My hands shook as I removed the gun. I was careful to make sure the safety was on and not point it in Plex's direction. My nerves were on edge and I was starting to hyperventilate. Beside me, Plex was faring much better. He was the picture of cool. Whether that was just an act to keep the other gangers calm or if he really had ice running through his veins, I couldn't tell.
“Ripped it straight from a movie I saw last week.” Plex grinned.
I cast about for something to calm my nerves and get my mind off the coming battle. Inventory.
Time to take inventory.
I had one small, loaded, possibly ineffective handgun. One spare 12 round clip. I had the unarmored clothing that the Snakes had left me with after claiming eminent domain on my clothing. Other than that, the lint in my pockets.
I had my abilities. Heightened hearing and vision. I didn't feel as much pain when I was hurt. I moved faster than normal humans could. Then there was that thing when time slowed down, but that seemed only to happen when I was about to die, and I wasn't altogether sure that was a special ability at all. Maybe that was just what a normal body did with the hand of death wrapped tightly around it.
"I wish I had a machete or something."
Plex laughed at my words and raised his eyebrows, "That katana on your back isn't big enough for you or something?"
"What?" I said, reaching over my shoulder. Then I felt it. The hilt of the sword I had strapped on my back in the weapons room. I'd forgotten all about it. I gripped the hilt of the scabbard which was at neck level with my left hand and drew the sword. I'd never held a real sword before. It was lighter than I would have imagined. The wooden sticks Zenigra had trained me with had been nothing more than branches or the broken handles of farming equipment. This though, this was something else.
I leaned back against the bookcase, careful to keep my head below firing range, and placed the Seburo on the ground next to me. Then I turned my full attention to admiring the blade in my hands. The blade glistened in the mid-day light filtering in from the windows at either end of the hallway and from the open apartment doors. I flicked my wrist several times, causing the blade to cut through the air in front of me almost faster than my eyes could follow.
"Had some practice with one of those I see," Plex said.
I let out a breath I hadn't even realized I was holding and slipped the sword back into its scabbard on my back. Some of the panic drained out of me as I exhaled.
"No," I replied, "I really haven't."
Plex looked like he was about to say something, but was cut off when a shout from the stairway filled the air.
"I've got 'em. One floor down. Move!"
As the Snakes all readied their guns, I picked mine up from where I'd placed it on the floor when I'd been admiring the katana and took up a firing position. I was on my knees behind the bookcase, my arm propped up on its side, the gun leveled at the doorway. Plex was doing the same. I assumed the Snakes at our backs were as well.
Something flickered across the door frame leading to the stairs and someone behind me opened fire.
Chapter 26
My finger clenched on the trigger as shots from the other Snakes began to ring out. I pulled the trigger over and over, but the gun wouldn't fire.
Jammed? Do guns do that? How can it? I haven't even shot it once. Damn.
"Safety!" Plex yelled and continued firing. Figures were spilling out of the stairway two at a time. They seemed to be taking up positions around the door and maybe they were returning fire, but I couldn't tell.
I cursed myself and flicked the safety off. Bullets were smacking into the mattress in front of me with dull thwacks by the time I managed to get my first shot off.
The sound the gun made as it fired was more of a swooshing sound than the clap I was hearing from the weapons around me.
Thanks, Plex. Damn thing doesn't even sound like a real gun.
My shot went wide and the concrete next to a merc’s shoulder exploded. The merc didn't even seem to notice. He was holding a nasty looking shotgun and as I watched, he raised it and pointed it in my direction. I didn't know much about guns, but I assumed a shotgun blast at this range would rip a hole in the hasty cover Plex and I erected. And rip a hole in one of us if we happened to be in the way.
I adjusted my aim and without thinking, pulled the trigger.
The bullet hit the man in the arm and he dropped the shotgun as he clutched at the wound. The mercs’ chests were covered with plated armor and they wore helmets that protected the tops and sides of their heads, if not their faces.
