Somnus V - Chapter 18

A spear of ice zipped through the air, hammering itself halfway through the table. Before anyone could respond, the spell exploded. Luckily, Kat’s group was still under cover, but the same couldn’t be said for the rest of the bar.

 Glittering razors of ice shredded the common area. None of them were heavy enough to penetrate armor, so even a thin layer of wood, leather, or plastic was enough to protect someone, but most of the people in Neon Crash weren’t geared up for a gunfight.

 The cheap table practically crumbled as it fell apart under the onslaught. As soon as it stopped being a single coherent object, Kat’s gravity domain lost its hold over the remnants. The broken bits of table clattered to the floor revealing a scene from a warzone.

 Of the six concealed security guards, only two were still standing. One had been wearing a thick leather jacket to conceal a submachine gun, and his reinforced clothing had taken the brunt of the attack. Kat could see blood seeping through the holes drilled by a hundred tiny frozen needles as the man struggled to pull out his weapon, but unless he got hit a second time, he would likely survive.

 The second guard wasn’t so lucky. He’d been the one dispatched to buy candy, and he hadn’t been near the ice when it exploded. Unfortunately for him, he had been near the infiltrator that had tailed him into the bar.

 He was frozen in place. Literally. She’d used some sort of ability, covering him in a layer of frost that locked him down, providing cover to the woman as she rested what looked like a silenced pistol on his shoulder.

 Kat was pressed too tight to her companions to have easy access to any weapons, but that didn’t stop her from grabbing the beer out of Whip’s hand and hurling it with all her gravity assisted might.

 Throwing might not have been Kat’s primary attack skill, and a mug of beer had much poorer balance than a custom made throwing knife, but being able to instinctively tweak gravity near her body more than made up for those weaknesses.

 The cup tumbled through the air with deadly accuracy, forcing their assailant to duck behind her hostage. That fraction of a second bought Hestia enough time to summon and launch a wisp of flame.

 Their attacker acted decisively, tossing a metal sphere toward their table even as she turned and ran from the bar, dodging to the left just in time for the ball of fire to miss her and engulf a nearby pillar.

 Kat summoned a Pseudopod, batting the projectile out of the air even as she hurriedly chanted the words to Arcane Armor. On the other side of the table, Davis surged to his feet, metal armor appearing from seemingly nowhere as he donned his Merrimac persona.

 The metal cylinder exploded just as Hestia tossed another ball of fire after their retreating assailant. Kat barely got her spell off in time, coating Whippoorwill in a suit of glittering mana, before a wave of light and fire hit their group.

 Her Pseudopod darted back, curling itself into a circle in front of her. Between her instinctively redirecting gravity so that it flowed toward the grenade itself and her impromptu shield, the explosion didn’t do that much to Kat.

 Flaming gel arced out from the grenade and showered her Pseudopod, evaporating almost immediately as it made contact with the water. Some of it spattered on her knees and shins, setting her jeans aflame.

 Everyone else in their alcove was blinded by the flash of light and flame, but Sensory Dampening protected Kat from intense flare. Her Pseudopod brushed across her legs, drenching her clothing but putting the fires out in a second.

 The attacker was near the far end of the bar, an area largely untouched by her barrage of area effect attacks. She pushed her way between two stunned patrons, forcing her way toward the door.

 Kat didn’t have time to fumble for her pistol. After what felt like years in the Tower, knives were more comfortable anyway. She popped to her feet, stepping into the now open space where the table had been and whipping one of her throwing knives at the samurai.

 Days of training paid off. The rapidly spinning blade accelerated out of her hands, adjusting course slightly as her gravity field adjusted it.

 It whizzed through the crowd, narrowly threading the needle through a half dozen reeling drunks to strike home. The other samurai jerked to the side at the last minute, warned by some skill or instinct.

 Her last minute dodge wasn’t enough. Kat’s skill empowered knife hit the running samurai in the shoulder, lodging itself up to the hilt in the running woman as Throwing insured that the attack did maximum damage.

