BGC: Fear Chapter five: The Gathering Storm. (Yeah, it's a cliched title. What of it?) A.D. Police Chief Leon McNichol was not having a good day. Sure, his attempts to get to know Priss better had slowed down over the years, but she was still a good friend and interesting to talk to. And here, not only had he been called away from a lunch with her, he was being called back to something that sounded like a nightmare out of the past: a 'boomer' going bezerk. He sighed. Ever since the Utopians had come in, Genom had watched its mess of blackmail and intrigue collapse around it. They had still been rebuilding from the damage done near the end of 2033, and having thrown all their capital into that, they couldn't handle the sudden cut in cash flow. They'd tried a couple of last ditch attempts to get the 'foreign interlopers' out of the market, one of which had given him his current promotion... ---==*==--- Inspector Leon McNichol was not having a good day. It was bad enough that terrorists had broken into the Diet council session and had taken the entire Diet hostage. Not that the Diet did much of anything these days except rubber-stamp the decisions of their corporate masters, but officially they still had considerable power and holding them hostage was a good way to hold up the whole country. It was worse when somehow the terrorists had managed to not only bypass the building's top-of-the-line security system, but take it over and control it, so it was now doing an excellent job of keeping any of the AD Police from getting into the building. In fact, Leon and his men were currently pinned down in the lobby of the building by the miniguns installed there. But now the idiot who had replaced Todo as chief of the AD Police wasn't authorizing any backup, or even access to the armour they would need to survive the sort of assault he expected it would take to dig out some of the better armed of the terrorists. "Dammit, chief, we need support here! We've got maybe fifteen minutes, tops, before someone comes down to take potshots at it and we're going to drop like flies. And we _NEED_ a chopper to keep anyone from getting away off the roof! You remember what happened last time we didn't have air support." "Officer McNichol, you know full well that your operation was never properly authorized through my office anyway. We're still negotiating with these people to find out what they really want. I am not going to have you jeopardize this with your grandstanding." "NEGOTIATE?? We've got one professional staller there, and three boomers. There's nobody to negotiate with! If this isn't a Genom op to 'convince' the Diet to buy locally, I'll eat my gun!" "Officer McNichol, I don't care about your conspiracy theories! You are to..." The last words from the chief's speech were chopped off as, with one smooth motion, Leon lobbed the radio as hard as he could out into the open. The security system obediently tracked it and shot it to pieces while Leon made use of the few seconds to lean around the corner and fire off one shot from his magnum into the base of the support holding up the minigun, which then proceeded to empty the rest of its ammo into the floor immediately underneath it. ---==*==--- Once the big guns guarding the entrance were out of the way, getting all the way in was much easier. Once all six of the members of Leon's little team were together in the computer room, and the security cameras and sound pickups disabled (generally through 'lead poisoning', administered by a gun), Leon brought everyone to order. "All right, people, we're going to break into three teams, two to a team. Romanova, Tamaziki, you two are staying here to act as support and command intelligence. Armstrong, Tonda, you two are on the second team, a.k.a. the distraction. Daley, you're coming with me to go in the side entrance." Everyone else just nodded their heads at this. Armstrong and Tonda glared at each other, but neither was going to question Leon's orders just yet. "Here's the plan. Nene, I need you to get into the security system. Don't do anything that will be too obvious; we don't want anyone up there monitoring to know we're inside the defenses until too late, or they might start killing hostages just to be ornery. Tamaziki, you're her bodyguard. I don't expect anyone to come in here; everyone's already been evacuated except the Diet and the terrorists, but let's not tempt fate." Leon pulled out a map, and tapped a staircase marked on it. "You two are going to take the stairs up the main route. Your job is to make as much noise as you can, and also to take out as much of the security system on your way up. Not just the weaponry, but also the cameras. Ideally we don't want anybody to be able to see you and know that there are only two people in your group. "While you're doing that, Daley and I are going up the main cable runway, here." He tapped an X-ed out area on the map. "It's a cozy fit, and the designers of this building weren't stupid; there are security detectors in there. Which brings us back to our resident security system specialist. Romanova, part of your job is to make sure that any alarms that Daley and I might trigger are shut off. Nobody should know we're there at all. You got that?" "Yes, sir!" "Good. Armstrong, you