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Part seven: "Hunted"

Article: 1154 of alt.cyberpunk.chatsubo
Newsgroups: alt.cyberpunk.chatsubo
Subject: Silk and Steel 7
Date: 18 Jan 93 23:24:41 GMT
Lines: 480
 
Silk and Steel, Part seven: "Hunted"
Copyright January 1993 by Jay B. Brandt, all rights reserved
 
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The parking garage was illuminated by fire. The gas tank of the car that
Shadowcat shot at had ruptured and exploded, almost certainly killing the
ronin that had been sheltering behind it. She was almost in shock at the
devastation caused by the little two-shot, pocket shotgun that Argus had
given her. Damned thing almost -did- break her wrists when she fired it.
And he treated it like it was just a standard derringer. What the -hell-
had he loaded it with? He had never bothered to tell her.
 
Between the explosives the ronin had attacked them with, and the explosion
of that car, the electrical systems on this floor had been completely
disrupted. The lights on this level had cut out, except for the
battery-powered emergency systems, half of which were apparently
non-functional. In the firelight she could make out the fallen form of
another ronin lying where she had shot him with her trank pistol. He
wouldn't wake up for at least another two hours. But the third one was
still out there somewhere, probably between herself and the van where Argus
still was. She couldn't tell if Argus was alive or dead. But he had told
her once that if they were in a fight and she was separated from him, to
get the hell out and save herself. Shadowcat choked back a sob, grabbed her
duffel and the autopistol she had taken from the tranked ronin, and ran
like hell for the exit.
--------------------------------------------------------------
The ronin leader with the autorifle turned when he heard gunfire behind
him. Hadn't those two idiots checked the girl for weapons? Or had she taken
one from them? One of his men was down, and the other was returning fire
from behind a car. The girl had grabbed something and rolled between two
cars on the other side of the garage. He fired a burst at her position to
keep her head down, and started running towards her, ducking behind cars
for cover and zig-zagging unpredictably from one side of the traffic lane
to the other. Suddenly there was the roar of a shotgun, and his man
disappeared in a fireball as the car exploded. She must have had the
shotgun hidden in her bag. The lights went out, and a few weak emergency
lights activated. Honor and duty was one thing, but charging an opponent
who had an unknown arsenal, in the dark, was another. Especially when there
was a smarter way to handle it.
 
He ran back to the far side of the van he had ambushed, and turned off the
Radio Frequency scrambler they had used in their ambush. Then he got out a
pocket comm unit, opened a private channel, and called his 'associates' on
the street. "Yellow leader to blue team, cover the West elevator and
stairwell. Red team, cover the East exits and main gate. Male target
neutralized. Female target is loose, and is armed with at least a shotgun
and a pistol. She is now running for the West elevator. She's in and
appears to be heading down. Capture if possible, but do -not- allow escape.
Yellow team has two down. I will head down the West traffic lane on foot,
to ensure she does not get off at an intermediate level. Over."
 
He ran down the ramp, pausing only to retrieve the satchel they had taken
from the van. It might contain valuable information. And he had the
vidchips and data disk from the target's Deck, so even if they had to kill
the girl, they would have -something- to give to the oyabun. If the members
of his team lived, he could get them later. If they died, it was their own
stupidity that had killed them. There was no room on his team for a
-stupid- ronin. He ran.
 
The elevator was an old model, and quite slow. It had indicators on each
floor that showed what floor the car was currently located at. It was still
going down, at about the same speed as the ronin leader. He was pleased. He
could be in on the capture of this woman who had humiliated his team.
--------------------------------------------------------------
Shadowcat dove into the shadow of a car near the elevator bay. It was the
elevator they had taken earlier, and the indicator claimed it was still
just one floor above her. Thank the maker, the power for the elevator still
worked. She reached up and hit the call button. It seemed like an eternity,
but the door finally opened. She peeked out. The elevator car and traffic
lane were both empty. She dove into the elevator car just as the door
closed.
 
So far, so good. Shadowcat reached for the controls for the elevator. and
paused. What if they have others on the ground? Argus had said 'when you
are on the run, never to do the obvious'. Going straight to the street
-would- be the obvious choice. 
 
