by Neil Hunter
The screen went blank. A text message apologized for the service breakdown. Cade slammed the receiver down with a growl of anger, staring at the gray, dead screen with mounting disgust.
“Lousy technology,” he muttered bitterly.
He dropped the phone and snatched up his jacket. Without a backward glance Cade made for the elevator and the helipad on the roof, where Janek was waiting for him.
Once Cade climbed aboard, Janek took the chopper clear of the Justice Department building, angling it west across New York’s hazy skyline.
Cade leaned forward and activated the onboard computer, keying in a request for information on their
destination. The memory banks threw text on the screen. He slumped back in the body form seat, staring
at the monitor, but found he wasn’t able to concentrate. He realized he was tired. It had been a hectic,
fast-paced couple of days. There hadn’t been much time for a break. Not since he and Janek had answered that first call and had burned rubber getting to the tenement building. The problems had started right there, with three murdered Justice marshals and Milt Schuberg held hostage
Cade glanced out of the chopper’s canopy. The sun was setting fast now, streaking the sullen sky with multicolored bands. It was going to be a long, hot night... and Kansas could be even hotter.
The pulse of sound from the chopper’s suppressed turbo powered engines washed over him. Cade felt his eyes closing. He activated the seat’s power unit and dropped it into the sleeping position.
“I’m taking five,” he said to Janek. “Spell you later.”
“Fine,” Janek replied. “Any time you’re ready, partner.”
Cade felt sleep crowding in. He didn’t fight it. The last thing he heard was Janek grumbling to himself because he couldn’t pick up a decent jazz station.
When Cade opened his eyes, he realized that the helicopter was still and silent. He peered through the canopy and saw that dawn was streaking the sky. He was alone in the cabin. As the seat returned to its upright position, he noticed a message on the computer screen: “Be back shortly. Gone to arrange some transport. Janek.”
Opening the hatch, Cade stepped out into the chill Kansas morning. The chopper rested on a landing pad in a corner of a small airstrip. The strip’s main building and control tower stood dark and empty at this early hour. It only took Cade a minute to realize he was the only one around the place. The bite of the early-morning breeze penetrated his open jacket. Cade fished out a cigar and lit it, then zipped up his leather jacket, turning up the collar. He took a turn around the chopper, then decided he might as well sit inside where it was warmer. He climbed back into the cabin and sealed the hatch. On an impulse he picked up the handset and punched in the department’s code, waiting while the radio signal was beamed up to the Justice Department’s orbiting communications satellite, then down to the New York office.
“Cade,” he said when the duty tech came on. “Patch me through to Braddock if he’s in.”
“T.J.?” Braddock’s voice was as clear as if he were sitting beside Cade. “Listen good. Harrigan wasn’t the only one on the payroll. Milt Schuberg got the goods on a detective in his own division. A routine bust picked the guy up with known associates of the Outfit. He decided it was in his best interest to cooperate. It looks like this mother was Brak’s own personal inside man. He’s been feeding Brak info for weeks. Right up to the split and beyond. Brak knows you’re on his trail. He has Mid Town locked up tight. The guy who runs Mid State Freight is Brak’s man. The way it’s going down, he has the local cops on his payroll, as well....”
The radio fell silent. Cade tried to reconnect with New York, but the set was dead. He made a function check, running it through the computer. The screen laid it out in clear, cold text.
Someone had jammed the frequency.
“Damn!” Cade said, tossing aside the useless handset.
He reached behind him and grabbed hold of the closest combat shotgun. He checked the loads and cocked the weapon. Breaking the seal on the hatch, he climbed out of the chopper, loosening the zipper on his jacket so he could get at the Magnum. Now he didn’t even feel the cold. Once he was outside, he closed the hatch and set the electro-lock. The hatch was sealed and could only be opened via a code sequence.
He moved around the chopper, scanning the area. Nothing. Except for the soft ripple of the breeze, the airstrip was silent and deserted.
Cade’s ears picked up the sound of an engine. He turned in its direction and saw a slow-moving blue-and-white police cruiser rolling through the perimeter gate. The cruiser’s lights hit him between the eyes, blinding him for a moment. Cade threw up a hand, turning his face away.
