“Nope.” Erik cracked his knuckles. “I assume our boy’s here to finish the job. How far how out is he?”
“About two hundred meters. He’s moving slowly and deliberately. I think he’s trying not to raise any alarm. No one is taking any special notice of him.”
“Good. It would have been easy for him to shoot, stab, or blow somebody up as a distraction, then rush the restaurant to finish off Chen.” Erik furrowed his brow as he thought through the possibilities. “He must have eyes on Chen’s vehicle or a tracker. Something. We need to play this right.”
Jia fished out the TR-7 and handed it to Erik. He didn’t need any magazines. He had already filled his pockets with conventional magazines and disruptor rounds.
“We can’t have a shootout with a Tin Man inside a restaurant,” Jia explained. “Even if we’re careful, innocent people will get hurt.”
Erik slapped a disruptor magazine into the rifle. “Emma, activate the fire alarm but keep the suppression systems from coming on, and lock the door on the opposite side. I want the place cleared out quickly, but we don’t want to make it so our guys jump into another vent.”
Jia frowned. “If he’s got a drone or a camera on Chen’s flitter, won’t he run when he sees everyone fleeing?”
“He’ll probably see it as an opportunity. It’ll be chaos, and he’ll have a chance to finish off Chen. We just need to make sure we’re in the way.” Erik threw open the door. “Maybe if we don’t kill this guy, we can keep him from self-destructing and get answers.”
Jia drew her stun pistol. “I’m dubious this will work, but it’s worth a shot.”
The doors slid open, and several people hurried out of the restaurant with no particular fear in their eyes. A few laughed. They seemed more amused than anything, but at least they were paying attention to the alarm. Several people eyed the armed police uncertainly.
Jia pulled out her badge and clipped it to her belt. “NSCPD. We were in the neighborhood. It might be an arson thing. Please let us through.”
A pale woman nearby licked her lips. “Arson? Are there terrorists?”
“We’re not sure about that,” she answered.
It wasn’t a lie. They didn’t know who had employed the Tin Men.
The crowd parted for the two detectives, their smiles gone.
Erik and Jia stepped into the restaurant as the diners and staff continued to leave. People had figured out they couldn’t go out the other way and were making their way to the open door.
Dr. Chen was near the back of the crowd. His eyes widened. “Detectives Blackwell and Lin. Why are you here?” He glanced over his shoulder.
Erik looked at the interior door and windows. A dark form was closing, maneuvering through the crowds near the restaurant on the opposite side. “You’re in danger, Dr. Chen. We need you to go out and head straight toward the gray MX 60. It’ll automatically open when you get near. Get inside and wait for us. Don’t go to your vehicle. If you do, you might end with a Tin Man punching through your chest.”
Dr. Chen gasped.
“That’s true,” Jia raised an eyebrow, “but did you really need to put it that way?”
“They told me this was all over,” Dr. Chen insisted. “Now I’m being hunted by cyborgs? That doesn’t make sense. I don’t frequent the kinds of seedy places you’d see such things.”
“You were told incorrectly, and it doesn’t matter where you go. Tin Men killed Kevin Tomlinson, and they might be involved in your harassment.” Erik aimed his rifle at the opposite window. “If you try just flying away, we can’t be sure someone won’t kill you while we deal with the assassin coming for you.”
“I don’t understand. Were these people friends of the security guard?”
“Who knows? We doubt they’re fans of yours, though.” Erik flipped a table on its side and crouched behind it, resting the rifle on top. “This guy’s a little more high-quality than Kevin Tomlinson. If he gets near you, it’ll be over in seconds.”
“Get to the car,” Jia barked, taking up a position behind the table. “We’ll make sure you’re safe. Just do what we say.”
Dr. Chen swallowed and jogged toward the door.
“How are we looking on reinforcements, Emma?” Erik asked.
She didn’t respond.
“Emma?”
Erik brought up a PNIU status on his smart lenses.