Shadowcat dug into her duffel and got out the two halves of the monk's
staff. She re-assembled it and used it to poke open the maintenance hatch
on the roof of the elevator car. Then she shoved the autopistol into the
duffel, slung the bag on her back, and used the staff as a climbing ladder
to get up onto the roof. Retracting the ladder rungs back into the staff,
she reached down with it and tapped the button for the ground floor. Then
she closed the roof hatch and jumped onto the maintenance ladder in the
shaft. As the car dropped below her, she climbed the dimly lit shaft,
hoping to find a way to get to the roof.
--------------------------------------------------------------
The sound of a second explosion jarred Argus to semi-consciousness. His
ears were ringing, and the world seemed dominated by white noise. His
vision was mostly dead gray static, interspersed with chaotic firelight.
His head ached intensely. His chest felt like somebody had sucker-punched
him with a sledgehammer. So this is it. 'Rigger hell', he thought. Always
wondered . . . what dying would be like . . . if I was rigged when it hit.
Gotta jack out. Can't concentrate. Can't hardly move.
 
Suddenly the white noise stopped, like someone turned off a switch. His
vision cleared, and in one pane he could see a Japanese man with a rifle.
Tried to get external audio, no go. Tried to zoom in the camera. Can't do
it. What the hell happened? Must have been an ambush. Normal visuals showed
him the interior of the van, shot to hell and with the side door open. Fire
lit the scene. What was burning? He turned his head. Windows shattered.
Explosive attack? Maybe. Where is Shadowcat? Taken? Who? Could be anybody.
Yakuza, Sony-VidTech, Aki, even Virtually There. Aw, shit.
 
Don't dare do much till that bastard outside moves. He ran a hand over the
sore spot on his chest. No blood. Holes in my jacket though. He felt a
rectangular lump under the bullet holes. No wonder I'm OK. Bullets must
have hit the armor-plated back of my combat hardened mini-deck. Between
that and the kevlar lining in the jacket, it would have taken a hell of a
lot to hurt me there.
 
The guy outside moved, and Argus grabbed for his own gun. But the other man
ran away, heading down the lane to the street. Argus waited until he was
out of sight, then jacked out and moved. The pain in his head stabbed
between his eyes, almost causing him to black out again. Argus fished a red
derm out of a pocket on his left sleeve, and stuck it on his neck. The
powerful analgesic started to deaden the pain in his head and chest to
tolerable levels.
 
It was dark in the garage, lit by a burning car. Argus chuckled. "Well, at
least it looks like she gave 'em a hell of a fight." He cautiously advanced
on the man lying in the traffic lane. The man was Japanese, and appeared to
be dead. There was a nasty slash in the back of his neck, where a flying
shard of metal, apparently from the burning car, had skewered his spine. By
the burning car was the roasted remains of another ronin. No telling -what-
that one used to be. He looked around quickly, but saw no other bodies.
 
He went back and examined the man in the road. He was dead all right. Argus
opened the man's shirt. He had several tattoos, but most of the man's skin
was clear. The man also had three finger joints missing on his left hand.
Yakuza then, but of low rank. Could be Aki's side, or could be the ones Aki
tried to snuff. At least it wasn't -too- likely to have been a corp hit.
 
"Well, they had no reason to guess my jacket was armored. They -may- think
they killed me. Let's let 'em keep thinking that way." He dragged the dead
ronin back to the van, and shoved him into the driver's seat. Then he took
the other ronin's pistol and shot three rounds into the dead man's heart.
He ran back to the burning car, and placed the gun where he had found it,
after wiping it for prints. 
 
Argus went back to the van and checked out the two cyber-rats. They had
been exposed in their wire basket 'nests' under the deck of the van. Both
appeared to be inoperative, damaged by the concussion of the explosive
attack. He stuffed them into his jacket for salvageable parts, and so as
not to leave anything behind that might be traced back to him. Then he
checked out the box the rifleman had been squatting next to. "Damn. A
military RF screamer mine. No wonder I blacked out. That bastard can knock
out all rigger signals and radio communications for at least a 1000 foot
radius. At this range, it would have fried most of the active standard
electronics in the van. Well, it can't hurt me now that I'm jacked out. And
maybe I can use it to screw up -their- communications." He turned it back
on, and went back to the van.
 
