‘Yeah. Well, she’s safe here for the time being. So, what was so urgent that it couldn’t wait?’ she asked.
‘We’ve been tracking the rogue operators that attacked parliament today, and we have a solid lead on them, so I need for you to take a team out and neutralise them. Also, it would be good to bring some in, that way we can find out that’s really going on,’ he said.
Frankie stepped forward. ‘So, where are they?’ she asked.
‘I just sent you a link, can you accept it, please?’ Dion asked just as a message popped up in her vision alerting her to a new link request. Frankie accepted it, and suddenly, a three dimensional glowing orange wireframe model appeared over the table.
‘Whoa,’ Frankie exclaimed.
‘It’s good isn’t it,’ Dion said.
Frankie nodded. ‘Yeah, it’s great. What is it?’
‘Just a bit of augmented reality. I can use a link to your cyberbrain to overlay an image onto your vision and anchor it to a location, like the table, so when you look at it, you see this 3D model overlaid onto it,’ Dion answered her.
‘That’s impressive; did you design this?’ Frankie asked Dion.
‘AR has been around for a long time, but this room is my baby, yes,’ he said.
‘Great, so, what am I looking at?’ she asked.
‘This is the location of the terrorists. They’re in the dogstacks, in that building,’ he said.
‘We’ve been gathering intel from various sources, including the police and intelligence services. We’re working with them on this, and as it’s a Corporation thing and we were the ones to end the siege of Westminster, they’ve given us first go at them if we want it.’
Frankie eyed the glowing model and felt a fierce determination fall over her. These thugs had nearly killed her mother, so the answer to whether she wanted to undertake this mission only had one answer to it.
‘Yeah, I want to take this on,’ she said.
‘Frankie,’ William said, his voice grew serious and took on a warning tone. ‘We need some of these guys alive. I know they nearly killed Isaac and could have killed your mother, too, but I don’t want any vendetta's today.’
‘I’m a professional, William. These guys have pissed me off, sure, but I'm not some crazed killer out for revenge. I’ll do my job to the best of my ability.’
‘Of course, I never had any doubt,’ William said.
‘So, who’s on the team with me?’
‘Gibson, Veronica, and Cole. I need Kalypso here to liaise with her contacts,’ he said.
‘Understood.’
‘The others should be waiting in the hanger for you,’ William said. ‘Dion will be going, too, as usual to monitor comms.’
‘Great. I’ll meet you up there,’ Frankie said to Dion. ‘I have to stop by the armoury. Also, William, could you let my mum know that I’ve had to work tonight and that I’ll see her in the morning?’
‘Of course,’ William said.
Frankie nodded and smiled before she walked out the room. Luckily, she hadn’t even had time to change after the parliament attack and was still in her stealth suit and carrying her guns. She did briefly stop by the armoury to pick up some ammunition to replenish what she had used, but otherwise, she was ready to go.
A few minutes later, she was up in the hanger and climbing aboard the flyer, taking her usual spot in the seats up there. Cole sat opposite and a little bit up from her while Veronica and Gibson sat next to each other again at the far end of the aircraft from her. Which, admittedly, wasn’t far away. They were smiling at each other and probably communicating through their neural link as the noise from the rotors built and the flyer rose up out of the base.
A minute into the flight, Gibson stood and walked over to Frankie, taking the seat next to her with a smile.
A link request popped up in her vision from him which she accepted.
‘Hey. How’s your mum?’ Gibson asked.
Frankie smiled. ‘She’s fine; she’ll have to go without me tonight, though, it seems,’ she answered him through the link.
‘I’m sure she’ll be fine. How about you? Everything okay with you these days?’
‘I think so, as well as can be expected, I suppose, given the sudden appearance of my mother after not really seeing her for a year. Why do you ask?’
‘Oh, well, sure. I was referring to you not being on site when the parliament mission came in. It’s unlike you to go out much at all, so I was just wondering if you were okay. Also, given we picked you up from your old apartment building…’
‘You noticed,’ she said.
