Adam had accessed the available files on the artificial island during their flight. A few years back, the scrap yard had been a thriving business. Breaking down discarded technology and selling the steel and electronic components to third world countries had been a lucrative venture.The current owner of the facility was another one of Neomex’s dummy corporations. This raised another question: Why would the HDL want to own an abandoned scrap yard? All evidence pointed to a connection between the HDL and their killer, but they were still missing something.
Adam eyed Malveaux and did his best to ignore the SWAT team members who kept stealing curious looks at him, their faces sporting a mixture of wonder and suspicion. Malveaux was tightly clutching her seat harness.
“Everything alright?” he asked.
“Not a big fan of flying.”
One of the SWAT guys overheard the comment and broke into a grin. Malveaux playfully gave the man the finger. The gesture was hostile and insulting, yet the man seemed to enjoy it. Adam was beginning to realize how context could determine how certain gestures and words were received.
Another member of the team turned toward Adam. “So is it true what they say about women and mechs? Once you go mech, you’re not going back.” He pronounced “back” like beck and chuckled as if he thought himself a real comedian.
“Maybe you should ask your wife,” Adam replied, hoping to use the insult to draw a laugh the same way Malveaux’s gesture had. His attempt at humor produced a slightly different effect. The rest of the SWAT team broke into raucous laughter while the speaker made a sour face.
Malveaux grinned. “Told you he was different.”
The craft continued to descend until it hovered directly above the scrap yard’s largest warehouse. The team members sat up straight and gloved hands tightened around ropes. The man who had teased Malveaux seconds earlier winked flirtatiously at her. Adam could tell she was both flattered but also slightly thrown by the trooper’s playful attention. Before Malveaux could respond, the SWAT guy fast-roped out of the hovership and vanished into the rainy darkness.
Adam followed Malveaux into the police transport’s cockpit area. A bank of holo-terminals flickered eerily. The SWAT team’s helmet cams relayed the action in vivid detail, creating the illusion of being out in the field with the team. Quick, staccato flashes of men rappelling through the night filled the cockpit. The descending team was nearly invisible in the dark; an extension of the night. Seconds later, combat boots touched down on the roof. Helmet visors glowed spectral green as they switched to night-vision. The team hustled toward a closed roof access door, pulse rifles up.
An officer stepped forward and hoisted an laser-equipped breacher. Metal sizzled as the laser sliced a circular hole into the center of the door. The officer withdrew the breacher and pulled back a round piece of the door, leaving a gaping hole in its wake. The heavy leather glove of another officer slipped through the hole and disengaged the lock from the inside. The team charged into the warehouse, their gunsights sweeping the darkness beyond.
Malveaux’s tensed her jaw. Adam sensed that she hated hanging back like this and would rather be out there in the field with the team. He shared the feeling.
Onscreen, the SWAT guys flitted down the staircase like an invading horde of living shadows and quickly combed the aisles of the warehouse, scoping for any sign of life. Rifle-mounted flashlights cut swaths through the blackness. A maze of shelves dominated the vast main floor of the structure. One of the SWAT guys pointed his flashlight at the first shelf, his face frozen in terror. “Jesus Christ.”
Malveaux leaned closer, body coiled, the holo-images painting her skin a bluish color.
Onscreen, another SWAT member hurried up to the first man. His voice filled the cockpit. “What is it?” The first trooper shone his flashlight at the nearest shelf, revealing row after row of human heads. Hundreds of them, neatly lined up.
The second SWAT guy gasped. “Fuck me.”
“Shit,” Malveaux said. “What the hell's going on? Talk to me.”
No one answered. The first SWAT trooper reached out for one of the heads, and then cursed under his breath. He held up the head at his partner. Shredded wiring spilled from the neck. The head belonged to a disassembled mech and that meant one thing: the warehouse was a mech workshop. Upon closer inspection, the android nature of the mannequin-like heads became all too obvious. The SWAT officer who had first spotted the head stifled a chuckle as his voice cut through the hovership. “Malveaux, all clear. You got to see this.”
