Chapter 9: the Dragon's lair.
With the rest of the team flanking her Nabiki stepped out of the lift into the club's red velour lobby. So far everything was going to plan but she still had a niggling premonition of danger.
Seeing their tattoo markings one wannabe triad stepped up to give them some lip, Laura bust his nose with a palm strike without even looking. They stepped over the groaning fool and proceeded into the bar proper.
It was heaving, slightly out of date techno tunes thumping through a massive bass system playing for a legion of dancers. The room was large and heavily stylised, Chinese lanterns and raised walkways giving an old world feel. Intermixed with this was the neon blue lights of the bars and a long mirrorewd window set over the ance floor. Every so often another batch of dry ice would pour from some dragon mouths set opposite it, covering the floor in a hovering mist.
Nabiki nodded at the stairs and together they moved through the throng. When the dancers caught sight of them they rapidly made way, some with a few snide comments but most with a look approaching panic.
Still in formation the quartet ascended the stairs, passing two bouncer-thugs along the way, and started across the walkway towards the mirrored office. By now every single one of them knew something was up.
Ranma whispered "stop" over the coms. Even as he did the window shattered outwards to reveal a dozen gun-wielding goons. "BOMBSHELL!" he ordered, grabbing Nabiki and tipping them both over the edge. Laura went the other way but Hiroshi was just not fast enough. He was hit by well over a dozen rounds, most were stopped from penetrating by the suit, only breaking ribs instead, but one hit him just above the eye and another passed through his open mouth. He was dead before he hit the ground.
As Ranma landed he pushed Nabiki at the bar, at the same time pulling his weapon from the case and launching a stun bomb from its underbarrel launcher. Laura had less compunction and sprayed the goons on the stairs with a stream of high energy rounds. They were literally ripped apart.
The Stun grenade burst on the roof of the office, throwing men clear, and into the now screaming crowd.
Nabiki for her part had ditched her case and was wildly spraying rounds at the people behind the bar. By the time she rolled over it there was only one man left there and he was fixedly staring at the ceiling, gaping hole in his chest. As she took cover and changed magazines she kept up a continual stream of swearing, this was not how this was supposed to go.
Ranma had moved to cover and was picking off the goons who were coming in from the entrance. A single round had hit him in the back as he turned but his suit had stopped it, and Laura had put a three round burst through the shooter.
Laura for her part was Taking cover behind a low wall, and mentally swearing just as hard as Nabiki. She popped up just long enough to launch a second stun bomb into the office and called for orders.
Ranma thought for a second. "Nabs, covering fire, Laura boost me to the walkway!" he ordered moving towards Laura.
"SHITSHITSHITSHITSHIT!" Nabiki swore, obediently popping up and firing at the crouching goons by the door. She was pretty sure she wasn't hitting any of them but she figured Ranma knew what he was doing. As it happened she was underestimating her weapon. The rounds were easily punching through the goons' cover and making a mess of the people beyond.
Perfectly timed with a new burst of dry ice Ranma was boosted straight up and onto the walkway. A couple of desultory shots came from a goon in the bar below but Laura soon 'educated' him on the value of discretion.
He ran, weapon readied, along the walkway, used it's rail as a springboard and leapt into the office.
A quick scan revealed a half dozen well dressed mobsters but no Armand. He put a trio of rounds into the guy slumped behind the desk, swept up the O'Neil hard drive sitting on the floor and called to the others. "Target has fled. Recent!"
Ranma moved quickly back to the walkway. "By the numbers on me!" he ordered, setting himself up to cover the room.
"Shitshitshit shitshitshit shitity-shit shit" Nabiki chanted as she leapt over the bar and ran for the stairs, only remembering her case when she was already there. She turned to go back but Laura motioned her on. At the top she dropped into a crouch as closely approximating Ranma's as she could. All the while she was aware of just how scared she was, of her heart threatening to pull clear of her chest and of the sudden clarity that she was seeing. "Go!" she ordered, knowing that Laura didn't really need to be told, and that the only reason any orders were being given long-hand was because she was on the 'run.'
Laura threw her own case up to the walkway and then went to retrieve Nabiki's case. It was at that moment a goon decided to be a hero. He stepped out from behind an ornamental fern and levelled his cannon sized pistol at her face. The next moment slowed to interminal length. She saw the hammer pull back, heard a series of shots and saw the goon thrown sideways. Ranma had nailed him in the face with a trio of rounds and the man's head just spread out across the room. His gun discharged harmlessly into the ceiling.
"Boss" she said, running for the walkway, "I am never going anywhere again without proper armour!" He didn't reply, instead waving her on past them to secure then Triad boss's private elevator.
