Reason For Vengeance (Dark Vengeance Book 1)

by Adrian D. Roberts

  A shout from behind yelled. “Security! Lock!” Two words that should have been the last she hear. The house was designed to completely lock down at the command of the owner. Shutters would slam down across all the doors and windows, sealing the house completely and protecting the occupants. Hanna only smiled, it felt like a lifetime since she last smiled but it was barely seconds. Security systems like this one couldn’t be overwritten or shutdown, but maybe if you were smart they could be tricked. A sleight of hand working far more effectively than brute force.

  Hanna ducked round the doorway and straight out of the front door, sliding open soundlessly. The owner commanded the house to lock down, but what the house heard was “Security. Open.” An emergency command so the occupants could exit quickly. All the doors and windows slid open at that command, giving Hanna her emergency exit. She included it in the original Hack and it was saving her life.

  She turned a sharp right as she left the house heading to a dark corner of the garden where she could vault the wall, just as she entered it. She heard swearing from whichever of the male couple caught her in the corridor. She knew he would not have a hope in hades of seeing her now in the dark. She got to the wall and at full speed leapt into the corner, her left foot landed cleanly and pushed off firmly. Her right foot landed, but her knee gave a final jolt of pain and collapsed. Her hands scrabbled at the top of the wall, the blue energy coursing through her as she was electrocuted and her body slammed against the wall.

  For a moment she hung there screaming in pain and then for a moment more. Somehow she found the strength to keep going.

  “Move, you gutter snipe,” she growled to herself. “MOVE!” she cried. Pulling herself up and over the wall, the energy cooking her chest, stomach and thighs. She fell heavily on the other side and staggered to her feet.

  Hanna looked to the road and almost sobbed as she saw her getaway pulling up. A recycling collection lorry stopped just by her. Technology had changed the universe with machines doing wonderful things, but humans still created waste and it needed to be collected. It was cheaper to get men and women to go around taking away what others did not want than machines.

  Recycling was vitally important as humanity learnt long ago. They needed to reuse resources rather than continue to extract them. Even with the massive asteroid belt and the unterraformed world’s mining operations, it was still cheaper to recycle than to ship it all planet side.

  In this neighbourhood, a vehicle from the Ghetto of Inferno would stick out like a sore thumb, but there was no way the Privileged would collect their own crap, so here was one of the few vehicles no one would take notice of.

  Hanna hobbled over and rolled into a hidden bay underneath, crying out loudly in pain, but there was nothing she could do to stop that. The door snapped shut as soon as she was in and Deni was already there, lying in the cramped space.

  “Shit, you smell like cooked meat. That looks really bad. Are you alright?”

  “Yeah,” Hanna rasped in reply. “Hurts bad, but it looks worse than it is.” She rolled over onto her back and took a deep breath.

  The lorry moved off gently, the crew knew nothing of the Job, only that they would be taking on passengers at this point on the end of their route in the area. They took it easy as they wouldn’t get paid if the passenger didn’t get to back to the Ghetto.

  Hanna grimaced. Now she had time, she could take stock of herself and it didn’t look good. Most of her front was scorched. Fortunately her clothes were insulated for just this reason. It still wasn’t enough, her top and trousers were scorched, along with the skin underneath. Hanna knew that without them she would be dead. Her jacket had been open and escaped unscathed. She reached in and pulled out her Quartz.

  “Fuck, fuck, fuck!” Hanna swore loudly.

  “What is it? Is it fried?” Deni asked.

  “No its fine, it could take more than that easily. I lost the connector and the keys. They must have fallen out as I rolled down the stairs.”

  “You rolled down..? Never mind, you can tell me later. Did you get the copies?”

  “I hope so, let me have a look.” She switched the Quartz on and opened the correct program. She felt the blood drain out of her face as she stared at the damning information on the screen.

  “What is it? What’s wrong?” Deni asked in obvious worry.

  Hanna licked her lips and closed her eyes, trying to deny what she saw but couldn’t.

