An interesting twist in this segment. I tend to believe the receptionist. Black used him somehow, either as a distraction or for some other nefarious purpose.
Great writing!
Great writing!
Barely Human: Shadow Plays
- Thread starter CeJay
- Start date
It does look like the poor receptionist is being set up here. I'm curious to see where this leads...
023 – “It’s A Stab In The Dark.”
Gavin and Mech had split up to cover more ground inside the dark warehouse.
Gavin hadn’t liked the idea very much and it wasn’t just because he suddenly felt a lot more vulnerable without the LT at his side. The warehouse was still entirely dark and he had not been able to locate a control panel. There was no voice activated computer interface either.
Holding his Seburo tightly in one hand and a tiny pocket torch in the other he slowly made his way down the corridors of the warehouse. So far it appeared to be entirely abandoned. Perhaps her intelligence is not as good as she thought.
He reached one of the larger storage halls. He could feel the immense size of the room but his flashlight did little to illuminate the surroundings.
Gavin froze when he thought he heard faint footsteps somewhere behind him. He whipped around to find nothing but more darkness.
He began to take a few steps backwards only to run right into a solid wall. He turned around again and the light of his torch fell right upon a very familiar face, no two inches from his own. The man wore wrap-around sunglasses, fused to his face.
“Holy crap!”
Gavin took two quick steps backwards and brought up his gun.
Black never even flinched.
In fact he appeared to be frozen in place behind a transparent screen. Gavin approached carefully and soon realized that the android’s entire body stood like petrified inside a chamber. And that was certainly not the strangest part of it all. Just to his left was another chamber, like the first it was about two meters tall and half a meter wide. Like the first it contained an exact copy of the android they had name Mister Black. And next to that one there was another. There was an entire row of chambers all containing exactly the same model of android. Gavin looked up to see even more sitting on top of the first row. It’s an entire army.
He could spot at least four rows but there could have been more, he couldn’t be sure without more light.
The operative found a mechanism at the chamber’s side and the transparent screen opened to allow access to the body. It smelled not too different from the way his hover had when it had been brand new.
The mouth opened easily. He shone his light into the opening and then reached inside. He frowned when he felt a slimy substance inside.
‘How was your day, honey?’ he imagined his wife asking him tonight. Fantastic really. I had a chance to stumble around a pitch black warehouse and reach into another man’s mouth, ya know, routine stuff.
He could not find a data chip inside. When he withdrew his hand it was covered in white goo. He wiped it off on the androids coat. “Sorry ‘bout that. Hope you don’t mind.”
Then footsteps again.
The open transparent screen exploded just inches away.
His face was hit by a few shards, scratching his skin but he hardly even registered the pain. He blindly fired the Seburo into the direction he thought the burst had come from and quickly stepped back, trying to find some cover. <LT, somebody is shooting at me,> he said his voice raspy and out of breath
<I heard it. Where are you?>
<West part of the building. One of the storage halls.>
Gavin kept firing one phaser blast after the other into the darkness until he found a corner he could slip into. He quickly made sure his six was clear before he spied around the corner again to find his attacker.
He was forced back almost immediately when the incoming fire resumed, smashing another screen and scorching the android’s body inside the chamber.
“Bastard,” he mumbled and checked his Seburo, he was still getting used to this gun. It had clearly not been designed to fire energy blasts and was a little more sluggish on the phaser setting than his old Fletcher. He couldn’t get himself to change to the more powerful projectile mode.
A noise coming from above startled him and he aimed his gun into the air. He held his fire. It was Mech, she had somehow managed to take the high ground and had leaped onto the row of chambers. He smirked, she was without doubt the most athletic person he had ever met.
Their opponent had apparently noticed Mech as well and had decided to hit the lights. The powerful illumination blinded Gavin for a moment. His surrounding had suddenly taken on brightly flaring colors.
The attacker open fire again and the rookie knew that he was trying to shoot Mech. He came out from around the corner and for the first time could see the person who had attacked him.
He took aim. “Municipal Safety, drop your weapon!”
The man had no intention of doing so and instead dropped for cover and fired at Gavin.
The operative shot back but neither one was successful in landing a direct hit.
And then Mech came leaping off from the row of chambers above. She spun around in mid-air, performing a flawless pirouette as if she was partaking in an Olympic discipline, while she dove towards their attacker.
To his credit the man noticed her approach but she was too fast for him to take proper aim. Before he knew it she had landed in a crouch directly behind him. He spun around but by the time he had, the cold barrel of her Glock was pushing against his forehead. He knew instantly that it did not have a stun setting.
He held his own phaser at his side somewhat unsteadily as if he couldn’t quite decide if he should bring it to bear or not.
In the end the decision was taken from him. Gavin had dashed across the room and quickly snatched it out of the man’s hand.
“Thanks for the assist,” the young operative said.
The man took two steps back and raised his hands. “Alright, easy now, you’ve got me.”
He was of medium height and had short brownish hair and angular facial features. Most noticeably was the prominent vertical ridge sitting on top of his nose.
“You’re Farian,” Gavin said.
The man nodded. “My name is Lutious Agon, I’m an agent with the Farian Security Consortium, a government contractor.”
“Yeah, right.”
“My id is in my jacket.”
Gavin exchanged a quick glance with Mech who gave him the nod to proceed. His hand darted inside the man’s gray jacket to retrieve a slim wallet. Inside he discovered what he had been told.
“It looks genuine.”
Mech holstered her weapon. “What are doing here?”
“And more importantly, why are shooting at us, you nearly took out my eye,” said Gavin and wiped blood off his face. The cuts stung but they weren’t deep he was relieved to find. His wife wasn’t going to be happy though.
“I thought you worked for Grayson,” the agent said. “My mistake. Can I have that back now?” he added and gestured for his phaser.
“Grayson?” asked Gavin and ignored his request.
The man nodded. “Yeah, we’ve been investigating him for some time for his ties to the Orion Syndicate. We don’t have enough for a case yet but we’re close.”
“That would make sense. If he’s behind the stims market in the city he would have to have a supplier somewhere,” said Mech. “There is no bigger drug cartel in the galaxy than the Orion Syndicate.”
“Sadly so,” said Agon. “I have been trying to get some hard evidence for weeks now but the man covers his tracks well.”
“What about this place?” said Gavin and looked around, for the first time being able to take in the full sight of the hundreds of androids stored here. “If we can link these things to Grayson me might have something substantial. We know for a fact that these androids have been used to distribute stims all over the city.”
But Agon shook his head. “He’s too smart for that. I’ve already checked. The warehouse belongs to a dummy corporation with no links whatsoever to the Grayson Institute. The androids themselves are empty shells. There is no software inside. In fact they don’t even have an AI.”
“Great, another dead end then.”
“What else do you have on Grayson?” asked Mech.
Agon gave her a skeptical look. “I don’t particularly trust Federation agencies, why should I share any of our information with you?”
She answered him with a little smile. “Well how about a little deal then? You tell us what you know and in return we won’t arrest you for firing on Municipal Safety officers.”
He returned her smile in kind. “You wouldn’t be able to detain me for very long. I have protected diplomatic status. My embassy would make sure I’d be released in no time.”
“Well you’re clearly not familiar with our horribly complicated bureaucracy then,” said Gavin. “A petition by your embassy would take weeks to be processed. We can drag it out to months if necessary.”
Agon nodded slowly. “Fine,” he said. “We’re after the same thing after all. We don’t have much however.” He retrieved a data port and attached it to the side of his neck. Within moments he had copied all the information he was willing to share.
Mech did the same with a data port of her own.
They exchanged devices and the LT attached his port to her own neck. She checked if it had any aggressive firewalls designed to attempt and fry her brain first and only once she was satisfied he wasn’t playing dirty she checked the data.
“Grayson owns a compound out of town, not officially of course, near Half Moon Bay. I know for a fact he’s working on something big there but I haven’t been able to get close. Security is very tight, but you strike me as somebody who might not be deterred by such obstacles.”
Gavin returned Agon’s phaser and he quickly holstered it. “You’ll have to excuse me now, my employers will want to get my report but our paths might cross again,” he said and gave Mech another glance. “It was a pleasure,” he said and walked away.
The young operative watched him leave. “Do you trust him?”
“No.”
“What do we do now?”
She offered him a seemingly innocent smile.
Gavin knew Mech well enough by now to know that there was nothing innocent about it. “I don’t like when you do that.”
Gavin and Mech had split up to cover more ground inside the dark warehouse.
Gavin hadn’t liked the idea very much and it wasn’t just because he suddenly felt a lot more vulnerable without the LT at his side. The warehouse was still entirely dark and he had not been able to locate a control panel. There was no voice activated computer interface either.
Holding his Seburo tightly in one hand and a tiny pocket torch in the other he slowly made his way down the corridors of the warehouse. So far it appeared to be entirely abandoned. Perhaps her intelligence is not as good as she thought.
He reached one of the larger storage halls. He could feel the immense size of the room but his flashlight did little to illuminate the surroundings.
Gavin froze when he thought he heard faint footsteps somewhere behind him. He whipped around to find nothing but more darkness.
He began to take a few steps backwards only to run right into a solid wall. He turned around again and the light of his torch fell right upon a very familiar face, no two inches from his own. The man wore wrap-around sunglasses, fused to his face.
“Holy crap!”
Gavin took two quick steps backwards and brought up his gun.
Black never even flinched.
In fact he appeared to be frozen in place behind a transparent screen. Gavin approached carefully and soon realized that the android’s entire body stood like petrified inside a chamber. And that was certainly not the strangest part of it all. Just to his left was another chamber, like the first it was about two meters tall and half a meter wide. Like the first it contained an exact copy of the android they had name Mister Black. And next to that one there was another. There was an entire row of chambers all containing exactly the same model of android. Gavin looked up to see even more sitting on top of the first row. It’s an entire army.
He could spot at least four rows but there could have been more, he couldn’t be sure without more light.
The operative found a mechanism at the chamber’s side and the transparent screen opened to allow access to the body. It smelled not too different from the way his hover had when it had been brand new.
The mouth opened easily. He shone his light into the opening and then reached inside. He frowned when he felt a slimy substance inside.
‘How was your day, honey?’ he imagined his wife asking him tonight. Fantastic really. I had a chance to stumble around a pitch black warehouse and reach into another man’s mouth, ya know, routine stuff.
He could not find a data chip inside. When he withdrew his hand it was covered in white goo. He wiped it off on the androids coat. “Sorry ‘bout that. Hope you don’t mind.”
Then footsteps again.
The open transparent screen exploded just inches away.
His face was hit by a few shards, scratching his skin but he hardly even registered the pain. He blindly fired the Seburo into the direction he thought the burst had come from and quickly stepped back, trying to find some cover. <LT, somebody is shooting at me,> he said his voice raspy and out of breath
<I heard it. Where are you?>
<West part of the building. One of the storage halls.>
Gavin kept firing one phaser blast after the other into the darkness until he found a corner he could slip into. He quickly made sure his six was clear before he spied around the corner again to find his attacker.
He was forced back almost immediately when the incoming fire resumed, smashing another screen and scorching the android’s body inside the chamber.
“Bastard,” he mumbled and checked his Seburo, he was still getting used to this gun. It had clearly not been designed to fire energy blasts and was a little more sluggish on the phaser setting than his old Fletcher. He couldn’t get himself to change to the more powerful projectile mode.
A noise coming from above startled him and he aimed his gun into the air. He held his fire. It was Mech, she had somehow managed to take the high ground and had leaped onto the row of chambers. He smirked, she was without doubt the most athletic person he had ever met.
Their opponent had apparently noticed Mech as well and had decided to hit the lights. The powerful illumination blinded Gavin for a moment. His surrounding had suddenly taken on brightly flaring colors.
The attacker open fire again and the rookie knew that he was trying to shoot Mech. He came out from around the corner and for the first time could see the person who had attacked him.
He took aim. “Municipal Safety, drop your weapon!”
The man had no intention of doing so and instead dropped for cover and fired at Gavin.
The operative shot back but neither one was successful in landing a direct hit.
And then Mech came leaping off from the row of chambers above. She spun around in mid-air, performing a flawless pirouette as if she was partaking in an Olympic discipline, while she dove towards their attacker.
To his credit the man noticed her approach but she was too fast for him to take proper aim. Before he knew it she had landed in a crouch directly behind him. He spun around but by the time he had, the cold barrel of her Glock was pushing against his forehead. He knew instantly that it did not have a stun setting.
He held his own phaser at his side somewhat unsteadily as if he couldn’t quite decide if he should bring it to bear or not.
In the end the decision was taken from him. Gavin had dashed across the room and quickly snatched it out of the man’s hand.
“Thanks for the assist,” the young operative said.
The man took two steps back and raised his hands. “Alright, easy now, you’ve got me.”
He was of medium height and had short brownish hair and angular facial features. Most noticeably was the prominent vertical ridge sitting on top of his nose.
“You’re Farian,” Gavin said.
The man nodded. “My name is Lutious Agon, I’m an agent with the Farian Security Consortium, a government contractor.”
“Yeah, right.”
“My id is in my jacket.”
Gavin exchanged a quick glance with Mech who gave him the nod to proceed. His hand darted inside the man’s gray jacket to retrieve a slim wallet. Inside he discovered what he had been told.
“It looks genuine.”
Mech holstered her weapon. “What are doing here?”
“And more importantly, why are shooting at us, you nearly took out my eye,” said Gavin and wiped blood off his face. The cuts stung but they weren’t deep he was relieved to find. His wife wasn’t going to be happy though.
“I thought you worked for Grayson,” the agent said. “My mistake. Can I have that back now?” he added and gestured for his phaser.
“Grayson?” asked Gavin and ignored his request.
The man nodded. “Yeah, we’ve been investigating him for some time for his ties to the Orion Syndicate. We don’t have enough for a case yet but we’re close.”
“That would make sense. If he’s behind the stims market in the city he would have to have a supplier somewhere,” said Mech. “There is no bigger drug cartel in the galaxy than the Orion Syndicate.”
“Sadly so,” said Agon. “I have been trying to get some hard evidence for weeks now but the man covers his tracks well.”
