The Prometheus Trap (The New Prometheus Book 3)

  THE PROMETHEUS TRAP

  The New Prometheus

  Book 3

  Books By Andrew Dobell

  The New Prometheus - Cyberpunk

  The New Prometheus

  The Prometheus Gambit

  The Magi Saga – Urban Fantasy

  Epic Calling: The Magi Saga Book 1

  Shadows of Darkness: The Magi Saga Book 2

  Black Dawn: The Magi Saga Book 3

  Infinities’ Edge: The Magi Saga Book 4

  The Magi Saga Short Stories

  Only available through my mailing list;

  www.andrewdobellauthor.co.uk

  The Angel of Tarut: The Magi Saga Prologue

  His Love: A Magi Saga Short Story

  Casino Red: A Magi Saga Short Story

  Anthologies I am part of:

  The Expanding Universe – Sci-Fi

  Summer of Magic

  Alchemy & Arcana

  For more of Andrews work, visit:

  www.andrewdobellauthor.co.uk

  The Prometheus

  TRAP

  The New Prometheus

  Book 3

  Written & Illustrated

  By

  Andrew Dobell

  Acknowledgements

  To everyone special in my life, thank you.

  Would you leave me a Review???

  Thank you for taking the time to read this book. If you enjoyed it, please consider posting a short review on Amazon. Word of mouth is an author’s best friend and much appreciated.

  Thank you.

  Andrew Dobell.

  3.01

  Hellion kicked open the door, breaking the lock with a splintering of fake wood. The door banged against the wall as she stepped into the corridor and looked around, followed by two of her teammates. She stood on plush carpet in a nicely appointed hallway and looked up to see an office worker staring at her. The young man had stopped in his tracks, probably surprised from Hellion’s violent entrance, and now stared at her, his eyes wide, confusion and fear evident on his face.

  She checked the map she had open in the Heads-Up-Display within her field of vision, noting with amusement the direction she had to go to find the office she wanted to visit as it would take her right past the shocked man to her right.

  She turned towards the young office worker and strode down the corridor, leaving behind the fading sound of idling engines on the roof. Their flyer would be safe up there, for the time being, guarded by the rest of her team. She’d only brought two of them with her; bringing everyone would be overkill on a mission like this.

  Besides, she wanted to just get it done. This was the third one of these in as many days. The Nano Liberation had suddenly caused people to grow a backbone and start to stand up against the Corporations. Publicly, the Corporations were saying how great it was that the UK government had brokered this deal with them and the other major governments around the world, but Hellion knew the truth.

  The Corporations were pissed and all of them, including Psytech, her current employer, were dealing with the aftermath and trying to shore up their position and consolidate their power, often with a show of force to act as a reminder.

  She approached the young man up ahead, who looked her up and down, probably wondering what she was doing dressed like this in a government building.

  She wore her usual stealth suit: a shiny black skin-tight affair that looked like latex but was actually a high-tech polymer that acted like smart armour, being soft and pliable until it was hit with force. It then hardened to deflect the damage and protect the wearer. It also had numerous other inbuilt systems that protected her in one way or another. The fact that it looked like some kind of fetish outfit just tickled her sense of humour. She enjoyed the reactions she often got from people when they saw her in it for the first time.

  Like this guy here, who was no doubt enjoying the view, while also being scared out of his wits.

  She pulled her gun as she passed him and, quick as a flash, put the gun to his head and decorated the wall with his brains.

  She didn’t slow down, she didn’t give the little idiot a second look or thought, she just kept right on walking.

  Her enhanced hearing could hear shouts: the sounds of people wondering what was going on after hearing that gunshot.

  Chaos. She always enjoyed spreading a bit of chaos whenever given a chance.

  ‘Keep me updated on any inbound police,’ she sent through the neural link she had with her team, speaking mainly to Frak, her team's hacker who was up with the flyer on the roof.

