Titan (Old Ironsides Book 2)

by Dean Crawford

  Forrester shut off the hologram, his hefty two hundred forty pound frame dominating the meeting.

  ‘You’ll split into three teams of four and come at Scheff from all sides, cutting off his exits. If he does get through, the squad cruisers will be waiting for him. We all know what we’re up against here. The Prime Time gang favor bionic enhancements and drugs to give them the edge over us in a pursuit and we know that they’re armed and willing to shoot to kill, so let’s surprise them and keep them inside the building where their enhancements can’t help them. Keep your guard up, folks. Let’s go!’

  Nathan followed Foxx to their assigned rally point on the corner of 15th and Mason, Vasquez and Allen hurrying to join them.

  ‘This could get rough,’ Vasquez said to Nathan, ‘no place for a traffic cop.’

  Foxx smiled at the jibe but came to Nathan’s defense before he could reply.

  ‘It was Nathan who chased down Asil,’ she pointed out. ‘I think that he can handle himself.’

  Nathan glowed with pride as he looked across at Vasquez and grinned, raised an eyebrow and adjusted his collar.

  ‘Yeah? What car were you in? Was Betty Buzz holdin’ the wheel for you?’

  Nathan let out a sigh of superiority. ‘Betty was caring for a downed officer,’ he replied. ‘I was on foot.’

  Vasquez’s eyes widened and Allen peered at Nathan in disbelief.

  ‘You chased down a Prime Time gang ‘hood on foot?’

  Nathan ducked his head and wriggled the tension out of his shoulders as they approached the rally point, ready for the next pursuit.

  ‘All in a day’s work, fellas.’

  Foxx eased in alongside a wall as she spoke to them all. ‘Of course, Asil got the better of Nathan in the end. If Betty hadn’t buzzed Asil with their squad car Nathan would be in the morgue by now.’

  Vasquez and Allen grinned to themselves as Nathan frowned.

  ‘C’mon, I caught the guy and we were headed upstairs at the time,’ he complained. ‘Besides, Asil wasn’t going to shoot to kill.’

  ‘That so?’ Vasquez said as they positioned themselves for the order to go in on Scheff’s hideout. ‘And you knew that how?’

  Nathan was about to reply when Foxx gestured for them to be quiet. Nathan looked across the street even as a light drizzle began to spill from the clouds above onto the deserted street, halos forming around the lights dimly illuminating the old cinema complex opposite.

  Nathan had been mildly surprised to discover that cinema had survived to the twenty fourth century, and had been informed by Jay Allen that although it had changed somewhat since his day the fundamental pleasure of the shared experience of story–telling had not. The difference was that this cinema had been a virtual world cinema, where the viewers didn’t watch the movie so much as star in it themselves, right alongside their favorite screen heroes and heroines. A movie that featured hot–shot criminals, car chases and all manner of science fiction was still regarded as better when shared with a crowd, each person living the experience but hearing the laughter and enjoyment of their peers at the same time.

  So far Nathan had resisted the urge to be hunted down by a Tyrannosaurus or blasted into an intergalactic war with insectoid aliens in perfect virtual reality, despite the encouragement of other officers on the force.

  ‘Here we go,’ Foxx warned them.

  Nathan drew his pistol, watching the old cinema as across the far side of the block he saw one of the other four man teams appear in position, huddling against the far wall of the cinema.

  ‘Great,’ Vasquez said, ‘how come it’s always us who get to go in the front door?’

  ‘Don’t complain,’ Foxx replied, ‘the bad guys mostly run for the back door once we show up.’

  Nathan’s optical ID chip flickered a silent “GO!” order into his right eye, and without a word they broke from cover and sprinted across the street as Foxx pulled a single, metallic sphere from her belt and pressed a button on its surface. The sphere glowed bright red with slow, rhythmic flashes that immediately began to get quicker.

  Foxx rushed up to the cinema’s old entrance and tossed the sphere against the doors. It stuck in place instantly as Nathan and the rest of the team pinned themselves against the walls either side of the doors. Foxx dashed to Nathan’s side, pressed her body hard against his and covered her ears with her hands, Nathan close enough to smell the soft scent of her hair as he pressed his own hands against his ears.

