The Prometheus Trap (The New Prometheus Book 3)

by Andrew Dobell

  The agents looked to be trying to catch Hellion up as she was striding through the corridor, not really looking at them.

  ‘In here,’ Dion whispered behind her. She looked back to see a door and Dion disappearing through it. Frankie followed him, keeping low and pushed the door so it was almost closed, and then stayed next to it to listen.

  ‘…but with the most recent attack, our guess is that the A.C.T. and the gang have teamed up and are on their way back here. I think we can expect an attack at any time,’ said one of the operators as they neared the door. Frankie could just make them out through the tiny gap she left in the doorway.

  ‘Thanks for the update,’ Hellion said but kept on walking.

  ‘Hellion, stop,’ said the female agent.

  ‘What is it, Arcana?’ Hellion said, her tone mocking the agent.

  ‘It sounds like we’re going to be attacked, what do you plan to do about it?’

  ‘Well, kill them, of course. We still have one of theirs in custody here, you know. I’m guessing they won’t want to jeopardise his life,’ Hellion said.

  Frankie looked at Dion and raised her eyebrows. This was good; they didn’t know she had freed him yet.

  ‘Besides, with Bull and the others on my team, I think we can handle them,’ Hellion continued.

  ‘You mean like Venal handled Frankie?’ Arcana asked, challenging Hellion.

  There was silence for the moment. ‘If you’d been able to handle Frankie and her team on your own, you wouldn’t have called us in. Are you going to let us do our job or not?’ Hellion asked.

  ‘We, and by extension, Psytech, are merely concerned that you are able to follow through and complete the mission, that is all,’ the male agent cut in.

  ‘Oh, it speaks! What's your name?’

  ‘Nefarium,’ he answered her.

  ‘Tell your employers, Nefarium, that their concern is noted. Now, if you don’t mind, I have work to do,’ she said and strode off down the corridor, leaving the two agents and the operators behind.

  Everyone remained quiet for a while as the sound of Hellion’s footsteps clicked off down the hallway. Frankie guessed that the two agents were now communicating through their neural link, which she wished she could hear.

  ‘Your orders?’ said one of the operators standing with the agents.

  ‘For now, continue to support Hellion and her team. Let’s see how this plays out, shall we?’ said Arcana.

  ‘Yes, sir,’ the operator answered and ordered his men off down the corridor. The two agents also walked away, following the operators down the hallway; probably still talking silently through their link.

  ‘Dissent in the ranks,’ Dion said.

  ‘Hellion’s overconfidence might be her downfall here,’ Frankie speculated. ‘She still thinks you’re in custody and that Frak is still alive, I’d say we’re in pretty good shape right now,’ she said, and edged out into the corridor, looking both ways. They were clear, so Frankie led Dion out of the room and along the hall once more.

  A few more turns without any more encounters and they were back in the corner room with the secret entrance. Frankie led Dion around to the vent and the dead body that still lay next to it.

  ‘Oh, wow. Did you do that?’ Dion asked, looking at the blood on the floor and the body of the operator.

  ‘Yeah, sorry. Forgot he was here,’ she said. Was she that used to death now that she just disregarded those who she killed? The thought was a sobering one, but she knew that she worked in a job that required her to use lethal force on a regular basis. They were dealing with people who would not hesitate to kill her given half the chance. She was fairly sure she was on the right side and working for the greater good, but honestly, who knew really?

  ‘No problem. So, I go down there?’

  ‘That’s right. It’s a squeeze, so be careful. Go down to the bottom and then head that way, into the building,’ she indicated.

  ‘Have you checked the net yet?’ Dion asked.

  ‘Oh, no, not yet,’ she answered.

  ‘Well, you should have some connectivity now.’

  Frankie turned her net connection back on and sure enough, she quickly reconnected, but she noticed the signal was slow and patchy, which was likely a remnant from the malware.

  ‘You’re right, I do. It’s a little unstable, though,’ she commented.