As Plex had guessed, their weak points seemed to be their legs, face, and arms.
I saw another merc take a spray of bullets to the face and fall. Then a cry from behind me let me know a Snake had been hit.
All in all six mercs had entered the hallway. No more seemed to be coming through the door. I wondered where the others were. Maybe they were trying to flank us from the other stairway and were only now realizing that it was blocked by debris. If that was the case and if we could only deal with these six, five now, we might stand a chance of holding off the second wave.
If the second wave arrived before we could deal with the first, we didn't stand a chance.
A bullet whizzed by my hand so close that I could feel the skin warm. I dropped behind the cover of the bookshelf just before the second bullet sizzled through the air where my head had been.
I lay there for a moment, breathing, as more bullets tore through the air above me. Plex was ducking behind cover, then popping up to shoot, then ducking down again. Occasionally he took time to reload his gun. Three of the Snakes behind us were still shooting.
"Three down now," Plex said, when he dropped behind cover, right before a hail of bullets flew through the air where his head had just been.
I didn't dare peak my head around the side of the bookshelf for fear of taking a bullet in the back of the head from one of the snakes behind me. Instead, I just flipped my gun above my head, pointed it in the direction of the hallway and without looking, pressed the trigger five times.
I had no idea if I hit anything and I didn't pop up to check right away. After a couple seconds had elapsed, Plex looked at me and nodded and we both popped up, our guns already pointed in the mercs direction.
They were pulling back, heading back out the doorway they had so recently entered. Two of them were pulling a badly wounded man with them. A third, bleeding from his leg, was limping out on his own.
No thought of mercy crossed my mind as I centered the crosshair of my gun on one of the uninjured men and opened fire. It took three shots, but I finally caught him in the leg and he went down right in the doorway. He was momentarily blocking the retreat of the remaining two mercs, and Plex and the Snakes took that time to pump bullets into all of the remaining mercs. Then, hands grabbed the merc that had fallen in the doorway and pulled him away. One of the two that had still been in the hallway was down and bleeding from the head. Most likely dead. The other had a leg wound, but he managed to stumble and crawl through the doorway before taking any more hits.
Then, suddenly, the corridor was empty.
A cheer came up from the Snakes behind us and I joined in wholeheartedly. For a moment, I was lost in the sheer exaltation that came with surviving a gunfight. It washed over me like an orgasm, obliterating my fear and anxiety and replacing it with a surge of joy that had my head spinning.
Then, Plex was shouting for a status report and I was reloading my gun.
Two Snakes had been hit. The female Snake was dead. I could just see the tip of her shaved head poking out from behind a mattress. Half her skull was missing. The other had taken a flesh wound in the arm and shouted that he was fine.
"They'll be ready for us next time. Who knows how they'll come at us. If they've got smoke grenades or flash bangs, we're in real trouble. Our comm implants come with dampeners that will protect us from most of the effects of a banger, but you'll be down for the count, and we'll be dazed
at the least."
The post gunfight euphoria was wearing off and I was starting to think about the men I had shot. I’d been in fights before at school and later with Parli and Lucas, but I’d never had the means to truly defend myself and fight back. My need for survival and my need to justify my actions were rolling around and bashing into each other in my head. My need for survival won out.
"Hold on," I said, raising my hand, "and tell them to shut up."
The Snakes behind us had broken into song, some sort of neo-rap rip-off that swapped out the name of the rapper's gang with The Snakes. I felt bad for taking away something that was obviously helping them get their minds off what had just happened and what was coming. But if I could glean some conversational piece with my augmented hearing, it might save one, if not all, of their lives.
Plex didn't question my request, he just called "Shut it" and the Snakes listened.
I pushed and concentrated hard, straining my hearing.
"We go in at the same time, they won’t know what hit them," a gruff voice was saying.
"They're planning to come in at the same time as something else. They say we won't know what hit us," I relayed to Plex.
