File: Deletion
Block Number: 6
Block Name: A Bad Call


...........................................................................


Rem gave a loud grunt as the bullet punched the air out of his body.
The corporate struck the sodden ground hard and lay motionless. 

His eyes looked up into a break in the clouds in the otherwise overcast 
night sky. The beautiful vista of the heavens enveloped him. 

He tried desperately to breathe, the pain in his chest unbearable, the fall 
of raindrops unfelt, his noise of the Cuban jungle unheard. 

God, its so beautiful he thought, as the tears began to roll unbidden, down 
the sides of his rain soaked face. 

A silohette appeared above him, dark and terrifying. A momentary glint of
a brutal blade. A lightning swift strike plunging downwards and then the
blackness returned.

  
...........................................................................


Remington scanned the compound in Cuzamel and took in his surroundings. A
man named Miguel, whom Rem had taken an instant disliking, had introduced
himself as the guy in charge.

He scrutinized the helicopters that the group had been told was going to
their method of insertion into Cuba. The machines looked old. Rem wasn't 
into military hardware, but somehow even he knew that these weren't in 
front line service with any of the world powers that mattered.

"Are you sure these things can get us there?" he inquired, looking back to 
face Miguel.

"They'll be fine senor" replied Miguel in a heavy spanish accent. Rem looked
up into Miguel's broken toothed grin, and watched the cigar he smoked make 
it's way from one side of his mouth to the other. 

"We leave soon, yes?" continued the smoking man.

"Whenever your ready" finished Rem coolly. 

One of Miguel gunrunners came up and began conversing with Miguel. Miguel 
looked back toward Remington and uttered a swift "We go" before turning and
heading for the helicopters. 

Remington watched his retreating back for a few moments before walked back to
where his team were waiting. Several team members looked up with apprehension
as he made his way towards them. Good, thought Rem, their learning.

"Ok, guys we're leaving soon" he informed, "grab your gear and lets go".

The group made their way to the waiting helicopter in a cold silence.

...........................................................................


The flight began and after the initial excitement of flying in a helicopter
the trip slowly slipped into routine boredom. Rem looked out of a small
window and took in the sight of another chopper carrying the other half of 
his team. The grim face of Nagasaki looked back at him from a similar viewpoint.

Hmm, thought Rem. Nagasaki will have to be dealt with when we get back.
Too much of an unstable element to have in my team for long he concluded. 

The thought stayed with him as he looked back into the cabin of his 
helicopter and met the unreadable eyes of Mr Zee. 

Perhaps two unstable elements...

Rem broke out his laptop AI and began going thru the debriefing information 
on Cuba supplied by Bryant. 

Zee continued to watch his actions intently, while Blank peered uninterested
thru half-closed eyes. Ms Knight, the medic seemed asleep. 

The judder and thunder of the helicopter flight continued as Remington
read one file after another. A strange prickly feeling on the back of 
his neck made him look up momentarily towards Mr Zee.

A mask of death greeted him. Rem noted the bulging vein on the side of 
Zee's forehead and looked down as the hand on the Solo's cyberarm 
slowly closed into a fist.

Remington decided that perhaps sitting so close to this manaic wasn't 
such a good idea. He began to sidle closer to the sleeping, seated form
of the medic.

Rem heard a sudden shuffle of boots and a blur from his periphery as
everything went black.
  

...........................................................................


Zee & Nagasaki greeted the knowledge of their impending deaths with
a look of cold rage. Rem looked around at the other members of the
team to witness their reaction to his deadly revelation.

Both netrunners looked back in abject terror. The others, a silent
mix of emotions. 

Nagasaki was moving towards Remington again as the sound of helicopters 
interrupted proceedings.

The Cuban army were back and from the sound of army boots moving 
through the jungle towards them...back in considerable force.

The team quickly decided that running was a far more tenable option than
staying here to fight. To a man, they quickly gathered possessions and 
headed deeper into the jungle and away from their pusurers. 
 
The pursuit lasted for a tiring 2 hours before the party determined that
they were away from the danger zone. 

