ABC - Penance

Fishing Boat Harbour, Port August

6th February V27 (2047)

“Target location has been confirmed” the drone operator said into my earpiece.

“Copy that” I responded, my voice echoing inside the Tactical Hazmat suit I was wearing. There was a support team from the Port August Police Auxiliary with me, also in Hazmat suits with their blue armour vests strapped over the bulky orange garments.

It was not an ideal way to enter a dangerous situation, but they were here to keep curious onlookers away from the restaurant. I would be escorted by a pair of Guards into the actual premises, equipped in full Tactical Armour only. They had no need of respirators or sealed environment suits since their bodies were immune to Stun Gas.

“Perimeter secured, Inspector” came a second voice in my ear, one of the Guards observing from a high vantage point. She was a Three series, optimised for Sniping duties the same as Trixie. I sent her an acknowledgement and raised my hand to the Jack and Jill assigned to me.

“Okay, kids, lets do this” I told them through the comms link. Their faces were obscured behind the clear Ceramiglass visors yet I could easily imagine their confused expressions. They weren’t my Bingo and Clancy, I knew that, but some habits die hard.

We set off at a fast walk, the Hazmat suit making it hard to move any faster without tripping. The Ceramiglass faceplate of the suit gave plenty of forward vision, only the peripherals being obscured by the helmet frame. In my right gloved hand I had a pistol loaded with AP rounds. My left carried a gas cannister and trigger nozzle, the tank loaded with Stun Gas.

As I walked forwards, I noted with satisfaction that the civilians felled by the first rounds of gas grenades had already been evacuated. The restaurant was a modest structure, perched on the edge of the Fishing Boat Harbour, near the boundary to the Port August Docks. It was not a tourist hotspot, mostly patronised by fishermen and dock workers.

Which is why my target had been here, waiting for a smuggler to make contact.

My orange booted feet reached the porch covered entrance to the restaurant. Inside the dim interior, the midday sun struggling to penetrate the salt crusted windows, I could make out figures slumped across tables and lying in the aisles.

I triggered the nozzle on the Stun Gas, sending a waft of faintly yellow tinged soporific ahead of me, then stepped into the Fishy Affair.

A random sweep by the Limited AI in charge of the Port August camera network had spotted our man early this morning. The Drone Jockey assigned to the local Police had dispatched a swarm of remotes into the area, keeping tabs on his movements. In the meantime the alert had come to me, sending my short ass scurrying to a VTOL being scrambled on the Headquarters landing pad.

Final approval on my orders had arrived mid-flight, with the hour after landing filled with hasty briefings of the Port August Auxiliaries and their Guard detachment.

All of which culminated in me, kitted out like I was entering a Viral contamination site, hunting through the unconscious patrons for my target. As I verified each sleeping form, I signalled by hand only to my Guard shadows, letting them alternately carry each one into the open air. From there the Hazmat suited Police Auxiliaries took them away for Ident scans and reviving with the Stun Gas antidote.

“No sign of the target in the main room” I signalled briefly over the comms link. Somewhere in far off Spitfield and Pan City, the Commissioner and select members of the Board of Governors were watching a live feed of these events, transmitted via the Guard’s cybernetic eyes and a camera mounted on my left shoulder.

I moved as silently as I could in my bulky suit through the kitchen doors, preceded by a fresh burst of gas. In the yellowish haze I saw the cook lying beside his fryers, thankfully with none of his anatomy in the still bubbling oil. A quick search revealed the outer doors were still closed, a Guard visible beyond the tiny window as he stood sentry.

My Jill escort lifted the cook easily and departed, leaving me with the towering Jack. I gestured him to follow me and we carefully checked the attached cold room. Frozen chunks of fish and other seafood filled the chamber, giving no room for my prey to conceal himself.

There were two places left to check, the male and female toilets. If he wasn’t here, then he had acquired the power of Teleportation. Facing the two doors, I knew where he would be.

I pumped a burst of gas under the women’s toilet door and pushed it open.

He had made it as far as the hand basin, a damp napkin tied across his face as an improvised gas filter. I was impressed he had gotten out of the main room, a feat few unprotected humans could have achieved.

I raised my pistol in his direction and called out a name. The slumped figure roused and lifted his head to regard me, hatred flaring in those eyes.

