Aggression Read online

a direct wireless link into it, feeding the data to the display in his tin eyes. He grunted as he took it in. "Plenty of wares in the wheels. Suit up."

  The gunfire from the building kept up as the three of them, Angela, Siobhan and Munroe, hurried over to the bulk of the armoured van and opened it up. The interior held a wide array of combat armour and heavy ordinance; shotguns, SMGs, rifles, grenade launchers and more. Jack kept the building under surveillance as they started to mattress up in the bulky combat armour and equip themselves with weapons heavier than the sidearms they had been carrying.

  "You planning on getting involved too, boss?" Angela asked.

  "I'm not too old, or too long gone from the streets to not be of some help."

  There was a dull crump as Jack stood up, raised the grenade launcher with one hand and fired. The grenade smashed through an upper floor window and there followed a flash of light and the thump of sound. The magazine whirled as he fired again and again until all six grenades had been lobbed through different windows.

  The sound they had made wasn't like those of the normal, non-lethal ones they used, but of the decidedly lethal frag grenades. The volume of fire in reply dropped off.

  "Just bringing the pain," Jack explained when asked about it. "They shot first, for cert."

  He started to reload the launcher, this time with ones colour coded that marked them as a mix of tear gas and stun grenades.

  "Kay, ears on me," he said when the others were geared up. "This is how we game it, cobs. You lay down the lead, I bust in and knock some heads, sav?"

  "I do want some for questioning," Angela told him.

  "See what I can do."

  It was madness. There was no plan beyond ruthless aggression, not exactly an unknown commodity among the Soggies, but to Angela's way of thinking this was far from the most sensible course of action. And yet they had to back the man up in it. He was the expert; possibly certifiable, but the expert nonetheless.

  "Game time," he announced, jumping from behind cover of the UPV, levelling both the SAW and grenade launcher. The other three boiled up, cyberoptics sweeping the windows for targets and snapping off bursts at any that wavered into view, keeping the gangers at bay.

  Jack ran across the intervening ground, firing off single rounds from his SAW while levelling the grenade launcher at the front door. A single grenade flashed through the air, smashing through the door, and exploding in the unmistakable brilliance of a stun grenade going off. Anti-dazzle in Angela's optics quickly overcame it as targeting sights continued to track new targets.

  Another grenade followed and tear gas billowed forth. Jack plunged into it, through the front door, his nasal and lung filters dealing with the gas. Bursts of gunfire followed; some from the SAW, others from sidearms, plunging deeper into the building.

  They followed the sound of the battle with the amped up audio of their tin ears, progressing from floor to floor, room to room. At one stage a ganger came tumbling out a window, heavily tatted and with bright and outlandish streetware.

  At last the firing died down and after a short wait the front doors burst open. Jack came striding out, dragging two gangers with him. One had a mohawk treated with reactive chemicals so it glowed like multicoloured neon lights. The other was a vamp, his leg a bloody mess from taking a number of rounds; enough to slow him down but not kill him. The vamp was cursing up a storm as Jack tossed the pair at Angela's feet.

  The stitches in Jack's face had come open so that his teeth were visible through his cheek as he grinned. "Ain't all of 'em knocked, Ang. Even bagged you a leech." His armour had been dinged up by bullet strikes; one had even punched through into her left arm, blood trickling from the hole.

  Angela and Siobhan pulled out handcuffs and bound the two prisoners. "Thanks for the assist."

  "No worries."

  "Sergeant, go back to hospital," Munroe told Jack. "And don't leave until ordered this time."

  Jack laughed and touched two fingers to his forehead in way of a salute. "Will do, cob. You know where to find me if bov boils up sooner."

  Angela stared down at the too bound prisoners. The ganger had the glazed eye look of one blitzed out on heavy pharmaceuticals, and enough cybernetic hardware to outfit a small army. Both arms, a leg, eyes, ears, interface plugs, jacked up reflexes, body plating and undoubtedly more. Gangers flocked to the steel and chrome, but few could afford as much as this one had, which marked him as not your standard ganger.

  The vamp had begun to recover his posture and returned her stare with one of his own, cold and menacing. There was no fear; there seldom was.

  Jack had chosen his prisoners well. If any could shed light up what was going on then these two could.

  "Let's get them back downtown," Angela said. "Time to get some questions answered."

  Neither would break easy, she knew, but they would in time, and then they could go for those behind the murders.

  But that was for another day. Today had seen another small victory, and another day survived on the wild streets of The City. It was enough.

  The End