Reason For Vengeance (Dark Vengeance Book 1) (32 page)

“Good, those mother humping bastards aren’t getting out of here alive,” Tumbler continued.  “It looks like they’re heading to you.  Tell everyone between you and them to get under cover  and hold their positions.  Hopefully that will slow them down.  Then split everyone between us and you.  Set up half of them outside your door.  Send the other half up to me.

“They’ll need to leave the stairs to come after you and we can hit them in the rear from here.”  Hanna could see in the reflection of the screens that Tumbler was smiling.  “If they come after me, you can do the same and we’ll smash them.” 

“I’ll go down there.”  A high pitched voice almost squeaked and Hanna was dumbfounded to realise it was coming from Gaunt.

“No, you stay here with me,” Tumbler said.  “I’m not taking any chances.”

Hanna didn’t know who was attacking Tumbler and couldn’t think of who would dare.  For a fleeting moment she thought it might be Valerie, but she remembered those cold eyes and couldn’t imagine that woman doing anything like this.  When she saved Hanna from Tern, Hanna saw an expression of almost surprise on Valerie’s face, as though she couldn’t explain why she did it.  Hanna believed Valerie agreed to the heist, almost as much out of boredom as for the money, which she seemed to care little about.  No she couldn’t imagine that cold eyed woman coming here, to challenge someone as powerful and well protected as Tumbler for her.

Whoever was attacking Tumbler would die and if Hanna wanted to get out of here, the only way to do so was to do it herself.  She dared to move her arms slightly, grimaced at the pain in her shoulder and found the numbness in her hands was from handcuffs, rather than her injuries.  She carefully felt around with her fingers and found they were a simple mechanical set which surprised her.  They were not the sort of thing someone with Tumblers reputation as a Thief would use.  Maybe they thought of Hanna as a Hacker and not a Thief, trained to open locks like this.  She needed the pick hidden in one of her boots and fortunately, due to the position they left her in, her feet were not far from her hands.

Hanna shifted slightly, trying to get her feet closer to her hands, to remove the pick without disturbing the man, who was presumably meant to be guarding her.  He seemed distracted by the conversations going on with Tumbler and not paying her any attention.  The closer she moved her feet the more extreme the pain from her shoulder became.  It built and built, higher and higher, as millimetre by millimetre, she forced her feet and hands closer together.  Just as her fingers could barely reach in to her boot and her finger tips scraped the top of the pick, the barest of groans of pain forced its way out of her.

It was too much.  The man standing by her turned around and looked down at her.  He grinned before pulling his foot back and kicking her in the gut.  She curled up in instinct, wrenching her shoulder and oblivion embraced her once more.

Deni’s hands were surprisingly steady.  She rammed home the ammo magazine into the rifle Troll threw in her direction moments ago.  Troll and Barney were crouched on either side of the hole they blasted into the wall, firing down into the compound below.  Their fire was much more sporadic now.  Those left down there were either dead or found cover.

“Where are they coming from?”  Troll asked.

“Top corner.”  Barney replied, nodding to the left of their position, out of Trolls line of sight.

“Eh?” she ducked her head out briefly before quickly pulling it back in.  “Blazes, must be some sort storage shed.  That wasn’t on Sneakers plan.  I guess it’s a recent addition,” she took aim and fired.  “Got the bastard.  Hiding behind some barrels isn’t going to help against this baby.”  She patted the her gun with affection .  “I love the Pulse rifle, it’s a lot slower than a Mag, but damn can it penetrate.  I bet they must have been taking a delivery, it’s the only reason I can think of for this lot.  Are there any vehicles out there Barney?”

Barney took aim carefully and fired before answering.  “No.”

“Must be round the back of the building,” Troll said.  “Out of sight from us.  They might try and make a run for it if they do have vehicles.  Keep an eye on the corner of the building closest to the gate.  That’s the way to go.”

“On it.”  Barney said simply.

Deni couldn’t believe how calm they both were.  Troll was talking almost non-stop but she’d been that way since they’d met earlier and Barney was just as quiet as before.  For herself Deni was so scared, she was constantly looking back and forth from Troll and Barney, to her datapad showing the stairs and corridor.  She was petrified she would miss someone coming in the back, or the others would run out of ammo and she hadn’t reloaded fast enough.  Then they wouldn’t be able to continue the constant stream of fire that was the only thing stopping them all from dying horribly.

“There go the blast doors,” Troll called.  “I guess that means they’re not all dead yet.  Of course it could be they’ve killed Sneaker, Rush and the others and are just doing it in case there are more coming to attack them.”  Deni could have really done without that last qualification.  She hoped fervently they were all still alive and could bring Hanna out safely.  She was the only family Deni had.  Hanna was her sister in every way but blood.  Each had spilt enough of that over their short lives to certainly qualify.

“Not Valerie,” Barney said without interrupting his shots. 

