Abel looked at Bittu with a look of consternation as the thought of what they had learned and its importance sat at the forefront of his enhanced mind. “We can’t let them know what we know.”
The nerivith man nodded and rushed out of the room into the interrogation chamber. Bursting through the door, Abel watched as he walked right up to Thaee and put his hands on the table next to the small, feathered alien “You can’t tell anyone what you just told us. Understand?”
The swanith cocked his beaked head in confusion “What? First you want me to tell you everything and then you want me to be quiet, pick one or I'm going to…” but Bittu cut him off with an angry hiss.
Bittu slapped the table “No, you are the one who doesn't understand. I’m trying to save your duster ass. You need to remain silent. If anyone asks, you held out on us, told us nothing. Got it?” Bittu hissed.
Abel couldn't hear what the swanith said next but it must have been the right thing as Bittu exclaimed “Yes, that exactly. Please understand that I am trying to save your tail here, if they don’t know you talked they will have no reason to kill you. That would raise unnecessary suspicion. If you get locked up try and survive, we may need you again in the future, okay?”
Thaee cocked his head and asked “Who are they? And what do they want?”
Bittu checked his assistant as he got an alert and muttered “I don’t know but we are about to find out.”
Abel looked towards the outer door as it was slammed open by a large figure in heavy riot gear, the thick plasteel plates of their dark grey armour rattled as they stepped through the door. Abel was a bit taken aback, they were atraxses, not something normally seen in law enforcement. The atraxses were heavyset and covered in shaggy white fur, their bodies adapted to the bitter cold of their homeworld of Ho’the’rell. This one seemed to be quite well suited to the role, their grizzled features a scowl of barely suppressed distaste.
After the large armoured atraxses came a slighter figure, though nearly as tall. He recognised the slightly hunched and bestial features of a yeown, their body covered in much thinner cream colored fur that clashed with the brutalist colors of their armour. The atraxses continued on into the interrogation room while the yeown broke away and entered into his room instead.
He stood straight and tall as the alien entered, not wanting to appear threatening. For all he knew these two goons might not even know what he was. Maybe they would overlook him entirely.
All thoughts of that were dashed as the yeown gave a predatory grin and stalked straight over to him. “Aberration unit 00-37, override code Delta-seven-eight-eight-nine-sigma.”
Abel froze, the words seeming to cause a flurry of activity in his brain, his vision nearly whiting out as the sound of blood roared in his ears. What had happened? What was that the yeown had said? ‘Override code?’ Abel used the tiny part of control he still had to seal his memories behind the strongest mental barrier he could erect. He would die before he let these two use him for their nefarious deeds.
From outside of himself, outside the pain and the noise he heard a frustrated growl. It sounded like the same voice as the numbers. ‘No, don't get distracted.’ he told himself.
He almost jumped out of his cybernetics when his self answered him. ‘Why not? I like distractions.’
He could vaguely hear a growling voice listing off more code but ignored it. ‘Who are you?’ he asked the voice in his head.
‘I am you.’ was the strange yet honest reply.
It made no sense, and yet part of him felt at ease with the comment. Well, if it was him then maybe he could ask himself for help. ‘Can you help me?’ Abel pleaded to the voice, he felt it begin to fade away, the pain growing as the presence receded. ‘No, please. Wait! I need your help, please I’ll do anything!’
The feeling of something receding stopped. The small voice seemed to move towards him curiously. ‘Anything? Do you know any fun games?’
Abel tried to think of something fast. ‘I know a game called I spy!’ he blurted out. All the while the intense feeling of nothing was threatening to drag him screaming into oblivion.
Suddenly the ripping sensation stopped, halted as if it had never been. The noise faded and his vision cleared instantly. He was aware of everything once more, the strange deadlock that had been holding him seemed to have lifted. “I spy…” he muttered.
The yeown female jerked back. “What did you just say to me, you abominable pile of rejected scraps?” a growl exited from her, deep in the chest.
Abel shook his head. “I said… I spy, with my little eye…” the yeown took a step back as Abel took a heavy step forwards. “Something that is fuzzy and about to be very sorry.”
The Zeirworks security woman stepped back more, her hunched posture becoming more pronounced as he towered over her. “What are you… How are you… You can’t do that, that's not possible!” a small wail escaped her drawn back lips as she seemed to shrink in genuine fear. One of her hands drifted to the weapon at her side, but before anything had a chance to escalate he heard heavy footsteps approaching.
Abel stood still as the door slammed open and both the atraxses security guard and Bittu rushed through it.
