Brain Storm (US Edition) (28 page)

On the road outside the gate to the doctor's garden there was a black van parked half on the road half on the pavement. Sara couldn't tell if there was anyone inside because the windows were blacked out, but she assumed there would be at
least a driver and probably at least one other backup operative. A Hawk-eye security car with the bar of lights on top flashing mutely came around the corner and went to pull up behind the van.

Sara and Carla switched direction and forced themselves through the hedge into the same
neighboring garden that the black and white cat had gone into earlier on. Sharp branches cut their exposed skin and grasped at their clothes but in less than a second they were through. The security lights for this house came on and Sara ran around to the back, still dragging Carla in tow, hoping to get them out of the light where they were prime targets.

There were more shouts from the direction of Grosset's bungalow and then a short burst of gunfire that wasn't repeated, no doubt the Hawk-eye security boys getting it from the professional operatives.

Sara and Carla ran from that garden through another hedge and into the next. Security lights came on again when they rushed into that garden and from inside the bungalow a pair of dogs began barking. This property was separated from the next by a low fence made up of a series of lower than knee-high vertical slats of wood fixed into the ground and connected to one another with a horizontal piece. The same style of fence continued around the front to separate the property from the street. Sara headed towards the street and hoped over the fence. Carla came afterwards but she tripped over the low barrier and threatened to take both women down to the concrete. Sara kept her feet and raised her arm dragging Carla upright before she could fall properly.

As soon as they were on the street they were spotted by another group of Hawk-eye officers coming towards them with one of the security mechs in tow. The machine's appearance made Carla tense up involuntarily. Everything she had been through since hadn't erased the memory of the attack that had heralded the start of the madness for her.

Sara did her jacket up as the two groups converged and hid the small automatic weapon underneath. "Let me do the talking." Carla didn't look like she had any plans to make a contribution.

The security officers had their hands on their weapons which were half ready but they weren't aimed exactly at either of the women. They were aiming head-mounted lights at them which made it difficult for them to be seen. The security
mech was just an ominous shadow in the background with the security officers only just more visible.

Sara raised her free hand in front of her eyes to block the light, she was still clutching Carla in her other hand, and decided to take the initiative. "Oh my God! Help us, please! There are men back there shooting and chasing us. I think they're kidnappers or terrorists or something. Please, you have to help us!" She spoke urgently and breathlessly. Every so often she looked back over her shoulder. The headlights were now on on the black van.

The security officers’ faces weren't visible enough for Sara to tell if they were buying her act. The obvious terror on Carla's face should be enough to convince them of the veracity of her claims. She looked back over her shoulder again. The van still hadn't moved but armed men were now rushing out of the bungalow. Two of them carried a squirming man on the stretcher between them.

The appearance of the armed interlopers spurred the private security boys into action. Their leader started dishing out instructions. Most of the group was moved up to engage the attackers while one was spared to usher the two women back out of
harm’s way. Sara probably should have felt guilty for the fact that so many of the security officers were likely to die in the engagement but she was more concerned with her and Carla's survival.

The shooting started just as the man guiding them reached the electric patrol car. Sara pushed Carla into the back seat risking another glance back before climbing in the front passenger side herself.

The black-clad attackers were down on one knee laying down arcs of fire. The private security boys were keeping back letting the security mech do what it was designed for. Unfazed by the hail of fire the security mech kept on going forwards firing at the attackers. Sparks flew were it was being hit by return fire but the armor was holding. Whatever it cost the residents to keep the mechs running it was money well spent. A pair of the attackers went down their chests smoking. The remaining attackers fell back into the garden or to the relative safety of the shelter behind their van.

The security man with the two women started the electric engine up by keying his code into the keypad in the centre of the steering wheel. He got on the radio calling in backup for the group being left behind and a call for assistance from the police and anyone else
that could help.

As they pulled off Sara took another look back. Framed in the rear-view mirror the black-clad attacker's van had started forwards. The glass in the windscreen had shattered and the security mech continued pouring fire into the interior. Not having any luck stopping the van by going for the driver it shifted its aim for the riskier approach of targeting engine and wheels. This was the more dangerous approach because it could lead to the van exploding or careening off course and into one of the residences. The van was no more than a
meter away from the mech when the scene moved out of view. The electric car headed around the corner and started down the hill heading back towards one of the Hawk-eye security checkpoints.

The checkpoint was currently unmanned with all available personnel busy trying to deal with the armed men they had left behind.

The Hawk-eye officer driving them pulled up to the checkpoint. "We should get you ladies inside where you'll be safe."

He had their best interests in heart but even if the private security force managed to hold off the first group of attackers they wouldn't be able to stop the second or third groups that came after the women. Now that their presence in the area had been confirmed other units would be showing up at any time soon. Even if they waited and managed to hold out until the police arrived it wouldn't do them any good. Carla was a wanted woman and Sara was sure that a similar scenario would now apply to her as well. It would be even worse if an
organization like ECSIS responded to the call for assistance. No, as much as Sara might be grateful to the driver and his colleagues for what they had done, they had to get as far away from the area as soon as possible. If this situation was to get sorted, and if the truth was to come out, it was down to the two of them to make it happen. If they were taken into custody, protective or otherwise, nothing would be fixed.