NETWORK INTERFACE INTERFERENCE. ATTEMPTING RECONNECTION…
He scoffed. “Jamming. Great. I hope Emma knows to let him in.”
Jia kept her attention on the approaching Tin Man. “She’s smart. She’ll figure it out, but that might mean we don’t have backup coming.”
“That’s fine. If we can beat two of them, we can beat one, even if he’s a cocky bastard.”
The approaching man hadn’t picked up the pace despite their clear presence in the restaurant.
“Can’t he see that Chen’s running?” Jia mused.
“Unless this is about us as much as Chen.”
The long-coated Tin Man appeared in the entry, and three powerful blows sent the translucent door to the floor. He pulled off his coat and hat, revealing his modified body, and tossed them on a chair.
“Detective Blackwell. Detective Lin.” His angry face belied his hollow voice. “You’ve made this more complicated than it needs to be.”
“That’s kind of my whole life,” Erik suggested.
“This doesn’t concern you.” The Tin Man pointed at Erik. “Withdraw or be killed. You’ve increased the chances of innocent people dying by interfering with me.”
Erik offered him a merry smile. “We’re cops protecting a citizen. You’ll need to give us a better reason than threats to back off. If you’ve got something to say, then say it.”
“The threat to your life isn’t sufficient?” A small spike popped out of the top of his wrist. Even if the man made a fist, the tiny spike wouldn’t extend far enough to be used as a weapon. That didn’t make him an easy enemy. They’d both seen how strong a full-conversion Tin Man was.
“I’m trying to understand why you are so interested in killing Dr. Chen.” Erik narrowed his eyes and moved his finger toward the trigger. The spike was still bugging him. “But we can have that conversation down at the station.”
“Consider the life of your partner,” the Tin Man suggested. “You might have lived a full life, but has young Detective Lin?”
“Shut your mouth,” snapped Jia. “You’re under arrest. All Article Seven rights apply. Do you need these explained to you?” She infused the last sentence with weapons-grade sarcasm. “Or you could try to take us both out when we’ve got our weapons trained on you. You should have added a few mental improvements when you decided to turn yourself into a monster, because right now you’re coming off as an arrogant fool.”
“I’m not a monster,” the Tin Man replied, his voice calm. “I’m a tool. Comfort isn’t relevant for tools. The only difference is I’m aware I’m a tool, but you two still labor under the delusion that you are not.”
“On your knees, and put your hands behind your head,” Erik ordered. He doubted a binding tie would hold the suspect, but if they put several on, maybe they’d at least slow him down. “If you make any sudden moves, we will shoot.”
The Tin Man sprang toward a nearby counter, vaulting over it and sinking below their line of sight. Erik squeezed off a shot but missed.
“Yeah, that’s a sudden move. Fine.” Erik sighed.
“We’ll do this the hard way.”
Chapter Thirty-One
The cyborg stayed low as he sprinted along the counter.
Erik didn’t fire again. The disruptor rounds wouldn’t be effective if they hit something else first, and they didn’t penetrate well.
The killer leapt over the bar with his arm pointed toward Erik. Bottles rattled behind him. His new position placed him behind Erik’s and Jia’s makeshift cover.
A loud pop sounded, and the spike launched from his arm.
; Erik dropped, and the projectile whizzed over his head and penetrated the overturned table. He fired twice, the staccato cracks from Jia’s stun pistol joined his shots.
The shots hit the Tin Man in his armored chest, causing him to grit his teeth as blue and white sparks played across his chest. He circled the detectives, a wicked grin growing as a new spike slid into position with a tink.
Erik’s jaw tightened. Neither of them wore a tactical vest, an obvious mistake that was not correctable at the moment.
The Tin Man’s immunity to Jia’s stun rounds didn’t surprise him, but disruptor rounds could take down a flitter. If he’d used disruptor rounds at the storage bay, the fight might have ended a different way.
The Tin Man vaulted over a table as their rounds tried to reach a soft point.
Jia kicked up a chair and dropped her stun pistol. The man fired at the same time, and his spike ripped through the chair, finishing its flight at a different angle. It ended up embedded in the floor several meters away.
