The following afternoon
Sunday
They are such geeks!
A whole group of us had just returned from watching Episode VII – in 3D. Marty, Josh and Dave had talked non-stop since leaving their seats – Chloe and Stephanie had chipped in, once or twice and so had Hailee – but talk about a goddamn geek fest... How could anybody get themselves so engrossed in a damn movie – even one as good as that one was? Hit Girl was not a geek – damn it!
Oh, who was I kidding – Mindy Lizewski was a major geek for anything sci-fi! I had loved the movie and Dave had been stunned that I had actually managed to sit still for so long... Okay, sitting still was not one of my strong suits; I preferred action and damn did I get it with 'The Force Awakens'. Now, where could I get a cross guard lightsabre from... I could just see myself with one – or maybe a pair with purple blades... I would be unbeatable!
"You fantasising about having a purple lightsabre again?" Dave inquired.
"Huh?" I replied.
"You had that same expression you have every time we watch a Star Wars movie!" Dave laughed. "What a geek!"
"You're one to talk..." I retorted.
"At least, we're proud to be geeks!" Marty teased.
"I have a certain reputation to uphold..." I challenged.
"Fuck that – your reputation went out the window a long time ago!" Chloe laughed.
That night
8:00 P.M.
Safehouse F
"Mindy, please!"
"Okay! I just want you to be safe..."
"You're like an old mother hen!" Stephanie complained.
"Mindy – she's all kitted out and I've checked all her weapons and gear..." Megan insisted.
"It's her first time out – I want it to go well and well, not like Dave's..."
"Gee, just what I wanted to be reminded about!" Dave growled.
"Get over it!" I laughed.
"Come on..." Chloe grinned. "What's the worst that could happen?"
Two and a half hours later
10:30 P.M.
Central Chicago
I looked below me and shook off the beginnings of vertigo as I took stock of our situation.
The nine-year-old vigilante hung ninety stories above the ground.
I was hanging over the edge at a bad angle, so I could not pull her up and the combined weight of my combat suit and weapons were threatening to pull me over the edge too.
Earlier that night
8:26 P.M.
Safehouse F
"Fusion standby!" Hal called over the comms as she made a final check of the surrounding area.
I was astride my Ducati Multistrada, engine running and ready to roll. Beside me was Shadow, she was astride her Suzuki V-Strom, just as ready. Next over, was Jackal on his Tiger 800 XCA. Jackal was two-up. Behind him was an over-excited nine-year-old. Psyche was ready to rock and I knew that she would be safe with her British friend. Finally came Petra, on her trusty Fireblade.
Joining us for the night was 'Sabre' our updated variant of Beast. The 5.0-litre V8 Supercharged and heavily armoured, Range Rover Sentinel was being driven by Kick-Ass, with Wildcat riding shotgun.
"Fusion – area clear..." The steel door slowly opened revealing the curving concrete ramp. "Fusion – move out!"
The engines revved and I led the pack, followed by Jackal and Shadow, with Sabre behind and Petra at the rear.
We headed towards the centre of the City.
Along the way, we received a call from a snout – Worm. I went on with Petra to go talk with him, along with Psyche. We met up with my best informant, snitch, snout in a barely lit alley.
"Who's the little one?"
Apparently, Psyche took exception to being referred to as 'little'! The admittedly short vigilante flew at Worm and placed the point of a Sai in his crotch.
"Who, exactly, is little? Think very carefully before you respond, or I spear your chipolata..."
"I... I... Help me, Hit Girl!"
"You're on your own, pal!" I chuckled – Psyche could look after herself.
"I meant no offence, good lady..."
The man winced as Psyche applied a little pressure to her Sai.
"Just a slip of the tongue..."
"You just control that tongue in future!" Psyche growled. "Now, spill!"
"Yes, ma'am – err, what is she called?" Worm asked, tilting his head towards Psyche.
"I am Psyche and don't you forget it!" Psyche growled back.
I smirked beneath my mask – Psyche was ensuring that the man respected her, despite her diminutive size.
"Psyche told you to spill – so spill!" I growled.
"Yes – I have some information concerning the Genovese; would that be useful?" Worm asked, smirking a little.
The creepy bastard obviously knew that I would be very interested in anything that concerned the Genovese. Worm also knew that I hated to be led along.
"Continue..."
"I have the location of their offices in the Willis Tower..."
I growled.
"The 97th floor – suite 9750. Anthony Genovese is there, right now!"
"My normal terms and conditions apply – if the information is good; I pay. Conversely, if it is bad; you die!"
"You should really get that printed up!" Worm quipped.
"Don't give her any ideas!" Petra growled.
As soon as Worm had left, I informed everybody about what had been said.
We could not pass up the chance to find out more about the Genovese family. However, the Willis Tower would be a tough nut to crack – the security was second to none and there was no ready escape from the place.
I left Battle Guy and Hal to worry about that while we headed towards Chicago's tallest building.
Forty minutes later
Safehouse F
"We have access!" Battle Guy called.
On the large screen before him a three-dimensional rendering of a skyscraper appeared. Hal selected several sections which zoomed in on another screen. The first floor lobby, the 97th floor and the elevator shafts.
"We control the elevators – local access is locked out!" Hal advised.
