Crack in the Kill Code (AmpCore #2)

67 - Where All the Great and the Good Must End

Getting to this fucking place was proving to be more of a chore than Piper had ever bargained for. Whatever Osric had planned, he'd planned it well, keeping the security and local police a step behind him.

What that meant for Piper and her comrades, was that he'd effectively passed through a series of security doors which had slammed shut behind him. Every route they tried to take swarmed with drones, and cops, and fucking spiv guards, and more AmpCore agents than she'd ever seen before.

She'd felt their tendrils sweeping through the street, hunting for intruders, everywhere and nowhere all at the same time. One wrong step could bring the might of AmpCore, and everything else, crashing down on their heads.

She led the way, with Holly tucked in close behind her, their own AmpCore senses the only thing keeping them concealed from prying eyes. Even that proved insufficient, barely enough to keep them out of the clutches of the corporate security phalanxes that swarmed the streets. They probed the perimeter of Oldcastle for more than an hour, with nothing to show for it excepted a heap of very close calls.

"Buttoned up tighter than a spiv's fuckin' tux," Nevay cursed in disgust, slumping in a sitting position against the wall. "The fuck are we going to do now?"

"If we want to get in there," Kirk said, "it's not going to happen on foot. I think we're going to need some transportation."

Piper gave him a questioning look. "Transportation?"

"Only things passing in and out of those checkpoints are corporate vehicles." He shrugged. "No sneaky underground tunnels in this bit of the city. This is all shiny new spiv tarmac."

"He's right," Holly agreed, rubbing her temples gently with both hands.

"Unless someone's got a copter stuffed down their trousers or a big bloody catapult, I think we're gonna need one."

"Sounds like hijacking to me," Treysi put in with relish.

"Pretty much."

"You want to hijack a security vehicle? In the middle of all this?"

"No, I don't want to." He folded his arms and looked her in the eye. "You got a better idea?"

"I didn't say that."

"They're making regular sweeps outside Oldcastle," Nevay said, "can catch 'em in a blind spot if we're careful."

"No bodies," Holly interjected quickly. "For this to work, they'll need to drive us through the checkpoint, with a gun pointed at them. Once we're in, incapacitate them and toss the van."

"Incapacitate?" Nevay ran her tongue along the front of her teeth and made a disdainful noise. "Losing your stomach a little bit, spiv?"

"Ease off," Piper grunted. "Right now, we're all batting for the same team."

"So, we gonna do this?" Treysi swivelled her gauntlet back and forth experimentally and looked to Piper. "You're sure he's in there?"

"I'm sure."

"Then I'm game."

Kirk looked a little surprised. "Oh... so, we're doing this? Just like that?"

Piper couldn't suppress a smile. He'd clearly been expecting a little more resistance to his scheme. Her gaze lingered on him for a moment, finally taking in how much he'd changed in such a short time. Running with Nevay Jennings seemed to have given him a hard edge, sharpening all that cynicism he'd carried all those years into something tangible and dangerous.