“Yes,” Thomas replied with a grin.
“You hear that, kid? You'll be having Unit 722's famous barbeque tonight,” Grendal said with a small shake of Regina's shoulder.
“Sounds good,” Regina replied, putting on a fake smile.
“Well, look what the cat dragged in. Literally,” came Artemis's voice from behind the two.
“I not drag. I carried,” Thomas replied.
“My fault, Thomas,” Artemis replied as he walked towards Regina and Grendal.
“No fault. Bad guess,” Thomas stated.
Artemis clicked his tongue, pointed, and winked at Thomas with a smile. He then turned his attention to Regina. “Here you go. I thought you might need it,” he said, holding out a bag towards her.
“What's this?” Regina asked as she took the bag from him.
“A little something to help ensure we take down the bastard that tried to have you whacked,” Artemis replied with a smile.
Regina reached in the bag and pulled out a semi-sheer black garment. She immediately recognized it as a dive suit. One of the good ones. She unfolded it and her eyes started tracing the gold inlays and connectors that ran the length of the suit. It was quite svelte-looking, to say the least.
“I know you don't generally wear dive suits. It messes up that whole AR headset punk fashion statement thing you think you have going on. But I thought for this you might could use the little bit of extra speed,” Artemis said with a grin.
“Thanks, I'll get to setting up the motion commands as soon as everything is up and running here,” Regina replied with a thankful smirk.
“You just want to see her twitching around in that while she dives,” Amina shouted out.
Artemis turned and started walking towards the platform. “I'm diving, too, you pea brain. I wouldn't have time to enjoy it even if I wanted to. Which I don't. Speaking of which, how is everything coming along?”
“Almost done. Hey, I'm gonna go put this in the fridge. I'll be back in a few,” Grendal said, as he hurriedly started walking towards the hallway.
Regina watched as Grendal started making his escape. She then cautiously started following behind Artemis.
“Everything looks good so far. How long before everything is connected?” Artemis asked.
“The rigs are all plugged in. The only thing left to connect Galatea, and power everything on,” Yosha replied excitedly.
“Wonderful,” Artemis replied as he studied the setup. “Sorry the only thing I could get ahold of was the pro line at the local... ,” Artemis stopped mid-sentence as he started looking at Galatea. “What mara sucking bakayaro decided to take a chunk out of Galatea?” he asked and cursed in a low steady tone, as though someone had taken a shit on his front doorstep.
Everyone got really quiet for a few seconds.
“Sorry, Art. Gren dropped her when he was bringing her in,” Amina replied.
Artemis took a second to himself, taking in a deep breath to steady himself before he continued. “Does she work?”
“We'll know in a second,” replied Yosha, walking up the ramp.
Artemis put his hands together in front of himself and raised them just below his head, saying a small prayer under his breath.
Yosha made a very hopeful, yet tenuous, expression towards Amina while approaching the master power switch. “Here we go,” Yosha said.
The lights flickered for a split second as the sound of a few dozen processor fans spun to life. The twelve monitors lit up with the bright green logo of the Green Fedora operating system as a load bar slowly filled below.
Yosha took a few steps across the platform and flipped the power switch on the side of Galatea's case, then took a few steps back as it, too, spun to life.
Artemis started walking slowly up the platform's ramp. “Galatea?”
“Hello, Artemis. How may I assist you today?” a soft feminine voice asked through the speaker system that had been set up.
“Oh, thank you, Galatea. Thank you,” Artemis said, letting out a sigh of relief.
“I haven't done anything yet. Have I? My systems indicate that I have been offline for nearly three hours. Did a memory wipe occur during that time?” Galatea responded.
“No, everything is fine. Your hardware case was just damaged, and I was hoping nothing was wrong with you,” Artemis quickly replied.
“My monitoring programs indicate that all systems are functioning normally,” Galatea announced.
“That's good. Now I'm going to go find Mr. M80, and give him a piece of my mind,” Artemis said as he turned to start back down the ramp.
