Forsaken 337 BC

by Sharon Leslie

  I, sorry, we, Toni and I will sort your payment out later. We will ensure if the worst happens, your families will receive one hundred as an in service payment," Cain noticed the puzzled looks on Marcy and her team's faces.

  "Let me use proper words rather than abbreviations, you all look puzzled. Your men will receive after taxes one hundred and twenty thousand credits a week. Topping off at over six point two million a year. Their signing on bonus is a yearly wage, each. There do you understand, does that make joining my, sorry our employment worthwhile?"

  Marcy and her team stood acting like a goldfish, they were not expecting such generous terms. Marcy knew Cain had old money behind him, but she was uncertain how much old money he had.

  "We would like you to create three safe houses, one in London, one in Paris then you choose where the last one goes," Cain said. "Oh, you can also have a budget of five hundred million for each house. Again, stop acting like a goldfish, Marcy. It is unbecoming on my head of security."

  Planning on the Hoof

  They made their plans on how to locate Bethany and leave an empty POD without a person inside for Jason to find. John had made a special EI which would mimic Bethany's real-time readouts until they lifted the POD lid. A small explosive would destroy the EI so Jason could not back trace where Bethany was. Nor could he reverse engineer another EI. Cain spoke to Marcy and her team,

  "We have found where Bethany is being treated. She is at the former site of the Institute Mutualiste Montsouris; located in the original 14th Arrondissement in Paris. The hospital is no longer renowned and private but run by the EC medical directorate, for citizens who cannot afford Medicare Insurance. Like most EC hospitals of this type, long term critical ill patients such as Bethany receive little in the way of care or support," said Cain.

  Highlighting the site of the hospital, they all looked at the map. Daphne asked why they could not land the helicopter on the hospital roof. When they looked at the building from the ground using GoogleFace, she scratched that idea.

  They would land in the disused former sports stadium, located opposite the tram station, Porte de Gentilly. As they rigged the helicopter for remote piloting, John would undertake that task. Although they were not expecting any difficulty, Cain and Marcy's normal adage of going loaded for bear won out.

  Four hours after returning from Forsaken to the real world, they were ready to rescue Bethany. The helicopter arrived at 01:45, landing on the waste ground next to the Maglev line, at the perimeter of the disused riverside water treatment works.

  The legal flight details, John had earlier passed to the government's air flights authority. Informed them their flight plan had them leaving from a Tesda supply depot in Dagenham, London. With the termination end has them landing at The Théâtre de la Cité Internationale, Paris.

  John left the water treatment site and returned to the safe house before midnight, taking Kevin's body with him. Once John left, Toni, Daphne and Cain talked to Marcy while her team guarded the site. Using one of the former special ops helicopters Cain owned, John remote piloted the aircraft to Rainham. Landing with ten minutes to spare, he picked up everyone and lifted off as per the flight plan.

  Should anyone have been following their flight they could have raised an alarm when the helicopter transponder disappeared. Three minutes later a new flight number appeared, flying on a plan John posted yesterday.

  Easily landing the helicopter inside the stadium, everyone disembarked and headed toward the hospital. The helicopter took-off, John not wanting it to be a target on the ground. Enoch spoke to John back in the safe house.

  [Jason's data-bot has identified Bethany,] Rahab added. Jason has used an encrypted message app, ordering four teams to exterminate Bethany. John swore, not understanding why Jason would take the fight to an innocent. Then he remembered why and closed his mouth stopping his tirade.

  Cain, and Toni took point, Marcy walked with two of her team, the four others walked in pairs while Daphne acted as the tail gunner.

  They covered eight hundred of the thousand metres to the hospital when Cain and Toni received the news from Enoch and Rahab

  "Pick up the pace, we have no for messing around. Leave two on the entrance and two at the tram station. Keep your weapons ready, they clearly know Bethany is in the area at the hospital," Cain said over the party coms.

  :Enoch, can you access Forsaken, let Bethany know she needs to go to sleep, now.: Cain said. Toni was the first into the hospital, a night watch receptionist, asked what they were doing. Toni smiled as she shot her with a Taser. As the receptionist was still twitching on the ground, Toni hog tied her then moved on. Marcy came to stood at the desk accessing the hospital systems, as she worked the receptionist began to groan, Marcy knelt and gagged the receptionist.

