Chapter 48: Escalation
Number of bombs: unknown. Type of bombs: unknown.
Number of civilians in the Sapphire Heart Ballroom: Estimated… 348
Number of Shandian Executive Hostages: 12 [Priority]
The list of hostages pulled down in my view to reveal old faces I’d seen pop up in the news every so often, my earpiece tuned into Anthony’s voice as I crept behind Risa Wickett and the rest of Team Delta.
“Epsilon’s reporting in.” Solomon’s voice overtook my head. “Muramasa’s gathering the brunk of their forces behind the stage of the ballroom, they take in the hostages one at a time. Presumably, it’s where they’ll have their bombs located too.”
“Understood, Sergeant.” Risa’s voice came through, her oversized metallic claws tearing open a door sealed shut like it was spoiled bark. “We’re entering through the emergency staircase, management said this one was sealed off, right?”
“Aye, too many honeymooners sneaking off into the stairwell.” The Sergeant, as stiff as he was, seemed more personal with Special Investigator Wickett. There must have been some history.
Then Anthony’s voice broadcasted to us all, his shifted hypnotic tone dulling me ever so slightly.
“We’re here to keep everyone safe… tell me, how can we do that for you?”
A rougher voice responded, a thick asian accent hung on every word. “You can start by giving us what we want. Just Twelve Corporates and everyone else lives.”
“These corporates, they’re important to you?”
“Very.” The voice responded. “We’re being paid good.”
“Who’s paying you? Maybe we can renegotiate your payment? Give you a better deal…”
“No. This is personal. It’s why we’re doing this… these coinpouches don’t deserve any better!”
As we snuck in through the hall, the back-and-forth continued aimlessly. Neither Anthony nor the criminal were getting anywhere, just constant deflecting from one side to another like a stale tennis volley. It droned out in the background, Anthony’s voice growing more hollow, the criminal’s spinning more dream-like.
Until… the criminal’s voice broke to Anthony’s power. “We… we’ll let out a third of the hostages.”
That was our sign to move in, we were already near the ballroom so within a few moments we turned a corner near one of it’s entrances. I stopped early, whispering aloud as I faintly picked up the prickling sensations of various Neuroframes along the corridor. “There’s people. Two of them.”
“Then we take them out.” The group followed through Wickett’s orders, one of the First Investigator’s guns pre-aimed as she turned past the corner, two electric flashes signaling two fallen bodies.
“Good job Investigator Torien.” Risa followed up. “Sergeant, confirmed two Masa’s down, awaiting order for entry.”
The Sergeant’s voice peered into my ear. “Affirmative. When the hostages start leaving, send in Jones and Riebeck. Initiate phase two of Delta Team. Delta one and Delta two, assume your positions.”
Risa nodded to noone, but the affirmed understanding seemed to slip through the advanced neural connection. Delta One would be led by Risa Wickett as part of the immediate retaliation force from a backstage staircase used by the staff or for emergency purposes, while Delta Two was to split up and join in with the other Investigators escorting the hostages out.
Of course that wasn’t the whole plan. As apparently, a distraction was set to take place, during which we were expected to slip into the chaos and scout the bombs.
Moving aside to join the quickly maneuvering Delta Two group, we received updates as Delta One snuck up the staircase deeper into the heart of the Muramasa operation.
One of the Investigators, Leopold whispered out. “This is dangerous, right? I can’t be the only one thinking this? It’s a suicide mission!”
“That’s what half my missions are.” Choirmen snickered beside me.
“True.” I chimed in. “You leave half your missions riddled with bullet holes. Your blood powers are tough.”
He didn’t seem pleased at that, but still managed a chuckle. “I’m a sponge they can’t seem to dry out.”
“You’re armed with a Holoshield, you’ll be fine.” Delta Two leader Riebeck added. It was true, as part of the immediate task force infiltrating the ballroom, we were given some upgrades. A holoshield for one, like the one Cannonarm had used. They weren’t as big, and certainly wouldn’t manage to take the brunt of damage that military grade shield had but it was both equipable and deployable as cover.
Plus, the police shields had reactive permeability. I could shoot through the shield without worrying about being hit back… but at the same time it was an inferno resting on my arm. The sheer density of electricity caged in the Bronze Grade tool was enough to power my apartment for a week with all the lights turned on.
“You all have your Neurocuffs ready?” Riebeck jangled a polyhedral plate in her hands, identical to the ones I’d been given by Rorsche when he controlled Indra. “There’ll be priority targets your lenses will pick up, refrain from shooting them lethally. They’re key targets.”
