Reason For Vengeance (Dark Vengeance Book 1) (27 page)

It was never truly dark in Inferno and for once Hanna was grateful for that.  This meant she could clearly see the rooftop five hundred metres away and three hundred metres down from her.  While training in the pitch black mountains, she used goggles allowing her to precisely pick her landing zone.  Now she still wore those goggles, but, like all of their equipment, they were completely powered down.  To do this without their assistance was daunting at the least.  Fortunately, with the light coming from the buildings around them, aircars flying past and even reflection from the street lights far below, she could see across the city to where they needed to land. 

With the flight suit over her normal working clothes she felt hot.  Sweat trickling down her forehead and her palms were slick inside her gloves.  A strong wind whipped around her while doing little to cool her.  She really needed to go to the toilet.  Her bladder felt like it was about to burst, even though she had already gone on the rooftop not ten minutes ago.

Nerves were also heavily playing their part.  The cold woman standing next to her, on the edge of the roof, did nothing to diminish them.  She stood there, in her dark clothes and flight suit, gazing off into the distance.  Her pistols were holstered on her thighs and the Pulse rifle was strapped tightly to her back.  Valerie arrived exactly on time and travelled with Hanna to this, the jumping off point, without a word.  Fortunately, Sneaker came with them so he could take up his position in an office a couple of floors below.

From there he would direct the Heist and Hack into the city network, diverting any attention from the building they were about to raid.  As she thought of him, his voice came through her com.

“OK.  I’m into the network and now all the security systems are looking away from the target.  Are you all set your end, Troll?”

“Yep.”  Troll replied in a relaxed, laid back voice.  “Barney and I are sitting here bored out of our brains and Rush is at the wheel.  I’ll be honest and say that I have never seen anyone sweat as much as he does.”

“Hey!” Rush interjected.  “Don’t take it out on me.  Just because you can’t sit still for longer than a minute.”

“Wow,” Troll replied.  “The kid does have a backbone.”

“That’s enough, we don’t have time for you to fuck around,” Sneaker snapped.  “Valerie and Hanna.  We’re ready when you are.”

Hanna looked up at the taller woman beside her who did not respond, her gaze fixed on the rooftop below.  Not quite keeping a sigh from escaping her, Hanna keyed her com.

“OK, we’ll be jumping in a moment.”

Very much like her burglary the other week, the best way to break into a high tech facility, was using the lowest technology possible.  They would have active scanners sweeping the air around the building, looking for anything that could be used to get people where they should not be, such as aircars and grav-belts.  That is where the flight suits came in.  Made of a memory fabric able to form whatever shape preprogramed into it, when activated it would form wings that would allow Valerie and herself to glide down to the roof.

Switching off her com completely, Hanna turned to Valerie to ask if she was ready.  She was forestalled by her leaping from the roof without a word.  She watched as Valerie activated her suit and, at a speed that was beyond anything Hanna was capable off, flying off out into the night.

Cursing under her breath, Hanna took a running jump and followed Valerie into the air.  The suits were also designed to mask heat and, with the camouflage design, they faded easily into the background.  The automated security systems would take no notice, they resembled one of the large winged predators, called pterodactyls, regularly flying the thermals above Inferno.  Named after an ancient animal from Earth with, from what Hanna understood, had two wings instead of its Blaze namesake’s four.  That was why they carried nothing with an active power source.  Even an automated system was going to flag up a pterodactyl with an active com on it.

A sudden gust hit Hanna from the left, forcing her off course and she fought to bring herself back in the right direction.  Another slammed her from the right and this time flipped her all the way over.  Biting back a scream, she saw a wall flashing towards her.  She wrenched her arms back and managed to catch another gust to get her clear.

For a moment she was able to steady herself and mentally curse Sneaker for understatement.  He warned her, cross-winds above the city would be much worse than in the mountains.  She hadn’t realised until now, just how much worse they could be. 

Fortunately she was not too far off course.  She angled her wings to bring herself into a tight downward curve.  There was no way to know if Valerie made it or already dead against one of the tall buildings.  The plan called for com silence while approaching the building.  They would not be able to contact the rest of the Crew until Hanna Hacked the security systems.

Suddenly her landing zone disappeared.  For a split second Hanna was confused, until she realised that it hadn’t disappeared, it was obscured by an unlit building.  Without having time to wonder why it didn’t have its lights on, she pulled back on her suit in horror and hoped she wasn’t too low already.  The roof loomed up in front and flashed past her in the dark.  Hanna felt its permacrete top brush her feet by the faintest of touches as she swooped over.

Now, once more out of line, she carefully realigned herself, searching desperately for anything else that could endanger her.  There was nothing except, with her flight being more erratic than she had practised, she was now coming in too fast.  Fighting down the urge to panic, she gently used her hands to activate the braking flaps.

The tricky bit was to be slow enough so she could land safely, but without stalling and dropping the two hundred metres to the ground.  Hanna gave up the noiseless landing she had spent days training for.  All she was concentrating on now was making it alive and without any broken bones.

The wind rushed past her face.  At some point in the flight her hair had come free and now streamed behind her.  With her eyes fixed entirely on her destination, she focused all of her attention on that and pushed everything else out of her mind.  The speed was intense and she felt like a Mag round heading for its target.  With minute corrections, she brought herself in.

The brightly lit roof rose up towards her and just metres away, she brought the air brakes on fully for a moment before, with a well-practised pull of a cord, deactivated the flight suit.  The fabric went limp all around her and she tucked herself in, prepared to roll across the permacrete rooftop.  She didn’t hit it.  Strong arms grabbed her and spun her round, the roof top spinning around her.

