Case 011 - Hazardous Toys

Case 011 - Hazardous Toys

After the clash with the fanatics, my temporary team was given a little time off. I expected that after we had been healed and given a break I would finally be able to start my project. But to my disappointment, I had to delay it. Jeremiah and his team still can not push through the project, and any progress begins to get bogged down in paperwork. In short, everything is fucked up, as always.

Well, seems I'll be working with R-4 again until they give me the go-ahead with a project. Been on the road with them for weeks, dealing with all sorts of bullshit. Here we go again, a customer's got some shit going on and we need to know exactly and how to evacuate him. Luckily, the monitor shows that the client is fine except for alcohol intoxication and some non-hazardous "drugs" within his veins.

"Robert, find out as much as you can about the client's location. In the meantime, I'll do some research on our client." - after giving orders, I began to read a little dossier about our client.

" Why are you so interested in our client? Seems like an ordinary client with a gold level." -Lile commented.

"Yeah. A regular client. I had a client who also liked to mix alcohol and some pills, and then do all sorts of dumb shit. His lunacy almost got the whole stadium burned down, and I ended up in a hospital bed as well, getting bounty on my head. So when I saw what our current client took, I want to know what to expect and be on guard. Hmm, there's certainly a lot of information in the file, but we need something more recent. Lile, while I'm busy with the dossier, go on the Net and search for information about our client. I've already sent you his name." - I hope this client is more sane than Axel.

Fuck. That was my first thought after I finished reading the file. Our client was Victor Alvarez, a politician from Spain. He had created an image as a politician fighting for traditional family values, thus gaining quite a lot of support. Then he formed his own political party and started his political blitzkrieg. He visited many countries and tried to gain new diplomatic contacts and at the same time to meet the leaders of European and American countries.

The reason for my scolding? Simple enough. First of all, he is a politician, which means you have to work as tactfully and gently as possible. If he doesn't like something, he may give us some hard time. This politician has enough power and influence for that. Yes, and the reputational losses will be such that the PR department will just skin us alive. And secondly, these politicians tend have their own little nasty secrets. Some of them love to throw orgies. Others can't live without hard drugs. Every politician has his own basket full of dirty laundry. So you have to be prepared for all sorts of things and not be too surprised.

Robert sent me the client's current location info. Holy shit. No-Tell Motel. I hope he just took some cheap viagra and his dick just doesn't work, so he called us in a panic.

A few minutes later our aerodyne was landing next to the motel. A quick offload and we start heading toward the entrance. We quickly dispersed all the locals to their rooms simply by pointing our guns at them. Finally we arrived at the room Señor Alvarez was occupying. After giving him the signal of our arrival, the door in front of us opened and we stepped inside and simultaneously scanned it for any danger. There was no sign of any danger or threat, except that the client managed to surprise us quite a bit.

Señor Alvarez turned out to be fond not only of unusual games for adults, but also very unusual adult toys. Because there was nothing else that would explain why he had a 50 mm artillery shell up his ass. I ordered Lile to run primary diagnostics and provide first aid. At the same time, I ordered Robert and Daru to take up defensive positions in the hallway and scare away anyone who wanted to know what was going on.

"Marcus. We are fucked." - Lile called me over the comms.

"Can you be more specific? All I've seen so far is an ass with a shell."

"Well according to the client, when he started, um, using the shell he heard a strange clicking sound. I have done some research on the projectile and found out it was a goddamn AA shell with a self-destructor, after I examined it and compared it with the data on the net."

"So you're saying that the shell may have been activated?" - I involuntarily gulped realizing that we got one tough client this time.

"No idea! I'm an EMT, not a EOD specialist! You really need a EOD guy or a surgeon here. Just pulling that shell out is not an option. It might blow up not only the client, but also me. Moreover, this shell is really old so you never know when and how it will explode. Let's call HQ and let them decide what to do. In the meantime, I'll try to calm down and stabilize the client. Otherwise, the stress will make him squeeze his ass a little harder and then boom. So there we are, you and me, covered in shit and guts."

I had to call the dispatcher and with his help look for specialists among our doctors who could help us. At first the idea was just to move the client as carefully as possible into our bird, and then fly at full speed to the surgical suite. There in the reinforced surgery room surgeons in wearing body armor would be able to get the shell out. But there is one big BUT. As one of the surgeons said, the shell was not an ordinary artillery shell, but an anti-aircraft shell with a self-destructor. Who knows how its brain will react to changes in altitude. Moreover, the shell is old, so the whole situation is similar to the Russian roulette. No guarantees that the shell will not explode halfway.

After a half an hour of arguments and debates at the headquarters, it was decided to send a car to get us to the nearest Trauma Team hospital, where surgeons and a sapper would be waiting for our arrival. Our little birdie will accompany us on the way and do reconnaissance. Not the worst plan I guess so after the car arrived we loaded into it and headed towards the hospital.

Only half way through the trip we got into some trouble. First our little bird started to report a malfunction and then the connection went off completely. We thought something happened to our bird, but the next second we were hit by jammers. Next thing we knew, we were being attacked by netrunners. Lile barely managed to keep an eye on the client and purge any viruses that came at us. But that was just the beginning.

Our car began to be surrounded by black SUVs without any identification. They wanted to make us stop, but we just sped up hoping to lose them. They apparently realized that we were too stubborn to stop and so they decided to use some drastic measures.

Armed men emerged from the windows of the cars and started spraying our car with bullets. The armor held up for now, but who knows what they have hidden in their sleeves. We need to get rid of them while we have a chance.