There was a small amount of fuel leaking from the van's tank. He took out a
match, and lit the fuel puddle, then ran up the ramp towards the roof. A
few minutes later, the van went up in flames. "Well, -that- should confuse
them for a while. And the van burning there may block them, if they try to
come up from below. I just hope they don't have the roof covered." He
continued to run up the ramp.
--------------------------------------------------------------
Shadowcat got to the top of the elevator shaft. There was an access hatch
there, but it was locked with a padlock. Hanging onto the ladder rungs with
one hand, she stuffed the staff back into her duffel and got out the
ronin's autopistol. She fired it at the lock. It took four shots, but she
finally destroyed enough of the lock and its hasp to force the hatch open.
She blinked at the bright sunlight, such a contrast to the dimly lit shaft.
Her ears were ringing from the noise of the gun in that small space. It was
a good thing she hadn't used the two-shot. She most likely would have
dropped it, and certainly would be deaf from the noise if she had. Besides,
she might need the firepower later, and she only had the one round left for
that devastating little gun. She climbed out onto the roof, and looked for
a way to escape. 
 
The ronin's pistol only had one round left in it. She shot the elevator
motor control box with it, hoping to slow pursuit. It made a lovely shower
of sparks, and the lights in the shaft went out. She wiped the gun off with
her skirt, and left the gun near the top of the shaft. It was useless
without more ammunition. Besides, she didn't want to be carrying a weapon
that could readily be traced to the carnage below.
 
She tried to use her head-phone to see if she could reach Argus, but
something seemed to be wrong with it. She couldn't even get a dial-tone.
Looking around, she saw that the buildings North and South of her were one
story shorter, and were fairly close to this one. But the alley separating
them was too wide for her to jump safely. The East side was the street
where the main entrance was, and the West side was a side street. Then she
found what she was looking for. Someone had erected a communications mast
on the roof of this parking garage. It was too tall to steady it just with
guy-wires to the roof of this building. So a few had been run from the
tower to the adjacent rooftop to the North. She started climbing the tower.
--------------------------------------------------------------
In an office on the top floor of a nearby tower, a Street Samurai watched
with binoculars. He spoke quietly into a telephone, using terse Japanese
phrases.
--------------------------------------------------------------
When she got to the guy-wire, she secured all her loose gear in her duffel,
and split the strap into a pair of shoulder straps. Once it was securely on
her back, she took off the silk-covered manrikigusari that she had been
wearing as a belt. She wrapped the steel chain over the plastic-coated
steel guy-wire, and wrapped both hands securely with the ends of the chain.
Then she launched herself out into space, sliding down the wire to the
adjacent roof below. As she approached the rooftop, she twisted the chain,
slowing her descent somewhat. It was still a pretty hard landing. The silk
covering the chain was badly torn up.
 
She gathered herself up and looked herself over. The skirt was ruined,
covered with grease stains from rolling on the garage floor, climbing the
elevator shaft, and wiping her prints off that gun. Anyway, they'd probably
be looking for a blonde in a knee-length blue skirt with a matching blue
jacket. She took off the ruined skirt and stuffed it into a nearby vent
shaft. She took off the long blonde wig and stuffed it into her duffel. Her
blue jacket was in pretty good shape, so she stuffed it into the duffel
too. Well, now she had short black hair and a yellow miniskirt with a
matching vest, and a white blouse. She took a light green cover from a
pocket on her black duffel bag, and slipped the bag into it. "There, a
complete change of appearance. That should throw them off a bit." 
 
