He reached the red Aero and threw open the door. He plopped inside and turned on the car. Max shook his head at the quiet whine of the turbine. He picked up the blue police bubble light and smacked it down on the roof.
The dome light sprang to life. “POLICE MODE” flashed onto the screen in the center console. “Good man, Richie!” Max slammed his door shut and peeled out of his parking spot.
He calmly accelerated onto the street and started weaving his way towards Daryl’s relative position. His phone rang. He thumbed a switch on the steering wheel of the Aero. “Kincaid.”
“Jake said that Jax said that you wanted me to call you?” It was O’Connor.
Max accelerated around a line of cars stopped at a four-way. He laid on his horn as a pickup failed to yield. “Jackass!”
“Me jackass… You’re the one that had a robot ask me to call you!”
“No! I mean yes… I’m in a pursuit, Richie. Daryl Marston bluffed his way out of Jax’s grip and he’s running in a gray SUV. Hold on…”
He was closing fast on Daryl’s signature. The road he was on was about to merge with the one to his left. Daryl’s SUV came into view. Max mashed the accelerator, weaving around an ancient green station wagon.
Max held a finger to his left temple. His synthetic eye zoomed in on the SUV’s license plate. “Still there, Richie? License plate D-X-3-8-8-1, roger?”
“Got it, Max. I’m calling backup to your location. Stand by.”
Max took his finger off his temple and pulled up tight on the SUV. “I’m right behind him, Richie. He knows what he’s doing. He’s going into the industrial district. The roads are wider but there’s still plenty of options open for him.”
The SUV suddenly darted to the left. Max mashed the brake pedal and wrenched the steering wheel. The tires broke free, screaming in protest as he skittered onto the street that the SUV had taken.
“You’ve got two police interceptors closing on your position. They should be visual any minute.”
Max could just make out the sound of sirens behind him. Red and blue lights flickered in his rear-view mirror a moment later. “Thanks, Richie! I got a visual.”
The SUV laid hard on its brakes. The Aero’s computer tried to pull itself short, but there wasn’t enough space. There was a loud bang! as the Aero’s hood crunched into the SUV’s rear bumper. “Damn it!”
The Aero shuddered. The words “COLLISION DETECTED” flashed on the center screen. Max feathered the accelerator. The car responded. Still in the game.
The SUV turned right and sharply accelerated. Max followed, the interceptors now right behind him. “You alright, Max?”
“Fine, Richie. Tell my new friends to box up the SUV, would ya?”
“Roger that.” The two police interceptors pulled up on Max’s left a moment later. The driver of the lead interceptor waved to him. Max nodded and smiled. He watched as the interceptor slowly crept up the left side of the SUV.
The interceptor had nearly passed when the SUV turned sharply to the left. The vehicle slammed into the right rear of the interceptor. The police car went sideways, wrapping around the front of the roaring SUV.
Max wrenched the wheel and sideswiped the interceptor, which was now on his right and facing the wrong way. The front of the Aero caught the interceptor’s rear tire. The interceptor went up on its side and slid to a stop.
The Aero straightened out. Max accelerated hard to catch back up with the SUV. The remaining police interceptor appeared to his left. “We lost one, Richie! Is he okay?”
The seconds pounded slowly by. Finally, “He’s alright, Max. Just shook up.”
“Alright. See if you can patch me through to my other friend, here.”
“Lieutenant Chelsea, here.” The lieutenant waved from her patrol car.
Max waved back. “Okay, lieutenant… Let’s squeeze him off. Try to match your front tire with his back tire. Then we’ll press in and brake. Alright?”
“Roger that. I’ll squeeze on your mark.” The lieutenant nosed her interceptor forward. Max did the same on the right side of the SUV.
“One, two, three… Squeeze!” Both vehicles banged loudly into the sides of the SUV. Their tires squealed and began to smoke as the SUV dragged them along.
Daryl suddenly surged forward. The other two vehicles nearly collided with each other and fishtailed wildly. “Are you okay, lieutenant?”