As she did that Ranma motioned for Nabiki to join cover the fire arc and went to Hiroshi's body. He skated the cases along to Laura and then hefted his team-mate onto his shoulder, blood and gore dribbling over him as he did.
Nobody else tried anything and the three of them were able to steal the boss's black sedan and get clear even as the police response team arrived.
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Ranma was driving away, intent on getting some quick distance rather than going anywhere in particular. Next to him Nabiki was shaking with shock as her body came down from its near lethal encounter.
She had expected some gun-play but nothing to that extent, and had certainly never expected to have to shoot anyone herself. On the other hand she was feeling sort of good. The aftermath of the battle had brought all sorts of feelings and she was having a hard time sorting them out. Her body was feeling little short of fantastic. Her pulse was still racing and she felt as high as a kite. She could still see the barman's ruined chest, and the gun he had clutched in his hand, but the relief she felt was driving any guilt far far away. "Is it always like this. Afterwards I mean?" she asked Ranma.
"Yeah pretty much" he replied. "Still rushing?" he asked. She nodded. "An old guy tried to explain it to me once, he said 'it is only when we risk death that we truly appreciate life'" Ranma added with a mock old man accent. "Load of crap if you ask me but the rush sure is a kick eh?"
"Its making me feel really odd" Nabiki said.
"Me too" Ranma added, "and if we weren't so busy…." That was when Nabiki identified one of the feelings that was pulsing through her.
"Kami I'm horny" she said, half exclamation and half surprise. Ranma smiled at her and pulled her in for a deep kiss.
"Later" he whispered and went back to driving.
In the back Laura was trying hard not to notice the two lovers. She could have told them what the shrink told her, that what they were feeling was a biological imperative hardwired into nearly every living thing that fought for a mate but decided to let the couple work it out for themselves. And enjoy the feeling before Hiroshi's death brought them crashing back to earth.
"That sucked" Laura said, clearing her gun to load up a fresh mag. "How the fuck did they know we were coming?" There was a moment of silence as the other two pulled their brains back to the job at hand.
"Coms" Ranma said. Nabiki swore, and Laura looked blank for a moment before joining her.
"He may not be able to crack the code but the bastard must have been able to rig some sort of short range detector," Ranma said. Nabiki nodded.
"Wait" she exclaimed "this may work to our advantage. Laura give us that secure phone."
Laura handed her the phone and made a few coded calls. Minutes passed, and Ranma was forced to park in a multi-story. When she hung up she was smiling. "Got the bastard!" she swore. The other two looked over for an explanation.
"I got the Okinawa base, the west African listening station and the high Siberian to do a T-doppler comparison. Cross linked it with a signal variance set and-
"Okay" Ranma interrupted looking over at her, "you did some egg-head shit. But time is sorta a premium here."
"Fine" Nabiki pouted, "His detector is on the move, heading out to sea on the water's surface."
"Damn!" Ranma swore
"You can say that again"
"AND" Nabiki continued "I've arranged for the chopper to pick us up on top of this building" The other two looked at her, then back at each other.
"Damn she is good!" Laura said. "Far too good for you!"
"Oi!" he replied, starting up the engine again.
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Once again they were airborne and flying over the city. Once again Laura was swearing that Ranma did this just to torment her. She could cope with the Avenger dropships, could cope with the orbital insertions, even genuinely liked Zero gravity but there was something about the way helicopters were constantly one missed current from plummeting that really unsettled her.
Looking around the helicopter she could see the young couple whispering quietly to each other, presumably the same sort of thing her husband had said to her before she came on this mission. Maybe even the same sort of things that Hiroshi's girlfriend said to him. Hiroshi who was now lying in a black bag tied to the helicopter's floor.
For the sixth time she checked her SMG, more out of something to do than any need to recheck what she could do in hr sleep.
Finding the fugitive's vessel was proving to be harder than they had anticipated, and taking a lot longer. It wasn't really the pilot's fault they were operating under fairly serious constraints. The last thing X-Com needed was to be caught in an act of piracy.
Okay the last thing they needed was an alien armada turning up to wipe humanity from the face of the universe, but that wasn't due for ages yet.
"Found them Sir" said the co-pilot. "They are really moving"
"What in?" Ranma asked, coming back to the real world.
"Bad news Colonel it's a sub" the pilot said, "running quiet and fast cruise on the surface."
"Great so if we get too close they'll duck under and whoosh, no traitor." Laura spat. "Damn when I catch that shit I am going to hit him sooo hard!"
"Wait," Nabiki said "They have to know we are here right?" Ranma nodded. "So why haven's they submerged?" The two soldiers looked at each other.
"They don't think we can find them?" Ranma hazarded.
"So we don't find them" Nabiki said. "we miss them and go away…."