  [John says he cannot return to land at the stadium, he watched from five thousand feet as the police landed one of their large helicopters there. From the stadium CCTV vid-feed he watched as they inserted a heavily armed SWAT squad. I would think it is safe to assume they are in Jason's employment. Enoch is telling Cain,] Rahab said.

  :I wish I had the map facility like in the game, it would make things easier.: Her thoughts ended as a street map of Paris floated over her field of view. Toni, use to the HUD in Forsaken used the same map controls and zoomed in to their location.

  ^T^ C, I have a local map in my field of vison. I can see an ideal location, all we need to do is hijack a tram and ride it down to the Porte de Versailles station. John can land the helicopter there. ^

  Marcy, standing over the bound and gagged receptionist, was working the hospital computer system. She located Bethany in a single room at the rear of the hospital.

  "Scratch that idea, we need to get an ambulance. Marcy call your men inside, then lock the hospital down when they arrive. Let me run a check for another site," Toni said. It took twenty-six seconds for Marcy's men to enter the hospital. They locked the main doors and lowered the security shutters from behind the reception desk.

  Daphne returned from checking the first floor. She had disabled two armed security guards, immobilising them with Ziploc ties, after she bundled them into a cleaner's cupboard up on the first floor. On hearing the shutters come down, Daphne returned to the reception area, she slid down the long curved banister from the mezzanine landing.

  Listening to Marcy, Toni used the map function and zoomed in to the hospital levels, she located Bethany on the sub-basement level two. Leading the way, her map acting like the game HUD overlay. Cain ran at Toni's side, where they could they ran down the main corridors before using the stairs to reach sub-basement level two.

  Cain said, "The lifts are a no-no, as they are potential traps for us. If we get caught in one, we will die there, so we use the stairs folks." They ran down the stairs and entered the somewhat deserted basement, not only void of life but poorly lit too. Cain, without thought accessed his night vision perk from Forsaken, which made the corridor bright in his vision. Finding a light switch bank in an alcove near the stair entrance, Cain turned on every second switch.

  With half of the lights now on and the corridors partially lit, they ran to room SB2-14a. As they neared the room they heard an explosion echo through the hospital, they picked up their pace. Marcy went to open the door but Cain pulled her back as Toni went in first, Cain directly behind her.

  A man in nighttime camo clothing, opened fire with a suppressed handgun, each of the seventeen shots hit Toni and Cain, both grunted with impact pain. As the man switched out the magazine, Toni sank her knife deep into his groin, slashing upward she opened the femoral artery.

  Her knife gouged the man's femur, she cut so deep. Toni's left hand, grabbed and held the man's right hand in a vice-like grip. His look of struggle against Toni's hand hold followed by shock faded as he exsanguinated in less than twenty seconds. His blood sprayed over Toni and the floor.

  While Toni was grappling with the gunman, Cain passed her and entered the single room, noticed the POD lid was op
en, somebody had tied a ligature around Bethany's neck. He quickly unfastened it, checked she was OK and closed the POD lid. Cain was going to use the control panel, but it was smashed beyond repair.

  {I can access the control wirelessly. What would you like me to do?} Enoch asked.

  :Can you set the hospital POD as a mobile unit, then let me know Bethany's important readouts and the condition of the POD.: Cain asked.

  Enoch read and reported the important readouts to Cain. Bethany's health is strong, heart rate and blood pressure is normal for somebody in a POD. He also checked the POD's data, reporting the onboard oxygen generator was working at one hundred percent efficiency, and the power supply according to the countdown timer would last for thirty-six hours.

  Cain pushed the now-floating POD, over the dead gunman, with Bethany secure inside out of the room. Marcy took several photos of the gunman, using her body camera as she wanted to find who he was and who paid for the hit. With a simple touch, Cain directed the POD ahead of them. They had no option but to use an elevator, and travelled to the sub-basement above. Under Toni's direction, they entered the maintenance department and pushed the POD up the internal ramp to the first floor.