take the lead; you two get going. They'll get suspicious if we spend too much time down here." Armstrong and Tonda ran out of the room and down the hallway outside. "Tamaziki, set up guard just out in the hall. Daley, start pulling that panel off, I'll be there in a sec." Once it was just Leon and Nene, Leon pulled out his shades, pushed them on, then grinned at Nene as he pulled a box out of one of his jacket pockets. "Gee, look what I found in my pocket. I wonder how that got there. Here, Nene, I'm sure you could make better use of this than I could, ne? Consider it an early Christmas present." Nene gasped as she opened the box and pulled apart the components. It was a codebreaker; the current top-of-the line in security cracking systems. She'd had one built into her hardsuit before, and knew how they worked quite well; it was also against several laws to even posess one, much less use it. She was curious as to where Leon managed to get his hands on one, but didn't think he'd tell her. Nene was finished plugging it in before it finally clicked that someone, presumably Leon, had painted a set of pink and purple racing stripes along it... the same colours as her old hardsuit. She looked up to ask Leon about it just in time to catch his legs disappearing up into the accessway, with Daley waving at her. Work now; time to ask questions later. ---==*==--- "You really do have a cute butt, Leon." "Thanks, Daley." Leon's voice had a certain amount of sarcasm to it. Given that the two of them were currently crawling up above the ceiling of the top floor, Daley admittedly couldn't see much else. Leon shook his head. "It's too quiet." Daley stopped at this. "Quiet is good." "I'd have expected something to have happened by now. It's like my plan is going off without a hitch." "This is a problem?" Leon stopped as well; any farther and they'd be over the boardroom, which would make it too easy for someone else to hear them. "Ahh... I just get worried when it's too easy. I mean, what if the terrorists are supposed to get captured, as a distraction?" "Leon, Leon... you really gotta relax. Take it easy. The whole world isn't out to get just you." Leon grinned, managing to glint light off his teeth even in the darkness. "Nah, but I find you survive longer in this job if you assume it is. Especially with this job." There was a quick buzz from Leon's radio, which he grabbed and spoke into. "What's up?" Nene's voice was on the other end; she sounded more worried than Leon had heard her in months. "We've got a problem." Leon gave Daley an 'I told you so' smirk. "Go on." Nene took a deep breath, composing herself for this. "I've found part of the tap in the security system; not physically, but by the way it's filtering the data. I can't give you any details on it, as any serious probe would probably trigger off too many alarms. But I did manage to pull through some of the security logs on the boardroom... Leon, there are four boomers in there. Not three." Leon frowned. "So the leader's a boomer, too?" "No, she's not. At least, not that I can tell from here. This building has anti-boomer security measures all over the place: boomer detectors that can even pick up sexaroids. But someone's been blocking the sensors to let boomers through, and it leaves traces in the logs, just not enough to set off alarms." "So that's how the terrorists got in to start with." "Yes. But the fourth boomer has been going in and out for weeks, at least. And get this, there was a glitch in the log back when the Council meeting started. The boomer is still in there, according to the sensors, but they're being blocked enough that I can't tell where." "Whoa, whoa... you're telling me we've got a boomer on the Diet?" "Yeah." Nene paused for a moment. "I can check the sensor logs, but unless our boomer is the only one beside the sensors when they go off, I can't tell who it is." Leon suddenly broke out in a grin. "Well, we'll just have to arrange for an orderly evacuation, then, won't we?" He chuckled. "There's something else, Leon." "What?" "I've seen traces like this before. I think our fourth is a fusion boomer, who's left part of himself behind in the security system." Leon groaned. "All right. Send that triple-encrypted back to HQ, maybe that will get us some backup. Now, here's what we're going to do..." ---==*==--- Kate Madigan was fuming. She'd barely survived Largo's attack which had nearly torched Genom Tower in MegaTokyo, and had required major reconstructive surgery to be able to even walk around in public again. She'd turned down the chance to become a boomer in full, a decision that Quincy had been in full agreement with. A boomer may be more powerful, and even smarter, but it was a whole lot easier to sneak a human past security screens. She'd been running a lot of the lesser-known black ops for a while; the sort of job for which being officially dead was a significant advantage. This operation was really getting on her nerves, though. As usual, Quincy hadn't told her why she was doing any of this, just what to do. For that matter, she didn't even know who the insider was that shut down the security system to let her boomers through. The whole thing smelled like a setup. Her best guess right now was that her job was to make the AD