“Upload the coordinates for all three into my com. I’m going to set up here and cause a diversion while the rest of you advance to the building and hold,” I said. “Do not make entry. I’ll have the shuttle drop me and we can make entry together.”
“How far away do you want us once you make entry?” Shawna asked.
“Ten seconds; be on the ground with the door down. Genius, you know how these things go, but I don’t think Shawna has any combat experience. When I call, hit the button to open the ramp. It should be down when you hit the ground — and don’t worry about scratching the paint, understood?”
“Understood!” Genius and Shawna said in unison.
“Harry, follow them and do what they tell you, big guy; they’ve done this a few times, believe me. Ronnie and Snake will be close by at all times, so don’t be afraid to ask them if you have a question. I’m going to get loaded up and start the party.”
I took my rifle and attached the bipod, then hit the power button. It whined as the charger excited the coils and magnets. I paused for a second to think of the last time I had used it. It had been on Hyson, when I was killing the Allith holding the Trillond captives. I was pretty sure I could get the first two people, but the third would have plenty of time to get a couple rounds off.
I shut down all interior lights and opened the door back; a quick step later, I was on the roof and moving toward the front of the shuttle. I felt the roof vibrate as the shuttle lifted away and all was quiet. I was about half a mile away from my farthest target. I had switched my night vision and targeting on and took aim, safety off — tap, tap, a whining, and a wh0osh. Two rounds were on their way. I swiveled and double-tapped two more, listening to the concussion of the first two hitting the building.
I was moving quickly, running bent at the waist, during the devastation of the second two rounds. I didn’t stop until I was ten feet from where I had started. I hit the roof and fired, not worrying about the first shot. I double-tapped, aiming more precisely this time; that shooter had the advantage and was set, so he or she didn’t have to move a hair to make me dead. I heard and felt the blasts hit the roof behind me; in this case, it was high output laser fire. Not the most effective weapon for half-mile sniping, I thought.
I didn’t think anyone had told them about my choice of weapons, which were also illegal on Athena, so they must have thought I would be playing by the rules. I hoped the rest of them thought the same thing. I was standing at the edge of the building when the shuttle appeared with the ramp down. I jumped onto it and yelled for them to go. I think my opponents opted for the “screw this” option — there was no retaliation after the first few blasts. The shuttle flew down the road and stopped in front of the building. I jumped off.
“Watch yourselves! I don’t know if they’re dead or alive, but I’m sure they are shaken up.” I grabbed the door handle and pushed, but it didn’t give. “Harry, get this open for me, please.”
Harry’s foot hit the metal door and it squealed as it caved in. The second kick bent it beyond the point of no return and it flew back, bounced off a wall, and returned. The noise was impressive, but we lost the element of surprise when I began shooting at the snipers. The buildings were exploding as the rounds made impact, so what was a little more noise?
The lights in the offices were all on and very bright. The upper half of all the cubicles was clear poly, while the bottom half was a solid material. It was a diversion to slow us down, but one we couldn’t ignore. We cleared them as fast as possible and finally stood before the door to the warehouse.
I wasn’t looking at the door as much as I was looking at Taz. She was right — the armor fit her tight and loose. Tight across the chest to the point it wouldn’t close, and loose in the crotch, which sagged, and then the legs were too short. But her boots laced up above her knees under them, so it didn’t look bad. We weren’t making a fashion statement anyway.
“Boss, you have hostiles coming in on your heels almost to the front door,” Genius said.
“Snake! Cover our back, we have hostiles at our six.”
I took a magnetic mine out of my pack and set the timer. I tossed it at the door and it stuck with a clunk. “Everyone, fall back and assist Snake with keeping our friends honest.” I leveled my rifle at the door and waited for the mine to explode.
Chapter 33
Explode it did, and made an opening large enough for us all to get through at one time. I looked through the debris-filled air with my targeting engaged.
“So I’m taking it you didn’t come here to talk about old times,” someone yelled from across the warehouse.