  Daphne ran to the workshop office and looked for the vehicle activation keys, Toni told her would be there. She grabbed each key she could find hanging in a wall-mounted case. As they exited the maintenance department through a roller door to the back parking lot, Daphne activated each key she'd collected, hoping to find a vehicle they all could use.

  Finally, the lights lit on an education school visit vehicle, the same size as a yellow bus. Four of Marcy's men manhandled Bethany's POD onto the rear of the bus through the exit door, onboard they got ready to leave the hospital grounds. They could hear another explosion from the front of the hospital, Enoch told Cain they had broken through the security shutters.

  "They have breached the shutters, let's leave while we can. Everyone get ready, don't take any chances or do anything stupid," Toni said. Cain played with the vehicle's old software and turned the EI off. With the bus in manual drive mode, Cain drove through the locked rear gate. He drove onto Place Jules Henaffe, then turned down Rue de la Tombe Issoire.

  As it was a quarter past three in the morning, the roads were clear, making it easy to spot when trouble was coming. Cain had driven the education bus, keeping to the road and crossing the Boulevard Saint-Jacques before the first signs of pursuit were seen by one of Marcy's men.

  Crossing Saint-Jacques and driving down Rue du Faubourg Saint-Jacques. :Seriously this is bad driving on the wrong side of the road, but hey, there is no traffic this early. Well maybe the police or EC special protectorate and of course Jason's goons,: thought Cain. Three black SUVs skidded around the corner from Saint Jacques onto the road Cain was driving down, {they are only ten seconds behind,} Enoch said.

  Two of the SUVs opened fire at their vehicle, several shots hitting the back of the education bus. One shot pinged from Bethany's POD, gouging a line on the plasti-steel shell. Daphne stood in the rear doorway and returned fire, she grunted seven times as they hit her. Marcy commented on how she wished for an armoured body like theirs.

  One of Marcy's men had a lucky shot, his bullet punched through the SUV's spider-webbed windscreen, caused by Daphne's shooting. Hitting the driver on the bridge of his nose, exiting the back of his head, covering the passengers with bone and brain. The SUV, now driver-less clipped the kerb and flipped over hitting the following SUV.

  "Two down," shouted Marcy, Daphne grunted twice more. Toni shouted for Cain to take the next left, head toward the tower.

  Cain took the next left, drove down Boulevard de Port Royal, heading toward the Eiffel Tower. Driving across the large Port Royal junction, Cain noticed three more black SUVs joined in the chase as he drove down the Boulevard du Montparnasse.

  "We need to start taking these thugs out. Apart from calling in a gunship, anyone got an idea or two?" Cain asked over the coms.

  One SUV pulled alongside the bus on the now dual carriageway road, Marcy and Toni opened fire with their MP5s, aiming for the vehicle's tyres. Both front and rear types exploded under the hail of bullets. The SUV swerved and snaked across the road, before embedding itself in a two-hundred-year-old tree. On the junction of Rue de Chevreuse, exploding in a ball of flame.

  Daphne had an idea. Since they somehow had bulletproof abilities and their skills from the game because of the Nanogel. She focused on the earth, calling up a solid rock barrier across the width of the road. Nothing worked causing Daphne to curse at the unfairness of the game, as she realised she needed to make contact with the ground, for her Geomancer skill to work.

  Toni asked what her cursing was for, Daphne explained. Toni pointed out the rookie error as Daphne did not tell the rock where it was to go and where they were. Toni said to her, "I didn't think I needed to touch the ground, but I do need to know where the ground is in relation to me."

  Toni told Daphne the name of the area they were approaching and had yet to pass. Cain drove down the road beyond the Montparnasse station. Daphne tried using her Geomancer skill again as they passed the station, visualising what she wanted. She felt her mana leave her body as a four-metre-high rock wall erupted from the ground, crossing the road from building to building two yards behind the bus. Everyone shouted with joy as they sped away from the rock barrier.

