Pursuit (Silver Cane Book 1) Read online

  Standing on the ceiling and in front of the doorway she momentarily had the advantage. She dived forward over the top edge of the doorway and rolled over her shoulder coming to her feet. She blasted a round at the second attacker as he fired on her. He missed, his rounds slamming into the ceiling at her feet. Silver did not miss. The blast caught the second attacker in the shoulder. It sent him spinning across the room toward the opening to the bedroom at the moment when the pulse grenade detonated. The frequency reached a screeching crescendo and then exploded with a bright blast of light and energy that hit the second attacker fully in the body. He was flung across the living room to smash into the far wall.

  Silver was still moving, running down the wall next to the shattered front door. She leapt around the corner and landed feet first on the shiny floor of the corridor. A pulse grenade came after her, from the trajectory that had been flung by the first attacker from the far corner of the living room. Silver aimed a kick at the flying grenade, volleying it midair and sent it back where it had come from. She held her blaster around the corner and fired blindly back into the room as the pulse grenade screaming reached its peak.

  A moment before the blast Silver took cover. The blast flooded out into the corridor.

  Data from her bloodhounds was erratic. All devices had been severely damaged by the two grenade blasts. Silver listened carefully. Nothing. She risked a look. The apartment was devastated. Wall coverings and the personal belongings of Porter lay in ruins. Porter himself was still sat in his chair, eyes closed, mouth open, chest gaping. And on the floor, amongst the shattered belongings of the dead civil servant, lay three dead assassins.

  CHAPTER 9

  “They knew I was coming.” Silver paced about the flight deck talking to the hologram of Chief Sauer. “And they knew who I was coming for.”

  “Porter?” Sauer asked.

  “Yes. Some civil servant who’d been arranging release of munitions to Coris.”

  “I’ve had word from Admiral Blake. He has a munitions inventory report. Three explosive devices are missing.”

  “And Coris had one.”

  “We can assume he has the remaining two.” Sauer’s hologram turned and followed Silver as she paced back and fore.

  Silver couldn’t assume anything of the sort. Assumptions were dangerous “I will find Coris and bring him in.”

  “He gave you the slip again?” Sauer fixed Silver with a firm stare.

  “Yes. He escaped.”

  “Again.”

  “He is devious and clever.”

  “As are you.”

  Silver shot Sauer a stern look. She did not like Sauer’s comment. She was about to dispute the insult and then stopped as she saw her boss smiling and realized he was teasing her.

  “Yes, sir,” she said. “He was escaping in a Lycon cruiser. I will locate all Lycons. Coris is on one of them. I’ll find him.”

  “I’ll have PHQ transfer all flight data on all Lycons to you.”

  “I’ll go through the data and leave orbit as soon as I have a lead.” Silver climbed up onto her chair.

  “If you are passing HQ feel free to drop by. Your office chair hasn’t been used in a long time, detective.”

  “I think of this as my office, sir,” Silver said looking around the fight deck.

  “You’re good in the field, Silver. Home comforts not so appealing?”

  “No sir.” Silver looked at the hologram of her chief smiling up at her from the holostage in front of her.

  The image of Sauer paled momentarily. The Chief turned to look to his left. “What was that?” Sauer said. “A bright flash?”

  Then the hologram flickered and was gone. Silver sent a connection request to PHQ. No response. “Arty?” Silver said.

  “No connection to PHQ. Razor has detected a detonation on the surface of Pepper. It’s Police Headquarters.”

  “Put it on the holostage,” Silver said.

  The holostage showed an expanding ball of super heated plasma racing across the surface of the planet. “The chief?” Silver asked quietly.

  “No response from PHQ. No response from the Chief.”

  Silver deactivated the holostage. She gripped the arm of her chair sending her knuckles white.

  “Set a course for PHQ,”

  An alarm sounded and the flight deck was suddenly washed with a bright red light. Silver checked the scan data. Two mosquito drones were closing in from a higher orbit, diving down on to Razor from the rear.

