chance to scream in terror. The pair charged the open gate, bringing up their rifles. They arrived at the gate and took up position on either side. Their initial assault had annihilated the bulk of the forces near the gate, but Emma had admitted she couldn’t see inside all the buildings.
“Highlight all enemy drones in red for us,” Jia ordered. The sky lit up with red, so she ejected her magazine and put in AP rounds. Her burst downed one syndicate drone. Erik joined in, switching his TR-7 to four-barrel mode. It vomited bullets to obliterate a second drone. After a few seconds, whoever was controlling the drones figured out what was going on and started pulling them back, but not before the two invaders had destroyed the bulk of the syndicate drone fleet.
The remaining identified enemy forces clustered behind buildings near the back of the area, waiting, Jia presumed, for reinforcements. The gangsters had underestimated what two determined people could do when sufficiently motivated.
“Emma, bring your drones down low and have them broadcast something for me,” Erik ordered.
Her squadron descended. Jia waited for a turret to reveal itself and open fire, but nothing happened. They might not have been the only ones concerned about the authorities intervening. Grenades might be pushing it, as would the rocket launcher. The alarm continued to shriek.
“I’ve got good coverage of most of the grounds,” Emma announced. “You can use your PNIU to begin and end transmission. My system intrusion is proceeding well. I currently have control of the outer gates. I’m working on gaining interior camera access in all buildings.”
“Watch their movements after my announcement,” Erik suggested. He tapped his PNIU. “By now, you get that you’re under attack. I want to make this clear. We’re not with a syndicate. We don’t give two shits about what you people do to each other. We’re only here for Chetta Sukorn. Your guy Thomas Draven took him from his apartment. We don’t even want Draven. You bring Sukorn, we take him, and we leave. If we’re all lucky, you’ll never see us again. Otherwise, we’re going to go through every building until we find him, and anyone who shoots at us dies, one or every person in this place. You do the math.”
Erik and Jia darted toward the building directly behind the gate. Emma’s tactical feed didn’t indicate any enemies near their position, but there could be an army inside the buildings.
“A number of gun goblins are pulling away from near the front and heading toward a smaller building in the back,” Emma announced. “I’m sending drones closer.”
She supplied blinking arrows to point them in that direction. Erik and Jia ignored their building and sprinted, their breaths quick and ragged as they ran between the structures to get to their destination. Men emerged from the back of the main building and swept around for an ambush, but Emma’s highlights resulted in the opposite. A spray of bullets from Erik’s and Jia’s weapons cut down the men as they emerged.
“Those guys are stubborn,” Jia huffed. “You’d think they’d get that they are outmatched.”
“They see two people, and they think they can win.” Erik grinned. “Maybe we’re the crazy ones for thinking we can.”
“No. Once is a fluke. Twice is luck. After three times, it’s skill.” Jia nailed a thug between the eyes as he spun around the corner. She jerked her gun up to destroy a surviving syndicate drone that had wandered too close.
“I’ve been able to disrupt primary camera feeds for most of the buildings,” Emma reported. “But I’m accomplishing that through a trick of power. It’ll take me more time to gain camera access, and the systems in the building they are reinforcing are different.”
Erik reloaded. “Just concentrate on that building and watch our backs with the drones. If we could find Sukorn on a camera, it’d help.”
“It might not be Sukorn in there,” Jia suggested. “It could just be they’re guarding their boss.”
“Works either way. I bet their boss knows where Sukorn is.” Erik jogged forward. “If I shove the barrel of the TR-7 next to his head and ask him politely, I believe he’ll tell us.”
“Warning,” Emma announced. “They’re deploying an armored hovercar from a back garage.” She highlighted the vehicle in green. “It is equipped with a heavy machine gun.”
Jia shouldered her rifle and dropped to one knee, then yanked the laser rifle off her carryaid. She ac
tivated the tripod and let the legs thud to the ground. Taking a deep breath, she lined up the rifle in the general direction of the approaching hovercar. There wasn’t a huge amount of space between the buildings and it wasn’t a flitter, meaning it was easy to pick out its approach angle.
“Eager, aren’t we?” Erik announced. No syndicate gunmen remained near their position, but he kept this TR-7 ready, sweeping the area in case someone popped out of a building and took a shot.
