Emergence (Fox Meridian Book 5) (26 page)

‘Who the Hell are you? Do you have
any
idea who you’re messing with?’

‘I know
exactly
who I’m messing with, Max. You’re the man who tried to hack a friend of mine. For that alone, I should arrange for your timely demise, but she wouldn’t approve and you deserve far worse for what you did to Luna City.’

‘If people can’t be bothered to update their equipment, I can’t be held responsible for–’

‘I
am
holding you responsible, Max. And I’m quite sure the courts will too. You’ll
love
Cold Harbour. I’m placing you under house arrest now, and giving you a taste of what you can expect.’

‘What?’ Fear began to override anger in Snowbull’s mind. What was the man on the screen talking about?

‘You rely far too much on automation. Goodbye, Max. You’ll never see me again.’

And then, all the lights went out.

Tokyo.

‘We’re moving,’ Helen said. ‘Back down to the landing and in. Go!’

The two men taking rear guard became the point men and rushed down the steps. ‘We’ve got people coming up,’ one of them said.

‘Yeah. You got smoke grenades?’

‘On it.’

Helen turned, waving Yuriko, Sakura, and Iberson in through the door. Smoke began to rise from the landing below. Helen switched to internal comms. ‘We’re heading across to the opposite stairwell. The roof’s a no-go and we’re blocked from straight down, so we’ll have to go across. Asari, contact the van and have it meet us.’

‘Understood,’ Asari replied. ‘I want two on point, the rest bring up the rear. If it’s armed, shoot it.’

Helen moved through, pulling Sakura to the side to allow two of the security team to get ahead. ‘Are you okay?’ she asked.

‘I don’t understand what’s happening,’ Sakura replied.

‘It is the Fukui-kai,’ Yuriko said. ‘I see Toyotomi among them.’

‘This is crazy,’ Iberson said. ‘What the Hell do they hope to achieve by this?’

‘Show of dominance, maybe,’ Helen replied. ‘Though I think this is something to do with Minotaur. Someone hacked the security cameras. Start moving, we need to take this as fast as we can.’

Sakura danced in six-inch heels, but she was, apparently, not inclined to run in them. She paused long enough to step out of them, picking them up before she started at a fast walk after the point team. Iberson blinked and then stepped out of her own shoes.

‘I’m going to need a foot massage after this,’ Iberson grumbled, but she too set off at a rapid pace.

Behind them, a loud crack marked the firing of an electrolaser. ‘Faster,’ Helen ordered.

People cleared from the path ahead of them as the two men with carbines pushed forward, not quite running but moving as fast as a walk would carry them. The path was not straight, which worked for them: it meant the yakuza following rarely got a straight shot. Smoke grenades were dropped when it seemed likely that they might get a clean line of sight and the air began to fill with white mist.

‘They have electrolasers,’ Yuriko commented over the radio. ‘They seem determined to capture rather than kill.’

‘Lucky us,’ Helen replied. ‘Why do I suspect that might be worse than being shot with a bullet?’

‘For you, I believe the shock would be better. For me and Sakura-san, you might well be right.’

‘I thought they had some sort of arrangement with you.’

‘Under the circumstances, I believe they would make an exception. And Toyotomi is not noted for his tolerant nature.’

It took ten minutes to reach the stairs at the other side of the building. Smoke grenades were dropped at the top, but there was no sign of anyone below.

‘They must’ve figured out we had ground transport,’ Asari said as they started down. ‘There’s a squad attempting to surround the van.’

‘They’re authorised to fire,’ Helen said.

‘They’re suppressing. So far they’ve got the attackers pinned down. It may get difficult when we arrive.’

‘Tell them to get ready to deploy smoke.’

‘Understood.’

‘They are not far behind us,’ Yuriko said. ‘How far is it from the stairs to the van?’

‘Ten metres,’ Asari replied. ‘With the smoke, it should not be a problem.’ There was a pause and then, ‘Police are surrounding the building.’

‘I will make contact.’

The noise at the bottom of the stairs was loud and indicative of the use of firearms rather than electrolasers. Two more smoke grenades were dropped in the stairwell and Helen said, ‘Have them launch grenades out there.’

‘Deploying,’ Asari replied. ‘Give it a couple of seconds.’

