ABC - Penance

Headquarters Building, Labour Camp One

I had my pistol and Bobbi took my reloaded Machine Pistol, tucking her own pistol into the holster on her waist. When the shooting started, I wanted the firepower in her hands not mine.

The hacked access card granted us permission to reach the Head Wardens office. It was a brief ride, the elevator pinged cheerily on our arrival and the doors opened. A hail of five millimeter rounds ripped between the gaping doors, shattering the inset mirror wall that lined the back of the car.

My ass was jammed into the narrow lip on one side of the doorway, Bobbi on the other side. For a big woman she could squeeze herself into a tight space I thought to myself, waiting anxiously for the bastards in the foyer to run out of bullets.

It had only been seconds until the firing stopped, then Bobbi yelled a war cry and pivoted into the opening, unloading half a magazine of Armour Piercing into the poor dumb fools waiting there.

I followed her out into the foyer, barely registering the naked walls and missing furniture as I sent round after round into anyone that wasn’t Bobbi. There had been five of them in total, all inmates judging by their blue coveralls.

Their weapons had been a mix of looted Machine Pistols, Shotguns and Pistols, none of them loaded with anything other than Suppression rounds. They had been wearing stolen vests, dark grey Warden armour, but that wasn’t enough to stop the Ceramite tipped rounds that the Freelancer and I slammed into their bodies.

I was leaning against a wall, wiping my face down, as Bobbi calmly examined each fallen victim. If they moved or groaned, she put a single round into their temples with a grim cast to her face.

“That’s murder, Bobbi” I said quietly.

She shook her head in denial.

“Nope” she replied. “They chose to fight with stolen weapons and armour while still an inmate of this Camp. Their lives were automatically forfeit under the Incarceration Act of Twenty-Twenty-Five” she added. “I was just saving the Executioner some time”

“You’re a hard bitch to like” I told her.

She gave me her megawatt grin, showing me perfectly capped teeth in a big smile.

“You don’t have to like me, just love me” she announced. With that pronouncement she faced the closed set of wooden doors that lead into the Head Warden’s inner sanctum. Bobbi frowned for a moment, then stood to one side of the solid looking doors, gesturing me to the opposite wall.

Her metal knuckles rapped a sharp tattoo on the wooden facing, then she jerked her hand back as two big calibre rounds punched neat holes through the dense core.

“Someone has been given AP rounds” she observed drily. “Hey, whoever’s inside the Warden’s office!” she yelled out in her best parade ground roar. “Surrender now and I’ll let you walk out of here alive!”

“Is that you, Phelps?” came the muffled response. “I thought you’d have more sense than to hire on with that Alvarez clown”

“Frankie?” Bobbi replied. “Why are you holding down the fort? I reckoned you’d have fucked off with the rest of Acre’s groupies”

“He needed someone to keep the Camp locked down for a day. I volunteered so here I am. What about you?”

“Just collecting a paycheck. I reckon I can claim danger money this time since the Police Auxiliary will be paying”

“Sorry Bobbi, this is one check you won’t be able to collect. Shoot that Alvarez bitch right now and I can guarantee you the Warden will pay you a bonus”

Bobbi met my eyes across the doorway and gave me a sly grin.

“A bonus, Frankie?” she shouted, her eyes still on me. “How big a bonus are we talking about my friend?”

“Ten Thousand Pandas, I swear on it!” the voice replied.

We locked gazes and Bobbi tilted her head coquettishly.

“Any counter-offer you’d like to make, Alvarez?” she asked me.

“I’ll pay the penalty from the darts match the other night” I answered her. Bobbi laughed and shook her head no, then turned to shout through the closed doors.

“Hey Frankie, I’m real sorry man but us Freelancers gotta honour our contracts” She gave me a thumbs up with her meat hand and stood back from the wall, facing at the doors.

“Luisa, I need you to bust them doors open and I’ll take point”

“Why you?” I demanded. “I’m the officer of the law!”

“Yeah, but I’m wearing better armour” she replied in her Northern drawl. “Plus, you’re so itty-bitty if one of those rounds hits it’ll send you flying cartwheels into the lobby”

“Fine!” I snapped, feeling pissed about her teasing me about my height. “Get your big Texan ass ready to go in!” I drew power into my right boot and slammed it against the join between the doors, right under the brass knobs. Metal screeched as the lock failed and the doors were flung open.

A single gunshot sounded as Bobbi stormed into the office, then a man screamed as a loud, wet crack echoed through the room. I charged into the nearly empty office, seeing Bobbi holding the neck of Francis, the guy who ran Morituri’s.

