Cabal of Lies

by Michael Anderle

  “I’ll coordinate with Dispatch,” Emma offered.

  There were many advantages to having Emma on his side, including having her handle the tactical busywork. Her presence wasn’t a secret among the department, but the average cop or dispatcher didn’t realize she was a fully self-aware AI and not just some filter program.

  A few police drones hovered near the side of the building, their red and blue lights flashing. Even without Emma’s aid, the higher-level authorities coordinating the response would know they were about to breach. If they’d wanted them to stop, they would have said as much.

  Reputation was useful for more than intimidating criminals in court.

  “Sounds good to me.” Erik sprinted toward the door, running in a wide arc. No reason to run straight at the building and get shot if the robbers bought and/or lucked into a clue, but he suspected they were in panic mode.

  Thugs were brave until they had to face the possibility of being on the other end of the barrel.

  Jia hesitated for a moment before holstering her slug-thrower and yanking out her stun pistol. “It would be nice to take some alive. It’s not often we get this many people robbing a bank. They might have something interesting to tell us.”

  Erik pointed at the door. “I’ll leave that to you. If they don’t want to die, they can surrender.”

  “I said it would be nice.” She huffed. “I didn’t say it was necessary.” Jia nodded at the door. “Ready when you are.”

  “Anyone close, Emma?”

  A red silhouette marking a suspect moved closer. The others were more distant and faded. A small camera feed popped up in the upper-left corner of Erik’s vision, showing a long hallway leading to a T-intersection and a single robber with a rifle hiding around the end of the corner.

  “Open the door on my count,” Erik ordered.

  “May your Lady serve you well in lowering the gun goblin population this day,” Emma joked.

  “Three,” Erik began. He flipped off the safety and pointed the gun. “Two, one.”

  The door hissed open. The black-masked robber spun around the corner, ready to fire, but Emma’s targeting assistance telegraphed his plan before he even started moving. Erik’s gun was already in position. Two quick trigger pulls ended with two bullets in the robber’s chest. The man jerked back, managing to get off a single round that zoomed past Erik’s head, but the detective ended it with a headshot.

  Erik charged forward and emptied the rest of his weapon into the body before ejecting his magazine and slapping in fresh ammo.

  Jia eyed him like he was high on Dragon Tear. “What the hell was that about?”

  “I killed him too quickly.” Erik jogged toward the intersection. “He might not have sent a warning, and I wanted his buddies to know the cops are here.”

  Jia’s eyebrows rose, but she gave a firm nod. “Okay.”

  “Emma, let the guys out front and in the back know we’re in, in case no one else bothered to tell them.”

  Converging silhouettes warned Erik that four of the robbers were coming to investigate their breach. Good. Everything that weakened their criminals’ position at the front and back of the bank made it that much easier for the rest of the cops to invade and end the robbery. Fortunately, the robbers were approaching Erik’s and Jia’s position from the same direction. It’d be trivial to take them down.

  “The other police are stepping up their pressure, but the guards near the front and back continue to suppress them, despite reduced numbers,” Emma reported. “Several more units are about to arrive, but not TPST yet.”

  “Civilians?” Jia asked.

  “Other than the initial two who were shot, none have been hurt. They just aren’t in a position to escape. There are armed criminals in the way.”

  “Then we better make a path for them.” Jia crouched by the wall, pointing her stun pistol around the corner. She tossed it into her left hand and pulled out the blinder. “Emma, can you filter the flash for us?”

  “Easily. Just tell me when you throw, and I’ll take it from there.”

  Erik stood over Jia, his gun pointed down the hallway. There was shooting fish in a barrel, and there was shooting blind fish that couldn’t dodge. It wouldn’t even be that satisfying.

  Jia held her breath and brought back her arm, taking full advantage of the AI’s tactical overlay. She waited until right before the robbers burst into the hallway and threw the blinder. The white sphere hurtled toward the four masked men, who panicked and jumped backward. No one wanted to spend precious seconds figuring out if a grenade was flying toward them.

