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039 - “And That’s How You Crash A Party.”


“Doesn’t make much of a difference, does it?” said the real Katanagi as she finished zipping up Mech’s from-fitting bodysuit. “It doesn’t exactly leave much to the imagination.”

“You fill it out well,” said Tank absent-mindedly.

She glared at him but then quickly softened her expression.

They stood near the windows of her office and separated from the rest of the assault team which had eventually followed Tank, Gavin and Mech through the air vent.

Kara took a moment to ensure that she would not be overheard. “So about earlier,” she started. “At the party when you asked me to come up here. You weren’t thinking about, you know, anything other than getting me to safety?”

But the colossal MSD agent’s mind seemed somewhere else entirely as he kept his gaze out of the window and towards the ground hundreds of feet below.

“Hey, are you alright?”

“Huh?” he looked at her as if seeing the woman for the first time.

Her frown returned. “You really are a jerk, aren’t you?”

“Listen, in case you hadn’t noticed yet, I have a lot on my plate right now.”

“Trust me, I had noticed,” she shot back. “But it didn’t look like those terrorists were on your mind just now.”

She had clearly hit a nerve and he was quick to dismiss it, not wanting to talk about his thoughts. “You’d be much safer in the washroom with Jack.”

She rolled her eyes at his refusal to call the man by his real name. “From what I’ve overheard there isn’t a safe place in the building at the moment on the account of that bomb and what not. Besides, I want to make sure I get that dress back. I paid good money for it.”

“Fine. But when the moment comes, you do exactly what I say when I say it. No discussion and no hesitation,” he said and shot one last glance towards the outside. “You do that and I’ll promise I’ll get you out of here alive.”

She appeared momentarily touched by his thoughtfulness and simply nodded.

Tank left her and walked over to were Gavin, Sylvester and the rest of the team were getting ready, double-checking their equipment.

“Remember, short, tight bursts. Two in the torso should be enough to finish them. Don’t even try to go for the head, it’s too small of a target and if you miss you’re bound to get somebody else in the crossfire,” said Sylvester to Gavin and the others.

“Got it,” said the rookie agent, trying to mask the nervousness in his tone. “So now we just wait for the LT’s signal? Any idea what that’ll be?”

“You know it when you’ll hear it,” said Tank, grabbed his rifle and then sat down on the floor with his back towards the wall.

Gavin nodded and sat next to him. “God, the waiting is the hardest part, huh?”

Tank barely even acknowledged him.

“Are you alright?” he asked, noticing that his eyes appeared glued to the window at the opposite side of the room.

“I’m fine, stop asking me that.”

Gavin wanted to point out that he had really only asked him once but decided against it. He was clearly in a foul mood. “It’s about that hostage you weren’t able to save earlier, isn’t it?”

“Listen, rookie,” he said sharply and shot him a sideway glance. “You don’t know me well enough to be able to know what I’m thinking of.”

“Right.”

They remained sitting there like that for another minute without saying a word to each other.

“You know that there isn’t anything you could have done differently though, right? It wasn’t your fault that man was killed.”

“You’re damned right it wasn’t. I’ve gone over it at least a dozen times in my head and there is nothing I could have done to save that guy. Nothing. I just wasn’t fast enough. That’s all it is. Not fast enough. All I know is that it’s not going to happen again. No matter what, I’m not going to let it happen again.”


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*


Something was happening. Mech had been watching the man with the purple orchid very closely since she had been brought into the lobby and now, for the first time, his facial expression had changed. It was almost imperceptible but it was there nevertheless.

He looked towards two of his men who gave him sharp nods in acknowledgment and then set out towards the elevators.

According to her calculations they had at least another 20 minutes until they would make good on executing another hostage. Which meant that whatever they were doing now had most likely not been scheduled.

Mech had known that something like this was going to happen. It had only been a matter of time until they realized something had gone wrong on the roof and would have to go to investigate. The fact that they had not taken this unforeseen complication as a reason to detonate the bomb was enough reason to confirm her initial theory that they planned to stick to a pre-arranged timetable.

But all that would change when they realized that their roof sentries were dead or incapacitated and the building and been infiltrated. She had to make her move now.

She stood from where she had been held by the bar counter and immediately caused her guards to draw a bead on her. “Hey,” she said, her loud voice reverberating through the large lobby and quickly garnering everyone’s attention.

The man with orchid turned to look at her.

“That’s right. I’m talking to you. You’re in charge here, right?”

“Sit down and remain quiet,” he responded.

“No,” she said forcefully. “We’ve been sitting here quietly for long enough. As a senior representative of the Nyuchiba-Federation Trade Alliance I wish to negotiate our release.”

“There is no negotiation. Our demands have been communicated to the Federation government and it is in their power, and their power alone, to secure your release.”

