Crusade For Vengeance (Dark Vengeance Book 2) Read online

  “Clothes for Olympus,” dumping half of the bags in Hanna’s lap. “I pulled holos from the datanet of what people are wearing in the Ghettos and Towers. The high end stuff I got Trovare to get her hands on. The rest I picked up from around here.” Trovare was Sneaker’s Procurer and specialised in getting hold of whatever the gang needed. Often including clothes the Privileged would wear for Jobs and Heists.

  “Good idea.” Hanna looked though the various bags and pulled some of the clothes out to have a look. “It’ll be easier if we’re ready to go as soon Sneaker manages to get a ride together for us. I don’t think Valerie will want to wait around.”

  “True, and besides, I wasn’t busy sitting and staring at my gun.” Deni said as she sat down on a comfy chair matching the sofa.

  “You caught that, eh?”

  “Yep, and the other three times you’ve been doing it. What’s on your mind?”

  “It’s five actually.”

  Deni just raised her eyebrows. “Fine, it’s five, don’t try and divert me. What’s up?”

  Sighing, Hanna knew she would not be able to get round it, without asking Deni flat out to drop the subject, and she didn’t think she wanted to. If she couldn’t talk about it to Deni, who else was there?

  “It’s leaving Blaze. There’s a real possibility we won’t be coming back, even if we do survive Valerie’s crusade. She got me thinking I have unfinished business.”

  “Ah. Cest,” Deni said with an understanding nod.

  “Got it in one.” Hanna picked up the pistol again, automatically ejected the magazine, which went straight back onto the table. “How can I leave after what he did to my Mum?” Hanna could feel the tears at the edges of her eyes.

  “I hate to say this, Hanna, but is it worth it? Is she worth it?”

  Hanna shrugged. “I don’t know. It was never like Valerie’s family. We lived in a tiny flat. Dad was a Whore who got killed by one of his Jane’s. Mum was so high she didn’t even notice the body for a week. I tried to move him, but he was too heavy and I was too small. Mum wouldn’t listen to me.

  “Life was shit. I know. I’d never say otherwise, but you know sometimes, just sometimes, Mum would be clean and she’d hug me, call me beautiful. Everything would be right for a day or even an hour. He took that away. Cest didn’t have to kill her. So she puked on his car? What does that matter? It’s because of him I ended up with Tern. Why shouldn’t he pay for it?”

  “I can’t argue with you, Hanna. If there was a chance to do something about my people, I’d take it, but Granddad couldn’t tell me who it was, so there’s nothing I can do. I will say this. Ask Valerie. She’d do it without a thought and Cest would be dead within an hour. If not her, then Troll and Barney, you know they’d take the contract and only charge you a night’s beer in the Sun.”

  “I can’t ask Valerie. After the last month, if a dark haired woman Enforcer leaves another pile of bodies, particularly this close to home, we’ll have the Police breathing down our necks. As for Troll and Barney, Sneaker would never go for it. The last thing he wants is a Gang war, certainly not with Valerie about to leave. They’re too high profile and everyone knows they’re on Sneaker’s Crew. Cest’s Boss would have to declare war.”

  “So what then?” Deni demanded. “You can’t just walk in there and shoot him. They’d see you coming a klick off. You’d be dead before you were anywhere near him.”

  “Don’t you think I know that?” Hanna ran both of her hands through her long, light brown hair in exasperation. “It’s why I’ve been sitting here this whole time. I’ve been trying to come up with some sort of plan. Some way in and I can’t think of anything. I can’t leave with this still undone!”

  Sitting forward, Deni rubbed her face with her hands. “Alright then,” she chewed her lip as she always did while she was thinking. “We run this like any other Job. Valerie wants us to step up, so we step up. I’ll case Cest’s joint. You Hack whatever system he has. We get our info, then we plan the Job. Do you think we can get into the Ops room while Valerie’s not about?”

  The Operations room was right next to Valerie’s office, but she was off doing her marathon runs every day.

  “Yeah. Valerie keeps Sneaker and me in the loop on her movements. That’ll be easy.”

