Chapter 2:
Parker Manningham
“Mr. Manningham, please inform Mr. Elindi that
we would love to be able to offer the services at 20% off of the market, but
that it would be absolute disaster for our business. We will gladly however
accept an allowance of offering the services at 10% off of the market, and a
gradual increase over 2 years ending with services at 15% off of market. We
believe that this will please both parties while in turn making all of those
involved very wealthy indeed.” I took a breath before turning and beginning to
translate. The Managing Director of GammaTech’s Accounts Department, although
speaking very plain Italian, spoke it with an accent that I was unfamiliar with
and I wanted to make sure that I got both the words and their intended emphasis
correct. Mr. Elindi listened, and I could tell from the slight smirk, that he
quickly hid, that he had the man exactly where he wanted him. “Parker, go ahead
and tell Mr. Rossi that we have a deal, and that it was a pleasure doing
business with him here.” I translated quickly as Mr. Elindi stood and offered
his hand to Mr. Rossi. For his part Mr. Rossi was also glad to have settled the
deal. Although I think part of his gladness was due to the fact that the
meeting was over. My boss had a reputation as something of a corporate shark,
and Mr. Rossi looked as thrilled to be leaving the meeting with all of his
limbs, as well as with a deal. As the pleasantries were made in Mr. Elindi’s
stuttering Italian, and Mr. Rossi’s terrible English, I cleared up Mr. Elindi’s
papers and made ready to leave. Mr. Elindi, never one to waste time, was out of
the office as soon as was polite, and was walking briskly almost outpacing the
2 security agents who were escorting through the building and to the elevator
that would take us to the roof, and the VTOL waiting to take us back to
Leonardo da Vinci International, and our private flight home. Also on the roof
were Mr. Elindi’s other 2 “Associates” who joined us on the trip. During the 3
hour meeting I was willing to hazard a guess that neither one of them had moved
more than a micron or 2 from their posted positions watching the VTOL. As we
neared the elevator one of the security officers gestured toward one of the cameras
that was hidden away in an alcove in the ceiling, and right as we neared the
elevator the doors opened. The security agents wished us a good flight, and as
the doors closed I could see them turning and walking back down the hall.
Looking back at my boss, I waited for him to say something, or ask me some
question, but I knew that it would be a very quiet ride until we got back on
our own private jet. One didn’t get to be a Vice President of a Triple-A
corporation by blabbing information at every twist and turn. As the elevator
made considerable speed toward the roof in silence, it was almost at the end of
the trip that I had my first feeling that something wasn’t quite right. Opening
my briefcase, and pushing aside the contents, I popped the false panel away and
pulled out the Ares LightFire 70 that had been hidden in its contents. Throwing
the case to Mr. Elindi, I took charge of the situation, “Mr. Elindi, when we
get to the top I want you flat against the wall. When the doors open I will
assess the situation and we will see how we will go about getting you out of
here.” For his part, Mr. Elindi was stunned. He had no idea that his prim and
proper translator, namely me, was also his first line of defense in a situation
like the one that I had a feeling was waiting for us up on the roof. Showing
the backbone that he was known for Mr. Elindi was not paralyzed for more than a
brief moment. In fact he started to step forward and say something just as the
elevator doors to the roof were opening, “Now wait just a minute Mr. ….”. That
was all he got out as I checked him against the wall as the missile that I had
seen incoming towards the building detonated on the roof taking out the
Surface-to-Air defense launcher, and causing an explosion which threw shards of
concrete into the open elevator. Knowing that staying in the elevator was
paramount to asking to be killed, I grabbed Mr. Elindi and dragged him outside
and threw him on the ground behind some exposed ventilation fans. Scanning the
roof I saw the source of the problem. GammaTech security was firing at a group
of people clustered behind another set of exposed ventilation fans. With as
many men as were up here, the “shadow team”, I mean what else could they be,
must have gotten their hands on something very important. Looking over, our
VTOL was ready to move, and as I suspected Tweedle-Dee and Tweedle-Dum hadn’t
moved except to draw the submachine guns from under their coats. Now the
question was, what to do. Making a run for the “Bird” was probably an option,
but we ran the risk of the security team not being able to determine friend
from foe, and gunning us down thinking that we were part of the team that they
were trying to stop. Signaling to them was probably also out as the team’s own
hacker was most likely running the security office at the moment. I mean how
else would we have been allowed to enter an elevator that was taking us right
into a warzone. As I took the moment to think Mr. Elindi tried to stand, and I
immediately knocked him back flat on the ground, “It’s not safe sir, stay
down.” I knew that he would have had a scathing comment for me, if I hadn’t of
knocked the air from his lungs as he once again hit the roof. As I was knocking
my boss down to the ground, I caught a glimpse of another VTOL in the area. It
had no markings and it had to be the runners escape plan, but with our “Bird”
on the pad their escape was ruined. I activated the commlink that had been
hidden in my cuff since we got off of the private jet back at “da Vinci”.
