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Project Valkyrie
Chapter 13 - Cutting Repartee
Thyra wasn't certain how to respond, but this really wasn't her dance. She had delivered her cargo, and even though she still had something to pick up, her obligations had been met. If she didn't get her hands on whatever the old man had bargained for, was she really that much worse off? She'd already been paid, and there was no way the robbers were getting the money she had in her account. They wouldn't even know that she had a chip in her palm.
Of course, they were waving lethal weapons around that were not only highly illegal on this world, but they were making implied threats that she needed to take seriously. She was armored but didn't know how effective it would be.
She wasn't a biological being and wasn't in danger of bleeding out if shot, but she had a secret to maintain, and if she took significant damage, it would be revealed, and that needed to be avoided.
There was a shout deeper into the building, and she assumed that meant that Kade had run into trouble. He seemed a competent sort, so she'd need to play things by ear based on what occurred. How far was she willing to go to settle this situation?
"Weapons on the floor!" the man who'd just shouted at them continued. He was on his feet now with his pistol raised toward them, advancing with the man he'd come under the door with at his side and three more coming in behind them, also armed with auto pistols.
Was she going to allow herself to be disarmed? Was it worth injuring or killing someone to prevent that? She was still debating how to react when the choice was taken out of her hands.
Back where Kade was, shots rang out, and there was more shouting. Sorensen hurled himself behind the cargo vehicle he'd arrived in, digging under his jacket for what was obviously a weapon. That sparked the five men in front of her to open fire.
Her faster-than-human reaction speeds allowed her to send a command to the shield on her arm. She enlarged it to its greatest size while hunkering down to protect her torso and head as much as possible while she reached for the axe on her back.
She could have used the pistol on her waist, but that would be much more difficult to accurately aim and fire around the large shield, she thought. She hadn't had an opportunity to practice, and the axe was what her skills were prompting her to use.
She supposed there would be less physical evidence this way, too. Well, physical evidence of her presence, anyway.
With a shout, she charged forward as bullets were deflected off her shield. It was interesting to note how well she could see their determined faces as she charged. The energy screen did nothing to obscure them. They probably had no idea that they weren't even hitting her yet.
They'd find out soon enough.
As they were utilizing lethal force, she didn't feel obligated to attempt to take them alive. She would use the tools she had available, and if some of them survived, well, she'd figure out what to do about them when the time came.
By the time they figured out that she wasn't stopping, she was already on top of them. She had the battle axe drawn back and swung it forward while moving the shield just enough to give her arm free passage. It cleaved into the first man, striking his shoulder, bisecting him down to the opposing hip. The two parts of his body fell in different directions even as her energy shield and face caught the blood spatter.
Her attack caused his companions to split into two groups, screaming and shouting as they tried to put space between themselves and her. It wasn't nearly enough, considering how much faster she was. Unfortunately, it did mean that she wouldn't be able to completely obscure herself from both groups.
That prompted her to activate her personal energy shield. Not the one on her belt, but the one built into her. Her hands were too busy to fiddle with the device.
Their move would've been a good tactical decision if they'd actually been responding in an organized manner. This was pure panic, though, and while it might be effective, she still had the initiative.
Thyra dropped to her knees, raised the shield up, and sliced out just above floor level at the closest man. He'd been dancing back, but her reach was long. The axe blade sliced through both his calves and sent him tumbling to the floor, footless.
Needless to say, he was screaming his fool head off and clutching at his severed limbs. He wasn't a threat anymore and would likely bleed out before the fight was over.
She felt the impact of several bullets striking her side, but none of her systems flashed any warnings indicating that they were damaged, so the energy screen had stopped them.
Sorenson was now firing from the other side of the vehicle he'd come in, and one of the attackers went down hard. That left two in front of her.
She bounded to her feet and charged the closest man, using the shield as a weapon and smashing into him with all the force she could generate, propelling him headfirst into the wall, where he hit with a sickening crunch, after which he fell bonelessly to the floor.
Thyra spun toward the remaining man, expecting to catch a few more bullets, but Sorenson had continued firing, and now that man was down as well. The five that had come through the loading bay door had been dealt with, but that didn't mean there weren't more outside.
She raced onto the loading dock and spotted a wheeled cargo vehicle sitting there with a man behind the controls. His eyes grew huge when he saw her, and he put the vehicle into motion.
