Suzie Drakes

Codename Dragon

Suzie Drakes

   She ducked her head as she stepped into the limousine behind her
charge. Her eyes flicked backwards as she landed on the seat, before the
door closed. She pulled her belt on as she reached over and did the same
for the senator, who always tried to ignore her rules.

   "What... Eugh. Get me out of here. Sick of all this." The man shook
his head, "Could do without your bullshit today, too."

   She failed to take the bait. Her eyes were focused on the mirror as
they peeled away, and a truck that had just entered the road.
Technically, they weren't breaking any laws. This was as public a road
as any, and there weren't any significant weight restrictions on it. The
truck's container was clearly empty from the height of the tires.

   "Next left." She ordered the driver, and the senator sighed and
rubbed his temples, "Why I have to deal with such a paranoid little -"

   She grabbed the back of his neck and shoved him flat as the back
window exploded into fragments. It had been bullet resistant, but as
that was a shotgun leaning on the mirror from the truck's cabin, it
didn't really stand a huge amount of chance.

   Unlike in games, shotguns really were an extremely good firearm, even
at a reasonable distance. Didn't help that the shooter wasn't use
buckshot, either. Deer shot. Didn't need to be an armour piercing round
to turn a window into shrapnel and her client into a screaming mess.

   She sighed and undid her belt, her hand checking the weapon at her
hip briefly, before she issued the next instructor to the driver, "Keep
it steady, take it on the M1, towards the Monash. Call it in, get them
to clear the left lane for us."

   Then she opened the door of the car, grasped the roof with a metallic
whine and swung up onto the top of the moving vehicle. She saw the
driver of the truck look at her as if she were crazy. The door slammed
painlessly on her fingers, still grasping the roof, a moment before she
launched herself forwards.

   She landed lightly on the front of the grill, her feet braced against
the bar, and one hand grasping the truck. A bullet whizzed overhead, and
she made an irritated face. Any reasonable person would just stop the
truck. Only a moron would start firing wildly with the chance of hitting
passing cars, with exactly no chance of actually hitting the target.

   They wouldn't stop the truck.

   She did not look forward to the maintenance on this one. She punched
through the front of the grill, and ruptured the radiator. She cringed
as she pulled back, ripping the latex from her arm and scratching at the
chrome lying underneath it.

   She didn't bother to see whether the morons were going to overheat
the engine before they realised what a brake was, and dropped underneath
the front. She skidded briefly before her feet found some holds, and
then she climbed down it slowly.

   Her earpiece buzzed, and she rolled her eyes, "Yes? What? Sort of
busy, here!"

   "What the hell are you doing, Dragon?" A voice came back through. She
could hear the whir of a fan cutting in and out as he spoke. He was
still in the office. So how would he...

   "Aw, crap. We made the news." She winced, and reached the end of the
truck. "Well, I need to stop this. So... I'll get back to you."

   "Dragon!" Her boss snapped as she flipped herself upright easily onto
the back. She swung lightly on the bars that kept the doors closed, and
then dragged herself up onto the roof and began crawling forwards
slowly.

   The roof dented beneath her more shiny hand, as she pulled the metal
taut. She paused and considered her options near the cab. Unlikely they
knew where she was. Two in the cab, maybe more in the trailer, but not
many.

   She looked up and saw the distant news chopper looking to close in on
one of the rarest things in Australian media. A police chase with a live
shooter. It wasn't that weapons were that hard to come by, it was just
that it wasn't something that was much of a problem.

   "My poor gears." She muttered to herself, before punching through the
roof of the cab and into the head of the shooter. The shotgun clatter to
the road and was lost. A hand tried to grab her wrist, and she rolled to
the side as a tiny hole punctured in the rooftop. 9mm.

   She ripped her hand free, demonstrating more strength than whoever
was holding on probably expected. She heard a thunk as they hit the
roof, right before she heard the brakes squeal, and the tires protest.

   She went tumbling down the front of the cab, before grabbing onto the
hole she'd made earlier. The truck's trailer swerved wildly as it pulled
to a halt. She heard a door kick open and dropped onto the ground
easily.