“What about this place?” said Gavin and looked around, for the first time being able to take in the full sight of the hundreds of androids stored here. “If we can link these things to Grayson me might have something substantial. We know for a fact that these androids have been used to distribute stims all over the city.”
But Agon shook his head. “He’s too smart for that. I’ve already checked. The warehouse belongs to a dummy corporation with no links whatsoever to the Grayson Institute. The androids themselves are empty shells. There is no software inside. In fact they don’t even have an AI.”
“Great, another dead end then.”
“What else do you have on Grayson?” asked Mech.
Agon gave her a skeptical look. “I don’t particularly trust Federation agencies, why should I share any of our information with you?”
She answered him with a little smile. “Well how about a little deal then? You tell us what you know and in return we won’t arrest you for firing on Municipal Safety officers.”
He returned her smile in kind. “You wouldn’t be able to detain me for very long. I have protected diplomatic status. My embassy would make sure I’d be released in no time.”
“Well you’re clearly not familiar with our horribly complicated bureaucracy then,” said Gavin. “A petition by your embassy would take weeks to be processed. We can drag it out to months if necessary.”
Agon nodded slowly. “Fine,” he said. “We’re after the same thing after all. We don’t have much however.” He retrieved a data port and attached it to the side of his neck. Within moments he had copied all the information he was willing to share.
Mech did the same with a data port of her own.
They exchanged devices and the LT attached his port to her own neck. She checked if it had any aggressive firewalls designed to attempt and fry her brain first and only once she was satisfied he wasn’t playing dirty she checked the data.
“Grayson owns a compound out of town, not officially of course, near Half Moon Bay. I know for a fact he’s working on something big there but I haven’t been able to get close. Security is very tight, but you strike me as somebody who might not be deterred by such obstacles.”
Gavin returned Agon’s phaser and he quickly holstered it. “You’ll have to excuse me now, my employers will want to get my report but our paths might cross again,” he said and gave Mech another glance. “It was a pleasure,” he said and walked away.
The young operative watched him leave. “Do you trust him?”
“No.”
“What do we do now?”
She offered him a seemingly innocent smile.
Gavin knew Mech well enough by now to know that there was nothing innocent about it. “I don’t like when you do that.”
_ _ _ _
Nice, tense segment with the fight in the dark. The cyber-tech still seems strange to me (data ports in their necks, etc.) but I understand it's integral to the story. Even though I'm not a cyber-punk fan, I continue to enjoy this story - a testimony to your excellent character development and a sound plot.
That was a very nicely done combat sequence. And now we have a private investigator tossed into the mix--and as always with his ilk, you have to ask the question--what's his real agenda?
24 – “The Japanese Lady In The Chinese Dress.”
When Tank stepped out of the elevator and onto the seventy-fourth floor he felt as if he had stepped into a different world. The little bit of Federation Plaza he had seen so far had been quiet and deserted but not so here.
The massive reception hall which he estimated took up at least three floors in itself was filled with people, music and color. The latter was thanks to an innumerable amount of paper ribbons and streamers which were hanging from the high ceiling, some of which were so low they reached to Tanks’ broad shoulders.
The reception hall itself was extravagant to say the least, complete with a small waterfall that cascaded contently over multiple steps into a pond adorned with large flat stones and lined with bamboo stalks. A wide winding stair-case led to offices on the upper level and in one of the corners, in front of the floor to ceiling windows which were providing a stunning view on Golden Gate, a trio of musicians were pounding large drums to whose rhythmic tones quite a few party goers had taken to dancing on the floor.
Tank watched the spectacle for a minute, fascinating by the synchronized movements of the dancers before he made his was to something instinctively recognizable to him. The bar.
He sat down on a stool and let his eyes wander across the room again. Most of the people here were from East Asian descent, some may have been nikkeijin, Nyuchiban natives. It was very difficult to tell the two apart at least for Tank.
Noticing nothing out of the ordinary but a large group of office workers cutting loose he turned back towards the bar and quickly found the man in charge of the refreshments. The short bartender wore traditional Japanese clothing and looked at Tank expectantly.
“Beer,” Tank said.
The man’s eyes looked back at him blankly.
“It’s a popular malted beverage, usually alcoholic. You might have heard of it.”
“You’re not exactly trying to fit in are you?” a soft female voice asked.
Tank looked to his side to see a beautiful tall and slender woman smile at him. He couldn’t quite help himself to admire how well she fitted in that tight red and golden mandarin dress she wore, the slit nearly reaching all the way up to her hip and revealing a creamy white leg. Her black hair was held up by golden sticks which matched the color of her dress as did the bright red lipstick.
She sat next to him. “You should try the saki,” she said. “You might enjoy it.”
Tank shrugged. “Why not? I’m all for new things.”
“Make that two, will you?” the woman told the bartender.
The man quickly complied and produced two small cups and filled them with the cloudy rice wine. Tank looked at the tiny cup and then back at the bartender. “You might wanna leave the bottle.”
The bartender did.
The woman giggled and reached for her cup. She hesitated and Tank wasn’t sure why until he realized that she was waiting on him. He lifted his own cup. “What shall we drink to?” he asked.
She gave him a wicked smile. “A fun filled evening?” she responded and inched closer. “Because it looks like it’s going to be a lot of fun.”
Tank nodded and he followed suit as she sipped on her drink. He tossed his one back.
“Hey, this is good.”
She giggled again. “Told you,” she said and filled his cup once more. The second one vanished as quickly as had the first. “Oh my, I do appreciate a man who can take care of his liquor.”
“If that’s the case, I’m your dream come true.”
Another giggle. Then she held out her hand. “Kara Katanagi, pleased to make your acquaintance.”
“Tank.”
It took her a moment to realize that it was his name. “Tank,” she repeated reverently. “Now that’s not your real name, is it?”
“Is Kara Katanagi yours?” he replied with just a hint of skepticism.
Giggling she finished her second cup of rice wine. “You know I’ve been watching you ever since you came in.”
“Is that so?”
She nodded seriously. “Oh yes. You are a regular piece of art, Tank,” she said and squeezed his massive upper arm, her small hand unable to cover half of its surface. “Really nice work.”
“You are a connoisseur.” Tank poured his fifth cup of saki.
She nodded again but this time her smile betrayed the serious expression she was trying to make. “And seeing how you’re working yourself through that liquor I’d say those arms are not the only parts of yours which are enhanced,” she said and her voice turned soft as velvet, her cheeks flushing from the alcohol or her words or both.
“For a young lady you sure know a lot about these things.”
She frowned momentarily at his words and Tank couldn’t help but remember Bobbie Case’s offended expression when he had made the mistake of underestimating her. Kara Katanagi seemed a lot more forgiving though. “I work for the NFTA, silly,” she said. “You know Nyuchiba practically invented cybernetic wetware.”
“Yeah,” he said and flexed the muscles in his arms impressively. “And damn fine work they do, too.”
<Tank, I’ve been looking around and I’ve come across something unusual down here.> Slade’s voice announced, interrupting Tanks current thoughts. The connection was still not clear and the background static was annoying at the very least.
“Excuse me for a moment, Kara Katanagi,” he said with his best smile and then turned away from her. <What you mean by unusual? Unusual to you is probably nothing more than another day at the office for me.>
<There is a force-field here restricting access to the basement floors.>
<See that’s exactly what I mean.> Tank said with annoyance. <Where you see some sort of sinister plot I see nothing more than a security measure to keep people from messing around with the plumbing.>
<Alright, how about this then?>[i/] he asked. <There is no access mechanism here to control the force field and the whole thing is completely invisible which if I may remind you is a violation of safety regulations. I checked with the reception desk and there is nothing there to indicate that a force field is even in place.>
Tank scratched his bald head. <Alright, that does sound a bit unusual, I guess. Maybe it’s –>
<Hang on, I’ve got an incoming call from Case. I’ll put you on.>
Seconds later Tank could hear Bobbie Case’s voice which sounded a lot more faint than Slade’s. The static background had become so strong it was threatening to drown her out entirely. <The man you brought in, I don’t know what you’ve told him but he did allow us a detailed scan of his enhancer. He’s a very nice guy, really. Not at all the kind of man you’d imagine would be a stims junkie. If you just talk to him for a while he can tell you all kinds of interesting stories about –>
<Just tell us what you found. And by the way, the connection is really bad, can you boost your signal somehow?> Jackson interrupted.
<Uh, right. No sorry, there is nothing I can do from this end, it’s originating from your location. In any case what I found is really interesting. We already knew that stims can stimulate the enhancers to increase serotonin levels in the central nervous system similar to when eating large quantities of chocolate for example or during, uh, sexual –>
<Bobbie.> Slade interrupted again.
Tank smirked as he imagined Bobbie Case’s face turn a deep shade of red.
<Sorry. Basically the stims lowered the firewall threshold of your man’s enhancers. Quite significantly in fact. I can’t say if this is a general effect yet but if it is, persons who use stims could theoretically be extremely susceptible to outside ->
And then the static finally overwhelmed her voice until the connection went completely dead.
<Bobbie?> Tank asked after a few moments of silence. There was no reply. <Slade, are you there? Can you hear me?> But the reply was the same. His own enhancers told him that the connections had been terminated and every time he tried to re-establish one he got nothing instead. This didn’t usually happen.
“Are you alright?”
He turned around to see Kara Katanagi, a worried expression had now taken hold on her pretty face. “You seem agitated all of a sudden, is there something the matter?”
Tank looked passed her to notice a small group of people who had gathered near the elevator bank. They looked like party goes and there was nothing to be suspicious about. But he couldn’t shake the feeling that something was off.
“Maybe,” he said. “Maybe not. I have to go.” Tank stood and walked away.
“Oh, so soon?” she asked with such obvious disappointment that even the bartender shot her a pitiful look.
When Tank stepped out of the elevator and onto the seventy-fourth floor he felt as if he had stepped into a different world. The little bit of Federation Plaza he had seen so far had been quiet and deserted but not so here.
The massive reception hall which he estimated took up at least three floors in itself was filled with people, music and color. The latter was thanks to an innumerable amount of paper ribbons and streamers which were hanging from the high ceiling, some of which were so low they reached to Tanks’ broad shoulders.
The reception hall itself was extravagant to say the least, complete with a small waterfall that cascaded contently over multiple steps into a pond adorned with large flat stones and lined with bamboo stalks. A wide winding stair-case led to offices on the upper level and in one of the corners, in front of the floor to ceiling windows which were providing a stunning view on Golden Gate, a trio of musicians were pounding large drums to whose rhythmic tones quite a few party goers had taken to dancing on the floor.
Tank watched the spectacle for a minute, fascinating by the synchronized movements of the dancers before he made his was to something instinctively recognizable to him. The bar.
He sat down on a stool and let his eyes wander across the room again. Most of the people here were from East Asian descent, some may have been nikkeijin, Nyuchiban natives. It was very difficult to tell the two apart at least for Tank.
Noticing nothing out of the ordinary but a large group of office workers cutting loose he turned back towards the bar and quickly found the man in charge of the refreshments. The short bartender wore traditional Japanese clothing and looked at Tank expectantly.
“Beer,” Tank said.
The man’s eyes looked back at him blankly.
“It’s a popular malted beverage, usually alcoholic. You might have heard of it.”
“You’re not exactly trying to fit in are you?” a soft female voice asked.
Tank looked to his side to see a beautiful tall and slender woman smile at him. He couldn’t quite help himself to admire how well she fitted in that tight red and golden mandarin dress she wore, the slit nearly reaching all the way up to her hip and revealing a creamy white leg. Her black hair was held up by golden sticks which matched the color of her dress as did the bright red lipstick.
She sat next to him. “You should try the saki,” she said. “You might enjoy it.”
Tank shrugged. “Why not? I’m all for new things.”
“Make that two, will you?” the woman told the bartender.
The man quickly complied and produced two small cups and filled them with the cloudy rice wine. Tank looked at the tiny cup and then back at the bartender. “You might wanna leave the bottle.”
The bartender did.
The woman giggled and reached for her cup. She hesitated and Tank wasn’t sure why until he realized that she was waiting on him. He lifted his own cup. “What shall we drink to?” he asked.
She gave him a wicked smile. “A fun filled evening?” she responded and inched closer. “Because it looks like it’s going to be a lot of fun.”
Tank nodded and he followed suit as she sipped on her drink. He tossed his one back.
“Hey, this is good.”
She giggled again. “Told you,” she said and filled his cup once more. The second one vanished as quickly as had the first. “Oh my, I do appreciate a man who can take care of his liquor.”
“If that’s the case, I’m your dream come true.”
Another giggle. Then she held out her hand. “Kara Katanagi, pleased to make your acquaintance.”
“Tank.”
It took her a moment to realize that it was his name. “Tank,” she repeated reverently. “Now that’s not your real name, is it?”
“Is Kara Katanagi yours?” he replied with just a hint of skepticism.
Giggling she finished her second cup of rice wine. “You know I’ve been watching you ever since you came in.”
“Is that so?”
She nodded seriously. “Oh yes. You are a regular piece of art, Tank,” she said and squeezed his massive upper arm, her small hand unable to cover half of its surface. “Really nice work.”
“You are a connoisseur.” Tank poured his fifth cup of saki.
She nodded again but this time her smile betrayed the serious expression she was trying to make. “And seeing how you’re working yourself through that liquor I’d say those arms are not the only parts of yours which are enhanced,” she said and her voice turned soft as velvet, her cheeks flushing from the alcohol or her words or both.
“For a young lady you sure know a lot about these things.”
She frowned momentarily at his words and Tank couldn’t help but remember Bobbie Case’s offended expression when he had made the mistake of underestimating her. Kara Katanagi seemed a lot more forgiving though. “I work for the NFTA, silly,” she said. “You know Nyuchiba practically invented cybernetic wetware.”
“Yeah,” he said and flexed the muscles in his arms impressively. “And damn fine work they do, too.”
<Tank, I’ve been looking around and I’ve come across something unusual down here.> Slade’s voice announced, interrupting Tanks current thoughts. The connection was still not clear and the background static was annoying at the very least.
