there had been real hate in her eyes. The best thing she could do, Ella had decided, was to keep maximum real estate between the two of them until Trixie had cooled down. The way Ella saw it, the quicker she was out of the Ghetto the better.
There was a nudge from Vanka, who handed her his telescope. ‘Tell me what you think, Ella.’
She brought the telescope up to her eye. The Warsaw Blood Bank was as large and imposing as the one in Berlin and had been built from the same invulnerable Mantle-ite. Despite the carnage and the destruction that surrounded it, the Bank stood undamaged and inviolate in the centre of the square, shimmering green in the sunlight. From what she could see the only notable difference between this Bank and the one in Berlin was that the Varsovians, for whatever reason, had built a stone extension onto its front, and it was here that the SS garrison was gathered.
Vanka explained. ‘So many people visit the Banks that some of the Districts have built Commercial Centres that abut onto them. Firms of lawyers and accountants lease office space in them and there are restaurants and restrooms, all the things the Banks lack.’
‘Is that why the SS guard is concentrated there?’
‘Correct. And of course, as the only way into and out of a Bank is through the Centre that makes it an ideal bunker from which to defend the place. Let’s see how many of those SS bastards there are waiting for us.’
Vanka took the telescope back and spent a good five minutes counting the SS soldiers.
‘I make it fifty of them,’ he announced finally. ‘So with the ones inside eating and resting, I guess there’re around seventy-five of the buggers. But I don’t see any artillery, so that’s a blessing.’
‘Only seventy-five?’ queried Ella.
‘I’m not surprised. Clement is concentrating his men along a line that surrounds the Industrial Zone, ready to make his final assault. The problem here though isn’t the size of the garrison; it’s the hundred yards of open square between us and the Bank’s entrance. It’s a killing ground. All I think we can do is run for it and hope we catch the SS napping.’
Ella was less than impressed. ‘You must be joking. Anyone trying that will be cut down in an instant.’
‘Then let’s hope our lunatic Captain can think of a better idea.’
Fortunately she could. Even as Vanka asked the question Trixie Dashwood shouted orders to her second-in- command, Lieutenant Michalski. ‘Have the men spread out and search for a roadworthy steamer. Once they’ve found that, we need sheets of steel capable of resisting M4 fire bolted and chained to its sides. We’re going to make our own armoured steamer.’
It was the first battle that Ella had ever found herself fighting in and the word that best described the experience was ‘terrifying’. Stepping out from the wall she was cowering behind was to enter a cauldron of flying bullets, explosions and screams of the wounded.
For the first forty yards of the advance on the Bank their improvised armoured steamer worked perfectly. Protected by the huge steel sheet chained to its front, the WFA fighters walked slowly and steadily across the square while the SS poured hundreds of rounds of rifle fire quite ineffectually in their direction. The noise of the bullets smacking into the steel was horrendous but Ella consoled herself that it was better to be deafened than to be dead.
By the time they had covered fifty yards it was apparent that whoever was commanding the SS had come to the belated real-isation that they were wasting their time and that they needed something with a bit more grunt to stop the steamer. And it turned out that Vanka had been wrong: the defenders did have artillery. Thankfully the first shot from the six-pounder was wild, whistling six or seven feet above the steamer, the only effect of the near miss being to galvanise the steamer’s driver to urge more speed out of the vehicle. Unfortunately he wasn’t quick enough: just five yards from the Bank the steamer was hit amidships by the field gun.
As the steamer’s boiler exploded in a fury of scalding steam, the WFA fighters made their final, desperate assault on the Bank. It was mayhem, a jump-cut sequence of death and carnage. For an instant it seemed as though the attack would be repulsed; the SS, knowing that if the WFA fighters got inside the Bank they were dead men, fought with ferocious bravery born of desperation. The two sides were reduced to blasting each other from a distance of a few feet.
It was then that Sergeant Wysochi charged forward and blew open the Commercial Centre’s front door with a shotgun. Now the WFA fighters were able to fight their way into the Bank and the killing could begin in earnest.
The melee that ensued was confused and murderous. Not that Ella saw too much of it, Vanka having pulled her back down behind the smouldering remains of the steamer, shouting that she was too important to risk in a firefight. Gradually the superior numbers of the WFA and their sheer bloody-mindedness told. They were in.
‘Barricade the doors and windows!’ screamed Trixie as she hurdled the debris and the bodies that littered the Bank’s entrance. ‘They’ll be on us soon.’
Ella felt Vanka’s hand on her head. ‘Keep that lovely head of yours down, Ella, the SS will be doing their damnedest to shoot it off in a moment.’
It was timely advice. No sooner had she stooped down below the level of the windows along the front of the Commercial Centre than there was a fusillade of automatic fire and the ceiling and back wall behind her exploded, showering plaster and glass everywhere.
‘Fire, you bastards!’ she heard Trixie command. ‘Make them keep their distance!’ She stabbed a finger towards Ella. ‘And you, Daemon, get working your magic.’
‘Where’s the Banking Hall?’ Ella yelled at Vanka, who nodded and led her crawling to the back of the Commercial Centre and through a pair of wide double doors into the huge Banking Hall beyond. It was identical in size and layout to the one in Berlin, the only difference being that this room was silent, all the chattering screens were still. As she scuttled into the vast hall all she could hear was the snap of the hobnails of her boots on the Mantle-ite floor and the rattle and crack of rifle fire coming from the Commercial Centre. It was an eerie, desolate place – the green fluorescent glow of the Mantle-ite seemed more intense than she remembered from Berlin.
She strode over to the nearest Transfusion Booth and placed her hand on the indented shape to the left of the keyboard. Immediately the screen came to life, the rotating symbols clattering around.
THE BANK OF WARSAW WELCOMES ELLA THOMAS PLEASE ENTER YOUR PASSWORD
There was a tremendous explosion, big enough to send a shock wave shuddering through the hall that almost knocked Ella off her feet. ‘You’d better get a move on,’ urged Vanka. ‘I think the SS are a little annoyed about our taking the Bank. That was heavy artillery. Trixie Dashwood’s little band of desperadoes ain’t gonna last long against that.’
As quick as she was able, Ella typed in her password and accessed ABBA’s IM Manual, shuffled through to AMEND CYBERMILIEU CHARACTERISTICS, and then pressed ENTER.
WHICH ASPECT OF THE CYBER-MILIEU DO YOU WISH TO AMEND?
Ella typed ‘OPTIONS?’.
AMENDMENT OF CYBER-MILIEU CHARACTERISTICS
PARAMETERS THAT MAY BE AMENDED INCLUDE:
1. BLOOD SUPPLY
2. CLIMATE
3. COMMODITY SUPPLY
4. DEMOGRAPHY
5. ENVIRONMENTAL AND PHYSICAL CONSTRAINTS
6. FLORA AND FAUNA
7. GEOGRAPHY
8. HUB, THE
9. INDUSTRIAL ZONE, THE
10. IRRIGATION
11. PORTALS
12. RIVERINE CHARACTERISTICS
13. RUNES
14. SCALAR CHARACTERISTICS
15. TERROR INCOGNITA
16. TOPOGRAPHY