Bittu glanced at him in concern, silently seeming to ask if he was alright. Abel gave him the slightest of nods as the atraxses checked on his partner. After making sure the yeown was uninjured he stood and asked in a deep gruff voice “What is the meaning of this disturbance. Unit thirty seven, stand down. That’s an order.”
This time Abel felt no compulsion to follow the man’s instructions. He felt as though he should play his hand carefully and so remained perfectly still. “Standing down in compliance with Zeirworks security demands.” Bittu cocked his horned head but Abel glared at him, willing the nerivith man to be silent.
The atraxses helped his partner stand fully and said “Keep that thing under control. The lockdown should lift automatically in ten minutes. Meanwhile, we are taking custody of the prisoner.” The large furred man led the yeown out of the observation room and through the outer door, Thaee being dragged through with them.
As the outermost door swung closed Bittu turned to him. “What the fuck was that Abel!? Are you trying to get yourself decommissioned or something?”
Abel was a bit annoyed at his partner’s tone but understood his concern. It wasn’t everyday that one had to deal with private militia or corpo-mercs. “I was trying to make a point. I won’t be controlled like a puppet.” Abel moved to the wall and slammed a fist into the duracrete, digging a shallow crater into the hard material with his cybernetic fist.
Bittu stood silently, the man’s tail lashing in some strong emotion. Probably anger.
Abel turned around slowly. Looking up at his partner he sighed, the slight mechanical wheeze of his components reminding him he was no longer fully human. “I’m sorry Bittu. It was stupid and dangerous. But I just had this voice in my head…” he trailed off as Bittu looked at him in concern. “No, I mean it, there was like this…”
Bittu waved a five fingered hand, his long digits curling into a fist that he tapped against the wall. “No, I really don’t want to know. If you are starting to lose it Abel, I really don't want to know.” And with that the pink skinned man turned and pushed the door open. It slowly closed behind him, narrowly avoiding his tail as the old style door swung closed with a thud.
Abel slumped. It had all been going so well, till those Zeirworks greys had walked in. Abel shook his head and looked around. The room was empty now, the destroyed chair pushed against the same wall that now had a small spider web of cracks, the chips scattered around the place as if the wall had been hit by a sledgehammer.
Abel squared his shoulders, the servos wiring slightly as he walked out of the observation room and pushed through the outer door into the hall. He looked both ways, Bittu was leaning up against the wall about twenty meters away under a wall mounted climate control vent. A thin curl of smoke rose from his mouth as he took a long pull off the ignistix he was smoking.
While technically a mild hallucinogen, Abel knew that the nerivith were highly resistant to its more mind bending effects, the man was likely just trying to relax. Abel couldn't blame him, he had just nearly had a career ending encounter with one of the most powerful corporations on all of Kodirak.
Bittu took another long pull from his ignistix before stubbing it out on the wall behind him and flicking the butt into a nearby trash can. He breathed out another cloud of slightly yellow smoke and stood. His shoulders were slightly slumped and his eyes were glazed, he looked like a man who had given up.
Abel looked around, there was nobody nearby and so he reached out and gently placed a heavy cybernetic hand on the man’s shoulder. “Don’t be so glum Bittu, we have a fantastic lead.”
Bittu shook his head and looked up into his face. “No, it’s over. We have nothing and after that stunt you pulled I'm likely to get rotated back to scrubbing the shit out of the prison shitters.”
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Abel couldn't stand to see the normally gruff man so upset so he just stood straight and stared. Bittu noticed him staring after a second. “What? What are you looking at me like that for? Knock it off man, you are creeping me out.”
Abel once more looked around. The only things nearby were a few hall monitoring cameras which were too far away to pick up on their speech. He leaned casually against the wall as Bittu had been doing earlier. “It seems to me that we really only have two options then.” Bittu gave him a funny look. “Option one, we tuck our tails like the whipped dogs we are and slink back to menial useless tasks…” he trailed off.
Abel smiled as Bittu couldn't contain himself. “Orrr?”
He gestured down the hallway the way they had come from. “Or we walk out of here and take a look at this Oorin Sump’s operation for ourselves.”
Bittu cocked his head and looked around. “We can’t do that?” He hissed. “We would need a warrant, backup, two squads of Havocs or a troop of shockies at least!”
Abel shook his head. “No. We don’t need any of that. Because we aren't officially going to be there, nor is the evidence I'm sure we are going to find on the normal channels either. Here's the way I see it.” he paused, making sure that he kept his voice low. “We had Thaee all to ourselves, we booked him yes, but there was no way those two Zeirworks goons get here that fast without being tipped off in advance. I have a sneaking suspicion that we have a mole in the precinct.” He went silent to let his words sink in.
