Thingamabob rubbed his face as he waited. Corona had been dangerous because of

her natural energy powers. The guy they were after now was dangerous because he

was more machine than a living creature. He should be easy pickings for Bob’s

gizmo, but if they were wrong, things could get out of hand quick.

He went over the plan in his head. He didn’t see any flaws. That didn’t mean

anything. There were always flaws in plans. You found them when you tried to put

the plan in motion.

Hopefully his comrades would compensate and get things done. He didn’t need a

lecture from the higher-ups.

“I got contact, Bob,” reported Gaze. “Target is below us in the sewer.”

“Give us direction, Gaze.” Bob nodded at the others. “We’re going to have to draw

him out so we can deal with him.”

“It looks like it’s just hovering in place.” Gaze sounded bothered. “This thing looks

like a flying octopus. Are you sure this is the target?”

“Yeah,” said Bob. “Let me have a second before we go after this thing. I need to

think.”

The attack on Corona had been simple. She flew patrols over Detroit. They were

regular, and out in the open. It had been easy to track her back to her starting point.

This machine hid out under Chicago. There were literally miles of tunnels and other

things since the new version of the city had been built on the old versions of the city.

If they went into the tunnels after the thing, they would be letting it have home field

advantage and losing the element of surprise.

Did he want to roll the dice, or go to target number three and hope she was easier to

take than a flying metal octopus?

“This is the plan,” said Bob. He hated the solution he saw to his problem. It involved

a lot of personal risk he didn’t think should be taken by him. “Puff is going to drop

me on the target, or as close to the target as he can. I shoot the target with the EMP.

The target is down. Puff gets Troop. Troop carries the octopus to the closest exit and

turns it over to Mercer. Any questions?”

“What happens if the EMP doesn’t work?,” asked Clown Girl.

“Then we have to slug it out with this thing until it goes down, or the police show

up.” Bob didn’t like that. He wanted things to work smoothly and quickly. If they

were engaged until the police showed up, that ran the risk of exposure.

“All right,” said Gaze. “It’s moving. It’s headed our way.”

“Puff?,” asked Bob. He readied the EMP built into his gadget.

“I have to get a look at the lay of the land. I can’t just blow in there blindly. That

would be bad. I don’t want to lose a limb. I don’t want to lose my head. I like my

head, Bob,” said Puff. He didn’t pause between sentences, but the others were used

to his rapid fire speech.

“Don’t tell me about it,” said Bob. “Do it.”

Puff vanished in a cloud of smoke. He returned a moment later. He smiled.

“I have a spot ahead of the thing. I don’t know if it saw me. It might have, but I was

only there for a second. It might think I was some kind of echo. Ready to go?,” said

the teleporter.

“Yes,” said Bob.

Puff grabbed him and the world vanished in a haze of fog. The cloud pushed out of

the way and he was standing in the dark. A light hovered in front of him. He didn’t

hesitate. He commanded the gadget to fire.

The beam struck the machine as it raised its many arms, cylinder of a head turning to

orientate on the new threat. It crashed to the floor of the tunnel.

“Get Troop.” Bob aimed his device at the machine and took a reading. He saw that

the machine was trying to power up. “Hurry up.”

Puff vanished. He reappeared with Troop in his grasp.

“This thing is trying to come back to life,” said Bob. “We need to get it in the cage

before it does that.”

Troop multiplied down the tunnel until he reached a ladder leading up on the street.

More of him grabbed the downed robot and he began to pass it along the line as fast

as he could.

“Gaze,” said Bob. His radio crackled with static. “Puff, have Gaze guide Mercer to

wherever the exit is. He needs to be ready with the cage quick.”

“Got it, boss. You can count on me. Be there in a jiffy.” Puff vanished.

“If that thing wakes up, Troop,” began Bob. “Bash it if you have to. We can’t let it

Unauthorized tale usage: if you spot this story on Amazon, report the violation.

have an idea who we are and then let it escape.”

The simian at the end of the line next to Bob nodded in understanding. He doubted

he could do that much against that many arms, but he had a lot of arms himself.

One of the tentacles started twitching. Bob followed the line of Troops, using his

gadget to keep an eye on the readings from the machine. They were cutting it close.

The manhole cover flipped out of the way as Troop started handing the machine up

the ladder. Human soldiers stood around the opening in the street. They pulled the

thing through the hole with some work.

Troop grabbed Bob by the waist and handed him down the line as the duplicates

shrank to a single simian strongman. They handed him up to the street before pulling

themselves up out of the tunnel and into one creature.

Mercer’s mercenaries had the thing in the specially designed cage in the back of a

moving truck. They pulled a switch and the cage was bolted down between two

magnetic walls. If that wiped the programming, that would be too bad. Reports

showed the thing was too dangerous without something set up to keep it at bay.

Bob was glad it was loaded in the moving truck. That meant for him, the mission was

over. He had to move on to the last target.

If Mercer lost the machine, that was on him. The Squad was free of any

responsibility.

“Load up,” ordered Mercer. “We have to get this thing back to a proper cage.”

