Pivotal (Visceral Book 3)

by Adam Thielen

  What Gao did not know was that Chairman Zhuang Chan himself was in that hotel hosting a bruncheon with corporate loyalists in order to drum up support for the current leadership and to solicit funds to make war with the NRI. Not traditional warfare of course, but even cyber warfare and misinformation campaigns required resources, not to mention an expanded intelligence division capable of deploying assets across the western hemisphere.

  The Chairman’s elite guard accompanied him to the hotel, with half of the twelve-man unit inside and the other half in strategic locations on the grounds. While their number was few, their gear was extraordinary. They wore armor resistant to almost all small arms fire, all had HUD implants, and all had many years of combat experience.

  Gao recognized their armor as they approached, but he had such a rabble with him that the elite guard became immediately aware of their presence and began readying their weapons, which ranged from high-versatility assault rifles to miniguns.

  Upon being spotted, Commander Gao ordered everyone to form groups and storm adjacent buildings, most of which were fine dining. One building at a time, they entrenched themselves around the hotel. Teo set up his sniper rifle from the ramparted roof of one of the restaurants and started tagging the elites on his side of the building.

  The commander figured he had a fifty-fifty chance that his armor-piercing, high-velocity rounds would penetrate the helmets worn by the guards. But the only way he was going to find that out was to kick off a firefight that could result in thousands of innocent lives lost. The decision weighed on him, but he believed that if he did not, then someone else would, and his group was in the best position to deal a decisive blow to the corporate leadership.

  He readied his men, aimed at the elite carrying a large grenade launcher, and fired. The shot hit off-center, and the round helmet cracked before redirecting the bullet. Gao’s men opened fire, mowing down unarmored security and pelting the guards with lead. The elites picked targets and retaliated.

  The guard with the grenade launcher fell backward from the force of the shot, and Gao decided to try another target while he was stunned. He turned his rifle on a guard with an RPG launcher. Loaded by shoving the projectile into the barrel, it left the warhead exposed. Gao aimed and fired, hitting the tip of the grenade. The explosion blew the guard back and shrapnel dislodged pieces of the hotel's exterior facade.

  The elite with the minigun had begun laying waste to the largest group of resistance fighters with a steady stream of bullets washing over the general store where they hunkered down. Gao began to aim for him when his HUD informed him of a potential lock on his position. He looked up to the balcony of the hotel that faced his position and spotted a sniper lining up a shot against him. The commander yanked his rifle off the rampart and rolled to his back just as the shot struck the stone topper.

  “I need cover from the sniper on the west balcony,” he shouted. A few seconds later, gunfire from half the men engulfed the elite sniper, bouncing off his armor, sending stucco debris from the balcony guardwall up into the air, and nullifying his ability to spot targets.

  Gao lifted his rifle back onto the edge of the roof and aimed at the sniper, who had ducked down and moved just inside the hotel room. Teo’s vantage gave him a shot at the back of the man’s neck. He fired, and his bullet slipped under the armor’s collar and tore through the sniper’s body. The man fell forward onto his face, dead.

  Without their own sniper, the would-be rebels on the east side of the hotel did not fare as well as Gao’s fighters on the west, but once the guard with the minigun realized he was low on ammo, he retreated inside the building. The grenade launcher guard picked himself up and joined him, then the rest of the conscious guards followed suit. It was a small victory, but Gao knew the battle was far from over.

  * * *

  Tsenka hurried to step in front of the overeager Kate on their way to the entrance to what looked more like a hospital than any sort of secret research facility. Desre was content to pull up the rear as she fussed with the crown, attempting to make it comfortable.

  “Kate, that weapon has good range,” said Cho, familiar with the model and its optional components. “Let me stay on point. My skin can protect me.”

  Kate shrugged and her trigger finger twitched. “A’ight, you’re the tank.” She turned around to Desre and started to walk backward. “Here, let me see it again,” she said, pointing at Desre’s head.

