Glass Vipers

Chapter 3: One Dead Wolf

        The trip to the armory was short and simple. Dale was cleared, checked and had his RFID marked down into his weapons, and then handed his personal sidearms. The first was a 9mm, semi automatic pistol made by a company called Pinhauser. The German firm specialized in more civilian grade weapons and so the pistol was light, easy to maintain and held a clip of fifteen hollow point rounds. It was also tied to Dale’s targeting systems and connected very easily to his software. The second gun was a Maddox Snub; a revolver used as a backup and anti-augmented small arm. It held five shredder rounds and was placed in the holster in the small of Dale’s back. With two clips for his Pinhauser and an extra speedloader of five rounds for his Maddox, Dale was fitted with something similar to combat webbing, containing a stun gun, a set of high-grade, near unbreakable handcuffs and other tools of the trade. Feeling like he was more set up for war than law enforcement, Ramirez maintained his assurance that the weapons given were needed as much as they were undesirable. When the uniform was completed by his long, synthetic leather coat, couldn’t help but think that he looked more like an assassin than a police officer were it not for the markings that showed his unit badge and rank, but he kept such concerns to himself.

        Ramirez likewise got dressed in his gear, his own uniform bearing a golden hawk with its wings spread as a sign of his station and a hat that was decorated in a golden star with ASP Commander written on it. It was quite a well-maintained uniform, but upon closer inspection, Dale could see that the clothing did not seem to have much use. Ramirez was meticulous with his presentation and when he was ready the two of them walked out to the vehicle depot and stepped into an armored transport. The four-wheeler armored van was cold and uncomfortable, but Dale figured that such vehicles were spared such luxuries as comfortable suspension to include the inch-and-a-half plates of ablative armor outside. It was a thunderous roar of sound as the engine fired up; the pump of old gasoline mixed in with hydrogen-powered motors. Ramirez was quiet for most of the ride, listening to the radio chatter and turning his own communications back on, Dale listened to how the morning was progressing. Apparently the team was split into two sections, Alpha was sitting in the truck, waiting for orders and occasionally commenting on the noises outside and Charlie was on top of a nearby building, apparently watching for trouble in the crowds. By the chatter, they had picked up a couple of visibly augmented protesters and were tracking them; even as Dale and Ramirez arrived.

        The sounds outside quickly escalated, the closer the truck came to the protest. Dale didn’t need to look through the armored slats to see that the protest had thousands of participants. This particular protest had been going on for the last week, and although some outbreak of violence had occurred, it was nothing out of the ordinary. Along with the ruckus of shouting protesters and the occasional blaring of a siren to part the crowd ahead of them, Dale could also feel the relentless hammering of rain on the top of the armored truck. Since efforts to reduce global warming had come into effect, the rain had quadrupled in inches per year, even when the warmth was still choking and sticking to the body. As the doors to the back of the truck opened, Dale could see that a flash downpour had started in the brief time it had taken for them to arrive.

        As heavy boots splashed in the newly-formed puddles, Dale looked around at the sea of faces that surrounded them. Immediately, he raised his arm to swat aside a thrown piece of crumpled up garbage to the shouts of “Viper Fascists!”

        Whoever had thrown the trash quickly was pulled aside by a couple members of the police force and handcuffed. Dale found himself almost instinctively reaching inside his jacket, but looking at Ramirez, he saw that the Commander was far from concerned about the event. Resisting the urge to draw or even touch his weapon, Dale stood straight and looked around at the scene. Fixing his hat, Commander Ramirez likewise took in the scene, seeing that the crowd in the dilapidated, trash-covered piazza outside City Hall had grown since the last report. Their little outpost had been set up on the side street of City Hall itself and was fenced off from the public by police officers. The small circle made by physical and hologramatic barriers seemed like the eye of the storm when you looked around it. Aside from the truck Dale had arrived in, another truck, a car and a couple of police bikes had been parked here. The other truck was identical in design to the one Dale had just disembarked from and the other vehicles were decorated in the black and white colors of the San Francisco Police Department.