Reason For Vengeance (Dark Vengeance Book 1) (42 page)

This one darted about, trying valiantly to get away.  Hanna could only imagine the pilots terror.  Just barely two minutes ago that pilot must have been confident with four to one odds.  She probably wanted to get her own back on the person who killed so many of her comrades.  Now she was flying as though her very life depended on it and Hanna knew it very much did.

The Helo steadied around her and Blaster fire came from the sides of the Dragonfly in front.  They were anti-personnel weapons and not heavy enough to punch through the Helos front armour.  It was a desperate last move and it was not enough.  Valerie’s much heavier forward Blasters lanced out.  They cut into the engine on the right hand side, ripping it apart in a fiery explosion.  The Helo rolled gently to the right as the pilot struggled for control.  Valerie walked her fire across its back into the left hand engine.  That too disintegrated.  The fourth and final Helo went crashing to the ground in a fiery inferno.

The Dragonfly steadied as Valerie brought it round to a steady course.  Hanna’s mouth filled with saliva and she clawed at her restraints.  Once released and she could move, she leaned over the seat.  No longer able to hold it back, Hanna’s stomach convulsed and the vomit sprayed out of her mouth.  It splattered down onto the Helos floor.  Again and again her stomach heaved and out came the horrible, yellow, liquid filled with half-digested food. 

Soon there was nothing left and she was dry heaving but her stomach hadn’t finished.  Something else rose up, burning her throat on the way.  Out came the bile, that viscous, stinking, bright yellow fluid.  Hanna dumped it on the floor with the rest and sat back in her seat.  Completely drained, she weakly pulled her restraints back on.

“Here.”  Valerie said not unkindly.  There was still little emotion in her voice.  Hanna looked up and took the proffered bottle of water.  It must have come from the Helos own stock.  They used their own up some time ago.

“Thanks,” Hanna said gratefully.  She swilled some around her mouth and spat it on the floor.  It wouldn’t make any difference now.  She gulped down several mouthfuls and fortunately, now that the Dragonfly was steady, her stomach accepted the water.

Wiping her mouth Hanna thought it was time for some answers.  “Where are we going?”

“To the warehouse in Swaffham.  Did you disable the beacon?”  That made sense.  It was one of Sneaker’s safe houses outside of his area.  They only procured it a couple of weeks ago and it hadn’t been used yet.  For all intents and purposes, it had no connection with his gang and should be a good place to hide the Helo.  The people in the area, like most of those in the Ghetto, would not talk to the authorities.

“Yeah.  We can’t be traced.”  Hanna paused, trying to find the right words.  She couldn’t think of an easy way to approach it.  She went with the direct route.  “Why did we just do that?” she asked, trying to keep her voice as unaccusatory as possible. 

The silence from the other side of the cockpit stretched for a long time.  Hanna was not tempted in the slightest to break it.  She had a feeling she would not like the response if she pushed Valerie too far.  Finally the other woman spoke.

“It’s personal,” she said in her cold dead voice.  There was another long pause.  “He knows what happened.”

Nothing more was forthcoming.  Hanna was screwing up the courage to push further when they started to descend.  The warehouse was just coming up in front of them and with a frustrated glance to Valerie, she sent a signal from her Quartz to open the roof doors.  The massive doors swung ponderously up and the Helo swept through quickly, before they were even a quarter open.  The doors were designed for craft much bigger than the Helo and it was an easy fit.

In the empty warehouse, the Dragonfly looked, like its namesake inside Hanna’s old apartment, in the vast space.  The Helo landed close to the block of offices at one end.  Valerie obviously didn’t want to talk. She went back into the troop compartment without a word.  Hanna reluctantly followed her friend.  Valerie collected a bag from one of the lockers and towing the conscious Aamir behind her, went down the exit ramp.

The three of them entered one of the offices and Valerie righted an old upturned chair, placing it in the centre of the room.  From the bag she took a helmet that she fitted over Aamir’s head, his eyes were still wide in terror.  Hanna recognised it as a sensory helmet the Safelife guards would use to interrogate a prisoner.  It could do many unpleasant things, making you hear, smell and see whatever the operator wanted you to.  Valerie merely set it to mute.  Aamir would not be able to sense anything until it was deactivated.

