Reason For Vengeance (Dark Vengeance Book 1) (11 page)

Her mind worked in a distant manner, taking in the attacker’s clothes, armour and weapons.  Standard issue police special weapons squad, all insignias removed.  Two man fire team, there would be more outside.  There was no hesitation as she strode to the door, rifle at the ready.

She stepped outside.  An armoured aircar sat on the driveway.  Two more black clad, armoured figures standing next to it, a man and a woman.  They glanced up at her as she stepped out into the bright sunshine.  Their rifles came up in surprise at her appearance, evidently they were well trained.  Valerie’s rifle was already at her shoulder and aimed straight for her first target.

It should be raining.
  The errant thought flitted across her brain.  She shot the man before his rifle was even halfway up.

It shouldn’t be like this.
  Her second shot killed the woman before she had the chance to depress her trigger

It should be dark with thunder and lightning, not sunshine.
  For a moment Valerie stood there, not thinking, trying not to feel

Years of training and experienced kicked in, screaming at her.  She went back into her home, where so very many happy memories had been created and went to her family.  Kneeling  down beside them, she carefully straightened Tom’s body where he lay on floor.  Gathering Daphne up, she gently laid the girl down next to her father and placed his arm around her.  Then she did the same for Bobbie on Tom’s other side, so her husband was cuddling their daughter and son, just has he did so many times before.

She took a deep breath, the tears were there but this was not the time for them.  “I’m sorry, Tom.  I’m sorry, Bobbie.  I’m so very, very sorry, Daphne.  I should have been able to stop this.  I let them do this, I let my guard down.  I wish I could stay here with you, but this is not the time.  I’ve got to go.  Whoever sent these murderers will come looking for them soon and when they do they will do everything they can to kill me.  I can’t let that happen.  Not yet. 

“Goodbye, Bobbie.  Goodbye, Daphne.  Goodbye, Tom.  I will never, ever forget you.  You will always be with me.”  Valerie stood slowly and saw the coat, the last thing her family would ever give her, lying there completely untouched on the sofa.  She gathered it up and drew it on.  It settled easily on her shoulders.  She glanced around, looking for Bobbie’s model, but she couldn’t see it.  Very well, the coat would be reminder enough and she had her memories, nothing would ever take them away from her.

She stepped up to one of the killer’s bodies and quickly searched it, finding nothing to identify him.  She hadn’t really expected to, it was still worth checking.  He wore a Pulse pistol on his belt, which she took along with several clips of spare ammunition.  The coat’s inside pockets easily hid them away.  The pistol fit neatly in one of the outside ones, where it was accessible.  She picked up the body easily and hurled it clear across the room, away from her family.  The second followed the first and she headed outside.

The armoured aircar was unsurprising still there.  Mag rifles were quiet weapons and it was unlikely any of her neighbours heard anything.  The police would be monitoring the area though, to make sure nothing would interrupt their off the clock colleagues earning a little extra on the side.  There would not be any spycams in the area to cause any embarrassing evidence either, which worked in Valerie’s favour.

What she planned would certainly get everyone’s attention.  She went to search the bodies for the aircar’s key card.  Not finding it, she frowned thoughtfully before trying the door, to find it unlocked and the card still inserted in its slot.

“Sloppy, very sloppy,” she said to herself.  Shaking her head she wondered at their arrogance, it was an inconsequential thought.  Her brain was wandering all over, anything to keep her mind away from what lay on the floor of her home.

Opening the aircars rear compartment, she threw the two bodies in one after the other.  Shutting the door she went back to the front, climbed into the driver’s seat and activated the safety harness so she was securely belted in.  The aircar was sitting at standby.  It took her just a moment to power up the engines.  The aircar rose gently under her control and hovered on its antigravs, a metre off the ground.  She manipulated the controls easily, bringing the nose round and pointing directly at the house.  Boosting the thrust engines, it rocketed forward and slammed though the front wall of her home.

The aircar was designed to keep the pilot safe in the event of a full speed crash landing.  With its heavy armour, it went through the external walls and the internal one’s easily.  Valerie got the power just right and stopped in the lounge, close to the centre of the house.  She had no intention of seeing the damage.  Swiftly, she deactivated the harness and climbed into the back. 

It was a troop carrier, with seats down either side of the compartment and the two bodies lay on floor in the middle.  She pushed them out of the way with her foot and opened a maintenance hatch in the floor.  Inside was the electron power cell, generating all the energy the aircar would ever need, without any form of pollution.  To the majority of the population they were safe and infallible. 

