Chapter 2: Sergeant Snowball
--September 5, 2001--
Ben disliked hospitals as much as the next man, but he actually didn't mind them as long as he was actually a patient. The cute nurses that waited on him hand and foot each day had all started to look alike to him: HOT. Anyone could tell you that this type of stimuli was a major factor in his recovery, even after the operation to repair his cracked skull. The morning of September 5th, Kanuka and Aaron came to visit him on the day before he was scheduled to be released, and he had every intention of enjoying the scenery while he had the chance. When they arrived in his room, they saw the nurse bending over to pick up a glass he had dropped from his bed for the umpteenth time on the carpet. To extend his viewing period, he usually said something distracting like "How'd you get that stain on your socks?" or "Not that glass, the other glass." But with Kanuka and Aaron in the room, he decided to cut his peep show short for the day. "How you been, Dix?" Aaron said, handing him a labor magazine.
"Same old. Headaches have stopped but I've still got a sore spot on my head where the bitch shot me." The pretty nurse put the glass down on the table next to him and left them alone. "What'd you find out?" He asked, lowering his voice.
"She's a militia chick by the name of Hilda Clancy." Kanuka said. Ben and Aaron gave her a strange look, but Kanuka sighed. "You two are idiots." She said.
"Anyway, she's with the Legion of American Purity group based in Massachusetts. This is the first time any of them have tried to use a labor for one of their activities though."
Ben laughed. "Throwing cars off the roof of a parking garage? What the hell kinda terrorism is that?"
"Decoy terrorism. And there's more to come." Kanuka answered him, dry as ever. "A pair of Boxer construction labors attacked a federal research lab yesterday. Apparently something was stolen, but as usual the FBI won't give us the details."
"Typical." Ben said, rolling his eyes.
"Actually, they have a good reason not to tell us. Lately I'm finding that they often do."
"Examples?" Ben said.
Kanuka didn't even have to think about it. "Remember that car you stopped a month ago with the strange white substance in the trunk that you thought was heroin?"
"Yeah. The feds confiscated it and didn't tell us why."
"Turns out it wasn't heroin. As a matter of fact, it was a biological sample used for federal research."
"Germ warfare again? That's just the Feds with skeletons in their closets..."
"Wasn't germ warfare."
"Then what was it?"
"They used it for stem-cell research." Kanuka said, almost cracking a smile.
Ben's throat tightened and his mouth became very dry. "Then that was...?!"
Kanuka nodded slowly, smiling fully now.
Ben and Aaron both fought a gagging reflex. "Oh GOD! And I touched that stuff too! Ick!"
Aaron almost threw up. "You're the one who made me taste it! Damn, Ben! I think I'm gonna stay in here for awhile."
Kanuka actually laughed. It was a rare occurrence for her, but this was poetic justice at it's best. "Now you see, this was something that you'd rather not know. The Feds told me because I never touched the stuff. And being a woman, they figured I'd be slightly less grossed out."
Aaron took offense to Kanuka's disconnected cycncism. "Less grossed out? That's one way of putting it. I happen to know you can't get enough of… that stuff. Word is that you just love the taste of…"
Kanuka shot him the evil eye, and Aaron suddenly realized he had gone to far. This meant trouble for him, and he knew it. "I'll deal with YOU later." She stepped up and leaned on the cabinet next to Ben's bed. "Look Ben, we managed to fix your labor but your movement pattern data got toasted. You're going to have to use the backup disk."
"That old disk was created on an Ingram's OS. Will the Neuron Net be able to use it?"
"No. You'll have to start your Neuron file all over again."
Ben sighed. "Well, it's only been a few weeks. It's not like I'll be missing all that much."
"That's right!" Aaron said. "Anyway, as long as nothing big goes down over the next few days, you'll be just fine!"
Ben sighed. "Whenever the Feds get involved, you can bet that there's always SOMETHING big going on."
There was a knock on the door, and Kanuka reached back and opened it. David "Snowball" Murphy entered, smiling from ear to ear. Dave was born in Nigeria, but he had done well to mask his accent. In fact, he was capable of speaking with almost any accent he desired in almost any language, a skill only too handy for a labor cop. Snowball, as he was called, was one of the darkest men Ben had ever known. The name fit peferfectly. "Hey Dix! I heard someone killed you, so I flew all the way from Chicago to piss on your grave."
Ben smiled back, surprised to see his old friend had come all the way to New York. "Go home Snowball? Don't they have labor crimes in Chicago?"
"Not as much. Our cops use Ingrams, so naturally the crime rate's plummeted."
"Oh yeah, you're REALLY cleaning up the streets with those obsolete labors of yours. Why don't you guys upgrade or something?"
"My Ingram works well enough. But the unit was only formed this July, so it's still too early to tell if our equipment needs to be replaced. Not that we can afford it or anything."