Erik fired another burst. The Tin Man landed, shoved a table over as a barricade, and crouched behind it. His hollow, mocking laughter filled the air as he hopped up, swinging his arm over to launch another spike.
Erik whipped his left arm out. “Shit!” he hissed as the killer’s spike lodged in his arm.
Jia yanked out her pistol in a smooth motion and fired through the table, adding four new holes to his cover, but the Tin Man didn’t fall. They knew how to beat their enemy, but that required a clear shot.
“You can’t win,” the Tin Man called. “And Chen won’t escape. I’m going to enjoy killing you.”
“Mad about your friends?” Erik called back. “They shouldn’t have come after us.”
“You don’t understand. They were expendable. If you’re waiting for help, it won’t arrive in time.”
“If you’re jamming us, that means you’re jammed, too,” Jia shouted. She kept firing until her pistol ran dry. “You don’t know what’s happening with him.” She slapped in a new magazine.
“I know enough,” the Tin Man replied. “But it would be useful to kill you two now that the opportunity has presented itself.”
Erik ducked.
He yanked the spike out of his arm with a grunt, then ejected his magazine and slapped in normal rounds. He’d thought disruptor rounds would be enough if he ran into any more bots or Tin Men, but an investment in armor-piercing ammo might help in future fights, or maybe something a lot bigger. At least when he was a soldier, he’d had the gear he needed for the mission.
Running into heavily armed and armored foes as a detective was becoming irritating.
Jia nodded to the far end of the bar. “We should go to both ends, and have something draw his fire,” she whispered. Irritation flashed over her face. “We just need to distract him.”
Erik switched his TR-7 to four-barrel mode and reached back, grabbing a bottle of tequila from the bottom shelf. “Booze is always distracting.”
Jia chuckled. “Do it.”
He hurled it over the bar, and Jia and Erik shot up. The reflection caught the Tin Man’s attention and he moved preternaturally fast, launching his spike at the bottle. The impact sent the glass shards spiraling toward the wall. He turned their way, his face contorting in rage as he realized his mistake.
Erik fired a burst into the Tin Man’s face.
Jia lined up her shot but didn’t fire immediately. The cyborg stumbled back, and Jia sent three quick shots at his head. He jerked back as a round finally pierced an eye. The Tin Man growled, but Erik and Jia maintained their barrage. After several seconds, he collapsed atop a table, twitching before a final violent seizure.
The two cops took a moment to reload. They kept their weapons pointed and moved closer, circling him from either side. His mangled head argued against survival, but Erik kicked him anyway.
His body was inert.
“So much for questioning him,” Erik muttered. “Emma, can you hear us now?”
“Yes. Dr. Chen is secure, although I didn’t make it clear what was going on,” she responded. “I didn’t think it was useful to inform him about me. Backup is almost here.”
“You beat the jamming?” Erik asked, surprised.
“No. I sent a request when I activated the alarm.”
“Everything is fine now.” Erik lifted his rifle, settling it on his shoulder. “We took him down, and there’s nothing left to salvage.”
Jia surveyed the bullet-riddled restaurant, with its overturned tables and chairs. “How do you think the ID is going to react?”
“You know what?” Erik stared at the downed Tin Man. “I don’t care what the ID thinks. If they want to work the case, they should show up when the cyborg killers do.”
Chapter Thirty-Two
Feb 2, 2229, Neo Southern California Metroplex, Police Enforcement Zone 122 Station, Office of Captain Alexander Ragnar
Captain Ragnar wasn’t smiling as usual, but neither did he look upset.
Jia liked their chances. He had called them in to discuss the case, and she had wondered after the brief discussion the prior day if the ID would put pressure on him. Even if they were operating within the letter of the law, they had ignored the directorate’s request for them to stay out of the situation.
The captain had dismissed Erik and Jia after the incident the previous day to get some rest and have Erik’s arm checked out.
