Max Headroom: The Woman From Elsewhere
"Control, we're following the bureau burner," Edison said as Martinez piloted the Network 23 helicopter above the afternoon city. "I think we've almost caught up with him."
"I see you, Edison," Theora told him as she followed the two blips on the screen that represented the chopper and the criminal they were following. "He's going down a side street. I think he's going for the new Zik Zak shopping center."
"We'll try to land and intercept him inside," Edison said. "Have Murray leave a window open for a broadcast in half an hour."
"That's pushing it close, Edison," Theora warned. "Are you sure you can get to him by then?"
"I hope so," Edison told him. "Cheviot's been on my ass for days to nail this guy."
The helicopter landed on the mall roof and Edison managed to pry open the access door. Shouldering his vidicam, he hurried down the stairs, preparing for a physical confrontation.
"What the hell?" He asked, handing off the camera to Martinez.
The Bureau Burner was engaged in fisticuffs with a young woman. She looked to be in her early twenties and it seemed to Edison that she could certainly hold her own in a fight. But he did not like to see men attacking women with their fists, even if the woman clearly had the upper hand.
Martinez pointed the camera at Edison who cold-cocked the Burner.
"I would've had him eventually," the woman said, her somehow familiar dark eyes boring into Edison.
"Have we met?" Edison asked, unable to shake the feeling of deja vu he was getting from her.
"You know my parents," she said, simply as she pulled a credit tube from the Bureau Burner's coat pocket and handed it to Edison. "My father will know how to access this guy's past attack plan and work out who he's working for."
"Who he's working for?" Edison asked as he and Martinez followed the woman to the car park. "What are you talking about?"
"Just get the credit tube to my father," she said, in an urgent tone as she hopped onto a motorcycle and sped off."
"Theora, put a trace on her," Edison said as he and Martinez raced back to the chopper.
"Already done," Theora told him. "She's heading west on… what in hell?"
"What's wrong?"
"She vanished," Theora said.
"Damn," Martinez noted. "She must have a scan-blocker."
"Great," Edison said. He looked down at the credit tube. "So. What do we do with this? The lady said to bring it to her father. But we have no idea who that is."
"Maybe Bryce can find out," Theora suggested.
Shortly after the chopper landed, Edison hurried into Bryce's studio.
"Bryce, I need you to find out more about the woman who got this off the Bureau Burner. First off, how did she vanish from Theora's tracking computer?"
"I was also following her, in case she gave you the slip. She didn't just vanish from the tracker. She really vanished. One moment she was riding that motorcycle, then she turned down that road. There was some kind of light in front of her and she drove right into it. Then she was gone."
"What does that mean?" Edison asked.
"I don't know," Bryce admitted. "But I don't think that's the last we'll see of her. Whoever she was, she came here for a reason. And I don't think it was something as trivial as the Bureau Burner."
"Can you find out who she is? We can't get in touch with her father until we know her identity."
"Let me see that credit tube she gave you," Bryce said. "I can run a chromosome count on the cells that are on it and work out which ones are hers. After that, it should be simple to determine her identity as well as her family history."
Edison handed the credit tube to Bryce who took it and placed it into a small cannister which he set on the table. He went over to a shelf and began looking through the things he kept on it. It didn't seem very organized, but it must have made some kind of sense to him, because it was only a moment before he came back with a small device that looked like a heavily modified microscope.
"A laser-scopic DNA reader," Bryce said, or as I like to call it my interrocitor."
"Your what?" Edison asked, confusion appearing on his face. Why did Bryce always have to make reference to something nobody else could remember?
Bryce rolled his eyes and shook his head. "Never mind," he said, sounding almost sad. He often wondered if the human race had any future, seeing how it seemed that nobody other than he and few other geniuses could remember anything of the world's past. How could they learn from the mistakes of their ancestors when they couldn't even remember their ancestors?
"So, how did that woman vanish? Any idea?" Edison asked.
"It had to be some kind of teleportation device," Bryce said, sounding impressed. "I'm going to work on creating a device that can read the air particles at the scene of her next disappearance. I want to find out what she's using to transport herself."
"You seem confident that she'll return," Edison remarked. "How can you be sure she hasn't already achieved her goal?"
"I can't," Bryce admitted. "It just seems illogical that she went through all the trouble to make a teleportation device only to use it just once."
Edison headed for the door of Bryce's studio. "Let me know as soon as you find anything," he said as he left the lab.