The roar of a loud machine gun split the air and tracer rounds lit up the sky, followed by two explosions in the distance. A shower of small dark pieces followed. More gunfire sounded, some of the rounds from rifles.
“I lost two drones to their new toy,” Emma reported. “I’m having to make more aggressive defensive maneuvers and fly lower to avoid losing more. I’m also taking my main body off the ground to avoid potential missile, rocket, or directed energy attacks.”
“They figured it out, huh?” Erik chuckled. “See if you can keep low and get any decent sensor scans of the building they’re reinforcing, but if you can’t, just pull back. We’ll handle the car.”
The green outline of the car grew closer, and its heavy machine gun fell silent. They’d gotten tired of taking down drones.
“We could try EMPing it,” Erik commented.
“And take the chance it’s hardened?” Jia flexed her trigger finger and licked her lips. “I’d rather just take it out with our toys.” She pressed a button on the side of the laser rifle to interface with her smart lenses
Erik reached into his pocket and pulled out an AP magazine, then ejected his current magazine and inserted the new one before flipping his gun to four-barrel mode. “I guess we’ll see how far we can go before the locals show up.”
“Wait for it,” Jia murmured. “Wait…for…it.”
The hum of the hovercar preceded its arrival. The rest of the facility was eerily silent, with no further alarms, no yelling, no stray gunshots.
Jia zoomed in on the approaching vehicle. To her surprise, they were coasting along slowly rather than charging, but the heavy machine gun at the top wasn’t pointed in the air anymore. She aimed the laser rifle at the machine gun.
“Taking my first shot in three, two, one,” Jia announced and pulled the trigger. The invisible beam did its work, melting half the barrel of the enemy’s gun. Erik held down his trigger, the TR-7 screaming in Jia’s left ear. She took another shot that severed what was left of the machine gun from its base and it skittered off the vehicle.
The hovercar accelerated, the driver now understanding the true threat. Jia held her breath and aimed at the darkened windshield on the driver's side, then pulled the trigger again and blasted a hole through the window and the chest of the driver. The car swung to the side and smashed into the side of a building, the front crumpling. Jia lined up another shot and blasted through the engine. No reason to risk an unpleasant surprise. She fired again, draining the cell to blow a hole through the back.
Jia blew out a breath and grunted as she picked up the laser rifle and slotted it back onto her carryaid. “That was fu—”
A harsh buzz echoed around them. Jia’s heart rate sped up. She recognized the sound, even if it’d been a while since she’d last heard it.
“Is that a containment field, Emma?” Erik asked with a frown.
“Yes. They’ve expanded it around the building they reinforced,” she reported.
“How is your hacking going?”
“The containment field has disrupted my immediate access to that building, so I’m going back to the general facility,” Emma replied.
Jia gritted her teeth. They were close now, but the longer they took, the more chance the syndicate would send reinforcements. For all they knew, they could be taking Sukorn away through an underground tunnel.
“They have to power that thing.” Jia turned her head, catching a hint of blue past one of the buildings. “If you kill the power to the entire facility, they won’t be able to put the containment field back up with emergency power immediately.”
“There could be a very narrow window, Jia,” Emma noted.
“That’s fine. We’ll head there, and you get ready to bring it down. If they throw it back up when we’re inside, we’ll just convince them to bring it down, or cranial ventilation will commence.”
Erik eyed her. Cranial ventilation will commence?
Emma broke into his thoughts. “Much greater numbers of enemies are now emerging from the buildings and setting up on the way. They seem to understand where you’re going.”
“Any Tin Men that you can detect?” Erik asked.
“No, they all seem to be standard gun goblins with rifles,” she reported.
“Yeah, definitely not Talos hiding something.” Erik looked at Jia. “I say we just push our way through.”
Jia pulled her assault rifle off her shoulder and flipped off the safety. “They should have just given us Sukorn.”
Chapter Fifty-Three
Two thugs screamed as Erik and Jia charged around a corner and gunned them down. Survivors hiding by a corner returned fire.
Erik grunted as bullets struck his vest. They stung. He’d survive his bruises, but the syndicate enforcers couldn’t survive his headshots. Jia laid down suppressive fire, her face a mask of calm and focus.
