by Neil Hunter
Janek’s visits were giving him big ideas, Cade regularly told him. That was not the kind of thing that was about to help his career in the Justice Department.
“Worst thing that ever happened,” Cade said. “Meeting that woman.”
“Your trouble, Thomas, is jealousy. I’m becoming smarter all the time, and you just can’t stand that.”
Cade didn’t even answer.
Staring through the windshield, Janek said, “What’s so important that Takagi needs us out tonight?”
“Search me,” Cade replied. “All I can tell you is he sounded scared. And that’s not George.”
“Maybe he owes somebody money.”
“No. George doesn’t gamble. It’s something stronger than that.”
The more he thought about it, the more intense his worrying became. It nagged at him as he pushed the cruiser downtown, silently cursing the thronged traffic.
He was still worrying when he wheeled the cruiser along the fringes of Battery Park, looking out for Takagi’s 4x4. He spotted it parked exactly where George had said it would be.
Cade jammed on the brakes and brought the cruiser to a noisy halt.
“Hey!” Janek said. “Easy on the pedal, partner. I nearly totaled the windshield.”
Cade reached for the SPAS shotgun clamped between the seats. He checked it for a full tube, slipping a handful of spare cartridges into his pocket, then repeated the move with his Magnum auto-pistol.
“I don’t see any Indians,” Janek murmured, staring into the gloom. “Why the panic?”
“Because of them,” Cade said, indicating the dark shapes of the combat droids fanning out from the cover of Takagi’s truck.
His words were punctuated by the crackle of auto-fire as the droids opened up. The cruiser began to shudder under the impact. The windshield blew in, filling the compartment with fragments.
“Here we go again,” Janek said, kicking open his door and rolling out of the car.
Cade did likewise, diving clear as the cruiser was stitched along its length. He tucked the SPAS under his body as he cleared the side of the vehicle. He got to his knees, brought the shotgun to his shoulder and triggered a couple of shots at the closest droid. The combat shotgun’s powerful charge blasted the droid’s head, enough of the shot getting through the eye sockets to enter the electronic brain. The droid reacted drastically. It ran full tilt into the side of the cruiser, skidding across the hood to crash to the ground on the far side.
Even while Cade was handling the first droid, Janek picked out his own target. His heavy auto-pistol, free of its holster, tracked in on the advancing combat droid. Janek loosed two shots, each finding its mark. The droid’s eyes exploded as the bullets penetrated, coring through to the brain and dumping it on the ground like so much scrap metal.
“Behind you!” Cade yelled, straightening up and tracking the SPAS on the figure of the surviving droid that was angling toward Janek.
The instant Cade triggered the SPAS, the combat droid opened up with its submachine gun. A hail of slugs caught Janek in the back, knocking him off balance.
Cade’s blast whacked the droid in the side of the head. The toughened casing resisted the impact, and the droid swiveled around to lock its auto-weapon in on the Justice cop.
Cade took a long dive to the ground, then rolled as he landed, hearing the rattle of slugs from the SMG pounding the earth around him. He paused long enough to spot the droid reloading the SMG, and lunged upright. Lifting the shotgun, Cade began triggering as fast as he was able, pumping shot after shot at the droid’s expressionless face. The droid let out an odd screech of sound, throwing its arms skyward. Arching back, it fell to the ground, performing a series of ugly, spasmodic movements before its damaged brain shut down.
Janek joined Cade. “I owe you one, T. J.,” he said.
“I’ll remember,” Cade promised, not looking up from his task. He was thumbing fresh loads into the SPAS.
Janek glanced toward the sky. “I think we have something else to worry about, T. J.”
Moments later the Skorpion helicopter came burning down out of the night sky, and shells from a 50 mm belly gun chopped the earth around the Justice cops. They made a break in different directions, then turned to return fire as the chopper hissed by them. It began taking a hard turn, angling around in a tight circle.