“Roger. He’s got too much horsepower for us to pull him down. I recommend that one of us try…” Daryl suddenly decelerated and veered left onto a side street. Lieutenant Chelsea helplessly plowed into the side of the SUV near the rear of the vehicle.
The SUV drunkenly swung around until it was roughly facing the direction it had come from. The police interceptor followed the same path. It rolled backwards, crashing into an electric pole. Coolant poured from the front of the vehicle.
Max gritted his teeth, locking the brakes and wrenching the wheel. The force proved too great and the back of the Aero broke free, sliding into the back of a parked panel van. Alarms sounded, the center display flashing “COLLISION DETECTED!”
“You don’t say…” Max pressed the accelerator. The car hopped, then leapt forward.
Daryl’s SUV survived the collision with the police interceptor and was accelerating in the direction from which it had came. Max quickly caught up with it. “Richard, if you can hear me, I’m all alone again!”
“I got you, Max. I have another unit headed your way but he’s got a ways to go.”
“I’ll see what I can do.” Max pulled up on the SUV’s left side. He slammed into the SUV just behind the rear wheel. The SUV lost traction and began to slide sideways.
The SUV continued to turn around, the wheels turning into the spin. “Son of a bitch.” The vehicle completed the turn and accelerated away. Max slammed on his brakes and threw the Aero into reverse.
He accelerated sharply than cut the wheel hard. The beleaguered Aero skipped and hopped as it swung around to face the other way. Max slammed the transmission back in drive. A loud snap issued from under the vehicle.
“Damn it!” The unmistakable sound of metal grinding on metal floated up through the floor pan of the Aero. Max turned off the ignition. “My goose is cooked, Richie.”
“Are you alright?”
“I’m fine. My ride is disabled, though. What about that backup?”
“He should be on you any time now. You still have a lock on your perp?”
“Looks like he’s…” The red dot on Max’s watch suddenly disappeared. “Oh, come on! I just lost the signal. His last known position was south on Clinton.”
“I’ll pass it on. Sit tight. I’m sending you a wrecker.”
“Send some aspirin too, would ya?”
The flatbed tow truck came to a stop outside the Aero service center. The now-familiar auto tech stared at the Aero 640SL, mouth agape. All four corners were crushed in and broken. The front end was crunched, the windshield cracked.
Max hopped down from the cab of the tow truck and gave the driver a wave. He walked over to the service tech. “Looks like you’ve got yourself a project. Did you get my old one squared away?”
The tech nodded, his mouth still agape. “I’ll uh… I’ll go get it for you.” Max smirked as the tech stumbled away.
“Oh, dear lord! What in the hell happened?” Jeb Deveron came around the corner and half ran, half walked over to Max, clutching his chest.
Oh, boy. Here we go. “How ya doing there, Jeb, wasn’t it?”
“How am I doing? How am I… What happened?”
Max shrugged. “You know how it is. I got caught up in a pursuit, the perp got a little aggressive… It did okay until the driveshaft snapped. I was pretty impressed with it until then. That said, I think I’ll stick with my old car for now.”
The auto tech pulled up in Max’s familiar old blue Aero Ventura. He handed Max the key fob. “She’s all yours.” He turned to Deveron. “I uh… I guess I should get started on…” He nod
ded his head toward the red 640SL.
Deveron vaguely nodded his head, still looking shocked. The tech skittered away. “Somebody needs to pay for this.”
Max smiled. “Well I’m sure you have insurance, don’t ya? I’m sure they’ll call up the precinct after you call and get things all sorted out.” He clapped Deveron on the back. “Maybe next time, eh?”
The detective climbed into the familiar confines of his old Aero and sighed contentedly. He waved to Deveron and shut the door. If Deveron noticed, he didn’t show it. He was still staring numbly at the red Aero as Max pulled away.
“We’re sorry! The transaction cannot be completed at this time. Please contact your financial institution for more information.” The little red robot retracted its thumb pad and made a sad beep.
“Sorry, my ass!” The middle-aged businessman smacked the side of the little robot. It squawked and beeped indignantly at the rough treatment.
