Dish had started his tour of the facilities by calling up a
map of the place. “Soka, weapons declawed. Main mission complete; time for some
fun. Execute: more filelist pipe grep gamato.*.secret.*. Let’s see what comes
up.” Within a few seconds his screen is filled with file names. “I know scientists
were anal but this is bad.” He simply selected them all, grabbed them, and
transferred the files into his virtual pocket. “Now let’s see what else is
here.” He flew through a door and into the pagoda proper.
* *
* * *
Steel smiled as he waved to Cass. Cass readied her pistol as
Steel made sure that the HMMWV’s machine gun was ready to go. He nodded to Cass
and he took off, accelerating as he targeted a plate glass door. He charged
through it, smashing through it and then falling to the ground. He rolled and
let the momentum carry him behind a counter. He peeked out just enough to scan
the area: His eye enhancement had a picture of Gamato, an elderly scientist,
just below the main screen. The eye outlined the guards in red with their
weapons glowing a dull red. He almost scanned past Gamato but his eye caught it
and outlined him in green.
Steel looked back at Cass and signaled her to just to cover
him. He also sent the information he had scanned to the machine gun and triggered
it by mental signal. The gun roared to life, not stopping until the guards had
fallen to the ground. Steel ran to Gamato and reached him in a heartbeat.
“Time to go, Professor. Ready?”
“Well, yes. I suppose so. Do you think that I could say
good-bye to the fellas first?” Gamato looked up at Steel expectantly.
Steel sighed in exasperation. He decided to just grab the
professor rather than doing half of the other actions he thought about doing at
that particular moment. He started running towards the broken window.
Several guards moved into position between Steel and raised
their pistols. They were dropped by several shots from Cass before Steel even
had time to react. Steel heard the clattering of fast moving metal on the lobby
tile. Cass signaled for Steel to stop as two thin, almost-feline humanoids charged
him. He pulled Gamato closer to him as he executed a sweep kick. The two
humanoids were sent flying and hit the wall hard. They would not be rising from
that anytime soon. Steel was quickly back on the run.
Another cyborg tried to a intercept Steel before he escaped
with his prize: A woman with a metallic sheen was sprinting fast at Steel. She
leaped and pulled out a katana from a sheath on her back. Cass blurred towards
Steel and used him as a vault. This sent her straight into the woman and Cassie
hit her hard enough to send her into a wall. Cass landed and caught up with
Steel just as he arrived back outside the building.
However, one more obstacle presented itself: A sumo with a
large studded tetsubo, a large vicious club, was blocking the way. Steel tossed
Gamato behind him and Cass caught him. Steel stared at the sumo long enough to
give him a red outline and then activated the machine guns yet again. The
gunfire merely stunned the sumo, but did force him forward. Steel haymakered
the sumo into unconsciousness.
Cass had secured Gamato in his own seat and was sliding into
the passenger’s seat when Steel joined her. “Now that was different.”
Cass was just starting to grin when they pulled out.
* *
* * *
Dish saw a package on a pedestal. “Now that is interesting.”
Suspecting an obvious trap, he decided to just deal with the entire situation
later. He rezzed a water sprayer, with the coiled tube fading into oblivion
behind him. He aimed at the package and pedestal and it derezzed into a stream
of particles which were then vacuumed up by the sprayer.
At that point Dish heard a “ding”. He quickly executed an
escape program and the world around him faded into white. The white soon
resolved itself into the real world. He then waved at Ramone and the two of
them prepared for pick up.
* *
* * *
As the HMMWV raced away from the Sakura Building a net
dropped over the HMMWV. This sent the vehicle into a spin that ended when it
crashed into a telephone pole. A crossbow wielding ninja walked up the vehicle,
cautiously looking for signs of life.
When he finally opened up the doors to check he started with
the passenger door. The driver’s side was empty but Cass was ready for him,
pistol drawn and safety off. He was able to close the thick door before Cass
got off a shot; the shot rang out as the bullet buried itself into the door.
One punch from Steel sent him flying.
Steel slid into the driver’s seat. “So much for the great
Seppuku Sempai.”
Cass slid her gun back into its holster. “That was famous
kill squad of Sakura Corporation?”
“Yep. I think we got lucky, however.”
“Buzzkill. Let’s hope that luck holds.”
They drove off into the night. They left behind the ninja on
the ground behind them.
* *
* * *
Dish was just packing up when they arrived. Ramone was all
ready to go. The HMMWV stopped right next to them and they got in the vehicle.
Ramone looked up at the machine gun. “Did you guys take off in a hurry or what?”
Steel looked back at him. “We were dealing with ninja and
stuff. We were somewhat distracted.”
“Sure.” Ramone began taking apart the machine gun and
stowing it. “See, I told you they would get us.”