Bittu stood and shook his head, his long hair flailing as his tail lashed side to side in consternation. “No. No way, dirty cops? I hate even thinking about it, but it makes sense… Dash me to hel, but it makes a certain kind of sense.” he paced across the hall a few times as Abel had noticed he did when thinking hard. After a second he nodded. “Okay, but I just want to say right now before we go that this is a very bad idea.”
“Noted. Let's head out.” Abel answered with a nod, his cybernetic eye flashing slightly brighter in response to his mental state.
Bittu nodded and slapped his armoured shoulder. “Thanks for the pep talk Abel, needs a little work.”
Abel smiled under his helmet, only his mouth visible under the visor that covered the top half of his face. Bittu was getting a bit more comfortable with him he had noticed. That was well as Abel was starting to quite like working with the slightly dour man. He followed behind the much smaller man as they made their way down the hallway and towards the garages.
**********
Bittu moved around the huge mass of Abel who had stopped in his tracks. Cursing softly he walked to the big man’s side “What's the holdup?”
He saw Abel scrutinize the crowd ahead before the large cyborg pushed himself flat against a nearby wall, half hidden in the shadows of a pillar. “Up ahead, your old buddy Tegu… He is talking to that atraxses that took Thaee.”
Bittu looked towards where Abel was gesturing but couldn't see over the heads of the crowd like the much taller man. “I can’t see anything Abel. I am sure he… whoa!” Bittu exclaimed in surprise as Abel reached over and picked him up as easily as if he were a doll.
At first he was annoyed, annoyance quickly turned to interest as he realised he could now see what his partner had been talking about. “Okay I saw it, put me down before somebody starts asking questions we can’t answer.” Abel complied and Bittu thanked him quickly. “Were you able to record that?”
Abel nodded, tapping the side of his head. “There are a few benefits to being a machine you see.” He stated with a chuckle.
Abel looked back towards where Tegu and the atraxses Zeirwork’s guard were. “Oh, they are coming this way. We need to go now.” the large man ducked down, his considerable height making him stand out like a sore tail.
Bittu just shook his head. They needed to get out of here as soon as possible, he grabbed Abel’s shoulder and spun him around. Together they walked along the far wall of the large open precinct hall, trying to remain as inconspicuous as possible. Well, as possible as it was for a giant one-hundred-and-ninety-eight centimeter cyborg to be.
They made it out of the main hall without incident. Bittu heard Abel sigh suddenly “That was a little close, what do you think he was talking to that corpo-merc for?”
Bittu had no idea, why would his oldest friend in the department and mentor be talking to the same asshole that had taken his primary witness? It had to be some sort of misunderstanding. Tegu would never get involved with corpo types, would he? He walked like an automaton, eyes looking but not really seeing his surroundings, such was his internal conflict that he hissed in shock when a large heavy hand landed on his shoulder.
His vision focused back on the present, he saw Abel giving him a concerned look. “What? Get in the car.” Bittu growled, the other man hesitating before doing as instructed. Bittu shook his head, he needed to get his mind right, he hadn’t even remembered walking to the cruiser. Or starting it. He jerked as he realized he was gripping the wheel, hard. The engine was running and the vehicle was in gear, Abel had a hand on his shoulder again and was shaking him slightly.
“Bittu… Bittu? You there partner?” the larger man seemed to be a bit concerned, and as well he should be. Bittu shook his head and grabbed his horns in frustration.
He sat back and let out a heavy breath, arms falling limp to his sides before he reached up and switched the cruiser off. “I’m not doing well, my mind is all scrambled by what just happened Abel. I can't drive in this condition.” he looked down dejectedly. He was a useless fucking cop, holy hel but why couldent he be calm and collected like he was supposed to be?
He was surprised as Abel smiled, only the man’s mouth visible under his partially lowered visor. As he looked the large cyborg flipped it all the way up, revealing his twinkling blue cybernetic eye. “That’s not an issue, I can drive if you feel unable.”
Bittu raised both eyebrows, his tail coiling in mild surprise. “You can drive? Are you sure about that Abel?”
He smiled as Abel gave him a goofy smile and a thumbs up. The human gesture meaning that everything was all right. Bittu snorted but undid his seatbelt and stepped out of the armoured car.
He stood still for a moment, trying to settle his mind and regain his bearings. After a moment Abel stepped to his side and Bittu looked up at the huge cyborg. “Are you alright?” Abel asked him with concern.