This appeared to be an office building. She ran to the far side of the
roof, and started climbing down the fire-escape on the North side. When she
got to one of the landings, she noticed a window had been left open for
air. She peeked inside. No one was there, so she entered the building. It
was a small conference room at the end of a hallway. She quietly walked
down the hall, and took an elevator down to the lobby. 
--------------------------------------------------------------
The street samurai in the office made a second report by telephone, and
left for the street.
--------------------------------------------------------------
There were three ronin clustered by the elevator exit, and one standing in
front of the ground-floor stairwell door. They waited as the elevator car
slowly reached the ground. Each had an autopistol hidden under his coat,
grasped through the slit above the coat pocket. They rushed inside as the
door opened, finding an empty elevator car. The ronin leader was furious.
He whipped out his pocket comm unit to coordinate the search, but was
greeted with static. "Shimatta! The little bitch must have gone back and
turned on the jammer again! You! Get over to red team and get them up there
to disable that jammer. It's between levels C and D." The man ran down the
sidewalk. A muffled sound of four gunshots came from above. "Up there! You
two of you head for the roof. We must find that girl. NOW!" The ronin
followed his orders, and got into the elevator. They got about halfway to
the next floor when the elevator blacked out and ground to a halt. The
leader heard the fifth gunshot above, and watched helplessly as the
indicator for the elevator blacked out. He screamed in frustration, and ran
down the block. It was time to scrub this whole mess and get out with what
they could. He was not in a position to see Shadowcat's high-wire slide to
the other building.
--------------------------------------------------------------
Argus reached the top floor of the garage. On the East side, by the
elevators, there was a service door that looked like it might lead to the
roof, but it was locked. Naturally. Next to that door was a janitorial
closet. The lock on it was cheap, and easily forced. There was a light blue
set of coveralls hanging on a peg inside. He put them on. They were loose,
but fit well enough for his purposes. At least they covered his black
jacket. He took off his hat, and stuffed it into his jacket with the two
mechanical rats. With his jacket on under the coveralls, and that stuff
crammed into the front of it, it looked like he had gained about 50 pounds.
Then he took a greasy blue painters cap with the garage logo on it, and
stuffed his hair up under the hat, so it looked like his hair was short. He
checked the pockets of the coveralls, hoping for keys or an ID badge. No
such luck. 
 
He checked out the janitor's closet again. This time he noticed a hatch in
the ceiling. He climbed up the shelves at the back of the closet and opened
the hatch. It led into a ventilation crawlspace. He climbed back down and
secured the door of the janitor's closet. Then he climbed up into the
crawlspace and closed the hatch after himself. Time to assess resources. 
 
He took out the mini-deck and checked it out. He could feel three shallow
dents in the back cover, but it seemed to be OK. Argus ran the deck through
a diagnostic sequence. Everything checked out OK on it. He jacked in to the
deck. It's fiber-optic and biochip circuitry should be immune to the RF
screamer mine downstairs. It was. Good. So long as he didn't try to open a
rigger channel, he should be OK. For that matter, he could jack in using
this deck as a filter, and if they tried that tactic again, he'd simply
lose contact with the remote. At least he wouldn't get hit by that damned
feedback himself. He activated the holographic display on the mini-deck,
and brought up a graphics program. He made a bright white sphere, and let
it hover there at max holotank brightness. One hell of an expensive
flashlight, but it gave him light to work by. 
 
Next he checked his weapons and ammo. He had his big Aries Predator
automatic pistol, with a full clip of eight rounds of ammo, and two spare
clips in an interior pocket of his jacket. This gun, like several he owned,
had been modified to interface with an induction pad in either of his
palms, to link it's sights with his visual systems. When he held it in his
right hand, the sights powered up OK. A pane with a crosshair centered in
it opened in his vision, relaying what the gun's electronic sights could
see. He cycled it through infrared, low-light, and visible light modes. All
OK. Then he switched it to overlay mode. The pane was replaced by a red
circle with a crosshair, superimposed on his normal vision like a heads-up
display on a combat aircraft. Wherever he pointed the gun, the crosshair
lined up in his vision. He repeated the checks with his left hand. All OK.
He re-holstered that gun in a shoulder rig, high on his left side, under
the jacket.
 
The other handgun he had was in a shoulder rig on his right side. It was a
twin to the pocket shotgun he had given Shadowcat. Two barrels, each
holding a 14 gauge shotgun shell. A selector on the top allowed it to fire
the top, the bottom, or both barrels at once. In single shot mode, it would
switch to the unfired barrel after being fired. He broke open the action
and checked the ammo. Two smooth, white shells fell into his hand. These
were armor cutters, like the ones he had loaded into Shadowcat's gun. The
plastic carrier inside the shell would fly accurately for a fair distance,
and on impact would burst, peppering the target with steel shot in liquid
Teflon. He only had these two armor cutter shells with him. He pocketed
these and replaced them with ridged red shells. These were standard shotgun
rounds. Fired from this gun, they made it an 'alley sweeper'. Short range,
but a wide angle of fire. Capable of disabling several attackers at once in
close quarters. In addition to what was in the gun, he had two more of
these in pocket. He also had two ridged white shells, containing white
parachute flares, and two smooth red 'red meteor' naval distress flares in
a separate packet. The sights on this gun worked the same way as the Aries
Predator, and all modes checked out OK. He put that gun into his right hand
jacket pocket. 
 
