The cyber-team all looked at each other, and then around the room. The soldiers who would normally escort her were scrambling to prepare for the unplanned assault on Pawn City. Finally, one volunteered.
Grieves, seemingly pleased, then pointed at one of the other hackers. “You two. Go.”
The tech who volunteered, a man named Hollister, said, “I think I can handle her.”
“Take Evans anyway,” Grieves said. “And hurry. I need you both back to make sure no one detects our strike team until they are well inside the dome.”
17
“You sure it is them?”
“Nearly positive,” Skip told X-1. “We spent a lot of time watching them when we were supposed to hand Gemma over.”
“Do they know we are here? Are they following us somehow?”
“I wish I knew. Could be coincidence. There is an army serving the same batshit crazy cult Gemma’s mom got involved with out here. It might make sense she would go to them, probably to convince them to go after us.”
“Can they see us under the dome?” X-1 asked.
“No, Whistler has all sorts of cloaking tech. It’s in his best interests that no one knows who is inside.”
“So we’re safe?”
“Unless they land in Pawn City,” Skip said. “Laura going to hang out with her fellow psychopaths in Inferno City is just speculation on my part. The guy helping her, Corvan, isn’t a stranger to this place. I have the feeling he runs in the same circles as Whistler and the twins.”
X-1 stroked the tip of his chin, “Recommendations?”
“We are fueled up. If we bug out now and stay low, I don’t think they will see us until we’re clear.”
“I told my associates I would give Seven and Bishop an hour.”
“Maybe, but not a second more,” Skip said. “Otherwise, we’ll have problems. I don’t think we can trick them twice.”
“Be ready, then.”
X-1 left and found the Listers and Quato waiting for him outside the cockpit.
“You going to tell us what’s going on?” Quato asked. “Bishop and Seven are both gone and the youngsters are up to something.”
“Correct,” X-1 said.
“Correct? That’s all you’ve got to say?”
“Yes.”
“Where are you going?”
“Out. To handle some business.”
18
“That is some fine merchandise you have there,” a drunk patron told Seven as she approached Benji’s Boobs and Booze. She shouldn’t have been surprised.
In an effort to not look like a fugitive, she had dressed as close to a prostitute as the wardrobe available would allow. How this patron and the rest of his overly inebriated friends leered at her showing she pulled it off. While she was glad she had the right look, she didn’t enjoy their attention.
“Thanks,” she said as she kept moving, swinging her hips.
“What’s in the bag?” one of them asked, a sloppy looking sort, wearing clothes much too big for him like he hadn’t eaten well in years. He moved in front Seven and blocking her way. “You have cool toys in there or what?”
“I certainly do,” she told him as she pulled one of the handguns she had taken from X-1’s collection. She didn’t know what this one was, but she gave him a good view of the inside of the barrel. “Now, if you’ll excuse me.”
He did as she requested. Seven moved past him and into Benji’s. Once inside, she was one of many scantily clad women. People looked at her but she kept moving. It wasn’t long before whoever had been looking at her had someone else, someone younger and prettier, attracting their attention.
She hoped to spot Bishop. This seemed like the place to go for information. She figured he’d come here first. She covered most of this floor, but was not having any luck. She was working her way around the stage when a massive human stepped in her way.
“Sorry, lady, we don’t allow independents,” the big man said. “But if you want to work here, I’m sure Benji can hook you up. You look like you’d make an ass-load of cash.”
Seven thought about protesting and telling him she was not looking for work, but held her tongue, thinking a brothel owner would have a good idea where to find Bishop, or anyone lost backwards city.
“Can I talk to him right now?” she asked.
“No, he’s in a meeting.”
“Another girl?”
“Hardly. Looked like nameless, so the last thing we want to do is interrupt them. I’m almost done with my shift—how about you audition for me? You look strong. I like that in a woman. A guy like me can break the average woman, you know.”
“That nameless a dark-skinned, bald-headed guy?”
“Yeah. How did you know?”
She pulled the gun and placed it to the big man’s throat. “The same way I know all the stim in the world won’t keep my bullet from shredding your jugular vein. Can you contact them right now?”
“Sure, but—”
“Tell Benji to tell the Nameless that Seven is here.”
“Is that it?” he asked.
“Yeah.”
“Is the fucking cannon at my neck necessary?”
“You’re saying all I had to do was ask?”
“Good point.”
“I thought so too,” Seven said.
The big man slowly drew a cube from his pocket and, after a voice command, a hologram of a paunchy, middle-aged man with thinning hair appeared.
“What do you want, Hamilton?” the image asked.
She dug the gun deeper into his throat. “Say it.”
“Tell Bishop that Seven is here.”
The man made a face before turning to someone not visible in the hologram. “You Bishop? Someone called Seven wants to see you.”
Seven heard someone say, “Bring her in.”
“So does this mean I don’t get an audition?” Hamilton asked.
Seven rolled her eyes, put the gun away, and motioned for Hamilton to move.
She didn’t bother to answer his ridiculous question.