‘Hard not to when it’s a building I was nearly killed in,’ Gibson said.
‘Yeah, of course,’ she said. She’d wondered if he had noticed where the flyer had picked her up from, and clearly, he had.
‘So, is everything okay?’
‘Everything’s fine. I just went to see an old friend that I had promised to see a long time ago. I should have been to see them much earlier than that, but, it’s fine,’ she said, being careful not to say it was a male friend.
‘Okay, sorry, I didn’t mean to pry; I was just worried about you,’ Gibson elaborated.
‘Sure, I understand. Thanks for thinking of me, though,’ she said. She knew he meant well and didn’t mean to pry into her private life, and she appreciated that he didn’t push for more information. He was genuinely concerned and just wanted to be sure that she was alright. ‘Are you and Veronica okay? You seem close these days,’ she asked.
‘We’re good,’ he said. Frankie sensed there was more there than what he was letting on. She suspected they were seeing each other again, but she didn’t want to push it with him by asking such a personal question. She felt she was justified in asking what she had, though, given that he had asked something similar of her, whether he knew it or not.
Frankie smiled to herself. She found it amusing that he was being coy about things. It was kind of cute, too.
‘We’re at the dogstacks, guys,’ Jude said from the pilot seat. ‘Strap yourselves in.’
Frankie did as he asked and gazed out the window as the sideways motion of the buildings outside slowed and then changed direction as the flyer started to drop. The glowing towers outside slid up past the window as they dropped. The aircraft glided into ever smaller spaces as it descended down into this incredibly built up area, and before long, it felt like Frankie could just reach out through the side window and touch the nearby buildings.
She’d been to this area of town a few times as a member of the A.C.T.. It was perhaps the most built up, but also run down area in the mid-levels of London and was little better than the Undercity. Buildings were stacked upon buildings while walkways and metal gantry’s crossed between them, held up by rusted looking girders. There was a fair amount of lawlessness in this area, mainly because it was so inaccessible. Everything was stacked so close together that flyers like theirs could only penetrate so far. Plenty of people lived here, though, living in low rent apartments and doing their best to survive each day without one of the local gangs or street thugs shooting them.
The flyer landed with a bump, its brakes applied to its wheels to keep the aircraft from rolling as the rotors powered down.
The rear loading ramp lowered as Frankie unclipped herself and walked out over the ramp. They had landed on top of some kind of industrial building or tower within the stacks. Smoke belched from a nearby chimney and rose up into the darkness of the dogstacks.
Looking up, Frankie could see light filtering through the gap in the buildings they had flown in through, but she could also see the numerous metal walkways crisscrossing the space they were in. She could see the underside of buildings built atop the stacks, while the jumble of smaller towers, apartment blocks, warehouses, and pedestrianised platforms lined with shops, linked together by walkways almost made you dizzy when you looked at it. There were lights and neon signs everywhere in the darkness, lighting up areas here and there, while other section
s were filled with shadows and darkness.
‘Dion,’ Frankie asked through the group link. ‘Are we close?’
‘Sending you the map now. Yeah, you’re close. If you take the walkway to your left and keep straight, it should take you right to it. Their hideout is on the other side of that tower over there,’ he said.
Frankie looked over and could only see a huge factory tower covered in pipes and ladders linking platforms and walkways.
‘Let’s go,’ Frankie said, and led her team out of the flyer and started along the catwalk. Her boots clanged along the metal grating despite her best efforts to remain silent, but it was quite noisy down here with the sounds of people, sirens, and machinery reverberating around without anywhere to escape.
A minute later, Frankie reached the tower and started to move around it, keeping close to the building the walkway was attached to and keeping her gun up and ready. She rounded the side of the tower and saw the mess of support girders in the cavernous space beyond.