“I know what you mean, my friend,” Troll said also continuing to fire.  “That woman scares me as well.  In fact, I pity whoever is in there in front of her guns,” she paused for a moment.  “Maybe not Gaunt.  That is one grade A bastard.  You remember Falk?” she didn’t really wait for Barney to reply and Deni guessed she wasn’t talking to her.  “Gaunt smashed up him pretty good.  Last I heard, he was over in Burning begging on the streets.  Couldn’t walk anymore and he was a hell of a Driver.  Falk could put a wheelie through a 90 degree turn with a barely a loss of speed.  I was with him on a Job once when he outran the cops.  We were in that old jalopy of his, four wheels on the ground and he still lost them in their fancy aircars.

“I wonder if Valerie will have the pleasure of meeting that slab of meat?  My money’s on her.”  Troll visibly shuddered.  “There is something about her...”  She didn’t finish what she was saying and seemed lost for words.  Deni wasn’t sure if that ever happened to Troll before.

The stairwell was dark now, all the lights having been extinguished by whoever was in control of the building.  It mattered little to Valerie and the others.  With the goggles Sneaker supplied they could see perfectly well.

The stairwell was more of an inner balcony around a central air shaft.  It  went up almost to the top of the building, before ending below the final two floors containing the flight hanger and Tumblers offices. 

They were learning, Valerie thought.  It had taken them long enough and she charged them a heavy butcher’s bill for those lessons, but they were now changing tactics.  No one else had attacked them for a few minutes, the frantic running fight had ended for now it seemed.  She glanced back at the others and knew that was a good thing.  Sneaker and Rush needed a break, neither were hurt fortunately, but they were well outside their comfort zone.  They hadn’t experienced anything like this type of fight before and it was showing.  Valerie wasn’t worried about them, both had held up their end well.  They just needed time to catch their breath.

All four were crouched behind the balcony wall.  There were apartment doors all around them and corridors leading off deeper into this floor.  It was deserted here, Valerie assumed whoever was going to attack them already had.  Anyone else was hiding.  Hobbs was injured by a Mag round clipping him in the arm, it wasn’t serious, but a short respite would give her a chance to bind it properly.

“Sneaker.  Rush.  Keep an eye out, I’ll see to Hobbs.”

“I’m fine,” he said.

“You’re bleeding.”  Valerie stated matter of factly.  “By definition, if you’ve got blood coming out of you, you are not fine.”  She scooted over next to him and pulled several bits out of the first aid kit she kept on her belt, at the small of her back.  Hobbs grudgingly moved his arm so she could get to it easily.  He was right and more than a bit lucky.  The round must have grazed him.  Its spinning body had ripped the flesh of his upper arm, making a wound that was large but shallow.  As she examined it, she could see it was still oozing blood steadily and was probably very painful.  She squirted some skinseal on the wound.  The dark spray covered the damaged area, stopping the bleeding, numbing it and killing off any of the many diseases that populated the Ghetto of Inferno.  She then bound his arm firmly with a bandage, the skinseal would do the job, but it did need time to set and the bandage would support it as things would get active again.

“Take over-watch Hobbs.”  Valerie told the Enforcer.  “I need to talk to Sneaker.”  He nodded and turned around to keep an eye on the different approaches with his Mag rifle at the ready.  Valerie dashed over the short distance to the other two.  Staying low in case anyone was up there and fancied taking a pot shot at her.  She sat down next to Sneaker with her back against the wall and tried to smile at him.  It just would not come out, so she just simply said to him.  “Can I see the building schematic?”

“Of course,” Sneaker turned around and pulled his datapad out.  It only took him moments to activate the hologram of the building, being careful to set it to its lowest brightness so not too make too much of a target.  He entered some commands and a red cross appeared near the middle, a little below half way up.  “We’re here.”

“I see, can you put in the control room?”  Valerie asked.

Sneaker tapped another command in bringing up a blue cross.  “Here, three floors up from us.  They’ve set it up about half way between the stairs and the outer wall.  I’m guessing they’ve put it into one of the old apartments.”

Valerie frowned in thought.  A room like that would have to have been reinforced, not just the doors but the walls as well.  Would they have done the floor?  What are the floors made of in these buildings?  Is it standard permacrete?”

“I’d presume so,” Sneaker thought for a moment.  “Hang on.  I pulled the original specs from the planning office.”  He switched off the holographic representation of the building and started going through files on his datapad.  “Here we go, yep the walls are pretty flimsy with no guts to them, but the floors are solid permacrete.”

“Hmm.”  Valerie stared up at the ceiling.  “If you installed a security room with permacrete floors, would you reinforce that floor?”

“I bet you would, but no, I wouldn’t,” he answered.  “I’d completely replace the walls certainly.  The floor though would be too much work.”

