Suddenly the lock clicked open. Frankie wasted no time and opened the door just as the security team fired on them again, peppering the area they had been stood in moments before. Frankie shut the door and locked it with another command into the Net.
‘Frankie? Is that you?’ said a somewhat familiar voice behind her. She turned to see Doctor Xenox handcuffed to what looked like a hospital stretcher.
‘Huh, yeah, it’s me, we’re getting out of here,’ she said as she walked up to him, feeling annoyed at the Doctor all of a sudden.
‘You look magnificent…’ he began.
Frankie raised a finger to silence him. ‘Don’t.’
‘No problem. Who’s this guy?’ the Doctor asked.
‘His names Gibson, he’s a friend, but right now we have more pressing concerns, we have to leave,’ she said. Xenox leant forward as she reached him, hope and happiness on his face, but Frankie wanted to make her position clear.
She slapped him across the face.
‘Ow. What the hell?’ Xenox yelled.
‘Don’t think I’ve forgiven you for that you have done to me,’ she barked. Taking hold of his closest wrist with one hand, she pulled the chain tight and placed the muzzle of the gun up against it. With a single gunshot, the chain broke. She repeated the process on the other side.
‘I’m doing this because I need you. If I’m going to be stuck in this body for the foreseeable, then I’m going to need you, aren’t I?’
‘I suppose so,’ Xenox said, cautiously.
‘Then you’re no good to me in here. We’re leaving,’ Frankie said.
‘And just how do you plan on doing that?’ the Doctor asked, rubbing his wrists.
‘Like this,’ she said, pointing out the window as the flyer that had brought them here descended into view, it’s rear hatch swinging open.
She had sent a message to the flyer on entering the room. Leaving by going back out into that corridor was no longer an option in her opinion, so she’d had to improvise.
As she looked upon the faces of her companions, she saw their expressions drop from happy surprise to horror. Getting a sinking feeling all of a sudden, she turned and looked back out the window just in time to see two missiles, contrails arcing back to a second flyer nearby, streak through the air and score direct hits on the flyer she controlled.
Two orange explosions blossomed from their flyer like flowers made of flame as it pitched and banked around trying to stay aloft.
Frankie watched it fall out of sight and took a deep, but unneeded breath as the bottom fell out of her plan.
‘Well, now what do we do?’ Gibson asked.
1.10
The Doctor turned and looked at her with an expectant expression on his face. She looked back at him, keeping her features neutral, waiting to see how he reacted to this latest setback.
But the Doctor just smiled at her, and she knew he had total confidence in her abilities. She wasn’t sure this was based on anything other than his love for his creation, her body, than in any real faith in her as a person, but, she’d be lying if she said she hadn’t thought of a contingency plan.
‘You have a backup plan, don’t you Frankie?’ he said.
‘I suppose so,’ she said, turning to look at the door into the room, knowing they would have to go back through the building.
Frankie focused on the video feed from the corridor outside and watched the Security team of four men stood outside. They moved into position, two on either side and were swapping hand signals and pointing at the door. They would be breaching it at any moment.
‘You two, get behind there,’ she pointed to the bed that the Doctor had been laid on. ‘Gibson, give me covering fire, watch my back,’ she said as she approached the door. Outside, the Corporation flyer turned on its spotlight and shone it into the building, hunting them.
She could see in the video feed as one of the guards placed a charge on the door before they all shielded themselves from the blast, turning away from it, with guns ready.
After a surprisingly loud explosion, the door flew off its hinges and clattered to the floor, a huge cloud of dust kicked up behind it. Frankie ran forward, her enhanced vision cutting through the smoke, showing her where her opponents were as they moved into the room. She fired at the first one. He was little more than a digital outline in the heads up display in her vision, but she saw him stagger as she put a couple of rounds into his chest. She followed it up with a kick to his sternum, sending him falling backwards into the man behind him, both of them falling to the floor in a heap.
The two who remained standing twisted towards her, doing their best to spot her through the thinning dust cloud, but Frankie had no intention of making this easy on them.
She ran forward towards the one stood in the doorway, pointing herself to the wall next to him while aiming her rifle at the man to her left. As she took her first two steps up the wall, she fired off two rounds at the left-hand figure, dropping him quickly, before she launched off the wall with a kick to the head of the last man. She heard his neck crack with the force of her attack.
She landed and took a breath, only to hear a gunshot from close-by. She flinched, expecting to be hit by the bullet, but instead she heard a yelp from closer still.
As the dust cloud faded, she saw Gibson stood nearby, his rifle up and pointing at the now dead guard who had fallen on top of the first one she had kicked over. She looked back at Gibson, her mouth open in slight surprise.
‘You’re welcome,’ he smiled.
‘Thanks, man,’ she said.
‘Wonderful, simply wonderful. It’s a joy to see you in action like that,’ the Doctor said.
‘As great as you think it is, we have no time to lose, let’s go,’ she said, reloading her gun using the extra magazine’s she found on the fallen guards and picking up a few grenades as well.
Gibson also picked up some extra ammunition and stuffed them in his pockets.