  A deafening blast smashed through the cinema doors, plasma spraying in fearsome bright blue globules of light as Foxx rushed toward the doors through a billowing cloud of smoke, Vasquez and Allen coming from the far side and Nathan following Foxx as they ran into the cinema’s darkened interior.

  Nathan heard shouts of alarm and anger, saw figures staggering about in the lobby of the cinema as one of them raised something to point at Allen. Vasquez fired first, the shot zipping across the lobby and hitting the man in his chest as he screamed and fired his weapon, the shot going high and hitting the ceiling above them as all hell broke loose.

  Nathan dashed for cover behind an old automated ticket dispenser shaped like a screen hero of some kind, an armor–plated warrior with metallic wings. A plasma blast hit the other side of the dispenser and it melted as though it were made of butter as sparks of plasma shot past Nathan’s face along with a blast of heat.

  ‘Forward!’ Vasquez yelled as he returned fire.

  Nathan followed as Foxx, Vasquez and Allen plunged into the cinema’s interior through veils of smoke, flashes of plasma fire illuminating the shadowy darkness as though he were plunging through some kind of Hadean nightclub filled with warring demons. Plasma shots crackled this way and that as the thugs inside the cinema fell back toward the main amphitheater.

  Nathan pushed on through the smoke, following Foxx into the huge amphitheater as he saw the other two teams flooding into the building from other entrances. The center of the cinema was level and flat, surrounded by seats in circular ranks rising up to where Nathan could see the police rushing in. Crowds of armed thugs fired from vantage points among the seats, debris and drug paraphernalia scattered on tables in the center of the cinema along with what looked like weapons and several women now sheltering beneath and behind the tables as the police rushed in upon them.

  Nathan was about to descend after Foxx when something caught his eye and he saw a figure flash through the shadows and confusion and dash from the amphitheater, back the way the cops had come in. Nathan whirled and aimed but the figure was already out of sight as he instead dashed in pursuit.

  Nathan sprinted back through the lobby and saw the figure ahead of him, a tall, lithe man with dark skin and a long jacket flowing like a cape as he leaped with inhuman agility down a flight of stairs toward the exits. Nathan ran hard in pursuit, leaped down the stairs and saw the flickering lights of the squad cars drawing up outside in support of the raid.

  The figure dashed left and crashed through a side door near the exits, Nathan smashing through the same door moments later and seeing a flight of stairs soaring upward before him.

  ‘Jeez, not again!’

  He dashed up the stairs, slammed his pistol back into its holster and pumped his arms hard, dragging in huge breaths and expelling them like a freight train as he powered up the six flights of stairs and heard a door crash just above him. Nathan emerged onto the top floor and saw an exit door ahead that led onto the roof. He crashed through it and outside to see the figure dashing toward the edge of the building.

  ‘Police, freeze!’

  The figure ignored him as Nathan ran in pursuit, the side of the cinema looming up before them while the vast orbital station’s interior soared across the heavens high above, far more vertiginous now that they were above street level. Nathan could see the cityscape before them rising up as though somebody had lifted it and folded it back upon itself, the transparent ray–shielding above offering a dizzying perspective on the rest of the city. New Washington’
s immense spokes soared away toward the central spaceport hub high above where distant vessels glinted as they slowed to dock, and he could see streetlights sparkling high above against the backdrop of Earth’s enormous shadowy sphere filling the heavens.

  The figure ahead of him leaped upward once, twice and then a third gigantic bound as he soared into the air and easily cleared the gap between the cinema and the next building on the block. Nathan ran hard, and as he reached the edge of the cinema roof he extended his stride and then hurled himself through the air.

  The street yawned beneath him, three stories straight down and shimmering with the recent rainfall. Nathan hit the side of the building opposite with a thump as his boots touched down and he rolled into one shoulder as he slammed the other hand palm–down onto the roof in an attempt to absorb the impact. The air burst from his lungs and his vision starred but he rolled and staggered to his feet as his hand moved toward his pistol.