Police look bad by having them bust in here and cause a firefight which would get half the Diet killed. If that was it, the head of the ADP had almost ruined the whole thing by backing down too quickly. However, it looked like a few officers were working on their own against her. Which was an ideal situation; she'd have an excuse for anything she pulled off here, and they probably wouldn't have any backup to prevent her from leaving. Unfortunately, they were taking far longer than she had expected; they seemed to be stopping to take out the entire security system on their way up. Probably so they'd have a safe escape route later, but that didn't explain why they made sure all the cameras were out, too. It was as if they didn't want to be seen, for some reason... "All right, the ADP have made it to this floor. Go and give them a warm welcome." Two of her three boomer crew walked out to the door, taking up positions on either side of the it as they got ready. Not terribly imaginative, this bunch, but they had the advantages of always obeying orders and of being completely untraceable. It wasn't long before someone down the hall poked his head out, and the boomers started to open fire, pinning the luckless officers back in the stairwell. Madigan folded her arms across her chest, smirking. This was easier than she had expected. It's at times like that, she was to muse later, that the universe decides to show you not to get too cocky. Another shot rang out; this one a lot louder, and a lot closer. Must have been a magnum, nothing else made that boom. She spun just in time to see the third boomer beside her, which was guarding the hostages, get its 'brains' blown out all over the floor. Shot must have been from above... Before the two boomers guarding the door could analyze the situation and react, both of them had suffered similar fates. Madigan was still looking around to figure out where the shots were from when one of the ceiling panels was pulled off completely and a tall man with dark hair and shades dropped down to the floor right beside her and grabbed her. The only thing she could think of was the craziness of wearing shades in a dark crawlway before the man in question pointed a gun at her, then pulled out a badge and grinned. "Inspector McNichol of the AD Police, ma'am. You're under arrest." A second man dropped down from the ceiling as well, this one a redhead, and bowed to the assembled Diet. "Honored members, if you would please follow me? We suspect another member of the terrorists inside the building somewhere, and want to evacuate the building in an orderly manner." As the two AD Police officers from the stairwell took up positions on either side of the door, the redhead continued, "Please exit one at a time, single file; we want to make sure we've got everybody." He practically minced out the door. Madigan fumed as she saw the Diet start to follow, forced into single file anyway by the armoured guards standing on either side of the doorway. About a third of the way through the group, every one of the ADP pagers went off at once. Madigan watched in shock as the guards, in sync, grabbed the man going through the door at the time: Hideo Tanaka, a rather portly gentleman who had been on the Diet for some two years now. McNichol picked up his radio. "This the one?" Apparently the answer was affirmative, as he signaled the guards to pull Tanaka to the side. Tanaka, of course, was protesting all the way. "What are you doing? I don't have to stand for this, I could have all your jobs, you know that!" Inspector McNichol just glared at Tanaka. "Except for the fact that you were the one who shut down the security system to let the boomers in." Tanaka kept struggling. "I don't know what..." The inspector just said one word to his radio: "Now." And all hell broke loose. ---==*==--- Nene had been waiting for three years to try this out. Back in the assault on the ADP headquarters in 2033, she'd ended up tangling with a boomer in the middle of the ADP security system. During that time, she'd been too busy scrambling to keep up to really plan on a proper method of dealing with the boomer. Later, when she went over all the data logs from the ADP systems and her and Mackie's hardsuits, she'd come up with some useful data on the way the boomers interfaced with equipment, and the communications protocols used. The fun thing about a connection like this is that it's two-way. In order for a hookup to be useful to the boomer at all means that it has to send back data to the boomer. Pretty much directly to its brain, so it can be sorted and dealt with. Which means, if you can insert the right data into the path, you can play with the boomer's brain. At least until it figures out what's going on, and shuts down the connection. With the press of a button, she released a small horde of tailored viruses on the boomer's command box... ---==*==--- Tanaka screamed, an inhuman wail. As the guards started back, he easily ripped his arms out of their grips, grabbed his head, and started rolling on the floor. His body twisted in ways it shouldn't have physically been able to, with large sections of skin stretching and ripping off. Leon was surprised at just how much of a reaction Nene's little fun had caused, but managed