Bittu nodded and walked to the passenger side of the vehicle. “I am fine, or at least I will be. The thought that Tegu might be involved, it’s… Well, it isn’t exactly what I would call a pleasant revelation.”
He watched Abel nod solemnly and climb into the driver's seat. He chuckled as the big man grunted, the seat far too scrunched forwards for his bulk. Abel took a few moments to adjust his seat, while the other man was preoccupied Bittu opened the glovebox and retrieved his Port-25 before holstering the sidearm. He did not generally carry his gun into the precinct, but after what had happened he was seriously reconsidering the decision.
Abel finally finished adjusting the seat and started up the cruiser. With a look and a nod the cyborg pulled out and started towards the gate. “Easy as riding a bike.”
Bittu looked at him curiously. “Have you ever actually ridden a bike?”
Abel looked directly at him, his visor still up and his remaining biological eye crinkled in humor. “Never even seen one in real life. Alright, here we go.”
Bittu was forced to grab onto one of the roof handholds as Abel screamed around the corner and onto the road, several other vehicles having to slam on their brakes to avoid a collision. “Lords Abel! Watch the speed!” Abel slowed a little but they were still progressing down the main road about fifteen kilometers faster than the speed limit.
Abel nodded and muttered something. “I see why you are always driving so fast now Bittu, this thing has really sensitive controls. Whew…” they narrowly flew through an intersection as the light blinked from yellow to red.
Bittu pulled himself upright fully and cleared his throat. “I think maybe I could drive us the rest of the way?”
Abel just chuckled. “Oh come on Mr. They should get out of my way. Are you worried that I am going to wreck us?”
“A lit-TL-e!” Bittu shouted partly as they narrowly missed a large tanker pulling out of a refueling station.
Most of the civilian vehicles in the Union were electric, but some vehicles like his cruiser used promethium-hydrogen power cells that would need to be refilled occasionally. A collision with the hydrogen tanker would have resulted in a cataclysmic explosion. Bittu put his foot down, his tail so curled that it would have had to retreat back into his spine to be any tenser. “Abel, slow the fuck down for the sake of the powers that be! You are going to get us into an accident!”
Abel winced and slowed a little. “I’m sorry Bittu, I’m still getting used to the controls. Oh, is that the skyway we need to take?” Bittu saw him gesture towards a nearby ramp.
He nodded to the man as he switched over four lanes without signaling. Bittu twitched as a series of loud honks issued from the drivers affected by the sudden maneuver. This was not exactly ideal, but he had to admit it was nice to just sit and relax instead of driving, as much as Abel’s somewhat frantic driving was allowing him to at least.
Abel seemed to be getting the hang of driving though as they passed from level one-hundred-and-five to one-oh-four he noticed that their speed had normalised. “You’re getting the hang of it, keep it up Abel.” He said positively. Might as well reinforce the good driving.
Abel just nodded, his focus on the road and the drivers around them.
Bittu gave a small sigh. They needed to descend fifty-eight more levels to get to the lower docks that Oorin Jr. was in charge of overseeing. It was going to be a few more hours, so he figured he might as well get a nap in. Turning to Abel he asked “Hey Abel, I’m going to try and take a nap. You will wake me up if there are any developments right?”
Abel nodded. “Yes, indeed. It’s going to be a long trip though, we are leaving our jurisdiction, if we get stopped what should I tell them?”
Bittu racked his brains and then snapped his long fingers as he thought of the perfect cover. “If you get stopped just tell them we are on a mandatory team building exercise, and make sure to sell that you don’t want to be here. Nobody likes mandatory fun.”
Abel nodded again. “That's a great idea. Though we kind of are on a team building exercise, if you really think about it.
Bitttu waved a hand. “Yeah yeah, just wake me up if anything happens.”
With Abel’s affirmation Bittu turned towards the passenger window. He watched as they descended through another level of the massive stratocity. The buildings stretched into the far distance till they seemed to blend into the drab grey of the artificial sky and met the massive reinforced walls of the sublevel.
The scenery slowly moved diagonally upwards as they descended into the level along the skyway. Soon the view was first obstructed by buildings of all size and description, and then by thick slabs of reinforced duracrete and titansteel as they began to pass through the floor of the upper level and out of the ceiling of the lower. It was a bit of a strange experience, even after all these years he could still remember the first time he had come to Shikago. He had been just a young man, no prospects, nothing to his name but the clothes on his back and the anger in his heart.
As the memories flowed though his mind he slipped into a disturbed sleep. Images of betrayal and angry voices filled his sleeping mind. The ghosts of his past were still haunting him through his unconscious mind, swarming like predatory sea leviathans around that small core of self belief that remained.