“Excuse me for a moment, Kara Katanagi,” he said with his best smile and then turned away from her. <What you mean by unusual? Unusual to you is probably nothing more than another day at the office for me.>
<There is a force-field here restricting access to the basement floors.>
<See that’s exactly what I mean.> Tank said with annoyance. <Where you see some sort of sinister plot I see nothing more than a security measure to keep people from messing around with the plumbing.>
<Alright, how about this then?>[i/] he asked. <There is no access mechanism here to control the force field and the whole thing is completely invisible which if I may remind you is a violation of safety regulations. I checked with the reception desk and there is nothing there to indicate that a force field is even in place.>
Tank scratched his bald head. <Alright, that does sound a bit unusual, I guess. Maybe it’s –>
<Hang on, I’ve got an incoming call from Case. I’ll put you on.>
Seconds later Tank could hear Bobbie Case’s voice which sounded a lot more faint than Slade’s. The static background had become so strong it was threatening to drown her out entirely. <The man you brought in, I don’t know what you’ve told him but he did allow us a detailed scan of his enhancer. He’s a very nice guy, really. Not at all the kind of man you’d imagine would be a stims junkie. If you just talk to him for a while he can tell you all kinds of interesting stories about –>
<Just tell us what you found. And by the way, the connection is really bad, can you boost your signal somehow?> Jackson interrupted.
<Uh, right. No sorry, there is nothing I can do from this end, it’s originating from your location. In any case what I found is really interesting. We already knew that stims can stimulate the enhancers to increase serotonin levels in the central nervous system similar to when eating large quantities of chocolate for example or during, uh, sexual –>
<Bobbie.> Slade interrupted again.
Tank smirked as he imagined Bobbie Case’s face turn a deep shade of red.
<Sorry. Basically the stims lowered the firewall threshold of your man’s enhancers. Quite significantly in fact. I can’t say if this is a general effect yet but if it is, persons who use stims could theoretically be extremely susceptible to outside ->
And then the static finally overwhelmed her voice until the connection went completely dead.
<Bobbie?> Tank asked after a few moments of silence. There was no reply. <Slade, are you there? Can you hear me?> But the reply was the same. His own enhancers told him that the connections had been terminated and every time he tried to re-establish one he got nothing instead. This didn’t usually happen.
“Are you alright?”
He turned around to see Kara Katanagi, a worried expression had now taken hold on her pretty face. “You seem agitated all of a sudden, is there something the matter?”
Tank looked passed her to notice a small group of people who had gathered near the elevator bank. They looked like party goes and there was nothing to be suspicious about. But he couldn’t shake the feeling that something was off.
“Maybe,” he said. “Maybe not. I have to go.” Tank stood and walked away.
“Oh, so soon?” she asked with such obvious disappointment that even the bartender shot her a pitiful look.
_ _ _ _
Oops...someone's jamming...and a forcefield no one knows anything about...what's it hiding? I like how this mystery keeps deepening--peel one layer of the onion away and there's yet another.
This is bad...very bad...and we all know how Tank loves take things apart.
25 – “Nothing Like A Trip Into The Countryside.”
His heart sunk slightly when he noticed the expression on his wife’s face. It wasn’t anger as he had feared but disappointment that was mirrored in Frances Thorgood’s eyes.
She tried and failed to suppressed a small sigh. “We’re going to have meatloaf with mashed potatoes and vegetables but I guess you can get what you like from the replicator.”
Gavin shook his head. “I’m probably going to be too tired to eat once I get home. Don’t wait up for me.”
“Do you know when you’ll be home?”
“No,” he said and glanced out of the window of the patrol hover he had used to contact his wife. It was one of a dozen of MSD vehicles which had since arrived at the old shipyard, surrounding the warehouse which he and the LT had raided earlier. A bunch of uniformed officers and investigators were inspecting the lifeless androids inside and then moving them into large transports.
Gavin turned back to look at his wife. The young woman still managed to look radiant with her long blonde hair and sparking hazel eyes even after taking care of their ever demanding daughter the whole day. “That new boss of mine has something cooked up. She’s a mysterious one and you never quite know what she’s up to next,” he said and immediately regretted his words.
“You didn’t tell me your new boss was a woman,” Francis replied flatly.
Gavin was momentarily speechless and caught off guard. He had not anticipated this response. “Well, yeah she …“
Frannie’s lips broke for a smile.
“Oh you,” he said after he realized that he had been had.
“I like to see you fluster, honey. It makes you so adorable.”
“You’re awful.”
She snickered before she turned away from the screen for a moment to reach for something. “There is somebody here who would like a stern word with you too,” she said and lifted a little girl of about four years and wearing blonde ponytails onto her lap.
“Daddy, daddy,” the girl shouted excitedly when she spotted him on her own screen.
“Hey there, honeybee.”
She laughed and produced a sound which was a fairly close approximation of the buzzing of a bee. Then, all of a sudden, she stopped herself and took on a very serious expression. “Mommy says you work too much and I think so too. You should come home.”
He grinned at her. “You and mommy are the smartest women I’ve ever known. I’ll be home tomorrow, ok? I’ll see you both then.”
She nodded dramatically. “Ok daddy. But I will be very angry with you if I don’t see you tomorrow,” she said and then stopped when her mother whispered into her ear. “Oh, and mommy will also be very angry with you.”
Gavin laughed. “No fury like two women scorned. I will see you both tomorrow. I love you, honeybee. And tell your mother I love her too.”
The little girl whispered into her mother’s ear and Francis whispered right back. “She says she loves you too,” she said.
Gavin’s smile widened.
“Be careful, honey,” said Francis just before the screen turned blank.
“Cute family.”
Gavin whipped around and spotted Mech leaning against the hover. She had her back turned towards him, not showing the slightest sign of trying to be intrusive.
Gavin nodded slowly. “Yes. Yes, they’re great.”
“Well I do hate making you miss dinner,” she said and stepped away. “You don’t have to come along if you don’t want to.”
Gavin left the vehicle and followed her as she walked towards the SAFVe which had arrived only a few minutes ago at Mech’s request.
“I’m your partner on this and I’m going wherever you’re going,” he said with determination. “Besides I knew the sacrifices I would be needing to make to work for CCiD. I’m not about to quit now.”
“This could get dangerous.”
He let out a hollow laugh. “I’ve already gotten shot at today, how much worse could it get?”
At that Mech smiled sweetly. “You really shouldn’t be saying things like that,” she said and hopped onto the SAFVe.
A few minutes later they were airborne and heading south along the coast. Gavin stood in the back of the SAFVe watching the San Francisco skyline, dominated by FedPlaza. The Federation logo glowing in a dark navy blue in the dusk of the late evening which would soon be claimed by night.
Once they had left Golden Gate behind and the skyline merged into indistinguishable shapes, Gavin turned away from the hatch and walked up to the cockpit were Hot Rod was piloting the shuttle. Mech sat in the co-pilot seat wearing her data port on her neck and seemingly interfacing with the on-board computer.
He exchanged a look with the Jamaican woman helming the shuttle but her expression left no doubt that she knew about as much of their trip as he did.
Mech removed the data port.
“You want to tell us where we’re going?” he asked her.
Mech didn’t reply. Instead she switched on one of the computer screens on the instrument panel in front of her. The screen showed an unmarked white hover speeding along a road.
“That vehicle left about 30 minutes ago from Starfleet Headquarters and is now heading south on the 101. I believe it is carrying Captain Whren.”
“Whren? That’s the man who tried to have you killed,” said Gavin. “What makes you so sure he’s in that vehicle?”
“I used one of your interceptors to keep an eye on him. I’m reasonably sure he is in that hover.”
Hot Rod glanced at the screen and then at her own instruments. “We’re just a few miles behind him. We could catch up to him easily if you wanted to.”
But Mech shook her head. “No. I want to follow him.”
“Why?” asked Gavin.
She turned to look at him. “I had a look at Grayson’s schedule for the day and it appears he’s out of the town for two days.”
Gavin didn’t ask how she had managed to get that information. He didn’t want to know. “Grayson is out of town and Whren, a man who practically never leaves Starfleet Headquarters, is also on the move.”
“I think they have arranged a meeting,” concluded Gavin for him.
“And you want to know where.”
“I know where,” Mech said.
He gave her a puzzled look.
“Half Moon Bay.”
Gavin nodded slowly.
Mech got out of her seat, passed Gavin and walked into the loading bay in the back. Gavin took the co-pilot seat she had vacated.
“If we maintain this speed,” said Hailey Rodgers, “we’ll reach our destination in about 16 minutes.”
Gavin craned his neck around to see if Mech had heard the pilot but she didn’t seem to pay attention. She had sat down at the back of the SAFVe, inspecting her Glock.
“What do you think of her?” he asked Hot Rod quietly.
The pilot turned her head to look towards Mech for an instant. “She seems alright.”
“Yeah,” Gavin repeated. “She seems alright,” he repeated, sounding a whole lot less assured.
Hot Rod noticed. “You don’t trust her?”
He shook his head slightly. “It’s not that. She and the old man go way back. If he believes in her then there is no reason that we shouldn’t. But we know hardly anything about her and yet here she is, practically running the whole show without really giving us any inkling what it might be all about.”
“Maybe she doesn’t know either.”
He glanced back at his new team leader. “I think she knows more than she lets on. Or at the very least she has an idea. But she’s not the kind to share.”
“Maybe it’s a nikkeijin thing,” Hot Rod ventured.
Gavin wasn’t so sure about that. The old man was a nikkeijn too, wasn’t he? And he was nothing like Mech. And then there was the fact that their new team leader didn’t really look anything like a Nyuchiban. She was tall and lacked the typical Southeast Asian features. Of course not everyone living in the former Earth colony was descended from that region but the majority had and something else was different about her and he hadn’t been able to quite place it yet.
“Well that’s another thing. Sometimes I fear that she doesn’t quite appreciate how things work here. Perhaps Slade was too much by the book but with the LT I get the feeling she has never even read the thing.”
Hot Rod shrugged. “Maybe that’s the kind of person we need.”
The two spent the next few minutes in silence. Then when they had confirmation of where they were going and were beginning their own approach Gavin joined Mech in the loading bay. The first thing he noticed was the quiet singing voice. It was a beautiful, melodic sound and something he would have never associated with their tougher-than-nails team leader. But sure enough she was quietly singing to herself while apparently taking apart and re-assembling her firearm.
The old song sounded familiar. It was about a young boy named Johnny who was apparently extremely skilled at playing the guitar.
Mech didn’t take notice when he sat down on the bench opposite from her. “Ray Charles?” he asked.
She stopped singing and looked up at him with a quizzical expression.
“The song you were singing? Was it Ray Charles?”
She smiled. “Chuck Berry, actually,” she said.
He nodded. Rock music was really not his field. “You like to sing, huh?”
She shrugged and finished re-assembling the Glock by sliding the magazine into place. “I guess I do it without noticing. Kind of ironic, I think.”
Gavin wondered what was ironic about it but didn’t press it further. “We’re coming up on our destination. Let’s assume that you’re right and the place is Grayson’s and Whren is in that hover, heading there to meet him. What are you planning to do? It’s not a crime to entertain guests. You know that, right?” he said, his question sounding silly to his own ears.
“I think Grayson is planning something big and Whren is in on it. If this is a meeting we might be able to find out what it is,” she said and took off her leather jacket and a silver ring she wore. She stored both securely in a compartment behind her.
Gavin looked on skeptically. Moments later they arrived.
Mech did remain right however. The hover they were following ended its journey at a large estate overlooking Half Moon Bay. A quick check on FedNet revealed nothing conclusive about the owner. If the estate did belong to Grayson he had used a pseudonym for the deed.
Hot Rod landed the SAFVe about a mile east from the estate along the coast.
Gavin and Mech had climbed up a nearby rise which gave them a good view of a picturesque costal landscape, its beauty only hidden by the darkness of the early night. Gavin used a pair of computer-powered binoculars to reveal the compound in the near distance. It was impressively large, at least 10 acres, it sat perched on top of the cliffs, the white waves of the Pacific Ocean splashing away at the rock wall below. There were at least half a dozen buildings, some large enough to house small starships. The entire estate was surrounded by tall security fences which Gavin assumed were equipped with motion sensors.
“Tight security,” said Gavin still spying through his scopes.
“A good place to hide something.”
Gavin lowered the binoculars and looked at Mech. She was also studying the compound but she didn’t appear to need any additional aids to do so. He also noticed that she was wearing her data port, probably accessing FedNet even while she observed the estate.
“We can’t just go in there, we’d need a warrant.”
At this she just smiled. “Preemptive law enforcement doesn’t tend to work very well if we stand around and wait for warrants,” she said, her eyes still focused on the compound, her mind most likely busy on diving through FedNet.
Gavin sighed. His background was with regular police work were reacting was much more common than preempting. He was still warming up to the idea of doing things the other way around. “So you want to break in? What about security?”
“It’s a lot less tight than it looks,” she said and then turned to him, still smiling. “Especially when you have the right access codes.”
The young operative was impressed.
“Get your gear, we move out now.”
Gavin still had reservations but he found it pointless to raise them now. Also he didn’t want to appear skittish in front of his new team leader. He had wanted to join CCiD for a long time, to attack the root of the crime which had gripped his city, his planet even. If that meant to break the habit of playing it safe then that was a price he was willing to pay.
He walked back to the SAFVe to get a wrist beacon, a field tricorder and an extra magazine for his Seburo just in case. He stopped by to see Hot Rod before he set out with Mech.
“If you don’t hear from us in half an hour –“
“I know, I call in reinforcements,” she said nodding.
“Reinforcements? That could take time.”
The dark-skinned woman gave him an amused look. “Hey, I’m just the pilot here, not a field operative, I won’t be able to come in guns blazing.”
“Just … just think of something,” he said frustrated and left, following Mech who had already started out towards the compound.
His heart sunk slightly when he noticed the expression on his wife’s face. It wasn’t anger as he had feared but disappointment that was mirrored in Frances Thorgood’s eyes.
She tried and failed to suppressed a small sigh. “We’re going to have meatloaf with mashed potatoes and vegetables but I guess you can get what you like from the replicator.”
Gavin shook his head. “I’m probably going to be too tired to eat once I get home. Don’t wait up for me.”
“Do you know when you’ll be home?”
