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  AGGRESSION

  Braeden Wolf Short Story #5

  Ash Stirling

  Copyright 2011 by Ash Stirling

  This is a short story set in the paranormal cyberpunk world of Braeden Wolf and The City.

  The Braeden Wolf Short Stories

  Intrusion

  Bargains

  Favours

  Curiosity

  Aggression

  The Braeden Wolf Novellas

  A Pocket Full of Spells

  The Seduction of Honey

  Damnation Down Below

  If you would like to read more of Ash Stirling's work or contact the author please visit his website.

  https://ashstirling.wordpress.com/

  Aggression

  Detective-Sergeant Angela Grey calmly slotted a fresh clip into her service issue sidearm as bullets slammed into the bulk of the armoured Urban Patrol Vehicle she was sheltering behind.

  Just another night in the big city, she mused. The lights of the city reflected off the boiling mass of clouds above which threatened rain, but had not, as of yet, delivered.

  Angela looked aside to her partner, Siobhan, who was sharing the cover of the vehicle with her. She was an oddity on the police force. It wasn't just that she was straight edge; few cops were anymore. The overwhelming lawlessness and corruption got to even the most idealistic in the end. Some ended up bent, others took to drink and most simply just didn't care. Siobhan wasn't like that; she should never have been assigned to homicide, where the depravity of the city was on full display, yet not even that had broken her spirit; yet.

  No, the biggest oddity was that she wasn't human. There weren't many paras on the force; vamps and demons lacked the moral compass for starters, and while most cops lost that, it was felt that they should at least start with one. They weren't exactly banned from joining, just that they tended not to make it through selections. The Aos Si, like Siobhan, did at least have that moral compass, but they tended to be clannish and keep to themselves. Not as much as trolls, but trolls never seemed to cause trouble. There were a few shifters on the force, and of course a number of Incanters, but they at least where human, or could pass for human.

  Siobhan was tall, and pale, even to her hair which was more white than blonde, with the finely sculpted, almost ethereal, beauty that seemed to haunt her people. She wasn't exactly a friend; like all of her time she was aloof and insular. Not cold, just very Aos Si. They remained…distant.

  Yet, with all the pressures of the job, working in such close proximity and seeing sights best forgotten together, there was something more than friendship there; a bond, of sorts. Angela had never looked at another woman in that way before, yet if was to have been anyone, then it would be Siobhan.

  And Braeden would have a field day with that.

  Of course thought of him would crop up at the most inopportune moments. It wasn't that he wasn't charming, in a roguish wannabe badboy kind of way, but that he was a bit full of himself, and rather obvious about what he wanted. At least he wasn't pushy about it, even if was a bit of a flirt. A lot of a flirt, she corrected herself. Not that I can really blame him given the manner of our meeting.

  "Ready?" she asked Siobhan, pushing other considerations aside. The pale Aos Si woman gave a simple nod.

  Angela slid into position at the front of the car and then quickly glanced at the building opposite. It was only for a fraction of a moment and then she was ducking behind cover again. Even so the glance had resulted in a deluge of fire.

  No more than a glance had been needed though. Her tin eye had done its job, quickly capturing a view of the building through a number of spectrums; IR, UV and more. The data was fed back via wireless link to the datapad Siobhan held, across a secure connection. There it was broken down onto a display. State of the art cybernetic optics were required to manage that; she had those and a number of other bits of high end cybernetics installed.

  If Annabelle knew just how much bodywork I've had done, she'd be jealous.

  It was a hazard of the job. Over the years she had been bitten, scratched, stabbed, shot, burnt and caught in explosions. Few officers hadn't been patched up with repair work, though few could afford the gear she had had installed.

  "Got it?" she asked Siobhan.

  "Got it." Siobhan's long fingers danced across the touchscreen of the pad, calling up the map they had of the building; not that it was necessarily accurate. Building codes and inspections tended not to apply in that part of the city. The glance from her tin eye and the data captured was being mapped to the plans they had, showing the rough locations of those holed up inside.

  A scurry of feet announced a new arrival behind the car; an older officer in an armoured vest, most of his dark hair turning to grey. Chief Inspector Munroe was their boss at Lomond Local Area Command, deep in the heart of Southbrook, the southern suburbs of The City. A man overworked, he should not have been out on the streets.

  "What brings you out here, boss?"

  "We are running short handed."

  "Aren't we always? What happened to the Soggies?"

  "Busy. Caught up in a hostage situation down Tapping Street. This the lot you've been gunning for?"

  Angela nodded. Word on the street had led to this place; for a change there had been more than a few eager to help out. In the space of a week a dozen bodies had turned up, all bearing signs of having been questions, and all also apparently having been bitten by a vamp - except oddly none had been drained of their blood.

  Even so, it was enough to convict the vamp responsible to the stake. Blood drinking, and vamps themselves, occupied a fairly nebulous part of the law. Being a vampire wasn't illegal, even if many were of the view it should be. Nor was blood drinking, exactly. Killing someone to feed on them, or while doing so, was. Anyone they feed on had to volunteer, though in that lay the biggest problem; vamps could 'persuade' victims into 'volunteering' their blood.

  The dead they had been investigating were from varied ages, races and walks of life. Only one thing they shared in common; they were hackers and runners of the 'net. Most the Cyber Crimes unit had been eager to talk with as well. The only conclusion that Angela could come up with was that one of their kind had obviously infiltrated somewhere they shouldn't and retrieved some data that the parties behind the attack really didn't want out - but that they had no idea who was responsible and thus were questioning other hackers in an effort to uncover the identity of the culprit.

  Cyber Crimes were handling that side of things; hers was to stop the murders. The investigation had led them to here, to where one of the most feared gangs in Southbrook, the Iron Crow Razor Gang, hung out. Whoever was behind the murders had outsourced the actual killings to this lot, a heavily augmented band of killers, drug dealers, kidnappers and extortionists, amongst other things.

  "What are we looking at?" Munroe asked.

  "Eight confirmed targets in there," Siobhan announced, studying the datapad, "Plus another five probables."

  "A little too heavy for us to deal with."

  A screech of tyres announced the arrival of a heavily armoured van lumbering onto the street. The sides bore the stencilled markings of the Special Operations Group.

  "Thought you said the Soggies were occupied," Angela said.

  "They are."

  The van slammed to a halt and a large man hopped out, wearing combat armour. Under one arm he carried a grenade launcher with a six round magazine, used for lobbing tear gas and stun grenades, while under the other was a heavy Squad Automatic Weapon with a large magazine drum. More gear was strapped to his armour; two sidearms, one a 9mm, the other a .45, spare ammunition mags, grenades, a knife, handcuffs and more. His tin eyes glowed an icy blue, while the left
side of his face was a mass of bruises and his cheek bore many stiches that had sewn it back together.

  "You are meant to be in hospital, sergeant," Monroe told the man.

  "I ghosted, cob," came the growled reply, slipping into street lingo. "Scut is ya got ganger bov that needs knocking.'"

  Senior Sergeant Johann Hammar, better known as Jack, was the type of man the vets on the force said would never have been allowed in during the old days, yet as the city spiralled slowly into the pits, sometimes a man who could hit back harder than he got was needed. Jack was such a man. All the augments that had been done to his body were of a big help with his Special Ops duties, though at the same time had brought him close to being unhinged; there were those who said he had been that way even before the augments.

  "What are you planning to do?" Munroe asked.

  "Bring the pain and don't stop til they stop."

  "Hardly a plan."

  Jack grinned, straining the stiches on his cheek. "Ain't failed yet, cob. Link me up to the data."

  Siobhan's fingers worked at the datapad, allowing Jack