Next he checked out his wrist cuffs. At first glance, the left one appeared
to be a fancy watch, and the right a wrist comp unit. Both could serve
those functions adequately. But each also concealed a pair of small, 1-shot
trank guns. Each had a one-shot barrel and an optical interface above and
below his wrist. The sights could do visible light or overlay modes only,
and included a lockout to prevent being triggered when his own hand was in
the way. Fire control was linked via the same induction pads in his wrists
that linked the sights. He reloaded the upper chamber on the right hand
cuff, having used that one against the drunk sailor in the bar this
morning. He had a packet of five more trank darts in his pocket. The trank
cuffs were mostly just for covert ops or anti-mugger use, like he used them
in the bar. Their range was severely limited, no more than 5 meters or so.
 
He also had two coherent fiber-optic cables in his pocket, which could be
threaded onto the lower optic port on either cuff. These were each half a
meter long, and could be used to look under doors, through holes, or around
corners for surveillance purposes. 
 
That left the two cyber-rats. Anything useful here? If nothing else, each
had a power pack that was almost fully charged. They could be used in his
mini-deck as well. He tried running a diagnostic sequence on each rat,
jacking directly from his mini-deck to the diagnostic port on the belly of
the remote.
 
The first one was a surveillance unit, like the ones he had used to observe
and record Shadowcat's combat demo. The cameras in it's eyes still worked
in all three modes, visible, IR and Low-light. He could salvage four more
trank darts from it's magazine. The power pack was OK. But the vidchip
recorder and everything else was shot to hell, busted by concussion or
fried by the RF mine. He stuffed it back into his jacket.
 
The other one was an advance penetrator unit. He salvaged four more darts.
The power tap was OK, so that gave him a way to recharge the power packs.
This remote though, instead of having a vidchip unit, had a tripled power
pack in the belly bay, and a cutting laser in it's tail. The diagnostic
said the laser would work. Great! The cutting laser could quietly cut
through the lock on the roof door, or could cut an unauthorized access
hatch in the side of a large vent pipe.
 
That was his ticket out. If he could get into the ventilation system
undetected, he might be able to get to the roof, or possibly even escape
underground. He checked the nearby ductwork and selected the largest one.
He climbed carefully to the far side of the duct. Still directly jacked-in
to the remote, he manually guided the laser, cutting a meter-square hole in
the side. He shoved the cut out piece of metal into the duct, and looked
inside. To his left, he could see sunlight. To the right, there was a dim
glow. He collected his gear, tucked everything back inside his jacket, and
crawled toward the sunlight.
--------------------------------------------------------------
The ronin leader stalked over to a pay-phone on the corner. Without
inserting any coins, he dialed 999. A cheerful woman's voice came on at the
other end. "Hostility Hotline! Welcome to your anonymous report line for
violent crimes. Please press 'one' to report a murder, 'two' for a rape,
'three' for theft or burglary, 'four' for gang violence, 'five' for bombing
or other terrorist attack, 'nine' to repeat the list of crisis types, or
press 'zero' to talk to an operator or report other violent criminal
activity. Please make your selection now. For a general emergency or
immediate assistance, please hang up and dial 911. For a medical emergency,
hang up and dial 998. For fires or public safety, dial 997. For non-violent
criminal activity, hang up and dial 996. These are all free calls."
 
He pressed 'five', and got the same female voice. "You have selected
'bombing or other terrorist attack'. Please press 'one' for an attack in
progress, 'two' for a recent incident, 'three' to provide advance
information, 'four' to claim responsibility for a recent attack, 'five' to
return to the main menu, 'nine' to repeat the list of crisis types, or
press 'zero' to talk to an operator. Please make your selection now."
 
He pressed 'one' and got a live operator. "Seattle bomb squad and
anti-terrorist unit. Your call is being recorded, as is the location you
are calling from. You may choose to remain anonymous. What would you like
to report?" 
 