  “Razor. Go,” Silver called out. She sent the emergency flight plan from her neural processor. Razor was at full power, accelerating away from Pepper. But the mosquitoes were faster than Razor. Military grade drones designed for bringing down the fastest craft.

  “They are closing in fast,” Arty said. “One is above. It’s forcing us back to orbit. The other is closing on our tail.”

  Silver linked herself to Razor through her neural processor. She fired the plasma jets and flipped Razor over on its nose. Razor continued flying aft first with its forward section, and its main cannon, pointing back toward the oncoming mosquito.

  Silver fired the cannon on a wide spread. The mosquito closed in, at high speed, toward a wall of plasma fire. The mosquito smashed into the deadly wall. The explosion sent a shockwave of plasma and shrapnel toward Razor.

  Silver flipped Razor again and headed nose first back toward the planet. She watched the second mosquito as it turned to dive after her.

  “Release countermeasures,” Silver said. Arty released a series of small charges that detonated as the mosquito came close to them. The blast detonated on the nose of the mosquito blasting away the composite casing on one side.

  “You have Razor,” Silver said as she jumped out of her chair. “Head straight into the atmosphere. Pick me up when that mosquito is gone.”

  Silver ran to the airlock. She activated her suit’s gravity distortion field. She closed the inner hatch and opened the outer one. Silver was blown out the airlock and into space.

  The approaching mosquito closed in on Razor. Silver positioned herself in front of the mosquito. She focused her gravity distortion on the tip of the mosquito racing toward her. The field slammed into her as it connected with the mosquito. Silver felt as if she’d hit a wall but now she was caught up and pushed along in front of the racing drone. Silver steadied herself and then drew herself toward the mosquito.

  Below her, Silver could see Razor was hitting the upper atmosphere, the burning gases curling away. She grabbed the oncoming mosquito and climbed onto its back. The shattered casing on the upper side exposed the drone’s inner mechtissue. She pulled her blazer off her hip and jammed the muzzle into the drone’s flesh. Silver blasted into the open wound until the mechtissue glowed white.

  The mosquito lurched and the plasma jet spluttered. Silver focused her distortion field against the upper side of the mosquito and kicked herself away from the crippled drone.

  “Bring Razor about,” Silver said to Arty.

  “What about the mosquito?” Arty asked.

  Silver aimed her Blazer at the open wound as she raced away from the mosquito. She fired a well aimed shot into the open panel. The mosquito exploded in the silence of space, sending a shower of shrapnel outward.

  “Come and collect me now, Arty,” Silver watched the shattered remains of the mosquito coming ever closer. She angled her distortion field and hoped to deflect as many of the shards of composite as she could. Grabbing a racing mosquito was easy compared to deflecting a thousand burning splinters. As the cloud of debris came ever closer Razor came accelerating upward. It was leading with its airlock hatch open and pointed toward her. She saw the chance to escape the flying shards of broken mosquito. She re-angled her deflector on the open airlock creating a gravity funnel. She slipped down it and toward Razor as the craft climbed up toward her. Silver decided not to calculate the relative speeds of Razor and of shrapnel. One would reach her first. One of the two would win. One would be safety, one would be de
ath. She would know soon enough if she was safe. If the shrapnel won she wouldn’t know anything at all.

  The airlock closed around her and she slammed into the far bulkhead. As she slipped into unconsciousness she saw the outer airlock close, the distant stars against the black fading as Razor’s door closed her in.

  IT WAS NOT WAKING UP, it was simply a return to consciousness. Silver felt the world around her before she could see it. She was lying uncomfortably on a hard floor. She felt a pain in her forearm. It had been broken. Her suit had detected the injury and had reset the bone. Her sleeve was stiff, the suit providing a splint to aid the bone’s proper healing.

  She remembered crashing into the airlock. She opened an eye. The inner hatch was open. She crawled toward it, her head spinning.