The makeshift building’s ingenuity on show in front of her was impressive. She had seen these places before, but this would be the first time she had entered one. Some group, probably years and years ago now, had taken it upon themselves to build a suspended building that was attached to several of the support beams that crossed from one building to another. It created a small apartment block that looked like it was hanging in mid air, held aloft only by the metal struts and walkways that it was attached to. It reminded her of a huge bulbous mechanical spider in the centre of a vast web.
She could see several of these in this area, varying in size and clinging to their supports. She wondered how safe they were, but she guessed that this wasn’t a big deal for a criminal gang wanting a hideout that was difficult to get to.
She felt sure that most gang bangers would lose their street cred if they were worried about their hideout passing a building safety code assessment. Not that the examiners would come down here anyway.
Frankie checked her map, and sure enough, the location they had tracked the rogue operators to was the place up ahead. She peered ahead and noted that there were two guards at the end of the walkway ahead that led directly across to the building. She could see another two guards at the end of another walkway part way around.
She checked her map and looked over to her left, picking out a route that led to the second entrance. She figured a two pronged attack would be a good idea in this instance. Frankie turned back to her team. ‘Cole, I want you and Veronica to make your way around to the walkway that leads to the far entrance. When you’re in place, we’ll go in together and meet in the middle. Remember, William wants some of these guys taken alive,’ she said.
‘Understood,’ Cole said. ‘I can see the route on the map. Come on,’ he said to Veronica, and they set off into the darkness. Frankie moved back to look at the walkway they needed to take, there wasn’t much cover. She could see a pipe to the side of the start of the walkway that she could use, but once they were on the walkway itself, they would be out in the open.
‘We’ll have to take them out at a distance,’ she said to Gibson.
‘Agreed. I can’t see how we can get any closer without them seeing us. This is a great design for a hideout,’ he said.
‘It certainly is. Cole? Vi? Are you ready?’ she asked.
‘One moment,’ Cole answered her. She waited a few more seconds before Cole spoke again. ‘Okay, yes, we’re here,’ he said.
Frankie looked back at Gibson. ‘I’m going to make for that pipe. Watch my back,’ she said.
‘Sure,’ Gibson answered her and raised his gun as Frankie moved forward. She held her gun ready, too, and crept forward, pointing her gun at the guard up ahead.
They seemed distracted and were looking elsewhere for the moment. ‘Moving up, nearly ready,’ she said over the group link to let her whole team know where they were.
A loud bang, thud, and yelp from behind her caught Frankie off guard, startling her. Frankie spun to look behind her to see an operator had jumped down onto Gibson and had started to fight him.
Gunfire shattered the relative quiet and bullets bounced off the metal walkways all around Frankie. She looked back up the walkway to see the pair of guards firing on her.
‘Go, go, go,’ Frankie said through the link to Veronica and Cole as more gunfire joined the ruckus. Frankie brought her gun to bear on the pair of guards shooting at her and fired as she ducked for some cover. Her shots went wide as she moved to the pipe. Ducking away, several bullets smashed into her cover, making the pipe boom with metallic sounds. Frankie ducked out from cover and aimed at the first guard she spotted and fired, letting off a small burst at him and finding her mark. He dropped out of view as she hunted for the next one.
‘Aaaagh, Frankie, a little help?’ she heard Gibson cry.
She looked behind her to see them wrestling over a gun as the operator tried to force the barrel down to point at Gibson.
Frankie stepped quickly over as bullets from the second door guard peppered the area all around her.
Frankie kicked out, spinning as she smashed her boot into the side of the operator’s head, sending him to the floor beside Gibson. Her turn brought her around to face the second guard with her gun up. She adjusted her aim and squeezed a few shots off at him. A couple went wide before her next three hit him full in the chest. He dropped to the floor as another gunshot sounded from right behind her. She looked back to see Gibson holding the gun he had been fighting the operator for. He was crouched over the top of the now dead attacker.