The ronin growled into the phone. "There's been a terrorist attack at a
parking garage one block North of here. A blonde woman, five and a half
feet tall, wearing a blue dress, blew up a van being driven by an unarmed
businessman. She's shot him, killed several others, and set fire to at
least one other vehicle while making her escape. I almost didn't make it
out alive myself. I think she may still be in there. She has a shotgun and
several explosive devices, and may have other weapons as well. Very
dangerous. We need help right away!"
 
"Very good sir." The woman said. "We will dispatch a squad right away. If
you come up with any other information, please call again."
 
He hung up, and went to retrieve his teams. Let the cops take her. The
oyabun would have to settle for the information he had retrieved from the
dead rigger's deck. He pulled out his comm unit. The line was finally clear
again. Red team had shut off the jammer. "Yellow leader to all teams. All
teams retreat. Withdraw to observation perimeter. Remove special equipment
as you leave." 
 
"Red team, Hai! Have equipment, leaving now."
 
"Blue three, Hai!"
 
"Blue team one and two. We are still trapped in elevator shaft. Endeavoring
climb to roof."
 
"Yellow leader to blue one and two. Understood. Police have been called.
Abandon weapons and exit as civilian businessmen."
 
"Blue one and two. Hai!"
--------------------------------------------------------------
Argus got to the source of the sunlight. It was a -very- heavy steel
grating, welded in place across the shaft to the roof. Judging from how
high up it was, it appeared to be located where the shaft penetrated the
roof. He would not be able to get around that, without spending a -long-
time cutting out that grating. Probably more time than he had. He also
heard voices from above. 
 
"Blue one and two to yellow leader. We are on the roof. Roof hatch had been
forced, possibly by target, possibly earlier. No sign of target. No way for
her to have left the roof. She must still be inside. We will try to force
the roof door, and will walk down." Argus heard two gunshots, and then
retreating voices. 
 
He crawled back to the other light source. The large ventilation duct had a
small grating on the left side, and then took an abrupt turn, straight
down. He felt a loose bolt in front of him, and dropped it down the shaft.
It was a -long- way down to the bottom. He used one of his fiber-optic
cables to peek out through the grating. This was a vertical shaft for the
vent ducts, connecting all the floors of the garage. A few dim light bulbs
illuminated it. There was also an access ladder on the wall to one side of
the duct. He cut an opening in the side of the duct with the laser, and
climbed out onto the ladder.
 
There were access doors into this shaft at each floor, all neatly labeled.
And all locked. When he reached the ground floor, the shaft kept going
down. This complex didn't have below-ground parking. He shrugged and kept
descending. At the bottom of the shaft, power and phone cables, steam pipes
and sewer lines from the floors above gathered and went out through one
wall. There was a reinforced door there, labeled with a 'city services'
logo and a large sign declaring 'authorized personnel only'. There was also
an alarm sensor on this side of the door, but it was designed to keep
people out, not to keep them in. He short-circuited the sensor with a bit
of wire, and cut the deadbolt off the door's lock with the laser. Then he
strolled out of the complex, walking down the city service tunnel under the
street.
--------------------------------------------------------------
Shadowcat stepped out into the lobby of the office building. A crowd was
gathering, looking at two SWAT teams and a bomb-squad vehicle that had just
pulled up to the parking garage next door. The SWAT teams were deploying to
cover the garage.
 
Suddenly, Shadowcat felt a hand holding a cloth over her mouth, as someone
grabbed her from behind. A voice spoke quietly in Japanese. <Quietly miss.
Do not struggle. You are coming with me. My employer is -most- interested
in speaking with you now.>  She tried to catch her breath to scream, and
inhaled a powerful anesthetic saturating the cloth. Then she collapsed and
was carried to a waiting car.
--------------------------------------------------------------
Text, all characters (especially Obaasan, Aki, Argus and Shadowcat), and
the 'Virtually There' chain of simstim/VR clubs,
all Copyright January 1993 by Jay B. Brandt, all rights reserved. 
Please use them only with my permission. 
 
Comments, criticisms, and suggestions are requested.
Please send them to me via e-mail at <JBrandt@AAA.UOregon.edu>
--------------------------------------------------------------
 
Well folks, there's part 7.  Part 8 should be out in another two to three
weeks. What do you think? Any new comments?
 
Shadowcat