ABC - Penance

Spitfield Automated Network and Distribution Warehouse, Washima District

I pulled up on my bike next to Ghost and his massive machine, parking in one of the bays allocated to visitors. In front of us was the brightly lit Reception building, a small affair protruding from the towering warehouse that lay beyond.

More warehouses ranged to the left and right of us, all lit up by spotlights behind a razor wire topped mesh fence. Big automated gates were set into the security fence and every few minutes an electric truck or van would whine in or out. Most looked like they were driverless, operated by an onboard Dumb AI I assumed.

The way into the Reception office was fenced to either side, with small garden beds of hardy local plants and shrubs giving a hint of green freshness to the night air. A few crickets chirped in the undergrowth, vainly competing against the rumble of rubber-tyred vehicles and the whine of their electric engines.

It was Ten Forty-Five PM and I was only fifteen minutes late for the meeting with Ghost. We still had another quarter of an hour until the appointment with Tubbs so I couldn’t understand why he was so grumpy at me.

“Sorry for being late” I apologised, trying to fake a sincerity I wasn’t feeling. “By the time I dropped Minke at home and got changed, I was running a bit behind”

He gave me his best emotionless glare, which in a way conveyed exactly the feeling he intended.

“It’s fine, Alvarez” he assured me tonelessly. “We have plenty of time before we talk to the guard”

“Yeah, that’s right” I agreed and leaned against my parked bike. I was wearing my blue uniform again, a lightweight armour vest hidden beneath and a long dark grey coat open at the front. I had my service pistol snugged under my left shoulder and my own slim shock wand tucked into an inside pocket.

I wasn’t expecting any trouble at this meeting but I had learned to be cautious.

Ghost was dressed as his alter ego, Detective Sato Gaunt, with that same dark grey suit and eyepatch he was wearing earlier in the day. He also wore a long, pale grey coat over his suit, yet in his case I knew it was lined with armour weave. A heavy Guard issue pistol, similar to mine, could be glimpsed under his left armpit as well.

All Guard clones were technically ambidextrous, equally proficient with either hand in combat and more mundane tasks. To keep things simple, they generally operated as right handed by default. That made the weapon designs and other equipment a lot easier to standardise, even if a lot of modern weapons could be re-configured for left handed use.

Ghost was leaning on his bike, head tilting slowly as he watched the street around us. I leaned facing him on my own bike, watching him intermittently as I scanned the streetscape to his rear.

“What?” he finally demanded, meeting my eyes.

“You still eat those awful protein bars don’t you, the ones made for the Guards?”

He cocked his head to one side, giving me a twinge of heartache as I was reminded of Clancy.

“Of course” he responded. “You have given me some yourself” He looked away, resuming his relentless overwatch.

“Why though?” I asked. “You can buy regular protein bars with just as much calorie content at a store. They taste better too. In fact they actually have a taste, compared to those Guard bars”

“They contain trace elements the internal systems need to maintain my body” he said flatly.

“Bullshit!” I laughed to take the edge out of my questioning. “I know lots of Enhanced people and they all need to take supplements, that much is true. But I think you still eat those bars for a different reason”

“What is that, Alvarez?” Ghost replied. He wouldn’t look at me now and I knew I had found the truth.

“It’s because of the emotional suppressants they load into the Guard food” I answered him. “You are afraid to lose that emotionless front you put out. You tried living without the crutch of those suppressants and it scared you, so you went back to eating the bars”

Ghost was still now, even his head locked in position, gazing at some point over my right shoulder.

“I remember that first time you rescued me” I continued. “Bingo and Clancy paid you in food and ammo. The ammunition was Guard standard rounds for your rifle and the food was those damned protein bars, am I right?”

My partner lowered his head, that artificial eye gleaming from beneath the mesh patch he wore.

“You really are a bitch, Alvarez” he grunted sourly. “Why do you care about this shit?”

“Because I like you, asshole” I countered. “You keep saving my life, which kind of endears you to me”

“In that case, stop poking about in my personal life” he rejoined, but I could see some of the stiffness was fading from him.

“Nope” I told him outright. “I’m a nosy bitch”

I checked my phone. It was Ten-Fifty-Nine.

“Let’s go find our man, Detective Gaunt” I said to my partner.

“Copy that, Inspector Alvarez” he answered.

