Neon Dust [Progression Cyberpunk]

45 – Party Crasher

Addie watched through Humpty's feed as Tony rapidly fired his pistol around the corner, then ducked for cover as the plastic wall paneling deformed, peeling away from the concrete underneath as the enemy's bullets punished it. Tony pulled one of the black grenades off his bandolier and threw it around the corner. Meanwhile, Addie could hear Beef's big gun thundering.

"Bang out!" Tony yelled, his voice carrying through comms. A second later, a bright flash and thunderous concussion came through Humpty's feed.

"Holy shit, they're really in it, aren't they?" Glitch asked, her fingers tapping on her crystal-glass.

"Any luck with the synths?"

"Negative. Can't find them on the local-net. They probably have a closed loop. We'll need to get close and try to brute force it."

"Hopefully not too late…" Addie muttered, watching as Tony darted into the smoke-filled corridor, pumping out two rounds from his electro-shotgun.

"I hear you, Ember," Glitch muttered. "If anyone didn't know they were coming, they certainly do now. God, I hope we can flip some of the synths before they all engage."

Addie focused on her connection to Humpty and pushed the little drone toward the corner, wanting to see what was going on with Tony and Beef. When more staccato impacts hit the plastic-lined wall, she hesitated; Humpty wasn't bulletproof. For the first time, she wished she were operating a different drone. Hadn't Tony wanted to get her something armored, something with offensive capabilities? Life had gotten in the way, though—no suitable drones in the local shops, and then this job suddenly being pushed up on the schedule.

Why had they pushed it up? Just because of her. They didn't need to be there at all, but Addie wanted to do something about Victor Kwon before Ross could get him back under Boxer's wing. So they were there because of her, and Tony and Beef were fighting to the death because of her. She'd been so worried about what to do with Kwon that she'd failed to consider how many people could get hurt or killed if he had serious security. Well, he did, and now she was finding out.

Gritting her teeth, she pushed Humpty around the corner, staying high near the ceiling to hopefully avoid stray bullets. The corridor was full of smoke, but Humpty's visual array was robust, and she easily picked out Tony grappling in hand-to-hand combat with another man. Beef was further down the corridor, yelling and blasting with his cannon-like sawed-off shotgun. Several corpses were strewn about amid scorch marks and bloodstains.

She focused on Tony, wishing she could help somehow. He bent the other man's arm at an awkward angle and stepped around behind him. She winced as he snaked his mechanical arm around the guy's helmet and then savagely jerked it. Humpty's audio feed all-too-clearly picked up the grinding pops as things that shouldn't break broke. Tony dropped the body and jogged up to Beef.

"Got 'em," the big guy said, pressing a hand to his side and probing.

"Hit?" Tony asked.

"Think the armor got it."

Tony glanced at Humpty, and his voice came through comms, "Things good up top? Glitch, got any intel for us? Anything on the synths?"

Addie flicked her attention to the camera feeds from the van's exterior. They were displayed in a window on her AUI, and she just had to focus on one to enlarge it. While she studied their surroundings, Glitch replied, "There's no cams down there, Shep. None that I can find on the local-net, anyway. As for the Synths, we need to get close with Humpty."

Tony didn't reply, but Addie thought she saw his posture stiffen in irritation as he lifted his shotgun and approached the metal doors that the men had come through. Shaking her head, she moved her eyes back to the external cams, then spoke into comms, "Things look quiet up here."

Beef was reloading his shotgun, but Tony pointed to one of the dead security guards. "Want to grab his rifle? If we run into those synths, it's gonna be hard to get close."

Addie watched as Beef bent to pick up the gun, shrugging. He stuffed his shotgun into the leather holster he wore under his coat, then fidgeted with the rifle. "It's locked."

Glitch spoke up immediately, "Have Humpty plug into the port. I can fix that."