Kanuka shrugged. "Ingrams work well enough with a good pilot. The Peacemakers are just more complicated."
Ben sat up in his bed. "Anyway, why ARE you here Snowball?"
"Rookies." He said plainly. "Our Chicago Labor Enforcement just put together a new section. I brought them here for some advanced training."
"Why ARE you guys using Ingrams anyway? They're almost obsolete by now." Kanuka said.
"It's simple really. We're getting these old models at less than half their original factory price. This way, we can build a larger unit and save some of the smaller communities around us from having to run their own Patlabor units. Quantity vs. quality."
Kanuka grinned. "Don't discount the Ingrams based on specs. They still use them in Japan, and other units are starting up all over the world using Ingrams."
Ben groaned. "My Peacemaker is still king. Ingrams may be popular, but they aint that good."
"We'll find out soon enough. As soon as you're out of here, we're going to have a little showdown. My Ingrams against your Peacemakers. I can say with confidence that you will not win this fight."
Ben was beaming at him. "Just like old times, eh Snowball?"
"Just like old times. Or maybe better. I like my Ingram a lot better than the old Helldivers we used in Kosovo."
"Me too. Anyway, you just go ahead and polish your scrap head of a labor and I'll be right out of here."
"Sure thing." Ben said, leaving the room. "I'll be back to check on you later tonight. Don't die until I get back to see it."
Ben laughed a bit, and then looked at Kanuka and Aaron. "I almost forgot to ask you, what happened to that woman? The one with the Magnum?"
Kanuka had been hoping to avoid this subject, but she wasn't going to try and dodge it once Ben brought it up. "She's been released on bail. They had her transferred to another hospital in Queens."
Ben felt like his heart might explode from his chest. "Bail?! She shot Huck in the face! What the hell kinda system is this?!"
"The judge seems to think the evidence against her was circumstantial, since you were the only witness. Her lawyers convinced him that you had suffered some kind of trauma from the gunshot and that you didn't see what you think you saw."
"That's a joke. She had the gun, the bullet from the gun killed Huck, but they want me to prove she pulled the trigger?"
"Exactly." Kanuka reached into a paper bag she had brought with her and pulled out a small brown teddy bear. "Feel better, Dix. We'll be at the station if you need anything." She dropped the bear on his face and walked away.
Ben read the tag on the little teddy bear and laughed. "Da' Bears!" He said, reading the inscription that had been signed by, of all people, Snowflake Kanuka and Aaron.
--September 5, 2001--
Ben disliked hospitals as much as the next man, but he actually didn't mind them as long as he was actually a patient. The cute nurses that waited on him hand and foot each day had all started to look alike to him: HOT. Anyone could tell you that this type of stimuli was a major factor in his recovery, even after the operation to repair his cracked skull. The morning of September 5th, Kanuka and Aaron came to visit him on the day before he was scheduled to be released, and he had every intention of enjoying the scenery while he had the chance. When they arrived in his room, they saw the nurse bending over to pick up a glass he had dropped from his bed for the umpteenth time on the carpet. To extend his viewing period, he usually said something distracting like "How'd you get that stain on your socks?" or "Not that glass, the other glass." But with Kanuka and Aaron in the room, he decided to cut his peep show short for the day. "How you been, Dix?" Aaron said, handing him a labor magazine.
"Same old. Headaches have stopped but I've still got a sore spot on my head where the bitch shot me." The pretty nurse put the glass down on the table next to him and left them alone. "What'd you find out?" He asked, lowering his voice.
"She's a militia chick by the name of Hilda Clancy." Kanuka said. Ben and Aaron gave her a strange look, but Kanuka sighed. "You two are idiots." She said.
"Anyway, she's with the Legion of American Purity group based in Massachusetts. This is the first time any of them have tried to use a labor for one of their activities though."
Ben laughed. "Throwing cars off the roof of a parking garage? What the hell kinda terrorism is that?"
"Decoy terrorism. And there's more to come." Kanuka answered him, dry as ever. "A pair of Boxer construction labors attacked a federal research lab yesterday. Apparently something was stolen, but as usual the FBI won't give us the details."
"Typical." Ben said, rolling his eyes.
"Actually, they have a good reason not to tell us. Lately I'm finding that they often do."
"Examples?" Ben said.
Kanuka didn't even have to think about it. "Remember that car you stopped a month ago with the strange white substance in the trunk that you thought was heroin?"
"Yeah. The feds confiscated it and didn't tell us why."
"Turns out it wasn't heroin. As a matter of fact, it was a biological sample used for federal research."
"Germ warfare again? That's just the Feds with skeletons in their closets..."
"Wasn't germ warfare."
"Then what was it?"
"They used it for stem-cell research." Kanuka said, almost cracking a smile.
Ben's throat tightened and his mouth became very dry. "Then that was...?!"