  Erik barely had to squint, the bright flash faint thanks to Emma’s efforts. The robbers groaned as they stumbled around, blinded. One pulled the trigger on his rifle and landed an accidental shot between the eyes of one of his partners.

  Erik almost felt bad for the poor bastard.

  Almost.

  Another bullet rang out and struck his vest. He grunted and stepped back. The round hadn’t penetrated, but it stung.

  White stun bolts flew from Jia’s gun, leaving the survivors on the ground, blind and twitching.

  “You okay?” she called, keeping her weapon pointed down the hallway.

  “I’m fine.” Erik patted his chest. “Nothing a medpatch can’t take care of.” He gestured to the dead robber. “That one wasn’t me being trigger happy. I don’t want any demerits.”

  “So I noticed.” Jia ran toward the downed criminals. She pulled out binding ties while Erik covered her, looking up and down the hallway. Emma was keeping an eye on things for them as well, so there was little chance of a surprise.

  “The uniformed officers are beginning to force the robbers back,” Emma reported. “Additional units are about to enter from the other sides. Officers are coming this way as well. I told them you'd regained control of the lock systems in the bank.”

  Erik shrugged. “Close enough to true. Eleven total, two dead, three stunned. That means we’ve still got six, but they’re hurting.”

  “Two pairs are staying near the front and back,” Emma replied, “and there are two near the primary security door leading to the main vaults. They are attempting to continue to breach the system. I’m slowing their progress, but they are using more sophisticated tools and techniques than I would have expected. They have, unfortunately, taken a woman hostage. I’ve verified she’s one of the bank employees, so it’s not a trick.”

  “Can we get to them without going through the other idiots?” Jia asked.

  “Yes.”

  A bright red arrow appeared, marking the direction.

  “Let’s leave their friends to the uniforms,” Jia suggested. She jogged down the hall in the direction the arrow pointed. “If they’re trying to stall with the hostage, there’s something they want to gain access to they can take advantage of right away. That means it’s not anything they plan to carry out of here.”

  Erik nodded and sprinted until he’d caught up with Jia and matched her pace. “If they’ve already got the transfer crap set up, they can end up draining a lot of accounts before getting caught. With enough money, they might be able to buy themselves an escape.”

  Jia took a left. “Idiots should have stuck to external hacking.”

  The din of near-constant gunfire echoed through the bank. The thuds of bullets striking ornamental columns or embedding in walls and furniture mixed with the buzzes of stun bolts. Whatever reinforcements had shown up weren’t only packing stun weapons.

  Erik and Jia ignored the sounds as they headed toward the center of the building, the short, wide halls making it easy. None of the other robbers changed position.

  “Don’t they have camera access?” Jia asked, a puzzled look on her face. “They’ve locked down the doors, so I assumed they also controlled the cameras, or at least the ones outside the deeper security zones.”

  “I’ve taken measures to hide you,” Emma explained. “Why should Agent Koval have all the fun with invisibility?”

&nbs
p; Erik let out a quiet chuckle, the heavy footfalls from his boots eating the noise. “You saying you learned something from a mere fleshbag?”

  “I’ll always take advantage of useful techniques and strategies.” Emma sniffed. “Regardless of the flawed nature of the source. After all, humans spread all over Earth and the Solar System without the help of the Navigator technology. Even I must acknowledge you have a talent for survival.”

  “Glad to hear it. Let’s see if our talent for survival is greater than those two robbers’.”

  “Indeed.” Emma sounded cheerful.

  Erik and Jia slowed as they approached another closed door. The robbers were inside a small room on the other side, which connected to the more impressive security door protecting the main vault of the bank that contained, among other things, the safe deposit boxes. The plan, whatever it was, involved more than just siphoning off credits from accounts.

  Jia holstered her stun pistol and pulled out her slug-thrower. “If we blind them and they fire randomly, they might kill the hostage, just like their friend earlier. We need to put them down without risk to the hostage.”