  Deni stood. “OK, I’ll head out now. Cest doesn’t know me and I haven’t been over to the Incesu estate for years. It should be safe enough. I’ll do an over-night and crash in one of the squats nearby. Meet back in the morning?”

  “Yeah, thanks,” Hanna said as she got up. “I’ll get down to my office and start my systems running.”

  Nodding Deni headed to her room. “Don’t mention it. I need to get changed into street clothes and get my gear. Make sure you have the coffee ready when I get back.”

  “No fear there. Deni?”

  The auburn haired girl turned back to her friend. “Yeah?”

  “Be careful.”

  Smiling, Deni nodded seriously. “I will.”

  ***

  Leaning back in her chair, Hanna rubbed her eyes and looked at her screen’s chrono. It read 5.34 am and she knew she needed sleep. Her programs and worms were busy all night, teasing information out of any system in and around Cest’s building. Stretching her arms above her head, Hanna couldn’t stifle the yawn engulfing her.

  For probably the hundredth time, her eyes strayed to the icon set at the top left hand corner, a heart with a time stamp next to it. Unable to make a com call, in case she blew her cover, Deni was instead inputting a code into her wristcomp. It triggered a simple signal, disguised as a data check, to Hanna’s system and told her, her friend was still alive.

  The time currently read 3.46 am and it was the longest interval Deni hadn’t checked in. Hanna hoped it was because she decided to get some sleep and for no other reason. The sun was due to come up any minute and wake Deni. If she didn’t hear by 6.00 am Hanna would send Valerie and to blazes with the consequences.

  Trying to put it out of her mind, Hanna reviewed what she found. There was a true wealth of information and, if the Inferno PD gave a Tofu’s ass what happened in the Ghettos, Hanna had enough to put Cest away for life. Stuff like financial information on his operation, who his suppliers were and even a list of clients. The idiot went as far as recording some of the beatings he gave those customers who didn’t pay.

  So much information, but Hanna wasn’t sure if there was anything she could use to kill him. There he was more circumspect. He never dealt directly with the actual customers, unless it was to enforce his will. All the deals were done by the runners and holders watched over by Enforcers. Cest didn’t come out of his building very often and Hanna could see no pattern to it.

  Something tickled her brain and she wasn’t sure what. There was something in what she had just been considering and her brain, in its tired state, was trying to tell her. The Enforcers. That was it. Hanna pulled the names she obtained from Cest’s files, cross referencing them with their own people. There. Shade worked with two of Cest’s people previously, Barclay and Twilight. It was a very good idea of Sneaker’s to get full back ground information from everyone, particularly who they ran with in the past.

  Checking the roster, Hanna smiled when she saw the wily old fox was on duty upstairs, watching over the Dawning Sun. Glancing again at the heart icon, it still had not changed from 3.46 am. Tightening her jaw in worry, Hanna was about to head upstairs, when it blinked once and changed to 5.46 am.

  Hanna let out a breath she didn’t realise she was holding. Now things seemed to heading in the right direction she left her office. A glance across the hall confirmed Valerie was not in. She was probably at her small flat across the road, in bed. Hurrying up the stairs from the basement, Hanna went through the security door and into the dark and dingy bar.

  Tatiana had the overnight shift and the bartender nodded to Hanna as she approached the bar.

  “Early or late today, Hanna?” she asked pleasantly.

  “Late one.
I’ve been up all night checking over some programs. Can I have two coffees please? Deni’s been up as well and should be back soon.”

  “No problem. To take away or staying in?”

  “In. We’ll be downstairs.” Tatiana nodded and turned away to the coffee machine. Hanna looked around. Shade sat in the booth reserved for whichever Enforcer was on duty. The slight grey haired man, saw her looking at him and cocked his head inquisitively.

  Trying for a mildly surprised expression, as though she had not expected him to be there, but glad he was, Hanna went over.

  “Hi Shade. I’m glad I bumped into you. There was something I wanted to talk to you about.”

  “Of course. Anything for the Bosses.” He waved her to the seat opposite and Hanna blushed slightly as she sat down. She was widely regarded as the number three in the gang, after Sneaker and Valerie. It was not something she was really comfortable with.