He’d explained he would have to talk to his superiors about what had happened, but he had argued there was no way the ID could complain when they’d let a Tin Man assassin walk right up to Dr. Chen.
It was as Erik had said. They wanted control without the responsibility.
The captain looked at Erik’s arm. “How are you doing?”
Erik rotated his arm and flexed. “It’s fine. Just needed some quick repairs this time, but it wasn’t anything too bad. That spike would have been a nasty and unwanted addition to my head.” He snickered. “It seems like these Tin Men aren’t used to dealing with people with cybernetic modifications.”
“Ironic,” Jia offered. She tried to not look or sound accusatory. “You said you would take care of Chen, Captain? Or has the ID decided he needs to hang around in the open until he gets killed?”
“He’s now in CID protective custody,” the captain answered. “There were a lot of loud and angry calls back and forth, but everyone involved seems to feel that’s a good compromise. The ID is still complaining about classified operations, but they admitted this situation hasn’t unfolded as anticipated. 46 Helix is being quieter than I expected.”
Jia scoffed. “Because they were idiots who almost got one of their top men killed. They acted like this wasn’t a big deal.”
“You don’t think they’re involved? I got the feeling before that you suspected them.”
“I did, among other people.” Jia shook her head. “But it doesn’t make sense. Having a useful tool like Tomlinson kill Chen would make sense. It’s a convenient explanation that doesn’t point anywhere else. Killing a man with a cyborg assassin in public is bound to raise a lot of attention. If they were involved, it would have made more sense to sabotage his flitter or shoot him at home. Something like that. I’m not saying this doesn’t have anything to do with his work, but 46 Helix smells more guilty of security incompetence than conspiracy. Whoever is behind this is getting desperate, but we have no idea why they are so obsessed with killing Dr. Chen.”
The captain turned his blue-eyed gaze on Erik. “Is that your take?”
Erik paused long enough to give the impression he was thinking it through. “Yeah. I think they just screwed up, but I care less about 46 Helix than the ID. They don’t sniff around random stalking cases, which means they already had a good idea of what was going on.”
Jia’s tone confirmed she was still spitting mad. “They dangled Chen like bait, Captain. That’s bad enough, but they left him to die, too. No agents showed up to take down that Tin Man. If we hadn’t been there, he would have
been killed. Innocent people could have been killed. I don’t care if this is part of some bigger antiterrorist investigation. You don’t use people like that.”
Captain Ragnar nodded slowly. “That was one of the reasons I wanted you here. I called in some major favors yesterday because I wanted to know what was going on. Someone from the ID has agreed to speak to us, but in doing so, we’re all agreeing to keep our mouths shut about what we’re going to be told.”
“And if we don’t?” Jia asked.
“They’ll probably find a reason to shove us in a frontier prison.” Captain Ragnar smiled as he relayed the threat. “I think it’s worth it, especially since it feels like the ID wants to tell us more. I think you’re right that they were trying to draw someone out.”
“They should have done that earlier,” Erik muttered.
“I agree.” Captain Ragnar tapped his PNIU. “Come in, please.”
The door to the office slid open, and the cyan-haired agent from the other day strolled in. She closed the door behind her and sat on the edge of Captain Ragnar’s desk with a bright smile on her face.
“You’re not dead, Detectives,” the woman observed. “Good for you. I had faith.”
Jia rolled her eyes. “Dr. Chen could have been killed or kidnapped because of your incompetence. You yanked this case from us, then left him unguarded, and you probably knew he would be attacked.”
The woman folded her arms. “That’s the interesting thing. We did yank the case, but you were still involved. Are you sure you want to be tossing around accusations?”
“It was all nice and legal,” Erik commented. He glanced at the captain, who nodded back with an easy-going smile on his face. “And it’s not like there’s a law against cops parking outside Mexican restaurants. We’re the ones taking out murderous Tin Men. We’re the ones who have been investigating the case. What have you been doing?”
The woman chuckled. “It’s hard to argue with that.”
“Who are you?” Jia demanded. “Where’s your partner?”
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