  [I get the cheering, but there is still one and a half miles to where John has planned to land the helicopter. You need to keep your focus, all of you. Have you tried to use your game skills like Daphne did?] Rahab said. They continued driving, Cain took a left onto Rue de Sèvres after two hundred and forty yards he took a right, driving down Avenue de Saxe. Driving around the large roundabout, Cain kept to Avenue de Saxe, aiming for the old military buildings at the end of the road.

  Crossing the road their bus crashed through the flimsy gates into the compound, as Cain drove across what he knew was a large sporting area and vehicle park. One of Marcy's men could hear two helicopters and told everybody over the party's coms. Cain told them that was bad news unless they were news helicopters.

  Crossing the area then driving through the open set of gates Cain stopped their vehicle as the helicopter Marcy's man heard came flying low above treetop height, down Avenue de Saxe, heading directly to them.

  "Into the building and exit on the opposite side. We need to cross the road and head for Mur pour la Paix, John will be there in ten," Toni shouted. :If Daphne can use her magic here, maybe I can use my wind magic too, as Rahab said. I need to give it a try.:

  As Marcy and her men unloaded Bethany's POD, Toni focused on creating an invisible barrier of air across the road, anchoring its ends to two buildings on opposite sides of the road.

  Marcy shouted they were ready to go as Toni put more effort into strengthening the barrier, two missiles leapt from the helicopter's weapons mounts. Noticing the missiles would clear the top of her barrier, Toni grunted in her mind, while her body felt like she physically lifted the barrier up five more yards. The missiles exploded in the air, Toni's barrier held firm.

  The helicopter was flying at over one hundred and forty miles per hour as it hit Toni's air barrier. It crumpled like an empty soda can, being crushed underfoot. A large brilliant fiery explosion rolled across the barrier of air, until Toni let the spell dissipate, the explosion of flames set the nearest trees aflame.

  Cain shot at the lock, blowing it out of the large ancient wooden door, giving them access to the insides of the building. A building blue print popped across his field of vision, a blue line highlighting the path to the opposite side. Cain sent everyone to his left, they passed a flight of grand stairs leading up.

  Daphne disabled three partially-dressed soldiers, each had a pair of Taser wires hanging from parts of their bodies. Cain winced, seeing one soldier's Taser wire, hanging from his ball sack. The thought of receiving a high electrical charge there, made Cain shudder, instinctively pulling his lower muscles tight.


  Taking the first right after the grand stairs they passed, following Cain's directions. They came face to face with four fully armed and exo-suited soldiers. Cain shouted to them, hands empty and in the air, asking them if they were fighting for Joseph or the people. Three of them said, "People," the fourth turned on them and opened fire at close range.

  The rounds from his weapon hung in mid-air, as Toni cast a dense column shield around each soldier while Cain was talking. As the soldier continued to fire, the three others stepped back away from him. The floor shook under their feet as a ring wall pushed its way up and surrounded the shooting soldier. Cain looked first at the three soldiers, seeing the shock on their faces before telling Daphne to fill the core. Three seconds later lava flowed over the top of the wall, like a miniature volcano.

  One of the three soldiers pulled open the door, letting Cain and his people out of the building. As they were running across the road, a black SUV's tyres squealed as it cornered at high speed, turning from Avenue de Suffren onto Place Joffre.

  Two men leant out of both sides of the SUV and opened fire, shooting at them stuck as they were in the middle of the road with no cover. Toni could imagine whoever these people were they would kill each of us. With almost a negligent thought by Toni, the dome of an air shield covered them, bullets hung in mid-air before they dropped to the ground. Toni then shouted for them to move their arses.

  The SUV continued firing as it increased its speed driving toward them, aiming to run them over. Daphne, not knowing the name of the road or area took a knee, with her left hand to the ground, she willed a ramp into existence. Hitting the ramp, the SUV did the reverse of a ski jump.

  It shot into the air travelling at over sixty mph, clearing the air dome shield. Being front heavy the SUV nosedived and twisted, landing on its roof some thirty yards from the ramp's lip.

  Cain was angry, he wished the SUV would vanish into the air. His thought ended with a physical grunt as his small pool of mana practically disappeared. He received a message, informing him he now had force magic. The force spell cost two hundred and fifty mana to cast.