Gunfire sounded off to her left as she saw Cole and Veronica running up the walkway to the building.
‘Let’s go,’ Frankie said and broke into a sprint up the catwalk. She slowed as they approached the building with Gibson close behind her, but walked right up to the double door and kicked them open.
The door slammed to the sides to reveal a wide corridor beyond and another operator running towards her. The man skidded to a stop in a panic as Frankie raised her gun and fired.
Dust, debris, and blood exploded from and around the operator as he dropped to the ground in a hail of gunfire as Gibson joined Frankie in shooting him.
The inside of the building appeared to be made out of messily welded together metal sheeting with bits of wood and other materials here and there while electrical and data cables ran along the walls and over the floors, with the occasional metal girder jutting across the corner of the hallway.
‘Let’s go; let’s get this done,’ Frankie said, and led the way inside, up the corridor. Another operator ran around the corner as they moved up. He hadn’t seen Frankie or Gibson and ran straight into another hail of gunfire as Frankie just reacted to seeing him. Gibson did the same, and the operator dropped to the floor with a yell before falling silent.
They moved up to the side corridor that this latest man had come from, but found it deserted as they moved past it. Frankie suddenly heard shouting and gunfire up ahead. She looked over at Gibson.
‘Cole,’ she said.
‘Veronica,’ he answered her.
‘Come on,’ she muttered and kept moving. They came to a small room at the end of the hallway and saw another operator in here, struggling with his gun. He looked up to see them, shaking his jammed gun in frustration.
‘Damn it… Shit,’ he said and threw it at them and ran for a side door.
Frankie fired off two shots just in front of him that brought him to a stop.
‘Don’t move,’ she yelled. ‘And you might just live through this,’ she finished off in a quieter tone. ‘On your knees; hands on your head.’
The young man did as she asked.
‘Cuff him,’ she said to Gibson, covering her teammate as he stepped forward and slapped some hand cuffs on their captive before pushing him over onto his side.
Gunfire resounded from beyond the side door. Frankie looked over at Gibson.
‘Watch my back,’ she said and approached the door. She reached for the
handle when another burst of gunfire sounded in the room beyond. Frankie twisted the handle and jerked the door open, hiding the sound of the door’s movement during the noise.
She peered through into a small room and an open doorway on the opposite wall into another bigger room. In there, she could see more operators on the righthand side, hiding behind a hastily erected barricade shooting at Cole and Veronica on the left.
She needed them alive, she thought and looked back into the room she was in and down at the detained man. She strode over and grabbed him by the arm, dragging him to his feet. Her inhuman strength lifted him easily despite his protests.
‘Hey, ow, that hurts, damn it,’ he yelled as she pulled out her side arm and jammed it against the side of his head. ‘Oh, okay, calm down now. I’m sure we can work it out,’ he said in a less strident and more pleading tone.
‘Just keep your mouth shut and walk with me, got it?’ she said.
‘Sure, sure,’ he said and stopped resisting so much. Frankie walked him through the side door into the smaller room and up towards the open door.
‘Veronica, Cole, I’m coming in; I’m to your right,’ Frankie said.
‘Copy that,’ Cole answered.
Frankie moved forward, her eyes fixed on the group of operators behind the barricade who had yet to look to their left and see her. She waited for a suitable break in gunfire.
‘Hey!’ she called out when the shooting paused for a moment. The operators looked over at her and at Gibson standing next to her behind cover, his rifle trained on the group. Everything went quiet as the operators assessed the situation. Frankie could see them looking at her and Gibson and their team member, she could almost see their brains working on the problem, wondering if they could survive this. ‘Drop your weapons; it’s over.’
In the midst of the group, one of the operators stood up. He was dressed similarly to the others and didn’t stand out from them at all. ‘Says who?’
‘Look, we don’t want more violence, we want to bring you in quietly so we can talk, that’s all. We want to avoid any further deaths if possible,’ she said.
‘You work for the government?’ he asked.
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