  The figure turned as he ran, and Nathan saw a dark face riven with glowing blue tentacles of light and two red eyes that widened in surprise as they spotted him. Nathan followed the figure, saw him accelerating on legs pumped up on a mixture of biogenetic hydraulics and performance enhancing drugs. The man’s legs suddenly burst into a blur and he launched himself across another larger gap, landing hard with an audible metallic thud as Nathan hurled himself in pursuit across the gap.

  Nathan knew the instant that he leaped into the air that he wouldn’t make the jump, the opposite wall just too far for him to reach, his quarry turning to see Nathan plunge out of sight. Nathan’s hand flashed to his belt and he yanked a length of cable out, one end weighted as he hurled it at the top of the wall. A metallic hook flashed in the light as it flew across the gap and opened automatically, sharp four–pointed braces biting deep into the surface of the building as Nathan slammed into the unforgiving wall below and his cable tightened as his took his weight.

  Nathan grappled for the line and scrambled up the wall, hauled himself up onto it even as the figure loomed before him and he saw Scheff up close for the first time. A boot flashed before him and slammed into Nathan’s chest and he felt his lungs convulse and his stomach plunge as he was propelled back over the wall. He plunged inverted for a brief moment of time, falling headfirst toward the street below, and then the cable tightened again and he was flipped over in mid–air a meter below the ledge as his boots caught on something beneath him.

  Scheff loomed over the edge and peered down at him, a smile revealing a mouth full of solid gold teeth that flashed as they reflected the streetlights. Nathan looked up at the criminal, pulses of blue and white light rippling across the bioluminescent tattoos etched into his bituminous skin.

  ‘Looks like you’re goin’ down,’ Scheff sneered, his voice tinged with a bizarre Slavic accent.

  Nathan hung on grimly to the wire as he smiled back, the sound of approaching sirens heralding the arrival of the police department’s cavalry. Sheff’s sneer turned nasty as he hooked his boot underneath the metallic clasp holding Nathan from a fifty foot drop to the street below. A fine rain began to fall as Scheff heaved his boot up and the shiny hook unclipped from the wall and tumbled past Nathan.

  Nathan pushed his boots further into the window ledge upon which he stood as he drew his pistol and aimed it squarely up between Scheff’s eyes, the safety line still dangling from his belt.

  ‘Surprise! You think you can get away before I hook this up and come after you, Scheff?’

  Scheff’s eyes widened and then he whirled away out of sight as Nathan shoved the pistol back into his belt and swung the safety line back up. The metal bit deeply into the building as he hauled himself up and rolled over the ledge to see Scheff sprinting for the next building along, this one far enough away that Nathan knew he would never be able to make the jump, cable or not.

  Nathan sprinted in pursuit of Scheff, pushing himself harder than he ever had as the criminal’s legs accelerated into a blur once again as he prepared to make the leap. Nathan hauled out more of the safety line from his belt, the hook in his hand as he ran and swung the weighted wire like a lasso over his head and hurled it out at the fleeing criminal’s legs.

  The hook flickered in the dim light as it flew across the roof in front of Nathan and clattered against Scheff’s legs with a metallic clang, betraying the biogenic limbs beneath his pants as Scheff leaped into the air and hurtled over the ledge.

  The metallic clasp bit into the metal thigh of Scheff’s right leg and he heard the felon cry out in rage and sudden fear as his valiant leap for freedom was cut abruptly short and he turned in mid–air. Nathan was yanked forward as the cable reached its limit and Scheff’s two hundred pound body pulled against his.

  Nathan dug his heels in even as Scheff tried to dislodge the clasp in mid–air, and then Scheff plummeted from view as the cable snapped taut and he was dragged down into freefall. Nathan slid onto his back and rolled, the cable wrapping around his body and taking the criminal’s weight as Nathan heard a cry of alarm and the dull thud of a body hitting a wall.

  The cable yanked tightly about Nathan’s waist and he winced as it bit into his skin, but he managed to grab a hold of the cable and pull against it, jerking it up and around so that he could regain his feet. A nearby vent belched steam onto the already humid air as Nathan staggered across to it, Scheff’s weight pulling at the cable as Nathan worked his way around the back of the vent, the cable bending around it and taking the weight of his quarry. Moments later and with the cable wrapped four times around the vent, Nathan unclipped the cable from his belt and tied it in place even as two police cruisers landed on the roof and Vasquez and Allen jumped out, weapons drawn.

