"So, what do you think, Waif?" Ravage asked softly as the nervous-seeming wirehead bent low over the sidewalk. It was 3 pm local and they were just across the street from Preacher's former headquarters. A bright, late August sun shone down on them from a cloudless sky and the streets were filled with people going about their business in Calgary's core, an unseeing and ignorant herd surging from one point to another, seemingly without purpose.
But the ESET team leader and the others with him ignored the thronging Normals spilling around them as they examined the location the renegade's faint signature had been found outside of Preacher's office building. The team had split in two to make the hunting easier and Scorpion had accompanied Ravage and Waif to take a look outside the building while the others looked inside.
"A signature match," Waif replied with a nod, almost to reassure himself, his soft voice touched with the English pronunciations of a German native. He looked up at Ravage with watery blue eyes. "He was definitely here. But, . . ."
"But?" Ravage's eyebrow raised slightly. "You've found something else?"
"Ja, a second signature."
The ESET team leader's eyes narrowed thoughtfully.
"Confirmation of Duchesne's account that he had faced two of them in Preacher's office before the actual attack," he said thoughtfully, the other nodding in agreement. "According to Preacher's statement, Duchesne claimed to have killed the both of them approximately five minutes before the final assault on Preacher's network began."
"Duchesne obviously failed to kill the more powerful of the pair," Scorpion bit out, glaring up at the building, its damage clearly visible from where they stood. "A difficult thing, considering Duchesne was considered one of the best the Inner Council had to utilize." Her intense gaze swung over onto the frowning Ravage. "He taught you, didn't he, Ravage?"
Ravage glanced over at the dark skinned woman and jerked a quick nod.
"He was an instructor at the Brotherhood's Geneva complex before they started using him as a silver arrow." He turned his gaze to the building's blasted top floors, now draped in heavy sheets of concealing plastic and rope. "Definitely one of the best, known for his excellence in execution of his objectives. He very rarely made mistakes."
Scorpion snorted at that.
"I'd say this was a pretty big mistake, letting the renegade hardwire escape to come back and obliterate Preacher and his people," she commented dryly, a British accent giving class to her words, a holdout from the times when the Empire ruled her small central African country.
"And it cost him his life." Ravage chewed on the inside of his cheek thoughtfully. "Either this hardwire had more skills than we're aware of hardwires having, or he's much more powerful than even Preacher's report indicates." He looked down at the still kneeling Waif. "Besides the two signatures, anything else worthy of note, Waif?"
"Nein. Only that the hardwire's signature is much stronger than the other's, like he was doing something."
"Yeah, but what is the question!" Scorpion growled, glaring back up at the building with its new cap of plastic. "Certainly not admiring the rather dubious view."
"Setting watchers, most likely," Ravage answered, still chewing on the inside of his cheek in thought as Waif came to his feet without bothering to dust himself off. The skinny man glanced around nervously.
"Do ya think he left watchers to monitor this spot, Ravage?" he asked in a hoarse whisper, nervous eyes darting into the shadows.
"Not likely, Waif," the team leader replied, peering over at Scorpion. "Unless you get the sense that he's a bit on the paranoid side, Scorpion."
"No such thing," the woman answered in a tight voice. "Whoever this clown is, he had a very tight rein on his emotions and any other psionic emissions he was making. I am gettin' absolutely nothing extra on the psychic bands." Her face twisted with her customary rage.
"All I do know, is that he's going to pay for betraying his own kind!"
"Indeed," Ravage agreed dryly, his face an emotionless palette. "However I think we'll have to find this rogue first, Scorpion, before we can bring him to justice. So save the emotions for then, hey?" His eyes narrowed slightly. "Putting that aside, did you pick anything else up? Anything from the second psionic?"
Scorpion grunted non-committedly before shaking her head 'no', turning away with a sour expression painted on her face to stare back up at the building. Ignoring her, Ravage turned back to Waif.
"Well? Do we have enough of a signature to trace to a jump-in point?" Waif shook his head vigorously to the negative.
