Reason For Vengeance (Dark Vengeance Book 1) (29 page)

Hydra’s worms spread out in their thousands, multiplying as they went and burrowing deeper and deeper into the mainframe.  The Hydra’s body stayed in the main operating system, lying dormant and ready as its heads did the work.  Each of the protection programs needed to be infiltrated fully.  They could not destroy any of them individually as this would cause a domino effect of red flags.  Locking Hanna out and destroying the Hydra.

The Hydra kept Hanna completely updated.  A scroll of infiltrated programs passed Hanna’s eyes faster than she could read them.  If she hadn’t been sitting in the mainframe itself, with all the hardware around her, this would not have worked.  A smile grew on her face as she saw the infiltration percentage creep up, 70%, 80%, 90%, 92%, 93%, 94%, 95%, 95%, 95%.

“Huh,” Hanna said in alarm.  “That’s not good.”

Something in her voice must have broken through whatever was going on in Valerie’s head.  For the first time since entering the room she spoke.

“What is it?”

“My crash program can’t get beyond 95%.”  Hanna told her, too worried about the Hydra to wonder at Valerie’s interest.  “It’s blocked out of a complete set of servers.”  Her fingers flew over the keyboard.  “Why can’t you get in?” she saw the problem and leant back in frustration.  “Damn, they put in a hard wall.” 

A presence at her shoulder almost made Hanna jump.  Valerie was standing right next to her looking down at the screen.  She then glanced around the room.

“They’ve put in a firegate.  Unless you’ve got something more powerful than that Quartz in your pocket, you’re not going to be able to punch through.”

“Without that bank of servers, this isn’t going to work.”  Hanna said, answering automatically before her brain caught up with what Valerie said.  “Hang on, you’re a Hacker?” she asked incredulously.

“No,” Valerie looked down at her.  “I know how to destroy things,” she shrugged.  “People, buildings, ships, computers.  Whatever is needed,” she looked around the room again.  “If you can identify which section is hard walled you can do a manual bypass.”

Still trying to get to grips with a helpful Valerie, Hanna struggled to get her thoughts in order.  It took a moment, but she soon realised what Valerie was talking about.

“Shit.  Of course.  Why didn’t I think of that?”  Turning back to the screen and glad Valerie was back to her usual self and didn’t answer that.  Hanna brought up the list of infiltrated programs.  A search by server location allowed her to eliminate those where the Hydra had been successful. 

“There!” she shouted in her excitement.  “Sections 1 to 90, row P.  Damn that’s the entire row.”  Looking around in desperation for a physical connector, she couldn’t see anything.

“Cabinet under the desk.”  Valerie stated and must have seen Hanna’s blank look.  “They’re not supposed to, but most engineers are lazy.  The chances are they will have some cable to hand,  The most likely place is in there.”

Shaking her head in amazement, Hanna knocked her chair over in her rush and almost pulled the door off the cabinet.  Inside were three coils of cable.  Grabbing all three in case she would need them, Hanna dashed to server row P. 

“OK Hanna, think this through,” she said to herself breathlessly.  “It’s a firegate.  If you connect up the wrong sections it will still cut you out.  I need parallel systems.”  Walking sideways down the thin passageway between the servers, she brushed her hand along the cool, black boxes.

“Here’s Q23.”  She said stopping and placing her hand on one of the boxes.  “That runs a E416 so if I connect that with P43, that should work.”  Hanna plugged one of her cables in, thanking her small size and Thief training, as she squeezed around and inserted the other end into a server on row P.

“Where else can I get in from Q?”  She mused and then Troll’s voice came over the com.

“We’re loaded and leaving now.”  Hanna’s heart accelerated, she had minutes at most to initiate the crash. 

“Where are you, Hanna?” Sneaker asked over the com.  “Are you on your way out?”

“No,” Hanna replied desperately as she cast around for another place to link the two rows.  “The Hydra isn’t ready.  I need a few more minutes.”

“You don’t have a few more minutes, Hanna.  Come on!”  His voice was harsh with stress.

“I know, I know, just let me-”

“Shut up, Sneaker,”, Valerie’s voice cut through the com.  “Let her work and do your job.”  Her cold and emotionless tone stopped all conversation.