  “Erm, well... Sneaker asked me to do some background checks for the recruitment drive. Your name came up against a couple of people. What can you tell me about Twilight and Barclay?” They were currently trying to expand their pool of Enforcers and it seemed a good cover story.

  “Really?” Shade leaned back and rubbed his stubbled grey chin. “Twilight and Barclay?” his eyes clearly said he wasn’t buying it. Hanna tried to keep her expression to one of an earnest worker doing what her Boss told her. Not that she really had any experience of earnest work, so she could see why it wasn’t working.

  “Weellll. I couldn’t recommend either of them.” A twinkle in the man’s eyes told Hanna he was willing to play along. “There’s no way Carter would sign them off, that’s for sure.”

  “They’re no good then?” It was difficult to keep the hope out of her voice.

  “I didn’t say that,” Shade shook his head. “They get the job done, but Twilight’s too brutal and will often go too far. Barclay just doesn’t have any discipline. Both can shoot and aren’t afraid to get their hands dirty. It’s been a while, but when I ran with them, they both weren’t shy about using Fuzz either.” Neither Coca or Poppy plants could grow on Blaze, but the original colonists soon found native plants that worked just as well. The two most common drugs were Blank and Fuzz.

  “You’re right, Valerie wouldn’t go for them. Thanks, Shade.” He smiled back at her as she left the booth. Picking up the coffees from the bar, she thanked to Tatiana and headed downstairs.

  Placing Deni’s coffee to one side, Hanna got back to work with renewed vigour, to see if she could find any other bit of useful information. She was so engrossed, the time went by without her realising. She almost jumped out of her chair when someone placed a hand on her shoulder.

  “Whoa, Hanna. How many have you had?”

  “Blazes, Deni!” Hanna practically shouted. “Don’t sneak up on me like that!” Deni stood there with her coffee in hand. Fortunately the mug was still sealed and didn’t spill everywhere.

  “Yeah I was sneaking. Hah. You were in your zone. A bomb would‘ve gone off without you noticing.”

  “Alright, alright and it’s my first if you must know.”

  Deni dropped into one of the other chairs and propped her feet up on the desk.

  “You and your worries. Caffeine isn’t Fuzz you know. It’s perfectly safe to drink a whole three or four cups a day.”

  “You can talk,” Hanna shot back. “I know you’re still sleeping on the roof at least one night a week. Did you find a nice comfy spot?”

  “I like to sleep outdoors on occasion,” replied Deni with a shrug. “So what? That’s something I like about our new place. Windows.”

  “You have yours open all the time don’t you,” Hanna said smiling.

  “I love the breeze as I sleep. How did you get on? Find anything we can use?”

  “I found lots of things, but I don’t know if any of it’s useful yet. What about you?”

  “The same, I think,” Deni stretched and yawned loudly. “How about we type up our notes and get some sleep. After we’re rested, and our brains are back up to speed, we can go over each other’s stuff and see what we can come up with.”

  “That’s a good plan. I’ve set the maps, holopics and names I’ve found, on that terminal. You can tag whatever you saw for your report.”

  “Excellent,” Deni dropped her feet back onto the floor and swung round to the terminal. The girls got to work.

  ***

  Six hours later, they were back in Hanna’s office, reading through what the other found. The remains of a thirty centimetre long bacon, egg and sausage baguette, sat in front of each of them. Hanna finished Deni’s report and leaned back. She thought through what she read and compared it to her own findings.

  “He’s good,” Deni said from the other chair.

  “Yeah. No way would he have been able to survive for over twenty years if he wasn’t.”

  “He’s stayed as a Dealer though. Hasn’t moved up to a Boss. Most people his age are either dead or running things, like Sneaker.”

  “He must have done something wrong or he isn’t trusted enough,” Hanna mused. “If we were going after his territory, whatever it was would be useful, but it’s too long term for me.”

  “Yeah.”

  Drumming her fingernails on the desk, Hanna stared at the blank wall in front of her.

