Sign of the Dragon (Tatsu Yamada Book 1) by Niall Teasdale (e reader TXT) 📕

‘He’s still…’ Kawaguchi’s eyes widened. ‘They fixed the bug. They fixed it and patched it in the executives, but they haven’t released it.’

‘That would be my take. ViraShield and those responsible will pay for what they did. And you will be in prison with them for multiple murders. I’d imagine they’ll get out before you will. Now, move.’

Half-dragging her prisoner, Tatsu made her way downstairs to the lobby of the building. Various people woke along the way, staring at the scene of a woman dragging what might have been one of their own through the corridors. No one stepped in to stop it happening; the people here kept themselves to themselves. In the lobby, Tatsu paused, looking at the double doors which were now frames with no glass in them.

‘I’m picking up radio traffic from outside,’ she said. ‘I think your ex-employer might have sent someone to collect you.’ Which likely meant there was a leak in the TYMPD, but that was not entirely unexpected. ‘The investigation is underway and they still think it’s worth making you vanish. Do you know anything that wasn’t on that data chip?’

‘I put everything on there, aside from my name.’

‘Right.’ She pushed Kawaguchi into a corner behind a miraculously still-intact reception counter. ‘Please don’t try to run away. If you do, and I have to come find you again, I’ll be annoyed. You won’t die, but you’ll wish you had.’ Then she turned and headed for the door.

There were eight of them this time, all clad in the same sort of armour she had seen in Yachiyo and carrying assault weapons. Behind them, an armoured vehicle was waiting. Armoured but not armed; heavy weaponry would have made this far more difficult. Still, it was not going to be easy. Tatsu pulled up her police operations interface and called in an emergency request for backup.

‘Hand Kawaguchi over and everyone walks away.’ The speaker was standing roughly in the middle of the group. Male, heavily built, and holding his rifle at rest in front of him. Four of his colleagues were aiming their weapons.

‘I’m afraid I can’t do that,’ Tatsu replied. ‘He’s under arrest, which means he’s under my protection.’

‘You’re going to regret that. Be reasonable. There’s no way you can–’

‘Probably.’ In one smooth motion, Tatsu pulled her pistol and swept it in an arc which took in four of the mercenaries, including the leader. Four rounds of four-millimetre ammunition hit each of them but only the first was noticeably injured. Most of the needles hit the armour and stopped without penetrating. Tatsu dived to the right, back through and clear of the doorway, as a lot more needles of a similar calibre shredded the air where she had been.

‘You don’t have the weaponry to stop us,’ the leader called in through the door. ‘We’re going to come in there, kill you, and take Kawaguchi anyway. Give up.’

‘Why don’t you come in and get him then?’ Tatsu called back. The man had a point. Her pistol simply did not have sufficient penetration against modern combat armour. The suits were probably powered, providing additional strength to the wearer. This was not good. If she could stall until help arrived…

A shape appeared in the doorway, a ghost of a man looking around for a target. Trying a different tactic, Tatsu lifted her pistol and fired. She got lucky, and she knew it: one of the ten needles punched right through the man’s arm, shredding the muscle. His rifle dropped from his dead hand and he fumbled the catch with his good one. Tatsu dived across the space between them, grabbing the rifle before it could hit the ground, rolled out of the dive, and jammed the muzzle of his weapon into his gut. She pulled the trigger. Five rounds of very-high-velocity ammo punched through his suit and he crumpled to the ground. Dead was, perhaps, unlikely, but he was out of the fight.

There was a moment of shock on the other side and Tatsu took the opportunity to find out what the underslung grenade launcher was loaded with. She had assumed it was capture webbing since they had never used it against the Yankees. She hit the leader of the group in the chest and discovered that it was not capture webbing. The grenade exploded, slamming the man backward into the vehicle behind him. Twenty-five-millimetre grenades were not big enough to have a large explosive force; you were better off loading shaped-charge warheads into them really. The leader fell as the dual impacts shook his balance, but he was probably only bruised, and five metres away, Tatsu felt little more than a waft of hot air against her skin. Still, that explained why they had not used the grenades in Yachiyo.

The mercs were starting to respond now, lifting their weapons to open fire. Tatsu got in first, putting two rounds into the head of the man on the leader’s left. He dropped and so did Tatsu, rolling away from the doorway as five people opened fire. Then she turned, vaulted the counter, and dropped down beside Kawaguchi. The man looked scared, and he had something of a right to be. If it were Tatsu out there, the next thing she would have tried was grenades. Sure enough, the gunfire stopped and Tatsu pushed Kawaguchi further into the corner, shielding him with her body.

In the confined space of the lobby, the four explosions were loud, but the counter took the brunt of the force; Tatsu turned as soon as the sound died away, lifting her rifle to her shoulder as she rose to aim at the doorway. The two men who appeared there took too long to figure out where she was. Both of them dropped as Tatsu punched darts into their chests as she swept her aim across them. She had a pile of three