ABC - Penance

On a good day, with no traffic I reckon the ride from the Central District to North Bank where Georgia’s apartment building lay should take about ten to fifteen minutes.

I had hit the throttle as soon as I threw myself onto the Police bike, sending out a squeal of tortured rubber as I rocketed forwards across the sidewalk, scattering a few pigeons and one startled pedestrian in my wake. By the time I jumped the kerb onto the actual road I was at the City speed limit of fifty klicks an hour.

At the first intersection I was up to eighty, the big machine pushing up the speedometer with ease. I triggered the lights and siren, racing around and past wide-eyed drivers as I kept increasing the velocity.

A pair of Police drones circled around as I screamed past, sending urgent queries to the bike’s onboard processor to ask what the hell I was up to. I keyed my phone’s earpiece to the bike transmitter, alerting my Headquarters of a suspected terror attack at an address in North Bank.

That was going to cause all sorts of knock on effects, but my concern was they didn’t activate the kill switch on the bike or block my route. Queries started coming back to me, some from the Limited AIs that ran traffic and Officer call outs, others from fellow humans at the Central branch wanting clarification.

I ignored them all, sending out a blanket response that I was enroute to the scene and required back-up.

Over-heating warnings were coming up on the control panel as I reached the street outside Georgia’s apartment building. It had taken six minutes and aged me about ten years. I aimed for the front lobby entrance and saw two black Auto-vans pull up outside. The rear doors opened and dark grey mechanicals carrying rifles stepped smartly onto the road.

They were not from the Guard nor the Police Auxiliary, that was obvious to me. There had to be at least a dozen of them, half moving with machine speed towards the lobby doors. The others formed a line in the street facing me and in one unified motion raised their guns to a firing position.

I lowered my head below the line of the armoured cowling, glad that this was a Police bike after all and not some zippy little sports number. Flashes sparkled along the line of mechanicals as they opened fire, my bike shuddering and bucking like a frightened horse as the heavy rounds splintered and tore the front of the bike away.

It flipped and it was only sheer luck that I managed to grab onto the frame and surfed it like some demented skateboarder along the tarmac. Sparks and black smoke streamed behind me as the wreck cannoned into a waiting mechanical, throwing me off at last into the hard ground.

I slid on my back about ten metres, the heavy bike jacket I was wearing nobly sacrificing itself to keep me unharmed. My boots slammed into one of the parked vans, stopping my forward momentum.

Overhead, a swarm of suicide drones swept across the sky and I expected to die there and then. Instead they dove like mini Kamikazes into the grey mechanicals, each machine getting taken down by multiple sharp blasts as the shaped charges cracked their heads open.

I clambered to my feet, hearing sounds of gunfire, explosions and screams from within the building. My feet carried me past the van and I could see the lobby doors, blasted open with glass fragments decorating the steps and sidewalk like glittering confetti. Grey mechanicals were lying amongst the glass, their metal skulls torn apart. Without thinking my newly issued Police pistol was in my hands and I was running in a low crouch towards the busted doors.

A small recon drone drifted down to my eyeball level, watching me with camera lens eyes. From beneath the body a small but powerful speaker blared out with a voice I recognised.

“You’re late!” the voice of Georgia accused me.

=====

Georgia Roche Apartment building, North Bank District

I ran up the steps to the lobby, Georgia’s drone buzzing over my left shoulder. A few terrified residents, people I had never seen in all my visits here, were stumbling through the smoke towards me, lead by a silver mechanical that was fashioned like a slender woman.

“Please exit the building by the front doors” the mechanical woman was saying, her voice instantly recognisable as Georgia’s. “The attackers are inside the building, so head to your nominated safe zones”

I stood to one side as the group hurried past, then ran to the elevator bank. A car opened for me immediately and I stepped inside, my drone companion following me.

“I still have control of the elevators and security systems” Georgia informed me via her remote as we ascended. “The outer defences have been breached and they are working their way up the stairwells”

“How many are there?” I asked, looking at the drone’s lenses as if they were Georgia’s eyes, which in a sense they were.