“No,” he said and glanced out of the window of the patrol hover he had used to contact his wife. It was one of a dozen of MSD vehicles which had since arrived at the old shipyard, surrounding the warehouse which he and the LT had raided earlier. A bunch of uniformed officers and investigators were inspecting the lifeless androids inside and then moving them into large transports.
Gavin turned back to look at his wife. The young woman still managed to look radiant with her long blonde hair and sparking hazel eyes even after taking care of their ever demanding daughter the whole day. “That new boss of mine has something cooked up. She’s a mysterious one and you never quite know what she’s up to next,” he said and immediately regretted his words.
“You didn’t tell me your new boss was a woman,” Francis replied flatly.
Gavin was momentarily speechless and caught off guard. He had not anticipated this response. “Well, yeah she …“
Frannie’s lips broke for a smile.
“Oh you,” he said after he realized that he had been had.
“I like to see you fluster, honey. It makes you so adorable.”
“You’re awful.”
She snickered before she turned away from the screen for a moment to reach for something. “There is somebody here who would like a stern word with you too,” she said and lifted a little girl of about four years and wearing blonde ponytails onto her lap.
“Daddy, daddy,” the girl shouted excitedly when she spotted him on her own screen.
“Hey there, honeybee.”
She laughed and produced a sound which was a fairly close approximation of the buzzing of a bee. Then, all of a sudden, she stopped herself and took on a very serious expression. “Mommy says you work too much and I think so too. You should come home.”
He grinned at her. “You and mommy are the smartest women I’ve ever known. I’ll be home tomorrow, ok? I’ll see you both then.”
She nodded dramatically. “Ok daddy. But I will be very angry with you if I don’t see you tomorrow,” she said and then stopped when her mother whispered into her ear. “Oh, and mommy will also be very angry with you.”
Gavin laughed. “No fury like two women scorned. I will see you both tomorrow. I love you, honeybee. And tell your mother I love her too.”
The little girl whispered into her mother’s ear and Francis whispered right back. “She says she loves you too,” she said.
Gavin’s smile widened.
“Be careful, honey,” said Francis just before the screen turned blank.
“Cute family.”
Gavin whipped around and spotted Mech leaning against the hover. She had her back turned towards him, not showing the slightest sign of trying to be intrusive.
Gavin nodded slowly. “Yes. Yes, they’re great.”
“Well I do hate making you miss dinner,” she said and stepped away. “You don’t have to come along if you don’t want to.”
Gavin left the vehicle and followed her as she walked towards the SAFVe which had arrived only a few minutes ago at Mech’s request.
“I’m your partner on this and I’m going wherever you’re going,” he said with determination. “Besides I knew the sacrifices I would be needing to make to work for CCiD. I’m not about to quit now.”
“This could get dangerous.”
He let out a hollow laugh. “I’ve already gotten shot at today, how much worse could it get?”
At that Mech smiled sweetly. “You really shouldn’t be saying things like that,” she said and hopped onto the SAFVe.
A few minutes later they were airborne and heading south along the coast. Gavin stood in the back of the SAFVe watching the San Francisco skyline, dominated by FedPlaza. The Federation logo glowing in a dark navy blue in the dusk of the late evening which would soon be claimed by night.
Once they had left Golden Gate behind and the skyline merged into indistinguishable shapes, Gavin turned away from the hatch and walked up to the cockpit were Hot Rod was piloting the shuttle. Mech sat in the co-pilot seat wearing her data port on her neck and seemingly interfacing with the on-board computer.
He exchanged a look with the Jamaican woman helming the shuttle but her expression left no doubt that she knew about as much of their trip as he did.
Mech removed the data port.
“You want to tell us where we’re going?” he asked her.
Mech didn’t reply. Instead she switched on one of the computer screens on the instrument panel in front of her. The screen showed an unmarked white hover speeding along a road.
“That vehicle left about 30 minutes ago from Starfleet Headquarters and is now heading south on the 101. I believe it is carrying Captain Whren.”
“Whren? That’s the man who tried to have you killed,” said Gavin. “What makes you so sure he’s in that vehicle?”
“I used one of your interceptors to keep an eye on him. I’m reasonably sure he is in that hover.”
Hot Rod glanced at the screen and then at her own instruments. “We’re just a few miles behind him. We could catch up to him easily if you wanted to.”
But Mech shook her head. “No. I want to follow him.”
“Why?” asked Gavin.
She turned to look at him. “I had a look at Grayson’s schedule for the day and it appears he’s out of the town for two days.”
Gavin didn’t ask how she had managed to get that information. He didn’t want to know. “Grayson is out of town and Whren, a man who practically never leaves Starfleet Headquarters, is also on the move.”
“I think they have arranged a meeting,” concluded Gavin for him.
“And you want to know where.”
“I know where,” Mech said.
He gave her a puzzled look.
“Half Moon Bay.”
Gavin nodded slowly.
Mech got out of her seat, passed Gavin and walked into the loading bay in the back. Gavin took the co-pilot seat she had vacated.
“If we maintain this speed,” said Hailey Rodgers, “we’ll reach our destination in about 16 minutes.”
Gavin craned his neck around to see if Mech had heard the pilot but she didn’t seem to pay attention. She had sat down at the back of the SAFVe, inspecting her Glock.
“What do you think of her?” he asked Hot Rod quietly.
The pilot turned her head to look towards Mech for an instant. “She seems alright.”
“Yeah,” Gavin repeated. “She seems alright,” he repeated, sounding a whole lot less assured.
Hot Rod noticed. “You don’t trust her?”
He shook his head slightly. “It’s not that. She and the old man go way back. If he believes in her then there is no reason that we shouldn’t. But we know hardly anything about her and yet here she is, practically running the whole show without really giving us any inkling what it might be all about.”
“Maybe she doesn’t know either.”
He glanced back at his new team leader. “I think she knows more than she lets on. Or at the very least she has an idea. But she’s not the kind to share.”
“Maybe it’s a nikkeijin thing,” Hot Rod ventured.
Gavin wasn’t so sure about that. The old man was a nikkeijn too, wasn’t he? And he was nothing like Mech. And then there was the fact that their new team leader didn’t really look anything like a Nyuchiban. She was tall and lacked the typical Southeast Asian features. Of course not everyone living in the former Earth colony was descended from that region but the majority had and something else was different about her and he hadn’t been able to quite place it yet.
“Well that’s another thing. Sometimes I fear that she doesn’t quite appreciate how things work here. Perhaps Slade was too much by the book but with the LT I get the feeling she has never even read the thing.”
Hot Rod shrugged. “Maybe that’s the kind of person we need.”
The two spent the next few minutes in silence. Then when they had confirmation of where they were going and were beginning their own approach Gavin joined Mech in the loading bay. The first thing he noticed was the quiet singing voice. It was a beautiful, melodic sound and something he would have never associated with their tougher-than-nails team leader. But sure enough she was quietly singing to herself while apparently taking apart and re-assembling her firearm.
The old song sounded familiar. It was about a young boy named Johnny who was apparently extremely skilled at playing the guitar.
Mech didn’t take notice when he sat down on the bench opposite from her. “Ray Charles?” he asked.
She stopped singing and looked up at him with a quizzical expression.
“The song you were singing? Was it Ray Charles?”
She smiled. “Chuck Berry, actually,” she said.
He nodded. Rock music was really not his field. “You like to sing, huh?”
She shrugged and finished re-assembling the Glock by sliding the magazine into place. “I guess I do it without noticing. Kind of ironic, I think.”
Gavin wondered what was ironic about it but didn’t press it further. “We’re coming up on our destination. Let’s assume that you’re right and the place is Grayson’s and Whren is in that hover, heading there to meet him. What are you planning to do? It’s not a crime to entertain guests. You know that, right?” he said, his question sounding silly to his own ears.
“I think Grayson is planning something big and Whren is in on it. If this is a meeting we might be able to find out what it is,” she said and took off her leather jacket and a silver ring she wore. She stored both securely in a compartment behind her.
Gavin looked on skeptically. Moments later they arrived.
Mech did remain right however. The hover they were following ended its journey at a large estate overlooking Half Moon Bay. A quick check on FedNet revealed nothing conclusive about the owner. If the estate did belong to Grayson he had used a pseudonym for the deed.
Hot Rod landed the SAFVe about a mile east from the estate along the coast.
Gavin and Mech had climbed up a nearby rise which gave them a good view of a picturesque costal landscape, its beauty only hidden by the darkness of the early night. Gavin used a pair of computer-powered binoculars to reveal the compound in the near distance. It was impressively large, at least 10 acres, it sat perched on top of the cliffs, the white waves of the Pacific Ocean splashing away at the rock wall below. There were at least half a dozen buildings, some large enough to house small starships. The entire estate was surrounded by tall security fences which Gavin assumed were equipped with motion sensors.
“Tight security,” said Gavin still spying through his scopes.
“A good place to hide something.”
Gavin lowered the binoculars and looked at Mech. She was also studying the compound but she didn’t appear to need any additional aids to do so. He also noticed that she was wearing her data port, probably accessing FedNet even while she observed the estate.
“We can’t just go in there, we’d need a warrant.”
At this she just smiled. “Preemptive law enforcement doesn’t tend to work very well if we stand around and wait for warrants,” she said, her eyes still focused on the compound, her mind most likely busy on diving through FedNet.
Gavin sighed. His background was with regular police work were reacting was much more common than preempting. He was still warming up to the idea of doing things the other way around. “So you want to break in? What about security?”
“It’s a lot less tight than it looks,” she said and then turned to him, still smiling. “Especially when you have the right access codes.”
The young operative was impressed.
“Get your gear, we move out now.”
Gavin still had reservations but he found it pointless to raise them now. Also he didn’t want to appear skittish in front of his new team leader. He had wanted to join CCiD for a long time, to attack the root of the crime which had gripped his city, his planet even. If that meant to break the habit of playing it safe then that was a price he was willing to pay.
He walked back to the SAFVe to get a wrist beacon, a field tricorder and an extra magazine for his Seburo just in case. He stopped by to see Hot Rod before he set out with Mech.
“If you don’t hear from us in half an hour –“
“I know, I call in reinforcements,” she said nodding.
“Reinforcements? That could take time.”
The dark-skinned woman gave him an amused look. “Hey, I’m just the pilot here, not a field operative, I won’t be able to come in guns blazing.”
“Just … just think of something,” he said frustrated and left, following Mech who had already started out towards the compound.
_ _ _ _
A nice look into the character of Gavin here--and why do I have a feeling that things might end up very bad for him...
Yeah, I was getting to like Gavin.
He doesn't wear red shirts, does he?
Just wondering.
He doesn't wear red shirts, does he?
Just wondering.
I'm guessing there will be mucho troublo before this is over.
And what is it with Mech, such an enigmatic character. I like characters like that, like my very own Commander Wright. So little we see, so much we don't
And what is it with Mech, such an enigmatic character. I like characters like that, like my very own Commander Wright. So little we see, so much we don't
26 – “Trouble Brewing Above And Below.”
Tank had hardly even noticed the irritation in his drinking partners’ eyes when he had abruptly excused himself. He had more pressing concerns than to worry about hurting the feelings of a young, pretty lady.
Something was not right. The enhancer technology implanted in his brain stem was among the most sophisticated wetware available in the known galaxy and not prone to sudden failure. Whatever had caused the communications blackout was unlikely due to an internal malfunction.
Now back on his feet and slowly making his way across the large reception hall and towards the elevator bank, Tank once again noticed the group of people who had gathered by the exit. He couldn’t make out faces however; the colorful streamers hanging from the ceiling were a wonderful party decoration but made it near impossible to spy across the room.
He brushed them aside as he walked to no avail, there were simply too many of them.
What he could see, were their bodies and he thought they were standing too still. Differently to the other partygoers these people were not dancing, no rhythmic swinging nor the relaxed sway that would come from consuming too much alcohol.
These men and women were standing perfectly still. Almost as if they were waiting for something.
He had nearly reached the elevators when a small disturbance caught his attention.
A clearly drunken partygoer had attempted to head into the staircase but he had found that it had been blocked by another man who seemed to refuse him access. There was a bit of cursing and moaning by the intoxicated partygoer until he apparently lost his will to fight for his right to leave and turned back.
The man who hadn’t allowed him passed appeared to belong to the same group which had assembled by the elevators.
Things were getting stranger by the second.
Tank finally cleared the area dominated by the low hanging ribbons. He caught a glance of one of the men by the elevators. There was nothing suspicious about him. He was of medium height and his facial features were East Asian which could have made him a nikkeijin or an Earth citizen. His hair was cut extremely short and he wore a black dinner jacket with a small purple orchid attached to his breast pocket. The man’s visage showed little emotion as he calmly observed the room.
He turned ever so slightly, allowing Tank a glimpse under his jacket. And there, he was quite sure of hit, he noticed a metallic glint. It disappeared almost instantly when the man shifted again.
Tank froze. He studied the man’s suit and was sure he could see it bulge unnaturally just above his right hip. A quick glance at the other people in the group revealed similar protrusions.
Then the man with the purple orchid caught Tank’s glance and held it.
The CCiD agent tried his best to look inconspicuous as he slowly turned away, clapping a nearby man on the shoulder as if he was his best friend. The partygoer seemed irritated and Tank quickly grabbed him, pulled him close and put his massive arm around his shoulder, making it impossible for him to escape his grasp.
“Man,” Tank said with a smile as he steered him back towards the bar. “How have you been? I haven’t seen you around this place in weeks.”
The startled man now completely swept up looked at the imposing Tank with widening eyes. “I … I work in personnel,” he stammered. “I’ve been here all week.”
“You don’t say, Jack,” Tank continued, barely listening, instead trying to throw a quick look over his shoulder. The decorations were now obstructing him from view again.
“My name is Oshii,” the man said confused.
“That’s right,” Tank said and gave him a disarming smile.
“Say I don’t remember seeing you here before.”
Tank release Oshii and clapped him on the back good-naturedly. His powerful arm nearly throwing the short man to the floor. “Well, it was nice to catch up, Jack, we should talk more some time,” he said and left him behind as he approached the bar.
“Y … Yeah,” the man said, scratching his head with bewilderment as he watched him go.