“Understood, Investigator Riebeck.” I said solemnly.
She only snickered as we jogged towards the entrance the hostages were being gathered at. “Please, if we’re going to die tonight, I’d rather be called by my name rather than my husband’s. It’s Joesphina.”
“Understood, Josephina… I’ve heard you’re a deputy leader at Squad 17 of STRIKE, right?” She was her Squad’s Rorsche in a way, but hopefully less disgusting.
“Second Deputy when Jakob isn’t in charge. And you’re the girl with the Silver. Matches your eyes. Fancy that, wonder who your Implant will go to if you don’t make it through.” She chuckled morbidly.
“I’ll survive.” I half-smiled. “I’m more than just a Silver.”
“Bold words. Wickett had faith in you, so that deserves a bit of respect.” She added, and I could feel a genuine warmth spread across the blonde woman’s words.
“That means something. There’s a lot of responsibility on my shoulders.” I had the electricity-seeing eyes, there were plenty of variants of eyesight Mutations. Ranging from sharper vision, to thermal sight, but very few allowed you to peer into the foundational laws of the world like gravity, electron density, Warp Grades and so-on. At Tier One anyway.
“Ready up, hope that you take combat as well as flattery. We’re getting ready to go in.” She assigned with a sharp wave of her arm, near to where several other police squads were located. They were meant to handle the exact extraction of hostages, whereas we had that as only half the job.
It mostly consisted of Officers, with a few Third and Second Rank Investigators sprinkled in. Most of the higher Ranks were executed on infiltration operations.
The doors opened a minute later, three large Muramasa goons all wearing thick solid masks that were vaguely asian in origin. Oni, Kappa and Tengu, deeper in were faces resembling dragons, tigers and phoenixes of various colors.
“Be wary of anyone with a Black Dragon mask — or worse, a crimson one.” I remembered Risa’s words, there was a command behind that, the kind she dressed on when someone broke protocol. Black Dragons were the Muramasa’s elite fighters.
“Ten officers. No one else.” The biggest goon said, a curved longsword heavy in his grip. “Or we blast this place.”
Josephina stepped forward, the rest of the Investigators giving way to the First Rank. “I assume you’ll be letting us in for some tea?”
“Only if the boss permits it.” He appeared virtuously emotionless, devoid of any thought behind that mask.
“This is why I love Muramasa, even the meatheads know big words like ‘permit’. Makes talking a whole lot easier.” Joesphina strided through, her assault rifle resting on her shoulder the whole time. We all took it as a sign to leave our own weapons unprepared as well, I had even been given a side-pistol to walk in with. A ballistic kind with fancy ricochet options over my much simpler and covert Braceshocker, apparently I would be too suspicious if I had no weapons on entry.
We went in after her, walking through the grand marble doors to an even grander glistening floor of marble. Everything was some shade of gold or sapphire, from the chandeliers to the table cloths and the floor. Somehow none of it clashed, a testament to the eye who built this place.
If only it’s sanctity hadn’t been perverted by the sight we saw. Hundreds of battered and beat guests at the mercy of Muramasa, rounded up in groups of six or seven behind two to three Masa goons. My vision flinched under the massive onslaught of information flooding it, numbers appearing over each of the heads of the guests.
The Sergeant’s voice commanded through the ears of the police force. “Sights on the hostages confirmed, priority numbers have been assigned, anyone under 100 is a vital target to retrieve alive and unharmed. Above that, alive. Anyone above 300 is a low priority. Hotel staff are inconsequential. But the top twelve, are to be extracted immediately.”
My lip would have bled through with how hard I bit it had my Mutations not strengthened my skin. Even the goons had numbers on their heads, or skull marks to be assigned death. I observed as Josephina chewed her teeth to gums, eyes like spears cleaving over the entire ensemble of wicked goons and fashionable hostages.
“We have a choice of who we save.” She said firmly, not letting it be interpreted as a question. Neither the goons nor anyone near them answered, instead it was the a resounding voice coming from a Black Dragon masked swordsman up on the stage.
Twelve bound hostages lying by his feet — the highest priority targets.
“Absolutely not. You will take only whom we allow. A hundred and five souls, the rest shall be condemned to fate.” He waved a sword, several others rising into the air as they barged orders onto the hostages in front of them to move ahead.
Their numbers were all around 300 to 200… I pushed my thoughts aside, this stupid ranking didn’t mean anything, I would save them all by finding these bombs. My eyes burned a silent silver as they scanned the room in views of black-and-white.
“Denied.” The voice of the sergeant broke through. “Grazhe?”
Anthony’s voice relayed to us. “Reconsider it… just fifty of our choice?”
