WHAM!
Especially with the 35mm gun on top. He leaned into an evasive turn as the shock wave and projectile cracked overhead.
Alex shouted, “Aramis, up top, target the mechanicals! Elke, we need a disabler! Jason, do we have any rockets?”
“On it.”
“Working.”
“No, BuState operations refused to allow it.”
Alex replied, “Then snipe the vision ports.”
“When I can.”
The passengers said nothing, just whimpered a bit. He couldn’t blame them. Bart accelerated right to the intersection ahead, then brake-turned hard into it. The AV had to scrape to a stop on the pavement, pivot and resume. That slowed it a lot, but Bart had pedestrians and cluttered traffic to deal with. He’d run someone over if he had to, but he’d rather not have to.
Out the roof, Aramis hammered away with the autocannon. It was a big enough gun to need actual cases, and they clattered over the shell of the car, a few bounced inside to ping against each other.
“I’m not going to do anything to him with this,” Aramis said. “The armor’s too heavy.”
Bart took them between two cars, scraping and bumping both aside. Pedestrians jumped, screamed and cursed, but the shrieks spread the message to others, who cleared the route. Except, of course, for rubberneckers. Two, just ahead.
He leaned on the siren, and one jumped back. The other craned in closer, then stood defiantly, and finally jumped, as the car clipped him.
Behind, a car moved to fill the gap in traffic, the driver oblivious, and the AV rolled right over it. Plastic splintered and crushed, and the driver’s arm thrashed out the window before hanging limply from the wreckage.
Someone really wanted the bitch dead.
Elke said, “There will be collaterals.”
“There already are. The AV is crushing its way.”
Alex said, “Do it.”
“Aramis, take this and hit the driver compartment.”
“Got it,” he said, hefted it for weight and stood.
“Fire in the hole,” she said in a lovely voice, as Aramis stood and threw.
It was one of her rugby-ball things. Bart watched it arc back in a perfect spiral, impact right over the compartment, and erupt. If he guessed right, it squashed enough to be a platter charge, and shattered the hatch.
The AV veered to the left, high-centered over another car, and stopped.
Alex said, “Keep moving, evade and evacuate this area.”
“Rolling,” he agreed, the tension in him easing a little. There were more bodies to deal with now.
Alex said, “Good thing we’re on our way home.”
Aramis said, “The events seem to be providing intel to people, and it’s usually pre-scheduled events.”
Alex said, “Discuss later. Roll, eyes open.” He sounded forceful.
“Rolling,” Bart reiterated.
Behind, Alex spoke into his phone. “Captain Das, we were attacked by what looks like a Mod 46… Yes I am serious. Driver tried to run us down, ran over several civilian vehicles and pedestrians in the meantime… that’s about our grid, so yes, that would be it… You should move fast. There could be evidence and we don’t want it to go missing. Excellent. Sorry to bear bad news. Marlow out.”
Jason wasn’t sure if he wanted to keep doing this. At some level, people should figure out Ripple Creek would stomp on any opposition. But, they kept getting bigger, more dangerous taskings. There wasn’t much room for error.
Alex was tied up with lawyers, BuState, the military and the ambassador.
It was interesting that the ambassador had no problems with them. He was technically under Highland, and then under the SecGen. His word would have them off planet at once. But either Highland wanted them for deniable cover, or she approved, or the SecGen was insisting they stay there.
Was her boss worried about her, worried about what would happen if she died, or trying to embarrass her?
That was one set of questions of many.
Two minutes later, Alex burst into the suite with Das.
“Jackpot,” he said.
“Yes?”
“Got this from the remains of the driver that Elke and Aramis liquefied.” He held up an armored data stick.
Jason took it carefully. It appeared to be intact.
“Anything on it you’ve found?”
“Just the arrival time written on the outside.”
“Yeah, that narrows it down to a few people. Let’s see what’s on it.”
“I’ll help,” Elke said.
“Absolutely.”
He stuck it into his system, let Elke remote in, and they went at it.
Everyone stared at them, but in a few minutes, Elke snorted in disgust and said, “This isn’t even grammar school encryption.”
“No?” prompted Aramis.
“Oh, some of the files are better than others, but I’m getting partial hits already. Sloppy.”
“Here’s tables,” Jason said.
“Not just tables,” Elke said in wonder. “Let me throw this up. Hold on.”
A moment later an image scrolled on the screens.
Jason said, “Wow.”
Alex asked, “Wow.”
Jason pointed with a finger.
“This actually has her movements, all past, known future, and a grid. It has summaries of ranges and timeframes. I can’t think of any way to look at this except as intent to assassinate.”
Alex said, “Okay. Elke?”
“I concur. There’s no other way to consider it. This graph is drawn up as a predictive syllogism. When they fill in one of these boxes, they can move to be in the same place and get a free shot, and likely not even hurt us in the process.”
“Yeah, that would eliminate her and destroy us professionally. We’ve never lost one. But lose the wrong one…”
“Or,” Elke muttered, “if they miss her, they can try for us.”
“That depends. Do they want to embarrass us or kill us?”
“Some would go for either.”
Alex held up a hand, and said, “Captain Das, I need to politely evict you at this point. Elke, cut him an copy of the stick.”
Das said, “I really need to take the original.”
“I know you do, sir, but we need to cover our legal ass. I’m holding onto it. Do please file with your legal office. That will help track its existence, and then we can let you have it in a day or so.”
Das looked uncomfortable.
“I officially have to refuse your request, take it with me, and I’m afraid I can’t leave without it.” He looked sad, stubborn and irritated.
“I understand your position perfectly, sir,” Alex said. “Bart, carefully throw him out.” He clicked his phone. “Cady, Captain Das must be escorted off the premises. Gently.”
