There was a line of revellers waiting to get into the Peyote Club that Drick had to join to enter. Drick had made sure to park the vehicle, one of Boomer’s spare hover cars. If Boomer was true to form it would be a vehicle reported as destroyed some time ago running with some fake plates. If it was stopped it would pass a casual check, if there was an investigation it was a ghost, an echo in the system.
Drick had parked on the far side of the door which gave an opportunity to walk past the main entrance on the way to the back of the queue. With the coat that Drick had chosen, a high collar design, and the flashing hair extensions the facial recognition cameras would pick up very little. Drick eyed the sensor screen array on their own internal system. The club was doing the standard face, body and gait analysis with the added bonus of fairly intensive ultraviolet and infrared sensors to match internal densities and no doubt do a summary of what was being carried, or what was implanted.
That was a fairly rigorous system and more suited to high end corporations, government or military establishments. The club had undergone some upgrades since Drick was last here. It didn’t overly concern Drick. The combat suit had a stealth mode which had been activated before leaving the vehicle. It had active sensor disrupting technology with masking that presented false readings to the scanners making it appear as if Drick were lightly armed and wearing a thick weave of cotton.
Drick noted that they were using a single band microwave system for comms relays. That was again a more classy setup than previously. It would likely be a very select frequency that varied according to a customisable algorithm. Hard to monitor and even harder to piggy back. Drick had a method for dealing with that but they would have to be in the club to activate.
Drick checked the monitor screen that was showing the position of angels, the overlay would have demons on it as well soon enough. Drick was happy that four of the five backup and support that Boomer had supplied were already in the club. There needed to be two minimum for part of Drick’s plan, four gave plenty of redundancy and would also provide some measure of extra information and logistic capability. This would also be a good test of the team that was being built for the much weightier problem that Drick was planning.
Drick noticed a group of already tanked up party goers about two thirds down the queue. They were clearly colleagues of each other from some organisation as they had the same look and age. Drick scrutinised their clothes, at first glance they looked as if they were wearing clubbing apparel similar to everyone else in line. For the most part they were indistinguishable, however there were odd items out of place, the level of a tag, the cut of some pants, the extra exclusive trainers. This all added up to one conclusion, they were slumming it in a rougher than usual part of town. Rich kids with a taste for the lower streets and the undercity. They were also clearly on stimulants and alcohol. They were ideal.
Drick slipped in amongst them and casually offered a narcotic cigarette for the exchange of a tug at a bottle one of the revellers was holding. Then manouvred themselves into being part of the same group to look as if they belonged. Drick offered more of the cigarettes, which were greedily accepted. Worked well for Drick, the particular mix would make this group high fliers in a loud manner. As the line shuffled slowly forward Drick moved in front of the increasingly boisterous organics, making sure to slip one or two people forwards as people ahead turned to see what the noise was from behind.
By the time Drick reached the front of the line the group had started to sing and jostle each other. They were shouting to be let in. Two of the four security that were outside the door were moving down the line to deal with the noise and the other two security were distracted enough to just wave people into the club which is exactly what Drick wanted. As Drick passed the main doors the very expensive scanner just inside took a three dimensional whole body scan. That was again a new addition but Drick knew that they would have identified them at some point, Drick was after all already on their target list.
Drick was already moving at speed as the scanner suddenly flashed a warning. The moment the scanner triggered the alarm the outside doors snapped shut and the internal doorway of the vestibule almost twenty metres away was closing. A security screen dropped from the ceiling in front of the inner doorway, as an extra security measure. It was thick plastisteel and glass fibre, almost bullet resistant to everything but high explosive and armour piercing rounds. But, it was a fraction of a second too late as Drick had already dived low under the screen and between the closing doors. Drick was rolling as they hit the floor on the other side of the inner vestibule doors to reduce the impact and not become too tangled in the lifeforms they had just dived through.