Cade thumbed in the final cartridge and worked the shotgun’s slide, cocking the weapon. He snapped the butt to his shoulder as the Skorpion wheeled about. The pilot brought it in low, seeking his targets as he powered the sleek chopper forward.
Cade stood his ground, arcing the SPAS in a line that followed the chopper’s course, and waited his chance.
A few yards away, sideways to the helicopter, Janek brought his auto-pistol up in a two-handed grip. His keen eyes fixed on the blurred shape of the pilot behind the Plexiglas canopy, and he quickly calculated speed and trajectory before he aimed and triggered, emptying his magazine into the pilot’s cabin.
The Plexiglas blew apart and the Skorpion veered off course as the pilot’s head abruptly disintegrated.
Cade let go with the SPAS then, hitting the canopy from the front. The secondary blast from the shotgun, unhampered by the Plexiglas, took the pilot’s already shattered head nearly off his shoulders.
Already lifeless, the pilot’s hands slipped from the controls, while his feet became deadweight on the foot pedals. The Skorpion went into a steep climb, starting to turn in a complete circle.
That was when Cade hit it again, this time driving his four shots into the chopper’s underbelly. He hit the fuel tank, and the combat machine erupted in a screeching ball of fire. The air filled with flying debris and burning fuel. Covered in flame, the bulk of the chopper sank to earth with a loud crash. Flames and sparks boiled skyward.
Janek ejected the empty clip from his auto-pistol, pulled a fresh one from his coat and snapped it into place. He worked the slide, cocking the weapon as he crossed to where Cade stood watching the burning wreck.
“Remind me not to take late-night strolls in the park with you again,” Janek said dryly. He gestured in the direction of the downed droids. “You know what they are, don’t you? Combat droids.”
“Yeah, I know. Military use only,” Cade said. “So what the hell did they and George Takagi have in common?”
“Something to do with what he needed to talk about?”
“Yeah, it seems the only answer. Too much of a coincidence to be otherwise.”
“I’ll call this in,” Janek said. “You going to look for George?”
Cade nodded. He wasn’t too hopeful that he would find anything pleasant. The odds on Takagi’s being alive were slim, taking into account the reception committee that had been waiting for Cade and Janek.
He found the NYPD tech on the far side of the 4x4. Takagi had been chopped to ribbons by heavy auto-fire.
For a minute Cade just stood looking down at him, feeling anger swell inside while some other emotion made his eyes sting and his throat feel tight. He swore softly, then crouched beside the body to check Takagi’s pockets. There was nothing out of the ordinary. Whatever the tech had wanted to talk about had been inside his head, and that knowledge had died with him. Unless Cade could backtrack and pick up a lead.
Besides, Cade had a personal stake in this. Takagi had been a friend asking for help, and Cade didn’t like letting friends down. He was puzzled, too, by the involvement of military combat droids and a military helicopter.
Just what the hell had George Takagi unearthed?
It had been enough to get him killed, and it had almost had the same effect on Cade and Janek.
Janek came up behind him, casting a quick glance at Takagi’s remains.
“The cleanup crews are on their way,” he reported. “George must have learned something pretty heavy to bring all this down on him.”
“That’s the way I see it,” Cade said, straightening up. “You probably want to take a look at those droids, see if they
have any kind of ID on them. Might give us a lead to where they came from.”
“What are you going to do?”
Cade pulled a cigar from his pocket and proceeded to light it. “I’m going to have a goddamn smoke,” he said. “And the hell with you and your fussing.”
Janek crouched beside one of the droids. He checked it for signs of functioning but found nothing. The destruction of the intricate electronic brain had terminated the droid. A faint ripple of unease ran through Janek. He was aware of his own vulnerability and realized he could be lying where the droid was.
Pushing aside the negative thoughts, Janek examined the droid. His sensitive fingertips located the access panel in the armored torso, just under the left arm. It was a touch panel, operated by a simple pressure code. Janek’s fingers found the pressure spots, and the panel slid open. Inside was a control unit that allowed technicians to expose the droid’s inner functions. Janek focused on the row of tiny figures stamped on the plate and memorized them.