  “I instructed your neural processor to release anesthetic.” Arty spoke the instant Silver could understand the information.

  Silver climbed to her feet. Her arm and head throbbed. She released another dose of the synthetic anesthetic. She moved her broken arm to discover the range of movement that still remained to her.

  “Lucky I can shoot left handed,” Silver said. She set her neural processor to favor her left arm. Now her instinctive action would be dominated by her left side. If she instinctively attempted to use her right it might slow her down a fraction. A fraction could be the difference between life and death.

  “Where are we?”

  “I brought us to Frost.”

  “Ok,” Silver staggered to the flight deck. “Any reason why?”

  “I received a huge info dump from PHQ the moment it was destroyed. The AI transferred all data to me. It calculated it was about to be destroyed and I was the nearest AI. I learned from the SV data in the dump that there are more mosquitoes around the system. They all moved to intercept the moment you destroyed the two over Pepper. I brought us to the edge of Darklin’s settlement. I calculated the SV shadow would obscure us from their targeting sensors.”

  Silver climbed onto her chair. “Did it?”

  “We’re still here.”

  “Does Darklin know we are here?”

  “I cannot determine that from the available information.”

  “Can you confirm the detonation at police HQ was one of the missing MYAC devices?” Silver took a sticky nutrition bar from the small draw in the arm of her chair.

  “I can confirm it was not.”

  Silver chewed on the sticky bar. It was hard work but she was weak from hunger, from the collision and from lack of sleep. “What was it?”

  “Assessment of the detonation data and the damage done to PHQ indicates something much larger was deployed.”

  “Send an information request to the Defender. Ask the military what it was.”

  “I would advise communication silence. There are several mosquitoes in the region. One arrived in orbit just as I landed in the SV shadow. It is my judgment that the device is still in orbit searching for Razor.”

  Silver forced down another bite of the sticky bar. She held her broken arm out in front of her. She activated her visor and viewed her broken bone. It had been set well by the suit and nanodrones were knitting the bone together. It was healing well, but it still hurt.

  “Is there anything else I should know? Are you and Razor ok?”

  “All systems are functioning well. It is only your damaged arm and concussion that is preventing us from proceeding.”

  “So I’m the weak link is it, Arty.”

  “You do your best.”

  Silver felt her stomach churn with nausea from the pain of her broken arm and the concussion. She released a wave of hormones and anesthetic to calm the pain and her spinning head so she could keep the nutrition bar down. “How will we proceed? If Coris has more weapons, it’s even more important we arrest him quickly.”

  “I have analyzed SV data from PHQ and may have a possible location of Coris.”

  “Tell me.”

  “I have telemetry on all Lycon cruisers moving through the system. I cross checked with System flight SV and all but one Lycon is on a course that corresponds to its registered flight plan.”

  “Coris.” Silver said.

  “Coris,” Arty replied.

  “Where is he heading.”

  “I have examined the flight data. It appears the Lycon is heading for the stellar north SV hub.”

  “That’s Coris alright. And that is one hell of a flight. Way above the system’s ecliptic. How far ahead is he?”

  “Lycons are not fast. We could catch him, if we can get past the mosquitoes.”

  Silver climbed out of her chair. She instructed her suit to provide some rigidity and help her walk and keep her balance. Her vision was unsteady and brought waves of nausea.

  “I’ll get us there. Keep us hidden. I’ll be back soon.”

  “Where are you going?” Arty asked.

  “Going to ask a favor of a friend.”

  CHAPTER 10

  Silver leapt through the windblown snowflakes as she moved quickly toward the edge of Darklin’s settlement. She entered through a wide opening between two large composite modules. Silver released a swarm of bloodhounds. She moved deeper into the town. Her visor showed her the depravity behind every wall. Live boxing. Live wrestling. Live contact sports of every kind where Darklin’s visitors and customers engaged in brutal physical contests with other customers. There were strip bars and prostitution. There were no VR worlds here. This was live. This was flesh on flesh. This was blood and sweat.