"What kinda ware you got that you can hear that? Nevermind. That could mean flashbangs, smoke, or just another frontal assault, though they must know we'll expect that."
I held up my hand as the gruff voice spoke again. He must be talking into an earpiece as I didn't hear any responses, though it was obvious he was answering questions.
"Two groups. Five and five. The other group is already in place, awaiting my order. Bayside."
"They say they've got two groups of five. One must be the guys in the stairs, that's how it sounds anyway. But the other, they're in place somewhere else waiting for the order to proceed. And something about bayside," I relayed again.
Plex looked confused, "There is no way they cleared the debris from the southern stairway. No way. Not in ten minutes. It would take days, maybe more."
"Could they be cutting a hole in the floor from above us?"
"I doubt it. It's pretty thick and I don't hear any jackhammers going. What the hell are they doing?" Plex asked in frustration.
Then the gruff voice spoke again and I looked Plex right in the eyes, "I think we're about to find out."
I let my concentration fade and my augmented hearing return to normal. I knew better than to be listening in too hard when the guns started going off.
Then, I realized what was about to happen and I knew we were all about to die.
*
The realization rolled over me and I grimaced. If I was right, there was only one way the Snakes were going to survive this.
"Plex, get everyone into your apartment and lock the door. They're coming in through the bayside windows any second now. We'll be surrounded and they'll kill us all."
Plex motioned for the other Snakes to come quickly, and he stepped to the doorway of the apartment. It took only seconds for the three remaining Snakes to reach the doorway of the apartment and enter, but it felt like a lifetime.
Then Plex was through and beckoning for me to enter. I gave him a smile and shook my head.
"No!" he exclaimed and reached for me. I batted his hand aside with practiced ease and shoved him hard. My push sent him sprawling backward into the room.
"Keep him here, keep him quiet. No need for all of us to die."
One of the Snakes nodded and the two uninjured ones held Plex down while the injured one clamped his hand over Plex's mouth. Plex was fighting tooth and nail to get up, but the gangers were too strong. Satisfied, I glanced one last time at Plex and the other Snakes, then pulled the door to the apartment shut. I pushed the mattress we'd used for cover up in front of the door. It wouldn't stop anyone going in or coming out, but it would disguise it a bit.
Then, I moved toward the stairway door and shouted loudly.
"I give up. Don't shoot. I give up." I stepped through the doorway with my hands raised.
The muzzle of a gun was pressed to my neck almost instantly.
"Don't move," the gruff voice I'd overheard earlier said, "Where are your friends?"
"Ready to make a last stand. Go down in a blaze of glory, taking as many of you with them as possible," I said, thinking on my feet. If I could make the prospect of going after the remaining Snakes seem dangerous, maybe the mercs would decide they didn't need to avenge their fallen comrades.
"That so?" The gruff voice asked, sounding unconvinced.
"Yeah, they figured you were going to come in through the windows so they're ready to take out anyone who comes in. One of them has a couple grenades and he's holding them, unpinned, waiting to die." This I'd seen in a movie once, "I'd rather not die just yet. So here I am."
The merc seemed on the edge of a decision, but I couldn't tell which way he'd swing.
"Go ahead and attack. I'll wait. Or maybe you should take me to Lucas first, I don't know if anyone will be left after those grenades go off." I knew I was taking a risk playing the merc like this, but I didn't see any other option.
He tilted his chin down and spoke softly, "Stand down. We've got the kid. Maintain position, but don't attack. Yet." He cut me a glare and grabbed my arm. Keeping his gun pointed at me, he began marching me up the stairs.
"Don't try anything."
"I know when I'm beat," I replied, trying to sound as beaten as I was making it seem and finding it pretty easy, given my current situation.
That drew a dark chuckle from the man.
At about the 20th floor, we were met by another group of mercs. Four in all, two took up position in front and two behind, with the grizzly voiced man walking at my side, still pointing his gun.