He repeated the check on the other droids. By this time he could hear the distant wail of sirens. Returning to where Cade stood beside George Takagi’s body, he glanced up in time to see the first of the local patrol vehicles arriving.
A pair of uniformed police officers climbed out of their cruiser, and made their way across to Cade.
“T. J., that you?” one of the patrolmen asked.
“Hello, Mac.”
“What the hell went down here?”
“We’ve got a dead cop here,” Cade replied. “And the perps spread around the area.”
“Hey, these are combat droids,” Mac’s partner said. “On the fuckin’ streets? What gives?”
“Right now we don’t know,” Janek said. “But we’re going to find out.”
More vehicles began to roll in. The darkness became crisscrossed with flashing blue-and-red lights. Overhead an NYPD air cruiser slid out of the night sky.
“Jesus,” Mac said. “This is George Takagi. What did those mothers do to him?”
“What I want to know is why,’ Cade said. “Mac, you make sure they treat George right.”
He crossed to the bullet-riddled cruiser and climbed in. Janek followed. Glass rattled from the door frame as he slammed it shut, then Cade fired up the engine and rolled the cruiser away from the scene of the crime.
“Where?” Janek asked. “No, let me guess. NYPD headquarters? George’s office?”
Cade hit the street, shoving his foot hard down on the gas pedal. The abused cruiser groaned in protest, and wind howled in through the glassless windshield.
“Every machine I ever deal with does nothing but moan.”
Janek looked hurt, deciding that Cade was including him in that remark. He settled back in his seat, tuning in to one of New York’s all-night jazz stations. The music filled his head, washing away the troubled world, and he felt a measure of contentment taking over after his earlier uneasy mood.
The NYPD headquarters building, a massive steel-and-glass block on the Civic Center site, even boasted a helipad on its roof. It had been rebuilt twice since the turn of the century. This time, the designers claimed, they had it right.
Cade rolled the creaking cruiser to a stop outside the main entrance. Before he could climb out, a KC-200 patrol droid appeared at his door.
“I’m sorry, sir, but I’ll have to ask you to move your vehicle. No unauthorized parking within the yellow zone.”
Cade flashed his badge. “Want to think again?”
The KC straightened up. “Of course, Marshal Cade.”
The main lobby was crowded. Uniformed cops, human and droid, came and went in a constant stream. Behind the long booking area, banks of TV screens relayed information and showed news updates of the night’s criminal activity.
Cade knew where Takagi’s office was situated. It was on the twelfth floor. The express elevator rose as if it was preparing for lift-off. It deposited them on the twelfth floor.
Most of the offices were deserted, and they walked along dim, near-silent corridors. Takagi’s office was in darkness except for the glow coming from the monitor on his computer desk. The office itself was neat, tidy almost to the extreme. Takagi, brilliant as he was with his computer, had also retained the Japanese obsession for order. Even the pens on the desk lay in line.
Cade stepped into the office, glancing at the blank monitor as he bent over to switch on the desk lamp.
“Can we get a printout of what’s been going through the system today?” he asked.
Immediately Janek reached for the keyboard and tapped in a few commands. Moments later the laser printer clicked on. Paper began to slide from the slot. Janek gathered the sheet and passed it to Cade.
The printout listed all the operations since the computer had been switched on that morning. It gave times for each separate operation. The day’s listing was all fairly straightforward, indicating that Takagi had been busy with an analysis program, gathering information for a statistical report. There was nothing out of the ordinary until late evening. Then there had been a flurry of activity, including data sent out via a phone modem, a block of information transferred to another computer, and some time later that same information wiped from Takagi’s computer.
“The time schedule is close to when George called you and fixed the meet,” Janek observed, indicating the figures printed over each operation.
