Going down the stairs, at a time when the house is not five stories high at all, is not the worst thing that could happen. The worst part of the story was that all the floors that followed were occupied by elves and humans. And the former were clearly trying to stay a bit away, while the humans were doing all the very. Difficult work.
Weapons systems in working order were no longer here and they were trying to tap into the building's internal systems...
I wonder why among those who were on the floor with working defense systems were only elves? Or maybe there were people there too, but they were just dressed in elven armor?
I sighed as I continued on my way. Since I had activated the sandi, there were no opponents for me, and even without using it at full power I was able to get out of the line of fire and then get close to the enemy and eliminate him.
Step by step...
We went down staircases and walked through dilapidated floors. And on practically every floor we met the same picture. Sparking machine guns, broken cameras, broken locks to which the raner was obviously directly connected, a lot of holes and just potholes in the walls. Some doors were simply broken out, and some were still open, apparently, in some places the ranchers still managed to open them somehow...
"Mm..."
At one of the floors I stopped and turning off the sandi turned to Regina.
"...how much repair work do you have to do?"
I shrugged, imagining how much work she'd have to do here.
"If anyone is going to do the repairs, it's definitely not me..."
She shook her head.
"...I'll hire a company, they'll send their people and do everything, and then I'll have my people install the defense systems. I might even go to you for the latter."
"Huh..."
I grinned at such thoughts on Regina's part.
"...you know, if you come to me with this, I might even be willing to do it. I'm not sure if I'll do it myself, but I have a couple of people who can do the installation and configuration of security systems."
"Well, if you vouch for them..."
"I'll vouch for that..."
I nodded and activating the sandi again headed onward, to the next flight of stairs, which I used to descend to the floor below...
In fact, we made it to the cars without any accidents.
"Kiwi ..."
Regina turned to my girlfriend getting her attention.
"Uh-huh?
"There's a file in there. called "Big Badaboom." Can you activate it and get off this house's network in an emergency?"
"I can..."
Kiwi nodded and froze as Regina put a hand on her shoulder.
"Only when I say fast, I mean fast. The internal network will be down in five seconds, and the building won't last more than ten."
"Ahem..."
I looked at Regina in surprise.
"What?"
A slight sneer could be heard in the fixer's voice.
"Well... like, what about the renovations?"
"That's what you were talking about, so I brought it up. In general, I own several other buildings in the city that have already been prepared and mothballed. So moving into one of those buildings shouldn't be a problem."
She shrugged, and Kiwi meanwhile covered her eyes for a couple seconds and opened them with a nod.
"Did..."
And it was at that moment that explosions started going off all over the building and it literally folded. Not a single brick fell on the road.
"Ahem. and a pro miner."
"Thank you. I tried..."
Regina grinned, and I stared at her in utter surprise.
"What?"
"Well...it's kind of sudden to have you and a bomb squad..."
I shook my head.
"In case you remember, or in case you didn't know, I was a reporter, and I worked mostly in hot spots."
"Uh, what does that have to do with anything?"
I looked at Regina in surprise.
"I was just curious and used some of my connections to learn everything I needed to learn. So I'm not holding the gun to look pretty in the picture. And yes, I can mine, too. And I do it very well."
Surprisingly there was no haughty pride in Regina's voice, just a statement of fact.
"I've noticed."
I cast a glance at the folding high-rise. A couple seconds of silence and there I was, touching the walkie-talkie that let all our cars talk to each other.
"All right, folks, let's go to Postmortem..."
"Bingo!"
Synchronized response, and then the cars start up, sending us on our way. And in the city.
Saxon so-and-so landed here and there, but there were clearly not enough of them to counter the Wild Hunt. Solo and the various gangs had been working together for some time. Not that they had a direct mutual sympathy, but the realization that you were either going to be killed or enslaved was a metaphysical kick in the ass.
Corporations were also lumped in with them and tried to help them, and ordinary citizens as well... This is fucking Knight City, every citizen has at least a knife, and even if they can't wield it, it doesn't stop them from carrying it. It's the most harmless of all things.
Seeing some bastard trying to rape a girl in elven armor I made a gesture with my hand and the car stopped. Calmly getting out of the car, I pulled my pistol out of my concealed carry holster and fired a single shot, killing the fucking rapist.
His body collapsed onto the girl's body and she was confused for a second and hurriedly pushed him away from her.
Extremely slowly and looking at me suspiciously, she rose and froze in place.
"Do you understand me?"
"Yeah..."
It was said with a horrible accent, but still pretty understandable.
"Then get out..."
"Why?"