“None of the ones on stage.” The Black Dragon said with a dazed bitterness, you would hardly be able to tell if you didn’t know about the Grazhe’s hypnotic abilities.
“What would it…” Anthony’s voice cut momentarily, when it returned it was noticeably more strained. “What would it take for the twelve on stage?”
“Fifteen Million Shardyne.” The Black Dragon spoke with a laugh. I tried my best not to focus on the conversation, but my search for the bombs came up with nothing.
“Why so much for them?”
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“You know why…” The Black Dragon’s voice echoed with malice.
“True. They’re all high-standing executives, but why go through all of this?”
“Because we’ll be paid Three Million for this, now will you raise the bet?” A light chuckle filtered through.
The Sergeant’s voice interrupted through our comms. “Anthony. Now.”
The slight whispers of control echoed even past the barriers of his ditorted voice, I felt a compelling rattle my bones into action. “What if we offer up the Investigators currently in the ballroom. An exchange? Josephina Riebeck, Godrick Leopold… Tluste Choirmen and-”
Anthony’s voice was weak. “Diana Jones.”
The Dragon’s decision took a moment that lasted too long.
“An acceptable offer for three of them.” The Black Dragon said. “We choose which ones, as you have chosen which officers to give up…”
“Tell them it’s agreed.” The Sergeant echoed in my head, a pit of nausea bubbling through me. “Delta Two is to be exchanged for the hostages.”
“We… agree.” Anthony’s voice sounded like it had been squeezed out of him.
The dragon surveyed his bound hostages, pointing with his blade to the ones we had just been sold for. “Very well. Asaki Turamaka, Hanxiao Libeng and Edward Horowitz. You three are free to go.”
“Delta Two.” The Sergeant said firmly. “They’re going to cut off your comms. Before that, find the bombs. In five minutes, we’re executing a raid. The order comes from Yuzhou — Muramasa’s not budging. They don’t want any info leaking out.”
The one-hundred partygoers who thought they’d be freed tried to lash out, but any rise in voice was met with a smack into their heads and loud shouts to be quiet.
“You five. We’re splitting you up.” A new mask appeared, the female voice coming through the appearance of a demonically twisted monkey. “Riebeck, with me.”
And one by one, we were separated. Taken off into different corners where we would be surrounded by a hundred different enemies. Four and a half minutes to find the bombs, even quicker once they disconnect my-
Neuroframe? But mine was now subdermal…
“Hold on, this one’s odd. She doesn’t have a frame on her neck.” A rabbit mask said, his steel clawed arm cold against the flesh of nape. It sent shivers through me, and as more animal masks turned to me I questioned my safety.
“I’m unchipped.” I said, biting my tongue through the lie.
“You’re an Investigator without a frame?” Suspicion drew that cold grip tighter, any more and my neck would break if my Mutations hadn’t altered them. Then it released, the tension snapped away like a taut string placed against a sword. “Tch, we’ll see what to do with you.”
Josephina’s voice slipped into my Neurolink.“D-Diana… it’s the hostages- they’ve- got—-”
Then it was gone. The hostages? I focused my gaze on the hostages, slipping my eyesight into the realm of electrons. A condensed mass of electricity on their necks and Shardware but also… I spotted one.
An odd accumulation of power at one navel of a woman, hostage number 342 on the priority list. A similar bulge appeared on hostage 297. Then 312. They’d… planted the bombs on the hostages they were planning to release to us?
I swallowed my fears down as I tagged them one-by-one, scanning far through the veils of storming light as the pattern of the bombs memorized in my head. Then I sent a message through the Delta comms, I was the only one on Delta Two still with access. “I- I’ve found thirteen bombs. They’re planted on the hostages, can’t tell what kind though.”
Then I realized, seeing where the other three on my team had been escorted to, that they were all placed firmly next to hostages armed to explode. Turning to my right, I saw a woman — some hotel staff member judging from her uniform — with nearly dead eyes, glazed over like the light had been sucked out of them.
“Are you okay?” I whispered.
She didn’t utter a word, she seemed to not even register my question. I could feel that familiar presence on her though, a bomb was nestled on her stomach.
“You’re unchipped?” One of the hostages, a handsome youth who looked to be around my age whispered. “I can respect that, don’t worry. My dad’ll have the security forces here soon, he’ll save us. How about you stick with me and-“
“No talking!” The rabbit masked goon kicked him roughly, the man’s face contorting in fury.
“Do you know who I am?!” He tried to rise up, but a rough grip pinned him down.
