The room was mostly empty, with only a few tables and chairs scattered around the edges. The centre was clear and Sneaker led them all to the middle
“It’s a simple building clearance sim,” he said as he pulled out a set of dark blue glasses and two separate hand grips. “What weapons would you like?”
“A pair of Mag pistols,” Valerie told him.
Sneaker nodded and passed the glasses and hand grips to Valerie. Hanna had seen them before, they could be converted to simulate whatever weapon Valerie chose. There was an attachment to connect to them to make a Pulse rifle, Blaster or whatever was needed.
“The mission parameters are a for a hostage retrieval, but don’t worry about that, I just need to get a feel for how good you are.” Sneaker told her.
“Fine. Turn it on.”
“OK, one moment.” Sneaker waved them all away and back to the door, to give Valerie room to move around in the sim, without them getting in her way. Pulling out his datapad, Sneaker set up the program and activated the holo screen, so they could all watch what was happening. He set it to be a half metre per side cube, floating in the air, while the four of them stood around it. The Holo showed a twenty centimetre view of Valerie represented by the programs default female avatar. Sneaker hadn’t scanned her image in.
The avatar stood in a maze of corridors, guns in hands. “Right, Valerie. Starting now.” Sneaker said. With a push of a button things began to happen quickly. Valerie strode forward with no hesitation and both guns up. From her viewpoint, Hanna could clearly see the armed men and women hiding in rooms and around corners, but it was as though Valerie could as well. Again and again they came out and Valerie shot them before they could even aim.
Valerie’s head was in constant motion and her hands were lightning quick. “Wow, she is fast.” Troll said in a low voice as though she could not believe it. Hanna had no experience of guns, other than the few times they were fired at her, such as the burglary for the keys, but she thought Valerie was good.
The screen also helped by showing a list of statistics on each side of the cube. A clock, comparing Valerie’s time with the program’s base line, showed she was well ahead. It also showed she was faster than the best recorded time on the datanet. Her accuracy was at one hundred percent. She was just not missing and from watching her, Hanna could see why.
On the holo the avatar looked smooth, but it was nothing like the real thing when Hanna looked up to Valerie. It was strange watching the woman move around the centre of the room. It was like watching a dancer who was moving to music only she could hear, and, in a very real way, she was.
“I would happily say that was impossible, if I wasn’t watching it with my own eyes.” Troll said, voicing what all four of them were thinking. “I‘ve never seen anyone that good. She’s already beaten our best score, on her own!”
“She said she was the best in the System,” Sneaker pointed out.
“From this, I would say she wasn’t boasting.” Troll said shaking head in wonder. “We’ve worked with, and faced, some bad asses in our time. None like this.”
“So, err, is she good enough?” Hanna asked.
“You better believe it, kid.” The red haired woman told her. Troll looked at Sneaker. “Whatever she wants, pay it.”
“I’ll give her your cut then, Troll.” Sneaker said mildly.
“Fuck off!” Troll replied brusquely, but there was humour underlining it. Hanna guessed Sneaker hadn’t meant it and Troll knew it.
The program ran to its finish, with Valerie standing over the rescued hostage. The holo glowed with the final statistics and Sneaker turned to the woman who impressed them all. She stood there calmly, the glasses in her hand and no emotion at all. A statue merely waiting for the years to pass.
“You know how to use a Glide Suit?” Sneaker asked
The woman raised a single eyebrow and cocked her head. She considered this for a moment and nodded once.
“You’re in.” Sneaker told her with a smile.
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
Two hours later they were in Sneaker’s apartment. Hanna had been there many times whilst he taught her to Hack. He owned the whole floor and converted all the flats to be his living and work area. Sneaker had a computer workshop, it was where he installed the new upgrade to Hanna’s Quartz the day before, along with a room for his own custom built computers.
For Hanna it was massively extravagant. Her and Deni’s place was smaller than most of Sneaker’s rooms. Even when her parents were alive, their home only contained three rooms. As long as she could remember, Hanna slept in the main room that was both kitchen and lounge.