They were still a source of energy and if you knew how, that energy could be released.  The Legion taught Valerie many useful skills, including how to take a safe, civilian power unit and turn it into a bomb.  It wasn’t particularly easy, but it was possible if you knew how.

They taught Valerie two different approaches, the complicated option was to re-route the power output back into the cell overriding all the safety cut outs with an intricate and powerful virus.  Valerie didn’t have one with her.  She went for the quick and nasty alternative.  A shot from her Pulse pistol made a mess of the control box attached to the cell.  A second shot did the same to the thick output cables.  Sparks fountained out, the cell struggling to contain its power with its limited internal systems, rather than the more powerful external one Valerie just destroyed.

Given time, the cell would cycle itself down to make itself inert. Valerie had no intention of letting it.  She plucked a remote grenade from one of the aircars weapon racks, activated it and dropped it neatly in front of the exposed cells output.  Now was the time to leave and she didn’t waste any time, she headed straight out the back of the aircar, through the rear troop hatch and out of what was left of the front of the house.

She needed to get clear quickly, an exploding electron cell would completely destroy the house and anyone within the properties boundaries.  It really wasn’t a concern of Valerie’s, but her neighbours would be fairly safe if they were inside.  Their houses were strong enough to absorb the energy, as long as they were outside the immediate blast radius.

Directly underneath her Kingfisher was a maintenance hatch.  It should be locked and secured, as it led straight down to the tunnels for the underground mass transit system.  Both prior to Shadow Company and since forming it, she was sent on a number of covert missions outside the Pantheon.  These had been in places where, if her identity was compromised, she would be immediately targeted by either the system government, whoever was the target of her mission, or in many places, just because she was a Legion Commando Devil.  She always had an exit of some sort that was unexpected and could be accessed quickly.

It became a pre-requisite for all her homes outside of the Legion, to have an exit that could be used in an emergency.  When she and Tom were looking for a place to raise a family after they were married, it had been second nature for her to include it in her list of must haves.  She knew it was illogical and she had never been in danger within the Pantheon.  There was a certain level of animosity to members of the Legion, but actual incidents against them were rare.  Valerie knew she would not be able to relax without some sort of emergency way out.

When they looked at the house in Gooseberry Green, she saw the maintenance hatch and knew it would be perfect.  Right now it was her way out.  She punched in the override code programmed in years before, the hatch parted and she swung smoothly in.  Slapping the close button even before her head was clear, the doors missed her by the barest of millimetres.  When it was secure, she activated the grenade and the place she had called home for almost ten years, along with the bodies of her family, exploded in a white hot inferno.

Valerie hung there in the dark, just listening to herself breathe and she could feel tears running down her face.  The shaft was pitch black, the heavy duty hatch above her not letting any light in.  It was part of a landing pad and designed to a much higher specification, than they normally would use, in case of accidents.  The explosion above and resultant devastation she presumed followed, could not be heard here in the dark. 

Below her, she knew the shaft was a straight drop of just over a hundred metres.  It was so tempting to let go of the ladder and let it all end here and now.  No, she made that choice already, only moments ago, to live and let her family live on in her memories.  She swallowed and shook herself mentally, even if the police hadn’t been monitoring their ‘off duty’ colleagues, they would be very aware of the massive explosion and would be here in droves shortly. 

It was time to leave.  She headed down the shaft carefully by feel, counting the rungs.  She could have used the light on her wristcomp, but other than a couple of status panels by the hatch, there were no obstacles until she reached the bottom.  The shaft was a rough skinned tube with the single ladder being its only feature.  Like most of the infrastructure in the Pantheon it was designed to be basically functional for the Manuals who did any simple work that was needed.  It also included the capability for a grav-sled to be used, by the much more highly trained and paid engineers, should for whatever reason they be needed.

At rung fifty two she stopped and felt the shaft wall directly behind her.  Unlike the solid rock that had been bored through and then skimmed with a permacrete layer to seal it, this part yielded easily to her hand.  She couldn’t see it at the moment, but Valerie knew it looked no different from the rest of the shaft.  Shortly after moving in, Valerie came down here and dug a hole into the wall.  Covering it with some of the Legion’s top-of-the-line Camocloth.  Not only did it blend in perfectly with its environment, making it indistinguishable from its surroundings, it also could fool all but a direct scan.

She pulled it aside and felt along the inside for the light attached to the wall of the hole.  Switching it on, she could see the four back packs stored there.  The equipment was up-to-date, with two large packs for Tom and herself and two much smaller ones for Daphne and Bobbie.  Valerie didn’t think she could feel any worse than she already did.  The sight of the bags especially for her children showed she was wrong and wrenched her heart.

