Michael Williamson - When Diplomacy Fails…

“On it. Elke, I need a distraction.”

Bart braked to a stop right alongside the van. Jason kicked the door, Elke bounced off his lap, he followed. She jammed something into her detonator coder and tossed it, and it erupted in a drumroll of squibs.

The locals didn’t stick around to determine if it was actual gunfire or not. A woman in a long black robe and hood, with four kids in tow, snatched up two and shuffled quickly for a doorway as the other two kids hung onto her robe, just as Ripple Creek taught its principals to do. In moments the area was clear.

Jason jammed a wedging bar into the door and heaved. Since they didn’t care if the vehicle survived the ordeal, they didn’t worry about cosmetic damage, and a sheet plastic door was cosmetic. It wouldn’t stop any fire, so it wasn’t a concern.

Once he had the door open, Alex shoved Highland off Shaman’s lap.

“Move, ma’am, now!” he said. Aramis unassed from the front, tossing JessieM ahead of him. Bart kicked out of his door and Alex came last.

Elke’s ass protruded from under the dash, but in moments she’d completely bypassed the control module with a universal one of her own. Most of the instruments probably wouldn’t read, but all they cared about were wheels and motor.

Or in this case, engine. Diesel engines were easier than most modern electric drives, and that’s what it had. Still, it rumbled and farted to life and Jason looked for instructions.

“… six, seven, eight, roll,” Alex ordered. Eight including Jessie? Yes, eight. Good.

Aramis said, “As we head south, we want to draw some attention to ourselves.”

Alex said, “Everyone loves a parade. Let’s wake them up.”

Elke fumbled with her window, it didn’t open, she raised her carbine butt and cracked the plastic out of the frame, then she reversed it, fired a burst across a building, and tossed out something that flared incendiary bright for a few seconds, then screamed and banged.

“Drive slowly,” she suggested.

Nothing happened for two minutes, but just as they hit that tick, two vehicles fell in behind and the occupants started shooting at them, badly of course. A pedestrian fell clutching at his leg, and one round punched obliquely through the roof.

“Don’t stop them,” Alex said. “We want to be followed.”

“Just roll the dice,” Shaman said.

He grunted. Enough bullets in the air meant someone getting hit sooner or later.

“Jessie, now churp the location we left.”

“The condo?”

“Yes.”

“Found condo on west central side, but must leave soon. All supporters meet us… where?”

“Where we stole the van would work fine.”

Highland asked, “Are you trying to kill my supporters?”

“No, ma’am. Any threats will beat them to that location and anyone smart will avoid the resultant firefight.”

She said, “While most of my supporters run the median, some are.. not too bright.”

I’m not surprised, and we might be better off without them, Alex thought.

“They should be fine,” he said. “No more at risk than anyone else here. Elke, do you have a spare feed handy?”

“I do.”

“You churp Ms. Highland returning to the BuState gate.”

“Understood.” Her fingers fluttered for a very few moments.

“That ties them up in two places. Next, since we can’t hide entirely, I want to bring them closer to us, still split by some margin, so they create multiple trouble zones behind us and near each other.”

Aramis said, “I can word a press release from us that we’re doing something.”

“Such as?”

“I’m not sure. Possibly that we’re vacating the city due to the growing violence? This would be aimed at mass release, not to just the tagged observers.”

“Do it.” That was rather slick.

JessieM was getting into it, too.

“I can do a release either endorsing or denouncing you,” she said.

“Make it denounced. You’ve left our vehicle and are on foot. Jason, find her a place to transmit it from.”

“Will do. This is going to be all kinds of entertaining.”

He bumped his phone, said, “Cady, now’s the time to work on that conference,” then handed it to Elke. “Make this go away.”

She looped something around it and threw it out the window toward a cluster of adults with guns. They departed, the device banged, and the phone turned into plastic confetti.

Bart said, “Traffic is blocked ahead. Divert or debark?”

“We better debark. We wanted a blockage, we have it.”

Bart pulled to the side and stopped. They rolled out into a square around Highland, with Alex next to her, standing close.

“We need to present as a social group,” he said.

“You’re kidding,” Highland said.

“Watch.”

Aramis and Elke took the lead, weapons slung behind them, moving slightly closer and suddenly appearing as a couple. Bart got next to JessieM. Shaman pulled back with Jason.

“I see what you mean,” Highland said with a fake but friendly smile. At first glance, they did look like three couples and a pair of friends. Anyone glancing at them would be unlikely to look again.

Alex kept multiple views up. Jason had a news feed running on his glasses. He tapped Alex’s arm and spoke.

“Boss, it’s working. They’re tangling up with each other and it’s spreading. If they’re in a hurry to get Highland, they’re going to wind up fanning it into a brushfire battle.”

“That serves our purpose, as long as it doesn’t get out of hand for us.”

Jason said, “It might. Do you hear it?”

“The gunfire? Yes, distant, but regular.”

“It’s been getting closer and there are now reports in six locations. Das says we didn’t get that from him.”

“Very good. You have him on phone?”

“No, he gave me access codes for their threat feed. I believe we can trust him, and I’m only on receive.”

Someone IDed them as a threat, there were shouts, and a couple of half-hearted shots not really aimed in their direction.

“Do we need transport?”

Aramis said, “It might be an idea. If we keep changing, they won’t know where our final destination is. Right now, any reports will make them think we’re going to ground. So changing would confuse them more.”

Bart said, “There is a market a block that way. There are lots of parked cars.”

“Then we’ll take one.”

Bart led the way with Jessie, who had to stride fast but kept up with him.

They found a microbus with a rolloff roof, rolled off. It was secured by recognition software, but Jason worked around that by shooting into the module as Elke clipped her bypass unit in place underneath. They jumped in, exposed but with lots of visibility as a tradeoff, and Bart slid into the driver’s seat as Jason took shotgun again.

“Elke, how’s recon?”

“I can’t do this very often,” she said with a flare of her eyebrows, but she leaned back and shot a cam straight up. She lowered the shotgun, touched a button and sent the scrolled image to Alex.

He reported, “Running gunfight north of us, small arms with light support weapons, seems to be a handful of machine guns. The army is west. It looks like they don’t want to engage the existing battle-”

“Probably politics,” Jason said.

“-I assume so, and is trying to coordinate counterfire against that incoming rocketry.”

Shaman said, “That leaves us here with two very hostile snipers and two unknowns with local help.”

“Do we want to stick it out, fight the mob, or try to meet up with the army?”

Jason said, “Army is not our friend. They’ll have orders to detain us, probably phrased as ‘coordinate with.’ Staying here means being sniped at their leisure. The local conflict is something we have practice with. Ma’am, we’re going to need to go through that local battle. We’ll be going fast, attempting not to engage, but if we do get engaged, we’ll need to fight very violently to break contact and continue.”