“Self-destruct.” Madam Jezebel ordered the two androids as she pulled the red chip out of her pocket, “No recovery of data or recycling of components.”
“All logs and information stored on these units will be permanently lost.” The androids informed her in their digitised voices, “are you sure you wish to initiate self-destruct?”
“Yes.” Jezebel replied, “Do it.”
The two androids nodded and departed the room. In a side room of the penthouse, there was a special disposal chute for robotics and electronics leading down to an incineration unit far below. Nothing would be left of them to recover.
Jezebel pulled out a tablet computer, wafer-thin and flexible with intricate nanocircuitry visible through the translucent body. Laying it on the small table in front of her, she made sure to disable the tablet’s wireless capabilities first. Even though her penthouse was equipped with counter-surveillance technology – ‘garblers’ as some people liked to call them – it was always possible that someone had found a countermeasure.
She placed the data chip on the reading slot, micro-magnets holding the chip in place as the tablet established a connection. Once the connection had been established, Jezebel accessed the chip’s contents and furrowed her brow in confusion: there were no data files of any kind on the chip, at least none that she could see.
She disabled protected file concealment. Nothing. She performed a deep probe of the data chip’s memory. Still nothing. She double-checked that the chip connection was actually functional. It was. That meant that either the data chip had been completely wiped…
…Or there was nothing on the chip to begin with.
Jezebel ground her teeth in fury. The simplest explanation had to be incompetence or sloppiness: a stressed and frightened Kessler might have just grabbed the first data chip he found and hoped it had something useful on it. But he’d always been a reliable source, it was hard to believe that he could slip up at this point.
Had he double-crossed her? Possibly. Kessler had never been happy about working as a mole in the first place, maybe he’d been looking for a way out this whole time. But if that was the case, he wouldn’t dare do such a thing if he didn’t think he could get away with it. He would have needed outside help.
Jezebel snatched the tablet off the table with the data chip still attached. If her hunch was correct and Kessler had betrayed her, the chip could very well contain spyware or some other means of tracking her location; a paranoid leap of logic, to be sure, but better to be paranoid and free than naive and in prison.
With the tablet in hand, Jezebel rushed into one of the side rooms where the androids had obediently leapt to their destruction. The disposal chute was still open and Jezebel tossed the tablet in, sealing the chute after doing so. Now that all the evidence had been destroyed, she needed to skip town.
The security alarm sounded, a harsh beeping klaxon alerting her to intruders. Whoever they were, they had somehow forced their way through the front door. Jezebel threw open a storage closet and rummaged around, pulling a handgun out of a hidden compartment. Then she returned to the living room to confront the intruders.
As Jezebel aimed her gun in the direction of the main hallway, an entire squad of figures clad in night black body armour entered the living room with far more firepower at their disposal than she had. One member of the assault team, apparently the squad leader, lowered his weapon and stepped forward, activating his helmet speakers.
“Madam Jezebel Thorn,” said the squad leader, “put the gun down.”
“You’ve broken into my home and are pointing guns at me.” Jezebel pointed out, still pointing the gun squarely at him, “why should I put mine down?”
“We have orders to bring you in,” the squad leader replied coolly, “whether we bring you in dead or alive makes no particular difference.”
“So I’m guessing you’re not Civil Security?” Jezebel asked.
“Of course not.” The squad leader replied, “Now are you going to surrender, or do we have to shock you or kneecap you first?”
Jezebel was ruthless, but not reckless. She activated the safety and tossed the gun across the floor, placing her hands on top of her head. But she wouldn’t get down on her knees, not for them or anyone else, even as members of the armed squad approached to detain her.
“Who did you say you were with again?” she asked as her wrists were bound.
“You’ll find out soon enough.” Replied the squad leader as Jezebel was led away.
* * *
The squad opened fire and the Faithful fired back. Viker activated his wrist-shield, protecting the squad as best he could from the incoming fire. But they were exposed and the storm of bullets was raining down on them from all around; if they wanted to survive, they had to get out of the open and right into the thick of it.
Jumpers swooped down on them like mythical harpies, and Cato and Bale turned their guns skyward, shooting off concussive shots at their fast moving opponents. The jumpers were wearing cuirasses made from bulletproof nanotube plating in lieu of shielding, but the bullets struck with enough force to pulp their targets’ innards, causing some to tumble from the air.
Those jumpers who evaded the incoming shots landed cleanly on their feet and opened fire with their shotguns. The squad’s shields were strong enough to slap the spray of pellets away, but at point blank range some made it through with reduced energy, clattering against their armour like a shower of tiny pebbles.
Cato and Bale returned fire with more concussive shots. Again, the pellets failed to penetrate the jumpers’ armour, but struck with enough force to send them flying back across the floor. They switched to automatic mode and fired at the jumpers whilst they were down; this time the bullets penetrated their targets’ armour, punching clean holes through their organs.
While Viker covered him with the wrist-shield, Gabriel provided sniper cover as best he could. The Enthralled foot soldiers stayed put behind barricades, taking turns to shoot. One of them fired a projectile from his weapon which bounced off the floor at an awkward angle, exploding at head height and splattering burning plasma in all directions.
Dodging the explosion from the poorly aimed grenade, Gabriel picked off the enemy who had fired it with a high velocity shot. The bullet screamed through the air, punching straight through the target’s skull, and continuing out the other side.
Another grenade detonated nearby. The squad’s shields absorbed the impact of the shrapnel, but it was enough of a distraction for another jumper to dive in with sword drawn. The blade missed Viker’s head as the jumper landed and took another swing at Gabriel, the tip of the blade narrowly missing his stomach. Viker deactivated his wrist-shield and fired a burst into the jumper’s chest, cracking the jumper’s ribcage with the force of the impact.
An empty crate came sailing through the air, striking Cato and knocking him off his feet. A black widow appeared, using her gravity gloves to bounce from surface to surface and drawing an electric baton in mid-pounce. She landed on top of Cato, pinning him to the ground and bringing the deadly spike down on his head.
The slanted angle of Cato’s faceplate deflected the spike to one side, saving his life; and Bale fired a burst of bullets at the black widow’s head to defend him. The material used to manufacture the black widow’s helmet was strong enough to stop the bullets, but they were fired at point blank range, too close for her shields to deflect them. The force knocked her head violently sideways, breaking her neck.
As Cato got back on his feet, a sinister, buzzing cloud appeared in one of the doorways. The Swarm-possessed Ogilvy entered the chamber with a commanding saunter, looking around the chamber with an evil stare from eyes as black as smouldering coals. The Enthralled standing nearby backed away out of reverence and fear.