'Confirmed. No fatalities. I'm going to have to shut Chloe off soon. We're approaching the outlying bastions of the Great Firewall. I've deactivated the train's automated defence systems, but you're on your own now. We've about ten minutes before other Cossack border units get here. We'll meet you at the transport car.'
'Be careful!' shouted Otto. 'We have no idea how many of Kaplinski's men are aboard the train. Lehmann, stay here, cover the train roof. I'm going back down. I'll signal you when I have the transport.'
Lehmann's icon flashed in his iHUD. Affirmative. He unzipped his bag and started to assemble his gun.
Otto left his gear with Lehmann, pulled his pistol and ran, the need for stealth gone, toward the transport cars behind the barracks van. The first held horses for each of the Cossacks. It was not merely tradition; out in the wilds they were still the most efficient means of transport. He ran swiftly over the roof of the stable, enhanced senses picking up the movement of the animals within. He leapt from the top onto the flatbed behind, landing between two rows of four airbikes locked into stands. A tall autoturret stood in the middle. Past it, at the far end of the flatbed, was what he'd come for; a Szyminksi-Braun SSATV1123a 'Stelsco', a six-wheeled, all-terrain stealth scouting vehicle, fast and armed, made by the same company as had altered Otto, clamped into a travel cradle.
He strode toward it, his near-I adjutant seeking entry to its systems. It found a keyhole and engaged, pouring out a parcel of hackware Valdaire had provided him with.
Here they come! thought out Lehmann. Otto watched on his squad feed as four Cossacks came down the train on bounding overwatch.
Try not to kill them, thought Otto.
I'll do my best, said Lehmann, opening fire. He kept his bursts short and accurate, playing fire over the roof of the armoured train, driving the Cossacks back until they found sanctuary in a gap between the carriages.
Where are the other three?
No idea, thought Otto. I have no tactical overview now Chloe is offline. Keep an eye on the men below — the gas will be wearing off soon.
From Lehmann's ears he heard the sound of hammering on the interior of the barracks van. Now you tell me, he thought.
There were twelve elements to the Stelsco system's lock, a Chance Key. Twelve red dots in his mind that could be anything, images, snatches of song, complex equations. He felt his mentaug struggle as it applied the full force of Valdaire's 'ware to the task. Chloe would have been better suited to this operation, but AI were almost immediately detected in Sinocyberspace and were extirpated without mercy. Ever since the Five crisis the Chinese had had a genocidal ban on thinking machines, and Chloe was well over the line of the Chinese definition of such.
Eight and a half minutes. They were running out of time.
He approached the Stelsco, evaluating if he could rip the cradle's locking bars away by force. His earpiece crackled. Valdaire.
'Otto, we've got a problem!'
And then Sakaday stepped round the Stelsco and pointed a gun at Otto's head. 'Been a long time, Klein.'
Fucking stupid plan, Otto, said Kaplinski over the MT. Now stand down and help me find Waldo, or I swear to God I will tear your little friend's arms off.
Lehmann was taking fire from the Cossacks guarding the train, forcing him to duck in between his own bursts.
Sakaday grinned wide.
In Otto's head, a chime sounded; the Chance Key. One dot green. Eleven to go. He had to buy some time.
'He got you, Valdaire?' asked Otto. Static replied, the radio jammed.
I have her, Klein, thought Kaplinski. Stand down.
Then let me speak to her.
I have her, repeated Kaplinski.
You're bluffing, thought out Otto. And maybe he's not, he added to himself.
He launched himself at Sakaday anyway. What choice did he have?
Chures bundled Valdaire into a compartment as bullets hissed down the corridor. A man in grey, one of Kaplinski's goons, held a gun out in front of him. Chures dropped to the floor and a scream sounded from behind him as a bullet meant for him caught another. A weapon discharged loudly, ricocheting off the bulletproof external window and shattering compartment glass. More screams. A door crashed open, wild firing. The man in grey shot over Chures, dropping someone else.
'We're crossing the demarcation line. Chloe's going off!' shouted Valdaire. 'Three… two… one…'
The man drew a bead on Chures, a savage glee on his face.
'Disengaging! We're over the line' shouted Valdaire.
The train juddered as its AI driver shut down, to be replaced with a People's Dynasty approved human operator. The ride became correspondingly rougher.
The man in grey's shot went wild as the train lurched. Chures recovered quickly, and put a bullet through his heart.
Chures got up. Behind him a dead Cossack sprawled, blood pooling on the expensive carpet, its absorption facility overwhelmed by the amount. A passenger, a pumped-up Russian with a machine pistol, lay bleeding and whimpering by him, skin white. Chures walked to the man in grey. He lay with eyes open. Chures spat on him. ' Puta,' he said. He recognised the man. He squatted down, checked him over. Not full Ky-tech like Klein.
Valdaire came out of the compartment, checking and rechecking Chloe. Happy she was asleep, she put the phone away and pulled out her own gun. 'Is he dead?'
'Yes. These ones are lightly augmented. They die easily enough.'
Valdaire looked uncomfortable.
'Do not feel sorry for him, Senora. These pendejos almost trapped me in Colorado the day before I found you. One of them caught me in a goods yard, but a half metre of timber put him down. I have them to thank for this.' He indicated the yellowing bruises on his face.
'Doesn't mean he deserved to die, Chures.'
Chures looked at her hard. She was a soldier, she protested her dislike of violence, but she held her gun comfortably enough. 'Come on.'
Otto closed the distance between him and Sakaday with a standing leap of four metres. Sakaday's eyes widened, and Otto's iHUD saw his pulse rate skyrocket. His adjutant predicted likely firing patterns from the mercenary and Otto moved accordingly, turning in the air as he came. Sakaday was fast, getting off four rounds. Pain streaked across Otto's bicep as one clipped him. Then Otto made contact, slapping the gun aside, grabbing the mercenary's wrist and pulling himself fast onto the Nigerian, dragging the other cyborg's arm out and exposing his chin to a blow from Otto's elbow.
Sakaday was younger than Otto, his biologicals fitter and his bionic components more modern, not yet at war with his birth body. Electoos glinted like golden serpents on his rich brown skin. He was not as heavily specced, but he was fast. He caught Otto's elbow as they fell and pushed it up and away. Simultaneously he jerked his arm, still in the vice of Otto's fist. Otto was forced backwards, releasing Sakaday's wrist. Sakaday was staggered by the momentum of Otto's leap. Otto crashed into a clamped airbike, wrecking it. Both recovered quickly.
Sakaday looked at the wreckage. The train wavered from side to side violently. The AI driver had capacity to govern its smart bogies, constant adjustments compensating for the ancient track. With the train into the DMZ, the AI was off and they were running dumb. Sakaday drew a knife as Otto pulled himself to his feet.
Otto shook his head and spat a rope of bloody saliva from his mouth. He smiled.
'What are you doing? What are you doing?' shouted Sakaday. He slapped his chest and held his arms wide. 'You are a crazy man.' His accent was richly African. 'Heh? Heh? Klein, surrender now. Kaplinski wants you alive. Stop!'
Good, thought Otto, he didn't think he was going to have to fight me. 'So I can work with a rapist and killer like you, Sakaday? I don't think so,' said Otto. A second green light pinged in his mind, rapidly followed by a third. He ran again at Sakaday.
They grappled like animals. Their enhancements included many safeguards against standard melee techniques. Many moves that would put a normal man out of a fight by destroying joints or snapping limbs did not