“Hey! I’d be careful about picking a fight with that robot.” Max walked toward the corner where the bot and the businessman were standing.
“Ha! This stupid little thing?” This time the businessman kicked at the robot. A small door on the robot slid open. A small yellow beam of light zapped out of the opening, striking the man in the shin. “OW! You little son of a…”
“I wouldn’t, if I were you.” Max was now standing by the businessman.
“Jesus, what… Is this your little friend or something?”
“It is. It’s also private property.” Max produced his badge. “It’s illegal to damage private property.”
The businessman’s jaw dropped. “Shit. Okay, look… I just wanted the news.”
Max stowed the badge and shrugged. “I heard the bot, you heard the bot. Go talk to your bank, because you’re not getting anything from my friend here.”
The businessman’s face turned red. “Stupid robots.” He turned and made a hasty retreat.
“Don’t say something you’ll regret when the robots rise up and take over, huh?” Max shouted after the businessman. Surprisingly, he didn’t respond back.
Max crouched down beside the little barrel-shaped robot. “Hey, you okay, Robby?” The robot’s little head wobbled back and forth. “Tough little guy, aren’t ya?” Robby beeped and whooped cheerfully. “How about a newspaper?”
The thumb pad accepted Max’s payment just fine. He took the sheet that popped out and gently patted Robby on the head. “Thanks, pal. You come find me if that guy gives you trouble again.” Robby hopped excitedly.
Max waved with one hand and activated the newspaper with the other. He perused the headlines as he approached Sam’s Diner. “Jailed Mobster Refuses to Talk” read one headline. “If they only knew.” Max smirked.
Another headline grabbed Max’s attention: “High Speed Chase Leaves Path of Destruction”. Max shook his head. “It wasn’t that bad.”
Max bounced hard off something tall and solid with an “Oof!” He looked up, startled. A Synthetic male over six foot tall with a muscular build narrowed its turquoise eyes as it considered the detective. “Watch where you are going!”
“I’m sorry. I was distracted.”
“You should have been monitoring your direction of travel! You humans are so careless in your actions.”
Max’s good eye darkened. “Don’t forget your place, robot.” Calling a Synthetic a robot was a grievous insult.
The Synthetic stared intensely for a moment before demurring. “I am more than a robot.”
Max sighed. “Look, I’ll watch where I’m going if you watch that mouth of yours. Fair?”
“I am not sure what monitoring my mouth will accomplish…”
Max shook his head, smiling in spite of himself. “Just watch what you say next time you talk to a human, okay?”
“Understood and accepted.” The response was a cold one. The Synthetic walked around Max and continued on its way.
“And they wonder why humans don’t want to accept them.”
Max walked into Sam’s Diner a minute later and made a beeline for his favorite seat. He sat down and sighed contentedly. He placed the newspaper on the counter before him and looked around for Sam.
Instead he got Starla. “Well if it isn’t the super trooper himself!” Max’s head started pounding again. “How are ya?”
Max gave her a smart-assed grin. “I’ve got a headache. It was going away but…”
“But what?” Starla smiled, clueless.
“Never mind. Is Sam around?”
“You betcha, cutie! I think she’s finishing up with the couple at table thirteen.” She winked and went rolling across the diner.
There she was, handing a check to a couple in a booth across the way. Sam turned and smiled Max’s way. She went behind the counter and grabbed a mug. She filled it with coffee and placed it in front of Max. “You look happy to see me.”
“It’s nice to see a friendly face.”
Sam grinned. “Starla’s not friendly enough for you?”
“Maybe too friendly.” Max rubbed the side of his face. Sam giggled. “Anyway… they’ve been hard to come by lately, especially after this.” Max pointed to the article about the car chase.
Sam gasped. “I heard something about that! Wasn’t that the guy you were trying to help?”
Max nodded. “One and the same. It’s hard to wrap my head around it. I know the kid wants help, but every time I try to get it for him…” He smacked the news tablet.
“So nobody knows where he is, huh?”