“I detected twelve mechanicals coming in through the basement before I lost my camera feeds” her voice replied. “Another six have reached the roof by climbing the walls and trying to force their way down”

“No organics?” I wondered as the lift stopped, the doors opening with a ping. The small lobby looked the same as always, the giant screen on one wall showing Georgia’s beautiful face. Her eyes moved to regard me and when she spoke it was from the screen and the hovering drone at the same time.

“None so far” she told me in stereo Georgia. “I am detecting sophisticated intrusion attempts on my network, which makes me think it is an AI running the show”

She paused, her eyes momentarily vacant, then shouted an urgent command.

“Luisa, on the floor now!”

I threw myself to the carpeted floor of the small lobby, my face buried in the expensive weave as the roof of the elevator exploded inwards. A heavy metal shape dropped into the car, lifting its assault rifle into a firing position as it landed.

The door that led into Georgia’s apartment slid open, revealing another one of those beautiful silver mechanical women. Her well-formed hands cradled a short-barrelled Railgun, a highly illegal device for Georgia to own.

Both mechanicals opened fire at the same instant, a hail of Ceramite tipped shells shredding the outer casing of the silver woman. She unloaded a single round in reply, blowing a hole clean through the grey chest of her opponent and the rear wall of the elevator.

The elevator door closed, followed by a heavier door sliding down from the ceiling to completely seal off the opening. I guessed we weren’t leaving by that route anymore.

I was helped to my feet by the metal woman, her beauty now marred by chips and dents across her head, arms and chest. To be honest I was amazed she was still standing considering the hail of gunfire she had endured.

“Are you Okay, Luisa?” Georgia’s voice asked with genuine concern. I was totally confused now, with the warm tones emanating from the screen, the drone and the silver mechanical.

“Sure” I answered to all three of them and followed the machines into the apartment. Another heavy door slid down, sealing off that route. I had always suspected the Net Diver had installed some substantial security around her home, but this was verging on the ridiculous.

=====

When I entered her work room, I ran to Georgia and threw my arms around her, hugging her against my chest.

“Luisa dear, please don’t embarrass me in front of the help” she said, her voice muffled by my jacket.

I pulled away and saw the room contained three more of the silver mechanicals, each carrying one of those Mini-Rails or a Storm Gun. The latter weapons were also highly illegal, a kind of shotgun on steroids that fire Ceramite flechettes in deadly bursts. All three machines regarded me with blue lensed eyes, impassively awaiting new orders.

“Fuck me, Georgia, you are seriously tooled up for a Net Diver” I exclaimed in admiration. “If you are this rich, why the hell do you live in Spitfield?”

“I like the people” she answered. We were still touching, my hands resting lightly on her shoulders. I looked down at her incredible face and she smiled, filling me with a familiar warmth.

“Yeah, I get that” I replied. I looked around us, noticing for the first time the reinforced supports that lined the walls and ceiling. Her home was truly a fortress, albeit one that was currently under siege.

“What’s the plan, Georgia?” I asked her. “Can we hold out in here?”

“No” she said flatly. “Your arrival has opened up more windows of opportunity but staying here ends in blackness. We have to find a way out”

As if to illustrate the point, a heavy crash sounded outside near the elevators. Georgia accessed some screens with flashing fingers and she showed me the view from her tiny lobby. Brilliant white light shone through the heavy door she had deployed across the elevator opening. It was a Plasma Lance and not even a Bonded Ceramite blast door was going to stop them cutting their way in.

The light vanished, leaving a circular hole with glowing red edges in the middle of the door. Through that zipped tiny remotes, about the size of Suicide drones. I counted at least five before one rushed at the camera and the image went blank.

“Okay, we have maybe two minutes at best before they breach the inner door” I told Georgia. “Then we are going to be ass deep in flying bombs and that is going to hurt. What gear have you got for me?”