The girl obviously didn't understand the reasons for my action and now looked at me in shock. She didn't pay attention to the fact that she wasn't wearing any armor, and her armor was torn and cut in many places, exposing her intimate parts to the public. The girl herself was tall, her skin was slightly pale, her eyes were green, and yes, as clichéd as it sounded, she had long golden hair. She had a nice figure. She had everything going for her, except that her face was too aristocratic for my taste, even now she was trying to put on a mask of a thinking brick.
"If you had a gun in your hand and fought any of the humans, I would shoot you because you would be the enemy..."
I stared intently into her eyes.
"...but you were attempted rape and you were moved from the enemy category to the damsel in distress category."
I grinned slightly wryly.
"No girl should ever have to experience such treatment. That's why I helped you and if you want to thank me, then gather the girls who came to this world to rob and kill and if they agree, go to your world. Because you won't win here..."
I shook my head.
"We are ready to destroy our cities and we have the weapons to do it... one single shell and the entire city will be destroyed."
The girl visibly turned very pale, and her pointed ears drooped in fear.
"...and I don't care how many casualties there are, the important thing is that the invaders don't get any further."
"But in other cities..."
She was confused.
"We'll destroy one or two cities, and only a fraction of the elves will die in the nuclear fire, but your main people will realize what we can do to avoid becoming slaves. Realize and be afraid."
I grinned with the corners of my lips.
I didn't mention that we could send a projectile like that into the portal. Just because I didn't want to give her too much knowledge about our world. The main elves should already understand our capabilities, and if they don't, it's their own fault.
"I... go?"
"Id."
I nodded.
"...just get yourself some clothes."
She shuddered slightly and nodded her head as she quickly turned and disappeared between the houses, while I returned to the car.
"Hmm... I can't say I don't get it. and I can't disapprove of your behavior, at least not the part where you save a damsel in distress from being raped. However, I would remind you that she is the enemy and the enemy must be killed."
Regina commented on my action, I only shrugged at her words.
"And I agree with David's decision..."
Kiwi decided to participate in this conversation.
"...killing this particular earwig is not going to do us any good. No, if she goes and picks up a rifle and starts shooting other people, it'll be sad, but it won't have any irreparable consequences. But if she listens to David..."
"Do you believe that?"
Regina asked the question interrupting Kiwi, and the latter threw a displeased look at her.
"We believe..."
Becca also decided to step in.
"...in David. He's our leader, and we don't argue with his decisions during an operation. And like Kiwi said, if Eeyore stays here, nothing will change, and if she decides to leave, taking some of the invasion army with her..."
"Well..."
Regina shrugged, but it was clear to all of us that she stood by her opinion.
"She, just like you, can obey her commander in a combat situation and the commander will simply order her to continue fighting."
"And then she'll die..."
Kiwi decided to continue this conversation.
"...not by our hands, but dead. Because, like David said, people can destroy their own cities as long as it's for the greater good. This is clearly an invading army. And it would be okay if they didn't take the power of the corporations, but by enslaving some of them, even if not the very top, they've clearly shown that they can't cooperate with them. And if we can't cooperate, we have to destroy the invaders..."
"Tz. do as you please."
Regina clearly had her own opinion, but we didn't want to convince her that we were right, especially since we weren't sure of it ourselves. We simply acted on our own understanding of right and wrong.
The road to Postmortem was no different from the road to Regina's base, except that the final point was much better protected. But not because of the stationary security system, although it was at a very high level, but also because of the solos.
"Put the gun down!"
One shout and the solos lower their weapons and we calmly leave our cars and make our way to the bar, which they let us into without any problems.
"David..."
Bestia meets me as usual in her meeting room, a slight smile playing on her lips, as if there's no such thing as an unknowable thing going on in the city.
"Bestia..."
"Glad you're in one piece, heard Reggie couldn't keep her building together and now it's in ruins."
"Rather undermined it herself..."
Regina shrugged nonchalantly.
"...although I took all the information, but you should realize that even from scraps of information, the ranners can reconstruct some of the information. And I, like you, do not give up my customers, and I have enough dirt on various powerful people to turn a blind eye to my activities."
"You're right..."
The smirk on Bestia's lips grew a little wider.
"What are your next plans?"
"Wait a day or two for the group I sent on business to return and get the hell out of here somewhere safe."
"Is there one now, this safe place?"
Bestia grinned at my words I only shrugged.
"Well, let's just say there's a place that could also be attacked, but whose defense I've been personally involved in and as a result I can be confident in."
"Will you invite me?"
"If you want to..."
I shrugged.
"Then, with your permission, I'll give it some thought..."