MOAB

Chapter 45: Galene @ 3.1x nhs

Chapter 45: Galene @ 3.1x nhs

They ran past the red light in Poseidonos avenue, by the sea.

Then another red.

Then another.

Galene held on to him for dear life. Gregoris pushed the elegant machine to its limits. The Ducati purred and tore up the street like it was meant to.

“Is it onto us?”

Gal dared to look back. The blur in the air was steadily on their tail. “Yes! What is it?”

“A high-speed drone. It’s physically impossible to outrun it in the city.”

“What are we gonna do?”

“I will try not to crash. You are gonna hack it!”

“With what?” Gal cried out.

“Figure it out!” Greg took a turn that brought them centimetres from hitting pavement.

Galene breathed fast. What was she supposed to do? Hacking was done at a dimly lit basements, over energy-drinks and hunched over computer monitors, not while being chased by a killer-drone that carried unknown weaponry on it and driving 200km/h, swerving in traffic.

“Gal!”

“Right. Right.” Gal recited the mantra. “It is by will alone I set my mind in motion. It is by will alone-”

It clicked. She pulled a virtual keyboard and it showed up in her veil. She clenched her legs around the bike, so that they kept her in place mechanically. She had to trust Greg not to crash them both. Division of labour. Leaving her upper body to move as they turned left and right, she started typing.

“I gave you access to Hermes’ security AI.”

Gal felt even more blood pumping, if it was possible under these circumstances. So much processing power at her fingertips. So much power, full stop.

She kept mumbling the Mentat mantra. Athens strolled past her in a casual pace, fluid and syrupy. She took root access and focused the Hermes AI to reverse-engineer the drone. Military. Dangerous. Killer. Possible low-yield shaped charges on it, maximum three shots.

Could their helmets endure it?

Quick simulation. Complete. Definite no.

The drone dove down like a hawk, aiming for Greg’s helmet. A bang and a tiny flash. The AI took over and made an impossible evasion manoeuvre that sent them crashing sideways on a car, but struck at an angle that bounced them right back on the road.

Her right knee was crushed. Shattered, beyond repair. Hermes AI informed her that her employee insurance would cover the prosthetic surgery replacement.

She glanced down at the mangled knee, indifferent. She would bother with it later on. She turned off the pain, like she’d turn off an annoying warning error.

The high-speed drone had two more shots, based on approximate weight capabilities.

Gal kept mumbling the mantra.

Geofencing. The idea came to her and her fingers had already begun typing. She could trick the geofencing rules that forced flying drones to avoid specific areas.

Encryption firewall.

She aimed the Hermes AI on it.

Access granted.

So. Much. Power.

The drone stopped midair, as if hitting an imaginary wall. Its onboard AI tried to compensate and searched around for alternate routes. It would figure it out in time, but they gained the distance they needed.

“Awesome work, babe!” Greg said.

Gal smiled. It was cut short.

The sss Clete was upon them out of nowhere. She sliced the air with a sword like the insane person that she was, aiming for Greg’s throat. His leather jacket barely caught the blow, and tiny drops of blood sprayed Gal’s helmet.

“Are you okay? Greg?”

“Just grazed me, I’m okay.”

Clete send a wave to Galene over the veil.

“That mother-f*****g psycho!”

The rest of the Amazons forced them into side-roads. They couldn’t keep up, but their presence didn’t allow for any errors. Greg didn’t make any, at all.

Gal couldn’t hold herself by the legs, they felt slippery. She grabbed Greg with her left arm and kept typing in the virtual keyboard with the right. She divined the Amazons’ locations on the road and fed them to Greg’s map.

“Why are they doing this? This is insane!”

“I guess they didn’t appreciate our latest business deal,” Greg said, grunting.

The drone appeared again.

Galene geofenced it once more. It didn’t work.

Damn.

So she brought a crane down on it.

Highjacking the controls of an idle crane, she moved it just so, placing it in the path of the drone. It swerved to avoid it but grazed it a little, reducing the drone’s speed considerably.

The crazy woman caught up to them again.

Greg reached a roundabout, climbed the bike in the middle of it and grabbed Gal by the jacket. Then he threw her on the grass.

“It’s me they’re after.” He hit the gas and threw dirt and grass behind him.

“No…”

Gal stood up and her knee gave way. She fell flat on her face and pain overcame her.

In an instant, Greg was a red tail-light, vanishing in the dark, chased after by a madwoman.