Kanuka nodded slowly, smiling fully now.
Ben and Aaron both fought a gagging reflex. "Oh GOD! And I touched that stuff too! Ick!"
Aaron almost threw up. "You're the one who made me taste it! Damn, Ben! I think I'm gonna stay in here for awhile."
Kanuka actually laughed. It was a rare occurrence for her, but this was poetic justice at it's best. "Now you see, this was something that you'd rather not know. The Feds told me because I never touched the stuff. And being a woman, they figured I'd be slightly less grossed out."
Aaron took offense to Kanuka's disconnected cycncism. "Less grossed out? That's one way of putting it. I happen to know you can't get enough of… that stuff. Word is that you just love the taste of…"
Kanuka shot him the evil eye, and Aaron suddenly realized he had gone to far. This meant trouble for him, and he knew it. "I'll deal with YOU later." She stepped up and leaned on the cabinet next to Ben's bed. "Look Ben, we managed to fix your labor but your movement pattern data got toasted. You're going to have to use the backup disk."
"That old disk was created on an Ingram's OS. Will the Neuron Net be able to use it?"
"No. You'll have to start your Neuron file all over again."
Ben sighed. "Well, it's only been a few weeks. It's not like I'll be missing all that much."
"That's right!" Aaron said. "Anyway, as long as nothing big goes down over the next few days, you'll be just fine!"
Ben sighed. "Whenever the Feds get involved, you can bet that there's always SOMETHING big going on."
There was a knock on the door, and Kanuka reached back and opened it. David "Snowball" Murphy entered, smiling from ear to ear. Dave was born in Nigeria, but he had done well to mask his accent. In fact, he was capable of speaking with almost any accent he desired in almost any language, a skill only too handy for a labor cop. Snowball, as he was called, was one of the darkest men Ben had ever known. The name fit peferfectly. "Hey Dix! I heard someone killed you, so I flew all the way from Chicago to piss on your grave."
Ben smiled back, surprised to see his old friend had come all the way to New York. "Go home Snowball? Don't they have labor crimes in Chicago?"
"Not as much. Our cops use Ingrams, so naturally the crime rate's plummeted."
"Oh yeah, you're REALLY cleaning up the streets with those obsolete labors of yours. Why don't you guys upgrade or something?"
"My Ingram works well enough. But the unit was only formed this July, so it's still too early to tell if our equipment needs to be replaced. Not that we can afford it or anything."
Kanuka shrugged. "Ingrams work well enough with a good pilot. The Peacemakers are just more complicated."
Ben sat up in his bed. "Anyway, why ARE you here Snowball?"
"Rookies." He said plainly. "Our Chicago Labor Enforcement just put together a new section. I brought them here for some advanced training."
"Why ARE you guys using Ingrams anyway? They're almost obsolete by now." Kanuka said.
"It's simple really. We're getting these old models at less than half their original factory price. This way, we can build a larger unit and save some of the smaller communities around us from having to run their own Patlabor units. Quantity vs. quality."
Kanuka grinned. "Don't discount the Ingrams based on specs. They still use them in Japan, and other units are starting up all over the world using Ingrams."
Ben groaned. "My Peacemaker is still king. Ingrams may be popular, but they aint that good."
"We'll find out soon enough. As soon as you're out of here, we're going to have a little showdown. My Ingrams against your Peacemakers. I can say with confidence that you will not win this fight."
Ben was beaming at him. "Just like old times, eh Snowball?"
"Just like old times. Or maybe better. I like my Ingram a lot better than the old Helldivers we used in Kosovo."
"Me too. Anyway, you just go ahead and polish your scrap head of a labor and I'll be right out of here."
"Sure thing." Ben said, leaving the room. "I'll be back to check on you later tonight. Don't die until I get back to see it."
Ben laughed a bit, and then looked at Kanuka and Aaron. "I almost forgot to ask you, what happened to that woman? The one with the Magnum?"
Kanuka had been hoping to avoid this subject, but she wasn't going to try and dodge it once Ben brought it up. "She's been released on bail. They had her transferred to another hospital in Queens."
Ben felt like his heart might explode from his chest. "Bail?! She shot Huck in the face! What the hell kinda system is this?!"
"The judge seems to think the evidence against her was circumstantial, since you were the only witness. Her lawyers convinced him that you had suffered some kind of trauma from the gunshot and that you didn't see what you think you saw."
"That's a joke. She had the gun, the bullet from the gun killed Huck, but they want me to prove she pulled the trigger?"
"Exactly." Kanuka reached into a paper bag she had brought with her and pulled out a small brown teddy bear. "Feel better, Dix. We'll be at the station if you need anything." She dropped the bear on his face and walked away.
Ben read the tag on the little teddy bear and laughed. "Da' Bears!" He said, reading the inscription that had been signed by, of all people, Snowflake Kanuka and Aaron.