  The psion handed over the silver crown again, and Kate studied the inside of it. “It’s made to connect to some rods to hold it in place securely, but I see some inset brackets that look like they should be adjustable.” She continued examining it. “I think this is a needle port.” She pointed to an aptly sized hole on the inside of the crown, then pulled a thin wire out of her pocket and plugged one end into the hole and the other behind her ear.

  The neuro smiled. “Lots of options in here. You want to beta test mind-sight mode?”

  “What’s it on now?”

  “Future-sight.”

  Desre pursed her lips. “What other options?”

  “It has two other main mode settings. One is called projection and the other is listener. I don’t think they had gotten far with either of these. There’s a lot of warnings and few sub-options.”

  “I wasn’t seeing anything in future-sight mode,” said Desre. “And even my usual blurry sense of the future faded away after Roland left the meet. So I guess mind-sight mode it is.”

  A thin green line around the bottom of the crown changed to blue and the inner brackets began to expand and contract. Kate unplugged the cable and removed Desre’s hat. She held the ring in place while the brackets auto-adjusted to the psion’s head. Once snug, Kate let go and the crown stayed in place.

  “There we go—oh!” exclaimed Desre. Her eyes rolled up and her hands moved in front of her, searching for remnants of the physical world. “Can’t see shit,” she said.

  “Crap, hold still, I’ll get it off,” said Kate.

  Tsenka turned to look with some concern.

  “No, hold on,” said the seer. “I think I can control it.” She clenched her eyes shut, closing her mind off from the world she had always been listening to. She opened her right eye and looked around, then followed with her left. “Wow,” she said. “This is going to be interesting.”

  “You okay?” asked Cho.

  “Just peachy,” said Desre.

  They continued their approach. Not only did the building look like a hospital, but that section of the city was filled with ancillary medical service buildings. The streets were empty, and no other pedestrians strode along the sidewalks. However, several elite guards in body armor circled the building while what looked like a mini-Behemoth stood guard next to a small concrete ramp leading to the front entrance.

  Kate grabbed Desre’s arm and darted to the right, hiding behind a car parked across the street from the building. Tsenka went left, ducking behind the front of a compact van. She scanned the rooftops and spotted one gunman facing the team’s direction. None of the corpsec seemed to notice them.

  “Kate,” whispered Cho. “Head a couple cars down and get ready to pick a couple of them off. Switch on the mag accelerator,” she instructed, referring to a mode on the late Danliti’s gun that used additional magnetic propulsion to penetrate armored targets.

  “Hold on,” said Desre. “Let me take control of the roof guy.”

  “Take control?” echoed Cho, peeking up at the sniper.

  “Aye,” she said, turning around and sitting propped up against the side of the car.

  Kate and Tsenka looked at each other, and Kate shrugged.

  “That mech is going to be a problem,” said Kate. “Appears to be a self-contained AI running it.”

  “It has to take orders from someone,” said Cho.

  “I can jam it, but I doubt it would mistake us for friendlies when we start attacking,” argued Jones. “It’s too bad we don’t have an EMP grenade.”

  “Or
any grenades,” added Cho.

  “Ya, so what—” started Kate, before being interrupted by the sound of a scream. The sniper dove from the roof three stories up and landed on his neck right next to the mech. His body folded backward with the heels of his feet slapping the concrete on each side of his head.

  Tsenka and Kate looked in time to catch the end of his fall. At the sound of the man’s neck snapping, Tsenka gasped and Kate gagged then covered her mouth.

  The mech turned and bent down to examine the body. Spotting a grenade in each hand with the spoons missing, the mech emitted a loud buzz a split second before one exploded, then the other. The blast tore the man’s lower arms off and flung his body against the large stone masonry of the building.

  Shrapnel dug into the machine’s frame and pushed it up and away. It landed on its modestly curved back and began kicking its legs, unable to flex the joints far enough to pull itself upright.