The door on the truck closed with guards mounted inside the load compartment.

Mercer watched as the driver and the last guard got the truck on the road and headed

south. A black jeep rolled up to pick him up. A black SUV rolled behind the moving

truck and kept pace.

“Tell the guards to keep an eye on that thing,” said Bob. “It was trying to shake off

the EMP discharge while we were getting it out of the tunnel.”

“That can’t be good.” Mercer climbed into the jeep. “I’ll let them know. I’ll call you

when we get to the last target site.”

“I’ll be waiting for it,” said Bob. He nodded his head as the jeep rolled away after the

other vehicles.

“That went better than I thought,” said Gaze. Puff dropped him on the street with Bob

and Troop.

“I didn’t expect the reset,” said Bob. “It was almost like it wasn’t a robot at all.”

Puff dropped Clown Girl with the others. He vanished. He reappeared with a cup of

soda in his hand.

“Let’s head back to the hotel,” said Bob. “We have to head to Seattle to plan to pick

up our last target before we can take a vacation.”

“This Finch doesn’t look so tough. I bet Clown Girl can beat her. Do I really have to

go? I want a vacation now,” said Puff. He sipped his drink loudly.

“That’s the job,” said Bob. “Now let’s get a car and get moving. We can’t stand here

looking stupid all our lives.”

“All right,” said Puff. “I’ll get a car. I do all the work around here anyways. I am the

greatest.”

“I think I can take this Finch,” said Clown Girl.

“We’re not going to do anything like that.” Bob made a face. “If we have to fight her,

then we have failed the mission.”

“And I don’t think we want to give her a fair fight,” said Gaze.

“Who fights fair?,” said Clown Girl, smiling.

Troop made a hand gesture. His eyebrows wiggled.

“Shut it, you damn dirty ape,” said Clown Girl with a grin.

A van rolled up. Puff rolled down the driver’s window. He waved a hand for them to

get in.

“Move over,” said Bob. He pulled open the door of the van. “I’m driving.”

Puff vaulted into the shotgun seat. He muttered to himself as he strapped the seatbelt

down.

The rest of the Squad got in the back.

“We’ll pack up and check out of the hotel.” Bob drove leisurely away from the battle

scene. “Then we’ll catch a flight out to Seattle, settle in, and figure out where we can

ambush Finch.”

“Can’t we get some sleep first?,” said Clown Girl. “I would like to take a night to

relax before we have to chase down some other power for the boss.”

“I agree with Clown Girl,” said Gaze. “There’s no point in setting up when we have

to wait on Mercer to escort our prisoner back to base.”

Troop silently nodded.

“What about you, motor mouth?,” said Bob. He looked over at Puff.

The man in purple fell silent for a second. He shook in his chair for a second.

“I think we should take five. I think we need to be on the top of our game. This Finch

might be better than us. She might be able to knock all of us out,” said Puff. He

shrugged. “A night off before we take her on couldn’t hurt us by relaxing.”

“All right,” said Bob. He didn’t need them balking when he needed them working.

“We’ll take the rest of the night off and fly out tomorrow.”

“Thanks, boss,” said Clown Girl. “I knew you would make the right decision.”

“What if I had made the wrong decision?,” asked Bob. He didn’t know if he wanted

to hear the answer.

“I have a bag for that,” said Clown Girl.

Puff made a throat cutting gesture while trying to keep it from the people in the back.

“What was that?,” Clown Girl asked. Her voice had a querulous tinge to it.

“Nothing, nothing,” said Puff. “I wouldn’t say anything. You are a beautiful human

being.”

He turned to look out the window of his door. He made the throat cutting gesture

again.

Bob smiled slightly.

“That’s what I thought,” said Clown Girl.

Bob turned and headed for the hotel.

The Squad were silent except for Puff. He muttered to himself as he watched the

scenery go by. Bob pulled into the underground garage of the hotel. He parked close

to the door so they could get to the elevators and stairs with minimum exposure.

Puff vanished before the others could get out of the van.

“He talks to himself too much, Bob,” said Gaze.

“I know, but we need him,” said Bob. “We wouldn’t have handled the robot as easy

as we did without him.”

“One day he’s going to snap,” said Gaze. “We might have to put him down ourselves

if that happens.”

“When we get done, I’ll have him sit down with the Docs,” said Bob. He got out of

the van. “If the boss pulls his plug, that’s what we will do.”

“Okay,” said Gaze. “I’ll keep my eye on him.”

“Right,” said Bob. “Let’s go up to our rooms and get some sleep.”

“Yes,” said Gaze.

The Squad crossed the garage. They headed up the stairs. They didn’t want to explain

themselves to passengers on an elevator. They climbed up to their floor.

Gaze had the room next to the stairs. He slipped inside his room, pulling back his

hood as he shut the door.

The rest walked the hall, separating as they reached their hotel doors. Bob was last

as his room was at the end of the hall next to a window looking out on the city.

He pulled off his green costume and packed it away before heading for a shower. He

planned to be asleep afterward.