Dish checked his notebook for wear. “Yeah, but this was an
easy mission. Even with the complications.”
Cass leaned back in her seat. “Does he still have his ‘problem’?”
Steel left the vehicle to look at the vending machine. He
started pushing it back into place.
Cass checked the sites of her personal weapon. “We should
just go to to Nevada and lock him in a stable at the Mustang Ranch. Anyone for
a road trip?”
Ramone, Cass and Gamato all raised their hands. Dish weakly
raised his hand. Ramone finished stowing the machine gun. “I debated that.
Decided it would be too risky. For the woman!” Ramone lifted himself onto the
strap in the sunroof.
Everyone was laughing but Dish. “Hey!”
Steel got back in and twisted the key. The HMMWV started up
and left the scene of the crime. But at
least the vending machine was back in place and mostly operational.
* *
* * *
As Pallas approached the Sakura Building, she saw a small
fleet of vehicles with red and blue lights in front of the building. A man in a
dark suit was discussing matters with a detective, but the detective closed his
tablet; apparently charges would not be pressed and the corporation would be
handling it in-house. The damage was mostly superficial, and any bodies had
already been removed or sent to the hospital. The Corporation was scarily
efficient in that regard.
All that mattered to her was that the person she was looking
for was not there. She quickly dialed into the local net and, using the
passwords she had been given, she grabbed the video she could and watched long
enough to figure out a direction. She accelerated away. As she did so she
received a text update of other strange problems that night that may have been
relevant. A vending machine had been vandalized; the wires in back had been
spliced.
“That kid will be so easy to track!”
* *
* * *
A young technician watched a red blip on the screen. While the
screen was covered with a number of blips, most of them were green and thus
easily ignorable; there were all where they needed to be. The one blip,
however, was well off the reservation. Katsuna would give the blip another few
minutes to get where it was supposed to be before he did the next step.
He ran his fingers through his dyed-green hair in nervous
anticipation; few blips had stayed away from their required locations this
long. Each blip represented a tracking device in the head of a valuable
scientist; they were allowed to step away from their labs for a few minutes for
breaks and such, but not for this long. He was beginning to get worried that
the scientist in question may have been extracted, and if so he would be
terminated. Katsuna had never had to terminate someone before, although he had
done well in simulations.
The doors opened up behind him. He looked carefully to see
who it was, and his eyes went wide: The Company President never visited a level
this low! And yet here was! Katsuna stood at attention and bowed, unsure
exactly how to watch the blip yet still be respectful to his Company President.
The president motioned for Katsuna to return to his station.
Sakura Musashi was the epitome of the elderly gentleman:
bald, wrinkled, and in a pressed suit that would cost a few years of Katsuna’s
salary. “Status of the extraction?”
Gulping, Katsuna quickly regained his composure. “The
extraction is successful. So far.” Katsuna’s nervousness spiked: He had been
avoiding calling it an extraction because that meant acknowledging what was
going down in front of him. He had already confirmed the situation with
Security, so the scientist’s life was in his fingertips.
Sakura brought him back to focus. “Has he escaped yet?”
“No, sir. He’s just approaching The Barrens now.” The
Barrens were the poor district just north of the Sakura Building where most of
the younger employees lived. It allowed them to save up for marriage while
still enjoying the bachelor lifestyle. It had also been decided upon as the
northern limit for escaping scientists; this allowed them to enjoy a party
every so often.
Sakura ran some quick calculations in his head: He already
knew that scientist wasn’t escaping to a party as he had access to the same
security information the technician did, and he hoped that the extracting party
was unaware of the tracking device; as the device was implanted alongside other
necessary cybernetics, there was no need to tell the scientists and so even they
didn’t know. He had a made a decision. “Then do it. Before the device is
effectively blocked.”
Katsuna turned completely to his computer, almost
overshooting it in his nervousness. He brought up the digital handbook with the
appropriate page. “No problem, sir.” He grabbed the recording microphone and
pressed the button on its stand. He started reading directly from his screen: “As
per sub-paragraph G-129.88.21-alpha of the appropriate contract, I, technician’s
apprentice Tachihama Katsuna, under direct authority of President Sakura
Musashi, am now utilizing the M1934 fail-safe device implanted upon signature
of said contract. Contract is now terminated.” He pressed a black button next
to the recording device.
Katsuna called up Gamato’s personnel file and added the time
and date of the termination. “Fail-safe successfully utilized. He’ll go boom in
approximately sixty seconds. No more problem. Sir!”
“Nice job, Technician Katsuna.” The Company President left
the office.
Katsuna relaxed and then danced in his chair. “One of the
big boys noticed me! YES!” He would be running on an adrenalin rush for the
next hour.
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