47 – Missing the Funeral

When Addie withdrew her hand from the transport, she heard something scrape on the concrete behind her, and she whirled, still gripping her needler. She exhaled softly, her shoulders relaxing when she saw Glitch squatting beside one of the corpo-sec officers she'd taken down. Glitch grunted softly as she tugged out the man's PAI chip. "Are you sure—" Addie started to ask, but Glitch interrupted her, holding a finger up to her lips.

She pointed to the other corpo-sec, lying near the transport's rear bumper. Addie nodded; she still had her PAI in, and it might be recording. Addie hurried over to her, keeping behind her and out of her line of sight. She was worried about harming the woman's brain by removing her PAI when it wasn't in a safe state to do so, but she hoped the engineered botulinum toxin in her needler rounds would have relaxed things enough so that it wouldn't be too hard on her. It was, perhaps, wishful thinking, but Addie allowed herself to go there as she tugged the chip free of the port and drew out the long, glistening synth-nerve filaments.

While she'd been doing that, Glitch had opened the door of the transport, and Addie saw her leaning inside, apparently going after the PAIs of Ross and his…coworker. When she emerged, clutching two more chips, these glinting in gold casings, she also held a black-tinted crystal-glass in her hands. "Give me a minute to get into their system. Here"—she turned, thrusting her butt at Addie, exposing a handful of shrink-cords dangling from her rear pocket—"you secure everyone, just in case."

"Oh, right…" Addie reached for the shrink-cords, and as she pulled them from the pocket, Glitch nudged her with the handful of PAIs.

"By the way, that was some scary shit you just pulled. I'm, uh, freaking out inside, but we gotta get the boys out of their mess."

Addie licked her lips, her mind racing as Glitch's words brought home the gravity of what she'd just done. "Um, yeah…"

"Just take these, please." Glitch pushed the chips at her again, and Addie took the slimy tendrils and stuffed them into her pocket with the other one. "Go on; I can see you're a little freaked, too. Just, like, bind their hands behind their backs at least!"

The urgency of her words snapped Addie out of her mental loop—replaying again and again how she'd just faded like a spark from an action vid—and she turned, hurrying over to the big, male corpo-sec officer. While she struggled to pull his thick, armored arms behind his back, she wondered if they were out of time. Was the drone still monitoring them remotely, or had Glitch somehow blocked it? She didn't seem worried, but maybe she was just trying to keep cool. Addie glanced over at her, but the netjacker was staring at the crystal-glass, her visor flickering with dancing lights.

Addie finally managed to bend the officer's thick arms close enough together to activate the shrink cord, then she left him there, lying on his stomach. She moved to the female officer and found the job much easier. As she activated the cord, the woman jerked and murmured, but she didn't wake. It had seemed like a spasm, and, again, Addie began to worry that she'd damaged her brain.

Scowling, she tried to remind herself that these people were here to capture a madman and put him to work doing unethical things. More than that, if they found Tony and Beef, they'd either take them into custody, likely never to be seen again, or kill them. They weren't exactly innocent.

"Got the drone coming in," Glitch announced. "Got into their comms. What's the plan?" Even as she spoke, Addie heard the whistling, humming air jets of the big drone as it rapidly descended, moving to land in its carriage on top of the empty transport.

"I mean, do you think you could make them think Ross ordered a retreat before he fell unconscious?"

Glitch shrugged. "I can make it look like he said whatever you want. What's the story? Some bangers are robbing them? Scrap the mission for another day?"

"Do you think that'll work?"

"I guess it depends on whether they can revive these guys. They can probably shoot 'em up with something that'll counter your needles, but we did yank their PAIs. They might be out of it."

Addie frowned. "Turn off their jammer. Can you do that?"

Glitch nodded. "Good call. We can ask Tony."

###

Tony held Victor Kwon by the back of his neck, driving him forward as the scientist guided him and Beef toward a supposed maintenance corridor that would, hopefully, allow them to circle behind the corpo-sec squad. Tony didn't know where the Boxer goons were, but he knew they had to be getting close. If he and Beef could get around behind them and maybe seal the stairwell somehow…

He didn't want to get ahead of himself too much. He hadn't kept the doctor alive just to guide them to the access corridor; he could have figured it out himself. No, the squint was also, maybe, some insurance. Ross wanted Victor alive, so the math was easy from there.