 Then, the unknown infiltrator was gone, leaving the carnage of the half destroyed bar in her wake.

 Kat turned back around. Both Whip and Emma were standing. Emma had a pair of truncheons out, the weapons she used in the tower. Whippoorwill stood a half step in front of the other woman, mana glowing around her from Kat’s spell and a machine pistol in her hands.

 In the booth, Heather was shouting something into a mouthpiece. It was hardly necessary as the sensitive equipment could pick up whispers and subvocalizations with equal ease. Apparently the adrenaline and anger coursing through the security chief disagreed with Kat.

 The bar itself was a nightmare. Almost two dozen people were down, burning and bleeding from the stranger’s attacks. For a second, Kat considered running after the blue haired samurai, but almost immediately she thought better of it.

 Charging into the unknown was a rookie mistake. One she’d made enough times as a rookie to not repeat. Given that the assassin had found their meeting place, there was no promise that the streets outside wouldn’t be lined with gunmen.

 Kat might be one of the most powerful players in the world, but enough bullets would put an end to any delusions of grandeur pretty quickly. Cover and magical armor could stop a lot, but getting caught in the open would be a death sentence, even for her.

 Instead, she ran over to the nearest guard, dropping to one knee next to him and casting Cure Wounds II. Gashes and punctures in the man’s skin began to close, shining with golden light as her spell knit them back together. The magic pulsed as it struggled to repair a perforated lung, forcing Kat to invest more mana into it.

 The spell wasn’t perfect. It could handle internal injuries and some mild organ damage, but anything more serious than cuts and bruises took more and more energy.

 Below her, the man started coughing, rolling over onto his side with a groan. Kat took that as a sign and moved onto the next victim. One look at the woman’s shredded throat and Kat was looking for another injured guard. She was nowhere near a high enough level in the tower to cure death.

 Overhead, the sprinkler system went off, finally registering the smoke from the burning bar. The water pressure and coverage from the fire suppressing system was suspect. There was no way the building was up to code, but then again, that was to be expected. A bar like Neon Crash actually following corporate safety guidelines would be far stranger than the alternative.

 Cure Wounds II went to work once again as she tried to repair a man’s shredded face. Kat couldn’t recognize him. That might have been due to the magical attack, or it might have meant that he was working under Merrimac. Either way, she kept pouring mana into his wounds.

 It wasn’t enough to save the man’s eyes, but Kat stopped his bleeding, ending the immediate threat to his life. By the time she was done, Emma and Whip had dragged another groaning victim over to her.

 Hestia, Merrimac and Heather stood guard, weapons out and surveying the room. Those that could escape on their own had, leaving nothing but wreckage and the injured behind.

 From there, the next ten minutes were a constant blur of bodies. Emma and Whippoorwill would bring them to Kat as she sought to triage and heal the survivors while Jasper watched over the recovering victims.

 Finally, just as Kat was beginning to run out of mana, the stream of injured stopped. She’d healed a dozen people, but another five hadn’t made it. A surprisingly low death toll given the chaos that had immediately followed the attack, but more than enough to drive the stark reality of the situation home.

 Kat stood, wiping a hand across her forehead to clear the sweat only to leave a streak of blood. Nina was standing behind the bar, a grim expression on her face and tripod mounted machine gun planted in the middle of the ashtrays and half empty beer mugs that had been left behind as the bar’s patron’s fled.

 “What in the hell was that?” Merrimac growled. Davis was covered head to toe in metal plates, making him look more like a robot than a soldier. “No one should have known where we were meeting. Emma transmitted the time and location of the meeting two hours ahead of time and we immediately erased it from our system.”

 “It wasn’t me,” Emma said hurriedly. “I kept everything on paper until I sent the message and Whippoorwill personally made sure that all logs were erased. Unless someone was in our system literally when we were sending the message, it should’ve been impossible for anyone to eavesdrop.”