The five of them, who had been joined by Rush, were sitting in Sneaker’s living room. He had just finished using his VI screen to run Valerie through the Heist.
“Any questions, Valerie?” he asked.
The woman sat all the way through his briefing without saying anything and now shook her head.
“I only have my Mag pistols with me. Do you have anything heavier for me to use on those guards?”
“Come this way.” Sneaker said with an elaborate wave of his arm. He led Valerie out and Hanna tagged along, she hadn’t seen Sneaker’s weapon stash. He took them to a large heavy door with a lock incredibly difficult to crack. No doubt Sneaker upgraded it himself to increase that to nigh on impossible.
With his body blocking the keypad, he entered the combination and the door parted. It had five interlocking parts that slid aside smoothly. Sneaker stepped aside and Valerie went in. Seeing Hanna, the senior Hacker nodded his head to her, indicating she could go in as well.
The room was large, much bigger than Hanna’s apartment. The walls were lined with all sorts of weapons, in many different shapes and sizes. A large table sat in the centre, with a clear top and two racks under it laden with more stuff. Valerie was moving slowly round the room, picking pistols and rifles up, inspecting them meticulously.
“I have no idea what any of these are.” Hanna said to the older woman. Valerie just seemed to ignore her and carried on looking for whatever it was she wanted.
“You’ve made some new acquisitions then, Sneaker.” The voice from behind surprised Hanna, she hadn’t realised Troll followed Sneaker in as well. The tall redhead stepped into the room and picked up a large, long gun. It looked heavy and from the way Troll hefted it, Hanna guessed she was right. It had a short, thick power cord running to what Hanna recognised as power packs on a belt.
“Where did you get this baby?” Troll asked.
“As if I am going to tell you my sources,” Sneaker said, from where he was leaning casually against the doorway. “So don’t bother asking.”
“You do have some nice toys,” the Enforcer told him.
“I’ve been stocking up recently,” he told her. “If this Job goes well, I have a few others in mind and we can set up as a proper Crew. For that we’ll need the equipment, hence this lot.”
“I don’t have any idea what all of them are.” Hanna said to Troll.
“They basically break down into four types,” the tall woman said. “This one’s a Blaster,” she indicated the gun in her hand. “It runs on the separate power pack you can see attached to the belt. Generally used mounted on a vehicle or can be carried like this, though you would be best to prop it on a wall or floor before firing. Someone who’s very experienced with them and very strong, could fire it without a mount, though that’s rare. The Legion generally uses these on their FPBA.” A blank look from Hanna caused Troll to clarify. “Fully Powered Body Armour. It’s what they use when they want to seriously scare the shit out of anyone.” Hanna caught Valerie glancing up out of the corner of her eye and when she looked over, the other woman turned away.
“The Blaster fires a high powered energy round. It can punch through most things you’ll find around here, even permacrete, if you concentrate your fire long enough. It also has a high rate of fire, something like a hundred rounds per second, and this is why it needs an ex
ternal power pack as it’s massively hungry. A Blaster is best used when set to a twenty-five shot round. This will destroy pretty much anything you’re pointing it at.”
Troll put down the Blaster and picked up a slim rifle. “This is a Mag rifle and what you’ll see most people using in the Ghetto. It has a simple mechanism. It can be easily repaired using the tools and equipment in any vehicle workshop. The magazine here,” she pulled out a square box that was sticking out from the bottom. “Contains one thousand rounds. Each one is essentially no more than a small piece of jagged metal, twenty millimetres long, five mil wide and two mil thick. The gun uses magnetic coils to spin the round up and fire it out faster than the speed of sound. It doesn’t have great penetration so good armour can resist it, but if it hits you it’s going to make quite a mess. People like them as they’re simple, easy to use, have a quick rate of fire and make almost no noise.