“Alvarez!” he croaked, dragging the mask from his mouth so he could spit yellow tinged phlegm at my boots. His left arm dropped back against his body, the right arm flopping empty in the sleeve of his coat.

“Victor Kamarov, you have been sentenced to immediate execution by the Board of Governors”

My finger tightened on the trigger, then he lifted his remaining arm to try and halt the shot.

“Please” he begged me. “I know things, things the Governors want to hide!”

=====

Earlier that day

“Hey Georgia, it’s me!” I’d shouted into my phone, trying to make myself heard over the rumbling engines that surrounded me on four points. I was enroute to a humble place called the Fishy Affair in Haven, sent to complete a task I had failed at twice already.

“I know” came her laughing response. “I do have your number saved in my favourites”

“Look, I know this is against the rules, but I need you to do something for me. I need you to help me keep a promise”

Georgia laughed again, a sweet sound that made me happy just to hear it. I had visited her only once since she had recovered, struggling to find the time to make the trip out to Jericho’s compound. The nurse, that shy Jill called Mouse, had seemed very close to my old friend during the visit. I won’t say I was jealous, but it didn’t escape my keen eye how the clone’s hands spent a lot of time resting on Georgia’s arm or shoulder, even once touching her hip.

I really wasn’t jealous at all of the tall, good looking woman as she pawed my oldest friend right in front of me. Though sometimes I had to admit when I was lying to myself.

I told Georgia what I needed and she told me it would be a breeze. She was the best Net Diver in Sptifield after all, with access to more illegal hardware than before now she worked for Jericho-Three!

The pilot had warned me we were close to the Port August Police Auxiliary Headquarters, their landing beacon guiding us in.

“Okay, I’ve got to go Georgia” I shouted down my phone. I was about to ask her something that I wasn’t sure I had a right to know. She beat me to the punch.

“Yes, I am happy, Luisa” she told me. “The happiest I have been in a long time. We’ll talk more next time you visit, as there is something I need to tell you in person”

“Okay” I said simply and disconnected the call.

=====

The Fishy Affair

“The Governors and Archimedes are listening to us right now” I told Victor. “A lot of other interested parties too. They didn’t send me here to get your confession or whatever lies you think will earn a pardon. They sent me here to kill you”

His eyes were wide and frantic, focussed on the barrel of my gun. I felt his power scrabble ineffectually at my mind, trying to stop what was coming next. It was a futile attempt, the Stun Gas making it hard for any Awakened to channel their Ability.

“Please” he whimpered. “I don’t want to die”

I fired twice, the first bullet slamming his head back against the basin, the second blowing out the back of his skull in a wet spray of brain matter and blood.

“Nobody does” I told his collapsing body, then put two more rounds through his chest, making sure his heart was ruptured. I holstered my pistol and stepped forwards, drawing a slim medical scanner from my belt.

“Subject shows no sign of life” I declared, letting the camera and the watchful Guard see the results from the small screen.

“Confirmed” responded the Jack, then stood aside to let me leave the room. My role in this was now done.

I strode through the now empty restaurant and into the open parking lot, desperate to shed this orange skin and breathe real air. The support team closed in, guiding me to a decontamination tent they had erected. Someone took the gas cannister during that walk, making sure the stuff was safely locked away until needed again.

Ten minutes later I was dressed in my usual blue uniform, sipping alternately from a cold cup of coffee and a warm bottle of water. Port August catering really sucks was my primary thought.

My phone rang and I fished it out of a pocket, knowing without looking who it was.

“Thank you for letting me see that” Minke said. “I needed to know he was finally gone”

“You’re welcome, kiddo” I replied.

Georgia had run a patch on the data stream my suit camera was sending to the Police Commissioner. Everything I had seen and heard, Minke had been witness to, like a parrot riding on my shoulder. It had been an execution, plain and simple, yet the prick had deserved ten times worse than he got.

“Are you coming home for dinner tonight?” she asked me.

“Yeah, I’m done here” I replied. “What are you cooking me?”

“I’m going to try Papa’s Chicken and Tomato dish, your favourite” Minke said. “I’ve been practicing it on Papa and Hannah-Lei”

“Are they still alive?” I asked innocently enough.

“You are such a bitch, Luisa” she scolded me down the phone line.

“Yeah, I get told that a lot” I agreed.