She took a step towards him but stopped when the guards quickly moved closer, their disruptor rifles pointed at her head. She threw up her hands in surrender and stepped back towards the counter. Then she focused on the leader again. “Come on, you guys are nikkeijin, aren’t you? You want money? Power? I could arrange something back on Nyuchiba if you are willing to negotiate with me.”

“There will be no negotiation.”

Mech realized that she would have to change track. “OK fine, I can’t give you what you want. But how about you get us something we need? We have injured here that need medical attention. We are thirsty and hungry, some of us need use the washrooms. Surely you don’t want a crowd of unruly hostages. Let’s work something out.”

He stepped down from the raised platform by the windows and moved closer. “You would do yourself and your colleagues a favor by following our instructions, starting with sitting back down and remaining quiet.”

That’s right come to me. “You let us have a dermal regenerator, some food and a washroom break and I’ll sing and dance for you.”

He raised his rifle to point the muzzle at her head. “You do not appear to understand the peril you are inviting upon yourself and your colleagues by disregarding my directive.”

Some of the other hostages were beginning to grow more frightful now. Some were urgently whispering for her to simply sit down and shut up. Others were beginning to cry, unable to take the rising tensions.

“The hostages are going to become restless,” she said. “Are you going to risk that? What will you do then? Start shooting us. That will force the authorities outside to take immediate action and potentially end this whole thing long before you want it to.” Almost there, just a few more feet. Come on.

But the man with purple orchid stopped just outside of her reach and began to look her over closely and with increasing suspicion.

Mech knew she had gone too far. In her attempt to goad him within easy striking distance she had crossed the line between helpless and frightened hostage to assertive and cunning operative too quickly as not to raise his suspicions.

It’s as good as it’s going to get.

He must have made the decision that she was not who she claimed to be and was therefore a threat to be neutralized at once, at the same time as she made her call to action.

He once more took aim with his rifle as if ready to shoot her down even while she bend at her knees and then lifted off the ground in a vertical jump. She grabbed hold of a number of colorful streamers hanging from the ceiling and used her foot to kick against the bar counter behind her to give her the momentum to swing forward and towards the terrorist leader.

He fired at her but by that time she was already flying towards him and simply pulled her legs up to her chest to avoid the disruptor blast.

Before he could take proper aim again she was on top of him. She was thankful that Katanagi’s dress had been risqué thanks to a side slit going almost all way up to her hip, otherwise her current maneuver would not have worked.

She wrapped her leg tightly around his throat, catching his head just inside her knee and pulled him off his feet, dragging him with her as she swung in a curve and back towards the bar.

His rifle clattered to the floor but the remaining terrorists reacted quickly, bringing their own weapons to bear and opening fire, taking out dozens of streamers in the process but failing to connect with Mech.

The LT had too much momentum now to slow down and crashed into the back of the bar at full speed, taking down bottles, glasses and anything else that wasn’t bolted down as she and the terrorist leader fell behind the counter.

Having been prepared for the harsh impact she needed almost not time at all to recover which was good because she didn’t have any. Her move had bought her a few seconds of cover at the most, which was all it would take for the gunmen to get around that counter and have a clean shot.

Her hand darted under the red dress to retrieve the data port she had hidden there. She slapped one tiny disk on the dazed terrorist’s neck and the other on hers.

Within a flash she found herself within the virtual construct of his enhancer and fighting off his active firewalls designed to attack and neutralize an intruding hacker.

Thankfully for Mech his defenses had not been designed to keep out the likes of her. Whoever had sent these guys had not expected the enemy to know that they were mere puppets who could be hacked. They were supposed to pass for flesh and blood humans, terrorists wanting to strike fear into the heart of Federation citizens.

Mech already knew that there was much more at stake here than that and she put up a new record in getting passed those protective firewalls.

No motivation like getting your head shot off any second.

Her first priority was to confirm the presence of an explosive device in the building. Then, shut it down remotely. After that find the communication and transporter scramblers, shut those down as well and this hostage crisis would resolve itself within moments.

And do all that in less time than it would take a man to walk around a barrier and fire on a defenseless target.

For all her hacking skills it was simply not enough time.

But she found the bomb. Remote detonated tri-cobolt explosive with a detonation velocity of over 500 meters per second and a yield of 8.2 tons of TNT, enough to level three Fed Plazas.

She also established that it was located in the buildings sub-basement and attached to the structural support pillars. She killed the remote link but in her haste failed to realize that it would immediately engage the bombs countdown timer set to ten minutes.

And that was all the time she had.

Mech pulled out of his enhancer and found herself lying on her back with the still dazed terrorist leader on top of her. She reached for her inner thigh were she had concealed her Glock, pulled it free form the holster and then up in a smooth and uninterrupted motion to fire just in time to tag the first terrorist coming around the counter right between the eyes.

Then she let herself fall on her back again, raised her weapon over her head and fired two more shots at another terrorist who had tried to come up behind her.