Carla was already moving in the back-seat and had her hand on the door to unlock it. Sara glanced back and shook her head to make her stop.

"We're very grateful for all your help. I don't know what we would have done if you boys hadn't showed up right then." She made as though to open her door but she was really getting her hand up under her jacket to free the automatic weapon.

The guard was reaching over to unlock his own door to get out when she rammed the muzzle of the weapon into his ribs. He froze immediately. "You don't want to do this."

Sara relieved him of his own weapon, a pistol the same type as was standard issue for police forces across the Confederation a couple of years ago. The pistol could fire either regular bullets or specially modified tranquillizer darts without the weapon itself having to be changed in any way.

"I'm sorry but I do."
Sara kept the automatic weapon jammed up against the officer so that he didn't try anything while she hit the clip release on the pistol one-handed. It was filled with regular bullets.

The officer didn't have any spare clips on his person so Sara reasoned that he must have some in the car. With her free hand she opened the glove compartment in front of her and came up empty. There was no ammunition just the usual junk and associated paraphernalia that people collected in the compartments. She reached past the officer, who still hadn't moved from his half-twisted position, and checked the compartment in front of him. This time she found what she was after, a spare clip of bullets and a clip containing tranq' darts.

She loaded the tranq's into the pistol slamming the combined clip and weapon onto the top of her thigh to make sure it was in securely. "We really are thankful for what you and your friends have done for us. If there was any other way to do this I'd take it, but I'm afraid there isn't."

She fired a single dart into the
man’s leg from close range. Being hit from such a distance would leave him with a hell of a bruise when he woke up in a couple of hour’s time. He started to swoon almost immediately and his head and upper body fell across Sara while she leaned over his lap to finish opening his door. She got out of the car and moved around to the other side to heave his unconscious form out of the vehicle and into the relative safety of the checkpoint cubicle. She closed the door on him so that he wouldn't be disturbed before returning to the car.

Chapter
Twenty-three

"What are we doing waiting around? We know now that Karl was working on something for the Omnitech Corporation. They're probably the ones who are behind all this. Can't you just get in contact with your old buddies, or even just call the police and get them to look into it?"

Sara took her eyes off their near continual scanning of the street in front of them to look back into the alley where Carla was perched uncomfortably on the edge of a rubbish container swinging her legs back and forth. Every time her legs went back she banged her heels against the side of the container.

"Go to them with what? The fact that we say that Dr. Grosset says he was working for the corporation isn't enough to warrant a full investigation. We don't know what the work entailed and even if we have no proof."

Carla stopped banging her heels. "But we know that Omnitech are behind all of this."

"Behind all of what? We still don't know what's going on here. We can assume that I've become tangled up in this mess because of my interest in you, but we haven't got a clue why they were after you in the first place."

"But-"

Sara turned fully away from the end of the alley that looked out on the street to stare at Carla. "But nothing. We don't have enough information to get anyone else involved. We have to continue on our own until we get further to the bottom of whatever is going on and have some proof of it."

Carla looked back at her feet and started banging them on the side of the container again. Sara got back to watching the street.

"I'm sorry," Carla said after a while. She jumped down off her perch and came up to stand just behind Sara's left shoulder. "I just want this all to be over." She went silent again. "I want to go home," she finished softly.

Sara couldn't help but try and console the younger woman, she must be getting soft. "It will be over soon, and then you and I can both get back to normality."

They both stood there then looking out of the alley. It was only just dawn. The sky had brightened and was lit with a soft diffuse glow. The air had that clean smell, a smell that most areas of the city only managed to get at that time in the morning before the stench of traffic and general humanity took over. There were very few cars passing across the street in front of them. It was still too early for most of the population to be rushing to work.

Across the street, situated between a school and a restaurant, was the area Sara's gaze was focused on. It was the subway entrance that for the moment was closed off with a corrugated metal grille. That barricade would be opening soon to accommodate the early morning commuters.

The man Sara was watching for could already be behind that barrier waiting to come out. The barrier wasn't really there to stop people getting into the subway station when it was closed, no-one in this area of the city would need to use it during the night. The drug-dealers, homeless and prostitutes who worked the streets were all confined to the poor sectors of the city. If any of the wealthy inhabitants of this part of the city wanted to get high or get laid they would just have it delivered to them. The problem with the subway was that it still led to the poor areas of the city. The service to those areas was erratic but it still existed for a select few routes. That meant that some of the subway tunnels still presented a direct access through both parts of the city. It was impossible to ensure security at the other end, drug-dealers and prostitutes still sold their wares down in the tunnels at night. There were entire communities of homeless living in the disused sections. The barrier was in place to prevent any of those undesirables migrating through the subway system at night and polluting this sector with their presence.

The man Sara was waiting for had amassed enough wealth that he could easily afford to live in the good sector of the city. The problem was that his wealth hadn't come about through legal means and to maintain his standard of living he had to continue to work and that meant making regular forays through the subway to the poor sectors. Sara thought that as much as the need for money he made these trips to the poor sector because he enjoyed it. If he wanted to he could have used the wealth he had already collected to make more, once you had money it was almost simplicity itself to make more that was the whole reason the divide between rich and poor existed.