Fifteen minutes later with the warehouse secured and troops positioned at key points in the structure, Adam and Malveaux joined the party. The overhead lights flickered sporadically, casting long shadows in the cavernous workshop. The dim illumination revealed a series of operating tables surrounded by a cluster of computer terminals. Adam took note of a robot body resting on one of the tables. The synthetic skin was missing from the unit’s head, revealing a gleaming metallic skull.
The SWAT commander approached Malveaux without even acknowledging Adam’s presence, treating him as if he was invisible. He should’ve been used to it by now, yet Adam felt a twinge of anger at being dismissed. “My men combed the entire warehouse,” the commander said. ”There's no sign of the man you're looking for.”
Adam studied the shelves more closely. “Commander, could I borrow your flashlight for a moment?”
The man hesitated for a beat but Malveaux signaled that it was safe to go ahead. This team of hardened, battle-weary men are disturbed by me, Adam realized. He wasn’t quite sure what to make of this insight. For a second he longed for the camaraderie and acceptance he’d felt back on Luna. People had learned to live and work with mechs on the colonies. Could Earth ever tolerate such a bond between man and machine?
“What is it?” Malveaux asked, thrusting Adam out of his thoughts.
Adam aimed the flashlight at the row of heads. The beam travelled from one dead face to another until it finally froze, lingering on one particular head.
Malveaux eased forward. Nestled among the mech heads was a human one. A lolling tongue rimmed by shattered teeth, the neck a mass of shredded skin.
“Christ...” one of the SWAT guys exclaimed.
“Looks like we found our man,” Malveaux said.
“This isn't Cain,” Adam said. “It's Dr. Shoji.”
The second victim’s missing head.
Adam turned away from the shelves and approached the bank of computers that ringed the operating table with the faceless X-2 model. It took him less than five minutes to hack the password and wirelessly access the system. Holo-images shimmered to life in the warehouse. The 3-D images appeared to be blueprints for some strange machine. The first showed a long, cylindrical object. A coffin made out of steel and glass, reminiscent of the escape pod found in the Bay.
“What do you make of it?” Malveaux said.
“Schematic of some sort. It’s the last file which was accessed before we showed up.”
Another holo-image replaced the blueprints. It showed a subjective point of view of someone holding a steel baseball bat. The scene could have been straight out of a virtual reality game. The figure moved toward an X-2 who was watering exotic plants inside a well-kept garden. The X-2 paused, sensing the approach of the figure with the baseball bat. There was flash of rapid, violent movement, and the world shook as the bat came down on the hapless X-2 in a crushing blow. The bat made contact, the metal beneath the synthetic skin denting under the violent impact. Sparks flew and the X-2 crumbled. The short-circuiting unit desperately held up its hand in a defensive posture as the bat mercilessly hammered down.
Adam felt anger and outrage at the attack.
A sudden tapping noise caught their attention. Malveaux and the two SWAT guys whirled, weapons ready, bodies trembling with tension. They zeroed in the source of the sound—it was emanating from a metal crate near the shelves.
Adam performed a quick scan of the crate. “My sensors pick up one
lifesign.”
Malveaux processed this for a second before nodding at the SWAT commander to go ahead. Two officers gingerly moved toward the steel crate, one cautious step at the time, nerves on edge. One snatched the crate’s lid, slamming it back, gun up only to come face to face with Malcolm Cain.
The cyberneticist’s mouth was taped up and zip ties restrained his hands behind his back. He peered back at them emptily.
Malveaux removed the gag and cut the zip ties. His vacant gaze stared through Malveaux as if he didn’t know she was there. There was no emotion in his expression, no relief at being free and able to breathe again. His features remained locked as he spoke in a flat, inflectionless voice.
“How can I be of service, sir? How can I be of service, sir? How can I-”
“What’s wrong with him?” Malveaux asked.
Adam scanned the man and said, ”Vitals are stable. Brain activity appears normal-” Adam froze. His enhanced senses were picking up something else.
“What is it?” Malveaux said.
“There is somebody else in this warehouse besides us and the team.”
“How can I be-?”