Pulling him out of the grav board, Valerie set him down into the chair before securing his arms and legs.  Once done, she picked another chair up for herself and sat down.  It was then as though all the life drained out of her.  Hanna watched as Valerie seemed to deflate in the chair.  Her eyes held such a look of utter loss that she could not bring herself to say anything.  Not knowing what to do, Hanna pulled a chair out and sat down.  

For a long time Valerie sat there, staring at the man.  He couldn’t talk.  The makeshift gag Hanna put in was still there.  Hanna checked her wristcomp for the time.  Almost two hours had passed.  She was tired and her eyes were heavy.  It had been a very long day and now past midnight.  Not an unusual time for her really, but it had been more than a little stressful.  She was also getting quite hungry.

“I’m going to see if I can scrounge something to eat from the Helo,” she said.  “Do you want anything?”  She might as well been speaking to Aamir rather than Valerie, for all the response she got.  With a shake of her head Hanna went out.

The Helo sat where they left it and she had a look at its hull in the dim light.  All along the left side were scorch marks from the other Dragonflies Blasters.  It was a wonder they survived.  No, Hanna thought, not a wonder.  It was a testament to Valerie’s skill. 

She went inside and found the emergency kit.  Sure enough there were some ration bars and bottles of water.  Grabbing what she could, Hanna stuffed the bars into her pockets and took three bottles of the water.  A sound outside caused her to spin around.  With her hands full she couldn’t draw her pistol from her waist band.  Gently she placed the water to one side.  With her hands free, she drew her Pulse pistol and crept down the ramp.

“Where is she!?”  Hanna almost screamed when Sneaker strode angrily into sight.

“Bloody hades, Sneaker.  I could have shot you,” she shouted at him.

“I don’t fucking care.  Where is she?” he was really angry.  Hanna hadn’t seen him like this before and just pointed to the room.  He stalked off towards it.  Hanna grabbed the water and ran after him.

He didn’t waste any time, flinging open the door.  “What the fuck did you think you were doing?”  He strode in and stood right over Valerie.  “I asked you to do a simple data heist.  There was nothing in your plan about killing most of Safelife’s guards and having a full blown dogfight, over the skies of Inferno!”   Still Valerie didn’t respond.  “Do you have any idea the shit storm you’ve just created?  Every security agency on the planet is up in arms!  Even the local Legion bases have been put on alert.”

A movement beside Hanna caused her to glance back and Deni slipped in quietly.

“You OK?” she asked Hanna in a whisper.

“Yeah, I’m fine.  Did you get any heat?”  She asked her friend in the same whisper.  Neither wanted to draw Sneaker’s anger on them.

“Nah.  It all went on far above me.  As soon as I got your message I left and picked Sneaker up on the way here.”  Hanna sent her a note when it became clear Valerie had settled down and didn’t have any other mayhem in the pipeline.

“Talk to me, Valerie.”  Sneaker was saying in a more civil tone.  “What happened?  Who is he?  I can’t help unless you talk to me.”

“He killed my family.”  Those four quiet words stopped them all.  It was said without emotion, but that just gave it more impact than if she screamed at them at the top of her voice.

Sneaker was the first to get his head around that.  “Then why is he still alive?”  Hanna could see what he meant.  Valerie could have easily killed Aamir and hidden the body long enough for them to get clear.

“Because he didn’t pull the trigger.”  It was as though talking to Sneaker woke something in Valerie.  She stood with renewed vigour.  Stepping over to Aamir, she removed the sensory helmet and as he blinked up at her, eyes widening with fear, she leant in to him.  “You do not say my name.  Nod if you understand.”  Her voice had all the heat of a black hole.  Aamir nodded slightly, obviously too afraid to move too much, like a rabbit caught in a wheelies headlights.

***

A hard look at Sneaker and the others, made it very clear to all of them Valerie didn’t want them to say anything when she carefully removed the gag.

“I, I didn’t know.  Y, you have to believe me,” the man stammered.

“No excuses, Aamir.  Not now,” Valerie said to him.  “You are not leaving this room alive.  All you have are two choices, either tell me who you told and I’ll shoot you through the head.  It will be quick and relatively painless.  Don’t talk to me and you will spend the next two days dying.  Now tell me who you told.”