  Erik nodded.

  A new silhouette of a woman on the ground, her hands on the back of her head, appeared on Erik’s smart lenses.

  Erik smiled. “The bastards made it easy. We took three of them alive earlier. I’m fine with shooting these. We can slap medpatches on them right after. They might even survive.” He moved up to the door and stepped to the right side, lining up his shot. “We each take one?”

  “You’re right.” Jia stepped to the left and readied her weapon. “This is almost too easy.”

  “Three,” Erik began counting. He didn’t need to tell Emma what to do at this point. “Two, one.”

  The door slid open, revealing a featureless gray security room with a low ceiling. A massive reinforced door with a glowing blue field dominated the other wall. The two criminals spun toward Erik and Jia, bringing up their rifles. One of them knocked over a black tripod with an antenna array on top.

  The detectives didn’t hesitate.

  They fired almost simultaneously, their three-round clusters ripping through their respective targets. Their hostage screamed in fear as the men hit the floor, their rifles not discharging.

  Erik and Jia rushed over to secure the suspects with binding ties before rolling them over and slapping medpatches on their chests. The first aid wouldn’t heal them with bullets inside their bodies, but it’d stabilize them until they could be taken to the hospital.

  He didn’t care about taking down criminals who had killed innocent people, but Jia was right. The more living suspects they had, the more evidence they could collect. He doubted it would be that important since they’d caught the bulk of the robbers, though.

  The hostage yelped and peeked at Erik and Jia through her fingers. “Is it safe? Can I leave?”

  Erik frowned. “Emma?” he whispered.

  “The other officers have overwhelmed the robbers at the front and back,” she reported, transmitting directly to his ear. “There is one robber hiding behind the front desk, but he has ten officers surrounding him. His defeat is imminent, even if one admires his bravery.”

  “Police have control of the bank, but you should stay here with us until the situation has been stabilized.” Erik inclined his head toward the tripod. “What’s that?”

  The woman sat up and shook her head. “I have no idea. I ran in here when I heard gunfire. I was going to hide in the security zone, but they were already in here.” She swallowed and risked a quick look at the wounded robbers.

  Jia knelt and righted the device. She ran her finger along the side and pressed down near the tripod. The legs retracted, and the device folded into a portable thick rod. “I’m pretty sure it is a mid-range signal repeater. They were definitely ready to send information elsewhere.”

  “Account data?” Erik guessed. He frowned. “That doesn’t make sense. They wouldn’t have bothered to try to get into the physical security zone.”

  “I was thinking the same thing.” Jia stared at the security door. She gestured toward the door and nodded at the employee. “Vault and safe deposit boxes are in the primary security zone, right?”

  “Yes,” the employee agreed. She puffed out her chest and raised her chin. “But you’ll need a warrant for access. We take client privacy very seriously at this bank.”

  Erik laughed. “We just saved your life, and we’re investigating a robbery.”

  “I’m sorry, Detective. It could cost me my job.”

  Jia shook her head at him. “We’ll find out what they wanted soon enough.” Her gaze drifted to the wounded men on the floor. “And if we need a warrant, we’ll get it.”

  Erik frowned, but she was right.

  Whatever the truth was, at least they’d stopped the robbery.

  Chapter Nine

  July 22, 2229, Neo Southern California Metroplex, Police Enforcement Zone 122 Station, Interrogation Room

  Jia leaned against the hard wall of the interrogation room, her arms crossed over her chest. She stared at the prisoner bound to the chair.

  By the time the police assault was over, the police had collected six stunned prisoners. The two critically injured robbers from the security room had been transported to the hospital but were expected to survive.

  The remaining three suspects were DOAs.

  The initial interrogations all pointed to the same man as the ringleader, the prisoner who now sat in the chair: Gunter Kohl. The other suspects all claimed they didn’t know why they were hitting the bank, and that he had put together the crew.