Tank found Kara Katanagi still sitting at the bar, looking dejectedly at her cup of saki. He moved right up next to her. “Kara listen, is there another way out of here?”
The woman looked up and a large smile appeared on her lips. “Tank.”
“A way out?” he repeated.
“The elevators and the stairs I guess,” she said after a moment’s consideration. “It’s a lot of stairs though. I once thought about taking them but I got only about three floors down before –“
Tank didn’t have time for anecdotes. “Do you have a quiet place somewhere away from the party?”
At that her eyes lightened up. “Sure, my office is on the upper floor. It’s private. Very private.”
“Where is it?”
“Room 234A, up the stairs to your left, left again and right at the end of the hall,” she said. “Do you want me to show it to you?” She seemed to want to do that pretty badly.
“You go ahead; I meet you there in a few minutes.”
She nodded and turned but then stopped herself and looked back at Tank as if she had reconsidered. “Listen, maybe we are moving a bit fast here, I mean I don’t even know you at all. Perhaps we should talk some more and –“
“Now!” Tank didn’t yell but his voice was firm as steel.
It made her gulp. She reached for her cup of saki, emptied it in one go, nodded to him reaffirmingly and then trotted off.
Jackson Slade’s communication link had also been terminated unexpectedly and he was as concerned over this as Tank had been.
First he had found the hidden force field which kept him from entering the underground levels of the building and then the com link to both Tank and Case had suddenly cut out. Adding to this, their strange meeting with the receptions earlier and he was beginning to get a sense of real dread coming from this place.
His first instinct was to get out. He wasn’t all too proud of that but soon realized that it was not just a flight response. If he could return to his hover outside he could try to raise Case again and perhaps get to the bottom of the black out.
Then there was the matter of Case’s report on the receptionist. He had been using stims, that much seemed certain now but what she had found out could signify a real breakthrough at understanding the exact consequences of using the illegal computer programs. Scientific study on them was precariously inconclusive.
More importantly however he realized were the practical implications. If stims could be used to somehow circumvent people’s firewalls to gain direct access to their enhancers it was only a small step to give creed to Case’s earlier and previously farfetched theory that Black and by implication Grayson was able to manipulate people to do their bidding such as attacking CCiD agents in pursuit of a criminal in a packed commuter train.
Slade turned a corner to head out into the lobby when he noticed a man crossing the room. Something about him felt wrong and once again he was gripped by his flight impulse. This time it probably saved his life.
He backtracked noiselessly to press himself again the wall at the corner moments before the man turned around with a nasty looking weapon in his hand.
Peeking around the corner, Slade’s hand went for his Seburo Super Seven at the small of his back.
The man with the rifle had not spotted him and had his back turned towards him now. Slade could have easily come out of his cover and forced the man to disarm himself.
Two more men appeared by the exit which made Slade reconsider. They were all armed and he figured that revealing himself now as an MSD operative would put him in an extremely precarious situation which could easily end up with him extremely dead.
There was of course no immediate reason to believe these men were killers but there was something about their blank expressions he didn’t like. And then of course there were the weapons. They looked like assault plasma rifles and he couldn’t remember ever seeing one of those on Earth.
When he had been in Starfleet, Orion raiders and Breen shock troops had been quite fond of that kind of equipment but on Earth weapons of this kind were unheard of.
These men meant business. Deadly business.
The three men, all of them of medium build and height and of East Asian descent, didn’t talk to each other but from what he could tell they were communicating.
So the blackout didn’t affect them, he thought. This could only mean one thing. These men were directly responsible for it.
A horrible thought crossed his mind. There were a whole bunch of people in this building, thankfully only about a tiny fraction of the regular workforce. There would have been thousands of potential victims if these men had decided to come here during the day.
With a gentle hum, large shutters began to seal off the main entrance, nullifying any hope for Slade to escape and reach his hover outside. The three men seemed contend to stay in the lobby for now.
Slade considered his options. He had to get word out to somebody outside of what was happening. This would be difficult without communications. And even if he was able to alert somebody the chances that they were able to do much about what might be happening here was slim. He hated to admit it but most of Earth’s authorities were ill equipped to handle this kind of situation.
He had to take action.
He decided against using the elevators and found himself in the emergency staircase, looking up at thousands of steps.
“This is going to take a while.”
Tank had hardly even noticed the irritation in his drinking partners’ eyes when he had abruptly excused himself. He had more pressing concerns than to worry about hurting the feelings of a young, pretty lady.
Something was not right. The enhancer technology implanted in his brain stem was among the most sophisticated wetware available in the known galaxy and not prone to sudden failure. Whatever had caused the communications blackout was unlikely due to an internal malfunction.
Now back on his feet and slowly making his way across the large reception hall and towards the elevator bank, Tank once again noticed the group of people who had gathered by the exit. He couldn’t make out faces however; the colorful streamers hanging from the ceiling were a wonderful party decoration but made it near impossible to spy across the room.
He brushed them aside as he walked to no avail, there were simply too many of them.
What he could see, were their bodies and he thought they were standing too still. Differently to the other partygoers these people were not dancing, no rhythmic swinging nor the relaxed sway that would come from consuming too much alcohol.
These men and women were standing perfectly still. Almost as if they were waiting for something.
He had nearly reached the elevators when a small disturbance caught his attention.
A clearly drunken partygoer had attempted to head into the staircase but he had found that it had been blocked by another man who seemed to refuse him access. There was a bit of cursing and moaning by the intoxicated partygoer until he apparently lost his will to fight for his right to leave and turned back.
The man who hadn’t allowed him passed appeared to belong to the same group which had assembled by the elevators.
Things were getting stranger by the second.
Tank finally cleared the area dominated by the low hanging ribbons. He caught a glance of one of the men by the elevators. There was nothing suspicious about him. He was of medium height and his facial features were East Asian which could have made him a nikkeijin or an Earth citizen. His hair was cut extremely short and he wore a black dinner jacket with a small purple orchid attached to his breast pocket. The man’s visage showed little emotion as he calmly observed the room.
He turned ever so slightly, allowing Tank a glimpse under his jacket. And there, he was quite sure of hit, he noticed a metallic glint. It disappeared almost instantly when the man shifted again.
Tank froze. He studied the man’s suit and was sure he could see it bulge unnaturally just above his right hip. A quick glance at the other people in the group revealed similar protrusions.
Then the man with the purple orchid caught Tank’s glance and held it.
The CCiD agent tried his best to look inconspicuous as he slowly turned away, clapping a nearby man on the shoulder as if he was his best friend. The partygoer seemed irritated and Tank quickly grabbed him, pulled him close and put his massive arm around his shoulder, making it impossible for him to escape his grasp.
“Man,” Tank said with a smile as he steered him back towards the bar. “How have you been? I haven’t seen you around this place in weeks.”
The startled man now completely swept up looked at the imposing Tank with widening eyes. “I … I work in personnel,” he stammered. “I’ve been here all week.”
“You don’t say, Jack,” Tank continued, barely listening, instead trying to throw a quick look over his shoulder. The decorations were now obstructing him from view again.
“My name is Oshii,” the man said confused.
“That’s right,” Tank said and gave him a disarming smile.
“Say I don’t remember seeing you here before.”
Tank release Oshii and clapped him on the back good-naturedly. His powerful arm nearly throwing the short man to the floor. “Well, it was nice to catch up, Jack, we should talk more some time,” he said and left him behind as he approached the bar.
“Y … Yeah,” the man said, scratching his head with bewilderment as he watched him go.
Tank found Kara Katanagi still sitting at the bar, looking dejectedly at her cup of saki. He moved right up next to her. “Kara listen, is there another way out of here?”
The woman looked up and a large smile appeared on her lips. “Tank.”
“A way out?” he repeated.
“The elevators and the stairs I guess,” she said after a moment’s consideration. “It’s a lot of stairs though. I once thought about taking them but I got only about three floors down before –“
Tank didn’t have time for anecdotes. “Do you have a quiet place somewhere away from the party?”
At that her eyes lightened up. “Sure, my office is on the upper floor. It’s private. Very private.”
“Where is it?”
“Room 234A, up the stairs to your left, left again and right at the end of the hall,” she said. “Do you want me to show it to you?” She seemed to want to do that pretty badly.
“You go ahead; I meet you there in a few minutes.”
She nodded and turned but then stopped herself and looked back at Tank as if she had reconsidered. “Listen, maybe we are moving a bit fast here, I mean I don’t even know you at all. Perhaps we should talk some more and –“
“Now!” Tank didn’t yell but his voice was firm as steel.
It made her gulp. She reached for her cup of saki, emptied it in one go, nodded to him reaffirmingly and then trotted off.
Jackson Slade’s communication link had also been terminated unexpectedly and he was as concerned over this as Tank had been.
First he had found the hidden force field which kept him from entering the underground levels of the building and then the com link to both Tank and Case had suddenly cut out. Adding to this, their strange meeting with the receptions earlier and he was beginning to get a sense of real dread coming from this place.
His first instinct was to get out. He wasn’t all too proud of that but soon realized that it was not just a flight response. If he could return to his hover outside he could try to raise Case again and perhaps get to the bottom of the black out.
Then there was the matter of Case’s report on the receptionist. He had been using stims, that much seemed certain now but what she had found out could signify a real breakthrough at understanding the exact consequences of using the illegal computer programs. Scientific study on them was precariously inconclusive.
More importantly however he realized were the practical implications. If stims could be used to somehow circumvent people’s firewalls to gain direct access to their enhancers it was only a small step to give creed to Case’s earlier and previously farfetched theory that Black and by implication Grayson was able to manipulate people to do their bidding such as attacking CCiD agents in pursuit of a criminal in a packed commuter train.
Slade turned a corner to head out into the lobby when he noticed a man crossing the room. Something about him felt wrong and once again he was gripped by his flight impulse. This time it probably saved his life.
He backtracked noiselessly to press himself again the wall at the corner moments before the man turned around with a nasty looking weapon in his hand.
Peeking around the corner, Slade’s hand went for his Seburo Super Seven at the small of his back.
The man with the rifle had not spotted him and had his back turned towards him now. Slade could have easily come out of his cover and forced the man to disarm himself.
Two more men appeared by the exit which made Slade reconsider. They were all armed and he figured that revealing himself now as an MSD operative would put him in an extremely precarious situation which could easily end up with him extremely dead.
There was of course no immediate reason to believe these men were killers but there was something about their blank expressions he didn’t like. And then of course there were the weapons. They looked like assault plasma rifles and he couldn’t remember ever seeing one of those on Earth.
When he had been in Starfleet, Orion raiders and Breen shock troops had been quite fond of that kind of equipment but on Earth weapons of this kind were unheard of.
These men meant business. Deadly business.
The three men, all of them of medium build and height and of East Asian descent, didn’t talk to each other but from what he could tell they were communicating.
So the blackout didn’t affect them, he thought. This could only mean one thing. These men were directly responsible for it.
A horrible thought crossed his mind. There were a whole bunch of people in this building, thankfully only about a tiny fraction of the regular workforce. There would have been thousands of potential victims if these men had decided to come here during the day.
With a gentle hum, large shutters began to seal off the main entrance, nullifying any hope for Slade to escape and reach his hover outside. The three men seemed contend to stay in the lobby for now.
Slade considered his options. He had to get word out to somebody outside of what was happening. This would be difficult without communications. And even if he was able to alert somebody the chances that they were able to do much about what might be happening here was slim. He hated to admit it but most of Earth’s authorities were ill equipped to handle this kind of situation.
He had to take action.
He decided against using the elevators and found himself in the emergency staircase, looking up at thousands of steps.
“This is going to take a while.”
_ _ _ _
Looks like things are about to get very active here...provided Slade doesn't die of a heart attack after climbing all those stairs...
027 – “Overload.”
Mech shot a quick glance towards Gavin. <On Three.>
He nodded his affirmation.
<One … Two … Three.>
Both of them ripped opened the doors of the storage container at the same tim¬e.
Gavin held his weapon tightly, the wrist beacon flooding the darkness with bright white light and revealing nothing.
Mech had already secured her Glock.
The container was as empty as the previous eleven had been.
“Now what?” asked Gavin, disappointed by having come up empty handed again. They had easily managed to enter Grayson’s compound – maybe a bit too easily – and found a number of spacious warehouses. But whatever had been stored here had recently been moved. The twelve large and empty containers littered across the huge warehouse were the only evidence that something had been kept here at all.
Mech had found something else of interest. She had discovered a computer terminal at the other side of the warehouse and headed out to cross the wide open floor. “See what else you can find, I’m going to try to get access to the local network.”
Gavin holstered his weapon – a bit hesitantly, this place made him feel squeamish – and walked into the cargo container.
Like the other ones it was quite large, big enough to have been designed to carry industrial equipment or starship components. It was completely unmarked however. A label, identifying its cargo, its point of origin and its owner would have been too easy, Gavin mused with a silent chuckle.
He meticulously scanned every square meter of the container, looking for something that might give any indication of what might have been kept here. There was nothing.
He had one more ace up his sleeve, literally. He pulled up his right shirt sleeve to reveal a small bendable computer panel wrapped around his lower arm. It was a basic field tricorder with rudimentary scanning abilities. A much lighter, smaller and less powerful version of the ones Starfleet used, it could detect a number of substances and also life signs over short distances.
He tapped the panels and waited for the sensors to pick up any trace of what might have been transported in the container. After a few moments of analysis the tricorder produced its findings. Nothing but oxygen and nitrogen. Air.
Gavin turned and headed out of the container. When he reached the doors he looked back one more time, sweeping the interior of the container with the light of his beacon. He noticed something on the floor that startled him. There appeared to be markings there that hadn’t been there before. It took him a moment to realize that they weren’t marking at all.
“Footprints,” he said quietly and then recoiled slightly at hearing his own voice echoing in the hollow container.
For there to be footprints, there had to be something to make them in. He knelt down and wiped the floor with a finger. And true enough he picked up a thin layer of dust.
Gavin activated his tricorder again. This time it yielded results.
A cold shudder ran down his spine when he realized what had been kept in the container.
Mech had gained access to the computer terminal with little difficulties. The protective firewalls were sophisticated but not enough to keep her locked out.