“Bring the map back up.”  Sneaker did so and Valerie studied for a few seconds.  “OK,” she looked around orientating herself to the schematic.  “We’ll go up one more floor then head in here.”  She pointed to a position two floors down and directly below the security room.  “We’ll set up in that room as though we’re settling in.  That will keep them guessing as I haven’t seen any cameras in the rooms themselves only in the more public areas.  Shaped charges will punch through the ceiling and if we move quickly enough, we’ll be in their security room before they know what’s happening.”

She looked at Sneaker, he seemed more composed now.  “Ready?” she asked.

He nodded back firmly.  She turned to Rush who was still covering the rear stairs onto the floor they were on.  “Rush.  It’s time to get the grenades out.  Are they in your rear belt pouch?”

“Yeah, Valerie.  Here.”  He replied and started to turn away from his position towards her, reaching for the grenades as he did so.

“Keep your eyes on the stairs, Rush.”  Valerie commanded.  “I’ll come to you.”

“Oh right, sorry.”  He turned back quickly and she ducked over to him.

“We were fine this time.  In future you keep your eyes on your assigned vector until there’s imminent danger from another direction, unless you’re told otherwise or someone else has taken over your position.  Understood?”

“Yes, Ma’am,” Rush replied contritely.

Valerie opened his pouch and pulled out half a dozen of them.  The grenade was still the most effective way in an environment such as this, to deal with targets around corners or in enclosed spaces like a room.  No gun, no matter how sophisticated, could match the complex angles and curve of a thrown object.  An experienced grenade thrower, could put the right spin on it, to control the bounce and surprise a target from an unexpected direction.

Each smooth ten centimetre silver cylinder weighed two hundred grammes and had a red button on the end, with a cap designed to be flipped over.  The button could be twisted to set the timer to a delay of one, two, three, four, five, ten or twenty seconds and on Valerie’s order, Rush set them all at three seconds.  That was, in her opinion, the best default for the enclosed space of a building.  The grenades could have been lighter, they were designed at two hundred grammes to give the thrower a good heft for accuracy.  A different design, larger and not as powerful as those used by the Legion, but still effective.

She slipped two grenades into each of the deep outside pockets of her overcoat.  The last two went into small pockets on the front of her body armour, designed for just this purpose.

“Alright everyone, we’re moving up to the next level and then going into the floor rather than continuing up.  Same as before.  I’m point, Hobbs is Slackman, Sneaker and Rush have the rear.”  She drew her pistols and edged round close to the stairs to the next floor.  “Moving.” 

Pistols at the ready she ran up the stairs, taking them two at a time.  Mag rounds hissed past her head from a door only four metres away when as she reached the top.  Her enhanced reflexes kicked in and she ducked into a shoulder roll, coming up against the wall in a crouch, pistols pointing at a shooter who was trying to correct his aim.  He hadn’t realised he was exposing his body by leaning further out of the doorway he was using as cover.  Valerie’s pistols hummed once each and the shooter’s head exploded, splattering, blood, bone fragments and brains out behind him.

More shots came across the stairwell from her left.  A man and a woman, using the balcony wall for cover, their shots scattering around her.  She stood up, stepping backwards unexpectedly, her left pistol came up, two shots, two more dead.  No one else was shooting at her for the moment and Hobbs moved to the top of the stairs, his Mag rifle humming as he sniped the cameras.  Valerie waited for him to finish, then she moved carefully round the stairwell, to the corridor leading to their target room. 

She stopped at the corner and gently eased her head round.  The corridor went all the way to the side of the building, ending in a sealed window with doors spaced out on either side, presumably for the residential apartments.  Most of the doors on the left were blocked up for some reason, with only one left to give access to that side.  In that doorway stood a man using it for cover, with two women crouching behind a make shift barricade.  All three had their guns trained down the corridor towards Valerie, but they could not have seen her as they didn’t open fire.  The lights were on in most of the corridor, ending a few metres from the stairwell, leaving Valerie in the dark and hard to see.

There were a couple of options here.  A straight shoot wouldn’t be a very good idea.  They may not have been able to see her when she looked around the corner, but they certainly would if she stepped out with her guns.  This was exactly why she’d grabbed the grenades.  Being on the right hand side of the corridor, it would have to be a left handed throw.  It was not her strongest side.  This is where over a hundred years of training and combat experience came into their own.  Holstering her left hand pistol, she pulled a grenade out of her pocket.  She left the grenade on the three second fuse, took a deep breath, flipped the cap, pressed the button, half stepped round the corner and pitched the grenade, adding a flick of the wrist to send it spinning in.

The grenade went high and wide, hitting the corridor wall just below the ceiling.  From the angle Valerie threw, it should have bounced up, but the spin caused it to carry onwards down the corridor, away from the wall and diagonally down, straight behind the barricade.  The man and two women opened fire on Valerie as soon as they saw her step round.  They were just too slow and not good enough shots, none of their rounds came close to her before she was back out of sight.  After that it was too late and they were torn apart as the grenade detonated.  Metal shards tightly packed around the explosive core, flew out in all directions, perforating them and turning three human beings into lumps of meat and bone.