NOVEL NEXT 173 - Shot to the Heart
The gloves were off.
My internal dial that had been slowly clicking toward the 'good-boy' tag now slipped, jostled toward the 'morally questionable' setting. Not like murder had even been off the menu for me, but it was now the chef's special. The Government stacked the tables with hunger diners, and the ovens were already blazing with… fire.
It was fair to say that my brain wasn't exactly sharp at present. I remained lucid enough, but I was only consciously present as we headed to our destination. My body sank into the chair, and I relaxed.
Roxy had the wherewithal to be more concerned with our current situation. Given that I was a puddle, she took her complaints to Clara. The primary sticking point to our current plan was that ticking off the World Government felt like a losing battle. They governed the whole world, after all.
The techie's response was in depth and partially reassuring. Despite the Gov being a globally spanning organization, it was fragmented. Sectioned and compartmentalized. It would be impossible for a small group to manage an entire planet, after all. Control was arranged in a pyramid shape, with the lowest rungs being the city-state groups.
Although Goldarch was run by the League of Heroes, there was still a Gov group assigned to it. Those were the assholes currently trying to sow discord and usurp the current status quo. Likewise, while there was an organizational pyramid for governance, there were also separate ones for commerce, technology, and defense. If this weren't convoluted and diluted enough, each rung of city-state, state-cluster, region, and continent could have its own contracted organizations.
The short of this point was that the group that had created me was one such contractor.
I blinked and nodded along as Clara explained everything. The bureaucratic process sounded inefficient and complicated. My brain absorbed every morsel of information, even if I couldn't vocalize any salient thought.
And the reason for this lecture? After what felt like hours, we circled back to the answer to Roxy's original question.
For a Government with so many moving parts, it was often easier to sever off any part not working properly. The group infecting Goldarch were also sticking their necks out, looking for a solid win to prove themselves to those higher in the chain. A failure at this stage would reflect poorly. This went double for the group who created me.
Even if the Gov were happy to play the long game for their plans to come to fruition, a plan gone awry would raise doubts over the time and resources spent here. It was only Clara's speculation, but there was a chance that a convincing win against our enemies here would have them essentially erased from being a future thorn in our sides. It was possible we could find freedom.
Roxy found that to be enough of a light at the end of the tunnel. Things were never that easy for us, so I would believe it when I saw it. My goal was just to live through the day.
Information about our target location appeared across the front screens of the vehicle. Schematics. Aerial and photographic shots. Miscellaneous facts and reams of data. It wasn't so complicated that we needed all that.
An old hospital that had been shut for renovations that had inevitably been delayed. Relatively large. Several floors. In effect, no different from the various warehouses or abandoned blocks we had fought through over time. Things had certainly changed for me since I almost had my arm torn off by Grugg of the Five Eyes gang. Words to eat later.
"It doesn't seem like the most… secure location," Roxy said, leaning forward to glare at the details. "Compared to our strengths, at least."
[If they have had time to prepare, then it won't just be structural defenses we are up against.]
The super pulled a face. "You're thinking they might have other hostages?"
I nodded briefly. Roxy could blow through the building as if it were made of wet paper. The only physical way of taking that option off the table was to put innocents in the way. They wanted us to look bad, after all. Civilian blood on our hands would tank our reputation even if we ended up ousting the tumor from the building.
The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.
"Slow and smart then." Roxy drummed her fingers on the dashboard. "Fuckin' sucks. Do we get anyone else involved?"
With Kingston out of the picture, I was hesitant to involve the League. It would be unthinkable that some within the organization were working with the Government—ignoring the mole—and I didn't want to invite disadvantage to our current efforts.
Plus, part of me wanted to plunge into the shadows. Kill and carve my way through those who opposed me without the shackles of employment or greater morality keeping me in line. It wasn't just my own exhausted mania dragging me toward this dark path - Roxy had no patience for what remained of the day. Our lives and safety were in jeopardy.
[How are the Disasters doing?]