  Nathan wiped the sweat from his brow and leaned against the vent as the two detectives rushed across to him, concern writ large on their faces.

  ‘What the hell happened to you, bro’?’ Vasquez demanded. ‘Forrester said no heroics and you’re out here leaping tall buildings?!’

  ‘Scheff escaped,’ Allen said, ‘we thought he might have taken you hostage!’

  Nathan chuckled as though he’d merely been for a stroll.

  ‘Scheff’s over there,’ he indicated with a casual jab of his thumb. ‘He’s just hanging around.’

  Vasquez saw the line tied to the vent and stared at Nathan. ‘No way.’

  Detective Foxx appeared from inside the second cruiser and replied for Vasquez.

  ‘Yes way. We saw him dangling from the line when we landed. Nice catch, Ironside.’

  ‘You’re welcome,’ Nathan replied, enjoying Vasquez and Allen’s bemused stares. ‘Not bad for a traffic cop, right?’

  ***

  XIII

  Fourth Precinct Station

  New Washington

  Despite his bionic performance over the streets of New Washington, Scheff appeared to Nathan far more inhuman in the lights of the precinct’s box than he had out on North Four. Both of his eyes glowed red due to illegal optical implants and his dark skin was patterned with a lacework of bioluminescent tattoos that glowed a vivid electric blue and seemed to be slaved to his metabolic rate, pulsing and fading with each breath the felon took. His hair was thickly braided and trailed down his back like a bullwhip as he leaned back in his seat, managing to look unruffled despite the manacles around his wrists.

  ‘Keiron Scheff,’ Foxx read from his rap sheet as she sat down alongside Nathan, ‘born South Africa, 2417. You’ve had quite the ride, Scheff. You’d think that being born planet–side would have done you some good.’

  Scheff did not reply with anything other than a languid shrug.

  ‘You’re up for racketeering, drug running, evading arrest, possession of illegal firearms and biogenic enhancements,’ Nathan announced, Scheff’s eyes snapping around to meet his. ‘Not that they did you much good either. You’re looking at ten to fifteen in the Seven Circles of Hell so I’d start talking if I were you.’

  Scheff smiled, his polished gold teeth gleaming back at Nathan. ‘You’
re not me.’

  ‘And he’s glad about that,’ Foxx replied for Nathan. ‘Scheff, I can make this rap sheet double in length in the next ten minutes with every single possible felony I can think of, because you’ve got them all. I will also request from the DA a court order authorizing medical procedures to remove every single one of your enhancements, right down to those epidermal tattoos.’

  Scheff’s casual demeanor cracked a little. ‘You’d never get away with it, it’s ‘gainst my human rights.’

  ‘Which you forfeited when you fled the police and had your dirty little industry exposed,’ Nathan pointed out. ‘Can’t have it both ways Scheff, unless you’ve got paperwork for your hydraulic legs. Not going far without those, right?’

  Scheff shifted in his seat, showing the first signs of pressure.

  ‘There’s no escape Scheff,’ Foxx said, pushing their advantage. ‘And we got you down for capital one, too.’

  Scheff froze in motion, stared at Foxx for a long beat. ‘I din’ shoot nobody.’

  ‘Who said they were shot?’ Nathan asked.

  Scheff peered at Nathan and Foxx, his gaze shifting from one to the other like a caged animal seeking an escape. ‘You settin’ me up? You framin’ me?’

  ‘We don’t need to frame anybody,’ Foxx replied. ‘We’ve got you down in San Diego, three months ago.’

  Scheff stared at Foxx, all pretenses vanishing like a passing thought. Nathan knew that they didn’t have any evidence of Scheff being planet–side at the time of the homicide, but he let her play her line as Scheff leaned forward and pointed one thick finger at her.

  ‘I din’ kill nobody.’

  ‘Prove it,’ Foxx shot back. ‘You were planet–side three months ago, and guess what happened out near the hills while you were there?’