And that was when Toyotomi came out of the smoke on the stairs. He was holding a short sword, a wakizashi, and there was a wild gleam in his eyes. Yuriko was moving before anyone else was really aware of the attack; stepping in close as Toyotomi swung his blade at her, she pushed his arm aside and then wrapped her own arm around his, wrenching upward. A grim smile set over Yuriko’s face as she saw Toyotomi grit his teeth in pain.

‘Stop playing with him,’ Helen said. ‘We’re leaving.’

‘Right,’ Yuriko said, and she slammed the heel of her free hand into Toyotomi’s jaw. His eyes glazed over, and Yuriko twisted, driving her hip into his, unbalancing him, and then tossing him high over her shoulder before driving him down into the concrete floor. ‘Move!’ Yuriko grabbed Iberson and started for the door, guided by the visuals being transmitted from the van outside.

Helen caught Sakura’s arm and the team were moving, filing out through the door to the clattering accompaniment of the rotary cannon mounted on their escape vehicle operating in full suppression-fire mode. Lasers cracked the air behind them as Toyotomi’s team plucked up the courage to move through the smoke and attack, but they were running right into the beams of the defenders holding the door.

‘Rear guard,’ Asari ordered over the radio, ‘retreat under bravo protocol.’

Helen had been over the security section’s tactical plans: bravo protocol was a circling movement to allow cover fire to go between the retreating men. On the infrared display from the van’s cameras, she saw another of the yakuza dropped by fire from the guards already at the van’s rear door as the last pair circled in. It seemed to take barely a second before the doors were closing and the air conditioning began to clear the smoke out of the cabin.

‘Everyone here?’ Helen asked.

‘We’re clear,’ Asari answered.

‘All right. Let’s get out of here. Are we cleared through the cops?’

‘We are,’ Yuriko said as the van pulled away, forcing everyone to grab onto something.

‘Good work.
All
of you. And Yuriko-san, remind me not to get on your bad side.’

Yuriko made a slightly faltering bow as the van manoeuvred through the car park. ‘I am honoured by your implied compliment, Helen-san, and I am sure you could never get on my bad side. Now all we must do is find Fox-san.’

‘Yeah… Where the Hell do we start with that?’

19
^th
February.

‘I am detecting definite indications that this video has been tampered with,’ Pythia announced. ‘It was an expert job, but carried out in real time, resulting in several errors. There are noticeable render errors in the shadows in a number of frames. I conclude that this is
not
video of Fox standing on the rooftop, but was rendered and patched into the video feed to the security system.’

Helen nodded. ‘So she probably didn’t make it off the roof.’

‘I am unable to make any conclusion of her actions based on the evidence I have been presented with.’

‘That’s okay, Pythia. It was more of an assertion than a question.’ Helen turned to look at Yuriko. ‘I’m going to say that Minotaur hacked the security system somehow, probably while we were distracted by that cyberattack on Monday.’

‘A valid assertion,’ Yuriko replied.

‘So he was responsible for the hacking of the feeds which stopped us from seeing the yakuza initially. So… I’m going to suggest that the same guys took Fox.’

‘Also valid, if more a matter of conjecture. I still have contacts in the Fukui-kai, so I will reach out to them. In the morning. They will not be especially amenable at two a.m.’

Helen nodded. ‘It’s the only lead we have right now. I’m going to call New York and let them know what’s going on. Kit is going to be… unhappy.’

‘Yes.’ Yuriko frowned. ‘What I do not understand is
why
the Fukui-kai would wish to kidnap Fox. I cannot see what they have to gain from it. What would they want of her?’

Chiba Industrial Zone.

Something sharp bit into the back of Fox’s nose and she reared her head back to get away from it. Or tried to. She seemed to have alarmingly little room to move her head, but the astringent scent was lifted away at her first sign of movement, and then she heard the voice.

‘About time. I was getting bored of waiting.’ The voice sounded familiar, but she had little time to consider it before a fist was driven into her stomach. ‘Now you know how that feels.’

Fox grunted and forced her eyes open. She took in the face hanging in front of hers and, somehow, it failed to engender the fear it probably should have. Icy blue eyes, entirely bereft of humanity, regarded her, but she was unmoved. His hair was greyer than it had been, his skin was not as clear, but she knew him.