Clara ran some numbers up on the screen. In the thirty minutes we had been driving, forty percent of all issues within the city had been dealt with. The issue wasn't with the available heroes or law enforcement. It was the holding cells and emergency rooms that overflowed. Goldarch hadn't seen a problem like this before, and was logistically lagging.
"They're working their way southeast." Roxy drew a finger across a map of the city. "Making themselves ready to join us in the east, or head further south to help Clara."
[Inform them of our destination so they are prepared, but we won't call on them just yet.]
//Clara: Understood.
Better not to drag them into danger. To clarify, I didn't mean whatever Gov goons or set traps were waiting in the hospital. It was the aftermath when the dust settled. The amount of gloom now settling in my mind could only mean one thing.
"We're almost here."
I gave Roxy a tired nod. Our location was out to the east of the Arena and a little south. Surprisingly, not as close to the edge of the city as expected. It made me question what kind of equipment and personnel the Gov had brought in to Goldarch. I wasn't familiar with the exact breadth of technology available in the wider world.
[You'd better tell me what these magic drugs are going to do to me.]
The super had been fiddling idly with the case containing the vial for the last ten minutes. Clara had already given the rundown, although I had been left in the dark. Probably for good reason, but thankfully I was too mentally exhausted to be worried about it.
"Hmm." She paused and furrowed her brow. "You remember that movie we watched, uh, Ultracog?"
[The one where they replaced an orc's heart with a machine where if he didn't kill sixty enemies per hour he would blow up?]
"Exactly. It's like that." She took a deep breath. "But you won't die if you don't meet your quota. Uh, not explosively, at least."
//Clara: There's still a chance, Gunquake.
//Clara: I have been able to reduce most of the negative side effects.
//Clara: So it is advisable to keep your adrenaline levels high.
[No pressure, then.]
"The alternative is you sitting this out, hun." The super gave me a glum smile. "Unless you've recovered enough to be combat ready?"
As much as I liked to put on a brave face in these situations, I couldn't even lift my gun-arm at present.
[Pushing my mortality to the limits is the Gunquake way. Juice me up.]
"We need more of a plan than that. Will they be expecting us to waltz in the front door? They're probably holding the hostage in the basement, right?" Roxy shot a glance at the building schematics. "There's maybe three other places that would be more secure than most of the building."
[Top down. Leave no stone unturned.]
"And if the video was a decoy and they've moved Boss?"
[I will be… angry.]
She nodded in response. A little misplaced excitement in her eyes, but nothing bright enough to wash away the darkness clouding her expression. It was an event neither of us truly wanted, if only partially because it might cause my drug-fueled competence to end.
"All our eggs in one basket, though." Roxy lifted the case holding the vial. "We could solve this shitshow, and then…"
[Chevalier shows his face again.]
The fact that my brother had vanished was still something that stung. My inability to finish him would be a thorn in my side until I had a second chance. The one saving grace was Roxy's insistence on sticking by my side. If I took a short coma nap, then she'd watch over me - and I rated her chances against Chevalier rather well.
[Bridges will be crossed as they appear.]
The Meteor slowed to a halt. While there were no true windows in the vehicle, I could almost feel like we had slunk into the shadows of an alleyway. This kind of mission would have been more thematic to complete at nighttime, but we'd work with what we were given. Would be too much to ask for a temporary eclipse or something.
I paused halfway through checking the moon phases as Roxy clicked open the clasps on the case.
"If you want us to get in as undetected as possible, we'll need to do it from here."
A glance at the map showed us a couple of blocks away from the closed hospital. Trying to get closer would ensure we'd be spotted, if we hadn't been tracked from the point of leaving the Arena. We were talking about the World Government here. They could have satellites or other tech lazered in on me.
[Alright, I'm ready.]
In a manner of speaking. I couldn't roll up my sleeve, so I just sat and watched as Roxy withdrew the small syringe and did the deed. Although my left arm had some energy and movement to it, I didn't feel the needle. She pulled my sleeve back down.
For three long seconds, I thought that it didn't have any effect.
Then my heart exploded.
Figuratively.