It should have been obvious. So obvious that it could be seen from miles away. Three hacking attempts in a short span of time. It was a given that the ones on the receiving end of those attempts would notice, and once they do their first reaction would be to try and find the culprit.
One of their own was attacked and had his NIM compromised. The attacker then cloned the app and attempted to track their servers using it. Soon after, there was a third hacking attempt, most likely done by the same culprit. That left no doubt that they were under attack, and with that in mind, there was only one course of action to take.
Hearing the shouting voice, Dante jumped off the crate he was sitting on and turned away from the lights.
It was far too late to hide. Dante was already sprinting by the time the word came out of his mouth. A million questions flooded his mind, but he didn’t get a second to sort through them. Gunfire erupted behind him and swallowed Liliana’s voice. He didn’t stop to check on her. This wasn’t the time to worry about others.
Miraculously, he reached the nearest corner without a single bullet grazing him. As if by reflex, he dove toward it, rolled, then pushed himself toward the wall, pressing his back against it. He pulled the left side of his jacket and reached for the gun resting under his armpit, leaning toward the corner to take a peek.
His heart almost stopped when he heard the voice coming from behind. Somehow Ms. Hero had made it there before he did. No, not somehow. He already knew she was much faster than a normal human. She was a Level 3 Enhanced Individual, after all.
"Of course I have a gun." Dante’s voice dripped with irritation. "Why the hell wouldn’t I have a gun?"
Just at that moment, one of the bikers revved his engine and drove into the alleyway. More followed right after. Without a hint of hesitation, Dante aimed his weapon and pulled the trigger.
Three bullets went flying and a second later there the sound of a violent crash followed them. Shooting a few more times, Dante got up to his feet and turned to run.
"Move it!" He yelled at the young rich girl.
"D-did you... did you just kill them!?"
"For fuck’s sake this isn’t the time!"
He grabbed her arm and pushed her in the direction of their escape route. More bikers had entered the alleyway and going by the noise, the others must have gone around to block the other end.
Running a few steps, Dante turned behind him and sent a single bullet flying just as the first of their pursuers reached the corner. He wasn’t a sharpshooter by any means, but through sheer luck, he somehow got the bastard in the shoulder and caused him to crash.
Liliana’s shout came at just the right time, allowing Dante to take in what was ahead and plan his moves. The sound of motor engines was getting louder behind him and gunfire would soon follow, prompting the two to hasten their pace.
A couple of meters from the fence, Liliana let her body collapse into a crouching position then flexed her legs, easily jumping over the barrier. Dante wasn’t going to have as easy of a time as she did, being a normal human.
Instead of running directly to the metal fence, he moved to the left where an old dumpster was left along with some trash bins. Praying that they wouldn’t break, he from atop one to the other then kicked the wall, barely making it to the other side.
Unlike his enhanced companion, Dante had to roll on the ground to disperse the force of his fall. He was back on his feet not a second later and continued running without looking back.
"Why are they shooting at us?" The question came from Liliana who had slowed down to match his pace.
Dante didn’t understand himself. For a moment he suspected that Caligo had been able to track Volcan somehow, but that didn’t make sense. The AI had the skills of a powerful Diver and knew to erase his tracks when using them.
Even if he had left something in the last few attempts, they had already moved away from the scene of their first and second attempts while the third was done through a drone that belonged to someone else. There shouldn’t have been a way that leads back to them, but somehow-
Suddenly, it all became clear.
Ever since he reached Nightsun, Volcan had been masking his presence from all security systems. That allowed him to roam freely without having to worry about being found by the people looking for him. When he learned that the same couldn’t be done with the drones, he didn’t have to worry too much, either.
The drones were searching for the Eisenberg girl. With her disguise and with the effort they had been putting into avoiding a direct confrontation with the swarm, there was no sign that the two of them had been discovered.
But that’s only if they were on guard against the Eisenbergs.
Volcan was able to intercept the signal from the drones and access their video feeds so there is no reason others wouldn’t be able to do the same. There is also a chance of Caligo using similar methods to monitor their territory.
No matter the case, one only needs to catch a glimpse of them near Rechy’s apartment once to know they were involved in the first hacking attempt.
If it was the police they might have taken them in for questioning so they could confirm it was their doing, but a criminal organization had no need for that. They would shoot first and ask questions later, and that’s exactly what they did.
Despite how it all appeared thus far, it turned out that things weren’t going as smoothly as they thought. Continuing to curse his carelessness as he ran, Dante noticed that the sound of gunfire coming from behind them had stopped. An instant later, the sound of metal being ripped apart reached his ears.
Failing to stop himself from looking back, Dante watched as one of the bikers drove through the metal fence like it wasn’t there, long glowing blades extending from the front of his heavily armored motorcycle.
As if to make an already bad situation worse, engine sounds arrived from the other end of the alleyway. More bikers were coming to block their path, forcing Dante to accept that they had been caught in a pincer attack.
Just as he was about to wring his mind for a solution, the girl running ahead of him suddenly accelerated.