Feeling happy to do something useful, Addie immediately reached for the "hook" that would let her control Humpty's data prong, and then, once it stretched out from the little aperture in the base of his egg-shaped shell, she deftly flew him close and inserted the data jack into the port on the stock of Beef's gun. "Hold it steady," she said.

Beef grunted. "Yeah, I will. Shep, grab me some mags off that guy."

Tony jogged over to one of the bodies and started stripping the little rectangular magazines from his vest. By the time he ran back to Beef, Glitch announced, "It's done. Wide open. Just pair up with it."

Addie pulled Humpty away, and Beef racked the bolt on the rifle. "Thanks, doll."

"Just stay safe down there," Glitch said, suddenly serious.

Addie leaned her head back, feeling mounting stress as she subvocalized a private message to Tony. "That goes for you, too. I'm sorry about this mess, Tony!"

Even as he walked forward, electro-shotgun held ready, his voice came through her audio implants, "It's all good, but let me focus."

Chagrined, Addie squeezed her eyes shut and focused on Humpty's feed. If nothing else, she could scout for them. As soon as Tony nudged the door open with the barrel of his gun, she flew Humpty through, zooming down a long, wide corridor with glass viewing windows lining both sides. As soon as she passed in front of the first set of windows, she took in the view on both sides. Lab tables had been turned over, and she could see matte-gray heads with flickering, red-LED eyes hunkered down behind them.

"Don't come into the hallway!" she said immediately. "The synths are barricaded behind lab tables, and they're watching through the glass on both sides!"

Suddenly, heard glass shattering and something sent Humpty lurching. He'd been shot! In a mounting panic, Addie responded out of reflex. She dropped his altitude until he was right by the floor and then, pushing his gravity drive as hard as it would go, she flew back toward Tony and Beef. More glass shattered, and she could hear impacts on the walls, but Humpty made it safely to the doors.

Tony pushed the door shut and looked at Beef, his face unreadable behind his opaque visor. Beef seemed to know what he was asking, though. "I've got grenades."

"How many, Ember?" Tony asked.

"Not sure—at least four—"

"Five," Glitch interrupted. "I just reviewed the footage. Five on each side. That's all of them."

"All right. Leave us to it."

"You want me to try to get Humpty—"

Tony shook his head, and his voice didn't leave room for argument. "No. We've got this."

Addie wanted desperately to ask Tony if Humpty was hurt. He was working just fine, but what if there was a hole in his wondrous nanotech shell? She wouldn't, though. They were in a life-or-death situation; her worry about Humpty could wait. Instead, she lifted him toward the ceiling, out of the line of fire from the door, just in case. Then she settled back and watched what Beef and Tony were going to do.

This narrative has been purloined without the author's approval. Report any appearances on Amazon.

###

Tony opened the door enough to poke his shotgun barrel through the gap. He didn't see any movement, so the synths were still holding their position. He didn't blame them. The hallway was a kill box with them on either side like that. Plus, they had cover. According to Nora, if they were just stock models with no extra gear, that meant they probably had bolt-throwers mounted on one arm and automatic needlers on the other. Hopefully, that was it. Hopefully, they didn't have a rack of grenades.

Of course, there were still two human security personnel to worry about, assuming that kid knew how to count. He pushed the thought aside. "Ready?" he asked into comms.

"Go," Beef grunted.

Tony took aim at the window on the right—already peppered with bullet holes—and squeezed the trigger. His gun was dialed up for a wide impact, and it didn't disappoint. The shotgun zwapped, hurling its payload of ferrous-infused polymer, and then a meter-wide hole erupted in the reinforced glass windows. Tony was already aiming across the hall at the opposite window, and his gun whined almost like a complaint as he pressed the trigger. Zwap! Another window was blasted wide open.

Beef didn't hesitate, ripping the door open, he chucked two grenades through the window on the left while Tony let his gun fall and grabbed the two grenades he'd had Nora prime; she'd detonate them at the right moment. As soon as Beef stepped back out of his way, Tony hurled the two red balls through the window on the right, and then, simultaneous explosions rocked the hallway.