What she found on the local net was something she had not expected.
That huge data knot shimmering in green and white light was immediately familiar. She had seen it before and last time she had tried to gain access to it she had almost paid for it with her life.
Gateway 668.
Was it possible that the firmware for it was right here in this compound? It certainly would explain the massive FedNet activity she had encountered a few days ago and which had appeared to be concentrated in this area. But to what purpose? What was it for and what was it hiding?
There was only one way to find out.
Mech dove into it.
Her cybernetic enhancers still contained the exact routines she had used the last time when trying to hack the massive data knot and access took a lot less effort this time. The first four protective layers were quickly circumnavigated. The level ten firewall protecting the gateway was not nearly as aggressive as it had been when Mech had tried to hack into it before. The reason seemed obvious. The firewalls were in place to protect the information from outside access. They had not been designed to keep somebody out who had access to the local net.
It was still no child’s play and a reckless mistake could still have caused Mech to get spiked badly, possibly blowing out a few relays of her enhancers or worse get her brain fried. That would have been bad. Mech quite treasured her brain.
When she finally got passed all the safeties and firewalls and she was rewarded with the much thought after access-granted sign, she felt the euphoria of a person who had just reached the peak of K-2 with no artificial help, except that for Mech, climbing the mountain would have probably been less of a challenge then hacking into Gateway 668.
She allowed herself a smirk, imagining Trigger’s face when she told him that she had managed to crack the most notorious program in all of FedNet in under five minutes.
The smile dropped off her face when she discovered what 668 had been hiding.
A flood of information washed over her. It was too much. Way too much, even for her sophisticated cybernetically enhanced mind. A never-ending stream of data engulfed her like water would engulf a person dropped into the middle of an ocean, and it was dragging her down, threatening to drown her.
She fought to stay on the surface, to discern the massive amount of data, to make sense of it and to sort it in a logical way that would allow her to process it but it was momentous struggle and one she had not been prepared for.
She saw Whren and Grayson and Black, a whole army of blacks, marching in the streets. She saw Nyuchiba, the massive metropolis she had once called her home, and she saw a skyscraper adorned by a blue emblem, she saw detailed floor plans, she saw Starfleet starships and Marines, she saw Asuka III and a name: Helcon. Over and over again. Helcon. Who was Helcon? Was he behind all of this? There was just too much information, traveling and a pace too quickly to attempt to retain much of anything. But maybe if she could hang on for a moment longer, maybe she could make sense of it all, maybe she could find out who was behind all of this and why they wanted her dead.
Then she heard the faint noise, originating somewhere in the back off her head.
< ... If you can hear me. I think the containers were packed with tri-cobalt, that’s a powerful explosive and judging from the quantities I found, probably enough to turn half a city to dust.>
Gavin stood next to Mech, realizing that she was interfaced with the computer terminal. He knew that she was a good enough hacker to access computer networks and interact with the outside world at the same time but whatever she was doing now was consuming her entire attention, her eyes were out of focus and she had not reacted to his approach or his report.
There was nothing else for him to do but wait until she had completed her business.
A gentle humming sound startled him and he turned to find its source. He couldn’t locate it but the sound was increasing which concerned him enough to reach for his Seburo.
Something was approaching.
“Mech,” he said quietly, hoping she could hear him. “I think we’ve got company.”
And then he saw it and he wasn’t sure what to make of it at first.
A dark green bulbous vehicle had emerged from in between the cargo containers and approached slowly. It hovered about five inches from the floor and was about three meters in diameter. On top of the lower body sat another bubble shaped apparatus. It seemed to have sensor modules attached to it and a short tube-like device protruded from it.
Realization dawned. That was no tube at all. It was a barrel.
He whipped around. “Mech! LT!”
When she still didn’t react, he reached for her shoulder, trying to shake her out of her daze, while throwing nervous glances behind him. The vehicle continued to approach, the barrel now beginning to adjust.
“LT, we have to move!” he shouted and tried to pull her away from the computer. It was like trying to pull a freight train, she simply didn’t budge. <LT!>
Mech came around and for a moment she looked perplexed as if she had not expected to disconnect to the network. Her eyes found Gavin’s and she looked all but ready to tear him in two for distracting her.
Gavin couldn’t suppressed a gulp. He had little doubt that she could if she tired. Then he indicated towards the inbound vehicle. “I don’t know what that thing is but it doesn’t look friendly.”
“AI tank,” she said, recognizing the design immediately.
Gavin did not like the sound of that and if he had hoped for Mech to come up with an ingenious plan to evade the intimating machine he was in for a disappointment.
“Run.”
To his credit the young operative didn’t think twice. He fell into a fast dash almost instantly, heading towards the exit. A few of the containers would provide cover before he reached it but first he and Mech would have to cover a long stretch of wide open floor which would make them an easy target.
While he ran he noticed two things. One, Mech was not following him and two, the AI tank had come to a halt and the barrel on top was adjusting to take him into his sights. His heartbeat quickened but he didn’t stop, even when he became sickly aware that if that things was half as smart as the name indicated, it would have had no difficulties to hit him with whatever nasty weapon it possessed, long before he could reach the now seemingly enormously distant cover.
Then he heard Mech’s Glock firing – the sound was quite distinctive – the duranium-laced bullets penetrated the tank but didn’t appear to do much to stop it.
No, Gavin realized, they did have the desired effect. The tank was readjusting again, this time to take aim at Mech who still stood where she had before, fully exposed.
Gavin reached his cover and slid behind it.
Mech had began to move towards him but even utilizing her incredible speed, she was still too slow. The AI tank fired a blue energy bolt which exploded right in her path and catapulting her high into the air. Gavin watched painfully as she crashed back onto the hard floor with such force that it would have killed most humans instantly.
She remained there motionless.
The tank approached her to finish the job.
Hidden behind the container, Gavin could do nothing but watch.
Mech shot a quick glance towards Gavin. <On Three.>
He nodded his affirmation.
<One … Two … Three.>
Both of them ripped opened the doors of the storage container at the same tim¬e.
Gavin held his weapon tightly, the wrist beacon flooding the darkness with bright white light and revealing nothing.
Mech had already secured her Glock.
The container was as empty as the previous eleven had been.
“Now what?” asked Gavin, disappointed by having come up empty handed again. They had easily managed to enter Grayson’s compound – maybe a bit too easily – and found a number of spacious warehouses. But whatever had been stored here had recently been moved. The twelve large and empty containers littered across the huge warehouse were the only evidence that something had been kept here at all.
Mech had found something else of interest. She had discovered a computer terminal at the other side of the warehouse and headed out to cross the wide open floor. “See what else you can find, I’m going to try to get access to the local network.”
Gavin holstered his weapon – a bit hesitantly, this place made him feel squeamish – and walked into the cargo container.
Like the other ones it was quite large, big enough to have been designed to carry industrial equipment or starship components. It was completely unmarked however. A label, identifying its cargo, its point of origin and its owner would have been too easy, Gavin mused with a silent chuckle.
He meticulously scanned every square meter of the container, looking for something that might give any indication of what might have been kept here. There was nothing.
He had one more ace up his sleeve, literally. He pulled up his right shirt sleeve to reveal a small bendable computer panel wrapped around his lower arm. It was a basic field tricorder with rudimentary scanning abilities. A much lighter, smaller and less powerful version of the ones Starfleet used, it could detect a number of substances and also life signs over short distances.
He tapped the panels and waited for the sensors to pick up any trace of what might have been transported in the container. After a few moments of analysis the tricorder produced its findings. Nothing but oxygen and nitrogen. Air.
Gavin turned and headed out of the container. When he reached the doors he looked back one more time, sweeping the interior of the container with the light of his beacon. He noticed something on the floor that startled him. There appeared to be markings there that hadn’t been there before. It took him a moment to realize that they weren’t marking at all.
“Footprints,” he said quietly and then recoiled slightly at hearing his own voice echoing in the hollow container.
For there to be footprints, there had to be something to make them in. He knelt down and wiped the floor with a finger. And true enough he picked up a thin layer of dust.
Gavin activated his tricorder again. This time it yielded results.
A cold shudder ran down his spine when he realized what had been kept in the container.
Mech had gained access to the computer terminal with little difficulties. The protective firewalls were sophisticated but not enough to keep her locked out.
What she found on the local net was something she had not expected.
That huge data knot shimmering in green and white light was immediately familiar. She had seen it before and last time she had tried to gain access to it she had almost paid for it with her life.
Gateway 668.
Was it possible that the firmware for it was right here in this compound? It certainly would explain the massive FedNet activity she had encountered a few days ago and which had appeared to be concentrated in this area. But to what purpose? What was it for and what was it hiding?
There was only one way to find out.
Mech dove into it.
Her cybernetic enhancers still contained the exact routines she had used the last time when trying to hack the massive data knot and access took a lot less effort this time. The first four protective layers were quickly circumnavigated. The level ten firewall protecting the gateway was not nearly as aggressive as it had been when Mech had tried to hack into it before. The reason seemed obvious. The firewalls were in place to protect the information from outside access. They had not been designed to keep somebody out who had access to the local net.
It was still no child’s play and a reckless mistake could still have caused Mech to get spiked badly, possibly blowing out a few relays of her enhancers or worse get her brain fried. That would have been bad. Mech quite treasured her brain.
When she finally got passed all the safeties and firewalls and she was rewarded with the much thought after access-granted sign, she felt the euphoria of a person who had just reached the peak of K-2 with no artificial help, except that for Mech, climbing the mountain would have probably been less of a challenge then hacking into Gateway 668.
She allowed herself a smirk, imagining Trigger’s face when she told him that she had managed to crack the most notorious program in all of FedNet in under five minutes.
The smile dropped off her face when she discovered what 668 had been hiding.
A flood of information washed over her. It was too much. Way too much, even for her sophisticated cybernetically enhanced mind. A never-ending stream of data engulfed her like water would engulf a person dropped into the middle of an ocean, and it was dragging her down, threatening to drown her.
She fought to stay on the surface, to discern the massive amount of data, to make sense of it and to sort it in a logical way that would allow her to process it but it was momentous struggle and one she had not been prepared for.
She saw Whren and Grayson and Black, a whole army of blacks, marching in the streets. She saw Nyuchiba, the massive metropolis she had once called her home, and she saw a skyscraper adorned by a blue emblem, she saw detailed floor plans, she saw Starfleet starships and Marines, she saw Asuka III and a name: Helcon. Over and over again. Helcon. Who was Helcon? Was he behind all of this? There was just too much information, traveling and a pace too quickly to attempt to retain much of anything. But maybe if she could hang on for a moment longer, maybe she could make sense of it all, maybe she could find out who was behind all of this and why they wanted her dead.
Then she heard the faint noise, originating somewhere in the back off her head.
< ... If you can hear me. I think the containers were packed with tri-cobalt, that’s a powerful explosive and judging from the quantities I found, probably enough to turn half a city to dust.>
Gavin stood next to Mech, realizing that she was interfaced with the computer terminal. He knew that she was a good enough hacker to access computer networks and interact with the outside world at the same time but whatever she was doing now was consuming her entire attention, her eyes were out of focus and she had not reacted to his approach or his report.
There was nothing else for him to do but wait until she had completed her business.
A gentle humming sound startled him and he turned to find its source. He couldn’t locate it but the sound was increasing which concerned him enough to reach for his Seburo.
Something was approaching.
“Mech,” he said quietly, hoping she could hear him. “I think we’ve got company.”
And then he saw it and he wasn’t sure what to make of it at first.
A dark green bulbous vehicle had emerged from in between the cargo containers and approached slowly. It hovered about five inches from the floor and was about three meters in diameter. On top of the lower body sat another bubble shaped apparatus. It seemed to have sensor modules attached to it and a short tube-like device protruded from it.
Realization dawned. That was no tube at all. It was a barrel.
He whipped around. “Mech! LT!”
When she still didn’t react, he reached for her shoulder, trying to shake her out of her daze, while throwing nervous glances behind him. The vehicle continued to approach, the barrel now beginning to adjust.
“LT, we have to move!” he shouted and tried to pull her away from the computer. It was like trying to pull a freight train, she simply didn’t budge. <LT!>
Mech came around and for a moment she looked perplexed as if she had not expected to disconnect to the network. Her eyes found Gavin’s and she looked all but ready to tear him in two for distracting her.
Gavin couldn’t suppressed a gulp. He had little doubt that she could if she tired. Then he indicated towards the inbound vehicle. “I don’t know what that thing is but it doesn’t look friendly.”
“AI tank,” she said, recognizing the design immediately.
Gavin did not like the sound of that and if he had hoped for Mech to come up with an ingenious plan to evade the intimating machine he was in for a disappointment.
“Run.”
To his credit the young operative didn’t think twice. He fell into a fast dash almost instantly, heading towards the exit. A few of the containers would provide cover before he reached it but first he and Mech would have to cover a long stretch of wide open floor which would make them an easy target.
While he ran he noticed two things. One, Mech was not following him and two, the AI tank had come to a halt and the barrel on top was adjusting to take him into his sights. His heartbeat quickened but he didn’t stop, even when he became sickly aware that if that things was half as smart as the name indicated, it would have had no difficulties to hit him with whatever nasty weapon it possessed, long before he could reach the now seemingly enormously distant cover.
Then he heard Mech’s Glock firing – the sound was quite distinctive – the duranium-laced bullets penetrated the tank but didn’t appear to do much to stop it.
No, Gavin realized, they did have the desired effect. The tank was readjusting again, this time to take aim at Mech who still stood where she had before, fully exposed.
Gavin reached his cover and slid behind it.
Mech had began to move towards him but even utilizing her incredible speed, she was still too slow. The AI tank fired a blue energy bolt which exploded right in her path and catapulting her high into the air. Gavin watched painfully as she crashed back onto the hard floor with such force that it would have killed most humans instantly.
She remained there motionless.
The tank approached her to finish the job.
Hidden behind the container, Gavin could do nothing but watch.
_ _ _ _
A TANK! A Frakking TANK!!! This is bad...very, very bad...
The best way to take out a tank is with another 'tank'.
The best way to take out a tank is with another 'tank'.
028 – “Not the Kind Of Evening You Were Hoping For.”