  ‘Copy that,’ Frak sent back through the link, his voice coming through loud and clear directly into her head

  She soon found what she was looking for, and walked up to a set of double doors, the plaque on them labelled as “The Office of the Ministry of Trade and Industry of the Russian Federation”. The words were embossed into the gold of the plaque and filled with black lacquer. The writing was in Cyrillic, but Hellion could read it easily, her cyberbrain translating the text for her without her needing to think about it.

  Hellion was getting frustrated with all the closed doors, and lifted one heeled boot off the floor and kicked it open with a loud bang.

  The office beyond fell silent at the noise and looked over as Hellion walked in, followed by her two team members.

  She knew where she would find her target and kept on walking.

  ‘Guarding the door,’ Venal, one of her two teammates, said through their neural link and stayed at the entrance.

  As she walked through the office, most of the people stayed where they were and just watched. A few turned away and ignored her, keeping themselves busy, but a couple were moving towards her. The first, a young woman with glasses in a skirt suit, stepped out into the aisle before her, apparently wanting to talk and delay her.

  ‘Hey, um, excuse me…’ she said.

  Hellion didn’t let her say anything else, raising her gun and putting a hole through her head as well.

  A few people screamed, others gasped. One man close by feinted, and everyone moved away from her.

  Good, just the effect she was after, she thought as she approached the glass fronted office up ahead. She could see her target, Anastas Utkin, standing behind his desk, looking concerned. She smiled at him as he caught sight of her. It took him a moment to realise what was happening, but he suddenly seemed to understand and started to rummage around under his desk. Hellion kicked open the door to his office and strode over to him just as he managed to clumsily free the gun from whatever it had been attached to under there and try to bring it to bear on her.

  Hellion grabbed the gun, pointing it away from her, and twisted it in his hands. It went off once as she pulled it from his grip, discharging it harmlessly into the wall and heard the crack of bone from his finger as she stepped away.

  The Minister fell into his chair with a wail of pain. Hellion examined the pistol, turning it over in her hand and ejected the magazine before pulling the slide, letting the chambered round pop out and fall to the floor.

  ‘The Zima P11, with armour piercing rounds. This might have actually done me some damage, you know,’ she said as she tossed the gun to his desk where it landed with a dull thud. She threw the magazine to her teammate where she stood in the door, guarding the office.

  Wildkat caught the magazine, glanced at the bullets it held, and whistled. ‘You meant business with this, didn’t you,’ she said.

  Hellion looked back at the Minister, waiting to see how he would react or what he might say.

  ‘Who are you? What are you doing here?’ he said.

  ‘Surely that’s obvious? You ha
ve been opening your big mouth, telling the president that organisations like my employer no longer have any hold over you or him now that the Nanobots have been liberated. I’m here to re-educate you,’ she said.

  ‘You’re from… Psytech? Duplex?’

  ‘Does it matter? Needless to say, we’ve not gone anywhere. Just because some terrorists have liberated the Nanobots does not mean we’re suddenly powerless,’ she said.

  ‘Okay, yeah, sure. I understand,’ he said.

  ‘But do you?’ she answered him, eyeing him with suspicion in her voice.

  ‘Absolutely, of course, I don’t know what came over me. You can rely on me,’ he said, a forced smile on his face.

  ‘Hellion, we have a couple of deputy ministers out here,’ Wildcat said through their link.

  She turned around to see the two men standing outside, looking scared but concerned. ‘Come in, gentlemen. First Deputy Minister Naoumov and Deputy Minister Petrov, you should be witness to this,’ she said as they walked in. ‘I was just explaining to Anastas here the value of loyalty, and of not forgetting who you are dealing with. Psytech doesn’t take kindly to betrayal, but I feel I have made myself understood, isn’t that right, Anastas?’

  ‘Yes, of course,’ he said, his voice shaky.

  Hellion cocked her head slightly to one side. ‘Good,’ she said and shot him through his forehead.