  ‘It will be to start with, but it should come all the way back eventually, just give it time. I wouldn’t try any video calls, but you can send some text messages in the meantime,’ he said. ‘So, you coming down here?’

  ‘No, I have more to do up here yet. You’ll be met by Jude and Gus down there; they’ll take you to safety. I’ll be coming out another way, so don’t wait for me,’ she said.

  ‘Oh, okay, catch you later then,’ he said as she replaced the vent while Dion climbed down the shaft. With the cover replaced, Frankie stood and checked her rifle and pistol before exiting the room once more.

  She checked the map that Jude had given her and quickly figured out the route she needed to take to get to where Gibson, Veronica, and Cole were going to break into the eighteenth floor. She then started to move cautiously along the corridors, holding her suppressed pistol in her hands.

  As she moved, she rechecked her net connection, and it seemed better than just a minute ago, so she attempted to create a neural link between her and her teammates. Sure enough, within a couple of seconds, the link opened up.

  ‘Frankie, are you close to us?’ Gibson asked.

  ‘I’m closing in on your position, yes,’ she said, ‘but I’m still a way off yet. Thought you’d like to know, Dion got the malware shut down, you should be back online.’

  ‘You got Dion out?’ Veronica asked.

  ‘Yep, he’s safe and sound with Jude now.’

  ‘Awesome, glad the little scamp is okay,’ Cole said.

  ‘Hey, who you calling a little scamp,’ Dion cut in.

  ‘Dion!’ they all chorused.

  ‘It’s great to hear your voice,’ Veronica said.

  ‘Good to have you back, man,’ Cole agreed.

  ‘Are you okay? Not too busted up, I hope?’ Gibson asked.

  ‘I’ll survive, it’s just a few bruises, nothing that won’t heal in time,’ Dion answered him.

  ‘How about you guys? Are you close to getting started?’ Frankie asked. ‘Hellion and her goons had noticed you’re on the move, so, you can expect some resistance.’

  ‘Well…’ Gibson started to say.

  A loud but muffled explosion rocked the building, echoing through the eighteenth floor, kicking up dust and shaking some of the fixtures that were hanging in a state of disrepair.

  ‘Crap, was that you?’ Frankie asked.

  ‘That was probably Spider, he’s entering through another route; said he wanted to make an impression. I guess that’s what he meant,’ Gibson said.

  ‘No shit. Right, I’m coming to you,’ Frankie said, knowing that Hellion and everyone will have heard that noise and that chaos was about to erupt.

  As if on cue, gunfire echoed through the floor of the building. The fighting had begun.

  3.15

  Frankie ran down the corridor, approaching a crossroads in the hallway up ahead. As she neared it, she slowed, but kept moving, twisting first to her right, and then to her left, checking for trouble, only to see a group of four operators down the left-hand passage.

  ‘There she is,’ one of them cried.

  Frankie immediately reversed, firing two shots into the closest man as she stepped back into the corridor she had just stepped out of. Her first target fell as she moved, but she was already out of sight before he’d hit the floor.

  A burst of high-powered automatic gunfire exploded from the operators, smashing the near corner of the wall and the opposite side of her corridor as the deadly rounds slammed home. Frankie backed up a touch. She didn’t want to get caught up in a protracted gunfight here, she needed to get to where Gibson and the rest were
coming up to the eighteenth and help them deal with the guards that would inevitably be waiting for them.

  It was evident to her, then, that she would need to go on the offensive and deal with these guys as quickly and decisively as she could.

  She wasn’t about to walk out into a hail of gunfire, though, so she waited for a few moments for this first bout of gunfire to abate. It only lasted a few seconds, although it felt like an eternity until she heard the tell-tale click of an empty gun.

  She felt sure they weren’t all empty, but one or two less was always helpful.