Something was going to happen and it was going to happen soon.
Tank had counted a total of seventeen suspicious bodies all of which appeared to be armed. He couldn’t be certain of the exact number or what kind of weaponry they were sporting as any more obvious attempts to gather this information would have caused suspicion. Tank was not cut out for subtle reconnaissance work, he knew that. His massive body frame alone made him stand out even more so in a room filled with people three heads shorter than him
The suspects were blocking the only exit Tank knew about and refused anyone attempting to leave the party, not taking any notice of the curses and protests produced by the party goers. But it would come to blows soon enough, Tank was convinced of that.
His options were limited. He could not call in for help and a communications terminal in the lobby had also refused to establish any outside line.
He could have attempted a preemptive strike and try to take out these people before they had a chance to bring their plan to fruition. The idea appealed to Tank. But from a practical standpoint it was not a good option. Seventeen or more armed suspects against him were not particularly favorable odds even if Tank tended to like a challenge. If he was free to utilize deadly force he could see a chance of pulling it off. But he also had to consider the collateral damage that would ensue from such actions. By his estimates there were about 40 to 50 party goers, entertainers and caterers in the lobby and he could imagine no scenario in which they could possibly all survive if Tank would take action.
The CCiD agent decided on a tactical withdrawal. The idea sickened him but he needed a plan if he wanted any chance at finding a way to bring an end to this potential crisis with a minimum amount of casualties.
He managed to climb the large staircase undetected, the streamers hanging from the ceiling, hiding his ascent. Upstairs he found the corridors empty, the party goers were steering clear of their offices on a day that was all about celebrating and forgetting the daily work routines.
Tank found what he was looking for quickly. The digital display next to the door read: 234A. Kara Katanagi. Nyuchiba Liaison Officer.
The CCiD agent looked over his shoulder one more time to ensure he was alone in the corridor and then slid open the fusuma sliding door. He slipped inside without taking any notice of the office, instead focusing again on closing the door with as little noise as possible.
Tank could hear Kara’s unmistakable giggle behind him. “I was beginning to think you stood me up,” she said softly. “I just want you to know that I don’t usually do this,” she continued and giggled again. “There ought to be a law against saki.”
“Listen,” began Tank and turned around, “is there another way to get out –“ he stopped abruptly, his voice failing him the moment he noticed her standing in the middle of the room wearing nothing but her underwear.
“I take it you like what you see,” she said seductively.
Tank would have lied if he had said no. Her modesty was preserved only by matching bra and panties which he took some pleasure in noticing also matched the color of red lipstick. Kara Katanagi seemed very color coordinated.
She approached him slowly. “Is it what you expected.”
“No.”
She froze a moment and gave him a puzzled look.
Tank rubbed his eyes. “I’m not here for this,” he said.
She looked very uncomfortable with her semi nakedness all of a sudden. Her face began to also turn the color of her lipstick. Then she scrambled to find her dress. “You are a terrible man,” she said with sudden anger. “I can’t believe you led me on like this you … you,” she had apparently decided to turn to anger now and her voice was rising with every word.
“Will you be quiet, woman,” he said with a harsh hiss and followed her across the room.
“I took you for a gentleman but you are nothing more than a common –“
Weapons fire immediately followed by screams and panicked shouts cut her short.
Tank too froze and turned towards the door.
“What is happening?” she asked, sounding terrified now.
The agent moved noiselessly towards the door and parted it just enough to spy outside. The corridor was still empty but the shouts and screams had not abided. There was chaos ensuing in the lobby and it took all his will not leap out of the office and rush to the scene.
He felt Kara Katanagi now pressing herself against him. “What … what is happening down there?” she asked again, her voice so shaky it was threatening to fail her entirely.
The firing had stopped and so had most of the screams. In their stead there were moans and soft cries coming from the reception lobby now. Then a dominant but flat voice issued instructions. Tank didn’t get all of it but the gist was clear: Everybody remain calm and cooperate and nobody gets hurt. Hostage taking 101.
He had been afraid of something like this happening. He had hoped it wouldn’t until he had come up with a plan or had a chance to speak to the outside but the bad guys never seemed to operate on his schedule. He slid the door shut quietly and turned to look at Katanagi.
She had heard some of it and had made her own conclusions. She stood shivering with the back to the window now, having tried to put as much distance between herself and the horrible things that were taking place in the lobby. She held her dress in front of her, too scared apparently to even put it on.
Tank regarded her for a moment before he spoke. “Is there another way off this floor?”
But Kara Katanagi didn’t say anything.
He sighed and took a step towards her. She was scared and needed somebody to reassure her that everything was going to be alright. Unfortunately Tank was not very good at that. “I’m with MSD, alright? I’m going to take care of this but I need to know if there is another way out of here.”
“Are we … are we going to die?”
“Don’t be silly, woman,” he said harshly.
It did not have the intended effect as it only caused her to shiver again. He took a deep breath before he tried once more. “No,” he said firmly.
That seemed to relax her a little bit.
“I’ll make sure nothing happens to you. Now why don’t you put your clothes back on and tell me –“
There where footsteps out in the corridor.
Kara looked all but ready to yell out in fear.
Tank grabbed her, his massive hand clasping over her small mouth and then dragged her under the large desk near the window. There wasn’t much room there for the massive Tank but he managed to fit somehow. He had to move the diminutive woman on top of him however. It was uncomfortable to say the least but he didn’t mind her sweet scent and soft skin. Katanagi seemed too scared to pay attention to their compromised position.
Not a moment after they had found refugee under the desk, Tank heard the door being slid open. As he couldn’t see who had entered, he closed his eyes to focus on the sounds. His firm clasp over Katanagi’s mouth made sure she remained completely silent.
Two persons had stepped into the room. He was surprised that they didn’t seem to talk to each other. He could hear the faint metallic noise of weapons sweeping the room.
One of them remained at the door while the other walked deeper in the room.
Tank’s second hand found the handle of his Seburo but he dared not to draw it in the confined space. If he was discovered he would have to act quickly, probably smashing the solid desk with pure force and engage the enemy while keeping the woman pushed to the ground for cover.
The person walked towards the adjacent washroom and opened the door. Then a moment later he walked back the way he had come from. Relieved Tank heard the office door being slid shut again.
He remained in place even when he was sure the footsteps were moving away and down the corridor. He felt Katanagi squirm in his grip, when she noticed for the first time how uncomfortable she was. Now she desperately tried to free herself.
He smiled at her. “I wonder, when you talked about a fun filled evening earlier if this was what you had in mind,” he whispered in her ear.
She mumbled something in return which was unintelligible with the hand over her mouth. Her eyes were words enough though, they were burning with resentment.
Tank forced himself not to laugh and then slipped out from under the desk, letting her go.
Her flash of anger had dispelled her fear for the time being and she quickly slipped back into her dress. “You should be ashamed of yourself to draw pleasure from such a situation,” she said, wisely keeping her voice down.
“Sure, honey, thank me later,” he said and walked back to the door, he found the corridor behind it empty again.
Moments later Katanagi joined him, now fully dressed. “What do you intend to do to get me and the others out of here?” she asked.
Tank regarded her with apparent surprise. “Now that’s an impressive turnaround.”
She frowned at him questionably.
“Not a minute ago you were scared for your life and now you are making demands.”
“You are a peace officer, aren’t you? You should go out there and convince these people to surrender themselves.”
“Is that what I should be doing?”
She nodded firmly. “These … these individuals whoever they may be are clearly not thinking straight. They have barged into a Federation building firing weapons and putting people in danger. You must do something before this escalates.”
“And you’ve come to this conclusion how, exactly?”
She regarded him as if he was a child unable to grasp the most elementary concepts. “It is obvious. Who has ever heard of something like this happening on Earth? I wouldn’t be surprised if this had occurred on Nyuchiba but it shouldn’t happen here.”
“I’ll tell you what I’ve seen, lady. I’ve seen a dozen or so well organized, heavily armed men and women infiltrating this party fully prepared and without causing any suspicions, blocking off all obvious exits and taking control of an entire room filled with hostages within seconds. Now this sounds to me like a very carefully planned and executed operation. And you suggest that I go in there with my little 25-rounds handgun and force them to surrender to me? Lady, you are quite easy on the eyes and you make for some halfway decent conversation but why don’t you leave the police work to me, okay?”
Kara Katanagi crossed her arms in front of her chest and assumed a facial expression which to Tank looked very much like pouting.
Undisturbed with offending the young woman Tank continued. “Now I ask you again, is there another way off this floor. A prompt response would help me out immensely in trying to get this situation resolved.”
She decided to remain stubborn for just a few seconds more. “I think there is a maintenance access in the washroom. I’m not sure where it leads.”
“Well, let’s find out,” he said and headed towards the washroom. He noticed that she wasn’t following. And then he noticed something else. Her face had turned white again.
He was just about to ask what the matter was when he heard the soft footfalls in the corridor. These were different than the ones before, less determined, but they were coming closer.
Katanagi was petrified, unable to move away from the door, fearing that the slightest noise would draw attention to her.
Tank tried to motion her to move towards him and away from the door but she couldn’t do it.
He reached for his Seburo and slowly approached her. The footfalls had reached the door and stopped. He could see the shadow of a figure just beyond it. Tank carefully pushed Katanagi against the wall and then slid the door open two inches.
The man had his back turned to Tank and was apparently looking down the corridor. He had not heard the door being opened.
Tank decided to act. He opened the door further, reached out for the man, his hand once again clasping over his mouth to muffle any noise and dragged him inside with one swift motion.
The man tried to fight but it was entirely useless, like a fish caught in the net he had no choice in the matter.
Tank held him firm long enough to ensure the corridor was clear before he pulled the man onto the ground. “Get the door,” he whispered to Kara.
She obliged reluctantly.
The man now lying flat on his back with Tank hovering above him continued to struggle and tried to scream unsuccessfully until he noticed the gun pushing into his forehead. His eyes widened.
“I think we understand each other,” said Tank. “I’ll remove my hand now. You make so much as a peep and you’ll get far more acquainted with this little firecracker than you’d like,” he said good naturedly. Of course he had no intention of shooting the man. Besides the gunshot would be too loud and alert everyone of his presence. But a good whack with it would do the job equally well.
He removed the hand from the man’s face and recognition immediately dawned on him. “I’ll be damned,” he said and looked at Kara. “It’s Jack.”
“Who?” she asked confused and walked around Tank to get a better look at the man. “Oshii?” she said and quickly helped him up. “What are you doing here?”
Oshii was still trying to catch his breath. He looked confused and his eyes darted back and forth between her and Tank.
Kara noticed and put a gentle hand on his shoulder. “It’s alright Oshii,” she said softly. “He’s here to help,” she said and then with a scowling look at Tank she added, “I think.”
The MSD officer rolled his eyes.
“What happened in the lobby?” she asked.
“These people,” he said out of breath, “they just showed up and began waiving these huge guns around. I don’t know who they are they just … they just … it’s insane.”
“Alright, Jack, calm down and tell us exactly what happened,” Tank said.
Oshii took another breath and relaxed a little when he noticed Kara’s sympathetic smile. “All of a sudden they started to shoot at some of us. Then they said that if we cooperate and remain still we won’t be harmed. But … but I think they’re lying. They took four of us on the elevator and they’re going to the roof. I don’t know why.”
“The roof?” Tanks asked more to himself.
“Did they say who they are or what they want?” Kara asked.
“Their leader–I think it’s their leader, he’s the only one who has talked–send a message to the outside. I think he said he was from Nyuchiba but I couldn’t make out the rest.”
Kara looked at Tank. “Nyuchiba. That explains it,” she said as if she had been right all along.
“It explains nothing, lady,” Tank shot back and then gave Oshii a suspicious look. “How did you get away, Jack?”
“I … I crawled up the staircase. There was a moment when nobody was looking my way and I crawled up. I took me ten minutes but I got to the top. I thought I could hide somewhere up here and wait until it’s all over.”
“You’re a regular hero, Jack.”
“Would you stop calling him Jack,” Kara said annoyed. “His name is Oshii.”
Tank didn’t pay her any attention. “You said they took them to the roof? When?”
“Only a few minutes ago, I noticed it when I reached the top of the stairs.”
Tank nodded and walked towards the washroom.
“It’s alright, Oshii, Tank will take care of us. I’m sure he’s coming up with a plan to get us out of here right now.”
The young man seemed relieved to hear this.
In the washroom Tank found the access hatch Kara had mentioned. Behind it was a shaft which led upwards and Tank speculated that it might lead to the elevator shafts, or at least he hoped so. The shaft was narrow, just large enough to accommodate his massive frame, but not a millimeter wider than that. It would be a most uncomfortable journey.
“What are you going to do?” Kara asked who had followed him.
“I’m heading for the roof.”
“And leave us here?”
Tank turned to face her. She was turning red again. “You’ll be safe if you stay in this room. They’ve already searched it so they have no reason to come here again. Just keep quiet and don’t do anything stupid.”
“You can’t be serious about leaving us here.”
“A minute ago you wanted me to get out and take action and now that I do you don’t want me to leave. Make up your mind.”
Tank noticed the anger subside and the fear winning her over again. “I … I don’t want you to leave.”
He nodded understandingly. “I have to. They’re taking hostage to the roof, that can’t be a good sign. But I’m convinced it’s going to be safe for you here. I promise I’ll come back for you.”
She didn’t not seem convinced.
Tank reached into a pocket and produced a matchbox-sized device. “This is a class-I phaser,” he said and rotated it with his fingers to show it to her. “It’s quite effective on short range. Take off the safety here and then press this large button to fire. But don’t use it unless you absolutely have to, don’t take foolish risks,” he said and handed the small device over.
She took it awkwardly, like somebody who had never held a weapon before.
“If you have to use it make sure you point it away from yourself,” he said when he noticed that she was holding it the wrong way.
“You promise you will come back?”
“Yes,” said Tank. Then when he noticed her beginning to shiver again he stepped up to her and held her. “You’ll be alright. Just sit tight until I come back.” He let go of her even while she tried to hang on to him.
Then Tank slipped into the maintenance shaft and disappeared.
Something was going to happen and it was going to happen soon.
