Datafile 0024
“She's starting to wake up.”
Ito looked over at Toyoko as he got up from the plastic crate he was sitting on, closing the holoimage of the hand of poker he was playing. Castiglione and Steiger did the same while Mayuzai looked down at her cards and groaned.
“I finally get a good hand and the bitch chooses now to wake the fuck up. Figures.”
Ito walked into the other room and looked down at Felicia, laying on her back in a rundown biobed. It had been almost twenty hours since they had captured her and her regenerative powers had done their job, healing the majority of the damage done by the building collapse and the shot to the head. Ito always marveled at how the vamps could heal from almost any injury and be good as new as long as they got some blood to help things along.
He reached out and grabbed the bag of plasma that hung from the IV next to the bed. It was almost empty, Felicia having consumed most of it through the cannula that was inserted into the jugular vein of her neck. They had kept the flow to a bare minimum so she would remain unconscious but still be able to heal. There was no point in going through all this unless they could get the information they needed from her.
“Wakey wakey Felicia,” Ito said as he closed the valve on the IV. “Time to talk.”
The moment Felicia's eyes fluttered open she tried to jump from the bed, the muscles in her neck and arms straining, her veins bulging like she was lifting something incredibly heavy. When she discovered she couldn't move her mouth twisted into a snarl.
“What the fuck did you do to me bloodbag ?” she said through gritted teeth.
“We didn't do anything,” Ito said as he walked around the bed, folding his hands behind him. “You're lack of mobility is thanks to the stasis field generator under the bed. You won't be going anywhere unless we choose to let you.”
Felicia tried to move again, her eyes squeezing shut and sweat breaking out on her forehead with the effort. “I'll fucking kill you all.”
“No, you won't,” Ito said matter of factly. “You aren't going to do a damn thing other then answer the questions we have for you.”
She laughed, a horrible sound that reminded Ito of a sheet of metal being torn in half. “And why the fuck would I do that?”
“Well,” Ito said, leaning over her and looking her in the eyes. “You've been here over twenty hours now. And if I remember my Bloodsucker 101 classes, you vamps have to eat once every twenty-four hours or things get... unpleasant. Isn't that right Lieutenant Castiglione?”
“Yep, I do believe that's correct Commander.”
Ito noticed Felicia's eyes widen ever so slightly.
“Now, we've had you on a drip of artificial plasma for a while now so that you could heal from your wounds and we could have this conversation. But fake blood doesn't cut it for you vampires, does it? It has to be the real thing, genuine human blood for you to make the hunger go away. And the longer you go, the worse the hunger gets, doesn't it?”
Ito could tell Felicia was starting to struggle against the stasis field again, but this time more from panic than rage. If he was right about the timing, the first pangs of the hunger should be starting to manifest and make her easier to manipulate.
“So what do you say Felicia? Ready to tell us what we want to know?”
“Fuck you,” she said. Ito noticed that her breathing was starting to become more rapid, her eyes less focused.
“What is on the datachip the Clan Ketsueki and Crimson Light are so eager to get their hands on Felicia? What do you want with it?”
She set her mouth in a grim line as she continued to breathe heavily, her eyes looking straight up.
“You obviously know that Caldera has the datachip or you wouldn't be here. Do you know where she's taking it? And how did you manage to trace her to Vegas?”
“Go fuck yourself bloodbag,” she said without taking her eyes off the ceiling.
“Fine,” Ito said as he let out a heavy sigh. “We'll do this the hard way.” He then motioned for the squad to leave the room, closing the metal door behind him with a resounding thud that echoed off the walls.
“How long do you think it's gonna take before she breaks?” Toyoko asked.
“In another hour the hunger is going to start to get really bad. By then she should be willing to tell us anything if it means she gets to feed. I hope.”
Ito sat on the plastic crate and gestured to the makeshift table. “Who's up for a few hands of Texas Hold'em?”
***
Ito was stirred awake by the sound of the guttural scream coming from the other room. It didn't sound human, more like the noise an animal would make if it was trapped in a cage that was too small. He sat on the edge of the bed and looked at the metal door, Mayuzai glancing at him with a worried expression.
“How long has she been screaming like that?” he asked.
“She's been making noise for the last twenty minutes or so but nothing like that.” Castiglione replied.
“Good,” Ito said with a smile. “I think she might be ready to talk.”
He walked over to the door and unlocked it with a simple passcode. Once he heard the muffled click he pulled it open and walked in, followed by the rest of his squad. Felicia was lying on the bed, still unable to move thanks to the stasis field. Her skin was ghostly white to the point of almost being translucent, the veins in her arms clearly visible from her near constant struggle against the field. Her eyes were huge, the pupils darting from point to point in the room but with no focus.