‘Now I know what what feels like, Grant? Being punched by a girl? Used to happen all the time when I was at school.’

To his credit, he did not appear to rise to the bait. Instead, he smiled. It was a malicious sort of smile, but a smile all the same. ‘I assure you that you’ll feel the next blow.’ He stepped around her, disappearing behind her back, and Fox took the opportunity to examine her circumstances.

She was in a room with concrete walls. Old walls with remnants of paint clinging to them. The floor was a bare, concrete raft, and she was suspended by ropes from a concrete beam which held the ceiling up. It looked like someone had replaced the lights, because they were large and bright, but looked like they had been hung in a hurry. Now that the smelling salts had faded from her nostrils, Fox could smell something else: water, probably salt water. They were near the sea? Well, Japan was a set of islands…

Of course, Grant had stripped her. She had no illusions regarding his plans for her. Absolutely none. She wondered briefly whether he realised what that meant to him, but her musing
was
brief as a second later, a lash bit into her back, wringing a cry of pain from her.

‘Much better,’ Grant said from behind her. ‘I believe I’d like to hear more of that.’

Three more blows struck in rapid succession and Fox’s vision swam. As the fifth hit her, she spiralled into oblivion and if there were more of them, she knew nothing about them.

~~~

When Fox regained consciousness, she was lying down, on her stomach, chained to some sort of cot which had a very solid-looking metal frame. The skin on her back felt tight, pulled together as though stitched. And she itched…

‘You’ve been injected with an experimental nanodrug.’ The voice was female. Not Grant: Hannah. ‘It accelerates healing.’

‘That’s nice of you,’ Fox mumbled into her pillow. It occurred to her that Kit was being very quiet. And then that she could feel nothing from her right arm. Thinking about it, she had felt the ropes cutting into her left wrist, but not her right. She lifted her head.

‘He used a drill on your cybernetic arm.’

Sure enough, Fox could see several holes drilled through her forearm. Grant had done quite an effective job of disabling the limb from the feel of it. There was no way to tell whether any of it was still functional. Fox turned her head and looked around as best she could at Hannah.

‘So, how did it feel? Carrying on your master’s work like that. Did you get anything out of it, or was it just a job?’

‘I took no pleasure in it,’ Hannah replied in a flat tone. ‘We had to use the drug because you annoyed him. He was too violent. If you had not passed out, he would likely have killed you.’

‘He’s going to do that anyway. I’d prefer it was fast.’

Hannah frowned. ‘The others always clung to life as long as they could. They–’

‘The others had no idea that your master was a cowardly, sadistic, asshole of a serial killer. Until the end. I
know
he won’t let me live already. Why should I wish to string this out?’

‘Why should you not… wish to continue living for as long as possible?’

‘In pain? Do you feel pain, Hannah? Do you have any idea what it’s like to be whipped to the point of unconsciousness? To be raped? I’d rather die.’

Hannah just looked at Fox for a second or two. ‘Try not to get him angry again. There are side effects to the treatment. If it’s used repeatedly, it can permanently damage your ability to heal.’

‘Ha! You really haven’t listened to a thing I’ve said, have you?’ But Hannah was not listening now. She was walking toward the door and leaving Fox alone.

~~~

Fox spent much of the day sleeping. If the lights were supposed to keep her awake, Grant had failed to count on a soldier’s ability to grab rest when she could. The only breaks from the tedium came when Hannah came to feed her.

The food was some sort of protein shake and Fox was made to suck it through a straw. They were going to have to let her use a bathroom at some point, but Fox’s enhanced liver made that eventuality less frequent, and if they knew about her arm, they likely knew about her other features, so she was not going to push it. She had told Hannah that she would prefer to die quickly than be tortured to death, and it was true, but she was not going to ignore any chances for escape.

‘I’ve been expecting your master to turn up and stick pins in me or something,’ Fox said at the evening feeding.

‘If he came to feed you, he would. He is avoiding you so that you heal. He will return in the morning.’

‘Right…’ Fox took another suck on her drink. ‘You know you’ll have to let me go to the toilet at some point, right?’

‘I will be fitting you with a catheter shortly.’