  “I failed.” She whispered to her best friend. “Tern is going to kill me. I, I didn’t get clean copies. They’re eighty percent at best.”

  “Oh”. Deni said and paused, not sure what else she could say and then rallied. “Well there’s fuck all we can do about that now. We’ll just have to think of something later. Right now we’ve got to do what we can for you before you die on me. How are you still talking through all this?” She pulled out a small spray can from a pocket. “Here, I’ve got some Skinseal.”

  Deni squeezed over in the cramped space and sprayed Hanna’s wounds. Hanna just lay there, trying not to think, unable to come to terms with how bad things had gotten for her in the last few minutes. The adrenaline was wearing off and the pain was coming on very strong now. Hanna felt sick and she turned to say something to Deni, when blackness came in from all sides and she collapsed back.

  She didn’t pass out as she heard Deni talking to her, her mind wandered away down well used paths. She owed Tern, or, more to the point, he owned her and yet she enjoyed these Jobs. She knew she was a junkie. Not one of the Fuzzers or Blanks, she managed to stay away from that stuff in her short life, she wasn’t her mother, but still a junkie.

  It was the danger, the thrill of facing death, pitting her wits, skills and strength against him. It was the only thing she could control. She hadn’t chosen to come out to that house, just as she hadn’t chosen to do almost anything in her life. The choices were made for her and she had to obey or die or worse, be turned into what her mother and father had been.

  They both died years before but she still remembered them. Her father the Whore and her mother the junkie. Neither had choices either, both did what the Bosses told them and both died. Her father, to a client who overdosed him on Fuzz and her mother, to a Dealer. He used her as an example of what would happen to those who pissed him off.

  It was then Hanna had been taken in by Tern. She could not remember a time when she hadn’t been stealing. First it was for her mother to pay for her Fuzz and after that it was for Tern. He knew what Hanna did for her mother and when Cest killed her, he stepped in. Hanna had been eight years old, but knew that it was Tern or the streets and few young ones survived there for long.

  Tern gave her a room and a bed, for that he demanded she pay her way. Mostly through pick pocketing at first and later with lifting, stealing items to order, but soon he wanted her learning to Hack. He arranged someone to teach her the way around a computer. How he knew Sneaker, she had no idea, nor what he had on him to get him to spend two hours a day working with a Gutter Snipe like her. Sneaker did though, and taught her well. Hanna found she had a real gift for computers. The codes just seemed to make sense for her in a way little else did.

  Sneaker was good to her and did more than Tern ever asked of him. It was Sneaker who got her the customised Quartz. Tern thought it was just a standard one. He didn’t know or care what or how Sneaker and Hanna did what they did, just that they did it when he wanted them to. She didn’t know why Sneaker took care of her.

  Sneaker was one of the best Hackers on Inferno and the word was, he was one of the Untouchables. No Enforcer, Grifter, Thief or Hacker would go against him. Even Bosses were careful round him, only the Tops contracted him for Jobs and yet Tern, only a Mid-Boss at best, managed to get him to train Hanna.

  Sneaker was her way out. He did Jobs that had nothing to do with Tern. His Jobs were tight, well planned, well executed and very well paid. There was one lined up right now. He was only waiting for the conditions to be right to put it into motion
. Hanna was in on it, he was using her experience as a Thief rather than what he taught her in Hacking. That was fine by her, she knew she was good, but he could still run rings around her.

  All she had to do now, was to survive whatever punishment Tern handed out for botching the copying of the car keys. He wasn’t going to be happy and she was already on his shit list. He’d given her a simple snatch and grab Job. He’d told her to follow this man from his office to his car in the car park. While he was walking to his car he would be alone, she was to walk up to him, grab his briefcase and leg it.

  Hanna didn’t know what was in the briefcase or why Tern wanted it. She’d done just as he’d told her. It was in the business district of Inferno and people from the Ghetto weren’t seen there. They were allowed as someone had to serve the food, wipe the tables and clean the offices, but they came and went by the Underground trains. Ghetto people didn’t even use the front doors. They had their own entrances out of sight. So Hanna dressed in fashionable, expensive clothes provided by Tern and after two days of watching the man, she made her move.