There was a silence and in it Hanna found the peace to see the next connection.  As she was plugging in the cable Sneaker’s voice came back on the com far more subdued.

“OK.  I’ll get you the time you need.”

Sighing, but not answering, it was better to use the time to think rather than talk.  She edged her way out between rows P and Q.  There was the temptation to send the Hydra in to P now, using the two hard connections.  She looked at Valerie, who still stood next to the terminal with that emotionless face.  No, three would have a higher chance of working and she trusted Valerie to get her out.

Ducking into the next passageway that ran between rows O and P, she sought out section O52.  Her subconscious had been whirring in the background and found the solution.  Swiftly plugging in the last cable she squirmed round and inserted the end into P6.

As ready as she could ever be, she darted out and back to the terminal.  Valerie having righted the chair, Hanna sat down.  “OK, Hydra,” she said, interlocking her fingers and cracking her knuckles.  “Let’s do this.  Worms to Q23, Q14 and O52, we’ll need a lot of them.”  She glanced at the time display on her datapad.  “That’s all we’ve got time for.  Send them in, Hydra.”

With a final press of a key, Hanna held her breath as she stared at the screen, willing with all her might for Hydras success.  It seemed to take an eternity and then the reports started coming through.  The infiltration percentage rose steadily.

“Yes!!”  Hanna exclaimed, pumping her fist into the air.  Due to the limited access the Hydra had, it took longer to infiltrate the last row, but bit by bit, section by section, it did its job.

“We’re at one hundred percent, Sneaker,” Hanna almost shouted into her com.

“Good work,” he came back, his voice strained.  “Set the timer to ten minutes and get going.  You need to move quickly, the guards are asking me why their reliefs haven’t come back from their breaks.”

“Timer set.”  Hanna said and activated it on the terminal.  She looked up at Valerie and wonders of wonders actually got a nod in reply.  “Going now.”

Unplugging her Quartz, she ran to the door.  Slapping the button she paused as Valerie breezed past her and headed left, back to the roof.  She moved fast and Hanna ran to keep up.  As they passed one door she heard banging coming from inside, that was the control room.  Hanna grinned as she imagined what they were going to say to their bosses when they got out.  Safelifes reputation in Inferno would take a hit after this.

While she was in the mainframe, Hanna set the doors they would need to be permanently unlocked for the next ten minutes.  Sneaker also would have made sure the surviving guards were kept away from their escape route.  They had a clear run and Hanna could see Valerie still didn’t take any chances.  She may have been moving fast, but she was checking every corner as though there was a guard hiding in all of them.

At the stairs, Hanna took them two at a time, the lack of a working lift in her apartment block giving her plenty of practice.  She was slightly out of breath when she made it to the top floor and Valerie did not let up the pace.  Down the corridor and then right to the last flight of stairs leading outside.  Up those and Hanna was on the roof.  Valerie sped up on the last bit and was already unpacking her Glide Suit.

Hanna slid to a stop, her heart thumping and unslung her suit.  She pulled it all the way out in one motion and the fabric caught in the wind.  Frantically, Hanna fought the suit fluttering in the high wind, to get it back under control.  It took precious seconds, by the time it was bundled into her arms, she could see Valerie was suited up and ready to go.

The older woman stepped over to Hanna and held out her hand.

“Give me that.”  Passing it over, Hanna was amazed as the woman, as expertly as she seemed to do everything else, unfolded the Glide Suit and held the legs out for her to step into.  As she put her first leg in, for the briefest moment, Hanna’s mind went back to one of her earliest memories. 

She had been very young and her mother had done much the same thing.  Hanna had seen love and pride in her mother’s eyes as she looked at her.   It was a unique experience, her mother rarely spent much time with Hanna.  At the time she hadn’t known it, but in retrospect she realised it was one of the few times her mother was sober.  It was not something she liked thinking about and pushed the memory away.

Hanna looked now into the eyes of the woman helping her.  She saw something similar going on behind them.  Then the shutters slammed down and Valerie was as cold as ever. 

Sealing the suit and pulling the hood up over her unruly hair, Hanna nodded to Valerie.  “Thanks.”