"Right there," Kwon said, gesturing toward a blue, metallic door. His hand shook as he pointed; Tony hadn't been gentle with him when he'd first grabbed and questioned him. Beef stormed ahead and kicked the door open, revealing a narrow passage lined with pipes and electrical conduits. One of the pipes was red and another yellow, and Tony had a good feeling it wouldn't be smart to get into a gunfight in there. Kwon pointed to the right. "If you follow this all the way to the end, it opens up near the stairwell."

Tony nodded, pushing Kwon ahead of him. He glanced at Beef over his shoulder. "Put a grenade by that door with a motion trigger."

"They can do that?"

"Heh. Yeah, man, just twist the knob on the top and set it down. You'll have ten seconds to get three meters away from it."

Beef reached into the pocket of his charred, shredded, synth-leather duster and pulled a grenade out. His hand wasn't exactly steady either, and his knuckles looked like raw hamburger. His face was smeared with blood, too, but the big guy looked like he was holding it together. Tony pushed Kwon. "Let's go."

They were fifty meters down the hallway when Tony's ear implants crackled briefly, and then his comms lit up, and Glitch's voice came through, "Shepherd? Are you reading me?"

"All clear. You got the jammer down?"

"Um, yeah. The situation has changed up here. We've subdued the Boxer command team. I have their operations terminal and, as of two minutes ago, I own it. How do you want to proceed?"

Beef's name lit up, and he cut into the conversation. "You took 'em out? Badass!"

Tony looked over his shoulder, glaring, but it didn't matter; his visor didn't let Beef see the expression. Glitch responded before he could tell them to cut the chatter, "Actually, it was all Ember. We can tell you about it later, though. What's the play?"

Tony thought about it for a minute, then said, "Tell the squad down here to get into a lab and hunker down. Tell them you got intel on a bomb and there's no time to evac; tell them it's on the ground floor, so they should be safe down here."

Addie's name lit up. "You can get past them?"

"Yeah, if they're in a lab, we can get into the stairwell."

"No worries," Glitch replied. "I've got control of the drones they brought down there. I'll tell you when it's clear."

"Hell yes," Beef grunted, and it took Tony a second to realize he hadn't spoken into comms.

"Good job, you two. Looking forward to the debrief." With that, he gave Kwon another shove, picking up the pace.

Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

"Can you believe that shit?" Beef asked from just behind him, breathing heavily as he stooped to avoid smashing his head on conduits. "I was starting to think we were cooked."

"I'm…" Tony chuckled, shaking his head. "I'm surprised, yeah. Let's not count our chickens, though, man."

"Right," the big man grunted, more than a little wheeze in his voice. Tony was pretty sure he had some broken ribs.

As they moved, steadily approaching the end of the long, narrow corridor, Tony tried to imagine how Addie had overcome the Boxer people upstairs. Had she just gotten some lucky shots off with her needler? It was a perfect little pistol for her, and it was damn near silent with the botu-rounds. Maybe the guards up there had been slacking—talking or smoking… Tony pushed the speculation to the back of his mind; he'd find out soon enough.

The truth was, he was relieved, but he was also irritated. He'd told Addie and Glitch to get clear. If Addie had messed up—if she'd been caught. He shook his head, feeling more and more annoyed, the more he thought about it. How the hell would he have gotten her out of that? In their current situation, it might have been hours before he'd even gotten out of this mess, and then how would he have tracked her down? He supposed he'd have started with Ross. His daughter would have been good leverage…

"My neck!" Kwon cried, and Tony hastily loosened his grip; he'd just about throttled the guy. Frowning, he gave him another shove.

"Just keep moving." They were almost to the door, and the little interaction brought to mind the fact that Tony hadn't decided what to do with the scientist. He wanted to put a bullet in his head and be done with it, but could he look Addie in the eye afterward? If he shot the guy in the heat of combat, he knew Addie wouldn't hold it against him. Execution, though? Honestly, was it any worse than wiping his mind? He growled, tired of the damn debate. Hadn't Addie already admitted it wasn't much better? She'd said she wasn't being logical, and Tony could live with that. If it made her feel better…

They came to the door, and Tony pushed the thought aside for the moment. "What's the story, Glitch?" he asked through comms.