  They were all paid a flat fee for their participation.

  She locked eyes with the smug-looking suspect. They’d let him stew for a day after the initial interrogation of his friends, hoping to soften him up by saving him for last. He didn’t seem interested in a lawyer, which surprised her. Either that meant he understood there was no point, or he had some other trick he thought would save him up his sleeve. Perhaps he was just an arrogant fool.

  The blond man offered her a self-satisfied smile. “It’s poor luck on my part,” he offered with a trace of a faint German accent. “I don’t know how you did it, but we should have been through those doors much quicker. Unfortunate. Even with a few guys getting caught, at least some of us could have gotten away, but what else can I expect from the NSCPD’s two top detectives?”

  “Yeah. Sucks to be you.” Erik sat in a chair across from the suspect. “Eleven guys with high-powered rifles and surprise on your side, and you still got caught. You’re not very good at what you do, are you?”

  “That’s unfair. I’m good. You’re just better.” Gunter strained against the binding ties. “I’d bow, but you’ve got me all tied up.” He looked at Erik and smiled. “Bravo to you.”

  Jia lowered her arms but didn’t step away from the wall. “Your men ratted you out, you know. They all pointed at you without us so much as sneezing. The ones still breathing, anyway,” she temporized.

  “Men die when they commit crimes. It’s part of the risk of living on the dark side of the law.” Gunter shrugged. “If you’re trying to upset me with their deaths, it won’t work. They weren’t friends or even comrades. They were merely temporary partners for a specific job.”

  “Real team player.”

  Gunter smiled. “I’m willing to cooperate since I’m not dead, and those gentlemen haven’t proven to be worthy partners anyway. They’ll all squirm and point and claim innocence, but they’re idiots. If everyone had listened to me, there wouldn’t be any murder charges.”

  Erik snorted. “Cry me a river.”

  “If I cooperate fully now, that has to be worth something, right? I mean, that’s half the reason you’re in here. You want me to give you information. You want me to make your jobs easier, but I need something in return. I think that’s only fair.”

  “You do realize you’re going to prison, right?” Jia strolled over to the table. “We’ll pa
ss along notes about your cooperation, but we don’t decide the sentencing, and there’s zero chance you’ll walk.”

  “I want to be in the good graces of Lady Justice and the Obsidian Detective.” Gunter looked thoughtful. “That might have some value even in prison. You’re famous, after all.”

  “Let’s cut the crap,” Erik snapped. “If you just wanted money, you didn’t need to invade the bank physically, and this wasn’t thrill-seeking. You don’t bring that kind of hardware if you’re just there to get your rocks off.”

  Gunter nodded. “No, killing someone for entertainment is twisted. It’s a form of mental illness. I hope you find and eliminate anyone in Neo SoCal who is like that.”

  Jia scoffed. “You killed someone.”

  “That was an accident.”

  “An accident? You shot him through the chest with a rifle. How was that an accident?”

  Gunter sighed. “We asked the guard not to try anything, but he did. Perhaps ‘accident’ isn’t the right word.”

  “And the customer?”

  “You must have seen it in the security camera footage. The foolish customer thought he could be a hero, and he almost got lucky, until he died.” Gunter shrugged. “One of the reasons I brought so many men was to shock them into compliance, but everyone wants to be a hero. I assure you that I’m a professional. Unnecessary deaths on a job aren’t something I enjoy. They create complications, such as those we now see.”

  “Digital Forensics is going over that transmitter and your PNIUs,” Erik explained. “The thing I don’t get is why you were trying to go so deep into the bank. You didn’t need to do that to skim accounts. Shit, you didn’t even need to be there to skim accounts. This whole thing seems idiotic.”

  “There’s nothing scarier than smart cops.” Gunter laughed. He looked at the two detectives. “Am I right?”

  Erik and Jia stared him down.

  He lowered his head and let out another sigh. “Make that, ‘nothing’s scarier than smart cops without a sense of humor.’”