Sayeeda took the weapon she had selected from Neil. It was a police issue rifle with a combination of firing modes and a plastic case of dull non-reflective plastic. She found a bandolier and put several magazines into its pouches before slinging it over her shoulder. Aiden chuckled and Sayeeda cocked a questioning eyebrow.

“It really completes the ensemble,” he explained gesturing to her torn evening dress and sparkling finery.

“I doubt the dress makers would approve of such accents,” he went on drawing an old fasioned pistol from a box and checking the weight. The thing looked to be made of gold, but judging from how easily Aiden lifted it, it was a decorative plating.

“I wouldn’t be so sure, I think that the staff could give most combat crews a run for their money. Particularly if you suggest that sapphires and silver can work as a color combination.” Aiden snickered and racked the slide on his pistol.

Neil passed Taya a needle stunner, the weapon as small and theoretically non lethal although Junebug was just as glad that the girl seemed to be remembering her lessons about muzzle control.

“Alright, lets do it.”

“Are you sure this is safe?” Aiden yelled over the howling intakes of the stolen air car. Sayeed laughed as the wind tore at her hair.

“If you want safe you are in the wrong car tonight!” she yelled back. The aircar was a high powered sports model they had snatched of the street. A few minutes with a cutting bar had sliced the top off in an effort to decrease the weight. At Neils insistence they had stripped the guidance system, emergency fail safes and every other component that wasn’t essential to the drive train or the control systems. Even the doors had been cut away to bring the power to weight ratio as high as could be achieved.  Taya finished a series of keystrokes on her data pad. She looked terrified and was clearly wishing she had a helmet. Junebug as making do with a pair of shooters glasses from Ranalds apartment. A light on the pad went from red to green and Taya gave her a thumbs up.

“The code was good, the system won’t recognise us as friend or foe, it should just ignore us!” The wind was intense without a windshield of any kind but it couldn’t be helped, the heavy bullet proof glass had been to heavy to save. Approaching the palace, even with the transponders foxed, would have been impossible. Emergency back ups meant to avoid air car crashes would have been tripped. In order to enter the palace they had to come in nearly vertically and without power until the last possible second. Neil said it was possible and that was good enough for Junebug.

“Alright Neil, fire her up,” she commanded.

“Hold onto your a…” The car slammed upwards through Junebug’s legs as Neil rammed the throttle to the gates. The sickening sense of acceleration crushed them to their chairs as the car surged skyward at several hundred kilometers an hour. The pressure lasted only five or ten seconds before Neil chopped the throttle to nothing and killed the engines. The car as still hurtling upwards on nothing but momentum. The pilot flexed his hands over the controls as the wind whipped past them. The approach as an extremely high parabola. The huge burst of acceleration would carry them high into the heavens and then gravity would bring them down. If Neils calculation and piloting were correct that should be ontop of the north tower.

The lights of Dar’mond glitterex below them like diamonds as their speed slowed. For a queasy moment there was equilibrium as the car reached the top of its arc. Sayeeda had never liked roller coasters, but then she had never liked rather a lot of things and she didn't let them get in the way of doing her job. The car plummeted downwards in a ballistic course as terrible and predictable as anything Newton could have imagined. She gripped her seat belt and counted silently, knowing that life or death depended on Neil sticking this landing.
[@POOHEAD189]