to hide it well. You didn't get to the rank he was at without learning how to act like you knew exactly what was going on. "All _four_ of the boomers, including yourself." Everyone from the Diet had gathered around, ogling at the chaos. Leon looked at them, and inwardly sighed. There was nothing more dangerous to an investigation than curious bystanders. "Okay, every- body get out now. We needed to find our mole, and we've got him; let's deal with him before he comes to again. Trust me, you don't want to be facing down an angry boomer." As luck (or lack thereof) would have it, it was right then that the boomer let off a blast with his mouth cannon. Into the floor, as that's what he was facing at the time. "Or even a crazed, out-of- control boomer. Everybody out, now! Daley, you stay here; Armstrong, Tonda, you get everyone down to the lobby and ready to leave the building as quickly as you can." This time, nobody seemed in any mood to argue. Daley stepped up next to the window. "Looks like one of our choppers out there. Guess the backup finally got here." "Good. It's been long eno..." A voice, amplified by a megaphone, rattled the windows of the council chamber. "Officer McNichol! I am sick and tired of you questioning and undermining my authority!" "Oh, god," Leon groaned. "Of all times for the chief to show up." "You did make it difficult for him to just call you, after all." "True, but..." "As of now, I am hereby releaving you of... ack!" The 'ack' was caused as the boomer appeared to regain enough semblance of sanity to make a break for it. He leapt out the window, grabbed onto the copter, and proceeded to absorb it. Both the human occupants of the copter got thrown to the ground as the vehicle they were in collapsed, leaving them to fall over twenty storeys to the street below... ---==*==--- Leon was snapped out of his reverie by an explosion not far in front of him. He quickly swerved his car off to the side of the road, trusting to the siren to keep people far enough away from him to prevent any accidents. He needn't have worried; anyone intelligent had left this area half an hour ago. Slamming his door, Leon jogged up towards the couple of people crouched down behind a few other cars, and the one big police van. Nene was there, as expected, attempting to maintain some facade of control on the situation. "Status report!" Nene spun around to face him. "We've pinned down two of the Utopians, and heavily damaged one other one. I had one chopper start broadcasting a radio jamming signal, just in case; they continued their rampage, but haven't changed directions since then." Leon nodded. "Good job. How... hang on, are you saying that someone was sending control signals to these things? Someone deliberately set these things to tear up people and property?" Nene ummmed, backing up a bit. "Well, I don't know for sure, but it could be. Something's turned off the usual override commands, anyway." "All right." Leon looked around; the situation wasn't under control yet, but it was close. "Officer Ikashi, I'll take over here; you get to work on seeing if you can disrupt their control systems." He pulled up his radio, and barked orders into it. "Armstrong, I want another chopper in the air, stat, with a full ECM suite. I want to track down anything that looks like it might be trying to control these Utopians. Tell Yakahara to get his sorry ass on that chopper; Ikashi will assist if needed. Load in the K-17 while you're at it, with an AP load just to be safe, and put Takahashi in it. Got it?" "Yes, sir!" "Good. I want a report from the choppers at any further movement. Right now, just keep them pinned down there until backup arrives. How has the evacuation been proceeding?" "As usual." "That badly, eh? Well, send someone into the Okinawa bank building and tell them to look out the bloody window." "Yes, sir!" Leon looked up at an odd sound... sounded like a motorcycle. A _big_ motorcycle. There was only one person he knew that rode a cycle like that and would be crazy enough to drive into a police zone... "Hey, Priss, what's up? I hope you didn't hurt the officer on the blockade too badly getting in here." "Naw. He'll live. He might have a nosebleed, but that was from trying to look down my jacket." Leon nodded, and looked up at Priss. "What are you doing here, anyway? I thought you and that... band broke up a couple of years ago." Priss nodded, her face dark. "We did. I decided that money wasn't enough reason to go against what I believed in." She turned, looking back at the damage. "Nene around?" Leon nodded, pointing back to the van. "Why?" "Let's just say that, with her help, I might be able to finagle use of some of the band's old equipment. It won't be great music with only two people, but we should be able to pull something off." There was an explosion as one of the supposedly pinned down construction bots tore down into a gas main, sending a column of flame and smoke into the air. It also rendered that Utopian largely useless, but the destruction and chaos let the others spread out farther. Leon groaned. "Well, better hurry while there's still a stage to play on." He pulled up his radio again to start shouting orders as Priss ran back to the van. -- Bryan Feir ----------------------- and... next!