We left our vehicles down an alley across the street and under the watchful eyes of Jackal. We entered the South Franklin Street lobby and were met by the security guards there.
"Sorry, you need to be on 'the list' to be allowed access – even vigilantes..."
"Check 'the list', pal!" Wildcat growled.
Everybody and everything that arrived at the tower had to be logged into the iVisitor system – and we were – thanks to our resident hackers!
"Okay – please don't make too much of a mess!" The shift supervisor said as he waved us through.
"Well done, guys!" I growled to the two computer geeks back at the Safehouse.
We took one of the 104 elevators in the tower up to the 95th floor at 1,200 feet-per-minute, changing once.
10:08 P.M.
The 97th floor
We exited the elevator and turned to the left, Kick-Ass leading, with Petra to his right and Psyche behind him. Wildcat was beside Psyche – I followed at the rear with Shadow.
I had seen the girl training and I knew that she could fight.
However, I had not yet seen her kill. We had not really talked much about that aspect of her life. Cathy had touched on it in their discussions, but that was all. Stephanie knew how to use her weapons, that was obvious.
From a vigilante point of view, I was keen to see how she reacted to taking a life, which was not an easy thing to do, no matter what the movies depicted.
..._...
At the end of the elevator lobby were a pair of glass doors. There was no visible activity, but then gunfire erupted from behind us as two men opened fire with pistols. The bullets did not penetrate our armour.
Kick-Ass went ahead with Wildcat, Psyche and Petra, while Shadow and I engaged the Sicilian guards. We were definitely in the right place! Shadow dropped both men with four double-taps from her FN Five-seveN pistol. More men appeared from a passageway to the left. We pushed forwards, gunning them down.
Kick-Ass kicked open the locked glass doors, which shattered at his kick.
"Knock, knock!" He bellowed.
The two young girls headed forward, pistols up. There was movement at the far end of the corridor which ran past several glass fronted offices. I kept watch over the entrance, guarding my colleagues rear.
I could hear the gunfire from the other side of the floor – so much for a stealthy attack!
I was having fun, my first attack as a vigilante!
The adrenalin was flowing and it gave me a strange feeling, like I was high on it – I loved it. It must have been the danger ahead of me. I must have been distracted with my thoughts as we moved slowly past empty, glazed offices. We were about to reach the point where the corridor turned to the right when something struck me from the side.
We flew through an archway.
Psyche was struck by a large man.
Another man thrust me against a wall. Two more attacked Kick-Ass. I triggered my claws and made my attacker regret his actions as blood flew across the nearest glass partition – that was actually really cool!
I moved to help Psyche and saw her being thrown towards the windows and she hit with such force that I thought she might actually go straight through and plunge to her death – instead she bounced back and hit the floor.
I kicked the man in the kidney and he went down on one knee, trying to regain his breath.
I ran down the corridor and saw Kick-Ass putting down his last man.
To my left I could see that a man was on his knees. Psyche jumped up from the floor and landed on his back, down on one knee. She drew a Sai from her right boot and flipped it around before bringing it down fast into the nape of the man's neck. The man stopped struggling immediately and dropped like a sack of cement as Psyche rolled off the corpse.
"I think he got the point!" Psyche quipped in her 'cool as a cucumber' British accent which actually sent a chill down my spine.
I looked over at Kick-Ass who just shrugged. I turned back as Psyche wrenched the Sai from the man's neck, cleaning it off. Wildcat shook her head and we all headed back towards the elevators – our part of the suite was clear.
After wading our way through the guards, we found that the cunt had gone.
The guards had been a distraction so that Anthony Genovese could make use of the fire stairs. I kicked open the door and ran down the stairs.
"He's running – he's on the 95th floor!" I called.
I thundered down the stairs, with Shadow close behind. Below us, I heard a door kicked open and I heard a radio call.
"Kick-Ass and girls are on the 89th floor, heading up!"
They had taken a shortcut in the elevator. I heard shooting and knew that Genovese had been cut off.
"He's running onto the 90th floor, towards the rooftop!" Petra called.
I kept heading down and then my heart sank as Hal called us.
"CCTV at the tower shows a helicopter approaching the roof at the 90th floor!"
Shit – he was going to get away. Kind if reminded me of that bastard D'Amico – he had escaped from a tower in a fucking helicopter, too.
I burst through the fire door and found myself in a large open area. I could see various contraptions that I figured had something to do with washing the windows on that side of the tower. Kick-Ass was fighting with three men, Wildcat was removing her claws from another man, while Psyche was kicking Anthony Genovese himself. Petra was struggling with her own cunt near the steel door that opened out onto the 90th floor rooftop.
I could see somebody over by the steel door, near to a control panel.
The door began to open.
As soon as it had raised two feet, Anthony Genovese kicked away from Psyche and rolled under the door. He was closely followed by Psyche, a pistol in her hand. By the time I reached the door I could hear the throbbing sound of a helicopter close by.
Outside it was cold and breezy. I could see the bright flashing lights of a small helicopter and the silhouettes of two people running towards it. The smaller silhouette was obviously Psyche. I could not fire in case I hit the helicopter and sent it plunging to the street, ninety stories below us.
I ran out towards the helicopter and the young vigilante.