“I’m sorry, I’m so sorry.  I didn’t know they were going to do that.  I didn’t know they were going to kill To.”  Valerie lunged at him, her hand clamping down on his mouth.  The rage inside of her begging to squeeze and keep squeezing until his head exploded. 

Once, during project Prometheus, when she was fifteen, a technician had been testing her strength.  “Interesting.”  The woman said in her detached clinical voice.  It was a tone Valerie got very used to from all of her keepers during her childhood.   “Good, you have exerted two hundred and sixty kilos of pressure.  Hmm, more than sufficient to crush a human skull.  Quite impressive.”  It hadn’t been to Valerie at the time.  It only made her more careful with her abilities.

Right now she fought down the rage and stared into Aamir’s eyes.  “You do not say their names.  Ever.  You do not have the right.”  She held him so tightly he could not move his head a millimetre, but she could see it in his eyes he clearly understood.

With an effort she eased her grip and released him.  Aamir’s body deflated and he looked up at her.  “I understand,” he said dejectedly.  “I deserve to die for what I did.  I came to your house.  I ate at your table, played with…” he took a deep breath.  “After...” a pause as he considered his words carefully.  “After your husband came to me I didn’t know what to do so I spoke to one of Orobello’s trouble shooters.  I thought he would be able to handle it quietly, maybe get some of the money repaid off the books.  I know it’s been done before, why not this time?  A week later it was all over the news and they were blaming your husband for Furioso.  I don’t know why they did that, I guess it was just a handy excuse.  There’s no way he would be involved in that, not him.”

A sliver of guilt for what she did rose up in Valerie.  The thought of what Tom would have said if he were here twisted at her.  He would not have approved of what she had done.

“Give me a name.  Who did you tell?”

“Bjorn Pomykala.”  Valerie drew her pistol from her waist band.  “Wait,” Aamir said, though it wasn’t in desperation.  “I don’t know how you survived or how you did that back in the Tower.  I don’t care.  You’re going after them aren’t you?”

Valerie nodded.

“Good,” he said emphatically.  “They deserve it.”  There were tears in his eyes and she could see the guilt written in them.  “There’s something else you need to know.  He’s here on Blaze.  He was staying in the Tower, though they’ll move him now.  One more thing, they took any evidence I had and shipped me here, but I got the impression they were looking for more.  I think your husband had something and they couldn’t find it.”

Valerie gently placed the barrel against his head.  “Thank you, Aamir.  You were a good friend to him.”  She pulled the trigger and his body slumped down into the chair.

She turned to the others who were all staring at her.  From Sneaker and Deni there was a mix of horror and sympathy.  There was only sympathy in Hanna’s eyes.

“Find him for me.”  Valerie told them and not being able to endure those looks any longer, walked out.

“I found him,” Hanna said as she walked into Sneaker’s office the next day.

“Good work,” he said as he looked up from his screen.  “Is she still downstairs?”

“Yeah.”  Hanna sighed as she sat down opposite him.  “She hasn’t moved from her old table since we got back.  I don’t know how she’s still upright.  I’ve told Frank and Tatiana,” referring to the two barkeeps.  “To keep an eye on her and let me know how much she’s drunk.  Valerie’s on her fifth bottle and still going strong.  I don’t think she used to drink that fast even before we met her.”

“No.  She didn’t.”  Sneaker agreed shaking his head.  “I noticed her when she first arrived and kept track of her for a bit, in case she was of any interest.  Couple of bottles a day at the most.  That’s a lot more than I can drink and even Barney wouldn’t be standing after that.  She must have the constitution of a Stone Dragon.  I now understand why and it explains a couple of other things.”

“You’ve found something?”

“You could say that.  I knew I could rely on you to find Pomykala, so I did my digging in a different direction.  It was the Furioso angle that led me to it.  Take a look at this.”   Sneaker brought up a holo of a man and two young children, a boy and a girl.  “I think this is or was Valerie’s family.”

“Oh my,” Hanna said, her heart breaking for her friend.  “How old were the children when they were murdered?” 

“Six and four.  This image was taken only a few weeks before it happened.  The official story is that the father, Thomas Doherty, was the money man for Novajkovui.  Doherty and his family were killed in a bodged raid on his home.  Novajkovui then went ahead and completed the attack, knowing his time was up and the authorities would be on his trail.”

