Making the Grade (Omnia Online Series Book 2) (17 page)

Drake paused to wait for a response.

It took a few seconds before the guards responded, and Drake wondered if they were as nervous as the guard he found at the building’s exit.

“Never heard of a marshal, and I don’t know you.” replied one of the guards. Drake didn’t know how many there were, but he’d only heard two voices.

“I’ll come around this corner with my hands up and empty, as long as your not pointing a gun my way.  I was recruited and sent in by the Governor to help deal with this problem.” Drake wished he had some way to see around this corner, just to get an idea of how likely he would be to get shot.

“Still, don’t know you, and I’m not going to put away my gun and let you shoot me.  Already lost a friend today, I’m not taking chances.” said the voice.

‘Damn,’
thought Drake,
‘I don’t want to have to fight the hospital guards to get to the A.I.’.

Drake thought he would try another tactic. 

“Do you remember a few weeks back hearing about some girls rescued from pirates?  I was part of that, it’s part of the reason the Governor trusts me to take care of this rogue A.I. problem,” said Drake.

“The what?” Now the voice sounded even more stressed, but Drake thought the new tension was for a different reason.  He hoped that getting the guards to focus on the problem in front of them by mentioning the A.I. would help them concentrate on the real threat, and not on trying to kill him.

“You mean no one told you about the rogue A.I., sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but I was hunting it down when it went to ground here.  So now I need you to let me through so I can deal with it before things get really screwed up,” said Drake.

He was giving them information, hoping to sound both knowledgeable and confident in his ability to perform his job.

“I’m coming up, don’t shoot, or you’ll have to deal with the A.I. alone.  Or wait until it takes over the city, and brainwashes you and your families.  I’m sure the Navy will show up, but if the city is lost will they fight for it or just drop a bomb?”  asked Drake, trying to lay the problem out in a way that would make him more a savior than a threat.

Drake then rounded the corner slowly.

One of the guards shot him.  Drake took a shot to the chest that spun him backward, out of site and onto the floor of the landing he occupied. 

‘So much for diplomacy,’
he thought.

Drake was knocked down but not out.

His hands were up and empty when he went around the corner, but he now pulled out his heavy blaster.

There was shouting between the guards on the next landing, but Drake decided to add his own warning.

“You bastards better not be planning on coming down, because if I see either of you, I’ll fire first this time.  What kind of asshole shoots a man coming to help them with his hands up and empty anyway?” demanded an irate Drake.

Drake backed down a couple steps of the stairs so that he could cover the landing he was on before.  Then he pulled his carbine and backpack off his shoulder. 

He took out his medical kit and injected himself with a military grade nanite booster, then he examined the wound to his chest.

He was hit, but it appeared that the guard who shot him wasn’t packing a very heavy blaster.  His armor was designed to absorb about 30 damage so the damage to his chest, this time, was actually less than what the man in the woods did with a club.

Drake thought,
‘Good armor… Damn, and I just got it fixed too.’

Drake continued to listen and watch while he examined his armor.

Drake sighed at the damage to his armor it bothered him more than the injury to his chest. 

Drake estimated that only 10 to 15 points damage were take off his 300 health points, by the part of the blaster bolt that got through his armor.  The nanites would have him back in shape in no time, but his armor… that pissed him off.

The yelling had died down. So Drake decided to try one more chance.  Then he would have to figure out another way of dealing with his problems.

Drake holstered his blaster pistol, replaced his backpack and readied his carbine.

“Ok, assholes that shoot people with no weapons in their hands, it’s your move.  Do I come up there or do you come down here?  I’ve just got over playing nice, just wanted you to know…” Drake called out.

“Sorry, Urson said it was an accident.” said a voice.

“Well, Urson can explain it to the police then once this is over.  I’m sure the penalty for shooting a Marshal in the line of duty is light, maybe five or ten years of service?” replied Drake.

Now Drake heard the other voice, “Oh shit no, I can’t do service time Ash, what will my family do?”

Drake continued as if he hadn’t heard, “Or we could move past this as an accident and deal with our real fucking problem, do you understand me?” In the end, Drake was using his loudest voice, just under a full out yell.

“I’m going to try this again, but this time, if I see a gun pointing at me, I’m shooting first.” said Drake.