  “Holy shitlord,” muttered Cho. She looked at Kate.

  Kate looked in horror at Desre, whose eyes were still closed, then back at Tsenka. “This bitch is savage!” she whispered.

  “We have to engage,” said Cho, drawing her pistol. “Cover me.”

  “I think I saw one of his fingers hit a car,” Jones added, crouching as she hurried to take position behind a car to the right of Desre’s. She flipped on mag-acceleration and placed her elbow on the trunk of a retro-looking sedan with long doors and a boxy exterior. Kate rested the grip in her palm and switched the scope to feed directly into her neural interface. With her eyes closed, she aligned the targeting reticle with a guard rounding the corner of the far side of the building to investigate the commotion.

  Tsenka charged at an armored guard that had spotted her while investigating the mech’s predicament. He turned and aimed with his rifle, but Cho had her gun already raised and began pinging the front of his helmet, knocking his head back. She dropped her pistol, drew her sword, and lifted it over her head. She turned away, swinging downward in a circular motion, and as she brought it back up, the blade hummed, slicing from the man’s left thigh up to his right shoulder. Blood spurted from his chest as he fell onto his hip then went limp.

  Kate fired, hitting the incoming guard square in the chest. She wasn’t sure if the bullet had made it through the armor. The man took four steps forward, then grabbed his chest and moved to the wall, placing his back against it to rest. His head slumped forward, then his knees gave and the body collapsed.

  Car metal caved next to Kate’s head with a loud pop, and she realized she was being fired upon. She grabbed the gun and ducked for cover.

  Tsenka grabbed her victim’s assault rifle, firing a round into the air to make sure it wasn’t locked. She heard automatic fire behind her, but couldn’t move in time. Six rounds impacted her back in a line. The pain was excruciating. Cho fell forward, then rolled to her back and returned fire on the armored guard. Ironically, their own guns were incapable of penetrating their armor. Tsenka tried to sit up, but the pain paralyzed her, and she cried out.

  The vampire continued to fire until the rifle’s magazine emptied, and the gun emitted a series of clicks to make sure everyone knew. The guard recovered and took aim, then flew to the side and into the street, carried by the blast wave and shrapnel of a grenade detonated next to him, just around the corner of the building. Cho rolled to her stomach and pushed herself up, then picked a grenade off the body of the guard she had sliced open.

  She turned back to the source of the explosion with the grenade in one hand and a finger from her other hand hooked inside the pin. A hand stuck out from around the corner, making a waving motion.

  One more guard stood on the other side of the building. He pinned Kate behind her car with occasional fire while waiting for backup to arrive. Sure wish I had some drones, thought Kate. Wait, where are my drones? She sent out a signal for them to activate and report back, and a few seconds later, they reported as being only two kilometers away.

  The monocopter, she realized. Drew must have recovered them. Dammit, Drew, she mourned. I can’t do this without you. Jones ordered the four drones that responded to fly to her location. It would take a few minutes for them to make the journey, and it was time she didn’t have. She lifted the rifle over her head with the rest of her body still covered behind the car. The guard began firing at her gun, but it was a small target and as he shots, Jones aimed and fired.

  The rifle leapt from her hand, but the bullet flew true, hitting the guard in the gut. He placed one hand on his wound and moved forward toward a car on his side of the street to take cover. Cho spotted him out of the corner of her eye and sprinted for him.

  The man had just crouched when he heard the quiet footfalls of the nightstalker bearing down on him. As he turned to look, Tsenka spun into the air with her right leg extended. The top of her foot slammed into his head, jerking it to the side and sending the helmet flying away. He lifted his rifle and Cho continued her spin, kicking the gun away with her left foot, and finished the movement with a roundhouse, hitting the guard’s exposed head with her right shin and knocking him unconscious.

  The guard who had waved to Cho came out from the side of the building. Kate and Tsenka aimed rifles at him.

  “Wait!” yelled Desre, coming out from behind the car. “This one is with me.”