“Yes. Mizuki Tanashi — son of Hisako Tanashi. And… your sister is very pretty, would be a shame if she didn’t leave this place with your pig saviors.” The rabbit’s words sliced through the man’s confidence, rendering him a quivering mess of a person.
No time to focus on that though, I took the distraction to slip closer to the dazed woman. Focusing intently on the bomb strapped to her belly under her clothes, its contours smoothed out until I could firmly make out the shape.
I still didn’t know what kind of bomb it was, but the minutes were ticking down. One minute left. I waited, drawing the electric flow into a tangible knot, hoping that somewhere in there I’d see some semblance of a way to disable the bomb.
After all, there’s no way we were going to actually raid this place? Not with all these innocents? Not when the corporates here were paying out the police for protection? Except I didn’t believe it, there was something wrong with Yuzhou deciding to risk their own staff. What were they hiding that they’d rather want them dead than as hostages?
20 seconds left, more or less. The sergeant should know about the bombs I tagged, but no order came for a long time. 10 seconds. I heaved a heavy breath out, my hands trembling.
5 seconds.
“Ulrich.” The sergeant’s order came only to me. “Distraction is incoming. Remove one of the bombs and get visuals on it for the defusal team.”
I nodded, as the clock ticked down to 0 seconds.
A sound of an exploding firecracker echoed through the room, nearly ten masked goons falling with their heads limp and bloody. Everyone took charge to sight out the source of the gunfire amidst the screaming, the shots came from within the ballroom.
My vision blurred, even across my electric vision I could make out the gun that had fired those shots and see it moving in someone’s grip. But no matter how hard I tried to focus on the person holding the weapon, my vision blurred and told me that there was no one there. It was as though my mind was fighting against the notion of someone standing there.
“Who the hell did that?! Didn’t sound like a sniper!” One of the masked men called out, just several feet away from the… the gun that shot out. Why couldn’t I focus on the one holding it? Maybe… I switched spectrums again, seeing the nervous fluctuation of a hundred people from the sudden gunfire.
I could see the perpetrator’s Neuroframe through it’s currents. I just couldn’t see them, or my mind wasn’t letting me see them. The Neuroframe moved across the ballroom, carefully moving amidst the sea of rising tension. Until it stood on stage.
“Topaz.” The Black Dragon said, his blade unsheathing slowly. “That’s you, isn’t it?”
“Shandian placed a heavy bounty on your head. It was easy walking in here.” The voice of… Topaz called out and he sounded remarkably relaxed despite the thick tension knotting everyone into a chokehold. That name belonged to whoever was holding that gun. I swore I’d heard it before.
“Who else have you brought? The Iron Devil? Or that woman? We can work out a deal, you know. Never expected you to sink into the corporate’s wallets.” The Black Dragon’s voice deepened, growing in some measure.
“I’m here for my own paycheck. I’ll be taking your head.” Then my eyes snapped towards the gun being held by whoever Topaz was. He stood right next to the Black Dragon, his gun oriented to aim at the heads of one of the hostages they’d taken.
“You wouldn’t dare risk a Dragon of Prince War-Watcher.” The Black Dragon growled.
“I wouldn’t… but The R0N1N? He didn’t pay Masa to do this, what made you think you could double-cross him? Dark Demon? Have I ever mentioned how much your name sucks, by the way?” Topaz chuckled.
Hating myself, I tore my sight away from the conversation, taking the distraction to grapple at the woman’s midriff and expose the bomb. She didn’t resist, confirming my suspicions that they’d somehow rendered the bombed hostages catatonic. I took my sight of the various wires connecting to a vial of explosive fluid.
Solomon acted through my visuals, parts of it highlighting as he labeled out specific pieces.
Working with his aid, I tracked the currents to where he labeled ‘receiver’. If I couldn’t render them neutral on my own end, I just needed to snap out what was connecting them to the kill order until a bomb squad could safely neutralize them. So I reached my fingers out, slowly drawing the electricity out of the receiver until it was out of charge and dead.
One down. “Sergeant, I can disconnect the bombs from their system.”
“Proceed. We’re sending in another distraction.”
Both Topaz and the Black Dragon were still the focus of most of the attention, but that all shattered once a new mercenary fell from the roofs above. Stormspinner stood upon a sheet of thick metal, electric sparks flowing through it. “Topaz, you can’t take all of the money! Split it, I’ll get the hostages out and-“
“No!” The Black Dragon screamed, his sword rising to strike the heavens. “You filth, you disgust us by dealing with the Shardyne spread from the pockets of the Founders. My warriors! Take aim-“
“Tell them to drop their weapons.” Anthony’s voice slithered out.