Tony didn't bother falling back to cover. He dropped his gun, letting it hang from the sling, then lifted his SMG. Most of the blasts had been contained to the rooms, but those frag grenades were loaded with pellets, and they'd certainly blown plenty of glass shards into the hallway. Worse than the scattered glass was the smoke—white and thick—but Tony and Beef both had augmented vision, and he was confident they'd be able to pick out any available targets.

Striding forward, gun ready, Tony focused on the right-side windows, trusting Beef to handle the left with his salvaged rifle. It was a nice piece, that gun—slick, modular, and mean-looking. It fired 6.5mm caseless rounds from a bullpup frame. The damn thing had a recoil damper and a vented shroud; honestly, Tony was a little jealous, and that was leaving aside the smart capabilities. Nora said it had a smart-link scope that could adjust magnification based on eye movement and could even tag targets with predictive aim-assist overlays.

He wanted to make a crack about how Beef better not miss, but he was already in front of his window, and he had business to handle. Several of the synths had clearly bought it from the frags—gray body parts oozing creamy white blood littered the floor. The tables they'd set up for cover were blown to splinters, and Tony's enhanced vision immediately picked up movement as the remaining synths either struggled to their feet or, in two instances, took aim at him.

Tony's reaction was immediate and deadly. He zeroed his sights on one synth's head, fired off a burst, shifted his barrel, and repeated the process. His SMG wasn't as fancy as Beef's new gun, but it was a good, solid weapon, and he'd dialed in the sights for just this sort of encounter. The armor-piercing rounds shredded the synth's skulls, despite their higher-than-usual density.

Even as fast as he was, and despite the synth's disorientation from the frag grenades, one of them that had made it to a blind corner, darted out and, with both arms extended, laid out a hailstorm of needles and high-density projectiles. Tony ducked down, and several needles pinged off his helmet, but then the wall started to come apart as the synth's bolt-thrower ripped through the plasteel and began to chew through the concrete.

Tony slid forward, past that first, blown-open window, and then, mentally adjusting his SMG to full-auto, he stood and ripped into the synth. He watched as his bullets—streaking with bright yellow tracers thanks to Nora's AUI overlay—pounded into the synth's chest, and then he walked the bullets up until he'd shredded its face and head.

All the while, Beef's gun had been barking and he'd heard glass breaking, but the big guy was still working and he wasn't asking for help, so Tony kicked the door open to the lab on his side of the hallway and proceeded to walk around, delivering bullets to skulls and other locations that Nora highlighted—typical spots for secondary processors in combat synths.

"Good?" he asked in comms.

"Good," Beef grunted. Tony turned to see why it was so quiet over there, and through the two blasted windows, he saw a massive cleaver rise and fall.

"The hell are you doing?"

"Making sure these fuckers stay down!" Beef grunted as he chopped the cleaver down again.

Tony changed out his SMG mag, then moved back to the hallway. "Well, on the bright side, that's the synths out of the way. Didn't even have to risk Humpty." He glanced over his shoulder and saw the little egg-shaped drone hovering inside the doors, up near the ceiling.

"Tony," Addie asked, her voice coming through a private channel, "does Humpty have a bullet hole?" The little drone flew close and did a little figure-eight in front of him.

Tony shook his head. "Looks fine." He motioned with his gun. "Come on, Beef. Let's get that next door open. Humpty can scout for—"

Just then, Glitch interrupted, "Oh shit!"

"What?" Addie and Tony asked simultaneously.

"A butt-load of traffic just hit my driftjack. Ember, check the cams… Never mind, I'm on it… Holy shit! Two Boxer rigs are pulling up in the lot!"

"Rigs?" Tony growled.

"Transports! Armored vans!"

"Oh, just beautiful," Beef said, shoving his way through the door he'd smashed open.

"Tony!" Addie said, clearly throwing handles to the wind. "You guys need to get out!"