“I'll fucking murder you all!” she screamed as Ito walked toward the edge of the bed.
“The hunger's getting pretty bad now, huh?” he said as he looked down at her, the only reply rapid breathing and a low moan of pain.
“It doesn't need to be like this Felicia. I can make the hunger and pain go away. It'd be incredibly simple.” Ito them showed her the IV bag he had been holding behind his back. It was filled with a red, thick liquid and as soon as Felicia saw it, she became even more agitated.
“Yep. Three hundred milliliters of unspoiled, right from the vein Type A blood straight from Lieutenant Steiger there,” he said as he gestured toward the man at the end of the bed. “Not that you really care what type it is, as long as it's fresh right?”
He took the bag and hung it from the IV, replacing the now empty bag of artificial plasma. “All I have to do is turn the valve and it will start coursing right into your jugular. You'll feel better almost instantly. Your hunger satiated once again.”
Felicia kept looking from Ito to the bag and back, her expression going from panic to fury and back again. Finally she sighed, her breathing becoming more even as if she had made a decision. “What do you want to know?'
“What is on the datachip that everyone seems so interested in?”
Felicia hesitated a moment before answering. “It's a new nanotech that will enable vampires to use cybernetics.”
Ito looked from her to Toyoko, a expression of shock taking over his features. “How is that possible?”
“I'm not a fucking scientist. That's just what I was told.”
“Any kind of chrome?” Castiglione asked.
“Yes. Cybernetic limbs, data ports, liquid wetware bio enhancements. Anything we want.”
“Holy shit,” Steiger muttered under his breath.
Ito turned to look at Toyoko. “No wonder Hachisuka sent a Sutoraiku team instead of just regular grunts. This is huge.”
“Considering they helped create it I would think so,” Felicia said with a laugh.
Ito's eyes narrowed as he focused again on Felecia. It appeared that now that she was willing to talk she didn't want to stop. “What do you mean?”
Felicia closed her eyes tight, obviously fighting another wave of pain before answering. “The tech was designed by a group working out of Omega-Kagi Optinational. But the money to fund the research and development all came from Hachisuka.”
“Why the hell would Hachisuka be making weapons to help the bloodsuckers?” Mayuzai asked with just a hint of fear in her voice.
“I don't know,” Ito replied.
“It was supposed to a simple job. Pick up the specs on the new nanos and take them to our people. And then that DawnSword bitch fucked everything up. Wiped both the physical drives and the copies on the cloud servers clean with a virus. Didn't even know it was gone until the next day. And by then we were fucked.”
“Is that where Caldera is taking the datachip? To the DawnSword?”
“How the fuck should I know? But we know that slag you used to run with is resistance so anything is possible.” Felicia's breathing was becoming more shallow and raspy the longer she talked.
“Do you know where she's taking it?”
“Last we heard the plan was for them to take the datachip to Brooklyn, meet up with someone named Mattix. But that's all I fucking know.” Felica then looked at the IV bag, licking her lips. “I did what you asked. How about a taste?”
“In a minute,” Ito said with a smile, holding his finger up. “You hear all that Charade?”
“Sure did Boss.”
“Pull up everything we have on a person named Mattix. Should be somewhere in the Brooklyn Zone.”
“Already done. Sending the info to your NIICs now.”
Castiglione brought up the image and dossier of the tattoo artist. Ito didn't see anything that screamed resistance fighter but that didn't mean much. “Do we know if this Mattix has any connections to the DawnSword?”
“Nothing concrete,” came Charade's reply. “But his name has come up recently on the scroll when it comes to DawnSword matters.”
Toyoko walked up behind Ito. “It's the only lead we have and we're running out of time.”
“Yeah but does that even matter anymore? If Hachisuka helped develop this new tech with the bloodsuckers do we really want them to get it back?”
“Well regardless,” Toyoko said. “You were right about one thing. This whole situation stinks.”
Ito looked down at Felicia. “How do you know so much about the moves the DawnSword is making? They don't use a centralized command structure for exactly that reason.”
“We have a bloodbag on the inside. A familiar that keeps us informed about what's going on.”
“Is that how you knew to come to Vegas to look for Caldera?”
“I'm not saying another fucking word until you give me what you promised.”
“Oh Felicia,” Ito said with a sympathetic tone. “I didn't promise you anything.”
Ito then pulled his Spitfire from the holster and fired three shots into the IV bag. The blood exploded in a shower of crimson red, covering the floor and the wall. Felicia let out a primal scream of fury that echoed in the room, causing Mayuzai to cover her ears.
