The security man with the two women started the electric engine up by keying his code into the keypad in the centre of the steering wheel. He got on the radio calling in backup for the group being left behind and a call for assistance from the police and anyone else that could help.
As they pulled off Sara took another look back. Framed in the rear-view mirror the black-clad attacker's van had started forwards. The glass in the windscreen had shattered and the security mech continued pouring fire into the interior. Not having any luck stopping the van by going for the driver it shifted its aim for the riskier approach of targeting engine and wheels. This was the more dangerous approach because it could lead to the van exploding or careening off course and into one of the residences. The van was no more than a meter away from the mech when the scene moved out of view. The electric car headed around the corner and started down the hill heading back towards one of the Hawk-eye security checkpoints.
The checkpoint was currently unmanned with all available personnel busy trying to deal with the armed men they had left behind.
The Hawk-eye officer driving them pulled up to the checkpoint. "We should get you ladies inside where you'll be safe."
He had their best interests in heart but even if the private security force managed to hold off the first group of attackers they wouldn't be able to stop the second or third groups that came after the women. Now that their presence in the area had been confirmed other units would be showing up at any time soon. Even if they waited and managed to hold out until the police arrived it wouldn't do them any good. Carla was a wanted woman and Sara was sure that a similar scenario would now apply to her as well. It would be even worse if an organization like ECSIS responded to the call for assistance. No, as much as Sara might be grateful to the driver and his colleagues for what they had done, they had to get as far away from the area as soon as possible. If this situation was to get sorted, and if the truth was to come out, it was down to the two of them to make it happen. If they were taken into custody, protective or otherwise, nothing would be fixed.
Carla was already moving in the back-seat and had her hand on the door to unlock it. Sara glanced back and shook her head to make her stop.
"We're very grateful for all your help. I don't know what we would have done if you boys hadn't showed up right then." She made as though to open her door but she was really getting her hand up under her jacket to free the automatic weapon.
The guard was reaching over to unlock his own door to get out when she rammed the muzzle of the weapon into his ribs. He froze immediately. "You don't want to do this."
Sara relieved him of his own weapon, a pistol the same type as was standard issue for police forces across the Confederation a couple of years ago. The pistol could fire either regular bullets or specially modified tranquillizer darts without the weapon itself having to be changed in any way.
"I'm sorry but I do." Sara kept the automatic weapon jammed up against the officer so that he didn't try anything while she hit the clip release on the pistol one-handed. It was filled with regular bullets.
The officer didn't have any spare clips on his person so Sara reasoned that he must have some in the car. With her free hand she opened the glove compartment in front of her and came up empty. There was no ammunition just the usual junk and associated paraphernalia that people collected in the compartments. She reached past the officer, who still hadn't moved from his half-twisted position, and checked the compartment in front of him. This time she found what she was after, a spare clip of bullets and a clip containing tranq' darts.
She loaded the tranq's into the pistol slamming the combined clip and weapon onto the top of her thigh to make sure it was in securely. "We really are thankful for what you and your friends have done for us. If there was any other way to do this I'd take it, but I'm afraid there isn't."
She fired a single dart into the man’s leg from close range. Being hit from such a distance would leave him with a hell of a bruise when he woke up in a couple of hour’s time. He started to swoon almost immediately and his head and upper body fell across Sara while she leaned over his lap to finish opening his door. She got out of the car and moved around to the other side to heave his unconscious form out of the vehicle and into the relative safety of the checkpoint cubicle. She closed the door on him so that he wouldn't be disturbed before returning to the car.
Chapter Twenty-three
"What are we doing waiting around? We know now that Karl was working on something for the Omnitech Corporation. They're probably the ones who are behind all this. Can't you just get in contact with your old buddies, or even just call the police and get them to look into it?"
Sara took her eyes off their near continual scanning of the street in front of them to look back into the alley where Carla was perched uncomfortably on the edge of a rubbish container swinging her legs back and forth. Every time her legs went back she banged her heels against the side of the container.
"Go to them with what? The fact that we say that Dr. Grosset says he was working for the corporation isn't enough to warrant a full investigation. We don't know what the work entailed and even if we have no proof."
Carla stopped banging her heels. "But we know that Omnitech are behind all of this."
"Behind all of what? We still don't know what's going on here. We can assume that I've become tangled up in this mess because of my interest in you, but we haven't got a clue why they were after you in the first place."
"But-"
Sara turned fully away from the end of the alley that looked out on the street to stare at Carla. "But nothing. We don't have enough information to get anyone else involved. We have to continue on our own until we get further to the bottom of whatever is going on and have some proof of it."
Carla looked back at her feet and started banging them on the side of the container again. Sara got back to watching the street.
"I'm sorry," Carla said after a while. She jumped down off her perch and came up to stand just behind Sara's left shoulder. "I just want this all to be over." She went silent again. "I want to go home," she finished softly.