“I’m not much in the mood for talking,” I called back. “You know who I’m looking for. You hand him over and we’ll sit down and have a beer like civilized men and women.”
“Sorry, Benjamin, but I can’t do that, even if I wanted to.” The speaker walked out into the light shining down on an empty spot on the floor. His body was two-thirds cybernetics, both legs to the waist and his left arm. He had armor covering the rest of his body and a wetware helmet. He holstered the pistol he had in his hand and began unsnapping his helmet. He pulled the plugs on the interface cables plugged into the back of his head.
“Ronnie, Snake,” I said, “whoever this is knows me and probably knows you also. We may have a number of surprises in store for us, so don’t hesitate, do you understand me?”
“We got it boss, no worries. I don’t even have to look, I could hear the servos as he walked,” Snake said. “Cyborg.”
Taz touched my arm and brought me back from my thoughts. The cyborg stood holding his helmet, staring across the room.
“53, it looks like you have put some weight on since I saw you last,” I said.
“Always the smart ass. I thought you would be shocked,” 53 said.
“I am a little; after all, I carried the pieces of you back to our shuttle that day while Ronnie ran alongside pumping stop leak into all the holes in your body. You were still alive when they took you away, and we killed every fucking one of the Allith to avenge you the next day.”
“I was alive, just like you say. They offered me this, or they would pull the plug and let me die.”
“So you took their offer and they pulled the plug on paper. They told us a few days later you had. . . expired, was the word they used,” I said.
“There are not many of us left, you know. Captain O’Malley is still around, and remember that Captain Braun? He’s a colonel now. He’s hiding back in the shadows somewhere, watching you.”
“He’s probably going to shoot you now for saying that, you know,” I said.
“I doubt it, but who knows. So listen, we have this building surrounded, which I’m sure you’ve guessed. There are five more like me, and about twenty-five merc’s against the five of you. I know you guys are good, very good, but we just have you beat by the numbers.”
“Private Showmaker, have you forgotten everything that you’ve been taught? I appreciate the compliment and all, but you really don’t know just how good we are.”
“Boss, it’s time. There are ten gathered at each side entrance,” came the warning. “They must be waiting on a signal, they look ready to pull the door open and rush in.” I didn’t move or acknowledge that I had just received a com.
I turned my body slightly and tapped the trigger four times. At forty feet, the effects would be devastating. The sound of the rounds as they exited the rifle was a rush. I pulled my pistol and tapped the trigger six times; although not as loud, it most definitely got people’s attention. The door on either side was destroyed as well, as holes the size of a watermelon punched through the walls. It was brutal, but I wasn’t here for a birthday party. The surrounding buildings were catching hell as the rounds ripped through them.
53 hadn’t moved an inch, probably because Taz had Bill’s pistol pointed at his head. The other five cyborgs walked out to join 53. I wasn’t sure why they had hung back, but maybe they were hoping. I knew one of them,
but the other three were unknowns, each differently changed depending on their injuries at the time of selection.
“You’re still the show-boater, aren’t ya pretty boy?” Adeen O’Malley said. “What a mess you’ve made.”
“I wish I could say it’s good to see you, Adeen,” I said. “Under different circumstances, I would have liked a reunion with my old friends. I don’t have many left and will soon have fewer yet, it would seem.”
“My guys here are pretty good, Ben. Even with that thing you brought with you, we aren’t going to go down easy.”
“Harry is not a thing,” I replied. I ignored Adeen after that, since I knew it would irritate her to turn my questions back to 53, who had been happy to give away information so far.
“53, where is Senator Sims?” I asked. “I really need to get my hands on him.”
“Do you think he is the one responsible?” 53 laughed. “You’ve gone down a few notches in my estimation.”
“I asked if you knew where he was, and while we are on the subject, how about you give me the location of General Gray? It couldn’t hurt you people any to have a change in leadership. What you have now is pretty piss poor.”