“Nope. I had a tracker on his vehicle, but it went dead. There was a police officer that responded after the Aero I was driving crapped out, but Daryl managed to outrun him.”
Sam looked skeptical. “What do you mean, outrun him? I thought those modern cars have speed limiters built into them to prevent just that kind of thing.”
Max chuckled. “You’re right; they do. He shouldn’t have been able to override it.”
“But he did. I don’t know, Max. This kid is starting to sound like more than just a washed up accountant.”
“I have to agree with you, there. I’m still waiting to hear from my friend down in Chinatown about the kid’s emails. I think they might give me some of the answers I’m looking for.”
“So do you think maybe he’s working for those SomniCorp people?”
Max stared. “You know, I hadn’t really considered it before now. You might be on to something, though.”
Sam beamed. “Well I have to be good for something don’t I?”
Max smirked. “You’re good for lots of things, Sammy.” He shook his head and pulled out his phone. “It could be that he’s an agent of some sort for the company, but they screwed something up in his head.
“That could explain his opposing mindsets. The part of his brain focused on his work with SomniCorp kicks in whenever he comes close to revealing what’s going on. The rest of the time Daryl remains in control.”
Max stood up and swept up his newspaper. “Sam, I could kiss you.”
Sam winked. “So what’s stopping ya?”
“I, uh…” Max turned red. His phone rang a moment later. Saved by the bell. “I gotta get this. I’ll talk to you later.”
Sam sighed. “Curses. Foiled again.”
“So remind me how you got a hold of this information, again?” Richard O’Connor sat across from Max, sipping a cup of coffee and looking suspicious.
“I asked them nicely. It’s amazing what good manners can get you, if you try.” Richard stared intently, saying nothing. “Jeez, fine. I may have accidentally pronounced detective as ‘IRS agent‘ instead.”
“So you called up this SomniCorp, and told them you worked for the IRS. You asked for their payroll information, and they just gave it to you.”
Max shrugged. “Well, I wouldn’t say it was that easy, but you seem to have the basic idea of it.”
Richard shook his head. “Yeah, okay… Well, did it at least pan out?”
“No.” Max sighed. “
I really thought Sam was on to something. There’s no match for Daryl Marston on this list, though.”
“Could be he’s working under the table?”
“I suppose that could be the case. I guess that’s not something they’re going to keep on file for me, is it? What to do…” Max drummed his fingers on the desk.
“I take it we don’t have enough on them to get a search warrant?”
Max shook his head. “That’s what I was hoping for with Daryl talking to the shrink. One way or another, he’s the key here.”
“Well, I’ll leave you to your misery.” Richard stood up. “Let me know if I can help with anything.”
“Thanks, Richie.” Max stared at the door after Richard closed it behind him. He really needed to find Daryl and squeeze some answers out of him. There had been no sign of the kid or the SUV he had stolen.
Max jumped a mile at the sound of his phone going off. He smiled at the name on the phone. “Kincaid.”
“Who is this Kincaid? I wanted to talk to Max.”
“Very funny, Jian. Please tell me you have some good news for me.”
“Well, it sounds like you could use it! Those emails proved to be far more interesting than I think either of us could have imagined.”
Max smiled. “So you figured out what all that code was about?”
“Yes, I did! I would prefer to discuss it in person, if possible. I think you’ll understand why.”
“I think that can be arranged. What say I treat you to dinner, then we can talk back at your place?”
Shen laughed. “I never shy away from free food! I look forward to it, old friend.”
“Me, too. We’ll talk soon.”
Max walked out into the midday sun. Jax was standing vigil as always. He briefly made eye contact with Max, but quickly looked away. Max sighed. “Jax, you’re depressing the hell out of me.”
Jax shook his head slowly. “I know. I have failed you, and this has caused you a great amount of discomfort.”
“For the love of god…”
“I’m sorry?” Jax looked up.
“Never mind. Look… I told you this wasn’t your fault. You were following your programming. Why should I be mad at you, huh?”
Preservation Protocol Page 7