The cruiser kept on coming, picking up speed until it was no more than twenty feet from the chopper. As it rolled to a stop, a harsh voice crackled from its PA system:
“Put the weapon down, Cade. You’re well covered. We’ve got your cyborg partner in here, as well. There’s a gun on him. You fail to cooperate, he gets a slug through his eyepiece and that’s the end of him. Your choice, mister.”
The cruiser rolled to a stop. The rear doors opened and figures emerged. Even in the gray dawn light Cade recognized Janek’s tall figure. The cyborg was accompanied by a burly, uniformed cop who was easily as tall. The cop had the muzzle of a powerful autopistol jammed hard against Janek’s right eye.
“Your call, Cade.”
Other figures emerged from the front of the cruiser, all of them aiming heavy weapons at Cade.
“Don’t listen to this creep,” Janek called. “I’m expendable.”
Even if he’d been free and clear to take on the opposition, Cade wouldn’t have put Janek at risk. He was almost relieved he didn’t have to make the choice. With the hardware aimed at him, the decision was out of his hands. There was no way he could take on the kind of odds facing him. Not now. He’d have to wait for his chance.
One of the cops moved forward, his auto rifle trained on Cade’s chest. He reached out to take Cade’s SPAS, passing it to one of his buddies. Then he frisked the Justice cop and relieved him of the Magnum. He grinned suddenly.
“Now we can relax, Cade. Welcome to Kansas,” he said. Then he swung the butt of his rifle and clouted Cade across the side of the head.
The dawn exploded with brilliant light. Cade went down on his knees, feeling blood pouring across his face. The light began to fade, and darkness rolled in like a heavy tide. In the distance he heard the cop’s words echoing faintly.
“Welcome to Kansas—”
And then it all slipped away.
Chapter Six
Kansas
“We blew it this time,” Janek said quietly.
Cade, still holding his pounding skull, eyed his cyborg partner with a less than sympathetic stare. “Not so much ‘we’ blew it … From where I’m sitting ‘we’ translates as ‘you.’”
Janek shrugged crookedly. “Okay, I can live with that. I suppose you’ll want an apology.”
“I’d rather have my damn Magnum.”
The cop beside the driver, in the front seat of the cruiser, pointed at Cade with the rifle he was holding.
“Can’t you pair quit yappin’?” he growled. “Jesus, I’ll be glad when we can finish you off.”
“Why didn’t we do it back at the strip?” asked one of the cops sitting in the back with Cade and Janek. “Why waste time driving them all the way to town?”
“Brak wants to have words. And if the guy wants words, he gets ‘em.”
“He must be paying you bastards good money,” Cade said with unconcealed contempt.
The cop beside Janek nodded, his face dark with anger. “Damn fuckin’ right he is. He’s payin’ me well enough so I’ll do exactly what he wants.”
“Good for you,” Janek said. “I’ll bet you’re really proud of yourself.”
The cop laughed harshly. “Listen to the damn cybo preaching at me. Listen, droid, I don’t give a cold kiss in hell. Take
a look out there. It’s a shit world, and you get one chance to make your mark. I ain’t about to work my friggin’ butt off cruising the streets for a lousy pension. I want my goodies now, while I can still enjoy ‘em. So up your tin ass.”
“That’s what I like about this job, T.J. I get to meet people of such high intellect.”
“One more word out of you, droid, and you get a slug right through your damn eyeball,” the cop said, the muzzle of his autopistol swiveling to center on Janek. “You hear me?”
Janek nodded, letting his shoulders droop in what appeared to be acceptance of his fate.
The cop’s lips formed a thin smile of triumph. He moved the muzzle back toward Cade.
Janek sat upright, his right hand springing forward, fingers clamping over the cop’s wrist. The cyborg twisted sharply. The cop’s high screech of pain drowned the sound of his wrist bones snapping. His fingers slackened their grip on the gun butt, and it dropped. Janek caught it with his left hand, slashing it up and around. The hard metal cracked against the cop’s lower jaw. Skin burst, and blood spurted as the cop fell away.