"Not from here, Ravage. Too much dispersion! I don't think he actually jumped to this spot, despite the signature. Maybe from somewhere close by, to avoid leaving traces in the concrete."
Nodding his understanding, Ravage turned to face the building himself.
- Tantalus, we've ID'd our man's signature outside. But we don't have enough to trace. How is it coming in there? -
The blocky woman turned from her survey of what was left of Preacher's office even as Agony began to probe along the shattered wall that lay between the office and the reception area. Just beyond that Hammer was holding the battered place together with a grim expression on his face as Viper made a molecule by molecule scan of the main battle site, just north of the main staircase leading down.
- We've got his signature in here as well, obviously, - she psyked back, miffed at the interruption. But Tantalus knew that she was easily outmatched by Ravage's hardwired power. Any sound from her and the lean ESET commander would personally flay the skin from her very bones, while she was still very much alive! Stifling the irritation as that image rolled across her mind's eye, she continued.
- I've got Agony checking the office, or what's left of it, for traces and Viper is probing the battle scene. We should have enough, between the two locations, to triangulate and get a fix on this guy! -
At that, Tantalus felt Ravage break contact and let herself swear softly under her breath, to release her pent-up frustration and anger. The blocky wirehead would have to be careful, though, to make sure it was shielded from Agony's hearing. The young hardwire would use the casual insubordination as leverage to get favors from her later, if Tantalus' frustration reached her ears. Even here, within an ESET team, there were politics! Then she was turning to Agony, who had just finished her probe.
"Anything?" she asked hoarsely.
"Nah!" Agony answered in a light, perky voice, her American accent unmistakable and cheerful despite the carnage and destruction all around them. "Whoever this guy is, he's way beyond just good. While it's completely obvious that a psionic took this place apart, with shockwave distortions, plasma burns all over the place and other stuff I can't even begin to categorize, it's as clean as dry-cleaned ginch. Not even a trace!"
Tantalus frowned. 'This hardwire was able to generate a literal storm of psionic battle techniques and completely level this place without as much as a trace of a signature that he was here??' she wondered silently to herself, pondering how such a thing was possible. Just then Viper stepped into what was left of the office, the bear-like Hammer right on her heels. The slender, athletic blonde was shaking her head in amazement.
"Find something interesting?" Tantalus asked softly and Viper brought her intense blue eyes to bear on the powerful-looking tactical psionic.
"No," she replied in a raspy, equally intense voice, a slight French accent coloring her words. "It is the lack of anything interesting that has me puzzled. This hardwire, whoever he is, must be so tightly wrapped that only intense psionic barrage by him would leave a signature of some kind."
She glanced over at Hammer.
"It was Hammer that found the warp signatures in the support beams out in the hallway that marked this renegade's presence here at all." She refocused on Tantalus and Agony, who was standing just behind the blocky psionic's shoulder. "Other than that, it might as well been a ghost that took Preacher's little love nest apart like it was made out of Popsicle sticks!"
"Our inability to find traces of this renegade indicates that either there's so much EM interference in this section of the building for one reason or another, that his signature's been masked." Tantalus' face darkened as she considered the other possibility. "Or he's so incredibly powerful that he has the ability to prevent his detection. Either way, it makes our job harder." She looked out the shattered windows.
"At least Ravage has found a trace of him outside! Else we'd have nothing for our efforts. We might be able to use that for something. And I think I have an idea of how we can do just that!"
Ravage frowned as he contemplated Tantalus' suggestion a few minutes later when the team reassembled on the street below.
"A psi virus? Tuned to home in on the renegade's signature? Sounds risky," he commented softly, looking over at his second-in-command. "If the virus spawns too quickly and begins to mutate, it could point us towards any wirehead with enough juice to bend a spoon!"
Tantalus shook her head in the negative.
"I don't think so, boss. We would build the virus with a self-destruct so that after a 24-hour period, it would simply terminate. And we would construct it with enough coherence that it would retain its signature-specific coding for the entire length of its life span. Once it locks onto the signature, it would emit a signal strong enough for our resident bloodhound, Waif, to home in on and voila! We'd have our renegade in the bag!"