"Uh, they're unloading. Are you guys seeing this?" Glitch asked, and Tony realized she'd sent the feed to his AUI. The border of the little window was blinking red, so he stared at it, expanding it in his vision. Sure enough, two sleek, armored transports painted matte black and bearing the Boxer corporate logo had pulled into the parking lot right outside the abandoned building. Even as he zoomed in to get a better look, he saw Glitch was right; the back doors were open, and six geared-out corpo sec were gathering around each vehicle.

Two charged the building, taking up positions on either side of the doors, rifles held ready. Meanwhile, the others circled up and waited as two suits climbed out of the passenger seats of either vehicle. One was a woman in a damn business skirt and a full-length, sleek black overcoat. The other was none other than Gregory Ross.

"Ah, burn it," Tony groaned. "He had to pick tonight?"

"It's Ross," Addie whispered into comms, clearly about ready to have a meltdown.

"Listen," Tony said, trying to regain some semblance of control. "We still have hostiles down here. We need to deal with them, and then Beef and I will try to make ourselves scarce. Meanwhile, you two need to clear out. Get Humpty moving now before they get to the stairwell and cut him off."

"Tony, I'm not leave—"

"Ads! They might have scanners that can pick up your Dust link. They've probably got techs in those transports trying to figure out the traffic going through that driftjack of Glitch's as we speak. We need to cut comms!"

"Sorry to say it, but he's right," Glitch said. "It'll take 'em a while to crack it, but they're going to start wondering about the traffic, if they aren't already. I need to shut down the driftjack."

"Okay," Tony said, knowing the situation was going to be hard on Addie, "We're going dark. Get someplace safe and we'll reach out when we get clear." He glared at Humpty. "Go now, Addie! You wanna lose that drone?" He hated to pull that card, but he knew it would work. The drone performed a loop and then zoomed down the hallway.

"You better get out safely," was all she said into comms before the signal died and the comm window grayed out.

Tony looked at Beef. "Just you and me, big guy."

He shrugged. "They here for the scientist?"

"Yeah. Ross is the guy in charge of his experiments over there."

"Right. Well, let's do him and make it quick. If he looks good and fried, maybe those Boxer assholes will clear out."

Tony nodded, reaching up to rub a smear of synth blood off his visor. "Yeah. Let's do the job, and hopefully they'll just clear out, assuming we've already left."

###

"This isn't right," Addie said, her heart hammering like it wanted to escape the cage of her chest. She stared at Glitch, but she wasn't really looking at her. She was flying Humpty like a bat fleeing hell, rocketing him up out of the stairwell. When she reached the ground floor, she took him up another level, then used his tentacle-like manipulation arm to open the door. She'd fly him out of a broken window so the Boxer personnel by the door wouldn't see him.

"I know, Addie, I know." Glitch used her real name, and Addie felt like it was done calculatingly.

"We don't have to leave. If we don't use comms, they have no reason to check out the van. We just need to make sure we're not transmitting anything."

Glitch shook her head. "Maybe, but maybe not. They're setting up there in that lot, but I can see four drones—two on each vehicle. They're gonna launch those, and then they're going to be scrutinizing the area. This doesn't look like a small operation."

"I don't care!" Addie said, as she pushed Humpty down a central hallway, scanning the offices on either side as she went, hoping for an open window. "Odds are, they'll just see this van sitting here and then leave it be—"

"I know you're not dumb, Addie! You know they'll be scanning. You think Humpty could spot two people hiding in a van?"

Addie frowned. Of course, he could. He'd pick up their movement and their heat… "Are their drones capable—"

"Of course! This is Boxer, and they're not going to be playing around. We need to at least move a few blocks away."

Addie nodded as she turned Humpty into an office with ancient, weather-worn curtains flapping in the wind. She slipped him out the window and then had him hurtle toward the van at his top speed. "Okay. A couple of blocks. Open the door."

Glitch scooted to the back of the van and pushed one of the doors open. Seconds later, Humpty came burbling in, and she pulled the door shut. "Let's move."