In two steps, Thyra reached the edge of the loading dock and leapt onto the vehicle, sending an order to the shield to switch off so she could use her left hand. She still held her axe, and she used it to shear through the closest roof support and began peeling the metal back to get at the juicy prize inside.
The man she was after let go of the controls and grabbed a weapon, firing it into her torso at point-blank range. She let her axe stay where it was wedged, drew her Gauss pistol, and lit him up in return. More blood splattered her front and face as the hypervelocity rounds tore into him, but the energy screen stopped it from getting all over her.
Once his hands came away from the controls, the vehicle slowed to a stop. Thyra didn't need to check him to see that he was dead. She holstered her pistol and grabbed her axe.
A shout from the loading bay turned her attention back to what was going on inside the building, and she headed that way at a run. Sorensen hurled himself out of the building and crouched down behind the loading dock while Kade retreated backward, firing at someone inside the building.
Hearing what sounded like two people rushing the loading dock, Thyra drew her axe back over her head and hurled it as soon as the first man came into view. It spun end over end, and the wide blade buried itself in his chest, cutting him deeply from clavicle to belly button. The man dropped, instantly dead.
She leaped onto the loading dock, drawing her monoblade and charging the remaining attacker as she re-summoned her energy shield in its round, midsize form. The man skidded to a halt, both of his feet trying to get him to turn around and run the other way as fast as he possibly could, just as she reached him.
One slice of her blade and his head leapt from his shoulders, his stump of a neck spraying even more blood all around before the head landed on the concrete with a meaty "thunk."
Thyra stared into the building, looking and listening, but detected no further movement. Had that been all of them? Was the fight over? How long would it take the authorities to arrive after all that shooting?
When she heard a noise behind her, Thyra spun in place, raising her knife, but all she found was Sorenson slowly walking into the building with both hands held up to show that they were now empty.
"I swear upon all that is holy that I had absolutely nothing to do with this," he said calmly.
Based upon his actions, she was inclined to believe him.
"If you didn't have anything to do with this, then who the hell are these people?" she demanded. "I didn't tell anyone that I was coming, so they didn't learn about this from my end."
"Let's find out, shall we? But first, I need to look you over. You could have been injured. I'm a doctor, though it has been quite some time since I performed the more mundane services expected of such. Let me help."
"I'm wearing a personal energy screen, though I didn't have it on at the start. See the glow?"
He frowned a little and leaned forward. "Remarkable. That is very high tech, and I haven't seen one before. Cyrus must have spent a lot to keep you safe."
"Yeah, I suppose he did."
"Very well," he said. "Let's look at some faces and see if I can identify who these people are, and then we can be on our way."
"When I came in, there was a guard in a vehicle on the other side of the facility," she said. He'll call for the authorities."
"Actually, he won't," Sorensen said with a thin smile. "I do a fair amount of exchanges here, and the man is on my payroll. He already knows what to do if there's the sound of any kind of conflict. He'll keep his mouth shut and stay right where he is. While it is rare, this is not the first time there has been a disagreement of some kind during one of these exchanges. Normally, it's between me and the buyer/seller. Not that I have any issues with you, Thyra. You've been upfront and honest with me, and this failure reflects poorly on me, and I will do what is necessary to rectify the situation."
While they'd been talking, Kade had been going from body to body, pulling masks off and examining faces. He stopped at the first man that Thyra had killed. "We've got a winner, Doctor."
Sorensen stepped over and looked down at the dead man. His face hardened. "Indeed, we do. This man was a lieutenant working for an organization with which I do business. I'm uncertain how they knew the exchange would be happening here, but it almost had to be a leak in my organization. One that will be plugged quite permanently as soon as I figure out who was responsible."
The man's face meant nothing to Thyra, but she did take the opportunity to wipe her axe off on one of the dead men. She then stuffed it back into the sheath on her back and felt the straps close back around the haft. She hadn't realized that they were mechanical, but it certainly made it easier to secure her weapon. That accomplished, she wiped off her knife and sheathed it as well.
Sorensen walked back over to her and looked pointedly at the axe on her back. "That is a terrifying weapon, particularly in your hands. How did you cause such mayhem with it?"
"It has a monofilament edge, and I'm strong enough to give it the momentum it needs to cut right through anything in its path."