 “Benji got tailed,” Kat responded, nodding toward the shivering security guard. “Honestly, I don’t know if it was originally supposed to be an assassination attempt. There was only one person and they didn’t seem anywhere near ready for the firepower we replied with. Part of me wonders if my reaction startled them into action.”

 “Why did you react?” Hestia asked. About five globes of ghostly fire were circling her right hand like a floating bracelet. “One second we were all talking, the next beer was flying everywhere and our table was in the air.”

 Kat weighed her response. After a second of indecision she gave up. There was no real reason to conceal her concerns. She might as well lay everything out for the rest of the team to see.

 “I think that was the woman from the Donnst wedding. I didn’t get a good look at her, but her hair and facial structure triggered something so I acted before thinking.”

 “Good thing you did,” Davis said with a snort. “Even if her original plan wasn’t to kill us, she came in here with a dragonfire grenade. I doubt she was here to sample the local beer. Driving her out before she could set up an ambush or listen in to our conversation was the right choice, even if it was a bit costly.”

 Metal clinked as he motioned toward some of the downed guards.

 “That wasn’t an amateur,” he continued grimly. “The powers and reflexes she just displayed were those of a named samurai. One that should have a serious reputation. Despite that, I don’t know anything about her.”

 “I don’t like this,” Heather said, edging toward the front door to the bar. Some sort of assault weapon had popped out of her right arm, glinting with dull menace in dim neon lights that filtered in from outside. “Someone managed to slip into one of the most secure locations in the world only to turn around and show up unannounced at a meeting shrouded in the highest levels of secrecy.”

 She peaked outside, arm gun at the ready. For a second, no one spoke. After Heather’s actions weren’t greeted by gunfire she slipped back into the bar, a frown on her face as she continued her train of thought.

 “Not knowing who she is makes it worse. Someone this good almost has to belong to another major player, likely a corporation. Merrimac’s right. A samurai of her caliber would have some rumors about her, a resume to go with her name. Someone like that likely would’ve taken out at least a dozen executives before they even thought of tangling with a shareholder. The fact that we haven’t heard of her means that someone raised her in secret, and anyone capable of training an agent that capable without any word slipping out is someone we have to worry about.”

 “What do you think?” Kat asked. “NeoSyne? I know their market share has been hit the hardest by our research and increased manufacturing. Even if they weren’t mad at us in the wake of the stallesp purges, that might be enough to drive them into making some rash decisions.”

 Emma chewed her lower lip for a second. Blood was still spattered across her face and the loose fitting hoody she had worn for concealment was both damp and covered in burn marks.

 “I don’t think so,” she replied, frustration evident in her voice. “NeoSyne has been quiet lately, trying to cut deals with us rather than adversarial. I think they’re aware of the isotope shortages, but they haven’t been making any effort to undercut us. Their last couple tussels with GroCorp didn’t end well for them, so it seems like they’ve rethought their overall strategy for the time being.”

 “If not them, who would want to do this?” Whippoorwill questioned. “I know there are a lot of people that want Kat’s money, but to go this far, it doesn’t really make sense.”

 “I agree,” Merrimac replied, the metal plates in front of his mouth and eyes retracting so that he could address the rest of the group more easily. “I’m sure almost every corporation wants to end the GroCorp monopolization of stallesp technology, but I’m not sure how killing any one shareholder would accomplish that. At the end of the day, the scientists and engineers in question work for the company. Another shareholder would simply pick up where Erinyes left off. The prospect of commissioning this high level of an assassination is filled with risks, but at the end of it all, I just can’t see the payoff.”

 “So it’s someone else,” Kat mused. “Maybe a rogue samurai group or the stallesp?”

 “Maybe,” Emma replied, unconvinced. “I could see the stallesp if they were still on Earth, they obviously hate you, and I can’t say that I really blame them. You’ve gone a bit beyond being a thorn in their side.”

 “That said,” she continued with a shrug. “Aren’t they gone? I know that they’ve been playing hide and seek with the investigators from the Galactic Consensus, but I thought that the only reason the main delegation left was that they were sure that the stallesp were completely withdrawn from Earth’s affairs.”