Tank had counted a total of seventeen suspicious bodies all of which appeared to be armed. He couldn’t be certain of the exact number or what kind of weaponry they were sporting as any more obvious attempts to gather this information would have caused suspicion. Tank was not cut out for subtle reconnaissance work, he knew that. His massive body frame alone made him stand out even more so in a room filled with people three heads shorter than him
The suspects were blocking the only exit Tank knew about and refused anyone attempting to leave the party, not taking any notice of the curses and protests produced by the party goers. But it would come to blows soon enough, Tank was convinced of that.
His options were limited. He could not call in for help and a communications terminal in the lobby had also refused to establish any outside line.
He could have attempted a preemptive strike and try to take out these people before they had a chance to bring their plan to fruition. The idea appealed to Tank. But from a practical standpoint it was not a good option. Seventeen or more armed suspects against him were not particularly favorable odds even if Tank tended to like a challenge. If he was free to utilize deadly force he could see a chance of pulling it off. But he also had to consider the collateral damage that would ensue from such actions. By his estimates there were about 40 to 50 party goers, entertainers and caterers in the lobby and he could imagine no scenario in which they could possibly all survive if Tank would take action.
The CCiD agent decided on a tactical withdrawal. The idea sickened him but he needed a plan if he wanted any chance at finding a way to bring an end to this potential crisis with a minimum amount of casualties.
He managed to climb the large staircase undetected, the streamers hanging from the ceiling, hiding his ascent. Upstairs he found the corridors empty, the party goers were steering clear of their offices on a day that was all about celebrating and forgetting the daily work routines.
Tank found what he was looking for quickly. The digital display next to the door read: 234A. Kara Katanagi. Nyuchiba Liaison Officer.
The CCiD agent looked over his shoulder one more time to ensure he was alone in the corridor and then slid open the fusuma sliding door. He slipped inside without taking any notice of the office, instead focusing again on closing the door with as little noise as possible.
Tank could hear Kara’s unmistakable giggle behind him. “I was beginning to think you stood me up,” she said softly. “I just want you to know that I don’t usually do this,” she continued and giggled again. “There ought to be a law against saki.”
“Listen,” began Tank and turned around, “is there another way to get out –“ he stopped abruptly, his voice failing him the moment he noticed her standing in the middle of the room wearing nothing but her underwear.
“I take it you like what you see,” she said seductively.
Tank would have lied if he had said no. Her modesty was preserved only by matching bra and panties which he took some pleasure in noticing also matched the color of red lipstick. Kara Katanagi seemed very color coordinated.
She approached him slowly. “Is it what you expected.”
“No.”
She froze a moment and gave him a puzzled look.
Tank rubbed his eyes. “I’m not here for this,” he said.
She looked very uncomfortable with her semi nakedness all of a sudden. Her face began to also turn the color of her lipstick. Then she scrambled to find her dress. “You are a terrible man,” she said with sudden anger. “I can’t believe you led me on like this you … you,” she had apparently decided to turn to anger now and her voice was rising with every word.
“Will you be quiet, woman,” he said with a harsh hiss and followed her across the room.
“I took you for a gentleman but you are nothing more than a common –“
Weapons fire immediately followed by screams and panicked shouts cut her short.
Tank too froze and turned towards the door.
“What is happening?” she asked, sounding terrified now.
The agent moved noiselessly towards the door and parted it just enough to spy outside. The corridor was still empty but the shouts and screams had not abided. There was chaos ensuing in the lobby and it took all his will not leap out of the office and rush to the scene.
He felt Kara Katanagi now pressing herself against him. “What … what is happening down there?” she asked again, her voice so shaky it was threatening to fail her entirely.
The firing had stopped and so had most of the screams. In their stead there were moans and soft cries coming from the reception lobby now. Then a dominant but flat voice issued instructions. Tank didn’t get all of it but the gist was clear: Everybody remain calm and cooperate and nobody gets hurt. Hostage taking 101.
He had been afraid of something like this happening. He had hoped it wouldn’t until he had come up with a plan or had a chance to speak to the outside but the bad guys never seemed to operate on his schedule. He slid the door shut quietly and turned to look at Katanagi.
She had heard some of it and had made her own conclusions. She stood shivering with the back to the window now, having tried to put as much distance between herself and the horrible things that were taking place in the lobby. She held her dress in front of her, too scared apparently to even put it on.
Tank regarded her for a moment before he spoke. “Is there another way off this floor?”
But Kara Katanagi didn’t say anything.
He sighed and took a step towards her. She was scared and needed somebody to reassure her that everything was going to be alright. Unfortunately Tank was not very good at that. “I’m with MSD, alright? I’m going to take care of this but I need to know if there is another way out of here.”
“Are we … are we going to die?”
“Don’t be silly, woman,” he said harshly.
It did not have the intended effect as it only caused her to shiver again. He took a deep breath before he tried once more. “No,” he said firmly.
That seemed to relax her a little bit.
“I’ll make sure nothing happens to you. Now why don’t you put your clothes back on and tell me –“
There where footsteps out in the corridor.
Kara looked all but ready to yell out in fear.
Tank grabbed her, his massive hand clasping over her small mouth and then dragged her under the large desk near the window. There wasn’t much room there for the massive Tank but he managed to fit somehow. He had to move the diminutive woman on top of him however. It was uncomfortable to say the least but he didn’t mind her sweet scent and soft skin. Katanagi seemed too scared to pay attention to their compromised position.
Not a moment after they had found refugee under the desk, Tank heard the door being slid open. As he couldn’t see who had entered, he closed his eyes to focus on the sounds. His firm clasp over Katanagi’s mouth made sure she remained completely silent.
Two persons had stepped into the room. He was surprised that they didn’t seem to talk to each other. He could hear the faint metallic noise of weapons sweeping the room.
One of them remained at the door while the other walked deeper in the room.
Tank’s second hand found the handle of his Seburo but he dared not to draw it in the confined space. If he was discovered he would have to act quickly, probably smashing the solid desk with pure force and engage the enemy while keeping the woman pushed to the ground for cover.
The person walked towards the adjacent washroom and opened the door. Then a moment later he walked back the way he had come from. Relieved Tank heard the office door being slid shut again.
He remained in place even when he was sure the footsteps were moving away and down the corridor. He felt Katanagi squirm in his grip, when she noticed for the first time how uncomfortable she was. Now she desperately tried to free herself.
He smiled at her. “I wonder, when you talked about a fun filled evening earlier if this was what you had in mind,” he whispered in her ear.
She mumbled something in return which was unintelligible with the hand over her mouth. Her eyes were words enough though, they were burning with resentment.
Tank forced himself not to laugh and then slipped out from under the desk, letting her go.
Her flash of anger had dispelled her fear for the time being and she quickly slipped back into her dress. “You should be ashamed of yourself to draw pleasure from such a situation,” she said, wisely keeping her voice down.
“Sure, honey, thank me later,” he said and walked back to the door, he found the corridor behind it empty again.
Moments later Katanagi joined him, now fully dressed. “What do you intend to do to get me and the others out of here?” she asked.
Tank regarded her with apparent surprise. “Now that’s an impressive turnaround.”
She frowned at him questionably.
“Not a minute ago you were scared for your life and now you are making demands.”
“You are a peace officer, aren’t you? You should go out there and convince these people to surrender themselves.”
“Is that what I should be doing?”
She nodded firmly. “These … these individuals whoever they may be are clearly not thinking straight. They have barged into a Federation building firing weapons and putting people in danger. You must do something before this escalates.”
“And you’ve come to this conclusion how, exactly?”
She regarded him as if he was a child unable to grasp the most elementary concepts. “It is obvious. Who has ever heard of something like this happening on Earth? I wouldn’t be surprised if this had occurred on Nyuchiba but it shouldn’t happen here.”
“I’ll tell you what I’ve seen, lady. I’ve seen a dozen or so well organized, heavily armed men and women infiltrating this party fully prepared and without causing any suspicions, blocking off all obvious exits and taking control of an entire room filled with hostages within seconds. Now this sounds to me like a very carefully planned and executed operation. And you suggest that I go in there with my little 25-rounds handgun and force them to surrender to me? Lady, you are quite easy on the eyes and you make for some halfway decent conversation but why don’t you leave the police work to me, okay?”
Kara Katanagi crossed her arms in front of her chest and assumed a facial expression which to Tank looked very much like pouting.
Undisturbed with offending the young woman Tank continued. “Now I ask you again, is there another way off this floor. A prompt response would help me out immensely in trying to get this situation resolved.”
She decided to remain stubborn for just a few seconds more. “I think there is a maintenance access in the washroom. I’m not sure where it leads.”
“Well, let’s find out,” he said and headed towards the washroom. He noticed that she wasn’t following. And then he noticed something else. Her face had turned white again.
He was just about to ask what the matter was when he heard the soft footfalls in the corridor. These were different than the ones before, less determined, but they were coming closer.
Katanagi was petrified, unable to move away from the door, fearing that the slightest noise would draw attention to her.
Tank tried to motion her to move towards him and away from the door but she couldn’t do it.
He reached for his Seburo and slowly approached her. The footfalls had reached the door and stopped. He could see the shadow of a figure just beyond it. Tank carefully pushed Katanagi against the wall and then slid the door open two inches.
The man had his back turned to Tank and was apparently looking down the corridor. He had not heard the door being opened.
Tank decided to act. He opened the door further, reached out for the man, his hand once again clasping over his mouth to muffle any noise and dragged him inside with one swift motion.
The man tried to fight but it was entirely useless, like a fish caught in the net he had no choice in the matter.
Tank held him firm long enough to ensure the corridor was clear before he pulled the man onto the ground. “Get the door,” he whispered to Kara.
She obliged reluctantly.
The man now lying flat on his back with Tank hovering above him continued to struggle and tried to scream unsuccessfully until he noticed the gun pushing into his forehead. His eyes widened.
“I think we understand each other,” said Tank. “I’ll remove my hand now. You make so much as a peep and you’ll get far more acquainted with this little firecracker than you’d like,” he said good naturedly. Of course he had no intention of shooting the man. Besides the gunshot would be too loud and alert everyone of his presence. But a good whack with it would do the job equally well.
He removed the hand from the man’s face and recognition immediately dawned on him. “I’ll be damned,” he said and looked at Kara. “It’s Jack.”
“Who?” she asked confused and walked around Tank to get a better look at the man. “Oshii?” she said and quickly helped him up. “What are you doing here?”
Oshii was still trying to catch his breath. He looked confused and his eyes darted back and forth between her and Tank.
Kara noticed and put a gentle hand on his shoulder. “It’s alright Oshii,” she said softly. “He’s here to help,” she said and then with a scowling look at Tank she added, “I think.”
The MSD officer rolled his eyes.
“What happened in the lobby?” she asked.
“These people,” he said out of breath, “they just showed up and began waiving these huge guns around. I don’t know who they are they just … they just … it’s insane.”
“Alright, Jack, calm down and tell us exactly what happened,” Tank said.
Oshii took another breath and relaxed a little when he noticed Kara’s sympathetic smile. “All of a sudden they started to shoot at some of us. Then they said that if we cooperate and remain still we won’t be harmed. But … but I think they’re lying. They took four of us on the elevator and they’re going to the roof. I don’t know why.”
“The roof?” Tanks asked more to himself.
“Did they say who they are or what they want?” Kara asked.
“Their leader–I think it’s their leader, he’s the only one who has talked–send a message to the outside. I think he said he was from Nyuchiba but I couldn’t make out the rest.”
Kara looked at Tank. “Nyuchiba. That explains it,” she said as if she had been right all along.
“It explains nothing, lady,” Tank shot back and then gave Oshii a suspicious look. “How did you get away, Jack?”
“I … I crawled up the staircase. There was a moment when nobody was looking my way and I crawled up. I took me ten minutes but I got to the top. I thought I could hide somewhere up here and wait until it’s all over.”
“You’re a regular hero, Jack.”
“Would you stop calling him Jack,” Kara said annoyed. “His name is Oshii.”
Tank didn’t pay her any attention. “You said they took them to the roof? When?”
“Only a few minutes ago, I noticed it when I reached the top of the stairs.”
Tank nodded and walked towards the washroom.
“It’s alright, Oshii, Tank will take care of us. I’m sure he’s coming up with a plan to get us out of here right now.”
The young man seemed relieved to hear this.
In the washroom Tank found the access hatch Kara had mentioned. Behind it was a shaft which led upwards and Tank speculated that it might lead to the elevator shafts, or at least he hoped so. The shaft was narrow, just large enough to accommodate his massive frame, but not a millimeter wider than that. It would be a most uncomfortable journey.
“What are you going to do?” Kara asked who had followed him.
“I’m heading for the roof.”
“And leave us here?”
Tank turned to face her. She was turning red again. “You’ll be safe if you stay in this room. They’ve already searched it so they have no reason to come here again. Just keep quiet and don’t do anything stupid.”
“You can’t be serious about leaving us here.”
“A minute ago you wanted me to get out and take action and now that I do you don’t want me to leave. Make up your mind.”
Tank noticed the anger subside and the fear winning her over again. “I … I don’t want you to leave.”
He nodded understandingly. “I have to. They’re taking hostage to the roof, that can’t be a good sign. But I’m convinced it’s going to be safe for you here. I promise I’ll come back for you.”
She didn’t not seem convinced.
Tank reached into a pocket and produced a matchbox-sized device. “This is a class-I phaser,” he said and rotated it with his fingers to show it to her. “It’s quite effective on short range. Take off the safety here and then press this large button to fire. But don’t use it unless you absolutely have to, don’t take foolish risks,” he said and handed the small device over.
She took it awkwardly, like somebody who had never held a weapon before.
“If you have to use it make sure you point it away from yourself,” he said when he noticed that she was holding it the wrong way.
“You promise you will come back?”
“Yes,” said Tank. Then when he noticed her beginning to shiver again he stepped up to her and held her. “You’ll be alright. Just sit tight until I come back.” He let go of her even while she tried to hang on to him.
Then Tank slipped into the maintenance shaft and disappeared.
_ _ _ _
So...Tank's about to do his John McLain imitation...
To quote Ivanova--Boom...always Boom!
To quote Ivanova--Boom...always Boom!
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