Sara couldn't help but try and console the younger woman, she must be getting soft. "It will be over soon, and then you and I can both get back to normality."
They both stood there then looking out of the alley. It was only just dawn. The sky had brightened and was lit with a soft diffuse glow. The air had that clean smell, a smell that most areas of the city only managed to get at that time in the morning before the stench of traffic and general humanity took over. There were very few cars passing across the street in front of them. It was still too early for most of the population to be rushing to work.
Across the street, situated between a school and a restaurant, was the area Sara's gaze was focused on. It was the subway entrance that for the moment was closed off with a corrugated metal grille. That barricade would be opening soon to accommodate the early morning commuters.
The man Sara was watching for could already be behind that barrier waiting to come out. The barrier wasn't really there to stop people getting into the subway station when it was closed, no-one in this area of the city would need to use it during the night. The drug-dealers, homeless and prostitutes who worked the streets were all confined to the poor sectors of the city. If any of the wealthy inhabitants of this part of the city wanted to get high or get laid they would just have it delivered to them. The problem with the subway was that it still led to the poor areas of the city. The service to those areas was erratic but it still existed for a select few routes. That meant that some of the subway tunnels still presented a direct access through both parts of the city. It was impossible to ensure security at the other end, drug-dealers and prostitutes still sold their wares down in the tunnels at night. There were entire communities of homeless living in the disused sections. The barrier was in place to prevent any of those undesirables migrating through the subway system at night and polluting this sector with their presence.<
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The man Sara was waiting for had amassed enough wealth that he could easily afford to live in the good sector of the city. The problem was that his wealth hadn't come about through legal means and to maintain his standard of living he had to continue to work and that meant making regular forays through the subway to the poor sectors. Sara thought that as much as the need for money he made these trips to the poor sector because he enjoyed it. If he wanted to he could have used the wealth he had already collected to make more, once you had money it was almost simplicity itself to make more that was the whole reason the divide between rich and poor existed.
"Who is this guy?" Carla asked still standing by Sara.
"He's a gun trafficker I cultivated into an informant when I was at ECSIS. He had been supplying arms to a small bunch of losers who thought they could play at being terrorists. They had the usual ideals, you know, redistribution of the confederation's wealth, a less centralized government with more power going back to the individual assemblies of each of the Member States."
"Is he really the sort of person we want to get involved with?" Carla sounded less than sure that it was.
"In our present situation we don't have much choice," Sara explained. "Anyone who is completely law abiding would never help a pair of fugitive killers."
"I guess you have a point," Carla still didn't sound convinced.
"It will be all right trust me. This guy can get us the things I need to get us inside Omnitech. Without his help we might as well just turn ourselves in right now. I did this guy a favor letting him act as an informant instead of arresting him." She had even put work his way buying weapons from him for operations that were entirely unofficial and couldn't be traced back to the division or ECSIS proper. "He owes me and now he gets the chance to return the favor."
The sun rose higher. The sky was noticeably brighter and there was more traffic and more people out on the streets. Carla had returned to her position on the top of the rubbish container and now had her head back against the brick wall of the building behind her. Her eyes were closed. Her rhythmic breathing threatened to lull Sara into a sleep of her own. But she fought it off and remained alert. There could still be a long way to go before she had the luxury of enough time to sleep herself. The entrance to the subway had been opened up and Sara had to keep watch on every person moving in or out.
As the number of people on the streets got to be more and more numerous so did the number of funny looks the two women got. So far they hadn't been passed by any police or security patrols but as the day wore on that prospect became more and more likely.
Beside the restaurant there was a store selling a variety of executive gadgets. A dancing monkey in a suit, which doubled as a portable data-pad holder/charger, was flaunting itself in the window half hidden from view by a news-stand selling people the latest updates. A man dressed in a suit, uncannily similar to the monkeys, stopped by the stand and inserted his news-pad and charge card. Once he had the latest reports on file he carried on and went down the steps into the subway. He would be reading the latest news on the ride to work. Sara ached to go over there and get herself a copy of the news just to see how prominently she and Carla were featured. But she didn't have access to a news-pad unless she stole one and she didn't have a charge card or any credits unless she stole them as well. The lack of funds could pose a problem when she tried to get her contact to help them. People had a nasty habit of forgetting they owed favors when it came time to pay up.
Sara was watching an old lady struggling to get a small suitcase up the final few steps out of the subway when she saw her contact sauntering up the steps. He didn't give the woman a second glance as he pushed his way past her and joined the flow of people.