  ‘Holy shit,’ said the First Deputy Minister just beside her. She turned to see the First Deputy with his hands up to his mouth and his eyes wide, looking at the man she had just killed.

  The First Deputy’s eyes flicked to look at her.

  ‘What about you?’ Hellion asked.

  ‘You… you can trust me…’ he said.

  ‘No, I can’t,’ she said, and grabbed him by the scruff of his neck, put her gun up under his jaw, and fired before dropping him to the floor.

  Beside her, the other Deputy Minister stood silent, doing his best to look composed and calm, but he was clearly nervous and barely managed to keep his eyes fixed on some kind of middle distance and not look at the carnage all around him.

  Hellion smiled. ‘Minister Petrov,’ she said, purring. ‘Psytech thanks you for your support and for alerting us to Anastas’ change of heart. You’re next in line of succession, I believe, to take over this Ministry? I trust you will do a great job.’

  ‘Absolutely Miss…’

  ‘My name is unimportant, just never forget the lesson you learnt today. I’d hate to have to return here,’ she said before she walked out and back through the office.

  This time, no one challenged her, no one got in her way, and most people just did their best to look busy and not attract any attention. Just the way she liked it. She was soon back in the corridor with Vernal and Wildkat just behind her when Frak’s voice sounded in her head once again.

  ‘I have an incoming message from Psytech, would you like me to route it through to you?’

  ‘Go ahead,’ she said and waited.

  ‘You’re connected,’ Frak said.

  ‘Hellion here,’ she said.

  ‘Hellion, it’s Marissa, I trust the mission is going well?’ she asked.

  ‘It’s done. There should be a little less resistance from the Russian Ministry now,’ she said.

  ‘Excellent. I have another job for you. Come to Neo-London, we should meet to discuss it,’ she said.

  ‘Of course,’ Hellion said, and the line clicked off. Neo-London, she thought, civilisation at last. She’d been out here in the remnants of the Russian Federation for so long she’d started to wonder if she’d ever return to a modern city again.

  It had been a while since she had visited Neo-London; this would be fun.

  3.02

  ‘Sorry to drag you out so quickly,’ Frankie said.

  ‘Don’t apologise, I was keen to get back into it. It’s been too long,’ Gibson said as the flyer they stood within banked between buildings and dropped down into the chasm’s of concrete and glass in Neo-London’s mid-levels.

  ‘Good, we’re just stretched a little thin and with Cole, Veronica, and Kalypso on the other mission today, but I needed you on this one,’ she said.

  ‘Well, it’s good to be back. Sorry I had to take a break, but I wasn’t in a fit state, really,’ he said.

  ‘It’s okay, I understand; there’s no need to explain,’ she said, smiling warmly at him. The death of his wife, even if he didn’t really get on with her like he used to, had naturally hit him hard. Probably not as hard as it might have done if they had been on better terms, but losing someone you care for is never easy.

  ‘Thanks,’ he said. ‘I appreciate it.’

  ‘Hey, I could come over later. We could catch up if you like?’ she said.

  ‘I’d like that, great. You know where my room is,’ he said.

  ‘I do,’ Frankie smiled, the wind from the open side door whipping her shoulder length dark hair about.

  ‘We’re on final approach,’ Xenox said through their group neural link. He was sitting nearby at the flyers terminal and hadn’t said much since they had boarded the aircraft.

  ‘Copy that,’ Frankie answered him.

  ‘Hello to you, too,’ Gibson said to him.

  ‘Apologies, I have been rude. Welcome back. I trust you are rested and in a good state of mind?’ Xenox said.

  ‘Subtle as ever,’ Gibson smiled to Frankie. ‘I’m well, yes. William was happy with my psych evaluation, so that’s good enough for me,’ he said. ‘So, is someone going to tell me what this mission is about?’

  ‘Sorry, I forgot. Yeah, we’re dealing a lot with the fallout from the Nano Liberation, as the media have taken to calling it,’ she said.

  ‘I’ve seen the news stories; there’s been some unrest with some of those from the Undercity causing trouble, right?’

