Strange Robby

by Selina Rosen

  The door opened, and this time Spider hit the SWTF man on the other side hard.

  As Fritz started to walk through the door someone in the control room screamed. "Fritz! We've got a breach and we've got psychic activity!"

  About that time the SWTF man grabbed Fritz in a headlock. He was about to break Fritz's neck when one of the other guards hit him with a tazer. The only real plus being that it shocked the shit out of Fritz, too.

  They hit Spider with the lightning bolt and hurried in, closing the door behind them. Spider realized that she had shot her wad and blown her one real shot.

  "No more stalling," Fritz said rubbing at his throat. "Give us the Fry Guy."

  The SWTF guy stood ready to hit the boy with a cattle prod.

  Spider swallowed hard. "His name is Fred Brown. Lives on forth and Brooklyn in the projects."

  "If you're lying . . . " Fritz started.

  "All that would do is buy me a little more time," she said.

  "And you can both stay right where you are till we're sure."

  "You'll never take him alive," Spider said. "He'll kill you all before you even get close."

  Fred had lived in the projects all his life and he knew the heat when he saw it.

  He crawled out his window and up the fire escape onto the roof, and then he just kept running.

  The SWTF crashed the door on apartment sixteen as their man on the street screamed into their comlinks. "He's up the fire escape heading for the roof!"

  They went out the window and started after him. Neither one wanted to get too close unless they were sure they could squeeze off a shot first.

  Fred heard something ping close to his head as he jumped over the edge of the building and started sliding down the pipe. These bastards were shooting at him without even screaming for him to give himself up! What was more they were using silencers, and the things they were shooting at him looked more like darts than bullets. What kind of heat was this? He took off down the alley, jumping the fence just as two more showed up. Damn! He couldn't remember having to run this hard since those two pigs had tried to chase him down. That Chink had damn near caught him that time.

  Fred kept running.

  "What do you mean they don't have him!" Fritz screamed into the receiver. "Well get him . . . Keep looking . . . It's not that big an area. Where could he have gone?" Fritz hung up he looked at Francis. "We won't know whether she's told us the truth or not if we can't catch the guy, and she knows that." He was mad. He didn't like it when he was played for a fool. The only thing worse was waiting around to have his foolishness confirmed.

  "All we can do now is wait," Francis said.

  "She's almost too clever," Fritz said, rubbing his throat.

  "What do you mean?" Francis asked.

  "I mean that if we let her live there is a very real chance that she will kill us."

  "But we need her for the program. All her previously harvested eggs have been turned into embryos. If we're going to breed her to the Fry Guy . . . "

  "We don't need her, we just need her eggs for the program. If she's dead, we can take all of them and no one will be the wiser."

  "Such a waste," Francis said.

  "She's served her purpose," Fritz said matter-of-factly. "She's more trouble than she's worth, and nothing we could do would control her."

  "We've got to move now," Jason told Robby. They had met in the bathroom at the park. "She's given them some other guy's name, and when they catch him and find out he doesn't have any power they're going to torture and then kill the boy."

  Robby nodded. He'd said good-bye to Helen, and he was ready to go—to get it over with one way or the other. "Did you get the stuff?"

  "Yeah. Here." He handed a bag to Robby.

  Robby pulled out the lab coat and put it on. Then he almost dropped the bag. "Jesus fucking Christ!" Robby said making a face.

  "What?" Jason said in disbelief. "You run around frying people's brains and blowing them up, but a disembodied hand in a baggy freaks you out. Give me a big break."

  "How is that going to help me get in the building?" Robby asked, making a face.

  "The handprint. You're going to need the handprint to get in," Jason said. "You just hold it at the wrist up under your sleeve, and when you get to the door . . . "

  "All right, all right, let's just do it."

  Jason helped him put on the fake mustache and sideburns.

  "How do I look?" Robby asked.

  "You'll pass. Now, come on, let's go."

  The guys at the front gate were easy. They looked in the car, but mostly it was their job to let the car in. If it had the right sticker, they let it in unless they had other orders. The guy at the front door kept staring at Robby; even after his palm print opened the door. He must have noticed some discrepancy in the photo that popped onto the computer as being Dr. Herbert Todd.

  Jason was waiting behind Robby, and started bitching. "Christ on a crutch! Am I going to have to stand out here all night? Come on, I'm in a hurry here. I don't come to this dung hole for my health, you know."

  The guy let Robby pass, and then passed Jason in.

  "Follow me," Jason said and started walking.

  They passed a garbage can, and Robby stopped long enough to toss the hand away. The building was a maze of corridors, and at every door—even to get on the elevator—a guard checked their badges.