When we stepped out onto the rooftop a few minutes later, the sun was just about at its peak in the sky and it was very bright after the dimly lit hallways of the building below.
Lucas was standing in the center of the rooftop, directly in front of the door. The three Aerodynes the mercs had arrived in sat on the rooftop behind him.
"Seven!" he exclaimed as I drew closer, "How wonderful to see you again. It's been ages." There was a triumphant smile on his face that made me want to punch him.
"It's only been three days, Lucas," I replied.
"But doesn't it feel like so much longer?" His voice was so pleasant and cordial you would have thought we were at a medieval ball.
"Not long enough in my book."
"Well, take heart, pretty soon, you won't have a book." His voice turned icy and all the pleasantness drained out, "You'll be dead."
I tried to think of something witty to say in return, but, he had me there.
"So," I said, motioning to the Aerodynes, "where are we going?"
"We," Lucas said with a smile, his voice pleasant again, "are not going anywhere. I am going to chop off your arm, then get into my Aerodyne and fly back to Dandil."
"That so?" I asked, eyeing the aerodyne.
"Oh yes," Lucas replied.
"What's on the chip, Lucas? What's so important anyway?"
"Financial records. Bank account numbers. Contacts. Everything I was afraid my competition would pay a decker to extract from my computer."
"So you're going to find someone else and put it in them then? To hide it from your competition?"
"Oh no, that won't be necessary. Piner's attempt to grab you was sheer desperation on their part. I've outmaneuvered them at every turn. They are crumbling. Financially and within their power structure. It's only a matter of time now, I'm afraid."
I laughed, "You really are one smart chummer, Lucas."
"Yes, thank you." He smiled, "Now if you'll just remove that sword from your back and lay it on the ground slowly, I'll remove your arm and be on my way."
"You're gonna let me live?" I said, incredulous.
Lucas shrugged, "Live? Oh yes. I have a friend who’s just dying to meet you."
The expression on Lucas' face told me two things. First, he was going to enjoy cutt
ing off my arm while I was still alive to feel it. Second, he had an ace up his sleeve.
I thought about making a run for the edge of the roof and jumping off, but the gun pressed into my back let me know I wouldn't make it as far as the edge. I didn't have much of a choice. I just had to play out the hand.
I reached back slowly and pulled the sword free of its scabbard. The gleaming metal caught the light in such a beautiful way I completely forgot I was supposed to drop the sword on the ground and just stared at it for a long moment. The barrel of the merc’s gun prodded me in the back hard and I came back to myself. I laid the katana at my feet carefully. If I was going to lose an arm, at least it would be taken by a sharp blade. That had to be better than something dull.
I stepped back from the katana and looked to Lucas. He was smiling again. Maybe he hadn't thought I'd actually take the sword out. Or maybe he had thought I might try something when I had it in my hands.
I sighed. Maybe I should have tried to round on the merc with the gun and cut him to ribbons when I'd had the blade in my hand. Surely with my speed, I could have killed him before the other two mercs on the roof opened up with their weapons and killed me.
But then I would be dead. At least now I was still alive. Even if only momentarily.
Lucas stepped forward, keeping his eyes on me, just in case I tried something at the last minute. I took a few more steps back, moving to the side a bit as I went. The merc behind me stepped away, moving to a safe distance as Lucas picked up the sword. I was now to the right of the exit to the rooftop. The Aerodynes were on my left about five feet away.
"Seems a waste, not having him fully aware when I take his arm. but he's a fast one. Hit him with a tranq."
One of the mercs slipped a tranq gun from his belt. I'd been hoping for this. It would give me an excuse.
The man leveled the tranq gun at me and fired. The gun whirred and the dart caught me in the shoulder. I stumbled to my left as if the momentum from the dart, or it's poison, had sent me in that direction. Now I was directly in front of the Aerodynes. Lucas and the mercs moved in front of me.
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