Taking a deep breath she moved round on the ladder, so her feet were on the rungs, while her hands held onto the edge of the hole and her body was suspended over the long drop.  The slightest wrong move and she would go plummeting down with no chance of survival.  Carefully, she pulled Tom’s pack over and dug into it, pulling out the bundle of cash.  Peeling off a dozen notes, she put those into one of the hidden internal pockets in her coat.  Pushing Tom’s pack back in, she grabbed her own and put the remaining cash in with what was already there. 

Removing the com circuit from her wristcomp, Valerie snapped it several times, breaking vital components and preventing it from being traced.  She selected a new one from the several stored there and slotted it into the wristcomp.  This one had no connection to Eleanor Doherty.  Without being activated, none of the others were detectable.  A small lamp from her own pack clipped onto the front of her coat.  Finally she swung the pack over onto her back, pulled herself back onto the ladder, switched the light off and replaced the camocloth.

She looked down into the inky black darkness beneath her and sighed.  It was going to be a long climb down and there was a distinct time limit.  At some point, the Police or some other part of the emergency services, were going to contact the Legion and inform them Lieutenant Eleanor Doherty was dead.  That would set off red flags going all the way up the line to the very top.  The questions coming back down would be very sharp and to the point.  While asking those questions, they would flag Valerie Carter’s file and if she used her access for any Legion facility, alarms would go off.

The Legion did not take kindly to any of its Officers being arrested without being informed first, let alone killed in the middle of a fire fight in some residential neighbourhood.  Valerie was sure that given the nature of what happened and a Legion Officer being involved, no matter how low a rank she was, the Police would spend quite a bit of time setting up a suitable cover story.  Valerie’s best chance of getting off world, was by using the Legions resources and she would not be able to do that once the alert went out.  She had to get to the main base in Zeus and get a flight up to Furioso as quickly as possible.

She headed down the ladder, setting herself a clear constant rhythm and building speed.  Down and down she went, until finally she saw a faint light below her.  It wasn’t far away, it just wasn’t very bright.  After only a few more rungs on the ladder, she could see a small screen with a read out showing ambient temperature and oxygen levels.  The floor of the shaft was a metre and a half below it, the shaft ending in a small room, with a single door opening inward.  The door used a digital lock, needing a keycard to enter the room.  A mechanical handle could be used to override it from the inside.

Valerie stepped off the ladder, unslung her pack and got out a change of clothes.  Dark, flat, knee length boots, rugged dark trousers and a white shirt.  With the exception of her coat, Valerie’s other clothes would have shown her to be out of place among the people she would shortly be in the midst of.  Unlike the coat, they were made of more standard materials.  She got changed quickly and re-slung her pack onto her back.  With her old blood stained clothes tied in a tight bundle in her hand, she was ready to leave.

Valerie scouted the area thoroughly when she set up this escape route, checking it periodically as well as updating her supplies.  She knew where the door led and the chances of anyone seeing her were very remote.  She opened the door and stepped through quickly.  It led to a walkway running next to the train tracks, with enough distance between them so it wasn’t dangerous. 

They were not actually tracks, it was just the name given to them, originating from the time long ago in history when they actually used metal tracks.  On many worlds, far out in the Wilds, and even in the Edge, where they did not have access to an advanced enough education, industry and technical economic sectors, they still used old fashioned trains on metal tracks. The anti-grav trains used in the Pantheon had a single metallic white painted strip down the tunnel, a guide for the automated drivers.

Outside the door there were no cameras, nor were there any along the tunnel.  Only just outside the nearest station, about a kilometre away, did they have cameras in a position to see her as she exited the tunnel.  They were there to catch any stray passengers who decided to take a wander into the tunnels so they pointed towards the station rather than into the tunnel. 

That station serviced Gooseberry Green.  It was used almost exclusively by the Manuals, to get in and out of their places of work in the town.  None of the Privileged would dream of using the Underground, but they still needed people to clean their homes, wash their vehicles, serve them in cafes, restaurants and shops, so every town had an Underground Station connecting it to the vast network carrying Manual workers across the continent.   

The bundle of clothes landed just next to the track, where it would be swept up by the next train to go past.  Valerie set off at a light run to Gooseberry Green station.   Within a couple of hundred metres she felt the air coming from behind her, a light breeze that gained quickly in strength denoting an approaching train.  Valerie switched off her light, ducking down before it whizzed past her in a blaze of light and sound. 

It would have been highly unlikely anyone on the train could have seen her.  It just wouldn’t be worth taking the chance.  You could also never discount the attention of a very bored commuter, staring out of a window on a journey they did every day.  They were the most likely to see a discrepancy, making them think someone was walking in the tunnels and start asking questions.