  Robby's insides flinched every time the elevator stopped and the doors opened. His gut was sure that he was going to be facing a wall of armed guards at any moment. Finally, the doors opened on the top floor, their ID's were checked again, and they started down a series of maze-like corridors. There was no way he could have found his way to Spider without Jason's help, and Robby told him so.

  "Yeah, I'm a real prince," Jason said. They rounded a corner and Robby was looking at a big steel door covered by four guards. "She's in there, but don't go in that room. You go in that room and your power is neutralized. I'll stay here and cover your back."

  Robby nodded. "Thanks. We'll meet you here."

  Jason stayed there at the junction and Robby moved forward. Four guards and a door. He focused on them, and as their sins and transgressions flooded into his brain they started to fry. Sirens went off as the four men fell and Robby hit the door. It blasted open. He saw Spider hanging in the middle of the room.

  "What took you so fucking long?" Spider asked him with a smile.

  "Sorry." Robby hit her chain and she fell to the floor, landing on her feet.

  "Hurry up, kid!" Jason screamed, and then Robby heard him firing.

  Three guards ran in from a door on the left, and Robby fried them.

  "Hurry up, kid!" Jason screamed again.

  There was way too much gunfire coming from the end of the hall.

  "Go help him. I'll be OK here," Spider said.

  Robby nodded and joined Jason at the end of the hall. He killed two of them and the rest went running scared.

  "Hang on, kid!" Spider yelled.

  She kicked the wooden chair Mark was sitting in and it fell apart, allowing him to get free. Then he quickly undid the strings holding her straightjacket closed and helped her squeeze out of it. They ran out of the room, and as they did so Fritz—who had run out of the observation room—hit her with the lightning bolt. As Spider fell to the floor convulsing, Mark looked up at Fritz and smiled.

  "I'm not worthless," he said.

  Fritz looked at the boy in amazed fear, and then his brain exploded. Mark helped Spider to her feet.

  "Go to Robby; he'll protect you," she gasped out.

  He nodded and ran to the end of the hall where Robby and Jason were.

  "We've got to hurry," Jason told Robby. "They've got suits to protect themselves from you."

  "Spider, hurry!" Robby screamed down the hall.

  Spider heard him, but she had things to do. She walked into the control room where six scientists stood huddled in the corner. One held a weapon in his hand, so Spider shot him with the
lightning bolt, and as she walked up to the others, she crushed his skull with her foot. Reaching into the group, she grabbed the woman, Francis.

  "You come with me. As for the rest of you assholes," she smiled and then pushed as hard as she could. "Kill each other."

  As she ran out with the woman they immediately started ripping each other apart.

  "Gee! I should thank Fritz for telling me just how strong my mental push was." They were stepping over Fritz's body then. "Oops! Too late! My little boy killed him."

  Francis screamed as Spider drug her along.

  Jason looked at her when she came to the end of the hall. "They're not going to let you go because you have a hostage. They'll shoot her just to get her out of their way."

  "That isn't why I've got her," Spider said.

  She looked at the woman and pushed. "You will stay with us. You will not give up our position."

  "We've got to move, Spider. We're on the top floor and Jason says they have suits which will stop us from killing them."

  "In that case . . . " Spider moved to the pile of bodies and picked up every gun she saw. She handed them out, giving Mark the lightning bolt because she had noticed it had no kick.

  He shook his head. "I don't know how."

  "You just point and pull the trigger, boy," Jason said. "It isn't that hard."

  They heard what sounded like a troop of men coming. "Which way to the stairs?" Spider asked.

  "This way!" Jason started moving—luckily away from the footsteps.

  Spider had a brainstorm.

  "Robby?"

  "Yes?"

  "Blow the hall behind us up."

  Robby turned, and while walking backwards did as she asked.

  Jason looked back at Spider. "You guys are some scary fucks."

  A troop of armed guards wearing suits appeared in front of them, successfully blocking the stairway.

  "Give yourselves up!" one screamed. "You cannot escape . . . ."

  "Open fire!" Spider yelled. They filled the hall with a hail of bullets, and the wall of men fell like rain.

  They ran over the bodies and headed for the stairs.

  Spider kicked the door open and then jumped to the side. There were no bullets and no darts, so she looked around the edge of the doorframe. "OK! Let's go!"

  "You're walking into a trap," Jason said. "They'll have men at every floor. They'll . . . "

  "Never know what hit them. Just keep moving. Robby, keep a hand on that woman. We need her."

  Robby nodded.

  Spider jumped into the well.

  "Spider!" Mark screamed after her.