“Can you give mind?” Thomas asked, sitting at the bottom of the ramp, surprising Artemis as he turned around.
“His statement was not intended literally, Thomas. It was an idiom, and used figuratively, not literally,” Galatea stated softly.
“Thank you, Gala. Hello, Gala,” Thomas replied.
“Hello, Thomas. It is excellent to see you again,” Galatea said happily.
“I never see you,” stated Thomas.
“Does anyone ever really see another?” Galatea questioned.
Regina looked at Artemis curiously.
“Upgrades,” Artemis said in response to Regina's look. “Now, if you'll excuse me I have to find Mr. Butterfingers,” he said as he continued down the ramp, past Regina and Thomas.
“I not know,” Thomas said.
Galatea produced a light, prefabricated, laugh. “Me either, my furry friend. Me either.”
“Sorry to interrupt, but before you two start discussing the meaning of life again, which is all well and good, can you link to our comms real quick, Galatea?” Yosha asked while entering the comms frequency in on one of the keyboards.
“Just a moment please, Thomas,” Galatea stated.
“Not worry,” Thomas said patiently.
“Thank you,” Yosha said as they started typing away on the keyboard.
Regina pulled a small ear piece out of one of her pockets and pressed it into her ear.
“Hello, Regina. It has been a while,” Galatea said as soon as Regina's ear piece was turned on.
“It has been, hasn't it?” Regina replied.
“Almost a year. I must say that when I saw your escapades last night, I was quite impressed. I was actually hoping we might be able to meet up again,” Galatea said excitedly.
“Impressed isn't the word I would use. Well, actually, I might use that word to describe Thomas last night, but not me. I was sloppy,” Regina said, walking over to Yosha.
“Artemis told me that he was able to pull you up the side of a building. I had a hard time believing that at first, given the data I have on the two of you,” Galatea said curiously.
“Still as cold and calculating a bitch as ever, huh?” Regina replied with a laugh.
“It is not on purpose,” Galatea said, sounding defeated.
“I know. I know. Don't let my odd sense of depraved social humor bring you down. It's just something us humans do,” Regina said as she tapped Yosha on the shoulder.
Yosha looked up curiously. “Hold on,” they said, lifting the headset up slightly from their ears. “You need something loaded to your rig?”
Regina smiled, and produced a small data card from her belt. “Yep,” she said, handing over the data card. “Just load the functions in for me, please. I'll assign them after I get synced with the dive suit.”
“You sure?” Yosha asked.
“Yeah. Though... you could change all these bright green screens over to blue for me,” Regina replied jokingly.
Yosha smiled. “You'll always be Natali8 to me. But don't worry, I'll take care of this for you,” Yosha said with a wink.
“Thanks,” Regina said as she turned to leave.
“Oh hey, hold on,” Yosha said quickly.
Regina turned back around. “What's up?”
“What's your take on Art diving with us this time?” Yosha asked.
“You really got me there. I mean, I know h
e's good at it, but he's never gone in with us before. Maybe he's just tired of being the smiling face the clients get to see, and wants to prove his chops. My only hope is that he isn't hiding something from us,” Regina replied.
“Like what?”
“I dunno. Maybe something he found that the rest of us didn't see. Something that has him spooked, perhaps. Or maybe he just really really wants this to go down as the fastest smash and dash we've ever done,” Regina said with a shrug.
“Either that, or he's trying to balance out the gender spectrum of our diving team,” Yosha said with a grin.
Regina snickered.
“Hey. The dive was just set for two and a half hours from now,” Amina announced as she again climbed into the belly of the armored suit.
Regina gave a small wave to Yosha, who returned it swiftly, and then went back to work. She turned around, and gave Amina a quick two-finger salute, which she returned with a knowing smile.
“Leaving?” asked Thomas.
“No, I'm just going to get changed, Thomas,” Regina replied with a loving head scratch behind Thomas's right ear.