“-And drop your weapons!” The Black Dragon said, his weapon rattling as though it detested the order he just screamed out.
The Muramasa goons froze in confusion, confusion I took hold off. I shot myself with my concealed gun, fully charged to break out of my constraints, I took every ounce of the electricity to power the motors of my muscles. From one hostage to another, I used them to hide my path amidst the confusion until I reached the second bomb.
A snap of electricity drained it dry, and I was off to the next.
Stormspinner shot out at the Black Dragon, shard of metal and gunshots colliding at his position. He vanished in a pulsing, glitch-like, shadow that wrapped around him, growling from above a balcony now. “Det-“
“Don’t detonate the bombs!” Anthony called out, and the next second spurned into chaos as something fell from Stormspinner’s hands, it pulsed Silver before detonating. But force isn’t what it unleashed, it was sound. A banshee’s cry wracked through the room, pulling everyone to their knees other than those hired by the police or those in the force.
I’d heard of it, long ago when I was taken in for my body modifications upon becoming an officer. We all had implants in our ears for communication, and occasionally to block out specific sound frequencies like the ones used in the police sonic grenades. I never expected them to be used though, the grenades were expensive to make and mostly employed by STRIKE members.
I disabled two more bombs before the first retaliation shot went out, it was towards Stormspinner who twisted metal from her platform into a shield that floated by her side. In that time, I struck out against one more trick-hostage. Hiding as bullets began to erupt and the police charged in as my legs burned out in agony. I zipped from hostage to hostage with each push from my legs as gunfire now chased me. A lance of pain through my leg stumbled me, I couldn’t dodge all of that.
Shields erupted from all around me and over the hostages as sniper shots took out many of the guards watching over them, in mass panic the hostages broke into a run out of each and every doorway out of the ballroom. They charged, running over one another in panic, I was panicking, this had all gone so wrong so quickly-
A man dropped from the ceiling. His landing was silent…
But all gunfire stopped at once upon his arrival, my own breath hitched at the colors beaming through the seams of his Shardware. They shined with a Golden glow, twisting in a sleek pattern like ropes of black woven upon white steel bones that curved unnaturally. What was most strange was how similar he appeared to the Muramasa goons, but like a twisted mirror version of them.
He wore a long cloak I knew to be a kimono, simple cloth falling over most of his body except for the two scabbards resting on his hip. One of the blades pulled itself out without his grip, floating until it sat in the air patiently for the man’s orders. And that mask was reminiscent of the ones worn by the Black Dragon… but instead of a dragon, it was a crimson, curved and demonic face of a demon with two long horns poking from it’s skull. A Yaksha, I remembered from my historical classes in the Cradle.
The sergeant's voice shook everyone still. “Cease fire! He’s not one of our mercenaries! It’s the R0N1N!”
“Ronin?” I honed on the sight of the man, even from his back he was an imposing figure. He oozed strength out of every inch of metal submerged into his body, the Gold light rippling beneath like a sea underneath an aurora.
“I didn’t hire you for a massacre.” The masked mercenary said, a sharpness in his tongue.
“Of course you didn’t.” The black dragon said from above a balcony. “You would never take something like this in your own hands-“
“I’m doing it now.” The floating blade connected to his palm, a circuitry complete that rewrote the future of this night. “The job was simple. War-Watcher’s motives got in the way.”
“You make anything but simple!” The Black Dragon raised up his sword, an eerie mist thickening around it in the color of Bronze. “Take your problems to the Bladefather! Now choose which side you’ll stay on, the pigs or us!”
“Tch.” The blade in the R0N1N’s hand flicked towards us, our own weapons raised up as Gold flowed from hilt to tip. “You’ll take the hostages, I’m going to deal with the mess of my ill-advisedly hired hirelings. Apologies.”
“Apology accepted!” The Sergeant relayed through a speaker in the arm of one Investigator. “All units, clear the hostages! R0N1N’s handling Muramasa!”
Everything switched way too quickly, so R0N1N hired these people? But they turned on him? Or went about it the wrong way? Either way, we now had a Gold Shard Adapter on our side. Even if he was one of the most wanted mercenaries in the world.
At least now, when the chaos erupted, it was all focused. The R0N1N dragged attention towards him like a vortex, bullets converging at his position where he-
He vanished in a twist of air and light — the bullets that had been embers of light were now fallen shrapnel. Like a ghost, he disappeared from his position in a blur of his form, appearing next to a squadron of Muramasa members like the reaper before stubborn souls.
For the first time, I witnessed what a Gold Adapter was.