With her light back on, she set off at a faster pace.  Valerie covered the ground quickly in a long loping stride, the only sound being the light tread of her boots.  In just three minutes she could see light in the tunnel ahead of her from the station.  She slowed down to a walk and switched her light off.  It was difficult to see, but there was just enough illumination for her to make out the walkway.  Moving carefully, she looked out for the camera.  Valerie knew where it was from her scouting, ten metres from the mouth of the tunnel.  Finding it in the dark was another matter, though it wasn’t designed to be hidden and she found it by the green ready light.

The camera was monitored by a fairly rudimentary program, designed to notify the station’s personnel if a heat source or movement associated with a human or animal, crossed it’s field of vision.  As a final measure in creating her escape route, Valerie hacked the system and input her own back door to override the camera’s criteria.  Hacking was not one of Valerie’s skills but she had access, through the Legion, to all the programs she would need in the field.  All she needed to do was input them.

The camera was wireless.  It was a simple matter of sending a signal to activate her little program.  The important bit was waiting for the platform to fill up so she could walk out unnoticed.

The platform was for the trains outbound from Zeus and still early on a Saturday morning.  The trains were busy with people heading to work.  Valerie had to time it right, to walk out and join in with the crowds as the train emptied.  There was risk involved, it was unlikely anyone would notice though, most people would have their heads down and be in the universal grumpy, ‘I’ve got to work on a Saturday morning’ mode.  The trains ran every ten minutes at this time and five minutes later she felt the wind on the back of her neck.  Valerie waited until it came hurtling past her and fully stopped at the platform, before activating her program.

Walking forward confidently, Valerie joined the back of the crowd leaving the train.  They all headed towards the lifts and escalators heading up to the surface, while Valerie peeled off to the opposite platform.  She found an unobtrusive spot and leant casually against the wall.  Just another of the dozen or so people scattered down the platform, waiting for the train to Zeus.

***

An hour later she came out of the station opposite Mountnessing, the Legion’s massive tri-service base on the outskirts of Zeus.  Valerie knew the Manuals had a hard lot compared to the Privileged.  She’d seen too much of their world, and their counterparts outside the Pantheon, in her career not to have her eyes opened.  Probably the one single thing they did have though, that was worthwhile, was a top class transport system in the Underground.  The Zeus government and other Pantheon worlds made sure the Manuals had cheap, clean, efficient trains that ran on time.  Even if it was only so the Manuals got to work on time.  How else could they carry out all of the dirty and cheap work the Privileged required of them?

This wasn’t the time to think about social equality.  It was time to find out if the Olympian Police Force had told the Legion, Lieutenant Doherty perished in a fiery inferno an hour ago.  The street was four lanes wide and busy with cars.  The footpath was separated from the street by two metre high Plexiglass walls to stop pedestrians trying to cross the hectic thoroughfare.

A bridge further down the street, led directly to Mountnessing’s pedestrian entrance and Valerie headed for that.  A queue of day workers ran all the way back from the gate, across the bridge, and ended a good twenty metres along the footpath.  They were all lined up on the right hand side, leaving a lane on the left for priority traffic.  The Legion rankers would often use the public transport network when on leave.  They would not be able to afford their own vehicle or parking space, until they reached the rank of sergeant or its equivalent.

There was little traffic today in the priority lane and all of them were in uniform.  Valerie got some odd looks from those lined up to work on the base due to her Manual clothing.  They must have thought she was mad to walk down that lane.

A couple of Legion Army Privates were ahead of her and noticed the people staring behind them.  They turned and saw her walking confidently towards them.  One nudged the other and said something that she was too far way to hear.  She could guess what was being said.  It wasn’t unusual for an ‘uppity’ to be put in her place, there probably wouldn’t be any broken bones, though there would certainly be blood spilled.

The Privates looked towards the gate guards who had also seen at her.  She guessed they decided they would leave it to the guards to chastise her.  Valerie kept on walking.  The Privates stepped to either side of her with shit eating grins, fully expecting a show.  The guards rifles were ready and grim expressions set on their faces.

A massive Corporal stepped forward and opened his mouth.

“Major Valerie Carter.”  Valerie said firmly and held out her ID.  The Corporal’s mouth slammed shut and he froze for a moment not knowing whether to accept her ID or salute.  It was fortunate his rifle had a sling over his shoulder, as he tried to do both simultaneously.  His right hand snapped into a salute, his body went rigid, his left hand accepted her ID and his rifle swung down to end up hanging from the bend of his right arm.