CHAPTER TWO—C31 PD

When they got to the roof they saw Mairu standing and peering through her rifle scope over the ledge. She had used an old box to stand a little higher to give herself a good vantage point.

“What do you see?” Nova “Any trouble.”

“Mm-mm,” Mairu noised with a subtle shake of her head. “Not for us at least.”

Koto squinted his eyes to better see. “Is somebody down there?”

“Yeah,” I saw him.

Outside of the Iruno-Co Shopping Center and Mall were a serious of other stores, many of which formed various strip malls and a grid-like series of roads. The old rail lines were rusted and from them plants and vines hung.

“Who is he?”

Suddenly an alarm went off, followed by gunshots.

“We should go,” said Kawa, “leave with what we have and get out of here.”

“I agree,” Nova said.

Mairu didn’t move, but she said, “It’s the cop bots. Whoever is down there, they’re on to him.”

“How many?” asked Koto.

“At least two bots.”

“Maybe we should help.”

“Help?” Nova asked. “Are you crazy, Koto? We don’t even know who that is down there.”

“No,” he said, “we don’t. Or it might just be a group of dregs like us.” If it was, and they did nothing to help them, then they were little different from the scavengers who were as likely to kill you as help you when meeting them.

And that was unacceptable.

The dregs had to stick together, to preserve against their corporate oppressors. Every time they came near the green zone to steal food or tech, it was a blow to them, if however small.

“I’m going to help,” he said, and he unclipped his folding sword, flicked it and the blade came out.

The sword had been an amazing find he had gotten off a dead security guard during a riot. He had fallen between two buildings from a high roof. Koto saw it happen, and at the time it was a harrowing experience, seeing him squirm and cry out, and then nothing.

But he hadn’t been able to pass up the opportunity of looting such good gear and tech. Most of it he had traded or given to Maple, but the sword—he had kept that.

The blade sizzled electrically as he tightened his grip on the hilt. “I’m going down. Mairu, keep a look out on me.”

“Wait!” Nova called. “Koto—come back!”

But he didn’t listen. He ran for the stairs, and making his way down to the ground floor, he sprinted over the tiles and slid with screech as he turned and went out the front doors.

“Koto, you idiot!” Nova called from behind.

He pounded the cement with his shoes, his legs beginning to burn. When he started nearing the shooting, he moved behind some old cars inside the parking lot. Why the Iruno-Co Shopping Center and Mall was still open in this area was baffling.

Did Iruno Corporation see it as a form of charity, or were they just that greedy? Almost all of the other stores in the area had shut their doors, taking with them their food and merchandise to sell in the green zone where the acceptable citizens lived.

The thought made Koto grind his teeth.

He went out of cover and skirted around the cars. They all had flat tires and broken windows. What parts had any form of value were stripped from them a long time ago.

The bot was ahead, he could see it.

Nova slammed up beside him against the car. “Koto, this is reckless!”

“We have to help!” he said, and glanced up through the broken windows where the bots were. Whoever was back there fired off five or six shots in quick succession, and something exploded in a flash of white light as scraps and parts went everywhere.

One of the bots.

“He can take care of himself,” she said. ‘You don’t even have a gun.”

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And then the scream of a man sounded from across the wall in the other side of the parking lot. Koto saw the bot chasing him down and opening up.

Mairu above fired off a shot that made him and Nova both, flinch. Her rifle was really loud. He looked up at her as she nodded.

Even though she had missed the bot, her signal to Koto was an indication that she had his back. “Come on,” he said. “Nova, are we going to help this guy or not?”

She looked at him, and knew this was a bad idea, but finally she sighed heavily and nodded. “All right, but don’t do anything dumb, okay?”

He smiled. “I’m always careful. You know that.”

“Sure.”

He ran from out of cover and keeping to the cars as best he could, he stayed out of the line of sight of the bot, which was now whirring and darting as it attempting to dodge Mairu’s sniper shots.

Then in a puff of jets it jumped, landing behind the brick wall separate the two sides of the parking lot and continued firing at the man who had run into the closed down sushi restaurant.

Crouching low, Koto ran across the old and cracked cement, his sneakers crushing the green grass as he lifted his head several times to see the bot. Its target acquisition systems dead set on taking out the trespasser before dealing with Mairu.

When he got to the brick divider, he glanced back at Nova and she nodded, strode up and fired two shots at the bot, and hitting it in the back, pieces came off. It whirled and whirred, its antenna moved about and it moved to reacquire the targets that were the most immediate threat.

Lasers zipped by and Koto ducked low. “Get down!”

Nova put her back to the wall. “I hate these things.”

“So do I.”

Peering across the parking lot, he could barely see Mairu from atop the mall roof. He signaled to her to shoot at the thing, and she put down two shots that pierced the air and exploded as they ricocheted off the cement on the other side.

