by Mel Odom
Before I could get to the second leg, the man abandoned the exosuit, exiting the back of the unit through the jettison switch. I got to my feet but it was already too late. The man managed three steps before Blaine shot him in the back of the head. I went forward, intending to aid the man if I could. My quick inspection revealed that the man’s memory fiber mask had stopped the round. The bullet hadn’t penetrated his skull, but it had knocked him out. He was still alive.
“Let’s go.” Blaine was beside me.
Behind us, through the open bay doors of the warehouse, I could see the advancing wave of attackers had broken off pursuit and taken cover as SWAT members in heavy-duty exosuits dropped into the alley. The massive exosuits came equipped with machine guns, and the men operating them wasted no time opening fire.
I closed my hand on Blaine’s arm. Together, we limped as fast as he could go to the back door that led out into the next alley. We walked out into a swirl of noise. Police hoppers hovered overhead and spotlights picked us up as we emerged from the warehouse.
“This is the New Angeles Police Department!” The mechanical voice boomed from one of the hoppers and echoed in the alley.
“Hold up here.” Blaine anchored himself and held me back. I hadn’t planned on going any farther anyway. Three of the spotlights pinned us against the warehouse’s open door. I was aware of standing framed there like a target. We’d be easily picked off by any of our attackers that might be lingering in the warehouse.
Of course, our attackers had their own problems. My comm contact and Blaine’s presence on the scene had guaranteed an instant response. Reports by nearby businesses of all the noise and violence in the area had triggered an even bigger response.
Whoever had attacked us had an exit plan, though, and had made a contingency for police involvement. The hoppers they’d brought to the ambush carried on-board weapons systems that would have done well as a military caravan.
Lasers and cannons opened fire and one of the nearby police hoppers exploded into an orange and black ball of fire and smoke that roiled across the sky. A moment later, the vehicle crashed against a nearby building and broke into several large pieces that dropped to the ground in flames.
“Stand where you are!” The mechanized voice continued in the same tone. “If you move, you will be shot.”
“We’re gonna be lucky if we don’t get shot anyway.” Blaine tossed his weapons to the ground and raised his hands over his head. He spoke to me over private comm, linking just the two of us.
I raised my hands as well.
“When we get back to the station, they’re going to separate us.” Blaine spoke quickly. “Here’s how we’re going to handle it. You tell them I brought you here. That’s not a lie because I did. We keep the mercenaries out of it. I’ll tell the brass I was acting on a tip. You were at the bar following up on whatever had you out tonight.”
I listened. Shelly and I had done things like this before. I wasn’t comfortable with it.
“Get comfortable with it.” Shelly stood in the shadows only a short distance away. I knew no one could see her except me. “You don’t want any more trouble than you already have.”
I nodded in agreement. “Okay.”
“I brought you hear to investigate a weapons sale. You called it in as soon as we’d confirmed it. By that time, we’d already been swallowed up in the frag.”
It was a simple enough story. That was what Shelly had always said was important when dealing with the lieutenant: keep the story simple and keep it tight. If you started embellishing things, a story would fall apart under its own weight.
“I was shot before I could comm it in. Once I knew you’d commed, there was no reason to follow up on things.” Blaine looked at the hovering police hopper. “Seeing you was a lucky break for me. No one wants to go on calls with me right now, and they sure wouldn’t want to go on a snipe hunt. With you, I knew I didn’t have to go alone.”
“How do we explain the mercenaries?”
“We don’t. Whoever the ambush team is, they’ll have records. So do the mercenaries. If there are any of them left alive, they won’t talk about the connection to me. Too many things will come apart if they do.”
I wondered what he meant by that but I didn’t ask.
“The investigating team will think one gang tried to rip off the weapons buy, or that somebody double-crossed the other team. There’s enough confusion here that nobody’s going to get an easy answer.”
That was true.
“You get out here this far from the civilized world, Drake, everything is based on deniability. We don’t know them and they won’t know us. Deny everything. You only knew you were out here to back up a brother officer. Just out for a look-see. Nothing more.”
I nodded.
“And the first thing you do is ask for a union representative.”
“I’m not human.”
Blaine smiled. “True. Better yet, yell for a lawyer from Haas-Bioroid. They’re going to want to shut this thing down, too. Especially if that ambush team came from them.”
I thought about that. I believed the ambush effort had come from Haas-Bioroid, or from Thomas Haas, at least. The worm I’d found in my software had to have come from him. But had it been there for spying or for tracking? I had no way of knowing.