 Kat nodded slowly. She didn’t trust the Consensus investigators to be objective or thorough, the entire visit smelled too much like politics to her, but ostensibly they had investigated Earth and cleared it of stallesp influence.

“And a mercenary band would be even less likely,” Emma said, frustration building. “There’s no reason for one to target you without a profit motive, and even if someone were offering them an absurd amount of credits, I doubt any of them would have the resources needed to push you like this.”

“I can assure you of our full support,” Jasper vowed, ducking slightly under Davis’ looming armored body to approach their group. “I would have been willing to help regardless, Kat has saved my life more than once and pooling resources is the least that I could do, but that attack killed a member of my security detail, Jonas Sims. I can’t just turn my back on my employees by letting him die in vain. On my father’s grave, I will help you find whoever is behind these attacks, and my men will be there when you bring them down.”

Despite herself, Kat found herself smiling. In a world full of backstabbing, betrayal and cold blooded maneuvers, Jasper was still Jasper. He might not get every decision right, but at the end of the day, there was no questioning his character.

Outside the bar, Kat heard the distinctive whine of hover lifts as a rapid response team from the 3445 landed. A local screamed, but the majority of them made the far smarter choice. Kat’s enhanced hearing tracked the sound of sneakers on pavement as dozens of people ran away from the scene as fast as their feet could carry them.

Kat stood back up. Water continued to patter down from the half broken sprinklers embedded in the ceiling washing the blood and grime from her face and hands. Two armed figures cloaked in adaptive camouflage ran into the room followed a second later by a massive heavily armored set of APEX armor.

Finally, Kat let herself relax a little bit. There were still a handful of injured bar patrons that theoretically could be deep cover threats, but all of them were groaning and barely able to move. WIth the addition of the heavily armed 3445 mercenaries, any remaining risk had basically evaporated.

She turned back to Jasper, offering the other shareholder her hand.

“I’ll be relying upon you then,” she said with a smile. At some point in the fight, both of their visors had been knocked off so she was able to look Jasper directly in the eye.

He took her hand, smiling back. “Of course. If someone is attacking you, they’re attacking me as well. I owe you too much to ever turn my back on you Kat. Remember that. If you or Whip ever need help, my door is always open to the two of you.”

“Agreed,” Kat replied. “You’re something more than an ally Jasper. You’re more like a member of my crew. Frankly, the bonds of loyalty and respect earned in an honest fight matter a lot more to me than any pile pile of credits or joint business venture>”

Jasper half turned, looking at Merrimac with an unspoken question on his face.

“Just take it,” Davis said, inclining his head a fraction of a degree toward Kat. “Not every crew runs by the old rules, but Erinyes does. If she says you’re like a crew member to her, she’s as close to you as Hestia is to me. Those aren’t ties that fade easily.”

“Got it,” Jasper replied, his face lighting up as he turned back to Kat. “I think it’s about time we left here without security teams, we don’t want to overstay our welcome and let the other shareholders get footage of this mess after all, but I’ll remember what you said. I have your back through all of this Kat. Just say the word.”

“I will,” Kat responded, stepping back to watch Jasper leave the bar alongside Hestia and Merrimac. “I hope that you’ll be able to find headway where our teams have only found frustration. Whoever it is that’s gunning for us, they’re bound to make a mistake sooner or later. It’s just a matter of us being ready for them when that happens.”

More shouting from outside marked the arrival of the Haupt retainers. Kat turned back toward her party. Heather was still busy coordinating their exit motorcade over her mouthpiece but both Emma and Whippoorwill had pensive expressions on their faces.

“I’m glad we managed to resolve all of this,” Whip said, a frown creasing her face, “but I still can’t get over how the meeting got sniffed out. Only five or six people knew the location and time, and they were all individuals whose loyalty was beyond reproach. The actual information was only in a computer system for about a minute total.”

“Whoever found us is either a computer god, or psychic,” she finished unhappily, “and I can’t say that I’m thrilled with either prospect.”

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