The Dark Edge Chronicles - Hardwire

Unexpected Resistence

"Report, damn you, report!" Martin hissed as he watched Agony jerk away from the window, dropping her binoculars away from her eyes to stare down at the grounds across the street in shock.

"Uh, well ..." she began with a stammer before Martin stepped to her side to take the young hardwire's arm in a tight grip, spinning her to face him, the Inner Councilor's face a mask of anger and frustration.

"Speak, woman," he barked into Agony's face not a handful of centimetres from the tip of her nose, his spittle spraying across her skin. "You will speak when I command you to."

"Of course, Mr. Martin," Agony replied, a muscle along the line of her jaw rippling as she struggled to control herself. "The trigger team has successfully initiated the first step to the project launch: activation of the assassin moles inside the conference. I felt their programming come online and their switch from mole to assassin mode. They immediately began to fire."

Once again Agony's voice trailed off as her telepathic probe, set to key in on the members of the assassination team inside, told her the story that was unfolding inside the building, out of sight of her binoculars. But not her telepathy.

"And?" Martin pressed, giving the young hardwire a shake via his grip on her arm. "How are the moles doing? Have they eliminated their targets?"

"No." Agony's curt reply only served to deepen Martin's mask of frustration.

"No?? Merde, Agony, tell me what's going on in there!" the slender psionic demanded tightly. "The floor of the main conference hall should be running red with Normal blood by now!"

"I ... I have a number of the assassin team down," Agony answered quietly, dropping her challenging gaze to the floor and away from Martin's hot eyes as she realized that such an admission was virtually an admission of failure. Such admissions generally cost one their life in the Brotherhood.

"Apparently the Normals were able to summon a sufficient security force inside the building that, along with the anticipated security details, were able to counteract the assassins' attempt at the delegates' lives. Their efforts have killed a number of moles, a number that seems to be increasing with each passing second!"

"What?" Martin whispered hoarsely, the mask of frustration abruptly being replaced by an expression of stunned shock. "Assassins down? But they were reinforced to withstand the effects of the Normals' weaponry! No gun the Normals could field would be able to bring them down with such ease."

"Maybe the Normals aren't using their own technology," Agony ventured in that same quiet voice, still not looking up from the floor. "Perhaps the renegade has somehow made contact with the Normals and passed on the technology his people have been utilizing to so effectively attack the Brotherhood."

Martin stabbed a quick look at the apparently submissive Agony at that, his own mind working furiously. Could it be? Could the renegade have contacted the Normals and passed on technology to make their security forces effective against the reinforced bodies of their custom-made killers? It was certainly possible, since the renegade had knowledge of the project from the data files he was able to secure from Preacher's destroyed command post here, in the city. But what technology could be so effective against psyken shielding and bio-reinforcing?

"And how fares the trigger team?" he asked softly, turning his gaze to the window where flashes of plasma fire were lighting up the night sky across the street. "Are they taking as heavy losses as the assassination team?"

"They are taking losses," Agony confirmed with another quick telepathic sweep, also turning her eyes to the window and its bright flashes of blue light splashing against the back velvet backdrop of the night.