  Frankie sprinted forward as fast as she could, taking the corner at an angle before planting a foot and leaping towards the far wall in the operators’ corridor. Gunfire erupted. She planted another foot on the wall and pushed off, flipping herself over as she fired her pistol. Two of the operators shot back, desperately trying to keep track of her and get some hits on her.

  Frankie killed the second closest man to her, putting two shots cleanly into his chest and dropping him to the floor as she fell and landed in front of the nearest man. The operator whipped his gun back towards Frankie, still squeezing the trigger, but Frankie grabbed it fractions of a second before it shot her and forced the gun barrel up and back in a quick jerking motion, slamming the gun into the operator’s face. The man let go of the rifle and reached for his face with a yell of pain.

  Frankie, still holding the rifle by the barrel, flung it at the operator furthest away from her, who was still struggling to reload his own gun, hitting him in the side of the head, making him drop his fresh magazine onto the floor before he’d loaded it into his gun.

  With a half second to spare, Frankie brought her own pistol back up and put two rounds into the closest man’s chest, and then one in his head, before stepping out from in front of him and firing on the last guy. He was attempting to pick up the rifle magazine from the floor, but Frankie’s shots slammed him back against the wall.

  The man grunted before sliding down the wall, dropping to his side and falling silent.

  Frankie scanned around, checking the four men, but all were laying still. Satisfied she was safe, she moved back to the junction and continued on her way, sprinting down the corridors, taking turns at speed and heading towards the sound of nearby combat and gunfire. She was close. There was a T-junction at the end of this corridor, and she knew that down the left-hand hallway, maybe ten meters or more, was the entrance to this floor that Gibson was about to use.

  She also felt sure, especially after the explosion, that it would be guarded by more than a few men. Still running at full tilt, she dropped to her knees and skidded to a stop right on the corner. Glancing around and down the corridor, she could see a group of maybe eight or ten operators down there, focusing on the door they were next too and not paying too much attention to the area around them. She also noticed more piles of detritus and materials on pallets that would be great cover for her, including one just around the corner. Getting to her feet, Frankie crept forward in a crouch up to the closest cover.

  ‘Gibson, are you close? I’m right at the entrance you’re coming up through, but there’s something of a welcoming committee here,’ she said through her neural link.

  ‘We are, yes, maybe thirty seconds out, give or take. We’re dealing with operators down here as well. Can you thin out the crowd up there at all before we get there?’

  ‘I can try, I can’t promise anything,’ she answered him. ‘Just don’t keep me waiting; get your arse up here quick, all right?’

  ‘Copy that,’ the former detective answered.

  Frankie holstered her pistol and grabbed the rifle from her back, quietly checking the magazine and breach before shouldering it and taking a breath. Confronting this many operators in a protracted firefight would be tough, but she knew that her friends needed her and did not want to get caught in the trap these guys were setting up.

  Frankie brought her weapon up and edged around the corner of her cover to look at the group. She took note of those closest to her and what they were carrying. After a few seconds, she had picked out her targets and took another breath before aiming and squeezing the trigger.

  Her gun barked, and an operator screamed as he dropped to the floor in a splatter of blood. The reaction was immediate as the group realised over the next few seconds that they were under attack and quickly moved for cover. But Frankie was already onto her next target and firing another burst of shells at a second operator. She hit him cleanly before he’d really had any chance to get away and fell to the ground as well.

  There was plenty of cover over there, which these guys would have used against Gibson, but which had left them exposed to her. Now, they had moved and were hiding from her rather than from Gibson’s entry point.

  She fired again, clipping the shoulder of another as he ducked out of sight, but he was probably still alive.

  Bullets hit the pile of materials she stood behind, forcing her to dodge back before popping out again and laying down some more fire on the operators.

  ‘I take it from the noise that you’ve engaged them?’ Gibson asked over their neural link.

  ‘That would be correct,’ Frankie answered, jerking back as a couple of rounds hit the cover she was behind, barely missing her. Half a second later, she was out and firing at them again.

