Part 2 Need for Speed
Incident minus 20 days 2hours 36 minutes
A figure hunched in the shadows of the rooftop. The light of the moon obscured by dark clouds that filled the sky. In the silence on the rooftop, the figured surveyed the urban landscape of Steel City, like a hunter, noting all the best areas to conceal or easily accessible escape routes.
In the distance sirens wailed, people went about their nightly business and the daily crime rate escalating faster then the disappearance of the last rays of sunshine.
Despite all this the figure was silent, waiting.
Waiting for the most important phone call.
"BEEP BEEP BEEP!" trilled a mobile phone.
In the silence the figure reached inside the folds of large coat and withdrew a cell phone. Pressing the glowing green button and stepping out of the shadows, a tall boy, a teenager dressed in a long grey trench coat, with black boots, metal plates on the toes. The boots stretched almost up to his knees with buckles all the way to the top. Tucked into these boots was a pair of ragged jungle camouflage pants patched up with olive green and dark grey patches. Black hair with blonde streaks just flopped over his head, unkempt, but clean from dirt and muck. 'Yeah, go ahead' he said into the phone. 'I found those people you asked me to find. They must be loaded with cash, they've got a warehouse on the south side of the city, fully wired up with best shit, I mean not even rat could get in there without lighting the place up.' said the panicky voice on the other end of the phone. 'Johnny calm down. I left all the files and whatnot in the agreed mailbox; you can go and collect it now. Sheesh why are you so uptight, for a cop who supposedly deals with perps' everyday you're nervous like a cat in a dog pound, lighten up.' Eyclone replied calmly. 'You're a cold bastard. You know that if those files see the light of day I'll lose me job and the divorce.' Johnny the cop said with touch of spite. 'Just give me the address will 'ya, then you'll never hear or see me again, kaput, gone.' Eyclone told, once again with that nonchalant manner. Johnny told him, Eyclone wrote it down even though he'd memorised the moment Johnny had told him.
Johnny was a cop and not a good cop either. He wasn't corrupt or taking bribes, he just wasn't good at his job. He actually believed that Eyclone had dirt on him without proof of it. The truth was Eyclone didn't have any dirt; Johnny had never done anything wrong.
One of the many skills passed onto him by Slade was the ability to read people, not their thoughts but their personality, this in turn could lead to not reading their mind but predicting their actions and reactions. He was also taught how to use this to manipulate people. Johnny had never done anything wrong, he was just the only cop in Steel City with the security access that Eyclone could manipulate without too much effort. When Johnny got to the agreed drop point all he would find is 20 grand that he deserved for helping Eyclone out, and a few photos of his wife and her lawyer, buying drugs from a dealer, taken a month before had she filed for divorce. Eyclone figured Johnny deserved a prize.
When Johnny hung up Eyclone punched a few buttons on the phone's keypad. A whirring sound emanated from the phone. Being custom built from various mobile phones and a PDA, Eyclone's phone had certain functions, It was capable of creating dummy numbers that a person could call and reach the phone, but when Eyclone wanted to, the phone could destroy all record of the phone number, or graft it onto another number so that anybody calling it would end up calling a 1900 number thinking they were calling a cell phone. It was also secure from phone hacking and if anybody had bugged the line the phone could jam the bug with meaningless static while the conversation was taking place. He was proud of his phone.
Walking to the edge of the building Eyclone took out a map of Steel City. He marked on the map his current location, and made a circle around the coordinates of the warehouse. Drawing line between the two places, he started to plan, in his head he was calculating distances and times. When he'd done that he folded up the map, tucked it into a pocket of his coat. Looking over the edge of the building, he turned walked to the centre of the building turning to face the same edge he began his run up. Pumping his arms he closed the gap between himself and the ledge until he was one the ledge, and without breaking stride leapt into the nigh air.
His legs still making running movements, his arms still pumping. He let out cry of joy. 'Wooo-Hoooo!' Before dissolving into a dark mist.
Flying fast through the city, he swerved, weaved and dodged his way around the buildings, following the course he'd planned out, the one that would take him to the warehouse and his target.
Arriving at the perimeter of the warehouse, he didn't materialize. That would set off the sensors and that was bad. At a loading dock for the warehouse, a couple of thugs were hauling barrels onto a large semi-trailer. The barrels had the High Explosive sticker on them and the men handling them were being extra cautious.
'Hurry up and finish this, I was due to leave half an hour ago,' came a sinister voice from inside the warehouse, walking through the raised Rolla door stepped a man wearing the same body armour as Slade, But he was not Slade, it was another android, just like the one that had become the principal of the Hive academy, this one too was planning something.
Passing through the chain link fence like the cloud that he was Eyclone approached the truck slowly, keeping low to the ground. Mist was coming of the bay so this aided him in his infiltration. Around the other side of the cab a figure climbed into the cab of the truck, Eyclone couldn't see who the person was, but he'd find out once the truck hit the highway. Eyclone approached the back of the cab and hovered there between the truck and the trailer waiting. On the ground next to the truck a toolbox lay open, with it's contents scattered inside and around it, checking his surroundings, he materialized unseen and picked up a big spanner, feeling the weight of it he put it into one of the many pockets of his coat, he bent down and picked up a few other tools, two pairs of wire cutters, an adjustable screwdriver and three other wrenches that were similar in weight. In that mind of his, a lot more options and outcomes played out, the majority were quite favourable. As he picked up the tools and adjusted his coat, he didn't know he was being watched from the rear view mirrors. Inside the cab a single brown eye observed his actions and his shift to mist form.