The staccato rattle of machine gunfire silenced Cain’s mantra, a fusillade of hot lead shredding the shelves of android body parts. Bullets ricocheted. Three SWAT officers were hit and went down. One of the bullets blasted through Cain's shoulder in a spray of red.
Malveaux slammed the hapless cyberneticist to the ground while she sought cover behind the shelves. As blood spurted from Cain’s shoulder, his expression showed no emotion.
“How can I be of service, sir?”
“You can keep your mouth shut!” Malveaux ordered. The request did the trick and Cain grew silent. At the same time, the gunfire ceased replaced by the sound of boots hitting metal. Adam followed the noise. In the far corner of the warehouse, an inky shape darted up a steel staircase, black trench coat flaring like a cape, features shadowed by a hood.
Three SWAT troopers tore after the shooter, jacked-up, heavy-duty pulse weapons held high.
Adam eyed Malveaux. “Are you alright?”
“I’m good.” A scan revealed that the blood covering Malveaux’s jacket came from Cain’s gushing wound. His partner was unharmed.
“I’m joining the pursuit.”
Malveaux nodded her encouragement and Adam rushed toward the staircase, gun out. He managed to get up one flight of stairs when a rolling, clunking sound caught his attention.
Three SWAT helmets tumbled down the steps and rolled past his feet. Adam froze, realizing the men’s heads were still inside their helmets. There was little blood, the necks cauterized. The assailant had to be armed with a laser-blade. Adam’s armor could take bullets but if the killer managed to separate his head from his body, he’d be joining the collection on the shelves below.
Guard up, he pressed on. Reaching the end of staircase, his leg shot out and kicked open the steel door. He never slowed as he burst onto a catwalk that connected the main warehouse to a smaller neighboring structure. The abandoned industrial landscape stretched out below, bathed in darkness and swirling fog.
Adam immediately spotted the three headless bodies on the catwalk. Further ahead, rain puddles erupted as the assailant splashed down the steel bridge that spanned the wasteland of rotting machinery. Unless Adam did something to slow him down, the man would escape into the night.Activating his internal comlink, Adam said, “Airship 1, I’m in hot pursuit of suspect. I could use some lights down here.”
The dark clouds lit up with beams of red and blue a moment later. The light show achieved the desired effect. The killer spun and brought up the pulse rifle he had snatched from one of the dead SWAT guys. A beam of hot laser-fire seared the darkness around Adam. He jerked back, sizzling energy tearing into the catwalk’s steel railing.
Adam returned fire, a hail of bullets driving the killer back. The smell of cordite weighed down the air.
The killer whirled and vanished into the neighboring structure. Adam picked up the chase, tearing after the wraith-like figure.
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
BACK IN THE warehouse, Malveaux snatched Cain and dragged him roughly to his feet. He was still blank-eyed and expressionless, but at least he’d shut up. His brain activity might be normal but something had fried the man’s mind. She pulled Cain along and he willingly fell in step like a zombie. Moving around the downed SWAT officers, they made their way toward the exit.
A fine drizzle greeted Malveaux as she popped out of the warehouse, Cain in tow. They hadn’t gotten far when car engines bashed the night. Two police cruisers barreled toward them, the backup vehicle arriving in the nick of time. The cruisers screeched to a halt, tires kicking up a spray of rain and gravel. The doors flipped open and armed officers emerged.
They took a few steps when a malevolent silhouette stepped out of the smaller building fronting the main warehouse. Before Malveaux could shout out a warning, pulse blasts rained down on the cops, cutting them down in mid-stride. The smell of burning flesh assaulted Malveaux’s nostrils, and she pushed Cain down to the ground, hoping they’d offer up less of a target. Thank God Cain was cooperating. More beams of fire showered down around them, sparking over the heaps of metal. The killer was advancing fast and there was no real cover. Their sole chance was to make it to one of the cruisers.
She turned toward Cain. “We’re going to run to that vehicle. Are you ready?” Vacant-faced, Cain nodded slowly.