  The bloodhounds soon found Darklin’s trail and they zeroed in. A trail appeared on Silver’s visor for her to follow. She moved quickly.

  The bloodhounds had located Darklin. He was in bed. Alone. All entrances to his quarters were guarded by his men.

  Silver didn’t want a running battle, she didn’t have the time. She could locate a way to slip past Darklin’s men, but she didn’t have the time for that either. She approached what appeared to be Darklin’s complex main entrance. She set her suit to stealth camo and approached cautiously.

  She saw one of the two guards spot the distortion caused by her suit. The stealth camo didn’t completely render her invisible but it worked long enough to give her the advantage. She drew her blazer and sent a pulse into the first guard. That alerted the other to her approach just for a moment before a second blast rendered him unconscious too.

  Silver stepped over the fallen guards without breaking her stride. She followed the path illuminated on her visor.

  Around the next corner was another guard. He was walking along a corridor unsuspectingly. He fell to a blazer pulse. Silver caught him and lowered him quietly to the floor.

  Silver found her way to Darklin’s bedroom door in a few more strides. She aimed her blazer and vaporized the lock on the door. It swung open as she stepped up to it, walking through and over to the end of Darklin’s bed in quick, confident steps.

  Darklin sat up bolt upright, startled by the destruction of his chamber door and Silver’s sudden appearance.

  The footsteps in the corridor were loud and clumsy. The bloodhounds gave the location of the running guard and it appeared on Silver’s visor. She aimed the blazer back behind her and blasted a pulse into the chest of a guard who came running blindly around the corner.

  “Detective,” Darklin said. “You find me quite unprepared for your visit.”

  Silver pushed the chamber door closed. The bloodhounds lingered in the corridors outside, ready to alert Silver should any more guards come running to help their boss.

  “You manage to keep this entire settlement free of SV,” Silver said.

  “Surveillance is not compatible with the services I offer.” Darklin sat up in bed.

  “Violence. Abuse. Those are not services. Those are humiliations.”

  Darklin reached out to a bedside table. Silver reacted by aiming her blazer at him. Darklin pointed at a small box on the table.

  “Just a cigarette,” he said.

  Silver nodded. Darklin lit
one up. He inhaled the grey smoke and blew it up to the ceiling. He gripped the cigarette between his teeth and looked at Silver.

  “You understand the necessity of violence,” Darklin said. “You wouldn’t have found your way into my chamber without it.”

  “I only fight when it’s necessary for the civic good.”

  “What do you think it is that I do? I’m a good man, detective. Like all people here in the system I only want to improve myself and the lot of others.”

  “By offering violence, beating, voyeurism. These things are not for the civic good.”

  “Don’t you think? My patrons come here because they need it. No one is here against their will. I know big men and small men who want to fight. They are tired of VR. They are not living in some child’s play pen. They want to feel a man sag under their fist. And they accept that they may fall instead. The boxers are the closest knit community here.”

  “I’ve seen more than boxing. I’ve seen torture.”

  “I promise you, detective, no one must do anything they don’t want to. Some people just want to be restrained and punished…It seems a bit odd to me, but it is surprising what some people feel they need.”

  Silver’s bloodhounds reported a guard approaching. Silver stepped to the side of the doorway and readied herself.

  “Is this why you are here?” Darklin asked. “Do you need to be restrained?”

  The door burst open. Silver placed her blazer to the base of the guard’s neck. “Tell them to back off,” Silver said looking at Darklin.

  Darklin smiled and shrugged. He stubbed out his cigarette. “Don’t disturb me again. The detective and I have some things to discuss.”

  The guard backed out of the door slowly and closed it behind him. Darklin swung his legs over the side of his bed. He held the sheets about his waist, and walked to a large chair where his trousers were laying. He let the sheet drop and pulled on his trousers.