“Let’s go to the Armoury” she said and her motorised chair reversed away from me then rolled at a fair clip into the main corridor. She led me to a door I had never been through, as unlabelled and plain looking as every other door. It opened at her approach and then we entered Wonderland.

“Jesus, Georgia, who are you planning to start a war against?” I breathed in awe. The room was five meters square and every wall space other than the door we entered by had shelves of equipment, racks of guns, boxes of ammunition and hangers weighed down by armour.

“Anybody who came looking for one” she responded, directing her chair to a closed cabinet. I was busy eyeing off the armour suits, noticing a particular size and cut to most of the gear.

“Are these in my size?” I asked.

“All of them are” she said from somewhere behind me. “Take whatever you like”

I threw off my bike jacket and grabbed a set of Tactical Armour from a stand. In less than a minute I had strapped on the articulated torso armour, greaves and vambraces and gauntlets that shielded the back of my hands. It was all Ceramite and it had to cost more than I earned in a year back when I had been a Detective.

I picked out a half helmet and Smart Goggles, fitting them to my head. Satisfied I was ready, I turned to Georgia with a “Ta-da!”

She was standing there, watching me, her dark eyes slightly higher than my own. God she was tall I realised, then glanced down at her legs. A mobile walking frame encased her legs all the way past her hips, linking to a shoulder harness and backpack power source.

“I’ve been practising, so I won’t slow you down” she explained. To prove her case she walked towards me, the processor controlled device giving her a steady, balanced gait.

“How fast can you go?” I asked innocently.

“As fast as you want me to, Luisa” she smirked.

Booms sounded from beyond the walls and the whole building shook. I startled in alarm but Georgia told me to stay calm.

“That the floors above and below us going into demolition mode” she explained. “It should leave us with just the intruders on this level to deal with”

I selected a Machine Pistol from the rack, checked it was loaded and stuffed a couple of spare magazines into external loops on the armour. The goggles had an extendable smart link cable so I connected that to the input jack on the gun’s top and locked it in. Targeting data flowed across my vision and I sighted on an empty corner to make sure it was aligned.

“Okay, let’s get moving” I said and took the lead into the corridor. Bright light was gleaming at the elevator end, indicating the Plasma Lance was nearly through the door. Georgia tapped out some commands on a wrist mounted controller and two of the metal women moved past me, taking up firing positions.

Georgia took my arm and guided me to another door, this one opening with a hiss of pneumatics. She walked in and I followed, the last mechanical taking the rear guard position. It was an airlock of sorts and Georgia manually punched in a password before the inner door unsealed.

Beyond lay a bedroom, remarkably plain and functional. There was a large double bed, a hoist mechanism and hand grips dotted about letting me know this was Georgia’s personal chamber. There were no screens or electronics of any note that I could see as we hurried to a far wall.

A large painting adorned this wall, taller than either of us, showing a wide green field dotted with yellow flowers. A train could be seen passing in the distance, across a wide slow moving river. By now I knew this scene at once, having encountered a number of versions within the space of days.

It was unsigned, simple yet elegant in its execution. There was a small label to one side, mounted on the frame, giving the name of the piece: ‘The World I Wanted to See’.

Georgia went and stood in front of the painting and slashed her right arm in a long cut. I hadn’t even seen her draw the blade and I was shocked at her unexpected actions. She saw my expression and nodded once, admitting the act of destruction had hurt her too.

“Nothing lasts for ever, Luisa” she said. “Let’s go”

She stepped through the gap formed by the cut in the painting, revealing a hidden staircase.

“When I acquired the building, I had the plans stored online altered to remove all evidence of this escape route. With any luck, we’ll come out from a concealed exit in the service tunnels below ground”

More thumps and crashes echoed from outside and the muted sounds of weapons fire.

“Have you got everything you need?” I asked my companion. “You are travelling pretty light”

She gave me a shy grin and took my left hand in her right, tugging me into the stairwell. Her last mechanical followed us, scanning constantly around us as we moved.

“It’s Okay, Luisa” she assured me. “I have everything I want”