The thin man nodded. "That would certainly do it. Kade will see that the bodies are loaded into the vehicle they came in. He will then take it somewhere else and set it ablaze to make certain there is no evidence left to link any of us to them when the authorities find it. You were on the vehicle and likely left fingerprints. He will take the precaution of wiping those areas down before he starts the fire to make certain that there is no link to you."
"I'm taking you at your word on that," Thyra said. "Please be thorough."
"He will be. As to what happened here, you saved our lives, most likely. Secrecy is our best way of protecting ourselves during operations like this, and it was obviously compromised. You put yourself at risk in a way that you did not have to, and I will see that risk rewarded. Even though your husband allocated those four tons of neural mesh for a specific purchase from one of the people that I occasionally do business with, I will pay the full amount of its value in addition to giving you what your husband ordered. I will then extract those funds from the people who have wronged me."
Thyra wasn't going to turn down extra money, though she would have preferred not to get involved in any confrontations to get it. An additional two and a half million credits would certainly help her bottom line.
"I find that acceptable, Doctor. Can you tell me what the cargo my husband purchased is?"
"I had intended to open everything up and show you, but you're probably right when you say that we don't have a lot of time. Instead, I'll let you take it back to your ship and examine it at your leisure. If you have any questions, you can contact me, but I believe all the necessary documentation is present. I can't say that it was a pleasure doing business with you this time, but rest assured that your reputation is rock solid with me, and should you come back this way with an interesting cargo in the future, I'll be happy to look at it."
"I'll be looking at cargoes to take elsewhere when I depart Murphy," Thyra said. "Could you act as an intermediary between others in your sphere that might have interesting cargoes that I could take off-world? Or even give me some pointers to legitimate businesses where I can cut out the middlemen at the port?"
The man smiled. "Absolutely to both. You will get my whole-hearted recommendation to anyone willing to listen. It's actually likely that I'll get my hands on some cargo lots during my… interactions with those people who have wronged me. I'm certain that we can come to an arrangement, and I will bring you together with other people as well. For now, though, I think we need to be on our way."
Sorenson loaded her new items aboard the runabout for her. Then he loaded his own cargo into the cargo truck and paid her the money he had promised.
By the time they were finished, Kade had moved all the bodies--including two more from deeper in the building--and they were ready to go. She shook hands with each of them and then climbed aboard the runabout to make her way back to the down port.
Getting back to her ship was nerve-wracking, but she didn't have any issues, and no one was going by her ship where they could see that she was boarding. That was a relief, and she was thrilled once the cargo hatch closed behind her.
The first place she went was back to her quarters to make sure that she hadn't been harmed. She stepped into the large room containing the fresher and examined herself in the full-length mirror. She was drenched in blood. It coated her face and hair.
She must've looked terrifying, and she was astonished that Sorensen hadn't run from her. He had more of a spine than she'd imagined.
Thyra stripped out of her clothes, dropping them on the floor, and examined her body in the mirror. There was no indication of damage anywhere. None of her systems indicated any issues, and she doubted that the energy screen had been penetrated by any of the bullets that had struck her.
After pondering whether to wash up first or dispose of the clothing, Thyra climbed into the shower and turned it on to the hottest setting. It would have scalded a human, but to her it felt perfectly fine. She scrubbed herself down and cleaned her hair thoroughly.
Once she was done, she stepped out of the shower and toweled herself off. All of the blood had gone down the drain, and she'd need to make certain that she put some cleaning agents in there to dissolve any that remained. Best to leave no evidence that she'd ever been involved in a lethal altercation where she'd killed six men, just in case someone came looking.
That accomplished, she dressed in one of the shipsuits, bagged the clothing up, and took it back to engineering. There was a fabricator there that she suspected was of the same quality as the ones in the robotics laboratories, and it was time to experiment with it.
She interfaced with the computer running it, and determined that it did have a function to deconstruct anything placed inside of it and create a pattern for later fabrication. She didn't need a pattern of these items, so she turned the fabricator loose and had it deconstruct everything in the chamber. The raw materials that the clothes were made of would be stored for later reuse.
It was interesting watching through the clear side as the clothing disintegrated before her very eyes, torn apart by nanorobots too small for even her to see. In just a matter of a few minutes, it was all gone. There was no indication whatsoever that anything had ever been in there. That was perfect.
Now, she supposed it was time to see what the old man had bought. She'd already earned 8,750,000 credits, and she still had a gift to unwrap.