  She did everything right, the man hadn’t seen her following him, nor was he alarmed when she approached him. She’d walked towards him with a smile. He’d seen her, seen her clothes and taken her for a girl going to meet someone, maybe one of her parents in the car park. When she was close enough she lunged forward, slamming her shoulder into his stomach.

  Hanna was small, she was only fourteen years old and could easily remember the number of times in her life she hadn’t been hungry after eating. Despite all that, her body was solid muscle without a gram of fat. Her life was hard and so was her body. She hit the man with far more force than he could have possibly expected from a girl her size and fallen flat on his back, gasping for breath.

  Hanna moved quickly, scooping up the bag, but that’s when things went down the toilet. It was attached to his wrist by a micro cord and Hanna didn’t have the tools to cut it. The cord was only a tenth of a millimetre thick, impossible to see from the distances she had been watching him and Tern had not said a word to her about it. After taking one last look at the surprised expression on the man’s face, she ran.

  Tern wasn’t pleased. What he did to her afterward had been bad but it was only bruising, no broken bones this time and bruises heal. It was going to be much worse this time. He’d warned her, he’d been very clear about how important this Job was to him. Hanna hoped fervently that if she got the data to Sneaker he might be able to replicate the remaining twenty percent. It was unlikely, but she didn’t have any other play. Even then, the owners would know someone tried to copy them and could get the codes changed. It would not be easy and it would take time. If Tern moved quickly, they could still steal the cars. That was if she could get him a full copy.

  Vibrations brought Hanna out of her fugue state. She blinked and looked down at herself. Deni had done what she could and it dulled the pain some. From the vibrations that brought her round, coming through into their hiding place, they were on to the Speedway. Now out of the exclusive residential area and heading back towards the depths of the Ghetto. The ride felt as if she was heading towards something terrible with no way to avoid it.

  Deni lay on her side next to Hanna without saying anything more. Hanna was grateful to her best friend. Right now she didn’t want to talk. The Skinseal felt tight on her wounds and they stung badly, despite the anaesthetic that was part of the compound. Hanna just lay there sinking deeper into her misery.

  After a time the lorry started to slow down and shortly turned off the Speedway. The bright almost white surface of the Speedway quickly turned to the grey, blackened and dirty streets of the Ghetto. The lorry moved though the dark and still empty streets. Hanna glanced at Deni and almost smiled. She saw in the dim light she was counting the turns aloud to herself. Hanna didn’t need to do that, she knew where she was, each turn registered in her subconscious and she could picture their current location exactly.

  It soon became time to disembark as the lorry reached their part of town. It pulled up and a light blinked in the bay. Deni and Hanna unlatched the hatch with quick well practised movements. They rolled out from under the lorry and it moved off and away, its crew not caring their passengers were abandoning them.

  Deni quickly got to her feet, but Hanna lay on the ground.

  “Damn Deni. I don’t think I can get up. I don’t think there is a single part of me that doesn’t hurt.” She felt light headed and incredibly weak. Hanna vaguely thought that the wall must have done more damage than she realised.

  “How about your head?” Deni replied. “That looks like it’s OK, which doesn’t surprise me as it’s the thickest part of you. Come on, you can’t lay there. You’ve got to get fixed up.” Deni reached down, grabbed one of Hanna’s hands and pulled her friend up as gently as she could.

  “Tern’s going to kill me.” Hanna grimaced as she got to her feet and Deni pulled Hanna’s arm around her shoulder, placing her own around Hanna’s waist. Her knee felt terrible, it wouldn’t bend and could not hold her weight.

  “Maybe but let’s get you to Doc Kaiser. Otherwise Tern’s not going to have to do anything to you at all.”

  “Right, Doc Kaiser, yes…” Hanna words trailed off and her body started to go limp in Deni’s arms.