Questions flitted through my mind like insects circling a flame. I had to play along with Blaine because if I didn’t, he could be killed.
One of the reasons not to tell anything more than I had to was, if I told everything I knew, the people involved would have more time to cover up everything that had been going on. I didn’t have all of the truth, and I wanted it.
“Just keep everything close, partner.” Shelly stood beside me. “When things go off the rails this badly, that’s what you have to do. Just move slowly.”
“You got it, Drake?” Blaine looked at me.
“Yes.”
“Everything is nice and simple. Keep it that way.”
“I will.”
A moment later, two exosuited policemen approached us at a near-jog. The ground quivered under the impacts of the exos’ huge, splayed feet.
“I’m Sergeant Louis Blaine.” Blaine spoke in a loud voice. “Scan my chip. I’m a sergeant for the NAPD. This is Detective Drake.”
“I know who you are, Blaine. I’ve never liked you.” The exosuited SWAT member’s amplified voice blasted around us. He pushed a big armored hand in front of Blaine’s face. Green-tinted gas shot out.
Blaine tried to hold his breath, but the gas worked on contact. In 1.3 seconds, his body went limp and he dropped onto the alley floor.
The other SWAT member shoved his hand in my direction. The gas wouldn’t work on me, but the electromagnetic charge keyed to my disconnect frequency did. My systems shut down and the world went black.
Epilogue
Two weeks later, after an intensive internal investigation that proved me innocent of any wrongdoing, I returned to the NAPD. I discovered that my return was not met with any kind of enthusiasm. Louis Blaine had stood up for me and offered testimony to the effect that he and I had been working together. While his story somewhat confirmed my guiltlessness, his alliance—temporary though it might be—also made me less trustworthy to the other members of the homicide division than I had ever been. I couldn’t help wondering what Shelly would have made of it and how she would have felt. But Shelly was still gone. That was unalterable.
Even though we’d been on the same side of the investigation, Blaine didn’t want to keep up the contact. “It’ll go easier on you if I drop out of this.”
He looked sad, if I’d accurately interpreted his behavior and facial expressions. I wondered if it was because he was once more alone.
“No, I want access to you, to your thoughts and guidance.”
That surprised him. “Why?”
“I don’t think I am going to be afforded the same training opportunities that I was when my partner was still alive.”
&
nbsp; After a moment, Blaine nodded. “You’re probably right about that.”
“So, I would like to know that I’m welcome to speak to you whenever I feel I must.”
“There are a lot of people who are gonna be suspicious of that.”
“They’re probably the same people who won’t be helping me with my training. I don’t see a loss.”
Blaine grinned. “You’re probably right again.” He stuck out his hand.
I took it and we shook.
“Come see me when you need to, Detective.” He clapped me on the shoulder and told me he would see me around.
*
On my return, Lieutenant Ormond sent for me and I met with him in his office.
“Close the door and have a seat.”
I did both of those things, then I waited.
Ormond leaned back in his chair and regarded me silently for two minutes and thirty-seven seconds. “I told Commissioner Dawn that we would be better off without you.”
I accepted that.
“But she’s not willing to let you go just yet. You and Floyd are still her opportunities to ‘upgrade the police department’—her choice of words, not mine. She doesn’t want to try to sell a fifty percent success rate.”
“Floyd is performing satisfactorily?” I was curious.
“That’s what you want to know?”
“Yes.”
Ormond pursed his lips. “Floyd is his own can of worms. I don’t think either of you are suited to this kind of work. This is people business. Human.”
I didn’t point out that many of the murders I’d been witness to after the fact were often viewed as inhuman.
“Humans need to be working this, not bioroids.”
I didn’t disagree.
Ormond sighed and wiped his face with his hands. “I also told the commissioner that I felt losing Shelly Nolan had left you damaged.”
“I am fully functional. All necessary repair work has been finished. I assure you, I am at peak performance.”
Ormond tapped his chest over his heart. “Not the mechanical stuff. In here. If I hadn’t seen you go through everything you’ve gone through, find ways to bend the rules and the Directives, I would never have believed bioroids were capable of compassion.”
“Compassion is a necessary ingredient for police work and homicide investigation. I have been programmed to show and understand compassion.”
Shaking his head, Ormond held up a hand. “Stop. You’re just going to make me tired.”
I had finished anyway.
“Losing Shelly, losing your partner, affected you. You’re no longer the same—” Ormond halted himself.
I felt certain he’d been about to say person, or perhaps detective.
“You’re no longer the same.”
