Chapter 19: Dead Man’s Folly
We got back to the base and I went about gathering up the ammo. As I was going through counting the ammo (Viktor was always very precise about his goods), the rest of the group went about planning the meet. The Doctor and the Comrade would ask questions about the meet. Where we going to meet? How likely Viktor would double cross us? Would the site have good ambush places for Viktor?
Well of course, I provided answers. The place was a café in Monaco that Viktor like to meet at. It was relaxing quiet outdoor café out near a lovely fountain in the circle out in the middle of nowhere. A peaceful place where Viktor can meet his clients and his bodyguards to could hide in the crowd waiting to pounce at a moment’s notice. If Viktor thought it was in his interest he could take us down in a second with his bodyguards.
Of course when Jimmy got word of the plan he was against it. He was sure that my, how you say, colorful contacts would eventually get me (and by extension everyone else) into a lot of trouble. However, it was too late argue now and we had to fulfill our end of deal. You never double cross the interesting merchants and you never late for a meeting. How do I know about such things? As I say I am not a nice girl.
We made up a plan just in case something went wrong. Jimmy, being our ace Cyclone pilot would be waiting nearby the meet. Since Viktor has met Jimmy yet, we hoped Jimmy would be a surprise if things turned ugly. The Doctor would also be in her Ferret. The Ferret has a bunch of sensors which would let the Doctor notice any amiss at the meet.
The Comrade would be manning the Hummer’s gun. He would be wearing his CVR-3 just in case. His Cyclone had been positioned in the Hummer so that if need be, he could pull it out to use it. We headed off to meet. We once again took a long roundabout route to Monaco as to prevent someone from tracking us.
When we arrived at the meet, I parked the Hummer near the café as the Doctor and Jimmy took up positions on the opposite sides of the street. I headed over to table where Viktor was sitting. I thought it was odd that he apparently brought his girlfriend to his meet. They were both leaned over to chat with each other. Viktor didn’t strike at me as type to bring his girlfriend to a meet.
As I got close, I realized they were both dead. Viktor and the woman had been posed to look like they had an intimate conversation. It was a trap! Before I could do anything, our ambushers were on the move.
I heard shots from Jimmy’s position as he engaged, what from my position was an unseen enemy. Jimmy transformed into Battloid and jumped into the middle of the street. A small group of men moved up and began to firing on me. At that distance, I had plenty of cover among the tables of the café. A second group of men, rounded group of men rounded the corner of a building next to the café and opened up on me.
I just barely managed to get out of their fire. I was wearing under my clothes the undergarment of the CVR-3 armor. This would have provided me some protection, but those Bushmasters were still quite fatal. I swear I felt a bullet part my hair. Joan and Charles barked at the lead attacker but failed to drop him. I began running back to Hummer when I noticed a young woman in the line of fire. I dragged her to cover behind a building near the Hummer.
As we moved to cover, I noticed three more men moving towards the Doctor. The Doctor noticed them too. She transformed her Cyclone into Battloid mode and charged the group of attacker at the end of the block. She took out one of the attackers at the end of block.
It seemed like an eternity to me getting to that cover. We passed a guy in the alleyway between the café and the building we were running to. He was wearing a coat hosing down what appear to be yet another group of attackers with an automatic rifle.
We finally got to cover as the Comrade began pulling his Cyclone and getting transformed into its motorcycle mode. More gunfire was happening elsewhere on the street. I didn’t really know what was going on, but I knew it didn’t involve us. I probably will never hear the end of it from Jimmy.
In the meantime, Jimmy decided to take out the group across the street. With a kick of his boosters, Jimmy took off to the other side the street. Jimmy slammed into one of the attackers and sent him through a wall of a nearby building. Jimmy then shot one of the remaining attackers leaving just one attacker across the street. That one attacker shot at Jimmy, but Jimmy was too quick for him.
The surviving attackers down at the end of block moved away from the Doctor and threw grenades in attempt to injure her. The Doctor deliberately took one the grenades as to shield a nearby bystander.
I then felt something behind me. I began to instinctly dodge as a burst of gunfire erupted behind me. The young lady I just saved went down in explosion of blood. One of the attackers in the alley way had doubled back around the building and laid down a burst on us. He put a second burst into her just to make sure that one of us was quite dead.
The poor lady had nothing to do with this and she was killed for the mere misfortunate of being next to me. I went into a blind rage. From the time Joan and Charles came up to bear on the attacker, I don’t remember anything. I don’t remember Joan and Charles emptying into the attacker. I don’t remember reloading Joan and Charles. I don’t remember Joan and Charles firing again into the attacker. All I remember is the splash his body made when fell into the canal behind the building.
As I headed under cover of a wall along the roadway to provide supporting fire, the original group of attackers near the Doctor jumped over a divide in the road and threw more grenades at the Doctor. They did manage damage the Doctor’s Cyclone, but not much else. The Doctor for her part closed on the attackers at the end of the block and knocked out one of the attackers with a Cyclone-assisted punch. She then convinced the remaining attacker to run.
The Comrade eliminated two of the attackers at road divider as Jimmy wiped the remaining attacker across the road and hoped over to me. That is when he told me that some of the gunfire that I heard came from my brother, supporting us. I was surprised and began heading in that direction. As I headed that way, Charles briefly came up and put a bullet into the remaining attacker’s gun, destroying it.
The Doctor grabbed the remaining attacker and wanted to know who he was. He confessed he was the city’s militia and was sent to kill anyone who showed up for the meet. Fortunately, Robert and his resistance group were there to help out. They had gotten wind of the militia’s plan and chose to show to see what was going on.
Robert had joined the resistance when hear the Dion and the Council had collaborated with the Invid. He had managed to hook up with some familiar faces. He had found the surviving TC soldier that had helped us in that failed raid on the castle as well as the CDFC soldier who apparently had used one of his nine lives to escape that inferno. The group had done well for itself, they had a quite a few members and had managed to stockpile a fair amount of explosives.
We discussed our plan with Robert’s group and together we began preparing for a trip to Paris…
Tags: Memoirs Robotech Mekton