His back was bent at an impossible angle against the heavy wooden desk the Warden had left behind. A big, Warden issue hand gun was dangling from his limp fingers as Bobbi slowly crushed his neck, making his bloodshot eyes bulge like a dying fish.

I dashed past her to the Interface terminal, still sitting where it had been the last time I was here. A black box was connected to the side of the terminal, lights flickering on a control panel. This was new and I reasoned it had to be the second Hoffman Bridge.

“How should I disconnect it, Bobbi?” I called over my shoulder, examining the sides and back of the unit.

“No idea, Alvarez” she grunted and I heard her release Frankie’s body. It thumped to the floor with a hollow noise. “Why not do what you are best at? Give it a punch”

I had no better ideas myself so I focussed on my right fist and drove it downwards in a hammer blow. The casing shattered and electronic guts flew outwards, littering the floor with the remains of its machine existence.

“I hope that did the trick” I said to Bobbi as I turned around but she wasn’t there.

“Bobbi?” I called out, getting no reply so I walked cautiously to the doorway, looking out into the lobby. Bobbi was leaning against the wall, and at the sound of my voice she turned to face me. Blood was welling from a hole high on her left shoulder and she slowly slid down the wall, her long legs splaying out in front of her.

“Bobbi!” I screamed and ran to her side, kneeling to put my hand over the pulsing wound.

“Can’t believe I got taken out by a shit-stain like Frankie” she mumbled, flecks of blood appearing on her lips.

“You’re going to be fine!” I said in a trembling voice. “Let me go get some help and we’ll get you to a hospital”

“No!” she shouted. “Don’t you dare leave me! I don’t want to die alone, not here in this fucking lobby”

“Okay, Okay” I said to calm her. “I’ll stay here. The others should be able to get Charlie working now, so help won’t be far away”

I checked my pockets but I had none of my usual first aid gear with me. This office had been cleared out too, so I doubted there was anything to be found there. Bobbi’s waist belt yielded some slap on bandages and a small one-shot can of Foam, barely the size of a cigarette lighter.

“Bobbi, I am going to Foam the wound, Okay?” I told her. She was already getting drowsy and I wondered how badly she was bleeding internally.

“Sure” she drawled and inhaled sharply as I triggered the foam into the bullet hole.

“Jesus, Alvarez, do you always ram the hole that hard?” she gasped and clutched my shoulder with her meat arm.

“Usually on the second date, but I like you” I answered her. She gave me a pained grin, her teeth stained crimson.

“I like you too, Luisa” she admitted like it was some big secret. “Sorry about trying to kill you the other day. I didn’t want to but my crew and I needed the Pandas”

“It’s Okay” I assured her, patting her meat hand with my own. “Most people try and kill me at least once. I think I give off that kind of vibe”

“Nah, I think you have a good vibe” she replied, her voice getting softer.”Underneath that evil bitch exterior there beats a heart filled with love”

“Are we talking about me or you, Bobbi?” I chided her. I used my hand to check her pulse, feeling it dropping dangerously low. Not for the first time I wished we had any kind of working comms, even a phone.

“Bobbi, I need to go find help. You are losing blood internally and you need a doctor”

I went to stand and her metal arm snagged me, holding me fast.

“Luisa, do you remember your mother?” she asked me, her eyes moist and pleading. “I can’t remember mine. I let that Ripper take her away from me and I don’t even know what colour her eyes were!”

I sat down, and wrapped her in my arms. She folded her own around me, pulling me tightly into her embrace. Tears were running down my cheek yet I had no idea if they were mine or hers.

“She’ll remember you Bobbi” I spoke into the side of her face, her skin already feeling cooler.

“But I’ve changed so much” she cried gently. “She never got to see me become the woman we had talked about. Mom only knew me as Robert, how will she recognise me now?”

“A Mama always knows her child, no matter how many years have passed or the changes that have occurred” I told Bobbi. “She’ll see her beloved child and welcome you home”

The elevator at our backs grumbled and vibrated, telling us that someone was riding up to this floor.

“Look, help is on its way” I whispered into Bobbi’s ear. “We’ll get you fixed up all new and shiny”

“Make sure my crew gets paid, Luisa” she spoke softly. “Promise me you’ll get them out of here”

“I promise”

The doors pinged open and Ghost, Nigel and Catherine surged into the lobby, weapons drawn.

“See Bobbi, they’re here” I said into her ear but she didn’t reply. I drew back my head and looked at her peaceful face, eyes staring at the blank walls of the lobby.

“Fuck it girl, we almost made it”