Prologue

July, 2018

    The rain cascaded down.
    The light turned the neon into streams of molten silver on the road. People ran from the rain. People usually ran from the rain as most of the time it was acidic, but tonight it seemed as though they ran from something else.
    Rolling down the street was a two car convoy. The first was a large limousine. The second was a mid-sized Toyo-Omega sedan. They ran smoothly along the street, silently gliding along. Inside the limo, two women were arguing.
    "Amber, if you act like this at the presentation you'll be sorry."
    The younger one just stared out the window.
    Amber Tarnow hated this life. She would do anything to leave it. Her mother had forced her to come with her tonight. She had to go, but she did not have to like it.
    Diane Tarnow scowled at her daughter. She put her hand on Amber's knee and said, "Amber, you will look at me when I talk to you," and with that her hand slid up her leg a few inches and squeezed.
    The girl turned her head and merely stared at her mother.
    "That's better," Diane mused.
    Amber turned her head and stared out the window again. A tear slid down her cheek.

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    Up ahead of the oncoming cars, two-dozen men and women were coming out the shadows. About half of them ran across the street. They were all armed with a plethora of small arms. From hand guns, to submachine guns, even an assault rifle. They seemed to be concentrating on the oncoming cars. One man, the largest of the group, stayed out in the open. He wore a long leather long coat, and he wore it with purpose. Underneath, in his steel plated hand, was a Malorian Arms 3516, a 14mm hand cannon. He just stood by the curb and waited. He looked about at his cohorts to make sure they were ready. His eyes were like gunsights underneath his mirror shades.

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    In the limo, the driver looked about cautiously.
    His name was Trev and not only was he Miss Tarnow's driver, but he was her bodyguard as well. He wasn't expecting any trouble, but in his business, you didn't stay in business long if your clients got wasted on your watch. It was rainy as usual. Nobody hung out in the rain, he thought. Even if somebody tried to take them on, Trev was confident, as the Toyo behind him had four other body guards as well. He heard yelling in the back. That wasn't unusual either. They were always fighting and he usually knew why, but that wasn't any of his business.
    As Trev pulled the limo forward, he noticed one guy standing by the side of the road. Strange, he thought, he's a big bastard too. Trev didn't think about it much, but as a precaution, he thought he'd take a better look. He was lucky enough to have a set of cyberoptics. The wonderful things that they were, they were equipped with infrared and thermographs options. Trev would switch to thermo, that would give him the ability to see heat emissions.
    Trev would just give the street a gaze in thermo. He switched to thermo and what he saw startled him.
    On either side of the street he was getting multiple heat signatures from a lot of people. Those people looked like they were carrying a lot of cyberware and they were carrying a lot of guns. Instinctively, he slammed on the brakes and the limo came to a screeching halt on the wet pavement. Behind him, the Toyo-Omega rear-ended him, pushing the limo further forward.
    In the back of the limo, the two girls were thrown forward.
    Outside, the guy on the corner pulled out the big Malorian and started to pump rounds into the front of the limo where the driver should be. The big 14mm rounds slammed into the glass, continuing their path through the rest of the car.
    At once, everybody with a gun opened up on the sedan. Tires blew, glass shattered, and the sheet metal crumpled under the hail of bullets.
    Inside the limo, Diane grabbed Amber and pulled her down. Fuzz was flying everywhere as bullets hit the back seat. Amber screamed.
    In the front seat, Trev ducked and drew his own sidearm, a small X-9 automatic. He then kicked his door open and slid out, using the door as cover. The door immediately drew fire, but none of the rounds penetrated. Trev made a mental command and activated his boosted reflexes. Immediately he felt the world around him slow down. He drew a small wire from the base of the pistol and plugged it into his wrist. Though his eyes he could see his gun's ammo load and targeting cross hairs. Wherever he pointed his gun, the target would light up and the internal computer built into the base of his spine would give him the odds of hitting whatever he was pointing the gun at. He aimed the gun at the general direction of the assailants and let loose two rounds. In the darkness he could see figures hit the ground. He smiled to himself. Let that be a lesson to you non-professionals, Trev thought.
    Behind him, survivors from the sedan were rolling out of the car, firing wildly. Of the four people in the car, only two were out and one of them was wounded. They rushed forward to protect the limo's occupants, but were pushed back by automatic weapons fire.
    Trev was still firing away when he noticed that some of the people he was firing at were getting back up. Damn drugs, he thought.
    One common aspect of punkers like these is that they often take combat drugs that make them nearly unkillable, that is until the drug wears off, in which case they die right away. These drugs made the worst of the worst 20th century drugs seem nice and cuddly.
    Trev took aim at one girl punker who thought it was prudent to stand up after taking three 9mm bullets. He was about to pull the trigger when he felt as though a truck had hit him. He staggered back and fell. He looked down at his chest and saw a dark wet spot forming.
    "No fucking way," he spat.
    The bullet that hit him went through the car door and through his armored vest.
    The man with the Malorian smiled as he saw his target go down. His people were advancing on the limo. They had just one target. He looked around to gauge where his people were. Four were down. He ran across the street, avoiding fire all the way, and ducked behind the front of the car. The punkers, seeing their leader's bravery, started running towards the cars, firing all the way.
    Trev looked up and saw them rushing him. He held his gun up and squeezed off a couple more shots before they were upon him. One of the punkers with a sub-gun stood over him. Trev tried to raise the X-9 to shoot his new assailant. The punker knocked his gun aside and fired a three round burst into Trev's chest. The guards were avoiding all of the incoming fire by hiding behind the battered sedan. Three of punks scurried up to the limo side and shot the door handle. The door was easily torn off after that and one the punks reached in and grabbed Amber. Amber screamed and started to struggle as she was pulled out of the car. It wasn't much of a fight to get her out of the limo. When they did, they started running towards an alleyway. Diane's remaining bodyguards started firing in Amber's general direction. The punks then slowly started to pull back.
    Soon the punks seemed to melt away in the darkness. One of the bodyguards wearily stepped out from behind the sedan, a small Uzi III in his hands. Slowly he walked over to where Trev lie on the pavement. Behind him, his comrade was tending to the wounded guard. Upon crouching down, the guard felt Trev's throat for a pulse, but felt none. He stood up straight and edged over to the rear doors and opened it up.
    Inside Diane was shaken, but angry. How dare someone attack me, she thought. The thought that Amber was gone hit her next. Her Amber was gone. The thought was sobering.
    The guard reached his hand out and asked her to step out of the car. As she did, she looked down at Trev's body, and she looked at some of the dead or wounded punks in the street. Anger started flowing over her in waves. Whoever did this, she thought, is going to burn. She clenched her fists and said, "I want to find out who did this, and I want to kill them."
    "Miss Tarnow," the guard said, " We must leave, now."
    As they turned to head for the sedan, sirens could be heard in the distance.