Back at BESC HQ, Tali leaned in even closer to the console. “We have a confirmed hit, the cruiser’s trajectory indicates it will crash land forty two floors up on the south face of Project Tower V1115.” The operator opened up a 3D model which showed the black and yellow hover car’s descent, marked with a looping red line. It then cut back to a live camera feed from a pursuing squad car. Huge gouts of flame were erupting from the aft section of the vehicle, spewing black smoke which obscured much of the view. Just before the squad car was forced to make evasive maneuvers to avoid a Tower, it zoomed in to ID Jack’s face as he clung to the side of his cruiser; legs dangling into the abyss below.

Tali straightened up, her eyes tracking all of the data as it poured in from various sources. Unsatisfied, she ordered “Get me our fastest car, i need to oversee this personally.” She then made to leave the command centre. “Tali, i strongly advise staying here to-” Howard protested, trotting after her. She turned around to face him, seemingly growing by eight inches in a split second; her countenance mirroring the greatest of storms. “This man has evaded capture four times now, each of them on your watch Detective Inspector Howard. Now you will accompany me and if he escapes this time, it will be on your head, do you understand me?” The little man shrunk even further, his cheeks losing all remaining lustre. “Yes Supervisor Laurent, this way.”

A blistering wind rushed past Jack, flattening him to the smooth metallic side of the cruiser. His white knuckle grip on the door handle was slipping fast. He used his left hand to grope around blindly, desperately searching for a hand hold. “Come on!” He shouted into the wind, his teeth gritted. Maybe this was it, a thought flowered at the back of his mind. Maybe i should let go. “Take my hand!” A voice shouted from above him. Opening his eyes, Jack found Ling hanging out of the open window, and couldn’t help but laugh. “WHO THE FUCK IS DRIVING THIS THING?” Ling smiled, his blind eyes locating the source of Jack’s voice. “The Mind is dead, i can’t see anything anymore; take my hand mister Thegn!” Jack grabbed one of the man’s outstretched hands and discovered the man possessed strength that didn’t match up to his spindly frame. With an almighty heave the driver pulled Jack back through the window and they landed in a heap on the car’s floor.

Untangling himself from the lanky chinaman, Jack took a look through the cracked windscreen at where they were headed. The ominous shadow of a Project tower loomed up ahead like a cactus, with snaking walkways and bridges as its bristles. They were going to crash straight into it. Jack looked at Ling but the man already knew. “Hold tight mister Thegn.” He shouted over the din of crackling electronics and roaring fire in the back. Leaning back in his seat, two fasteners shot out and secured him firmly in an X shape, Jack did the same. The tower blocked out all light as it charged headlong toward them. They were both screaming. The cruiser clipped a walkway before flipping over and crashing like a lump hammer through the side of the tower, bringing huge chunks of masonry with it. Inside the car, Jack and Ling were flipped over as the car somersaulted several times through the air before finally landing the right side up.

Taliga Laurent, Detective Inspector Howard and several armed bodyguards piled into a black dart-like hovercar that had been hastily prepared in one of the launch hangars. Seconds after the doors closed it lifted off and shot out of the doors, headed for the crash site. Inside was a full suite of equipment which allowed them to keep track of goings on in the command centre, as well as direct forces at the crime scene. The Projects in question were a hundred miles away, but the Dart could reach speeds exceeding three thousand. It weaved through traffic like a missile, flashing blue and red lights to warn other craft that couldn’t track it of its presence. Tali scanned a holographic model of the Tower, complete with architects notes and exit routes. “SRTU teams are on route to the tower, ETA two minutes. They have orders to secure the crash site and arrest everyone in the Cruiser.” Howard announced, listening in via a headset. “Excellent, full ahead both.” Taliga said, watching a live feed as armoured carriers descended on the Tower.

The dust settled slowly. After the rending scream of metal on metal the relative silence descended like a cloak of iron. The cruiser had landed in the middle of a courtyard. Scraggly shrubs in raised planters, benches looking out onto the city outside. Sets of concrete stairs led off all over the place to different parts of the Tower; lines of washing streaked across balconies and litter covered the floor. A small fire still blazed from what was left of the cruiser’s aft section. A ragged tear showed where a section of the craft had been blown clean off in the pursuit. Inside the cruiser, the metal chassis creaked and moaned as its on-board maintenance system tried vainly to rectify the massive physical damage that had been sustained by the car. Sluggishly, absent mindedly, the spiderweb crack which covered the windscreen began filling in on itself. 

A thick string of foam dripped from Jack’s open mouth; his head was thrown forward, held to the seat by the fasteners. The blare of sirens registered at the back of his mind and Thegn jerked awake, his eyes wide and staring as he looked all around the cabin. His hands shaking and clumsy, he popped his fasteners and started shaking his driver by the shoulder, just as the sound of hobnailed boots began reverberating around the courtyard. “Ling, wake up. Ling!” He hissed, trying to see through the cracked and dirty windows. He was about to check the man’s pulse when he noticed a patch of blood blossoming under his shirt. Pulling away his jacket, Jack found the jagged edge of a stanchion sticking out of his chest. Glancing behind the chair, he found the rest of it had impaled his seat from behind. 

“This is Babylon Security. Come out with your hands up.” A voice called from just outside the cruiser. Looking round, Jack could make out faint shadows all around the car. “Shit.” Jack whispered to himself, sitting back in his seat and raising a comm channel via his earpiece. 

“Thegn the Second.” said a voice inside his ear. 

“Dad, listen to me, i need evac from-..”

“Ahh, Jack. A car is on its way. Thirty ninth floor, north side. Ten minutes.”

The earpiece clicked to indicate he had ended the call.

The voice from outside shouted ‘You have ten seconds!”

Jack looked behind him at the floorful of powerful weaponry then up at the car’s ceiling, where the damaged alloy sunroof let a sliver of sunlight in from outside. BESC officers rarely made arrests on their own, and besides how did they even get up to the forty first floor? Militias kept most regular police patrols away. He must have landed via transport or squad car, which means there were at least two enforcers outside. Jack was a lucky shot but he didn’t fancy his chances without at least seeing what he was up against. Making a snap decision, he pressed a button on the display but the damaged sunroof didn’t budge, instead squealing loquaciously, remaining stationary.

The door it is then. Avoiding sudden movements, Jack opened the butterfly door and ducked out, his hands raised. He counted six heavily armoured BESC soldiers; all but the one addressing him had taken up defensive positions around the cruiser, weapons pointed at the mass of locals that had apparently crawled out of the woodwork. They were a faceless sea, moving slowly towards the crash site nefariously. No shots had been fired yet, but Jack could feel the tension building. The soldiers were fidgety, they were waiting till the mob got within specified boundaries to begin shouting at them to get back.

Before Jack could react, the arresting officer shoved him up against his car and secured his hands with holocuffs. “Jack Tiberius Thegn, you are under arrest for-” He never finished the charge as a round went through the side of his head, he was dead before he hit the ground. Jack realized what happened and knew what came next; wasting no time, he dived back into his car as an almighty cacophony erupted. The faceless mass surged forward, those who had weapons firing fervently, those who didn’t using debris from the crash. The BESC men and women returned fire, mowing dozens of locals down indiscriminately before the rest could find cover. Jack heard one of them scream “Urgently requesting back-up at the crash - we are being fired upon by automatic weaponry.”