The moment Janek moved, Cade erupted. His right elbow smashed into the throat of the cop at his side. The guy began to choke, clutching his damaged throat. Cade reached around and caught hold of the cop’s hair. He dragged the moaning guy close to him, then shoved his face down against his own rising knee. Bone cracked, and the guy’s nose began to blossom red.
The cop in the front passenger seat made a grab for the rifle resting between his knees. The cyborg didn’t hesitate. He angled the autopistol across the back of the seat and triggered a single shot into the back of the renegade cop’s skull. The guy was slammed forward, a bloody spray tinting the windshield.
The driver stepped on the brake, sending the cruiser in a sideways slide across the road. Fighting the wheel with one hand, he snatched his handgun with the other. Twisting in his seat, he opened fire, slugs shattering the rear window of the cruiser
Cade punched the door handle on his side. When the door sprang open, he shoved out the groaning cop he’d hit, following him. The cop hit the pavement with Cade on top. The Justice cop rolled clear, lurching to his feet, and saw Janek leaping from the opposite side of the cruiser just before it picked up speed again. The powerful vehicle roared along the road for a distance, then turned, burning rubber as the driver hauled the wheel around.
“Go!” Cade yelled, shoving Janek across the pavement.
They cleared the road, diving headlong into the dusty brush edging it, then regained their feet and ran.
Behind them the cruiser braked noisily, engine roaring as the driver slammed it into reverse, then forward again. The heavy cruiser sent up clouds of acrid dust as it slithered across the bumpy terrain.
“Where the hell we going?” Cade asked as he paced alongside Janek.
“That, Thomas, is a stupid question at this moment in time,” the cyborg replied.
“Only because you haven’t got an answer!” Cade yelled.
It was academic. They were running for their lives across a stretch of dusty Kansas flatland. There was no visible cover in sight, nothing but the eroded plain with its miles and miles of emptiness.
The sound of the cruiser grew louder behind them, rising to a high wail. Without warning, the engine faltered and coughed.
Cade turned and saw the vehicle had got itself bogged down in a patch of soft earth. Great clouds of dust billowed from under the rear wheels.
“I don’t believe it,” he breathed.
Janek stood beside him, watching the cruiser closely.
Peering through the dust still drifting around the stalled cruiser, Janek spotted the driver moving inside the vehicle. “Damn!” Janek snapped. “He’s using his radio to call for backup.”
The cyborg’s keen vision enabled him to focus on distant objects and bring them into close relief.
Janek raised the handgun and laid a fast trio of shots through the windshield. He was rewarded by the sight of the driver flopping against the seat’s backrest, blood streaming down his face from the wound in his forehead.
Circling the vehicle, Janek approached it from the rear, autopistol held before him.
Making the most of the moment, Cade crouched beside the cop he’d bundled out of the cruiser. The guy was stretched out across the road, groaning softly. He didn’t offer any resistance when Cade took his holstered autopistol. Cutting around the rear of the cruiser, Cade covered Janek as the cyborg moved in.
“Okay, T.J., we’re clear,” Janek said, straightening up.
“Anything in there?” he asked Janek.
The cyborg shook his head.
“You reckon he got through to whoever he was calling?”
“Could be,” Janek said. He scanned the area. “We could be getting visitors any time, Thomas. It might be wise to get the hell away from here.”
Cade took a slow look around. “Any more bright suggestions?”
“No, but I think we should still move. Maybe we can find a phone. We need to call Braddock, let him know what we’ve found here. Maybe he can get the area Justice Department to send some backup.”
Cade opened the cruiser’s trunk and retrieved their weapons, stowed there after their captors had disarmed them. He passed Janek his handgun, then strapped on his Magnum. As an afterthought Cade scooped up the auto rifle from the front of the cruiser, and rummaged for a couple of spare magazines.
“Come on, hotshot, let’s move out.”
They tramped across the dusty flatland, anxious to put some distance between themselves and the stalled cruiser.
Daylight was flooding the land now. The rising sun threw bright shafts of light over the landscape, leaving Cade and Janek exposed.