This time, when Drake rounded the corner, neither guard was pointing a gun or trying to kill him.

The man previously called Ash had a name tag bearing the name Aled Ashburn.

Ash said, “Sorry, I’m sure it was a mistake, were a bit jumpy, and what you said about an A.I., it scared Urson here.”

Drake had to decide what to do next. It would have been nice to have some support, and he didn’t want to run into any more guards without someone who could vouch for him.  The problem was, he just couldn’t trust a man so nervous that he already shot an ally once.

“Listen, right now I’m pissed.  It might have been a mistake, but I can’t trust a man with a nervous trigger finger at my back.  Urson, I’ll forget anything happened, but in return, I need you to head down to your security office and report in, tell them I’m here and with Ash.  Let them know that I plan on moving in to deal with the A.I. and it’s minions.” said Drake.

Before the man could speak or move Drake continued, “Oh and leave any restraints you have with Ash here, I think there are six to eight of these guys, and I only have three sets.”

Urson looked at Ash who gave him a nod.  Drake guessed that Ash was the senior of the two, he was definitely the more stable.

Drake watched while Urson went down the stairs after handing Ash a set of cuffs.  They weren’t the disposable kind that Drake used but some type of black composite wrist cuffs with a key.

While the guards were getting themselves sorted out, Drake was thinking about the problem of communications.  As he thought about the guards comm failure, it also dawned on him that this was the real reason he got shot, poor communications.

He also wondered if the hacked comm system the guards used was being used against them.  If the A.I. controlled the buildings electronics; the comms, cameras, and anything else the guards relied on, could be turned against them now.

“Ash, can you tell me what’s been going on?  I’m about forty minutes behind on events here in the hospital.” Drake asked the remaining guard.

“I don’t know much myself.  I was at my duty station on the main floor of the building when it started.  There was a call put out by one of the guards at the emergency entrance, with what sounded like blaster’s being fired.” replied Ash.

“The Assistant Director of Security ordered most of the guards to form up at our rally points.  That’s the place where we’re supposed to go in case of certain types of emergencies.  This is my rally point, and only three people showed up here.  Then the comms went dead, and we couldn’t get any directions.”

“Doreen, she was the only team lead to show up, said that we should move forward to make contact with the guards near the emergency room.  So we, Urson and I, followed her down the hall and around the corner.  We were careful, but they seemed to expect us since they were waiting and had a trap set.”

“Doreen was on point, she yelled for us to retreat and then something that sounded like ‘ambush close’ then she charged the invaders.  She seemed to be trying to get close to the attackers…  But even as we were obeying her order to retreat, we saw that she’d been hit by multiple shots.” said the guard.

“Sorry about Urson, he’s new, and Doreen was a mentor to him, it really shook him up,” Ash concluded.

“Sounds like she must have been in the service at one point, I think that‘ambush close’ thing she yelled was an automatically trained response.” replied Drake.

“Yeah, she was a corporal in the Marines before she came to work in the hospital.  She was my lead when I started working here three years ago,” said Ash.

Drake sensed that Ash would like to take some time to grieve the loss of his friend, but Drake wasn’t sure they had the time right now.

“Ok, Ash.  Is it ok to call you that?  Just call me Drake by the way.” said Drake.

At the guard's nod, Drake continued, “Like I said the real enemy is a rogue A.I., which is why your comms are screwed.  It’s likely your comm gear is even now being used against us, and maybe why you fell into an ambush.  I would like you to remove any equipment you have that’s tied to the hospital's security and remove any batteries from them.” said Drake.

The guard looked surprised at first, then thoughtful, by the time Drake was finished making his request Ash was already taking the power cell out of his handheld comm unit. Ash then took off his employ badge and left it all in the corner of the landing out of the way.

“I can’t pull the power cell from the badge, but we use employee I.D.’s to track people's movement throughout the building.  If the A.I. hacked that system, then it will know where everyone in the building is, including patients,” said Ash.

Drake nodded, this was useful information.

“Ok,” said Drake, “just remember, anything electronic is our enemy, I’ll take the lead.  Shoot and kill any cameras or bots.  I know that may sound odd, but anything in this building could be used to track us.”