"Takes all duh fun outta da hunt," Hammer grunted sourly, his beady eyes focusing on Ravage. As usual, he stood only a step away from Viper, as if he were some sort of ursine guardian angel.
But the blonde hardwire was as oblivious to his hulking presence as she was to the presence of several Normals walking by on the opposite side of the street. Instead she too focused her intense gaze on the ESET commander."
"Yet the idea has merit," she indicated before turning her attention to Tantalus. "How long do you think this virus will take to work, Tantalus?" The stocky psionic shrugged.
"It depends on the size of the trail the renegade has left behind," she declared flatly. "He isn't leaving much to go on. Certainly not enough for Waif, who's our best tracker." Tantalus glanced over at Ravage. "However, you must remember that the virus can detect a small amount of activity, even down to one or two nanosects." She smiled slightly. "Considering that's about the amount of signature the renegade has left us to work with, the virus certainly puts us in the ball park."
Ravage looked over at her, no expression on his plain face. Yet, Tantalus could sense her commander's thoughts boiling furiously with activity just behind his eyes. After a moment, he spoke.
"How about you, Scorpion? You and Agony seem to be the only ones that haven't commented on Tantalus' virus. Do you have an opinion?"
The powerful and intense black woman looked up from where she had been studying the ground, briefly making contact with Ravage before looking back down.
"I think it sounds risky and doesn't guarantee results," Scorpion began tightly. "We need to find and hit the renegade quickly, or he'll be gone before we have the opportunity to serve the Brotherhood's justice." She looked back up and every other team member could see a familiar fire burning in her eyes.
"But it sounds like our only option. I say create the virus and see if it works." Her eyes narrowed. "We certainly have nothing to lose."
"A valid point." Ravage commented dryly, looking over at Agony. "And what about you, Agony? Do you agree with Scorpion?"
The young woman shrugged, an unreadable expression on her face.
"To tell you the truth, I think this viral tech sounds hokey to me. No substantiation, no confirmation of the tech, nothing! I would like to know where Tantalus pulled this idea out of, other than her ass! Psi virus, . . . yeah, right! I say bag it, and track this guy the old fashion way. Once we find the bastard then we can pin him down and make him talk about how he managed to hide his trail so well."
Agony looked over at Scorpion with a frown appearing on her lips.
"I say we have lots to lose, unlike little Miss Congeniality over there. What if we do it and this virus thing doesn't work, huh? Then we look like shit in front of the other ESETs. Mindfire will lose credibility and it won't be long before some wireheads thinking they're hot shit will want to knock us off the top. I don't think this 'bug' is worth the trouble!"
At the blatant challenge to her opinion, Scorpion's eyes narrowed even further and the temperature began to drop around her as she began to gather energy.
"Prep school bitch! You know NOTHING about credibility. Or even honor and justice! I should crush you for the ignorant weakling that you are!"
"Try it, you spear-chucking fuck!" Agony snarled back, the schoolgirl innocence abruptly swept away by her true nature to reveal a truly dangerous being, her face twisting into a mask of rage even as the temperature plummeted around her as well, shields snapping into place on both women.
Before either could make a move, however, with an almost casual surge of power Scorpion was picked up and slammed into a nearby wall with enough force to snuff out her shield and hammer her into unconsciousness. In that same instant Agony found herself being knocked across the street, her shields holding long enough for her to bounce once before she was pile-driven into a wall on the far side. Then she too was unconscious.
"Let's not bicker, hmmm?" Ravage said mildly, a slight crinkling of his brow the only indication that he had done anything at all. "Arguing will get us nowhere. Tantalus, I've decided to go with your virus. It does seem to give us our only option, despite all the power that we have."
He smiled tightly.
"I don't care about the rather ethereal manner in which you obtained the concept and its associated information. Create the virus and let me know when you're about to release it." He glanced about the half circle of the remaining team members and then beyond them at the staring hordes of Normals that had staggered to a halt at the display of his power.
"In the meantime, let's make sure nobody remembers we were here."
****