19
In her brief time as a prisoner, Darlene had never gone anywhere without an armed escort, often Grieves himself. It wasn’t just the hardware they carried that made the situation scary. It was how big they were, battle-hardened men and women, with Grieves the biggest and scariest of them all. He was like the boogieman in a uniform.
“Either of you know why Grieves wanted two of you to escort me?” Darlene asked her escorts as they approached her quarters.
The one called Evans moved ahead to open her door while Hollister said, “Don’t know, don’t care, and if I were you, I would call him General Grieves. He won’t take kindly to such disrespect.”
“You ever in the regular army?”
“Regular army?”
“Real life, instead of virtual?”
“Why should that matter?” Hollister said as Evans opened the door to her quarters.
“Oh, it matters,” Darlene said as she spun and chopped Hollister in the throat. Evans turned from the door just as Darlene delivered a kick to his groin. She followed the kick with a straight right, which shattered Evan’s nose, and then shoved him into her quarters.
Hollister reached to grab her by the arm, but she grabbed his arm instead and twisted it backward as far as it could go as she delivered several kicks to his knees and ribs.
She let go off him and smashed his head against the wall. As Evans tried to recover, stumbling in the doorway, she pushed Hollister into him so they both tumbled into her room.
Hollister was dazed and still having trouble breathing. When Evans tossed him aside, he went down and stayed that way.
Evans surprised her when he took her punches and kicks on his forearms. He dove forward and took her down. She twisted as he tried to get on top of her and ended up with him on her back. She dipped her chin as he tried to get his arm around her neck.
“What? You thought you were the only hacker with ‘real army’ training?” He b
reathed the words in her ear as if he enjoyed trying to cinch in the choke.
Using his voice as a guide, she threw her head back and broke his nose. Evans was distracted long enough for her to twist around and plant an elbow on his temple, stunning him enough to allow her to break free of his grip.
Darlene got to her feet and saw Hollister brandishing a knife. He lunged at her with it, but she caught his hand and chopped down into the crook of his elbow as she pushed the knife back toward his chest.
He resisted as she buried the blade in his shoulder. She pulled the knife free, but before she could turn around, she heard a voice. “What the hell is going on here?”
She glanced back to see one of those battle-hardened men holding his gun at his side in the doorway.
“These two decided they would have their way with me,” Darlene said.
“Bullshit,” Evans spat as he stood up wiping blood off his face.
The soldier turned to Evans. “Stay where you are.”
When he turned, Darlene struck, spinning and stabbing the soldier in the throat. She twisted and pulled the blade free.
Evans tried a countermove, but she slashed him across the face. When his hand went up to protect his face from a second attack, she drove her heel into his chest and knocked him back across the room.
The soldier was using one hand to try to stem the blood gushing out of his neck while he raised his gun. The loss of so much blood so fast made him slow, dizzy, and unstable, and all he did was make it easier for Darlene to snatch the gun from his hands.
She pulled the dying man into the room and shut the door. He fell to her feet and bled out as she raised the gun and motioned for the two hackers to sit on the bed.
“Cubes,” she commanded.
“I didn’t bring mine,” Evans said, while Hollister pulled a cube from his pocket.
“Really? Shall I hand you your ass again or shoot you in it?”
Evans reconsidered and produced his own cube.
Darlene stuck the knife in the wall so she had a free hand. She stuffed both cubes in her pocket.
“Keys,” she commanded, and Evans gave her the set.
“We can lock the place down,” Evans told her.
“Sure, you could, but you’d be screwed if you did. If you can lock the building down by remote, so could someone else. Shitty tactics in hostile territory.”
Instead of arguing the point, Evans said. “Are you going to kill us?”
“You got a reason I shouldn’t?”
“The door to the left at the far east end of the hallway will exit you at the back of our camp. If you can make it, there’s no shortage of buildings to hide in.”
Darlene took the dead soldier’s machine gun and left the room, locking the door behind her.
If she were Evans, she would have lied about what direction she needed to go, so instead of going left, she went right.
Once she was out of the building, she hurried down an abandoned alleyway. With one of the cubes, she figured she could hack into the dome’s system. All the domes were the same and she had plenty of experience working systems in the city, so it should be simple doing the same thing here.
First, though, she needed to get a warning to Whistler.
20
They breached the dome with the help of another inside man, a slim, unassuming man with short dark hair and cold ice blue eyes that seemed to suit him.
Unlike Sly he was not a believer in the Inferno or its people, but a disgruntled former employee of Whistler’s. He opened a service entrance toward the back of the Pawn City dome.
Ferris and his team were vulnerable here. The entrance only allowed in one vehicle at a time, and a few men and an RPG could stop them cold and defend it for hours. So they had to be smart, keep their heads on a swivel, or the mission could be dead before it got started.
They were cloaked from most surveillance, but only on their approach and mainly from outside. They didn’t have the ability once they breached and entered the dome, as it had its own cyber-defenses. Whistler had made sure to spend the money for high-end gear.