=====

According to his Ident, Zeus Alexander Tubbs was Forty-two years old, unmarried and a NOMA. It didn’t actually refer to him as a NOMA, which would have been rude even for a government official to call someone, yet he had no Ability registered.

The man himself was taller than me, wider than me and probably had more hair than me, at least what I could see on his scalp and thick upper lip and eyebrows. I had no idea nor inclination to wonder about his follicular situation beneath the crisply pressed uniform he wore this evening.

“Thanks for meeting with us tonight, Mister Tubbs” I began after introducing myself and my partner. “I appreciate it can be inconvenient to have a Police interview at your workplace”

“Nah, it’s fine Inspector” he responded casually. We were seated in a small break room attached to the Security Office, wedged around a narrow table on metal framed chairs made at least two decades ago. “I got used to all the interviews after that business at Camp One. What do you need from me now though? I can’t think of any new information about Pony”

“Pony?” I answered, trying to hide my confusion. “I gather the previous interviews focussed on them, is that correct Mister Tubbs?” For some reason I had decided to try and play along and Ghost watched me carefully, unsure of what I was doing but willing to let me forge ahead.

“Yeah, seems like he was someone really important” Tubbs replied, then looked suspiciously at the pair of us. “You don’t know who he is, do you?” he added, his thick dark brows knitting together over his eyes like two caterpillars trying to wrestle. “Which department are you from?”

“External Investigations” Ghost supplied in his trademark monotone, the one that makes you shut up and pay attention. “We believe the previous case ties in with an investigation of our own”

Nice save, partner! I was thinking to myself.

“That’s right” I continued. “Detective Gaunt and myself are looking for a man named Jacob Tan. Have you had any encounters with him recently?”

I showed Tubbs an image of Tan from my phone, a short video file of him talking to someone off camera. It was the clearest and best image we had of our target and more useful than a flat photo. Witnesses are easily confused by still images, but a moving and speaking image can trigger their own memories much more readily.

Tubbs looked at the image all the way through, then looked up at myself and Ghost.

“That’s the last guy who interviewed me” Tubbs stated, his eyebrows now so enmeshed I wondered if they could separate again. “Name was Tan I think. He bought me lunch and we went over the raid at Camp One”

I had a hard time holding in my excitement, although Ghost had no such problem I noticed.

“You mean Tan was asking you about Pony?” I asked as confirmation.

“Yeah, that’s right, Inspector” Tubbs said slowly. “He wanted to talk about the raid that got Pony out of Camp One, back in October last year”

I lifted my gaze to Ghost, who shrugged his shoulders. He had no idea about Pony or what had happened at Camp One either.

“Okay, Mister Tubbs” I said. “Let’s start at the beginning. What happened at Camp One?”

=====

“Thanks for your time, Mister Tubbs” I said to the guard. He gave me a relieved smile and we all stood, filing out behind him through the Security Office and into the main warehouse. I had recorded his statement and it gave me a lot to think about.

Tubbs had glanced at the vacant operator console as we passed it, the screens showing images collected from around the big complex. I noted his disapproval as we exited the room and enquired what was the problem.

“Toni should be manning the desk” Tubbs answered. “Me and the other guard patrol the grounds with the hounds, while one of us keeps an eye on things from here. It’s Toni’s turn at the desk tonight”

A trio of mechanicals had approached us as we talked, distracting Tubbs from the vacant office. They were four legged security hounds, new models with the creepy backwards facing legs that give them their distinctive gait. Two had their lightweight armour panels painted in fluorescent yellow stripes, making them stand out under any light. From what I could tell they were unarmed, their sensor heads fitted with cameras and thermal detectors.

The third was jet black, the sensor head fitted with a short barrelled pistol mounting. This one was the Interceptor, intended to take down any intruders that the operator set them onto.

Tubbs knelt and patted its long, sloped head as if it was a real dog.

“Hey boy” he whispered to it. “Where’s Toni gone? Snuck off for another Chem Stick I bet, isn’t that right?”

“Everything Okay, Mister Tubbs?” I enquired. “We can offer assistance if there is a problem”

The security guard got back to his feet, the three mechanicals forming around him in a triangular pattern. I could see the wrist mounted controller on his left arm flashing slightly, relaying commands to the mechanicals from the warehouse Limited AI.