Bringing up her pistol and snapping off cartridges, she sprung back to her feet. Gun blazing, she and the cyberneticist stumbled toward one of the perforated police cruisers. Thin tendrils of smoke trailed the holes in the cruiser and the reek of burned plastic lingered in the air as she shoved Cain into the vehicle. She ejected her spent magazine, replaced it, and pumped lead as she squeezed herself behind the wheel.
The car burst to life and they tore through the scrap yard. Right ahead, the killer jumped into view, gun leveled at her.
Malveaux floored the gas.
The hooded killer coolly let the arm of his coat slip back and proceeded to unleash hell on Earth at the incoming car.
Cain didn’t even flinch as the windshield disintegrated. Malveaux didn’t slow down—she was going to run this asshole over.
As the cruiser closed in, the killer jumped into motion. Instead of darting aside, the spooky silhouette rushed forward and launched into the air, jumping over the hood and landing behind the moving car in one smooth maneuver.
Now behind them, the killer’s pulse gun vomited cruel fire. Tires screaming, Malveaux wrenched the wheel as the cruiser slammed into a wall of junk and skidded to a smoking halt. For a stunned beat, she slumped over the steering wheel, smoke drifting lazily from the hood. Each breath tasted of burning rubber and made her gag. She spat out blood. The killer grew larger in the cruiser’s rear view mirror.
Where was her partner?
Malveaux snatched Cain’s bony hand and dragged him out of the vehicle. They sprinted down an alley that led straight toward a giant industrial crushing machine. Without turning back, they scaled a rusting staircase and reached a catwalk that ran along side the crusher.
They were halfway across the catwalk when the monstrous crusher lumbered to life below them. Huge metal blades shredded scrap metal with a brutal efficiency. Steel twisted and glass shattered. Malveaux could imagine exactly what the machine would do to flesh and bone.
There was the sudden sensation of air whistling overhead. Malveaux’s stomach knotted with shock as the killer landed right in front of them, blocking their escape. Malveaux saw everything in fragments. Pulse gun out, the muzzle now pointed unwaveringly at their heads. The killer’s black coat tattered from bullets, flapping menacingly in the wind. The narrow catwalk strobed by flashing lights. A woman’s pale, perfect face.
The killer’s hood had slipped off during the jump, and Malveaux caught her first good glimpse of her. An attractive woman blocked their passage. Jet-black hair framed a flawles
s porcelain complexion, but the reptilian eyes belied the surface perfection. How could a woman be capable of such sadistic crimes? And how did she move with such superhuman speed and agility. Unless…
Adrenaline pumping, Malveaux’s reeling mind tried to focus on the enemy facing her without getting caught up in the myriad of questions tumbling through her mind. She brought up her pistol.
Before she could squeeze the trigger, the killer's leg swept out at her in a furious roundhouse kick that sent her gun flying. Malveaux followed the trajectory of the airborne pistol, her hope plummeting with it as it landed in the churning mountain of scrap.
Sudden footsteps behind them made her whirl. Adam stood on the other end of the catwalk, gun leveled. All his focus on the killer, almost as if they shared some silent communication.
“Pull the trigger, she dies,” the killer promised. “I've been watching you two. I know how she treats you. You must hate this bitch.”
“You’re wrong.”
“Prove it.” The killer tilted her head toward the crusher. “Jump in and you'll convince me. Convince me, and I'll spare her miserable life.”
“Don't you dare do it! Just shoot this fucker!” Malveaux shouted.
Undeterred, the killer forged on. “You're a police android. Your primary function is to protect innocent lives without regard to personal cost. Sacrifice yourself like a good little soldier.”
“She's gonna kill us both!” Malveaux trembled with adrenaline.
A smile twisted the killer’s lips, emphasizing her flawless features. “You can't do it, can you, Adam? You've outgrown the limitations of your own programming.”
Silence reigned for a beat.
Adam shifted his gaze toward the crusher and took a step toward the pit. Malveaux gasped with horror—her partner was going to do it. He was going to sacrifice himself to save her. After all the shit she’d put him through, he was going to dive into the churning blades below. She couldn’t allow Adam to go through with this. She couldn’t lose another partner.
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