He took the opportunity to toss another grenade. The enemy sprang out, making them easy victims of Jia’s bursts. The exploding grenade took out the last man. Emma’s tactical feed confirmed the immediate area was clear, but a small army awaited them around the corner past the next building.
Erik glanced at Jia, who grimaced. There were now small dents in her vest. If they hadn’t brought protection, they both might be on the ground bleeding out. He hoped his next major raid involved his requested exoskeletons.
Jia pulled out a plasma grenade. “You have any left?”
Erik retrieved a frag grenade. “This is my last one.”
“Sweep around from both sides, toss, and shoot,” Jia suggested.
“It’d take too long, and they might get the same idea while we’re doing it.” Erik tossed his grenade into his left hand. “I’ll show you how I can cheat at sports if I want. Emma, give me a view of the space between the buildings.”
She sent a small feed to the corner of his smart lenses, and he nodded.
“Yeah, I can bank this thing.” Erik let out a dark chuckle. “It won’t hit a lot of them, but it’ll get their attention. Then you toss yours, and we’ll waste whoever’s left.”
“Sounds like a plan.” Jia took a deep breath. “How are you doing on their power?”
“I’m almost there,” Emma reported.
The pair jogged forward, slowing as they approached the corner of the building. Red highlights filled their smart lenses, representing all the men around the corner lined up in the narrow space between the buildings, ready and willing to kill them.
Erik was impressed. He’d fought insurrectionists with less discipline than these syndicate gangsters.
He understood now how they’d managed to last on Mars.
They arrived at the corner. He tapped a few commands into his PNIU for an assist, and Erik brought back his left arm. He sidestepped and brought his arm forward, experiencing the strange disconnect where he was both moving his arm and it was moving on its own. He released the grenade, and it hurtled toward the exposed walls. The grenade struck and bounced off at a perfect angle, sending it deeper into the narrow space. Gunshots rang out, along with shouts. The men tried to scatter, some tripping over the others as the grenade exploded.
Erik swung around the corner and loosed a burst with the TR-7, nailing a flailing gangster. Jia tossed her grenade and then yanked down her rifle to fire. The bright explosion blasted a smoking hole in the side of one of the buildings, which proved to be enough for the syndicate men. They dropped their weapons and ran away. He couldn’t blame them. It wasn’t cowardice to run from certain death.
Jia and Erik held fire
. They weren’t there to wipe out the syndicate. They were there to rescue Sukorn. Any gangster who understood he was outmatched was smart enough to be rewarded with another day alive.
The thick smoke partially obscured the blue dome of energy surrounding a short, extremely narrow building in the distance. The fleeing gangsters turned away from the building once they cleared the narrow kill zone.
Whoever was running the syndicate was less frightening to them than the two deadly invaders. Erik looked back and forth. Every red highlight he could see overlaid on a wall moved steadily away, the men pumping their arms and legs.
“Some of the gun goblins are escaping toward a parking lot toward the back of the garage,” Emma reported. “None of the other vehicles appear to be armed. The remaining men are heading toward the front. I’ve made a few passes near the target building. Despite the interference of the containment field, I can detect density differences that suggest a subterranean level. I’m almost ready to kill power. In addition, I’ve gained camera access to the rest of the compound, and I can’t find Agent Sukorn in any of those other buildings. There are a few other gun goblins, and I believe their superiors, but they appear to be engaged in a furious attempt to delete data or transfer it to rods.”
“Do you see anyone who looks like a prisoner?” Jia asked. “Other than Sukorn. If these people are traffickers, I don’t want to leave innocent people behind.”
“I don’t see anyone who appears to be a prisoner,” Emma reported.
Erik and Jia advanced on the containment field, the buzz growing louder with each step. If they tried to charge through it without protection, they’d end up stunned and easy pickings for whatever brave men remained to defend the Dome Society base.
“Any cops coming?” Erik asked.
“There are no drones or vehicles heading this way,” Emma replied. “You have plenty of time to kill more gun goblins.”
“That’s handy.” Erik squinted, trying to examine the building behind the field more closely. A thick, reinforced door covered the front entrance. “Is that the only way in?”
Maelstrom of Treason Page 37