‘Ready,’ he said.
Frankie raised her gun and walked to the door, Gibson beside her. They peeked around the corner, one looking each way, making sure the coast was clear.
‘Okay, we’re good, this way,’ she said and led them down the hallway, Xenox behind her and Gibson following, watching their rear.
Having that flyer shot down was always a possibility, especially now that the building knew they were here. It only made sense for them to launch air support of their own to limit escape routes.
It would be impossible to plan for all eventualities, but the new knowledge and skills she had discovered in this new body turned her into a better tactician than she had ever been before. At this point, she was kind of winging it and hoping for the best, with a goal of getting as far down the building as she could and as close to the ground floor as possible so they could find some way out of here.
To that end, the lifts were probably her best option, but, she’d need to be clever about it. Just jumping in a lift would more than likely be a recipe for disaster.
Frankie continued to use the map and the feed from the cameras to track the security on this floor, most of which was heading for the Doctors room, correctly guessing that he was the target.
But, they had already left that room and were on their way to the lift shafts. If she could keep one step ahead of them, they might just make it out of here alive.
As she moved, ducking through side corridors and offices, usually surprising their occupants, she issued commands into the buildings net, doing her best to sidestep the cyber security measures that Psytech were putting into place to lock her out. It wouldn’t be long now before they kicked her out altogether. It seemed like they had been shoring up the defences of their more sensitive data, incorrectly thinking she was here to steal some of their experimental projects. She didn’t want to deprive them of that misconception though and even launched a few basic hacking programs at their high-level data storage servers to keep the bluff going.
It kept the cyber security busy and le
ft the systems she did want access to more vulnerable.
But it wouldn’t last. Psytech appeared to be getting wise to her and what she was doing, so she needed to get clever.
One area she needed to use some misdirection on was in their escape through the lifts, so she launched an attack on the main lift control center and proceeded to take control of them, raising all the lifts to random floors above them.
‘Where are we going Frankie?’ Gibson asked.
‘I have a plan. Kind of…’
‘It looks like we’re going back to the elevators. Are you sure that’s a good idea?’
‘Trust me on this okay,’ she said as they neared her destination.
‘Whether I do or don’t is irrelevant isn’t it, we have to get out of here so, if you have a plan, then I am in your hands, as I got nothing. But if you’d like to share that plan with the group sometime…’
Frankie smiled back at her partner in crime, ‘I’ll get us out of this, don’t worry,’ she said. She had no idea if that was true, but it was certainly her intention, and she would die trying.
They cut through a few offices and closed in on the elevator doors from what they hoped would be an unexpected angle allowing them to get closer while remaining unseen for longer than using the corridors would.
Frankie crouched down beside a door in an otherwise unoccupied office and waited for the Doctor and Gibson to join her. She glanced at her video feed and checked on the corridor outside. There were four guards out here, two in either direction. As she double checked what she saw, she noticed the feed glitching slightly and saw more red icons in her display. It was looking like Psytech were fighting their way past her defences. They didn’t have long.
Frankie kept low and moved to the other side of the door.
‘Two that way, and two that way,’ she whispered, pointing with her free hand as she spoke. ‘You take those, I’ll take these, she finished.
‘Understood, Gibson replied.
Frankie held up three fingers, and dropped one at a time, indicating a countdown. As the last finger fell, Frankie rose and went through the door as quick as she could, her gun up and pointing down the corridor at the two guards on the left side and trusting that Gibson would do the same in the other direction and keep her safe.
She fired off two rounds, one for each guard and dropped them both to the carpeted floor of the corridor where they started to bleed out.
Frankie heard Gibson’s gunshots behind her and spun around, dropping to one knee as she did so and aimed up the corridor. But the Detective had come through for her, and both security guards were on the floor in pain, but still alive.
‘Come on,’ she said and walked over to the nearest set of four elevator doors.
As she neared them, she issued commands into the control center, causing the doors to open, revealing empty vertical shafts of darkness.
‘What are you doing Frankie?’ Gibson asked.
‘Getting us out of here,’ she answered almost on auto pilot. Her focus was on the plan at hand. She pulled out two grenades and held one in each hand.
‘Come here, stand on either side of me, quickly,’ she said, her tone indicating this was an order rather than a request or suggestion.
The two men did as she asked as she issued a new command to the elevator cars and dropped the grenades. Two seconds later the small canisters she had dropped issued a loud pop and smoke burst from them, filling the corridor in a matter of seconds.
Frankie grabbed both men around the waist and hoisted them up off the floor with her enhanced strength as the elevator cars dropped past the open doorways without stopping. Frankie moved quickly, taking a few steps forward using the 3D map of the environment she had created to guide her as she jumped through the open lift door and dropped down onto the top of one of the elevator cars below with a heavy bang.
She let the two guys down to find their footing as she told the doors she had opened to close behind them while they rode the lift down the building.
‘Holy crap that was bad ass,’ Gibson said.
‘You continue to impress,’ Xenox smiled, a look of smug satisfaction on his face.