  ‘Partially. All of those who used to be in camps in the Undercity suffering from Typhoid and failing cybernetics have suddenly woke up to find themselves cured when their Nanobots started working, and many of them now feel they’re due some kind of life. Which they are, but the Corps are a little harder to convince,’ she said.

  ‘The Corporations are killing innocents?’ Gibson asked. ‘In fact, I have no idea why I phrased that as a question. Of course, they are,’ he said.

  ‘They are being somewhat… indiscriminate, but it’s tough when there are so many of these former exiles, as they’re being called, who not only feel they deserve their life back, but they want to take some kind of revenge on the Corps as well. We may be the Anti-Corporation Taskforce, but we’ve also had to protect innocent Corporation employees when these exiles take things too far,’ she said.

  ‘Frustrating,’ Gibson said.

  ‘Very,’ Frankie answered. ‘Anyway, we’ve had a report of gunfire and a Corporation flyer near a known exile building, so we’re going to investigate,’ she said.

  ‘So, we’re cleaners, basically,’ he said.

  ‘I suppose. Who knew that de-registering everyone’s Nanobots would create so much chaos,’ she said, sarcasm in her voice.

  ‘Publicly, on the media channels at least, the Corporations seem thrilled, acting like this was meant to be all along,’ he said.

  ‘Until you dig a little deeper. Privately, they’re pissed. I’ve heard all kind of reports of them intimidating and killing people to keep their leverage and power. They’re not happy with us, I know that for certain,’ she said.

  ‘They know about us, the A.C.T., I mean?’

  ‘Some of it, sure. They know we exist, they know we had a hand in the Liberation, and they suspect people like myself of being on the team, but, as for how much they really know? I’m not sure,’ she said.

  ‘Well, they know about you and me after our little stunt at Psytech,’ he said.

  Frankie smiled at his comment, remembering their attempt to rescue Gibson’s wife and stepdaughter from the Psytech building. They’d failed to extract them, but at least they had escaped with their lives.

&nb
sp; ‘They do, you’re right. Marissa Webb may be many things, but she’s not stupid, so I’m pretty sure she will have us at the top of her wanted list.’

  The flyer dropped, and the rear door levered open to reveal the buildings on either side that were so close Frankie could almost reach out and touch them. Catwalks, platforms, and elevated highways crossed the space they were descending into with pedestrians on them watching their flyer pass by with mild curiosity.

  Not for the first time, Frankie felt grateful for the skill of their Doll pilot as their aircraft slid smoothly past and under the various obstacles in their way as it descended to the landing area it had picked out.

  Frankie held on as the flyer bumped down, landing on top of a building in the shadows of the monoliths above. Frankie looked over at Gibson and nodded.

  ‘You ready?’ she asked.

  ‘Of course, let’s do this,’ he said, adjusting his rifle.

  Frankie moved down the ramp and scanned the area around the flyer. It was dark down here. The whole place was lit with artificial lighting due to the minimal sun this section of the city got. Known as the Dog Stacks from its location above the old Isle of Dogs, and the way its buildings were stacked on top of each other, the whole area had been heavily renovated and built upon for years with little regulation or planning, so that it was now buried beneath other buildings that hid the area from the sun. She could see where they had flown in here, spotting the white glow of sunlight back the way they had come.

  Walkways and catwalks crossed the open sections above and below them with people going about their business as neon lights lit the area up in a multi-coloured glow. Frankie accessed the map in her cyberbrain and checked their route. They had a short distance to walk to get to where they needed to be.

  ‘Let’s go,’ she sent to Gibson through their neural link.

  Frankie hustled forward, towards the edge of the rooftop and down some metal stairs, checking all around her as they went. They moved through an unlocked gate and onto a quiet public walkway. A few people further along stopped when they saw them and the big guns they were carrying, but Frankie ignored them after making sure they weren’t a threat and led Gibson along the walkway over to another set of steps leading down.