The other woman didn’t reply.  She turned and walked over to where they needed to jump from.  Hanna followed and glanced at her wristcomps chrono.

“OK.  Sixty seconds until Hydra goes live.”  She activated her com.  “We are on the roof and jumping now.”

“Gotcha.”  Sneaker said.  “I’ve started the storyline and will be leaving shortly.”

Looking to Valerie, Hanna nodded to her and the other woman nodded back.  They stepped up to the edge in unison and jumped off together.

Deni ran as fast as she could.  Her lungs were bursting, her legs burning with the strain and her heart hammering in her chest, it felt as though it would explode at any moment.  She pounded down the pavement, not caring that she was drawing attention to herself, not caring that this was how people died on these streets.  There was only one thought in mind, she had to get to Sneaker right now or Hanna was dead.

The streets were full of people.  They exclaimed and swore at her as she darted around them or barged through them.  A woman almost as wide as she was tall, stepped directly into Deni’s path and tried to grab her arm.  Years of instincts gave Deni the slightest warning and she snatched her arm away, almost pirouetting around the woman, before continuing on as fast as she could.

She came to Sneakers building, burst through the double doors at the front and took the stairs two at a time.  Four flights of stairs to get to his apartment.  It hurt so badly she was practically crying in pain as she made it to Sneakers door.  With no breath left and her legs trembling, she hit the intercom button with her fist before pounding on the door.  She wanted to shout for him to open it and let her in, but couldn’t, all she could do was gasp for air.  Her lungs demanded that she pull in as much as she possibly could, with nothing left to talk let alone shout.

Finally the heavy security door was opened by Sneaker and she staggered in past him.

“Deni?” he said in surprise.  “What are you doing here?  Where’s Hanna?”  Deni had been there a couple of times with Hanna, though never on her own.  She only recently became part of Sneaker’s Crew and while he was fairly relaxed about these things, he certainly did not expect her to just burst in on him like this.  He liked Deni though, she was smart, quick witted and he did have her in mind as a backup for Hanna on the Crew as a Thief, just as Hanna was his back up as a Hacker.  Sneaker also thought it would be worth getting her trained as a Driver, a skill that with her reaction times, she should be able to get up to speed on quickly.

Deni still couldn’t speak and activated the virtual keyboard on her wristcomp.  She typed quickly into it, cursing in her head as her fingers didn’t respond as she wanted them to.  They were practically shaking as her body struggled to recover.  Deni showed the screen to Sneaker.  THYE GOT HANA.

“What?  Who’s got Hanna?”

TUMMBLER.  Deni typed.

“Shit,” Sneaker said with vehemence.  “When?”

Deni’s heart was starting to slow down, as was her breathing and she was able to start forcing the words out.

“Minutes ago.  In Forum street.  Ran straight here.”

“Shit.”  Sneaker repeated, his eyes darting side to side as he thought quickly, trying to think through the possible scenarios.  “How did you know it was Tumbler?”

Deni took a deep breath, trying to get her lungs back under control.  “Gaunt grabbed her.  Stepped right out of a van in the middle of the street.”  Another deep breath.  “One second she was right beside me, next she’s gone.”

“Shit.”  Sneaker repeated for the third time, running his hand through his short blond hair.  Any of Tumblers Enforcers would be bad, but Gaunt was her Chief Enforcer, with a very dangerous reputation.  The man stood at a clear two metres tall, heavily muscled, scarred face and with his wild dark hair was hard to miss.  He was extremely strong, taking steroids that, even on Blaze, were hard to procure.  Rumour had it the drugs deadened his pain centres which was something many, who faced him in his favourite pastime of bar fighting, could testify to.

Tumbler was a different proposition altogether, a former Thief who specialised in high end burglaries, she had fought tooth and nail into a position of power in the Inferno underground.  Running a large and well organised Crew in everything from drugs and prostitution to armed robberies and protection with a reputation for ruthlessness.  Her short stature, slight build and youthful looks, from being one of the rare people in the Ghetto to have the Life X treatment, often fooled people into thinking her reputation was overinflated.