“T.J., are you still blaming me for what happened?” Janek asked out of the blue. He had been thinking about the matter. Now, he decided, was the time to bring it into the open.
Cade looked across at the cyborg. He could tell from Janek’s expression that his partner was in his serious mode. For all his developing human tendencies, Janek still relied on his programmed responses to certain situations. Like now. He felt responsible for the turn of events and would relentlessly badger Cade about them until he got a satisfactory answer.
“No sweat, partner,” Cade said. “The situation got a little out of hand is all. But we’re back on stream, so why all the fuss?”
“It could have got you killed. That isn’t supposed to happen when I’m around.”
“I’m fine, Janek. The only thing worrying me is how we get out of this.”
“Thomas, you’re avoiding the question,” Janek persisted.
Cade stopped dead in his tracks. “Okay,” he exploded. “That’s it. I try to let you off the hook easy. But no, you have to go on about it. Acting like some two-bit martyr. ‘Sorry, T.J. I’ve been a bad partner, T.J., tell me off so I can rest easy, T.J.’ Well, yeah, you fucked up, pal. Real good. Lined the pair of us up like beer cans on a fence just waiting to be shot down. Next time tell me when you decide to go off on your own. At least do that so I can expect you to come back with the bad guys and not get caught with my pants down. Okay?”
Janek peered at him silently. After a minute he shook his head, face solemn. “You’re not just saying that, are you, Thomas?”
Cade didn’t trust himself to speak. He simply carried on walking, checking the way ahead. He heard Janek coming up behind him, and a moment later the cybo fell in step beside him.
“I think I may have broken that code,” he stated, the previous confrontation already forgotten.
“Took your time,” Cade said. “You slowing down?”
“Well, I’ve had other things on my mind.”
“Let’s hear what you’ve got.”
“I’m starting to make sense out of all those figures and numbers. I believe what we have is a list of names, bank accounts, their relevant numbers and locations.”
“How soon before you get it all clear?”
“
Very soon,” Janek said confidently. “When I get a quiet minute, I’ll be able to transcribe it.”
The air was suddenly filled with the pulsing sound of an air cruiser. Someone was pushing the craft to its limit. As Cade turned, glancing skyward, the cruiser’s shadow fell over the Justice cops.
The air cruiser was a private craft, unmarked. It was painted a dull ocher red with a silver stripe. It overshot, passing no more than ten feet from them, then banked steeply, starting to come around in a tight curve.
Cade saw the oil-streaked underside clearly. He made out the complex pattern of ducting tubes running from the turbine engine’s hover cowl. Then the sleek cruiser cleared them, heat waves shimmering from its exhausts. He was able to see the plas-glass canopy and the blurred shapes of three passengers.
“Trust you to mention a quiet minute,” Cade said, unlimbering the auto rifle.
He searched the area for cover. There was only uneven, dusty flatland with little cover to offer except the odd clump of thicket.
Leveling off, the air cruiser dropped almost to ground level. It streaked in at Cade and Janek, trailing a wide spume of dust. The pilot swung the craft around in a sudden broadside, kicking in the hover power to bring the craft to a swaying midair stop. The rear portion of the canopy slid open with a hiss of air pistons. One of the passengers in the rear swung a heavy black auto weapon through the opening. The wide muzzle flamed, sending a stream of large-caliber slugs at Cade and Janek.
Cade had moved the moment the canopy opened, expecting the worst. He felt the earth tremble underfoot as the slugs pounded the ground. Dirt and stones peppered the back of his legs as he took a long, desperate leap. He hit the ground hard, gasping as his breath was slammed from his lungs, but he ignored the momentary paralysis of his breathing function and kept rolling, the auto rifle tucked in tight against his chest.
He stopped by a tough clump of thicket. Cade’s head came up. Spitting dust, he blinked away from the sweat stinging his eyes and glanced back at the cruiser. It was still hovering. The gunner had altered his aim. He was sending burst after burst at Janek’s weaving figure. The cyborg was leading the gunner through an erratic course, causing him to constantly retrack.