"Except we don't really cuz we're" Ranma prompted.
"Because YOU are in the water along their line of approach" Nabiki corrected.
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"This is a Very bad idea!" Laura pointed out, again. Ranma just smiled and finished belting on the harness. From the harness ran a very long cable and she was attached at the other end. They were both wearing their bounce packs under their armour and carrying their weapons slung on their backs. At Laura's insistence they also wore full helm's with air backups. Added to all this was still more cable and a jury-rigged hefty launcher each with winch attached.
The 'plan' was to string themselves out across the path of the sub. Allow it to hook them up and then reel themselves in as quietly as possible. From there they had breaching charges and would be fighting through the ship.
Strangely enough Laura was more than a little dubious about the whole prospect. Ranma was not helping much, his confident smile making things seem all the worse.
He kept smiling right up to the point that they were standing in the open hatch. THEN he said "You know this does look a little difficult." She was just about to shout at him when he pushed her out of the vehicle.
"AHHHHH!" she screamed all the way down, righting herself by instinct rather than conscious thought. "I am going to kill you Saotome" she said as suddenly she hit the water.
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They had floated there in the water for only a few minutes when the black bulk of the sub appeared through the darkness. It was travelling comparatively fast and straight The two of them had only moments to prepare themselves and then the floating cable caught the hydroplanes. The jerk that followed seemed to try to tear both of them limb from limb, and then they were being dragged along at approaching eighty miles an hour.
Even the normally professional master sergeant let out a loud oath.
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The slog up to the sub's surface was really hard going, by the time the two of them had gathered in the lee of the conning tower they were both drenched, stretched and very sore.
"That was a very bad idea" Laura mouthed to him. Ranma just smiled back as if to point out that it DID work.
She just ignored it and got on with setting her charges. They were about to blow the hull wide open and she was enjoying every moment of it. Ranma on the other hand was slightly more disconcerted. The last time he had been using a frame charge he had nearly blown her up and he wasn't entirely sure she wasn't still harbouring a grudge.
She set the timer, they retreated around the tower and crouched down in the spray.
With an almighty boom the charge turned night into day. It blew a massive hole in top of the vessel, and threw shrapnel high into the dawning sky. Even while the ringing of the hull was still dying down the pair of agents swung over the gap and dropped one after the other through the hole.
Able seaman Rick Mcandless had been having a good day. Now things were going wrong, the sun wasn't even up and someone had blown him up. His head was ringing like a brass bell and he was leaking blood from both his ears. Just as he was getting back up some black clad psycho dropped in the new skylight and he just had time to catch her smile before she smacked him in the face with her gun-butt.
Laura swung to cover her fire arcs. Nobody. She heard a was waiting for the double tap from Ranma when she realised that they would probably still be deaf from the explosion. Instead she hit the floor twice, hard. He responded with the 'carry on' signal the same way.
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The team in the control room never saw what hit them, only one of them even noticed the door open, then the stun bomb swept away all thought.
Ranma moved into the room following the detonation. All five crew were down. He stamped twice and received a stamped confirmation. A quick check revealed the cameras operational in all but one bay of the vessel and Ranma quickly identified that one as the most likely hide out of Armand.
The pair leapfrogged back through the vessel till they got to the door.
Laura blasted the lock, kicked the door and leapt aside. Ranma dodged into the empty doorway, and back again.
A stream of high energy bullets came through the gap, tearing through the wall opposite. Ranma And Laura immediately backed off, to be rewarded by seeing the area either side of the doorway riddled with holes.
"Stand Down!" Ranma ordered. "There is no way you are getting out of here a free man!"
"Encoulez-vous cochon!" Replied the voice. "I will kill you both."
"Aramand?" Ranma asked.
"No I am ze tooth fairy" Armand replied sarcastically
"Can't we just kill him?" Laura asked.
"Nah," Ranma replied reluctantly. "The prick has to sing before he croaks."
"OK" Laura replied, pulling a grenade off her bandolier. She crept belly down across the floor until she was within throwing distance. Then she threw it in, and it bounced straight out again.
"You throw like a girl" Ranma said, pulling her back.
"I am a girl dumbass" she said hitting him. "Its not charged. Now go kick his ass."
"Sure don't hit like one," Ranma smiled as the penny dropped and ran around the doorway. Inside Armand was just recovering from the cover position he had thrown himself into, just in time to get Ranma's booted foot across his face. As he went down the Frenchman got one last look at his assailant and a hefty kick in the gut to speed him into unconsciousness.
Laura came round the corner to see Ranma stepping away. "Hey when do I get a turn?"
"Go call the chopper" he ordered, righting the rebel.
As she left he noticed a satellite phone open on the table, he picked it up just in time to hear someone on the other end hang up.