“The problem is that they’ll run out of ammo and that’s the most common mistake. I’ve lost track of the number of times I’ve faced people who spray these things all over the place. All I have to do is wait a few seconds for them to run dry. The look on their faces is always priceless.” Troll grinned to herself in recollection. “They come in both rifles and pistols, the pistol having a slower rate of fire and reduced range. If you are caught carrying a single shot version, the Police really don’t care. If you have a rapid fire one like this, you’ll need to stump up a bribe.”
Putting the Mag rifle down, Troll picked up a shorter and bigger rifle. “Now if they find you with this, you might need to drop the name of your Boss and a somewhat heftier sum of Sov’s. It’s a Pulse rifle and like the Mag, it comes in both pistol and rifle forms. Like the Blaster it fires an energy round, but it’s a lot less powerful and has a slower rate of fire. Depending on the make and model, they can fire three to seven shot bursts at ten rounds per second. It’ll then need half, to a full second to recharge. Even on the more advanced models, most people will keep it to the three round shot so they have a shorter cycle time.
“The Pulse rifle will punch through a lot of armour types, but certainly not the Legions FPB Armour. It also has a magazine.” She ejected another square box that was rounder and better made than the Mag rifles. “It’s a rechargeable power and you can carry a number of them without being slowed down. The Pulse is noisier than the Mag so the preferred method, if you can afford to, is to carry Mag pistols for close and quiet, with a Pulse weapon for stopping power. Personally, I go with a Pulse pistol and a Pulse rifle.”
She placed the rifle on the rack and stepped over to a gun with a whole rack to itself. It was big and from the way Troll picked it up, heavy. It was as long as the Pulse rifle and much wider.
“If you get caught with this they’ll cream themselves and call in the heaviest unit they have. Same goes for the Blaster. It’s a Plasma rifle, they come in various sizes and this is the smallest type. It could still burn a hole in an armoured aircar and have everyone nearby pissing in their pants. The Plasma is self-explanatory really and fires a single shot of super-heated plasma. This should have a power pack attached and I can’t see one.”
Looking over to Sneaker, Troll quirked an eyebrow. “It didn’t come with one,” he explained to her. “It was part of the shipment. It all came as a job lot and, as I can’t ever see us having a use for it, I haven’t got round to getting one yet.”
“I could always use a power pack from one of the Blasters,” Troll said. “They use the same power grades and it’ll only give us a few shots, but imagine what I could do with this?”
“Not a chance, Troll.” Sneaker said. “That’s heat we don’t need.”
“You’re no fun.” Troll replied and actually pouted at him. To see the tall Enforcer with that expression made Hanna giggle. Troll winked at her and put the Plasma back on its rack.
Troll ran her hand lovingly over the last item that was distinctly different from the others. It was a metre long tube with handles, a shoulder mount and what looked to Hanna like a sighting system attached.
“This is a missile launcher and I won’t tell you how far I’m willing to go to have a play with it. Let’s just say it’s much further than I would for the Plasma. It fires single use missiles and with the right round, it could take out a Police aircar.” She looked at Sneaker again. “What do you have for it?”
This time he smiled slightly. “Two Legion anti-tank rounds with the infantry mod and one anti-aircraft. That was a one-off purchase and cost more than I really could afford to pay, but unlike the Plasma, I think it has more scope for us to use.”
“This’ll do.” Valerie’s cold voice cut through the humour like ice on a fire. She selected a Pulse rifle looking more modern than the others to Hanna. “I’ll need to service it before the Job. Do you have somewhere I can use?”
Sneaker nodded, and if he took offence at Valerie’s insinuation he didn’t keep his weapons in good working order, he didn’t show it. “I have one right here with everything you will need and you are welcome to use it. Once you’re finished, we’ll head up into the mountains for some practise with the Glide Suits.”
Valerie shook her head. “No. I’ll service the rifle now and then meet you on the day of the Job.”
Now Sneaker did show his anger and frustration, though he did have it under control. Hanna looked back and forth between them worriedly.