Inside, the cloak wouldn’t last them two seconds.
It was why they took a risk seeing if they could flip Whistler’s girl. Not only did she know the lay of the land, but she knew the systems well because built it. Knew of its flaws. She could turn surveillance off as quickly as flipping a switch, but they knew she wasn’t ready to turn on her city.
The third and final vehicle entered the dome without a shot fired their way. Ferris had three armored vehicles with offensive capabilities and eight of his best ground troops waiting inside.
Just a while later, they had made it to Benji’s B&B.
And that’s where they were finally spotted.
21
“What are you doing here?” Bishop asked Seven after Hamilton led her into the Benji’s office on the second floor.
“I came to get you.”
“I didn’t need to be rescued.”
“You need to come back.”
“Why?”
“Gemma still needs you. I still need you.”
“I appreciate what you are saying, but I can’t do it. You need to go on without me.”
“No—”
Bishop held up his hand. “I’m just a soldier, Seven, easily replaced and expendable. You’ll never even know I’m gone.”
“You must really have a hard-on for the general,” Benji said before Seven could respond. “Hell, if someone like her said she needed me, I’m embarrassed to admit how fast I’d drop everything to leave with her.”
Seven sat down at the table, across from Bishop. “You are not expendable or replaceable to me.”
“You can’t talk me out of this,” Bishop told her. “You should go back. If you want to protect the kid, it would be better if you got the hell out of here.”
“If you’re staying, I am staying.”
“You can’t do that.”
“Well, I am. Deal with it.”
“You should listen to him,” Benji told her. “You’re stepping in some serious shit when there is plenty of room to step around it.”
Before they could continue, there was a knock on the door and Dean stuck his big head inside. “Boss, Whistler is here.”
Benji gave a nod and VP-23 came in first. After looking at Seven and Bishop, he turned to Benji. “They’re armed.”
“They’re here to help Whistler take on these Lord Inferno assholes,” Benji said. “What do you want them to use? Cans of Silly String?”
“I’d prefer it if they—”
Whistler came inside before he could finish. “Sorry, 23, I know you’re just doing your job, but we don’t have time for this.”
“There is always time for proper security protocol,” VP-23 said as Whistler took a seat next to Seven.
“Just you two?” Whistler asked.
“Two more than you had an hour ago,” Bishop said.
Whistler acknowledged Bishop’s point and turned to Benji. “What about you? You talk to Felicity yet?”
“No, someone…someone who worked for me, actually, killed her.”
“To keep her from talking?”
“Looks that way. Probably worked for the general.”
“So, are you helping me?”
“I don’t know.” Benji pointed at Bishop. “He kind of took care of the problem.”
Whistler was about to respond when his cube buzzed in his pocket. He was considering ignoring it, but with everything going on, he decided to give it a glance.
“Holy shit.”
“What?” Benji asked.
“I just got a message from a ghost.”
“A ghost?” Seven asked.
“My girlf— Darlene,” Whistler said. “I thought she was dead. She said three tanks full of troops are headed this way.”
“To your place?” Benji asked.
“No, yours.”
“Mine? Why?”
Whistler looked at Bishop. “They a
re coming for you.”
“Three tanks for him?” Seven stared at Whistler in disbelief.
“Evidently, they want him dead,” Whistler said.
“Feeling’s fucking mutual.” Bishop stood.
“We should get out of here,” Whistler said.
Everyone agreed, but before any of them could leave, Dean knocked on the door again. “We’ve got three tanks headed right for us.”
“How long do we have?” Bishop asked.
“Thirty.”
“Minutes?”
“No. Thirty seconds.”
“Your ghost didn’t give us much warning,” Benji said to Whistler.
Whistler shrugged. “Cut her some slack. She’s supposed to be dead.”
They moved for the elevator. Bishop activated the communication function of his suit as Seven asked, “How do we get out of here?”
“Front door or the back,” Benji said. “People who visit my establishment generally don’t want to be on video, so I narrowed it down to two exits to keep track of everyone without violating their privacy.”
“In other words, there’s no way out?”
Benji shrugged, indicating she was probably right.
“Which floor is easiest to defend?” Bishop asked.
When Benji hesitated, VP-23 replied, “Basement. Basically, a big room with a long hall.”
No one argued VP-23’s point, so Benji voice-activated the elevator. “Basement. So what’s the plan? We hide down here until I can call for help?”
“You can do what you want,” Bishop said. “I’m fighting.”
Seven, VP-23, and Dean nodded in agreement. VP-23 said, “I know the group you put together to fight Collins was good, but they will not be ready to fight effectively for at least a few days.”
Benji began to argue, but stopped, thinking the mercenaries he used when he needed some real firepower instead of just muscle would spend at least a day negotiating the price.
A small hologram of Switch formed on top of Bishop’s sleeve. “Dude, what the hell is going on—”
“No time to explain,” Bishop said. “I need you to get to your gear and do some work for me.”
X-Squad Pawn City Page 6