"Daru, Robert. You work from the flanks and I'll work as the turret. Use grenades only as a last resort and distance, between us, should be more than 10 meters. The priority now is to suppress the enemies. Then we will target their wheels and engines." - having given out orders I began to open the hatch on the roof of the car.

Using the hatch as a shield, I started firing at the enemies. At least the smartlink was still working and I managed to mark one of the gunners with the assault rifle and took him down with retaliatory fire. When they saw that one of them had died, the rest of the enemies began to fire back at me. My partners took advantage of this and started shooting at the distracted enemies. But the enemy netrunners switched from us for our SMGs. My gun's aiming system crashed, while others' magazines either fell out or their guns jammed. I had to get my pistols out to keep up the level of return fire, and just don't give the enemy too much of a chance.

But we just did not have enough firepower. The small number of rounds in the magazine and the low rate of fire prevented us from repelling the enemy effectively, and when the netrunners knocked out the pistols, the situation became much worse.

"Lile! Fix our guns!" - I yelled, trying to use the hatch as a shield from the enemy barrage.

"I can't! Netrunners launched a shitload of demons and other viruses. I don't have time to clear everything!" - Lile replied, shaking his head and keeping an eye on client's vitals.

"Damn. Where are our netrunners?" - Daru asked trying to turn on his gun, which kept going off to reboot over and over again.

"They apparently don't know what's going on here. They cut off our communications! And by the time they find out, it'll be too late. Driver, how long till we make it to hospital?" - I asked, hoping we didn't have much distance to cover.

"'Ten more minutes! They don't give me a chance to take a shortcut. They're chasing us like a pack of wolves!" - driver's answer made me curse.

We tried to shoot back, but the enemies decided we weren't a problem anymore and started targeting our tires and wheels. One of the wheels blew out and we were knocked pretty hard. The customer shouted loudly, even through the noise we heard a strange squeak-beep, which after a second of realization made me shudder. Had the shell entered active mode?

"Marcus! The shell! It's activated! Do something! Another whack and we might explode!" - No shit Sherlock, I didn't realize that after hearing that weird beeping sound.

"Give him a tranquilizer or paralysis shot! Don't let him fuckin' relax his asshole or we'll blow up for sure." - Now I have to figure out what to do with enemies. Grenades aren't an option. They're too close so the blast might hit us, and another shake-up is the last thing we need.

"Lile, do you have any glue or something?" - I asked after I got an idea.

"There's only bio-glue!"

"'Give it to me. All you've got there!"

I reached down and grabbed the bio-glue and started putting it on the smoke and flash-bang grenades. Improvised sticky grenades. We'll have to add actual sticky grenades to our list of mandatory equipment.

Once the grenades were ready I climbed out of the hatch and started throwing them at enemy vehicles. The bio-glue wasn't as strong as the superglue, of course, so a few of them just slid off the cars. But a few still managed to stick to the windshields and hoods. A couple of the flashbangs went off but didn't have much effect, the cars only tilted a little to the side and the shooters were trying to recover from the bright flashes. The smokescreens weren't much better.

But it gave us some extra distance between us. Not wanting to lose that opportunity, I started pouring glue on the high-explosive grenades and hurling them at the enemy. As expected, not all of them stuck to the vehicles. But a couple of them did and, thanks to them, the enemy vehicles either flew into roadblocks or into other vehicles on the road that didn't manage to get away.

This bought us some time and prevented the enemy from finishing us off. We were already close enough to our destination when the police finally showed up and tried to stop this madness on the road. Apparently, their arrival was the last straw that broke the camel's back, and the enemies backed off abruptly.

We responded to the cops' call with Trauma Team IDs and that we had an emergency call. That was enough to keep them from messing with us. We need to get the ticking bomb to the operating table as soon as possible now.

Our car, battered and covered in dents from bullets, flew into the hospital grounds. There we had to leave the car and let the medics do their job. With all their ability, they pulled the client out and took him to the operating room and then 30 minutes later they were able to retrieve the shell, which was immediately destroyed in a special area.

Apparently luck was on our side today. But I wanted to know who was chasing after us and why there was a problem with communication. Where the hell was the backup and our netrunners. The first question was answered quickly enough thanks to torture, ahem, I mean intense interrogation. They were mercenaries paid to eliminate our client. They didn't have a chance to kill Alvarez because he was almost always out in public and only when he went to a motel without security in secrecy they saw this as an opportunity. But paranoia said it was probably a trap and the target knew about them so they decided to wait and see. What they certainly weren't expecting was arrival of TT. So they had to change their plans immediately and risk it. Fortunately for us, they had no heavy weapons or missiles, otherwise we would be dead for sure.

As for the second question, it brought more unpleasant discoveries. Everything could be described in a short phrase - We had been betrayed.

Someone had provided the enemy netrunners with several Trauma Team backdoors and our possible route. First they disabled our bird, and then our communication. What's more, they didn't just cut off our communication with HQ, they started spreading disinformation. They sent false data about our location buying time for their colleagues. They could have succeeded, but our fierce resistance allowed us to survive long enough to escape from the trap.

Apparently Jeremiah's rivals decided to play dirty. Very dirty. Because the speed at which the mercenaries got the backdoors suggests involvement of someone at the very top. And the only one who would dare to do such audacity is Lachanan.

Well, fine. I'll remember that and make you pay for your treachery. So just wait Lachanan. The reaper will come for you very soon.