  "What the hell!" Jason started.

  "Don't worry. She knows what she's doing," Robby said. He grabbed hold of Francis and started moving slowly, gun in hand.

  Spider grabbed onto the rail on the next floor and waited.

  Three men pounded through the door, thinking they were making a surprise attack, and instead ran into one.

  Spider opened fire, shot all three of them and yelled up, "Come on! Move it! I can't hang here all day!"

  She waited till they got there.

  "Robby, seal the door."

  Robby nodded and started the door on fire. The sprinkler system kicked in almost immediately.

  "Your fire isn't going to last long, so move and move fast." She let go and dropped again. She almost missed the rail on the next floor, and while she was trying to get her head back together and her gun out, a team of men jumped out the door and she wasn't ready. So she let go and dropped again.

  "Robby! They don't have on suits!" she yelled as she fell.

  Robby let go of the woman and practically jumped down the stairs. He focused and fried the guys and then the doorway. The others had caught up with him, so he grabbed the woman again and kept moving fast.

  Spider grabbed on and jumped over the rail. She kicked the door, ran into the hall catching the waiting guards unprepared, and started firing. Then she met the others on the other side of the door.

  "How many more floors?" Spider asked.

  "Three," Jason answered, "and the security is just going to get worse."

  She heard a troop running at them from above.

  "Robby, take out the staircase."

  Above them the staircase erupted, spraying them with concrete and debris and sending two men down the well beside them.

  "Let's move!" Spider said and ran into the hallway.

  "What are you doing! The stairs are our only way out!" Jason said.

  "Which is why they'll catch us if we go that way. We'll have to make another exit."

  "The elevator," Robby said.

  "Are you nuts? They'll know where you're going when they realize you've left the stairs," Jason said.

  "They know where we're going now," Spider said. A troop in suits rounded the corner then, and they took off running. "Get us to the elevator!" Spider fired a gun in each hand as she ran backwards.

  Several guards fell, and more ran away. The SWTF were only really tough when there was no way they could lose. As soon as you narrowed the odds they were out of there. Their ultimate cowardice in the face of danger was what she was counting on.

  The troop guarding the elevator were wearing suits and carrying Lexan shields.

  "Oops!" Spider said, coming up short. They'd told her that she had telekinetic powers in the days or weeks or however long she'd been locked in that room, and she'd wondered if she really did. "No time like the present to find out," she mumbled. She focused all her rage on the shields, and they went flying out of the hands of the guards with such force that Jason had to dance to the side to keep from getting hit by one. "Cool," Spider said with a smug smile and pulled the weapons out of the guards' hands the same way. She had a brainstorm. "Robby, hit the ceiling."

  Robby hit the ceiling above the confused men hard, and it caved in on them. Not waiting for the dust to clear, they crawled over the bodies to the elevator. One of the men looked like he might still be moving, so Spider kicked him in the head hard enough to kill him. She willed yet another gun into her hand and frowned when she realized it had nothing in it but sleeping darts. Still, beggars couldn't be choosers. They dove into the elevator just as a hail of darts rained in around them. The doors closed and they were going down.

  "What now?" Jason asked.

  "We go down," Spider said.

  "You don't have to be a genius to figure out that we're going down," Robby said nervously.

  He looked at Mark. "Can't you help me?"

  "I don't have anything left!" Mark nearly screamed. He was trying to be tough, but he didn't feel tough.

  "He's normal for the project," Jason explained. "You're not. Why the hell do you think they want you so bad? They want to breed you to Spider."

  Spider and Robby looked at each other and both made faces.

  The elevator stopped between floors.

  Spider sighed. "They're holding us here while they get set up."

  "What do we do now?" Jason asked again.

  Spider took a deep breath and held it for a minute. She really had no idea.

  "I can fix the elevator." Robby pried off the control cover and started digging through the wires. "I can do it. I can make it move. What do you want to do?"

  "I saw this in a movie once; it just might work in real life," Spider said.

  They gathered at the bottom of the stairs in their suits and riot gear and waited. The elevator started coming down.

  "They've by-passed the system! Prepare yourselves men; they're coming down." The commander had an absolute genius for stating the obvious.

  The elevator stopped and they waited. Any minute now they could be staring death straight in the face. The doors opened and nothing happened. There was nothing—no one in sight—no one in the elevator.

  "They must have gotten off! Gone back to the stairwell. Spread out! They could be anywhere!"

  They started to move out in all directions, afraid to look and afraid not to. Kind of like thinking ther
e was a venomous snake in your bedroom. You wanted it found; you just didn't want to be the one to find it.