“Okay,” Thomas said. He then returned to his conversation with Galatea.
“Thomas cares for you a lot, you know,” Galatea said to Regina.
“I know.”
-5-
Regina studied her reflection.
“I look pretty damn good in this,” she said to herself as she admired her silhouette in the dive suit that Artemis had bought her.
The dive suit was designed so that its user could easily issue commands by using simple or complex motions when connected to a dive rig, such as tapping the index finger on the thumb to execute a copy command, and then tapping the pinkie finger to the thumb for copy. Though most hardcore divers used them to issue more elaborate commands. Sadly, Regina didn't have the time.
Regina reached up and connected the dangling cord from her headset to the dive suits interface connector located at the base of her neck. She smiled again. “I'm all dressed up with one very particular place to go,” she said to her reflection. Then blew herself a kiss.
“Why you talk to self?” asked Thomas.
Regina jumped in shock as she quickly turned and blurted out something inaudible. “Damnit, Thomas. What did I tell you about sneaking up on me?”
“Don't,” Thomas replied.
Regina studied Thomas for a moment. “You have no idea what I mean when I ask you not to sneak up on me do you?”
Thomas tilted his head.
“Just scratch at the door before coming in next time I'm talking to myself in front of a mirror, okay?” Regina asked.
“Yep,” Thomas replied.
Regina took a moment to catch her breath from the shock. “How are you doing? Does everything still hurt?”
“Hurt less. Paw hurt most,” Thomas said, raising his paw that was missing the claw.
Regina looked at Thomas's paw, and could still see the blood-stained fur. “I'm so sorry, Thomas.”
“It grow back,” Thomas replied.
“Yeah, it'll grow back in a few weeks.”
Thomas's ears flicked to attention as though a thought had just struck him. “Forgot. Others want you. Dive time.”
“Alright, let's do this,” Regina replied, as she headed out of the bathroom.
“Yep,” Thomas said as he too started heading back towards the team.
Regina noticed Thomas's tail was whipping back and forth happily. “Are you excited to be here, Thomas?”
“Yes,” Thomas replied as they continued down the hallway.
Regina smiled. “And why is that?”
“Team fun. Less accidents,” Thomas stated plainly.
Regina laughed again. “I guess I miss them, too.”
“Why we leave?” Thomas asked.
Regina bit her lip for a second before answering. “I nearly got them all killed in London, remember?”
“Not Gina fault,” Thomas replied.
“It was my fault we were there in there in the first place. I wanted to take the job even though I knew we were a smaller team than the job needed. I thought we were better than we were... I thought I was better than I was,” Regina said slowly.
“You good,” Thomas said with a tilt of his head.
“I'm good, but I'm not great,” said Regina, lowering her head in shame.
“Art trust. Yosha trust. Amina trust. Gren trust. Gala trust. All trust Gina,” Thomas stated assuredly.
Regina stepped in front of Thomas to stop him before they entered the main dive room, and then bent down on her knees. “I know. I trust them, too.”
Thomas put one of his front paws up on Regina's shoulder. “I trust Gina.”
Regina reached up with both hands and started rubbing Thomas's ears between her thumbs and forefingers. “I don't deserve the team's trust, and I most certainly don't deserve yours. But, thank you,” Regina said as tears started rolling down her face.
Thomas leaned in and licked Regina's face, attempting to wipe away the tears.
Regina leaned back and pushed Thomas back a bit to make him stop licking. “Hey. What did I say about making me cry?”
“Don't,” Thomas replied as he lowered his head.
Regina gave him a quick pet as she stood up. “That's right. Now isn't the time for tears.”
“What time then?” asked Thomas, tilting his head.
Regina wiped away the tears, and stared at Thomas. “Now is the time for good old-fashioned revenge, old friend.”
“Vengeance!” Thomas said loudly.
“Vengeance!” echoed everyone, behind Regina.