"They're on the lab level, moving toward one of the closed-off rooms. They're asking questions about the signs of combat. One of them wanted to send the drones on a scouting mission, so I recalled one. They think it's looking around the level for hostiles."

"Good. Let's sell it," Beef grunted.

"Way ahead of you, sweetie," Glitch replied. "I'll recall the other one, too, when you're safely out. They're gonna make us a decent payday."

"So?" Tony asked, trying not to let his irritation creep into his voice. "Can we hit the stairwell?"

Glitch's quick reply calmed his stress a little: "They're out of the line of sight, but give it one minute so they're behind a closed door."

Tony pushed Kwon behind him so he could crack the door a couple of centimeters and peer into the corridor beyond. He reported what he saw for Beef's benefit. "I see the stairwell. It's only about ten meters from here. Door's propped open with a coffee machine—probably so the drones can come and go."

"Ten meters?" Beef asked.

"Yeah."

"So, we're good to go when Glitch gives us the all-clear?"

Tony nodded, still peering through the door. "Yeah, I guess so. Sounds like she and Addie have things locked down up top."

"Good." Beef said, and then Tony heard a wet crunch, followed by the unmistakable sound of a body hitting the floor. He jerked his head around to see Beef prying his enormous cleaver-knife out of Kwon's skull.

"What the fuck?"

Beef wiped his knife on Kwon's filthy lab coat, eyeing Tony from beneath his heavy brow. "What? I know you can't thank me, but I also know you're thinking it. It's all good."

Tony continued to scowl, but he knew Beef was right, and he couldn't find it in himself to pretend to be outraged. Beef had just saved him a bunch of trouble. "Addie's gonna be pissed."

Beef shrugged. "Just tell her I killed him and leave it at that. She won't press for details." As he spoke, he reached down and tugged Kwon's PAI out of his port.

"You're clear!" Glitch said through comms.

"Come on." Tony pushed the door open and darted for the stairwell, just in time to see a big, sleek, rectangular drone with four shrouded air jets propel rapidly through the door into the stairwell. Tony followed it, waiting on the other side of the door for Beef. Once the big guy had limped through, he pulled the door shut and dug through his little belt pack for a pair of shrink-cords that he used to secure the door handle to the one beside it.

"That wouldn't stop me long," Beef observed.

Tony shrugged. "Better than nothing."

"Should I set another 'nade?"

"Nah. Feels dirty. We'll be long gone by the time they come out, I think." He motioned with his SMG toward the steps going up. "Go on. I'll bring up the rear."

Beef shrugged and started up the stairs. "You just wanna watch my ass."

###

"Can you call the van?" Glitch asked.

Addie looked up from where she was wiping down the transports. She didn't remember if she'd touched them at all, so, feeling it was better to be safe than sorry, she was walking around, rubbing her jacket sleeve over the handles and any other surfaces, including the glass, she or Glitch might have touched. "Yeah, but what about the transports? They're smart, right? They must have all sorts of cams—"

"I got 'em." Glitch held up the dark crystal-glass. "I also disabled the trackers on the drones and this thing."

"You really think we should take all four of these drones?"

"Hell yes, sis! We're talking 50k on the gray market—each!"

Addie's eyes bulged out as she stared at her. "Seriously?"

"Yep! And those executive PAIs will bring a pretty penny, too."

Addie slowly began to nod, then let her gaze drift over to the two prostrate corpo-sec officers. She'd seen the big guy start to stir a few minutes ago and shot him again with her needler. She wondered what it would feel like when he woke up. A hangover? Worse? "Should I get their guns, too?"

"You know Beef will if you don't." As Glitch responded, the van pulled into the lot, gliding over beside the two transports. "Open the back up, and I'll guide the drones in."

Addie hurried to the van and pulled open the two rear doors, then jogged over to the corpo-sec woman. As she relieved her of the SMG slung over her shoulder, the officer groaned and started to turn her helmeted head toward her. Addie stepped back behind her and quickly drew her needler, firing twice into her right butt cheek. She'd only meant to shoot her once, but her nerves had gotten the better of her.