  “Hanna! Come on stay awake, it’s only a couple of blocks from here. I can’t carry you.” Deni shook her friend desperately trying to keep her conscious. “Here, take these.” Deni pulled two pills out from a pocket and almost shoved them in Hanna’s mouth.

  “No. No drugs, I won’t take them.” Hanna muttered.

  “Yes you will.” Deni stated firmly. “It’s just a couple of Torro’s. They’ll keep you going until you see the Doc.”

  Hanna reluctantly swallowed and felt the effects almost immediately. “OK, let do this.”

  The two girls staggered down the street like a couple of drunks after a ten pint session.

  Hanna felt stronger thanks to the Torro’s but was still light headed. The streets were dark with few lights to illuminate their way. Deni kept looking around, wary of any other people out and about. There were many denizens of the Ghetto who would not think twice about taking advantage of two young girls out on their own. If they were lucky Deni or Hanna would have time to give Tern’s name but if they were unlucky, or more accurately unprepared, they would be incapacitated before they could invoke their Bosses protection. Deni kept them by the road and didn’t take any of the narrow alleyways dividing the tall buildings, or passageways going through them. It took a bit more time but relatively safer.

  The girls took a left and crossed a couple of roads. No traffic was moving to slow them down. Hanna didn’t talk as they made their way to the doctor, managing to keep plodding forward. It worried Deni though there was nothing she could do. As long as they were moving, that was the most important thing.

  Finally, they came to a passageway leading under one of the buildings, Hanna grunted when they stopped but made no other sound. Deni activated the flashlight on her wristcomp, shining the high intensity beam into the dark. It lit up the passage and several small rodents scurried away into the dark. That was a good sign, they wouldn’t run towards something bigger, like a human hiding further down, beyond the light, in the deep shadows.

  Deni gave Hanna a shake to get her moving again. She led them both into the passage, heading for a door only a few metres in and up two steps. It was a heavily reinforced metal door. It would take quite a force to open it without permission. A decades old intercom was attached to the wall, Deni activated it and waited. Fortunately it didn’t take long before a crackled, gruff voice answered.

  “Look into the camera.”

  Deni looked up to the black, spherical security camera set into the wall above the door.

  “Both of you,” the intercom crackled.

  “Come on, you know the drill.” Deni cajoled Hanna and she wearily lifted her head. There was a moment’s pause, as whoever was on the other
side studied them, and then with a click the door swung out slightly. Deni pulled the door open and shuffled Hanna through it into a dimly lit corridor. A door opened further down and a white haired, thick set man stepped out. Hanna didn’t recognise him.

  “Who do you work for?” he said in a deep set voice.

  “Tern,” Deni replied.

  The man paused and seemed to think for a moment. He nodded and motioned them to follow him as he walked deeper into the building.

  “Come on, Hanna, not far now and we can get you fixed up.” Deni said, worry evident in her voice.

  “Good, ‘cause I really don’t feel that great.” Hanna replied and was grateful as her friend took even more of her weight, almost carrying her down the corridor.

  The man opened a door on the left and went in, the two girls followed into what was clearly a treatment room. A large ceramic table sat in the centre with metal cabinets all around the wall.

  “My name’s Seeberg.” The man said as he pulled some gloves out of a drawer and put them one. “Get her up on the table.”

  Deni helped Hanna onto the table and the man wheeled over a rack of instruments, tools and bottles. In a detached way he said. “Your friend should be fine. It looks like she’s burned quite badly, but she’d be dead by now and certainly wouldn’t have been able to walk in here, if it had been serious.” He pointed to a chair to one side. “Sit there and be quiet this will take a while and I don’t like being distracted while I work.”

  Deni sat down and Seeberg unsealed Hanna’s jacket. “Wait.” Hanna said feebly. She pulled out her Quartz and almost dropped it on the floor, but Seeberg caught it easily.

  “Here.” He tossed it over to Deni who caught it in surprise. “Your friend can hold on to it, but you need to keep still so I can fix you.” He said, not unkindly and pressed a hypo to Hanna’s neck. Hanna felt a slight sting and then everything went black as she passed out.