“She’s got it pinned!” exclaimed Nova. “I’m going for it.”

“Wait!” Koto said, putting out a hand. “It knows we’re here—it might put a laser through your head the moment you see it.”

She growled. “This was your dumb idea.”

“Just… Stay here!”

He moved to his left, staying low as he skirted around the brick all and behind an old buss.

“Koto!”

He saw the bot, his heart thundering inside his chest, but he was surprised when it whirled around and suddenly put lasers down in his direction, the hot crackling energy missing his head by a few inches.

Then shooting erupted from the sushi place and the bot jerked, more plates of armor falling off. It whirled around as it tried to assess the dangers from for different areas, and for whatever reason, the bot lurched across the lot toward the sushi place and opened up with all its guns.

What the hell was it doing?

That guy was gonna get killed if the cop bot keeping laying it down like that. He had to do something, and quick! “Nova, shoot it!”

“I can’t! I might hit that guy in there!”

“Oh man,” he said, “this is dumb! Thisisdumb!”

Without over thinking, he left his place of cover and lurched for the bot. If it jetted away from him at the right moment, the exhaust ports themselves could burn a hole through his body.

“Koto!” Nova shrieked.

He closed the distance to the bot, and it whirled around. He jumped, landed as a laser just missed him. When Koto landed, he rolled over his back and stabbed forward with his sword, the blade coming into contact with the bot.

The crack of electrical discharge caused something within to rupture and parts popped out of the top of the thing.

Then it wilted and fell like a tin canister full of garbage rattling inside. It hissed and whirred and then the lights died.

“Koto, that was crazy” Nova said as she came up to him. He looked at her, but she was looking over her pistol’s sights. “Come out!” she demanded. “We have a sniper bead on your face and I have a hells of a big pistol in my hand.”

There was a long pause.

“Now!” she barked.

“Is he dead?” asked Koto.

“All right,” the voice called back, and Koto and Nova looked at each other for a moment.

He was old, she thought. That was strange.

The man came out with his hands up and his palms toward them, except for the palm where he held his gun.

“Be careful,” Nova said. “One false move and we punch some holes in you.”

“Yeah,” he said with a nod. “I can see that.”

He stepped forward and almost tripped on a piece of the bot’s armor. It clanged across the ground and his shoes smacked the cement. When he looked up at them, he almost laughed. “Hey, you’re a bunch of kids.”

“Teenagers,” Koto corrected.

“It’s kind of the same thing, isn’t it?” the man asked. He had short brown hair but a determined look in his eyes and brows, and he was tall.

“Nice jacket,” Nova said, admitting his brown leather.

“Thanks,” he said. “You’re not bad yourself,” he said, indicating her outfit, which consisted of of short black shorts, sneakers and a white t-shirt with a way-oversized orange jacket.

“Put the gun down,” Koto said, his sword held at the ready.

“Yeah,” he said, sounding reasonable. “Sure thing.” He bent down and did as they told him.

“So,” Nova asked. “What’s this all about? And what’s your name?”

“My name?” he asked.

“Yeah,” she said. “You got one, right?”

He chuckled. “Freeman. Jon Freeman.”

“And,” Koto asked, “what are you doing out here? Hey, stop wasting time. More bots are on the way.”

“Is that what he wants, you think?” Nova asked.

“Don’t know,” said Koto, “but you look like a green zoner. If you cause us trouble—“

“Nono,” he said quickly with a shrug and a gesture of his open hand. “I’m a… I’m just out here trying to figure out some things.”

“Explain!” Nova snapped.

“I’m a cop, okay?”

“Oh,” Koto said. “An enforcer.”

“Come on,” he said, “It’s not like that. I’m a detective, actually.”

“I say we blow a hole in his stupid head right here,” Nova suggested.

Jon chuckled nervously. “Listen, I’m just out here because some crazy shit is going on. I don’t know why those bots attacked me, but—“

“Hey,” Koto said, and stepped forward. He grabbed Jon’s wrist and looked at the thin black armband. It had a red light. “Looks like you’ve been red lighted.”

“What?” Nova asked, and she laughed. “Wow. What a loser.”

“Hey,” Jon said. “Come on.”

“You’re one of us whether you like it or not, mister,” Nova said.

“Maybe,” he conceded. “Or there’s been a mistake. That bitch set me up.” Then quietly he added to himself, “Had to have had…”

“What?” asked Koto, “who set you up?”

“My partner. I as onto something—there’s some chemical dumping going on in the bay area and I think somebody’s deliberately trying to poison the water supply out here.”

The two teenagers looked at each other then, recognition in their eyes. What was that about, wondered, Jon. “Hey, uh… you’re not going to shoot me, right?”

They looked at him pointedly. “Come with us,” the girl said.