“Raptor 1, clear the pad, execute security protocol delta strike break,
authority Alpha Strike Bravo” Even as my authorization code was being
confirmed, the twin tweedles were grabbing handrails and jumping aboard as the
Twin-Engine VTOL revved, and got just enough ground clearance to make it over
the edge of the roof. I heard the engines roar as it fell, but knew that the
pilot would bring it around and be ready for a “Hot LZ” as he came back around.
For the record, the other team’s “Bird” wasted no time diving for the deck and
the team seeing their chance broke from cover. It looked like a 5 man team, and
as they sprinted for the landing pad their “Bird” dropped down a rotary cannon
out of its belly and began spitting out an earsplitting stream of metal toward
the security team. Seeing their prey getting away, the security team pulled out
all of the stops. There was a loud cough as a member of the team fired a man portable rocket launcher. 3 of the
runners turned and faced the missile. The first, an orc, threw his hands wide
and a semi transparent shield appeared between the rocket and their VTOL. The
second, a human holding an ingram smartgun in each hand, unloaded both weapons
on the rocket trying to destroy it before it reached its target. The 3rd,
a dwarf, fell as he obviously had left his meat body behind, whether for the
lights and sparkle of the matrix, or the smoke and shadows of the astral plane
I did not know, but the 3 combined caused the rocket to miss its target and
impact against the mages barrier. Turning, the human grabbed the dwarf and
began running after the other 2 members of their team who were already waiting
for them at the “Bird” laying down suppressive fire. The mage, the last to turn
for the landing pad stuttered as he began running as one of the security guards
caught him with a full burst from his AK-97. Even from where I crouched I could
see the indecision in the runners eyes, as the human street samurai tossed the
dwarfs body to the 2 orks that were already on the boarding ramp as he turned
to go back for the mage. It was one of the craziest, most honorable things I
had seen in a long time. Unfortunately for the razor guy, crazy was the word
that got stuck to it, as he was mercilessly gunned down as he tried to get back
to the mage. The shadow team, with just moments before it all fell apart,
closed up the ramp as the VTOL was blasting skyward again, the ramp thunking
closed as the security team fired ineffectually towards it as the VTOL cleared
their airspace. Now though it was time for the really fun part. With the shadow
team’s bird out of the way it was time for ours to make its return, which it
did in dramatic fashion. Rising over the lip of the building at breakneck speed
before skewing a 180, its drive fans throwing loose gravel on the landing pad
everywhere. Grabbing Mr. Elindi by the arm and dragging him to his feet I
propelled him the direction of the “Bird” and yelled for him to run as I did
the same. To their credit Tweedle-Dee and Tweedle-Dum were at the door weapons
at the ready for any kind of trouble. Luckily, the security team on the roof
must have gotten word that we were not a security threat, because we didn’t
have to deal with any nonsense from them as we quickly boarded and lifted off
back toward the airport. It wasn’t until we had a moment to catch our breath,
or more exactly Mr. Elindi had a moment to catch his breath, that things calmed
down, for a moment, that’s when Mr. Elindi started his tirade, not caring for
once that this wasn’t actually a piece of corporate property he was sitting in,
but a freelance courier who I knew who was doing us a favor. “Mr. Manningham,
what the hell is going on, I demand to be told everything” he demanded in a
shrill scream. It was obvious that his adrenaline was still coursing through
his veins. “Mr. Elindi, in addition to your interpreter, I was hired as a form
of passive protection for you when you went on your “face-to-face”
meetings. It was decided by upper
management that your skills in the field and contributions to the corporation
were significant enough to pay the expense of my hiring, and of the other
security precautions necessary for your outdated methods of conducting
business.” Everything I told him was an absolute truth, but from the look on
his face you would have thought that I just had told him that the world was
flat, and that he was a giant hamster. He was quiet for a moment, and then when
he spoke again he seemed to be more under control of himself, “Mr. Manningham,
your conduct was most unbecoming your station. This will be discussed by “upper
management” when we return.” With that he turned away from me and was
blissfully silent during the rest of the trip all the way back to Detroit. For
their part Tweedle-Dee and Tweedle-Dum didn’t say a word. But let’s be honest,
how many security trolls do you know that are hired for their conversation
skills. Me, I leaned back and decided just to ride this one out. Let Mr. Elindi
be angry all he wants, I did my job and I did it well. The package was on his
way back to the home office, and I was on my way back to a nice big hazardous
duty paycheck. All in all, it was a successful trip.