Before they had the chance to study the sheet in detail, the door of Takagi’s office swung open, showing a figure framed in the opening.
Cade folded the printout and slipped it into his pocket.
“Who the hell are you? And what are you doing in this office?”
“T. J. Cade, Justice Department. This is my partner, Marshal Janek.” Cade held out his badge.
The big man in the doorway took the leather badge wallet and examined the shield carefully. He took his time before he handed it back to Cade.
Janek, watching the man, realized that his eyes were anywhere but on the badge. The man was stalling for time, the cybo realized. Gathering his thoughts.
“I’m Captain Barney Culver. You want to tell me why you’re here? You understand I can’t have just anyone walking around the department, Cade.”
“You understand something, Culver, I don’t need to justify myself to you, or anyone in this building. Right now I’m investigating a homicide. George Takagi was shot to death in Battery Park less than an hour ago.”
Culver made a good stab at looking shocked. “You got to be mistaken. I was talking to George earlier. Then I sent him home. Told him to go because he’d been overworking. That was the last I saw of him. What the hell was he doing in Battery Park?”
Cade saw no point in concealing Takagi’s reason for being in the park. Culver would find out once the news got around about the killing... if he didn’t already know.
“He was supposed to be meeting me. He called and we arranged to meet. It sounded urgent. When we got there, George was already dead but his killers were still around.”
“Did you stop them?” Culver asked.
“Permanently,” Janek said. “But the odd thing was who they were.”
“Someone you knew?”
“They were combat droids. Military hardware.”
Culver forced a thin smile. “Combat droids in Battery Park? You sure about that?”
“Hard to make a mistake over an armored combat droid,” Cade said, his voice heavy with sarcasm. “They tend to stand out in a crowd.”
“Look, Cade, I find all this hard to believe. Why would combat droids be on the lookout for George Takagi? For Christ’s sake, he never even did any military service. So there’s no connection.”
“There’s a connection,” Cade said. “Right now it’s not very clear, but it’s there.”
“And we’ll find it,” Janek added helpfully.
“You said you spoke to George before he left,” Cade went on. “What did you discuss? Anything he might have been worried about?”
Culver
shook his head emphatically. “No, there was nothing specific. We just chewed the fat a little, then I suggested he take a break and go home. He worked too hard. George’s problem was his lack of family. Outside the office he didn’t have much to occupy him. If I’d let him, he would have bunked down next to his damn computer. Don’t get me wrong. He was a good tech. We’ll all miss him.”
Cade turned to leave, but at the door he paused, and Janek nearly collided with him.
“I might need to talk to you again, Culver—be available.”
Janek stayed silent until they were in the elevator and dropping rapidly to the ground floor. “Well?” he demanded sharply. “Okay, I’ll say it. He was lying, T. J.”
“Through his goddamn teeth,” Cade said. “That son of a bitch knew George was dead. And I have a sneaking feeling he expected us to be, as well.”
“Whatever George found, he took to Culver,” Janek suggested. “Culver told him to forget it and go home, but George called you and arranged to meet.”
“You can bet your ass Culver listened to George’s call, then contacted whoever he’s in with and arranged for those droids to trail George and deal with him.”
“George walked right into it. He wouldn’t have stood a chance,” Janek said.
“We were supposed to be the supporting act,” Cade said, “to make sure everyone was out of the picture.”
“Why, T. J.? What was it George had to tell you?”
“I don’t know, partner. Except it was strong enough to get him blown away.”
Chapter Two
The droid in charge of the Justice Department car pool wandered around the cruiser, shaking its head and making disapproving sounds. It carried a clipboard in one chrometal hand and kept making notes.
“You handle this,” Cade said. “I have to get up to the office.”
“You know how I hate dealing with this kind of thing,” Janek protested. “This droid is a jerk. It makes me beg forgiveness every time I come in with a dented cruiser. I think it believes the cost comes out of his salary.”
“What salary? It’s a service droid, Janek. They work for nothing. Not like you.”