“What about Valerie?  Where was she?”

“The story says that Thomas’s wife, Eleanor Doherty died along with his children in a suicide bomb set by Thomas himself.  There are three interesting things in all of this, if you read between the lines.  First, there are no images of Eleanor, not a single one I could find.  The second thing is that the raid happened on the same day as Furioso.”

“Hang on.  You’re not suggesting Valerie did that are you?”  Hanna said incredulously.  The deaths on Furioso were in the tens of thousands.  It was so big even she had heard of it.  She rarely took any notice of anything that didn’t happen within or affect Inferno.

“The time line fits.  I checked.  There’s more than enough time for her to go from her home, after her family were murdered, to the station in time for the attack.”

“She wouldn’t, she couldn’t.  How could she get access to the Station?” Hanna said shaking her head in disbelief.

“She would and she could.  You saw what she did at Derwent.  That was for the man who said the wrong thing at the wrong time.  She’s Legion Commando I’m sure of it and given just how good she is, I’d bet the entire casino that she was a Devil.  Their main base was right there on Furioso.  They called it Rosso, not only is it an entire section hard walled from the rest of the station, but it’s exactly where the attack took place.”

Hanna ran her hands through her hair, trying to get to grips with what Sneaker was saying.  “You said three things,” she questioned, trying to put aside the difficult stuff for the moment.

“Have you ever wondered what made her join us?”  Sneaker said rhetorically.  “Why would a woman who is so torn up by grief  she snuffed out tens of thousands of lives, do that?  Even now, two years later, she kills instantly, no hesitation.  Why did that woman save your life?”

Hanna shrugged, not seeing where he was coming from.  “She was bored and angry.  Tern was just a release.”

“Look at the girl.”  Sneaker said, pointing to the image of Valerie’s family hanging over the desk between them.

“What about her?” Hanna said dismissively.  “She’s a cute kid.  There are thousands of cute kids out on the street.”

“Look at her eyes.”

Hanna looked and couldn’t see anything.  “Sneaker, just tell me.  I’m tired and too old for your guessing games.”

“They’re the same as yours.”

“Huh.  She looks nothing like me.”

“You’re right.  She doesn’t.  Nothing about her resembles you except the eyes.  Trust me.  They’re exactly the same and that’s the reason Valerie has done so much for you.  She sees her family in you and although she probably doesn’t realise it, her sanity as well.  You’re her way back from the pit of despair she sees herself in.”

“Oh.”  Hanna looked back at her interactions with Valerie.  That first time they met and the momentary crack in her armour when their eyes met.  She felt humbled and very intimidated by what Sneaker said.  She could steal the wristcomp off someone’s wrist in a brush pass.  She was one of the best Hackers on the planet, but to be wholly responsible for someone like Valerie did not bear thinking about. 

“What do we do?”  She asked her voice subdued.

“We give her the information about Pomykala.”

“Are you crazy!?  She’ll do it all again if we do that.”  Hanna said incredulously, struggling to believe Sneaker would suggest it.  “I can just see her dashing out, stealing a car and ramming it into his hotel suite, all guns blazing.  I don’t know if she’ll survive this time.”

“So, get the Crew in and plan it first.  Take it to her as a fait accompli.  Tell her this is the Job and this is how you are going to do it.”  He said seriously.

“Hang on.  I’ve never planned a Job.  This is Valerie.  You know what she’s like, it’s her way or no way when it comes to operations and this is to get vengeance for her family.  You do it.”

“I know this has come at you fast Hanna, but trust me.  Not only will she listen to you, but she has been training Deni and you to do just this for the past year.  I can’t do it.  I’m someone she respects, I think, but that’s it.  You are her friend.  Plan the Job first then come to me.  I’ll run my eye over it and let you know if you’ve missed anything.  Once we’ve done that, then you go to Valerie.”

Hanna blew out a big breath she hadn’t realised she’d been holding.  “OK.  If you’re sure?”  Sneaker nodded certainly.  “But you check the plan first.”

“I’ll check it first,” he assured her.  “Now go and get some sleep.  You don’t need me to tell you to bring your best to this and that means sleep.”

“OK,” Hanna nodded uncertainly, got out of the chair and walked out of his office.  That was not how she thought that chat was going to go.