Drake’s companion nodded again, he was glad that Ash seemed to be a reasonable man.  If he had started arguing at this point, Drake would have had to leave him behind.  He still had to figure out a way to pass the word to the rest of the hospital security about being tracked…  If they weren’t being hunted right now…

Drake didn’t like the idea, but he could only be in one place at a time so he would push on and hope to bring an end to this mess his assignment was turning into.

Drake looked through the vertical glass window in the door leading into the alcove from the stairs.  Seeing no one, he pushed the door open a crack to make sure the wall beside the door was clear too.

There was no one in the alcove, that contained the stairs and lifts.

Drake hoped that most of the people who were able had already left the building.

Drake cautiously approached the hall.  As he did so, he could hear no noise from either direction.

Drake took a look around the corner, and south down the hallway that eventually lead to the emergency room.  The hall was clear of any people.

Then he remembered to check for cameras, he could see three, pointing to where he now stood.  One down the hall in either direction and one in the alcove he now shared with Ash.

Drake pointed to the nearest camera, and tried to indicate that Ash should shoot it.  Then he turned into the hall to shoot the two cameras there.  He hit the first camera with a shot from his carbine, and it burst into pieces.  Drakes second shot was a near miss, but his third destroyed the last camera Drake could see in the hall pointing in his direction.

While Drake was taking care of the hall cameras, he could hear Ash firing at the nearest camera just above them.  Drake heard two shots, with the second one being rewarded with falling pieces.

Drake took another look down the hall.  There was a door just twenty meters away on the right that looked torn apart. 

Drake looked around the alcove he was in. Yes, there was a red emergency box that was broken, which looked like it might have held a fire ax.

Drake remembered the first guard saying something about a fire alarm, and wondered if the A.I. was having its people collect any fire ax they could.  Since pulling one would have set off the alarm.

Drake decided that he needed to take a look in the room on the right, since he didn’t want an enemy at his back with an ax.

“Ash, was that door smashed in like that the last time you were through here?” asked Drake.

“No, that’s the door to the psych ward.  I would have noticed if it was even open since it’s locked down at all times,” replied Ash.

Drake nodded and started heading for the broken door.

Drake looked into what he had thought was a room, which turned out to be another hallway.  This one was usually secured, but the door to this hall was chopped to pieces, and the remains of the door were hanging by a broken hinge.

Drake could see no one in the corridor.  But he did hear some sounds coming from around a corner about another forty meters away.

As Drake moved down this hall, he noticed all the doors were closed, and had a panel next to each.  The panels all had a red light glowing.  Drake figured these doors were all locked.  When he turned to point to a door and give Ash a questioning look, the guard just nodded and gave a hand sign that Drake didn’t recognize.  But since the guard didn’t look concerned, he moved on in the direction of the noise.

As Drake neared the corner, the sound of an ax striking wood grew louder.

Drake took a quick look around the corner, and could see two people in the hall.  One was a male Elf, who was swinging an ax at a door, while the other, a male Karurian stood and watched the progress.  They were about twenty meters away down the perpendicular hallway.

With all the noise, Drake was unconcerned about being overheard.  So he turned to Ash and said, “I’m going to try to stun these guys, if they get withing ten meters of me, or bring out a weapon shoot to kill.”

“Oh, and I should warn you, it may take a lot to bring one down, they seem to act like their on drugs or something,” said Drake.

While talking, Drake slung his carbine and took out the stunner which was loaded with the electric stun darts.

After Ash had given him a nod that seemed a little nervous, Drake stepped out into the hall crossway and took aim at the Elf still swinging the ax.  He wasn’t noticed at first, which surprise Drake a little since his armor’s camo wasn’t active yet.

After taking careful aim at the Elf, Drake pulled the trigger.  The first shot hit the man in the side of his chest while he was bringing his arm up to take another swing with the ax.

The Elf stumbled and went to one knee.  The dart was designed to unleash a devastating amount of energy, the Elf should have dropped to the floor and been unconscious for a few minutes, but he seemed merely badly dazed instead.

Drake didn’t have the time to consider the effect of the dart because as soon as the dart struck home, the Elf’s Karurian partner turned and aimed a previously unseen blaster at Drake.

Three shots seemed to go off in near simultaneity.

To Drakes immediate left, Drake heard the sound of a blaster being fired.  The Karurian fired a shot just after Ash and Drake managed a shot of his own.