However in her compromised position, with the weight of the leader pushing down on her, she had no chance to take out everyone converging on her.

The third man there had the opportunity to put her down for good. He raised his rifle and had a clear shot at Mech.

He never got it.

The man was cut down by a burst of automatic weapons fire coming from above.

Then the lights went out.

“Hostages, lay face down on the floor and cover your heads,” Tanks voice boomed from somewhere above.

And then the fireworks started in earnest.

The first explosion took down the door leading to the staircase, knocking the two guards stationed there to the floor immediately. The second one did something similar to one of the elevator doors.

While half the MSD strike team entered through openings they had just made, the rest covered their insertion from the upper floor, raining down precise bursts of duranium bullets on the terrorists below. Their enhancers made it easy to find their target in the darkness which was incomplete thanks only to the bright moonlight shining through the panoramic windows.

Mech decided to thank her team for the timely intervention later. For now she had to deal with the man with the orchid who was coming back around. She knew she had to take him out now. Once he fully regained his senses and realized what had happened, he could possibly re-establish the link to the bomb and detonate it.

“Bye, bye, bye,” she said in a sing-song voice as she pressed the muzzle of her gun against his temple. “Bye, bye Johnny.”

She squeezed the trigger, painting the wall with half his cybernetic brain.

Mech quickly pushed the dead weight off her and got back on her feet. She took stock of the situation instantly and determined that her team had things well in hand. The terrorists were at a clear disadvantage and while the weapon fire drowned the desperate cries of the hostages, it appeared they had followed Tank’s directive and kept hugging the floor. The gunmen were too busy trying to fend off the surprise assault as to turn their weapons against them.

Mech couldn’t afford to try and help take control of the situation. She had less than ten minutes to try and stop the bomb from blowing them all to kingdom come. She had to move fast.

Securing her gun, she didn’t want to lose it, she leaped from behind the counter and while even while up in the air she found a terrorist firing at the railing above, trying to keep the strike team contained. For additional momentum, she flipped in mid-air, brining her outstretched leg down hard against the man’s shoulder and then extended her other leg, smashing the sole of her boot into his face.

He went down hard.

Mech landed on the floor next to him on one knee, grabbed the rifle he had dropped and then had to make a split-second decision.

She had to get to the basement in a hurry with enough time to spare to defuse the primed bomb. She fully understood that there was no chance for the strike team to mop up the terrorists and evacuate the building within the timeframe available. Not even if she helped out.

The other option had been to locate the transporter scramblers but she had no idea where they had been set up, not to mention how many of them were in the building.

It was the basement then. But how to get there in five minutes or less?

The elevator shaft was her first instinct.

She got up and turned towards the area which held the turbo-lifts.

The immediate problem; most of the terrorists not occupied with the MSD team assaulting from above were now busy fending off the attack coming from exactly the direction she needed to take.

Between her team trying to storm onto the floor and terrorists attempting to hold them off there was simply no chance to make it her exit. She was good, she knew, but not good enough to fight herself through all that within a short amount of time and without putting her own people at risk while doing so.

She glanced at the windows and knew that it was her only option.

Mech set out.

“She drew out all her money out of the Southern Trust, and put her little boy aboard a Greyhound Bus,” she sang to herself to the beat of the steady weapons fire all around her and a melody which existed only in her mind. Without hesitation she ran up to one of the terrorists in her way, he had his back turned towards her, and snapped his neck with such force, his head nearly popped off his shoulders.

Not quite the way to destroy a full-body android but it was all the time she had as she let the momentarily disabled terrorist drop to the floor.

The next one saw her coming however and raised his rifle to take aim.

Mech didn’t slow down. “Leaving Louisiana for the Golden West, down came the tears from her happiness.”

She could see the armed man-bot trying to make sense of her words without success. It bought her precious seconds to get within striking distance and push the barrel of his rifle towards the floor just as he opened fire.

Her other arm extended backwards along with her entire left shoulder before snapping forward again and smashing her fist into his face will all the force she could muster. The result wasn’t pretty but it got the job done and another android went down.

By now she had nearly reached her destination and only one more terrorists stood between her and those floor to ceiling windows overlooking the City by the Bay.

She brought up the appropriated rifle even as she ran towards him at full speed and before he had the chance to take proper aim. “Her own little son name 'o Johnny B. Goode, was gonna make some motion pictures out in Hollywood,” she sang and unloaded onto the terrorist at the same time.

By unleashing one fiery bold of hot plasma after the next long after the body had been burned beyond recognition she achieved her secondary objective. The limp and lifeless android was hurled backwards with enough momentum to smash right through those thick, reinforced window panes and creating her exit in the process.

Here goes nothing.

“Bye, bye, Johnny. Good bye Johnny B. Goode.”


She leaped forward and into the night.


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