The were a few clangs and shouts from the loading dock, the noise of a Rolla door closing and the footsteps of men departing, and barely perceivably over these noises and the noises of the city, the footsteps of a person trained in stalking. The Slade-bot passed the area Eyclone was hiding in. He looked around not seeing anything it kept on walking and climbed into the empty side of the cab. With tat the engine started, its two official passengers unawares of an uninvited guest.
When the truck hit the highway, Eyclone made his move. Materializing between the cab and the trailer, he climbed up onto the roof of the trailer, walking backwards and maintaining his balance. He stopped at the appropriate distance. He drew one of the wrenches he'd acquired and threw it at the rear view mirror on the passenger side. His plan was simple, lure the android out onto the trailer, dispose of him and then get to the cab, neutralise the driver and then, park the truck in front of a cop station, or somewhere, where something could be done about the explosives. It was simple and incredibly dangerous, but Eyclone had done this before, except without so much explosives and he was working with Slade at the time, not against a robot decoy of Slade.
The heavy spanner scythed through the air and smashed the mirror; glass fell to the rushing road below. The truck took a herd corner and pulled onto the highway. There were plentiful cars on the highway, if the truck crashed now, it kill a lot of innocents. Eyclone could not let that happen. The passenger door opened and leaning out of it was the Slade-bot. It ripped the door off its hinges; he hurled one handed at Eyclone's head. Eyclone ducked the projectile and hurled the last two wrenches at the robot. The first one missed, but the second one left a crack on the chest plate of android.
'You know I almost felt that, but you're too weak as always. You need to plan for all events, like a kamikaze decoy.' It said.
The Slade bot jumped high into the air and drew its first back, to crush Eyclone into the roof of the trailer. Just before the fatal blow landed, Eyclone shifted to mist-form and as a cloud moved towards the front of the truck, reforming behind the Slade bot, his right leg halfway through the arc of a roundhouse kick aimed at the decoy's head. The impacted with a crunch, and the robot turned, looking like it was going to fall over, when it some how regained balance and rolled away form Eyclone.
'Surely you're not going to kill before I show you my little surprise?' As it said this, a line dividing the face in half lengthwise appeared, it slowly got larger and the two halves began to move back revealing the circuitry inside and a digital clock with a fast countdown being displayed. Then came a whirring sound and the chest split open revealing a large block of C4 explosive putty and several detonators arrayed around it. 'Do you know what were standing on?' it continued '40 tonnes of liquid oxygen. One small knock and the whole road goes up. Do you know how many would die from this?' Eyclone growled and bared his teeth in a grimace.
'Precisely 104.67 innocent people that you seem to care about.' The robot said with a nonchalant tone. Shrugging it said 'I don't care, this is my purpose and I will fulfil it.'
Then suddenly out of the night sky blue spotlight highlighted the two figures.
"Put Down Your Weapons And Stop The Vehicle!" a mega phoned voice commanded from above. 'He said put down your weapons, like either of us have needed to rely on such things.' The robot taunted. Gritting his teeth Eyclone charged at Slade, determined to immobilize him and disarm the bomb.
Slade swung with is right fist at the oncoming Eyclone; Eyclone ducked the blow and reached for the exposed compartment. Getting a grip on one of the sides he wrenched open reaching for the C4 he was knocked back by a blow from the robot. Falling backwards, Eyclone felt his head smack against the corner of the roof. The light from the police helicopter blinded him for a few seconds, and in the distance he could here the wail of police sirens. Not good. Cops would want to stop the vehicle and knowing Slade, the truck would be booby-trapped so that the explosives would go off if it stopped. Not good. 'Ha Ha! Just like old times, except this time Saskia isn't here to help out.' Taunted the robot. 'Don't you ever talk to me about Saskia' replied Eyclone as he stood up and took up a fighting stance. The Slade-bot charged at Eyclone this time, rather then meeting the charge, Eyclone backed off moving further and further down the length of the truck. He stopped a few feet short of the end. Slade was still bearing down on him, when it got close enough; it swung out with its left fist, trying to knock Eyclone off the truck. But Eyclone grabbed his hand in mid punch, rolled onto his back, flipping Slade over him and grabbed at the C4, tearing it away from the electric detonators. The Slade bot flew over the back of the truck and smashed into the road, half a second later a police car, braking heavily ran it over, leaving only a man sized piece of crumpled metal on the road.
'Now for the driver.' Eyclone said to himself.
Moving carefully to the front of the trailer, his every move highlighted by the police helicopter above, Eyclone reached the end the gap between truck and tailer. If he jumped there would be a fir chance of not making, but if used his mist-form power, at these speeds the winds blowing against him would make it difficult for him to reform on the other side. Take several steps back, Eyclone ran at the gap and leapt. Sliding through the air, he kept his eyes focused on the target and tried not to think about the results of missing and hitting the road at 88 miles an hour. When he landed on the cab roof, he grunted with the effort, in his head he was relieved that he'd grunted on landing, instead the alternative; "Splat!" Moving to the driver's side, he prepared himself for a simple manoeuvre; open the door, dive in feet first, use your feet to push the driver back, disconnect his seat belt and shove him over to the passenger side, the advantage here was that with no door to stop the driver, he'd fall out of the cab, the results could be messy, but in Eyclone's mind I you worked for Slade, you deserved what you got.
Eyclone enacted that plan and it was all nice and smooth till it came to pushing the driver away from the wheel. The driver happened to be a second Slade-bot.