The team continued to trek north towards Havana until noon before stopping 
for a brief respite. During the pursuit, Rmeington's initial suspicion 
on the real whereabouts of the Liquidation Device was proved correct.

Zee still held the device and Rem waited for the inevitable confrontation 
with the Solo to begin again. His gambit of plying the team with a
story about a 24 hour code to be entered by him or they all die, looked
like it might provide a dividend.  

The afternoon too was spent on their lunge northwards and away from any
other Cuban Army units. The team came across another Schlaghund detonation
zone during the late afternoon. 

The gisly human remains and blackened, twisted vegatation providing a grim
reminder that greater terrors awaited here other than the Cuban Army.

The team decided to put as much distance between them and their initial
dropzone as they could before nightfall. And thus the unrelenting progress 
northwards continued into the twilight hours.

When the decision was made to stop for the night it had started to rain.

Remington gratefully slide to the wet ground, his back against a tree. 
His head ached and his body ravaged by exhaustion. He closed his eyes and
slipped into a doze.  He didn't notice the footfalls of Zee & Nagasaki 
until the pair stood before him.

Nagasaki began the conversation.

"We're only going to ask you once Mr Buttingdon" said the Japanese Technician
"so make sure you think before answering.....what is the code to reset the 
24 hour timer?" he finished in cold metallic tones.

"What good are the codes" replied Remington coolly from his seated position.
"when you threw the device away" he finished looking up at Mr Zee.

Nagasaki looked at Zee and the black solo gave a brief nod. The Japanese
technician put a hand into a pocket and extracted the item in question.

"We've still have it Mr Buttingdon, so....what is the code?" asked
Nagasaki again. Zee lowered his rifle and looked at Remington silently.

"Please, please guys" began Remington, "this Gestapo shit isn't gonna
work. You can't kill me, if I die then you die. So please just give me
back the device & I may forget about this incident" finished the seated
corporate.

The pair looked at each other and Remington noticed that the other
party members had stopped their deliberations and were all glued to 
the confrontation.

"Listen Suit man" snarled Zee, 

"...we can't kill you thats true...but mother fucker we can cut you up 
so bad that you'll wish we had!" roared the black solo.

Remington digested this bit of information before deciding to stand up. He
straightened his clothes and looked back, matching stare for hateful stare.

"I'm not giving you the code...you're just gonna have to kill me" he
informed smoothly. Rolling the dice for the last throw of this once 
promising gambit.

Nagasaki's face contorted into a mask of fury and he moved towards Remington, 
a powerdrill in one hand. Zee stepped back and pointed his rifle at
the corporate.

"On your knees..PEEEG......tell us while you still can" spat the black solo.

Remington looked into the open hatred of Nagasaki and knew the guy had
stepped across the boundary into cyberpychosis. Their really gonna do 
it, they really are crazy, thought Rem....

"361DMQ", he heard his lips utter.

Nagasaki stopped and swiftly put the drill down. 

Remington turned his back on the pair and slowly began to walk away.

He heard the tell tale sound of the device keypad being activated as
he continued his slow walk.

"Stop right there PEEEG" barked Zee, "did we tell you you could move"

Remington continue to walk away as Nagasaki pushed the "SEND" button
with a fat thumb.

"It says Code Accepted" he heard Nagasaki's voice say from behind him
as he looked up into the face of Stone, the new solo.

Stone pointed a large pistol as Remington and gave a slow shake of his
head. "Your not going anywhere Mr Buttingdon" he informed.

Remington turned around slowly to look back at his tormenters. The sound
of the jungle receded from his hearing, replaced by the rapid thumping
of his beating heart. Time seems to slow.

Rem's eyes locked onto Nagasaki as the technician gave a sudden jerk. The
corporate watched as the Liquidation device slipped slowly from Nagasaki's 
grasp and drop silently to the ground.

He looked up again to stare as the face of the Japenese technician 
contorted to one of pain, his mouth opened wide to scream an unheard scream.

The body falling...his heart pounding....

THE-THUM....THE-THUM....THE-THUM......

....Remington closed his eyes.

...........................................................................