Necropolis Rising Read Online Free Page B

came with honesty. “So we’ve got a Mastiff six wheel drive; carries six, fully armored.”
    “ Isn’t that a little like overkill? We’re supposed to blend in, not go on a ram-raid.” Suzie said pointedly to Kunaka, earning her a scowl from the big man.
    “ We’ve got to prepare for every eventuality, Suzie,” O’Connell interjected. “If we get rumbled, we may have to force our way through.”
    “ And a roadblock ain’t gonna stop no Mastiff, missy,” Stu growled.
    “ Armour as thick as your head, then, I guess,” Suzie sniped, turning away from him.
    “ Let’s stay focused,” O’Connell said tactfully. “The plan is this: we get into the city, appraise the easiest route to our target, then use the explosion as leverage to gain access to the NICDD building. We’re a squad sent to protect and lock down a potentially exposed, strategic target. From there we plug into their mainframe and Clarke will deliver our package directly into the system. Then we get the fuck out of there the way we got in. I’ll try and plug gaps as I go; so stow your questions because I haven’t got all the answers for you right now.”
    “ What’s the time frame?” Clarke asked.
    “ We go now,” O’Connell said, “while there’s still confusion in the air. We’ll use it to slip through the cordon.”
    “ And if we can’t blag our way through?” Amir queried.
    Squatting down, Stu patted the hold-all at his feet.
    “ Then I guess we have to use a little persuasion,” he said.
    “ What you got in there, cowboy?” Suzie said with a caustic air.
    “ Like you’d know if I told you,” Stu said with a patronizing smile. He reached down and began pulling weaponry from its canvas innards; depositing each one onto the floor. “Benelli M4 shot gun; SA80 rifles, they hold a 30 round magazine; Browning high powered pistols; Heckler and Koch MP5 submachine gun, capable of firing 950 rounds per minute. That enough for you, Suzie?”
    “ Sure,” she said. “For a war.”
    “ Got any grenades?” Clarke’s question got in the way of another potential exchange.
    “ You crazy?” Stu said looking up at the pimple-faced youth. “Those things are dangerous.”
    Suzie looked from Kunaka’s face to the small arsenal at his feet and shook her head disbelievingly.
    “ Men!”
    “ Okay,” O’Connell said after picking up a rifle. “Be ready to move in five minutes.”
    ***
     

5
     
     
    Take that you undead bastard,” Darren Doyle screamed as he emptied the magazine of his Heckler and Koch machine pistol into the oncoming zombie horde.
    Several figures span around, some taking rounds to the head, others the chest, blood and flesh splattering the air in thick gory wads.
    But still they came, the room filling with their mournful groans. He tried to reload but he was out of ammo. There was no way out of here, no way back. There were just too many of them, all yearning to grab him, hold him; eat him.
    “ Ah, fuck it!” he muttered in resignation.
    And then Darren Doyle paused the game .
    On-screen, the undead pixel army stopped in mid stride, their tide of terrible lament receding, allowing silence to wash in behind it.
    “ Should’ve gone for that bastard arms cache after all,” Doyle appraised after taking a long slug from the can of beer that he’d retrieved from a stained coffee table next to him. He grimaced. The beer was warm and flat. Christ, how long had he been playing? He peered at the Michael Meyers clock on the wall of his bed-sit. The LED readout told him he’d just emerged from another six hour straight, cyber bender.
    You need to get a life, Daz .
    It was Gerard, his brother’s voice that had now taken residence in his head. Doyle reviled his brother’s piety more than the zombies frozen on the screen in front of him.
    He’d not seen Gerard for over three years. Last time it had gotten pretty ugly. Words had been exchanged, booze fuelled of course. Doyle couldn’t remember that much about it. But