“It’s Okay, Inspector” he assured me. “SAND likes to keep its business in-house, so your assistance won’t be required. I am sure Toni is just taking a leak at the moment”

“Sure” I agreed. We made our goodbyes and headed towards the Reception office and the way out. Around us the warehouse was running with what looked like full automation, with no humans in sight other than Tubbs.

Big loaders and smaller warehousing drones wheeled about the place, selecting items or whole pallets from the tall shelves and moving them to their destination. It was a well choreographed scene, the Limited AI overseeing everything.

We were nearly at the doorway to the office when there was a loud crash behind us. I turned quickly but Ghost was even faster, his heavy calibre pistol already in hand. A wheeled loader the size of a sedan had collided with a smaller picker unit, sending a full pallet of boxed juice cartons flying onto the concrete floor. Boxes burst open and bright orange coloured juice sprayed across the twisted wreckage of the shelf picker.

In the distance, we heard more collisions and the booming echoes of a fully laden shelf toppling into its neighbour.

“Somebody’s hacking the warehouse AI” Ghost called out and I nodded my agreement. More mechanicals collided as the controlling AI lost its battle with whomever was diving into its network. We stayed where we were, watching out for any mechanicals that might stray in our direction.

Then we heard the muffled gunshot, followed by a scream that was short and agonised.

“Fuck, that has to be Tubbs!” I shouted. Ghost pointed in the direction he thought the sound had come from and we charged towards it, pistols leading the way. Over our heads, yellow lights began to flash as the Evacuation alarms sounded, drowning out everything else.

My hip sent sharp knives of pain up my spine and right into my skull with every jolting step I took. There was only way I knew to deal with that kind of distracting pain as I ran. I swore my little box off.

“Fuckity-fuckity-fuck-fuck” I muttered loudly as I jogged after Ghost.

=====

We traversed three rows of towering shelves, heavily laden with pallets of plastic wrapped boxes and carton, until we found Tubbs. He was leaning against one the metal frames, holding off the black mechanical hound with fading strength.

From here I could see the blood pooling beneath him, leaking from a gut wound. The hound fired again, the head mounted weapon blasting a hole into a cardboard box bare centimetres from Tubb’s right ear. Three other mechanicals, the brightly striped units, were battering at the downed guard with their bodies.

They weren’t doing any real damage but their combined efforts held Tubbs in place, unable to break free of their attacks.

Ghost was in front of me and braked suddenly, bracing his pistol hand with his other even as he slid to a stop. He fired twice and the black hound bucked and skittered clear of Tubbs, the Suppression rounds barely denting its armour panels.

“Alvarez, switch to Armour Piercing!” he yelled at me as I came alongside. “I’ll keep them busy while you change out”

“Copy that!” I replied and dug into my coat pocket and pulled out a magazine of the AP rounds. The magazine ejector on my gun dropped the loaded one out and I let it fall to the floor as I rammed the new one home. I cycled the weapon to bring a fresh bullet into the firing chamber and took aim at the black hound.

In the seconds it took me to do this, Ghost had emptied his own pistol into the Interceptor hound and its companions. The Suppression rounds had no lasting effect on the mechanicals but it rocked them backwards and confused their sensors. Nearly every bullet my partner fired hit their sensor heads, an accuracy us lesser mortals could only dream of.

There was a small gap between Tubbs and his attackers now, so I was willing to take the shot. It was about fifteen meters, an easy shot at the firing range. Here and now though I had a victim in my line of fire and at least one of my targets was ready to shoot back.

My first hasty shot skimmed the side armour of the black hound, sparking from the foamed Titanium alloy. I corrected my aim and put the second round into the middle of its sensors. It flipped backwards and collapsed in a tangle of weirdly bent legs.

The other hounds rushed us and I got one a clean shot through the chest, dropping it to the concrete floor, before one of them leapt at me. It hit me in the chest, knocking my gun aside and propelling me to the ground.

I saw Ghost blow the sensor head off another, so I thought we might be Okay. Power flowed into my pistol and I clubbed the mechanical on me mercilessly, my Kinetic Enhancer turning my gun into a battering ram. I broke its body in half and flung the halves away, grinning like a mad woman.

“We’ve got trouble, Alvarez” Ghost said to me, pointing past Tubbs to where a swarm of prowling hounds had appeared. I lifted my head up and looked down the length of my body in the direction he indicated. There were three of the black Interceptor types and maybe a dozen of the yellow striped patrol models.