  ‘We’re on our way, just hold the line,’ Gibson said.

  ‘Holding,’ Frankie quipped, concentrating on the fight at hand.

  Frankie kept on firing at the operators, ducking away when their shots got to close to her, but she kept on moving, leaning out from cover in different places to keep the enemy guessing and to hold them off with her own shots. She wasn’t doing much more to them now, though. They were well hidden and dug in, and it was more a case of keeping each other at bay more than anything else.

  Out the corner of her eye on her right-hand side, movement caught her attention enough for her to glance over just in time to see a man, who didn’t seem like an operator from his clothing, kick open a door opposite her and aim a pistol at her. Frankie reacted without really thinking, swinging her rifle out at the hands of this new opponent and hitting them just as he brought his gun to bear on her and fired.

  Frankie ducked, his shot burying itself in the wall beside her before the force of the swing with her rifle knocked the gun from his hands and sent it flying down the corridor.

  A roar and booming footsteps to her left made her glance back at the squad of operators, only to see, on the far side of the group, the same huge mech that had attacked the garage loom down the corridor, bringing its guns up as it walked.

  Frankie moved to bring her own rifle back and to fire at the man in front of her, but he saw it coming and lunged for it. Grabbing the gun in his hands, he lifted the barrel to point it up out of harm’s way. Frankie let him do it, putting on a show of resisting only to bring the stock of the rifle up, using the momentum the man had created to crack him hard in the face. The man staggered.

  Frankie kicked out with her foot, hitting him right in the centre of his chest and throwing him back to the other side of the hallway and into the wall there, right next to the door he had come in through.

  Frankie aimed her rifle and fired, putting a couple of rounds into the man’s chest and a final one in his head. He fell silent and dropped to the floor like a sack of potatoes as Frankie ducked back into cover. Suddenly, the gun on the mech opened fire and sprayed the corridor with large calibre rounds that made everything around her explode all at once.

  Frankie stayed behind cover, waiting for a break in the gunfire when a new salvo of shots started up.

  The bombardment aimed at her almost stopped entirely, even though the noise had actually intensified with more shooting going on.

  ‘We’re here,’ Gibson announced through the link he had with her.

  ‘About time, we need to deal with this mech first,’ she said.

  ‘We’re on it,’ Gibson answered her.

  Frankie glanced b
ack around the cover she had taken and quickly spotted Gibson, Cole, Veronica, and several gang members with them, all of them well armed and engaging the enemy. One of the operators had backed up towards where Frankie had been hiding, glancing back to watch where he was going, only to look back again and spot her as she moved out from her cover.

  The operator started to spin around, but Frankie was ready for him and fired. He dropped to the floor as Frankie moved up.

  A sudden explosion on the other side of the team Gibson had led up here pushed the mech further back, and as she watched, it moved right back to the end of the tunnel while bullets sparked as they bounced off its armour before it moved left and disappeared from view.

  The fighting closest to her died down as they cleared the hall, but a few on the far side of the group continued to fire on some operators down at the end, keeping them at bay.

  Gibson appeared out of the fray and strode over to her.

  ‘You’re okay?’

  ‘I'm all right, thanks for getting here so quickly,’ she said as she turned more fully towards him, feeling a little relieved to have some real back up with her now.

  ‘Oh, crap, that looks nasty,’ Gibson said, looking at the wound on her face.

  Frankie smiled, as best as she could given the hole in her cheek. ‘Getting shot in the face is never going to look good, even for a cyborg like me,’ she explained.

  ‘You got shot in the face, holy crap. Shit, I can see your teeth in there,’ he said, a look of revulsion on his face.

  ‘As much as I appreciate your comments, I really must insist that you stop. A girl can only feel so good about herself,’ she remarked sarcastically.

  ‘Sorry, I didn’t mean to. It’s just, freaky,’ he said.

  Frankie just looked at him with an expression that said, really?