Evidently, he didn’t want to quantify me in any manner.
“I think that’s why your face has changed. I believe you recognize what I’m saying is true.”
I did, but I knew that wasn’t why my face had changed. I was pretty sure I’d already figured that part out.
He looked steadily at me. “Do you have any questions?”
“No.” I only wanted to know where I’d be working and when I could get started. The NAPD would have work for me, but I still had a case that had been largely unresolved.
“We’ve got a reassignment for you.” Ormond looked happy and relieved.
I didn’t say anything and waited to hear what he had to tell me. I did wonder if the reassignment would be a problem for me.
“You’re going to be tasked at Heinlein. Since you’re so good at working cold cases, you’re going to get to work some of them there.”
“Who made this decision?”
Ormond lifted an eyebrow. “I don’t know who made the decision, Drake. I only know that the top brass and the corp are in agreement with this.” He paused. “And I am, too. I think the Moon will be a good move for you.”
I wondered how much of that reassignment decision was Haas-Bioroid. With me working on the Moon, I would be much easier for them to keep tabs on.
“That’s paranoia talking, partner.” Shelly sat in a corner of Ormond’s office, but he didn’t see her. “And it doesn’t matter where they put you. You can still work this case.”
*
While I waited for all the e-documentation to be implemented, I worked cold cases. Blaine and I started to meet occasionally to talk over things. That made me more of a pariah at the NAPD than before. I didn’t know if spending time with me was detrimental to Blaine’s public appearance. He never mentioned it.
The Cartman Dawes case was being silently swept into a corner. I figured the NAPD was fine knowing the killers were mercs, and those mercs were now dead. There didn’t seem to be much push to solve the case beyond that. Nobody was talking, and Haas-Bioroid obviously wanted the situation locked away and would stop at nothing to do precisely that.
The day before I left, I got a PAD ping at my desk down in the basement and discovered that a facial recognition report I’d asked for had come in. I’d forgotten that I’d scanned my own features into the database looking for a hit.
What came back intrigued me. I was wearing the face that closely approximated a dead man’s: Simon Blake.
“I made you.”
Looking up from my desk, I saw the black-haired woman sitting across from me. I recognized her now, though I didn’t know why I hadn’t known who she was earlier.
She was Mara Blake, the missing neural channeling software designer.
“I didn’t trust Haas-Bioroid.” She looked calm, but I could see the fear in her eyes now. “I’ve never trusted any of the big corps.” She took a breath. “After Simon was murdered, I used a copy of his neural channeling to make you, Drake. You were as close to Simon as I could make you.” She smiled. “I’m good at code. Haas-Bioroid never found the hidden architecture I placed within you.”
I looked at her, understanding then some of the things I had been seeing. The events on Mars had been real. The memories were real. They were bits and pieces of Simon Blake surfacing as my OS was being rewritten. That was what had changed my face. I was remembering that I was more than Drake 3GI2RC.
“You’re my last ditch salvation.” Mara looked at me. She smiled again. “Something has gone wrong. If I went missing or turned up dead, the daily signal I send to you will be stopped. Those parts of you that are still Simon will rise to the forefront and you’ll be compelled to find me. Or avenge me.”
I stared at her, curious about everything I was going through, about any other changes that might yet occur.
“I hope it’s to find me, Simon.” Mara shuddered. “I don’t want to die. I don’t want to be dead.” She blinked away tears. “So, if I’m just missing, find me. Find me soon.”
“I will.” That was a promise. No matter how many enemies stood between her and me, I couldn’t let them win. Unconsciously, I put out my hand to take hers, but of course she wasn’t there and my fingers found only the desktop. “I will find you, Mara.”
About the Author
Mel Odom is the author of over 140 books in science fiction, fantasy, and tie-ins, including the award-winning series The Rover, as well as tie-in fiction for such names as Forgotten Realms, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and Shadowrun. He is also the author of bestselling cyberpunk thrillers Stalker Analog and Lethal Interface.
He writes all the time. In addition to writing, he also teaches at the University of Oklahoma in the Professional Writing program.
You can catch up with him at
www.melodom.blogspot.com.
Table of Contents
Title Page
Acknowledgements
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
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br /> Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
Chapter Nineteen
Chapter Twenty
Chapter Twenty-One
Chapter Twenty-Two
Chapter Twenty-Three
Chapter Twenty-Four
Chapter Twenty-Five
Chapter Twenty-Six
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Chapter Thirty
Chapter Thirty-One
Epilogue
About the Author