“Good luck Felicia. I sincerely hope we don't see each other again,” Ito then gestured for his squad to move out. “Charade, prep the ship for launch. We're out of here.”
“Where we going Boss?”
“Brooklyn.”
As Ito's team left the small apartment and walked into the street, they could still hear Felicia screaming from five floors above.
***
“What's running through your mind Ito?” Toyoko said as they boarded the assault ship and began to strap in.
“What am I thinking? That this is a hell of a lot more complicated then a simple retrieval mission,” he said with a shake of his head. “Someone or multiple someones within Hachisuka is working with the vampires for some reason. And there's a traitor in the DawnSword that is feeding the bloodsuckers information about their plans.”
“But the DawnSword isn't our problem,” Steiger said.
“For now. But how deep does this conspiracy inside Hachisuka go? Who can we trust anymore? Like they used to say before the War, the enemy of my enemy is my friend. We may have no choice but to help them.”
“So we're going to Brooklyn?”
“Right now it's our only lead. We'll see if we can find this Mattix and go from there.”
“And if we get our hands on the datachip? What then?” Mayuzai asked.
Ito hesitated. “I really don't know anymore.”
***
Solartive Pharma made billions of cryptos after the end of War, selling drugs to the surviving governments of the world to combat the aftereffects of the biogenic and nuclear weapons that had been used. They took that money and used it to purchase Manhattan and the surrounding boroughs of New York City.
Unfortunately for the residents who remained, they were only interested in Manhattan and Staten Island. They used one as their corporate headquarters and the other to build an army that was second only to Hachisuka's in terms of size and reputation. The people of Queens, the Bronx and Brooklyn were left to fend for themselves.
Brooklyn in particular became a haven for the gangs and criminal element of New York City. It was nothing compared to what happened to Baltimore and Solartive made sure to not let things get too out of control but if you needed something illegal, all you had to do was take the magrail into Brooklyn and you could usually find what you needed.
According to Charade, The Auditory Eye, the tattoo parlor run by Mattix was located in the Williamsburg area of the zone on Manhattan Avenue. He had the Datamurai take the ship down in full stealth mode in what used to be a park across the street.
“We're going to do this a bit differently this time,” he said to his team as he checked his Spitfire. “There's no sense in all of us going in armed to the teeth and looking for a fight. Castiglione and I will go in and see what we can find out. The rest of you remain here and stay frosty. We may need your help if things so south.”
Toyoko stepped up to Ito, grabbing his arm. “This is a bad idea.”
“Only if it doesn't work,” Ito said as he put his revolver back in the holster at his side and pulled on his tactical helmet. “Charade, lower the ramp.”
Ito and Castiglione walked out and headed toward the street. The park was filled with trash and abandoned vehicles, some burned out and others stripped for parts. They got a couple looks from the odd tweeker, strung out addicts looking for their next fix but didn't have any reason to get nervous.
“Charade, you maintaining visual?” Ito said under his breath.
“That's an affirmative. I have a lock on your position.”
“Good. Let's keep it that way.”
As they left the park they noticed most of the windows in the surrounding buildings had been shattered, evidence of a recent gun battle everywhere. The storefronts were riddled with bullet holes and spent shell casing and plasma battery packs littered the pavement. The streets were also eerily empty, the usual crush of humanity in any megasprawl strangely absent.
“Something tells me we're late to the party,” Castiglione said from just behind Ito.
“Agreed,” he replied as he pointed over toward a small storefront. “There's the tattoo parlor.”
Ito pulled his weapon and motioned for Castiglione to do the same. He slowly pushed open the front door, the sound of scraping glass greeting him as he did. There was a small waiting area and a large counter, behind which was a door that Ito assumed led to the tattooing suites. There was shattered glass, scorched plastic and what he thought was blood covering the floor. As the two men walked around Castiglione bent down and picked up a shell casing, giving it a closer look. “Appears Crimson Light beat us here,” he said.
“Sure looks that way, huh?”
Ito suddenly heard the sound of a low click and a door opening. Both he and Castiglione spun around, guns aimed at the counter and the now open door that led to the back of the shop.
“Great. Just what I need. More assholes with guns.”
The young man behind the counter was bald, with a goatee and dull chrome covering his left eye and temple. He was wearing a loose black tank top as well as jeans with holes in the knees. What they could see of his skin was covered with tattoos, some glowing neon colors that changed every few minutes.
“You Mattix?” said Ito, not lowering his gun.
“Maybe. Who the fuck are you?”
“We have some questions we need you to answer. It's been a long few days so what do you say we make this simple for everyone.”