  The guard wore a frown and fearful eyes. He thrust his arm forward and gave a robotic thumbs-up sign.

  “Are we going to have to take that thing away?” asked Cho, pointing to the crown.

  “No take-backs,” insisted Desre. “Besides, I’m gonna be a good girl.”

  “Real good,” said Tsenka.

  “So good,” muttered the guard through gritted teeth as if punched in the stomach.

  “How long ya think it will take for reinforcements?” asked Kate, joining the other two.

  “This city is on fire,” said Cho. “They aren’t coming.”

  Kate nodded. “Then let’s show these fuckers they messed with the wrong people.”

  Tsenka detonated a grenade next to the entrance, blowing the steel-reinforced doors apart. Her sonar responded to the noise by mapping out the entire building. Two unarmored guards opened fire at the dust cloud before becoming passive and leaving the safety of cover. They then turned and fired at their former comrades. Caught by surprise, their victims had no recourse but to fall over dead.

  “Three now?” asked Cho.

  “Uh huh,” affirmed Desre, her face twitching. “The pain is exquisite, but I can handle it. The difficult part is getting more than one of them to do something at the same time.” Her forehead had a thin layer of frost, but the crown generated focused heat to compensate for the chill at the same time as it empowered her abilities.

  “Warn us if you start to lose control,” said Cho, ducking down and moving into the building.

  Inside, the floors were thin wood planks while the walls were plain white. Red lights swirled on the ceiling. On each side of the wide entry hall were empty offices. Each one had a desk, three of which still had their computer screens on, and two had glasses of water sitting upon them.

  “Must have evacuated,” said Cho. She continued forward into a common room with several loveseats and vending machines, then saw what looked like the metal bars of a cage down a thin hall that branched left. She checked her map, and it showed blurry images of people inhabiting that branch.

  “This way,” motioned Cho. “Kate, can you take control of the building’s security? We don’t need any surprises.”

  “On it,” said Kate, moving to a wall terminal and prying loose the panel. She already wanted all the data the facility’s servers might contain. “Might be a couple minutes.”

  “Desre, place your men in position to guard my rear,” directed Cho. “I’m going to check out this area.”

  The vampire didn’t have to go far before reaching what were indeed cages. This time they were neither empty nor burned out. Pale men and women stood listlessly inside them, four or five
per cell. They looked just like the phantoms she had experienced at the Ping facility, complete with rags when they wore anything at all.

  Cho moved next to the bars. “Hello?” she prompted, waving a hand in front of the pale prisoners, but none of them appeared to see her. In fact, none of them appeared to see, hear, feel, or want anything at all. Tsenka peered at one facing away from her and noted a freshly gelled incision running up the back of the skull. She went to the next cell to look at the other bald inmates and saw the same markings. The scars ranged from obvious to barely detectable.

  “Kate!” yelled Cho. “Figure out a way to wipe this place off the map.”

  “Will do, boss,” Jones hollered.

  Tsenka continued toward a much larger cell. The rest of the prison was dimly lit, which made sense given the nature of the prisoners. But the jail at the end was much darker, with none of its own direct light.

  When Cho stepped within three feet of the extra-thick bars, the rest of the inmates came to life, clamoring to escape the confines of their cells. They pushed against each other and grabbed the bars, trying to yank or bend them out of the way. In the cells nearest Cho, some of the prisoners stretched their emaciated arms toward her. They hissed and they howled, groaned, and mumbled. A few of them began to shriek while their bodies moved opposite their frenetic yanking.

  * * *

  It was safe to assume that the pre-gala convention of the board and loyalists was not going as planned. The elite guards who were not dead or unconscious had retreated inside the building to regroup with the other half of their unit.

  Zhuang Chan sat at a large rectangular table adorned with fanciful decor and a gold-trimmed tablecloth. He sipped at a glass of champagne while the board bickered with each other about who to blame for the situation.