Sara left Carla where she was and took herself out of the alley. Jimmy Jaret, Double J or Dee-Jay to those people who knew where his money came from, looked almost indistinguishable from the rest of the well dressed men on the street. These weren't the wealthiest inhabitants of the area, they would all be chauffeur driven everywhere in their luxury cars, but they were so much better off than even the most successful people in the poor sectors it just wasn't funny. Most of those people were only walking because it wasn't economical for them to use their private cars on such short journeys. Despite only having a small and slender build Jaret walked with an arrogant gait, forcing his way through the river of people not once did he step aside to go around someone or to let anyone else pass him.
Sara crossed the street by rushing out behind a long black car with mirrored windows. She followed along behind Jaret gradually closing the gap between them until she was so close he should have been able to feel her breath on the back of his neck.
She put a hand over his shoulder and moved even closer so that she had him in half an embrace. "Hey, Dee-Jay, long time no see."
Jaret tensed under her and flicked his head to the side to see who she was. His eyes were only a couple of centimeters from her face. He didn't so much relax when he saw who it was as sag.
"Come along with me nice and friendly," Sara said before he could speak. "We don't want any trouble because we both know I could snap your scrawny neck in a second."
She escorted him back to the alley where she had left Carla. The other woman was still asleep although she had slipped sideways so that she was lying on top of the rubbish container instead of being propped up on the wall.
Sara reached a hand up and brushed it over the sleeping woman's cheek. "Time to wake up," she said quietly.
Jaret looked like he would like to comment on seeing this different side to Sara. She glared at him and put her hand on Carla's arm shaking her gently. This time the younger woman stirred slowly coming awake and pushing into an upright posture.
"This is your contact," she said looking Jaret up and down.
"It is," Sara replied. "I'd introduce you but despite how he dresses he isn't the sort of person you really want to know."
"This stuff doesn't come cheap, you know. I'm gonna lose a lot of cash if I let you have it gratis."
Sara had explained what she wanted from Jaret but she hadn't explained why, if he didn't know already there was no point in her putting further obstacles in her way. Now they were closeted inside one of his 'safe houses' getting down to the finer points of their negotiation. They had taken a back way up to avoid the weapons detectors downstairs. Jaret probably had an arrangement with the guys on watch to allow him to move freely with whatever he wanted, but the less people who saw Sara and Carla the better. The younger woman was tucked away in the bedroom catching another nap while the other two got down to business.
"After everything I've done for you in the past this is a small price to pay."
"Not in any fantasy could that be considered a small price," Jaret retorted. "But then again you have done a lot for me." He paused and leaned back in his seat resting his hands in his lap. "The thing is you did those things for me back when you were one of the 'good guys'. The way I hear it you and the skirt are in a world of trouble. Both of you are wanted for murder, you know?" he said with a mocking tone in his voice.
Sara rolled her eyes, she should have known that Jaret would be aware of their predicament. "Whatever charges they've cooked up, we didn't do it."
Jaret shook his head nonchalantly. "I don't care. The reason I mention it is that as a wanted criminal you aren't going to be much help to me in the future."
"You owe me."
Jaret shrugged. "Maybe, thing is you can't take that help back now. As it is you have nothing to offer me." He looked her up and down his eyes unashamedly lingering where a true gentleman would know not to stare. "I presume you won't have access to enough credits to pay so unless you're prepared to offer me something else of equal value . . ."
He let the insinuation hang in the air between them. Sara glared at him and he just looked back at her arching his eyebrows. Jaret tilted his head to the side as if to say; 'Well?'
Sara kept her eyes on him and then removing the glare she
hardened her eyes and slowly moved herself out of her seat. A small smile tugged at the corners of Jaret's mouth as Sara made her gradual approach. She slid first her right arm and then her left out of her jacket. Keeping her legs straight she bent at the middle facing away from Jaret and placed the jacket back where she had been sitting. The jacket was no longer being weighed down by the weapons she had had in the pockets, they were now on the other side of the room on a low table with an assortment of other weapons. She straightened back up and turned to face Jaret.
The arms dealer had slumped down lower in the seat and his fingers were working furiously at the belt around his waist. He took time out from his fumbling to stare eagerly back at Sara. His eyes never made it all the way up to her face. In another few steps she had reached him. He looked back down and finally got the belt undone. He was much faster getting the button and zipper unfastened on his trousers. Lifting himself off the seat he got his trousers down around his ankles then sat back down in just his underwear. When that was done he regarded Sara expectantly.
A grin spread fully over his face when Sara crouched down just in front of him. She lowered her hand to his boxer shorts and leaned over him. She moved her mouth close to the side of his face.
"No. Chance. In. Hell."
Jaret yelped in pain as her hand squeezed and twisted. He tried to fight her off but she slapped him down. She tightened her grip further and gave another twist. Jaret was in too much pain to fight back now. Instead he went limp, fully, and just lay there like a liquid while she continued to speak into his ear.
"Now then, you are going to help us aren't you?"
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