  “OK. Let’s look at what we do know.” Entering a couple of commands, she projected a map of the Incesu estate onto the wall. “Here’s the estate, housing only and Cest has full control of the drug trade inside. It backs onto the Workhardt mega factory, where most of the residents work, and has the speedway buffering it on one side with the power relay on the other.”

  Deni leaned forward in her chair. “Right, so it only has three access points for wheelies and they’re all on the one side. There’s a pedestrian entrance to the factory, but with their security, he wouldn’t be getting them involved. Can you put the Stash and Bank houses up?”

  “Yep, here we go. There they are, at opposite ends of the estate. Product goes into the Stash once a week. Money leaves the Bank just as regularly, but on a different day.”

  “From what I saw, the holders would get the drugs from the Stash. Junkies gave their money to the runners before going to the holders to pick up their fix. Enforcers collected the cash from the runners regularly. At the end to the day, it was all deposited at the Bank. I didn’t see Cest come out at any point. He didn’t need to.”

  “We can’t go in. He’ll be too heavily protected,” Hanna said shaking her head. “We need to draw him out. What’s most important to him?”

  “Stash house and the Bank. It’s where most of his unsecured cash is.”

  “Again too heavily protected. Even if we had the full Crew, we’d be spotted as soon as we entered the estate. One or two can get around there disguised, but more newcomers than that will get noticed.”

  “You’re right. What about the shipments? Do you know when they would be coming in or leaving?”

  “Both are logged on Cest’s systems as historical records,” Hanna said. “But the drugs delivery days and times are randomised. He didn’t leave it on his computer.”

  “Could you crack whatever sequence he was using?”

  “I ran it through and with these babies,” Hanna waved at the powerful servers lining the walls. “They would have been able to find it, but nothing came up. I think he’s using a true randomiser and if he holds enough product in his Stash, he could work with deliveries right next to each other or two weeks apart.”

  “And the cash? I bet his Boss doesn’t like it on such a loose schedule.”

  Smiling, Hanna nodded. “Yep, that was using an alternating algorithm. I had it cracked in an hour. What’re you thinking? We still don’t have the bodies to hit that.”

  “I heard a little rumour while I was out and about?”

  “And the rumour was?” Hanna was forced to ask when Deni paused.

  “Gutshot is back in town.”

  Hanna frown
ed. Gutshot was a lone operator. A rare breed, who specialised in robbing from the gangs, the Dealers and Pimps in particular. The price on his head was huge, but no one dared go after him. His rep was even worse than Valerie’s. She was undoubtedly better, but Gutshot had been in the Blaze underworld for much longer and covered more ground.

  He would move from city to city, hitting the most disreputable Dealers and Pimps, and be gone before he pushed the Bosses too far. There were stories of him walking up to Banks or Stash houses and the Enforcers handing over the goods without a fight. They preferred to take their chances with their Boss, rather than go up against Gutshot.

  “Damn, he is one confident bastard. I guess he heard about Tumbler and Gaunt then.” Tumbler was Gutshot’s last hit before getting out of Inferno. Even he didn’t wanted Gaunt tracking him. “What’s your plan, Deni? Ask him to go after Cest?”

  “No. I was thinking more of a distraction. One of Gutshot’s main plays is to rob the shipments with a ram raid, right?”

  Hanna nodded.

  “What if I hit the cash delivery, but that’s all I do. A straight hit and run. Cest will have to respond. Nothing’s been taken, but he can’t afford to take any chances. He’ll have to send his best Enforcers, who he normal keeps with him as guards, to sort it out while he explains the late delivery to his boss. I saw Barclay and Twilight at Cest’s building and if they’re the best he has.” Deni knew what Shade told Hanna and she didn’t keep the scorn out of her voice. “He’ll have to send them. The others wouldn’t stand a chance against Gutshot.”

  “I see where you’re going with this. Cest will have heard the rumours, just as you have, and think it’s a botched raid. It does happen. He won’t want to expose himself to someone with that reputation. Not without much better Enforcers.”

  “Exactly. Do you think you can get close enough to him, before I hit their shipment, to take advantage when the shit hits the fan?”

  Hanna nodded. “That, I think I can do. I’m a Thief after all”