Sneaker wasn’t fooled though, he’d dealt with her before and knew for a fact she wasn’t happy with him for building his own Crew.  She also knew that as long as she didn’t go after him directly the Tops would not interfere.  Even if they did, Sneaker thought that Tumbler might just have enough Enforcers on her payroll to get away with it.

“Gaunt would have taken her to Tumbler’s main place,” Sneaker said.  “She’ll be in contact and I’ll bet she wants the take from the Job.”

Deni didn’t know Sneaker that well, but she heard from Hanna, he wasn’t someone to bite your head off for asking a question.  “Are you going to give her the take?”

Sneaker looked at her for a few seconds then sighed.  “No, I’m not.  Firstly, I don’t have it anymore, it’s been fenced already.  Secondly, the cash from the fence isn’t mine to give, it’s the Crews.  Lastly, it wouldn’t matter to Hanna as Tumbler will kill her any way.  She’s taken her to send me a message and to make sure that I fully appreciate it, she’ll hammer it home as hard as she can.  No, we need to play this a different way.”  He frowned down at the floor for a few moments.

“Come on.”  Sneaker grabbed his jacket from a hook behind the door and ushered Deni out of the door ahead of him.

“Where are we going?”  Deni asked.

“To get a drink.”

Deni followed Sneaker down the stairs, past the front door and further down to the car park underneath.  He took them to a battered old wheelie and got into the driver’s seat, motioning Deni to get in the other side.

“Surely-” Deni began.

Sneaker cut her off.  “Quiet, I’m thinking,” he said calmly but firmly.

Sneaker started the ground car with a soft hum and drove out of the car park onto the street.  He drove steadily, not seeming to be in any rush.  Deni wanted to shout at him to hurry, but she didn’t dare. 

It wasn’t a long trip though, as less than a kilometre away Sneaker pulled up outside the Dawning Sun, not far from where Deni lived with Hanna.  He got out and Deni followed him, not knowing why they were here.  Sneaker paused outside the door, pulled out his com and keyed in someone’s number.  They answered quickly and Sneaker replied.

“We’ve got a problem, come to the bar.”  Deni couldn’t hear the reply and Sneaker answered whatever question was asked.  “Yeah, where else.  Get here as fast as you can.”  He put the com away and went in.

Deni stayed behind him.  She knew this place.  It wasn’t somewhere fourteen year old girls just wandered into, no matter how tough they were and where they grew up.  Sneaker strode with a purpose to a dark table in the far corner.  He sat opposite a woman who did not even raise her head from the glass of whiskey in front of her.  An almost full bottle sat not far from the glass.

Sneaker didn’t say anything, just waited patiently, with Deni hovering behind him anxiously.

Nothing happened for several minutes, the silence only broken by the woman drinking from her glass at regular intervals.  Finally she finished what was in the glass and poured herself another one from the bottle.  Only after the bottle was placed carefully back on the table and she raised the glass one more time, did she break the silence.

“What do you want, Sneaker?” the woman asked.  “Unless you have my money, we’re done.”

“The money is on its way,” he replied.  “The merchandise has been sold and the cash will be with me shortly.  That’s not why I’m here.”  He paused, but got no response other than the glass being lifted.  “There has been a complication.  Someone who’s angry about us pulling the Job and has the muscle to do something about it, has taken Hanna.”

The glass paused half way to the woman’s mouth and she seemed to be considering something.  “So?” the woman asked finally.

Sneaker stiffened in his seat, Deni could see his shoulders tighten.  “So, she’s one of us.”

The woman raised her head suddenly and her eyes seemed to blaze out from under her dark hair.  “One of you,” the woman said quietly.  “I was only in for one Job.”  Deni was scared and she could sense she wasn’t the only one.  There was something truly terrifying about this woman.  Deni took a step back when those eyes looked in her direction, but Sneaker hadn’t budged a millimetre.

“Yes.  Hanna’s one of my Crew and yes, this was your first Job.”  He subtly emphasised the word first in that sentence.  “If it was you who’d been taken, I’d do whatever I could to get you out.  I believe I’m responsible for my Crew, first or last Job and I take that seriously.”

“I wouldn’t be taken.”

“I believe that Valerie, I saw what you can do.  I’m willing to bet my life and more importantly Hanna’s that you’re Legion.  Legion Commando as well,” Sneaker leaned forward.  “Never leave anyone behind.  Isn’t that what they say.”