I heard laughing coming from the dark. Taz tensed up next to me. It wasn’t a jovial kind of laugh. Colonel Braun walked up with a data pad in one hand and Mira in a tight grip with his other. She was beat up, and I was irritated by it almost immediately, which was of course what they were aiming for.
“Mira, how is destiny treating you?” I asked. The laughing continued, and Braun turned the pad towards me. The face on the screen was red and contorted with anger, which reflected in the laugh.
“How’s the ear, asshole?” I said facing the pad. Colonel Braun’s eyebrows went up, and everyone else looked stumped. “I think your luck has about run out. And to think I had my hands on your grimy ass on the Warhammer. I could have slit your throat right then, had I only known.”
“What’s he talking about? What happened on the Warhammer?” Adeen asked. “You know when this is over, Ben, he promised me the Warhammer.”
“53, do you know why you’re facing off with me today?” I asked, ignoring Adeen at first. “What about the rest of you, do you know why I’m here, and your standing there? C’mon, Adeen, tell me you know, and why would he give you the Warhammer? It’s not his to give. The rightful captain is on her way back to it, and will secure it along with her captaincy again.”
“That is a lie. You lie, Benjamin,” Adeen yelled.
I ignored Adeen’s outburst. I had them all thinking right now. “Colonel Braun, how did it feel when you and Adeen worked that first mission with me?” I asked. “The son of the senator whose family you helped kill. Did you get some kind of perverse joy out of it?”
“Wait a minute. I didn’t have anything to do with killing your family, Ben, I swear it I was in college at the time,” Adeen said.
I took the folded bloody sheet of paper from my belt and unfolded it with one hand. “A short time ago, I had a heart to heart with the general here on the Warhammer. I knew he had information about who was involved in killing my family. I put a knife through his hand and cut off his ear, and he provided me with this list of names. Three of them I recognized immediately — my grandfather Benjamin Jamison, Hanson Braun, and Adeen O’Malley.
I held the list up, and two of the people in the room seemed very interested. I saw Adeen focus on it, and her face tightened up. Braun looked at her and she nodded. “I’m not sure how things are going to turn out between us,” I said to them, “but if you somehow are able to get your hands on this list and test the blood, you will see I am telling the truth.”
I folded the list back up and put it back in my belt. The general was yelling, proclaiming his innocence and giving orders, but no one was moving to carry them out. One of the soldiers reached for a weapon and Taz moved her wrist, putting a slug right between his eyes. The back of his head exploded. Brains sprayed the others who were standing around him. His body fell to the floor, the nerves still sending signals to his limbs as motors and servos whined, jerking his body. No one moved. 53 looked relieved that he wasn’t staring down the barrel anymore. Taz locked them in a cold stare.
“Unlike Benjamin,” she said, “I do not know any of you, nor do I have the stomach to listen to this much longer. You came to kill us, did you not? If you have not changed your mind, then you are still our enemy and it is time for you to die.” She was right. Old friends or not, we were now on opposite sides.
She had snapped them out of it. Maybe it was the anger in her voice, although it certainly wasn’t the general screaming. I shot Hanson Braun with my pistol through the elbow of the arm holding Mira, and she ran towards us with his hand and forearm still holding on to her bicep. My second shot went through the data pad, ending that noise pollution.
53 and Adeen put their hands behind their heads and moved away, clearly ready for the whole thing to be over. The two remaining members came at us with pistols drawn. I pushed Taz hard and sent her tumbling out of the line of fire. As the laser hit my armor, I was already on my way down. The light was blotted out for a second, then I heard the tearing of metal and a scream. Harry held the arm of my assailant pistol still in hand, while blood and other fluids pumped out onto the warehouse floor. The one who had shot at Taz had stopped when he heard the scream, and I shot him from the floor. The shot went through his throat and out the top of his head. I never regretted my choice of weapons. I had never been in the business of fighting a kinder, gentler battle. Stunners and even lasers were for a less forceful breed of fighter. There just wasn’t time to drag things out by plinking away at each other.