“I know you’re good Carter.” Sneaker said trying to placate her. “But we need to work as a team, and that means practise.”
“You practise and, as long as no one gets in my way, there won’t be a problem.” She stepped up to Sneaker, looking him squarely in the eyes. “Do I have to look for it or are you going to show me?”
The taller man looked back at her before finally nodding and with a shake of his head, he led her out of the armoury.
“That woman is one arrogant bitch,” Troll snapped.
“Erm. I guess.” Hanna wanted to defend Valerie, but struggled to justify her actions. Sneaker was right and as Hanna was going to be completely reliant on Valerie, it really worried her. “You saw her earlier. She’ll be fine,” she told Troll hesitantly.
“She’s a stone cold killer who does not give a fuck about anyone but herself.” Troll said accusingly as she walked out. “Watch your back, kid, and make sure your piece is loose in its holster, you might need it.”
Hanna looked around the room that was now empty of any people. “But I’ve never fired a gun before.” She said to the empty room, not knowing what to do. No one ever trusted her enough to show her how to use a gun. Tern would have killed her if he found one on her, so she avoided them. Now all she could do was to trust Valerie not to get her killed.
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
It was never truly dark in Inferno and for once Hanna was grateful for that. This meant she could clearly see the rooftop five hundred metres away and three hundred metres down from her. While training in the pitch black mountains, she used goggles allowing her to precisely pick her landing zone. Now she still wore those goggles, but, like all of their equipment, they were completely powered down. To do this without their assistance was daunting at the least. Fortunately, with the light coming from the buildings around them, aircars flying past and even reflection from the street lights far below, she could see across the city to where they needed to land.
With the flight suit over her normal working clothes she felt hot. Sweat trickling down her forehead and her palms were slick inside her gloves. A strong wind whipped around her while doing little to cool her. She really needed to go to the toilet. Her bladder felt like it was about to burst, even though she had already gone on the rooftop not ten minutes ago.
Nerves were also heavily playing their part. The cold woman standing next to her, on the edge of the roof, did nothing to diminish them. She stood there, in her dark clothes and flight suit, gazing off into the distance. Her pistols were holstered on her thighs and the Pulse rifle was strapped tightly to her back. Valerie arrived exactly on time a
nd travelled with Hanna to this, the jumping off point, without a word. Fortunately, Sneaker came with them so he could take up his position in an office a couple of floors below.
From there he would direct the Heist and Hack into the city network, diverting any attention from the building they were about to raid. As she thought of him, his voice came through her com.
“OK. I’m into the network and now all the security systems are looking away from the target. Are you all set your end, Troll?”
“Yep.” Troll replied in a relaxed, laid back voice. “Barney and I are sitting here bored out of our brains and Rush is at the wheel. I’ll be honest and say that I have never seen anyone sweat as much as he does.”
“Hey!” Rush interjected. “Don’t take it out on me. Just because you can’t sit still for longer than a minute.”
“Wow,” Troll replied. “The kid does have a backbone.”
“That’s enough, we don’t have time for you to fuck around,” Sneaker snapped. “Valerie and Hanna. We’re ready when you are.”
Hanna looked up at the taller woman beside her who did not respond, her gaze fixed on the rooftop below. Not quite keeping a sigh from escaping her, Hanna keyed her com.
“OK, we’ll be jumping in a moment.”
Very much like her burglary the other week, the best way to break into a high tech facility, was using the lowest technology possible. They would have active scanners sweeping the air around the building, looking for anything that could be used to get people where they should not be, such as aircars and grav-belts. That is where the flight suits came in. Made of a memory fabric able to form whatever shape preprogramed into it, when activated it would form wings that would allow Valerie and herself to glide down to the roof.
Switching off her com completely, Hanna turned to Valerie to ask if she was ready. She was forestalled by her leaping from the roof without a word. She watched as Valerie activated her suit and, at a speed that was beyond anything Hanna was capable off, flying off out into the night.
Reason For Vengeance (Dark Vengeance Book 1) Page 24