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

Funabashi and Shiroi mafia with military weapons and armour. The warehouse was full of crates stacked high in blocks, and there were overhead walkways which the criminals were using.

It was from one of those walkways that a metal ball fell, hitting the ground right beside Tatsu, bouncing once, and then exploding. The blast hit her in the back, and she felt several fragments hitting her legs. There were some cries from the officers behind her, but Tatsu barely noticed the concussion. She raised her rifle and fired into the walkway. The thin metal provided almost no protection to the men above her and they fell, metal needles driven at high speed into the legs.

‘Get anyone badly hurt out,’ Tatsu ordered over the communications link with her team.

‘No major injuries,’ came back from the squad leader. The body armour they were all wearing was not exactly military grade, but it was close. Soldiers in the JSDF wore powered armour now and that had not been felt to be a requirement for police officers, even riot squads, but they were all decked out in monocrystalline suits with a tactical vest fitted with trauma plates over the top of that. Their helmets came with infrared vision, built-in radio and GPS, hearing protection, and air filtration. For Tatsu, that was all over her natural armour.

Injuries were a concern. Some of the bad guys were using coilguns, and the hypervelocity needles fired from those could penetrate fairly thick armour. Most of the injuries being taken were to the limbs, however, since the vests did not protect there. They were not usually life threatening. Of course, the Russians could wear armour too.

‘Move up,’ Tatsu ordered. ‘Two groups either side of me. We clear as we find them. Watch out for more grenades.’

‘Understood.’

Tatsu stepped forward, her rifle held at her hip. It made no real difference where it was; she had the view from its sights in her sensorium and anything which got into those sights was going to discover that it was a bad day to be a bad guy.

~~~

A report came through on the robot Tatsu had trashed at Vasilev’s apartment building while she was being driven to yet another war zone. It was not especially encouraging reading and she could have done with some encouragement about then.

There was nothing specifically custom about the machine. It had been constructed from parts you could buy at just about any hobbyist shop or online, aside from the weapon, of course. The construction was unique, however. It followed no commercially available design, so it had been built either by or for the killer. Analysis of the software indicated that that was a commercial design, but not one that should have been available to a hobbyist. The killer had access to military hardware and software from somewhere, but that was hardly impossible if you cultivated the right contacts.

Forensics had found a partial fingerprint, probably a right index finger, on one of the circuit boards. They had not managed to match it to anyone yet, but they were still looking.

Basically, aside from taking one of the killer’s toys off the table, trashing the robot had got Tatsu nowhere. Right now, that was not really a major issue since her quarry had achieved what she had apparently set out to do: start a war in Chiba. The armoured van Tatsu was riding in came to a stop and she pushed out through the rear door.

This was going to be a room-clearance operation. The criminals involved were occupying a disused apartment block. Well, disused by all except for the Funabashi gang members who had been running a brothel out of it and, right now, the Císhàn tong members who had decided to end that. There were flames pouring out of a couple of windows and gunshots could be heard from within.

‘There are civilians in here,’ Tatsu said. ‘We take it slowly and carefully. Check your targets.’

‘Understood, Sergeant.’

Tatsu had a strong feeling they were going to be carrying body bags out of this one with relatively innocent young women in them. Hopefully, not too many of those would be down to police gunfire.

8th September.

Sachiko was a little surprised to see Tatsu on her door screen. It was far from being an unpleasant surprise, however, and she opened the door immediately. ‘Hi! I thought you’d be up to your neck in gangsters with machine guns.’

Tatsu stepped inside and let the door close behind her. Then she propped her rifle against the wall. Then she said, ‘They have to let us rest occasionally. I wasn’t far from here and I thought I’d check up on you.’

Sachiko slumped onto her stool, pulling one knee up under her chin. She was dressed in a thong at ten in the morning and her bed was unmade. ‘Bored,’ she said. ‘The Hole is closed until further notice. It’s too dangerous to have it open. I’ve not got much to do aside from streaming whatever boring crap is available while keeping an eye on the news feeds. It doesn’t seem to have got too close to here yet. You, uh, you smell kind of weird.’

‘Explosives residue, probably. Kind of acrid?’ That got a nod. ‘There have been grenades and a lot of propellent. I’ve stopped noticing it.’

‘G-grenades? Are you okay?’

Tatsu grinned. ‘Worried about me? Not had a scratch.’ The grin vanished. ‘But staying inside and out of this is a good idea. So far, they’re sticking to after dark, so you should be good to go out shopping during the day. But keep your eyes open.’

‘Any signs of it ending?’

Tatsu shook her head. ‘The Funabashi gang are still trying to work out who should be the new leader. They’re not that organised and they’re still fighting back. If they get behind one candidate, things could turn really nasty.’

‘You think that’ll happen