"Sheesh," Glitch chuckled. "Bet she's not loving life right now."

Addie holstered her pistol and then jogged over to the bigger guard. He'd had a much larger rifle leaning against the vehicle where she'd ambushed him using her fade ability, so she didn't have to disturb him to collect it. It was heavy, and the barrel was lined with dense plastic-shrouded things that reminded her of Tony's electro-shotgun. It was far more elegant, though, slender with graceful lines that carried through from its sculpted stock to the high-end optics molded onto the frame. She had a feeling it was worth a lot of money.

She had to wait for Glitch to pilot each of the drones into the van, so she stood near the back, holding the rifle and watching the door to the abandoned office building, willing Tony to come through. She wanted to ask in comms where they were, but she also didn't want to irritate him, so she stood there, chewing on her lip, nervous that things were going too well, that something had to go wrong. Hadn't that already happened, though? Ross's arrival had messed everything up; they'd already had their bad luck—

"Ember?" Glitch asked, and Addie felt like it wasn't the first time she'd said her name.

"Uh, yeah?"

"I'm done with the drones if you want—"

"Woohoo!" Beef's voice carried over the parking lot like a siren. Addie jerked her head toward the sound and saw him striding toward them. He had a new limp—on his other leg—and he was covered with singe-marks and blood, but he looked ecstatic, head held high, fist pumping in the air as he clutched some kind of assault rifle. Tony walked behind him, shaking his helmeted head, but he looked…fine. He looked just fine.

"You made it!" Glitch said, and Tony nodded, still speaking through comms.

"Yeah, let's get outta here before our luck runs out." He was already walking toward the driver's door. Addie hopped into the back, laid the rifle on the floor near the shelving rack, then clambered over the four nearly meter-long drones to the passenger seat. She could hear Glitch get in behind her, and then the van dipped on its new shocks as Beef grunted, stepping onto the bumper and into the cargo hold.

Tony slid into the seat beside her, paused for a moment, his impenetrable black visor aimed her way, then slammed his door shut. The van immediately started rolling, and Addie heard Beef curse, and then the back doors slammed shut. They were all quiet for two or three minutes as Tony navigated the dark streets, but when they finally cleared the block and passed through a green light, Tony hit the throttle. Addie could feel the tension sliding off her shoulders, and then Beef whooped again.

"Holy shit! That was our funeral back there, and we missed the reception!"

As if he'd broken some kind of spell, Glitch started to giggle—a wonderful, musical, high-pitched sound—and Tony slapped his helmet, making the visor slide up and back. He looked at Addie, and his silver eye was bright as he smiled.

"I don't know what you did, but I owe you one hell of a kiss!"

"Are we passing out kisses?" Beef crowed. "I've got plenty—"

He got quiet very suddenly, so Addie looked back, still smiling from Tony's comment. Glitch was standing on the jump seat beside Beef, squeezing his big head into her chest, gently stroking his sweaty, clean-shaven dome. "You had me worried, you big meathead."

The sight made Addie's smile stretch to near-painful proportions, and she looked back at Tony. His gaze hadn't wavered, and the emotion in his eyes was so intense that Addie felt her neck getting hot. It was so much that she looked away briefly, and when she looked back, he was still smiling, but he was watching the road again. Addie turned her chair and leaned toward him. "I want to kiss you, too, but you owe me something, first."

He looked at her, eyebrow raised questioningly.

"You promised we'd talk after that job."

His smile faltered just a little, but he nodded. "Yeah. I did. Let's drop those two off, then we can go someplace that's open late."

Addie smiled and reached for his hand. His cybernetic one was the only one in reach, but she didn't care. When he returned her grasp, she gently squeezed the rubber pads on his fingers so he'd feel it. Then she turned back to the road and watched the streets passing by, hardly able to believe that they'd escaped that impossible-seeming situation.

Next chapter will be updated first on this website. Come back and continue reading tomorrow, everyone!

If you find any errors ( broken links, non-standard content, etc.. ), Please let us know < report chapter > so we can fix it as soon as possible.