Ronnie and Snake were pointing their pistols at the remainder of the team, just in case anyone changed their mind. Hanson was whimpering on the floor, holding a bloody stump. Ronnie didn’t wait for me to tell her; she took off her bag and went to work on him. Snake picked up the forearm and hand and gave it to him, laughing as he walked away.
53 cleared his throat and I looked at him. His head motioned to behind me, and I turned to find Mira holding a pistol left lying on the floor. Harry hadn’t thought to pick it up. She pointed it at me and continued to move until she was sure no one could get behind her.
Taz moved next to me and raised her arm, pointing her pistol at Mira. I reached over and pushed her arm down, shaking my head. Mira twitched and shook; she was fighting it, I could tell.
“Go on,” I yelled, “pull the trigger, it’s what you were born to do. You have to heed the call, Mira, pull the trigger.”
“Benjamin, what are you doing? Are you crazy?” Adeen said from behind me.
“Everyone get away from me, now!” I yelled, turning back to Blue Eyes. “C’mon, Mira, all these months you’ve felt it. Remember when you used to walk to my cell and just look at me? You wanted to kill me then, but you couldn’t. Your master wouldn’t let you. It’s your chance now, so pull the trigger! You’re nothing but a second-rate copy, born for one purpose, and you can’t even pull that off.”
Mira screamed, and the pistol clicked. I fell down to my knees and then forward on my face. I lay there unmoving, waiting. It was only a few seconds before the pistol hit the floor and a crying Mira was kneeling beside me, trying to turn my heavy ass over. She unbuckled my helmet and pulled it off, and I heard her sit it down on the floor. She began kissing my face and telling me she was sorry. I smiled and opened my eyes.
“Do you feel it? Has it passed?” I asked softly.
“I don’t feel it,” she said. “I think I’m free of it Benjamin.”
“That’s good news,” I said. “Enjoy the feeling. You can start new, and I’ll make sure you get somewhere safe.”
I stood up, picking up the pistol she had dropped. I flipped the power on; it was fully charged. I handed it back to her. “It’ll work better now. Still want to shoot me?”
“You knew it wouldn’t fire?” Mira said. A crowd stood around, looking at me as if I was certifiable.
> “Yeah, we’ll talk about it later,” I replied, then turned my attention back to the other problems. “Braun, Adeen, where is Gray? If you don’t tell me in the next ten seconds, I’m going to make a mess of you they won’t be able to fix with any metal parts. I’ll start with you, Braun, because I’m not so sure you’re as innocent as you say.”
“I’m not,” he said. “But I am innocent in the case of your parents.”
“So he threw you two to the lions. Don’t you think giving your names to me was a death warrant? He thought it was, I can assure you.”
“Ben, even if I tell you, you can’t get to him,” Braun said. “It’s too public, and they will have the place locked down by now.”
“You give me everything and I will let you all go,” I said. “It’s a simple deal. You let me worry about getting to him.”
“But if you don’t kill him he’ll hound us.”
I took three quick strides towards Adeen, drawing my pistol. She took a swing but my face wasn’t there any longer. My open hand connected with her face and she staggered, reaching and grabbing my gun arm. I felt her hand tighten and saw her smile. I knew this wouldn’t turn into life-or-death, she just wanted to beat me, make me say uncle. I don’t have an uncle.
She guarded her face with her other arm, waiting for a slap that wasn’t coming. Instead I punched her above her breast, right in her shoulder socket. Stepping back, I jerked my gun arm, pulling her towards me, then stepped forward and punched her shoulder socket again.
“Let go or I’m going to rip your arm off,” I growled.
Her answer was a knee. I caught it bent down, hooking my arm under her crotch and lifting her off the ground. “Put me down now!” she yelled.
“I plan on it, and you know it’s going to hurt. This won’t be like the gym; I don’t think you’ll be turned on when I slam you onto this floor,” I said.
The Chronicles of Benjamin Jamison: No More Lies (Book 3) Page 27