“Protect Tubbs!” I ordered Ghost and he took off with a burst of speed that only the Enhanced can really achieve. I got my slow-ass human body to my feet and staggered after him, quickly checking we had no surprises coming up from behind us.

The hounds came at us fast, that strange backwards legged gait covering the ground quicker than I expected. My partner was braced in front of Tubbs, using his own armoured body to protect the wounded man. By the time I got there he had downed two of the black hounds, their own gunfire smacking into Ghost’s armoured coat.

Luckily for us, the Interceptors were loaded with Suppression rounds. Not every company that uses armed mechanicals does that, even though the City and our Police Auxiliary strongly recommend it.

I fired my own pistol into the charging mass, scoring some hits but only taking down two of the patrol types. Then they were on us, slamming their bodies against Ghost and I. Their tactics seemed to centre around knocking a target down and holding them there, presumably until a Security Guard could arrive to take over the situation.

In this instance, the weaker hounds held us down so their gun-armed buddies could shoot us in the face!

I punched one and pistol whipped another, busting them up good, yet two more tackled me and I felt my arms get pinned. A black armoured body stomped up my chest and pointed its gun barrel right into my face. Talk about staring death in the face!

“Shit!” I screamed at the mechanical beast and tried to buck it loose. The bastard machine fired, the bullet zipping past my ear to plough into the floor and then ricochet into a shelving unit. It repositioned its head and was going to take another shot.

They say in those last moments before death, you think about the strangest things. Like did I turn the stove off when I left this morning? Or I forgot to tell my housemate to buy more milk. For me, I thought about the day at the hospital when the doctor told me my daughter was stillborn.

It was the first and last time I saw her little body. She looked so perfect, still warm after the nurse had cleaned all my blood from her tiny shape. I had hugged her to me in the hospital bed and cried until I had no more tears left.

Then they had taken her away and the doctor declared her officially dead. That was the time in my life when I had broken. It had been years since that day and I was still not fully recovered, not completely. My soul had split into two people – Luisa Alvarez, daughter and lover.

And Punching Judy, a mad fucking bitch who was full of rage.

Luisa was trapped under murderous mechanicals and about to die. So she let Judy take charge because Alvarez was all out of options.

I lifted my knee, channelling power into the Kinetic Enchancer. In this position, with the black hound across my chest and stomach, there was little strength in the knee strike. Yet the laws of physics get screwed by the Awakened because we follow a different kind of reality.

Power flowed and the Interceptor spun over my head from the barest impact of my leg, hurled away by the furious energy that Judy imparted. The movement gave me some leeway in my right arm, letting me twist my gun hand and put a single shot into the mechanical that straddled it.

It collapsed and I rolled away from its falling body, bringing my gun barrel into line with the third machine. I’d like to think its sensor head registered a moment of terror before I blew it apart.

I was onto my knees when the black machine had turned towards me, its gun barrel swinging into line with my face. A single shot, right through the head and it dropped inert to the concrete.

“Alvarez!” Ghost shouted from nearby. “Are you still alive?”

“I think so” I replied and surveyed the situation from my knees. We had destroyed a whole horde of the mechanical fuckers, with Ghost surrounded by at least a dozen corpses I reckoned. More were streaming into the aisle, coming from both ends.

I hobbled over to stand beside my partner, our backs to the injured man.

“I’m nearly out of Armour Piercing” I told Ghost.

“I’m using my Suppression rounds” he affirmed, meaning we were both in a bad position. I drew my stun wand from my coat and held it in my left hand, warily watching the hounds advance on us.

“This is gonna hurt” I muttered to Ghost.

“Pain passes. Death is forever” he replied. “Try and take out the black hounds if you can”

“You sure are the cheerful type, aren’t you Ghost?” I turned and gave him a weak grin and I thought I saw a hint of a smile in reply.

“I arrr” he said, looking at me with his stupid mesh eyepatch.

“It was a dumb joke the first time” I laughed anyway. Then I faced my side of our little last stand and started firing, aiming at the hounds as they rushed us.

They nearly got to us when everything stopped. The mechanicals froze in mid leap, falling inert to the floor in a clatter of metal and plastic. Further off the rampaging loaders and pickers all stopped too and that damned alarm finally shut up.

“Well, that was lucky” I said. My pistol had just clicked empty.