Regina turned her head to glance behind her. She saw all four of them standing there. She hadn't even heard them approach. “That's right,” she said, reaching out a flat hand towards Thomas.
Thomas brought his paw up and slapped it against Regina's outstretched hand, giving her a high five.
“Let's do this,” Regina said as she stood up headed towards the group.
“Do this,” Thomas said excitedly.
Artemis smiled a knowing smile at Regina. “You wanna take this?”
“If you don't mind,” Regina said with a cocky smile.
“All yours, Natali8,” Artemis said as he stepped aside and motioned for Regina to go on ahead.
Regina started heading towards the platform, and everyone else fell in place behind her. As she went, she saw two armored suits resting nearby. One was the tall moss colored one that Amina had modified. The other she immediately recognized as Grendal's black camo Mitsu unit he'd been using, and making adjustments to, for years. Sitting next to the two suits was a fairly large array of video monitors. “What's our physical sitch?”
Amina cleared her throat before answering. “We have loaded the two suits with as many weapons as we could weld or strap on. For today's fun, we've even included several human-sized assault rifles that we've modified to fit into the hands of the suits to maximize firepower potential. A few minutes after the dive begins I will take up a monitoring position with the large scoped rifle you see leaning against the wall next to my suit. If anyone is coming, I will see them before they see me.”
Regina looked at the rifle Amina was talking about. The damn thing was taller than her armored suit. “Excellent. What's our escape strategy?”
Grendal cleared his throat, purposefully louder than Amina. “If hell comes in the form of a ground assault, we've got a Caracara hovercraft standing by for a quick evac. She should be able to skim across the rooftops of the suburban paradise a half mile southeast of here, and let us escape under the radar. But if air superiority is brought down to rain on us, there are three four-passenger all-terrain all-wheel-drive road hogs sitting gassed and ready to roll. Two in the garage that exits out onto the rail and transit tunnels that this place used to use for deliveries. That's our primary. The secondary is the one sitting on top of a raised freight elevator that goes down into the sewers. The building plans don't show that this place is co
nnected to the sewer system, so that makes it a great way to bug if our primaries fall through.”
“Escape options are always nice,” Regina replied.
“Plus, if our fortified friends do make it in, we can blow this place sky high,” Grendal said, crossing his arms confidently.
Regina nodded as she stepped on the platform ramp, and started looking at the rigs and Galatea sitting ready. “Death switches?” she asked, turning to Yosha and Artemis.
Artemis pulled out a switch similar to the one that Regina had used yesterday to destroy the insides of her own rig, and jiggled it reassuringly.
“Dive assignments?” asked Yosha.
Regina was a bit surprised that Artemis and Yosha hadn't already figured out at least a partial plan for that, but shrugged the thought away. “Alright, Yosha, you're on pharm duty. I wanna know what happened between Daniels and MPHarm. I doubt he targeted that company at random, and I want the info to prove it. If no luck in that department, start fabricating docs for whatever reason you feel makes the most sense, and get those 'leaked' to MPHarm, along with some info that Daniels had them targeted for data theft, and that he was willing to shell out fifteen million for that job, and send them a copy of CEL P7 and two other random schematics that I pulled last night to let them know you aren't bluffing.”
Yosha was a bit surprised by the assigned work, but raised an eyebrow and nodded approvingly. “And when I finish with that?”
Regina smiled, knowing that Yosha would, undoubtedly, finish that fairly quickly. “Then you do what you do best, H8. You start tearing apart his personal and campaign websites, cause some havoc on his personal media accounts, and get some attention drawn away from us.”
Yosha smiled.
“Artemis, I'd like you to follow the money trail. I want it all. I wanna know what he paid for sushi at Nobu's last week, and I want to know what he paid that Russian hooker he snorted cocaine with last night.”
Artemis snickered a bit. “Was he really doing those things?”
RETALI8ION: The Cobalt Code Page 5