Valerie lowered her eyes back to her drink.  She stared at it and as always, all she could see were the faces of Daphne, Bobbie and Tom.  One second smiling, the next bloody and lifeless.  Daphne’s eyes floated there in the amber liquid.  Hanna’s were so like them.  That’s what shocked her in the alleyway after she killed that scum.  She almost walked past when she saw the girl getting beaten, but something wild and lethal rose inside of her and demanded release.  She killed Tern, not out of justice, but simply because he gave her enough of an excuse.

When Hanna looked up at her with Daphne’s eyes, Valerie almost collapsed.  It had taken every gramme of control to turn and walk away.  She had known Hanna wasn’t Daphne.  When Hanna walked into the bar and proposed such a stupid idea, it was her eyes that made Valerie seriously consider it.

Now those eyes floated in front of her and what Sneaker was saying called to her.  She was Legion.  She was born Legion, lived Legion and she would never leave any of her Company behind.  To belong to something again called to her more strongly than the whisky in front of her.  The Job had been a diversion, nothing more.  This now seemed to have the spark of something else.

She looked up at Sneaker.  He was smart, very smart.  She’d recognised that the first time they met and knew he would work out she was Legion.  It didn’t worry her.  The Legion was a truly massive organisation and the biggest single employer in the entirety of explored space.  The number of women with the same name as her ran into the thousands, spread on ships and worlds spanning a volume of space containing tens of thousands of stars.  The chance of him tracking her, particularly with the Legion’s security protocols surrounding the Devils, was remote in the extreme.

It had been a year since Furioso.  There were no bulletins or wanted notices with her name and face on.  Valerie Carter was dead.  The people who ran the Pantheon and the Legion had ensured her name was buried deeply.

She was surprised and impressed by Sneakers devotion to one of his crew.  It was far from what she would have expected.  So why not rescue Hanna?  It was a worthwhile mission and if she died trying?  So be it.

“OK, Sneaker.  Tell me about where she is being held and who has her.”

“I’ll do better than that,” he replied with a smile.  “I’ll show you.”  He pulled out his datapad from his pocket, typed some commands into it and set it face up on the table between them.  It emitted a holographic projection, which hovered in front of them, showing a heavy set forty storey building, a wall surrounded, it with over thirty metres clearance from the building all around.  It was set in the middle of a housing estate with four or five storey buildings around the wall, many of them right up against it.  The only way out via the ground was a single reinforced gate in one corner, exiting via a wide alleyway over fifty metres long leading to the main street.

“The Boss’s name is Tumbler and I’ve been keeping an eye on her for some time.”  Sneaker explained.  “She doesn’t like me much and has been very against me starting my own Crew.  She started out as a Thief and she was a good one, very good.  Had a tendency to be a little brutal with anyone who disturbed her, but she had a number of big scores.  The Tops liked what she made for them and gave her leave to start her own Crew, just over twenty years ago.  Since then she’s been steadily building her little empire.  Drugs, guns, armed robberies, prostitution, you name it, she does it, but her main income is from the drugs.  Most of which are manufactured and distributed from this building.”

“Is that hanger doors on the roof?”  Valerie asked.

“Yes, she’s got an armed aircar in there that could easily be mistaken for a Gunship. The surrounding wall is solid carbonide.  The only entrance is the gate.  The building itself has two loading bays.”  They flashed up on the hologram not far from the gate.  “With one pedestrian entrance.”  A pair of double doors also flashed on the hologram, just next to the loading bays.  “They are the only way in or out of the building, there are no entrances on any of the other walls, nor from underneath.”

“What about security?  Are you in their system?”  Valerie asked.

Sneaker ran his hand though his hair and shook his head ruefully.  “No, all of the security systems are hard wired throughout the building and completely separate from any other network.  They lose some in effectiveness and coverage with that set up, but it’s the only sure-fire way to keep out people like me.  It also means they don’t have any remote access either.  They have a permanently manned security room in the centre of the building.  They have one hundred percent visual coverage and from that room, they would direct any response using coms.  They need to manually direct their people, so response times will be slow with a lot of room for error. “