‘As much as I hate to admit it, most of this is your doing. I couldn’t do, or even think of half the things I have just done without the work you put into this body,’ Frankie admitted. It felt wrong to complement such a callous person in that way, but the fact of it was undeniable.
‘You like it, don’t you,’ Xenox goaded her.
Frankie looked at him, narrowing her eyes, not wanting to heap more praise on him at this time. He was insufferable enough as he was without her feeding his ego any further.
‘Frankie, what’s next, where do we get off?’ Gibson asked, interrupting her thoughts.
‘One moment,’ she said, and checked the lifts progress, they were getting close. ‘I’ve got all the elevators in the entire building copying this one. They’ve moving in unison to throw off anyone watching. The smoke up there was for the same reason. In a moment, the lifts will slow, I’ll pick you up again, and we’ll jump out. I’ve opened doors all over, so hopefully we’ll have lost them for a short time at least. Come here; we’re nearly there,’ she said and picked up the two men once again.
She crouched, paused, and with an almighty leap, jumped forward at the wall. But she’d timed it perfectly and sailed through a set of opened doors as the lift sank past them, landing on solid concrete with a crunch.
The men grunted at the landing as she let them loose where she had hit the floor. She had ended up on one knee and rose up to a standing position, feeling unhurt and undamaged.
Again, this new body continued to impress her. She had used what information she still had access to, to try and choose a floor that housed vehicles, a garage level that had access to the road network. Looking around her, things seemed to be going her away again as everywhere she looked were unmarked, large, boxy looking vans. They all looked very similar, so she guessed they were Psytech owned.
‘Come on,’ she said and walked briskly over to one of the nearest ones. She couldn’t see anyone about but could hear vehicles moving in the distance, their tyres squealing as they moved about the tight confines of this garage.
The men followed her. She tried the door to the van, but it was locked, somewhat predictably.
Concentrating on the job at hand, her readout showed her the Van’s wireless access port and its connection to the Psytech Net. So she hacked it from this side, rather than going through the buildings Intranet, which might draw more attention to them, and within moments, the doors unlocked, and the van started up by itself.
‘I’ll drive,’ Gibson called. Frankie saw no issue with that. It would mean she could concentrate on the hacking side of things anyway, so she climbed into one of the passenger seats, Xenox following suit and Gibson getting behind the wheel.
As Gibson revved the van and pulled out into the vehicle lane, Frankie concentrated and changed the access code to the van, disconnecting it from Psytech’s control.
‘Straight to the exit right?’ Gibson asked.
‘The nearest one yes. Take the next right and follow the signs, Frankie said, looking at her newly found map of the garage.
With the buildings cyber security closing in around her, she found she had suddenly lost control of the elevators, much to her amusement as they turned and saw the exit up ahead.
Frankie focused her last remaining avenues for hacking on accessing the security for the checkpoint up ahead and saw the building's security were running some subroutines that she knew would raise the metal posts and lower the garage door before they made their escape. Frankie hacked in but found herself immediately countered. She couldn’t control the security here, but she could delay it. Pushing hard, she ran some hacks into the control center and delayed the implementation of their stronger security measures.
Frankie opened her eyes and saw the guards on duty were forming up and raising their weapons.
Frankie copie
d her compatriots and ducked out of sight as much as she could as the guards opened fire, spraying the front of the van with bullets.
Luckily, as she’d hoped and suspected, the windshield appeared to be bullet proof, and the small calibre rounds simply bounced off the front as the van smashed through the lowered barrier as if it wasn’t there at all. Barrelling up the ramp and out of the building they careered onto the road and into traffic that sounded their horns at them in disgust at their driving.
‘Sorry, sorry, let me through, gotta go…’ Gibson said to no one as he sped through the cars on the highway, dodging and weaving through the gaps.
‘Holy shit, we made it, I can’t believe it,’ Frankie said, feeling a huge smile grow on her face, and not a moment too soon as well as the Buildings systems finally booted her from the system.
‘We’re not out of the woods yet,’ Gibson said.
‘They will not let us leave so easily,’ the Doctor warned.
‘You call that easy?’ Frankie asked.
‘Of course not, but they will not give up the chase just because you’re outside their building,’ the Doctor explained.
‘He’s right,’ Gibson interjected. ‘I think we have company.’
‘What?’ Frankie asked.
‘Behind us, coming in hot,’ Gibson exclaimed.
Frankie looked into the side mirror and moved her head about until she spotted the familiar foreboding shape of the Corporation flyer that had shot down theirs a short time ago.
‘Shit, don’t these guys ever give up?’ Frankie moaned.
‘Not while we’re loose, no, they won’t,’ Xenox said.
Frankie eyed the Doctor, knowing what he had said to be true and wondering how this might play out. Maybe the flyer wouldn’t fire on them and risk their deaths. The van was armoured, but it wouldn’t hold up to the punishment that a drop ship like that could dish out. Not for too long anyway.
Muzzle flashes erupted from the front of the flyer as it opened fire on them, tracer rounds flashing as the high powered cannon lit them up.
1.11
Promethean Files 1: The New Prometheus Page 10