Twice Hanna was spun in a full circle before being brought to stop and gently lowered to her feet.  With an instinct born out of Tern’s less than gentle ministrations, Hanna got her legs under her and looked up in surprise.  Valerie stood there.  Somehow the woman caught Hanna before she hit the permacrete. Spinning around to bleed off the momentum.  Hanna could not imagine the strength and skill necessary to accomplish a move like that.  It was possible Valerie had just gotten lucky, but Hanna didn’t think so.

Flying through the air might not be a core skill of Hanna’s, but burglary was and she kept her wits about her, not saying anything in her surprise.  Pterodactyls regularly landed on buildings and the system would allow for them, as long as neither Valerie nor herself spoke.

After taking a moment to steady herself, Hanna nodded to Valerie and in a crouch walked slowly over to the roof door.  Getting her Quartz out of her backpack she turned it on, its power source no longer distinguishable from all the others on the roof.  The Quartz was ready in moments and Hanna brought up the programs she pre-set for this door.  She and Sneaker spent hours building the programs they would need for this night, using the manufacturer’s specifications on everything they would encounter.

The door lock resisted.  The security firm, who looked after the building, had used their own programmers to customise the systems as much as possible.  Hanna grinned as her fingers flew across the virtual keyboard in front of her.  Safelife were a massive, multi-system company, with contracts all over Pantheon space.  They had a hard reputation, employing many former police and Legion personnel.  If she had to fight one of them, she would have no chance and that was why Valerie was at her elbow.  As a Hacker, she knew she could beat them and with a click she did.

The door slide open and Valerie silently breezed inside like a ghost.  Hanna waited a moment before following her in to find, as expected, a set of stairs leading down to the next floor.  Valerie was already at the bottom and waiting for her. 

Quickly Hanna shut the door behind her and plugged the Quartz into a security console just inside.  This was going to be tougher.  It would give her access to the security system itself.  While it would not be sufficient to get Troll and her team in, or allow Hanna to use her com to talk to them, it did give her access to the cameras on this floor.

The firewalls were tough, but she was already inside the system itself.  Her worms burrowed their way in and Hanna wondered how much Safelife paid their programmers.  Not enough.  They needed to invest in better talent.  She quickly identified there were no personnel on this floor and looped the cameras.  It was only a temporary worm, one that would dissipate in a few minutes.  That would be just long enough for them to make their way to the main stairs.

Nervously, Hanna put her datapad away and drew out the small Mag pistol she took from Sneaker’s armoury on a whim the day before.  Although she had never used one before, she guessed it couldn’t be that hard.

She crept down the stairs until she was behind Valerie.  The woman glanced in her direction momentarily before holstering one of her pistols.  Without any warning, she snatched the gun out of Hanna’s hand.

“Do you know how to use this?” the woman demanded quietly.

“No,”  Hanna said in surprise and shaking her head.  “Give me that back!”

“No.”  Valerie replied in that cold voice of hers before turning away.  “Do your job.  Tell me where we need to go.”

With only Valerie’s back to stare at, Hanna swallowed her anger and pulled out her Quartz.  She knew where they were going perfectly well, but as she no longer had a gun to carry it was better to have the information to hand.  Without looking at the map on her screen Hanna pointed down the corridor to their right.

“Down there to the end, then we go left.  Keep going until the last door on the left.  That’ll be the stairs down.  We’re heading for the third floor down.”

“OK,” Valerie said quietly.  “Stay behind me, but no closer than two metres and keep low.  I may need to fire over you.  Let’s go.”  Without waiting for a reply, Valerie strode off down the corridor and Hanna scuttled after her.

Pausing at the first junction, Valerie glanced round and then nodded to Hanna that the way was clear.  A wave of her hand told Hanna to follow and she was off again.  Hanna resisted telling Valerie she already knew the floor was clear.  Her run in with that home owner over the aircar keys and the injuries she sustained from it, made her think it was better safe than sorry.

Hanna followed Valerie down the corridor to the end and the door she directed her to.  The door was sealed and there was no way to tell if there was anyone on the other side.  First they needed to get through the door.  Hanna stepped up to the access port with her Quartz at the ready.  A hand on her shoulder stopped her.  She glanced questionly up at the older woman.

“Flight suit first,” Valerie told her.  “Then the door.”

With a nod, Hanna quickly unbuckled and stripped off the baggy fabric.  It all folded neatly into a self-contained back pack and she slung it onto her back.  As soon as she was done Valerie did the same, her movements swift, precise and well-practised.  It was clear she’d used one many times before.  When Valerie was ready, she nodded down to Hanna.

Plugging into the system, it was much easier to Hack.  She now had a good idea of how the programmers at Safelife worked and the door slide open.  Valerie stepped past quickly with her pistols out.  Looking down the stairs, she indicated to Hanna with a nod that it was safe before proceeding down them.

Shutting the door behind her, Hanna followed and stayed the two metres behind Valerie.  She watched as Valerie checked every corner, eyes and guns moving in complete synchronicity.  Hanna was as surprised as everyone else at Valerie’s performance in the training sim.  She could see it wasn’t a fluke.  Valerie wasted no time or energy as she moved and they silently continued to the third floor down.

They met no one on the stairs.  Just as Sneaker told them would be the case.  The guards all used the lifts and the stairs really were there for emergencies only.  When people have full access to the Pantheons technology, they tend to forget or over-look the lower tech options that were a way of life for those in the Ghetto.

This floor was mostly set aside for Safelife.  It held their armoury, security computers and mainframe and it was where they would have at least five of their guards.  It was possible there could be up to ten, if some came up for a break.  The lock on the stair door was more substantial and Hanna would have to be more careful.

At least that is what Sneaker expected.  Hanna frowned in surprise.  The upgrades on the door were no different than the others.  Her Quartz learnt what worked on the previous locks and automatically updated Hanna’s worms.  After a quick check to make sure they didn’t have any erroneous code, she released them.