NOVEL NEXT Chapter 87
The hunt for Saphie should start at her last known location. However, the apartment she was renting at the time was in the hands of another renter, preventing a closer examination, at least by me and the boys.
We could wait until nighttime and have a Probe sneak in and scan everything. Risky, but feasible.
A better method was to park an Observer over the apartment and use its powerful scanners to peal back any long forgotten secrets hidden there. It might take longer but it would be far more thorough, and the occupants should remain none the wiser. While that was taking place, we could take a Probe and hit all of her known favorite hangouts.
Other Observers would be tasked with investigating the most likely culprits. Which with the information we already possessed appeared to be Raven Microcybernetics, Biotechnica, and the Tyger Claws. My gut leaned toward Raven right now, but I had nothing concrete to base that on, other than most of her innovations involved Cybernetics to some degree.
In the meantime, we would continue with our original plans. It could take weeks or months before we might pry a viable clue from the datastreams. It might seem cold but everyone, including her sister, thought she was already dead, so there was no rush in their minds. As to my idea that the Corpos might have her stashed away pumping out ideas, I kept that to myself for now. If it happened to be true, a few months were unlikely to change anything about her status.
Haste would be detrimental here. So I swallowed my desire to charge into the situation. I needed to wait and let my people do what they do best. Alina would coordinate the efforts of the Observers and keep me up to date on their findings. That would have to be enough for now.
John, Jim and I got the troops into the truck and headed further north into Watson. I kept us moving at a slow pace, looking for clusters of Gangoons. Instead of immediately jumping out and going balls to the walls, we marked their positions and continued looking for more.
Another Observer followed us keeping tabs on the groups we marked. Maelstrom, Scavs, and Tyger Claws along with a few lesser known gangs like the Fire, Harpies and the Corded. The only really common factors between them were a wiliness to ignore the law and a lack of empathy for anyone not a part of their Gang.
Why were we scouting them out? Why not just put foot to ass as fast as possible?
The goal was to find a central location we could take over from each group and then defend while racking up a body count. Then after a while fade out and on to the next target. Maybe duck under a Pylon for a short rest and to dodge heat. An excellent test of our weapons and armor against normal threats. It also killed some time while we waited for night to fall. The light of day might see us tangle with some NCPD or Corpos who decide to investigate the commotion. At night, the script was different, the cops would rarely stick their necks out in these neighborhoods, and the Corpos were busy doing their most critical wetwork and networking.
While much could still go wrong, that was all part of the testing. How are they going to respond? How aggressive are they going to get? What level of tactical sense would they maintain while under fire? Would the Power Armor keep up with Borged out psychos? How well will crysbronze ammo tear through cyberware? So many questions.
As night crept in like a thief sneaking up on a client, we had managed to find a handful of prime targets. We might not be able to hit all of them tonight, but we were in no hurry right now.
The first of course, was a Maelstrom run garage. A trashy looking pile of scrap metal and crumbling concrete, held together by a hope and a prayer probably. It was fairly isolated yet their people tracked through there constantly, hundreds every hour. It had to be a drop off and pick up point for goods, weapons and cyberware. Scans had shown the Garage itself was a cover for lots of underground activity, and no fewer than 24 Strom were their at any one time, often a lot more. Clearing this building would be a good start to the festivities.
John was eager to get started. Jim was worried something would go wrong. The Boys were joking and seemed as stable as ever. I was somewhere in between, a mass of nervous energy that was ready to uncoil on the unsuspecting gangers.
The plan was for John to sweep the perimeter working his way deeper while Raynor and four of the boys hit the North side of the building. I would take the other four troops and hit them from the west.
A quick weapons check and the reports from the Power Armor systems showed everything was good to go.
We had parked in an abandoned lot a block away and slowly worked our way into position. Raynor split off with his group and vanished into the darkness. A minute later John just vanished. It was going to be impossible to track his progress, so we had agreed to give him a five minute head start before lighting the place up.
I doubt we could hit him if we tried, never mind hit him by accident. So I wasn't too concerned about that. What I was worried about was that he would be mostly out of contact once he worked his way underground. While I had every confidence in his ability to clear the warrens down there, well, shit happens.
We had covered ourselves in a grim silence, staring intently at our first targets. Probably a dumb move since some folks can sense that kind of thing, but it was hard not to.
Waiting always sucks, doesn't it.
