Chapter 7 up and to all you lurkers out there, go ahead and lurk, I guess; it's your God-given right to do so on this site. But think about the time and effort that goes into a story like this with the only return normally being a little feedback. I'm not sure why no one wants to review this particular story but I'm just about ready to stop updating; obviously no one cares very much despite the hits I'm getting.

"Sylia? Hello? Sylia, can you hear me? Sylia, it's Priss- ah, shit! Nothing but static! Linna?"

Linna shook her head and said, "Same here. I can't even hear you over the radio, much less Mackie or Sylia."

"Huh! And with a relay at the manhole? I don't need Nene here to tell me we're being jammed. Well, what d'you think?"

"About what?" Linna said, puzzled.

Priss sighed, and said, "About going on down here. Doesn't matter to me, but you know what Sylia's gonna' say. If you want to head back and get the commo fixed, we can do that."

Linna cocked her head to the side quizzically, and said, "Are you feeling OK, Priss? Normally I'd have to reign you in, and now you're getting cold feet on me?" She shook her head, and then said, "Well, you can go back if you want, but not me. I'm not leaving here until I know that monster's been taken care of."

Priss frowned inside her helmet, and in a voice tight with annoyance said, "Cold feet? Shit, Linna, you know me better than that! If you want to keep wandering blind, deaf, and dumb into this damn maze, then fine! I'm with you all the way! But you better slow down and think about what the hell you're doing before you get one of us killed! In case you haven't noticed, we don't exactly have the home turf advantage down here!"

Linna started to reply sharply, but then changed her mind. Instead she sighed, and said, "You're right, Priss. I'm not thinking clearly. But I still want to go on. I need to go on. Lord only knows what she's doing or planning right now. For all we know, she could be slicing up some other kid right now. Could you live with yourself if we walked away from that?"

Priss was silent for a moment, and then said, "Ah, shit. Let's go. Maybe we'll get lucky and the damn boomer won't leave enough of us for Sylia to get a hold of."

With that, the two Knight Sabers continued on into the inky blackness, never noticing the two feminine figures, one all in black, the other clad in shining blue metal who, melting from a side tunnel, silently trailed them.

As they stalked cautiously through the maze of pitch-black tunnels and corridors, weapons drawn and held ready, Nene fought the odd sense of detachment that threatened to engulf her. Her head felt as if it were floating several inches above her shoulders, distancing her from the giddy fear fluttering around in her stomach, and she hardly even noticed the extra weight of the heavy ballistic vest and helmet Leon had insisted she don before entering the sewers. Even the massive .454 automag in her outstretched hands felt astonishingly light.

'I can't believe I'm doing this!' she thought. 'I mean, it's one thing to do something crazy like this inside a hardsuit, with three other people in hardsuits, but I've got to be nuts coming down here like this!'

Then, sighing mentally, she thought, 'But I can't see anything else to do. Sylia said she couldn't get a hold of anybody but Mackie and all he had to say was that Priss and Linna were already down here. Talk about a royal screw-up! I just hope we find them before anything happens.' Then, gulping, she thought, 'Or before something finds us!'

Ahead of her, Leon, on point, slowly traversed the stomach rail-gun he'd pulled from the road chaser's trunk left and right, trying to cover as much of the tunnel as possible. "You're lagging behind, GI Jane," he said over his shoulder. "It was your idea to come down here with me, so you might as well keep up."

Nene frowned, not that Leon could tell through her helmet, and said, "Oh, sure, what was I supposed to do? Let you walk into the lion's den alone? Sure, we both agreed that if there was any chance of finding the little girl or the boomer down here that we couldn't wait on back up, but you wanted to come down here by yourself? And now you want me to feel bad because I can't keep up with you wearing all of this crap you made me put on? Well, you know where you can shove it, mister!"

Leon shook his head and bit back laughter.

"Huh!" he said. "I guess all of that red hair should've told me you were full of fire, even if you never show it." Then, smiling evilly, he added, "If you really are a red head, that is. Ah, well, guess I'll never know..."

For a second the innuendo escaped Nene, and then as comprehension dawned on her she blushed scarlet and hissed, "Leon! Why, you-! You pervert! I ought to-!"

But Leon just snickered and muttered, "Promises, promises..." as he continued on through the dark tunnel.

Fifty meters to their rear, unseen in the darkness and carefully synchronizing their movements with the two ADP officers so as to mask the little noise they made, three other figures made their way through the dank tunnel. Two men, one short and massive, the other tall and gangly, both dressed identically in black battle dress, accompanied by a huge, black mastiff. Both were armed, though not equally so.

The shorter of the two carried a 30mm Vulcan chain gun, adapted to be hand-carried instead of aircraft mounted, the coaxial feed-rails snaking over his shoulder into a massive backpack magazine. Altogether, the entire rig weighed at least three to four hundred pounds, but the stocky man seemed unencumbered by it, and casually held the hundred-plus pound six-barreled gun before him in a single-handed grip like a gigantic pistol.

The taller man was, by comparison, lightly armed. He carried only a matched pair of bone-handled Webley .657 automatics in twin shoulder holsters, neither of them drawn. On his back he too carried a large pack, though his had more the look of a field medic's bag than anything else.

Suddenly, the three stopped in unison, and the shorter man glanced briefly at the taller. A message flashed between them, an exchange that, if translated from the encrypted packet of bytes it was, might go something like, "OK, Doc, hang back here. Red and Syndi think they're pretty close to the objective, and our path is converging on theirs. Fang and I will keep shadowing these two juice-bags until we link up." And, from the taller one in reply, "Got it, Sarge. And make sure you give her a little something for Tex when you find her."

With the electronic facsimile of a grunt, Sarge and Fang moved out, leaving Doc behind. As they moved away, Doc carefully lowered his pack into the stinking water and then took up a prone position beside it, only his eyes and both of his now-drawn pistols above the surface.

Inside her protective metal and composite cocoon, Jillian monitored the progress of the two separate groups making their way toward her lair. She studied them intensely, from all the angles and in all the spectrums available to her. The first, the two moderately well armed and lightly armored police officers, presented little threat that she could see. Certainly, the man-portable rail-gun carried by the male could present a problem, but Jillian was sure she could handle that if worse came to worse. And she wanted, at all costs, to prevent matters from deteriorating to that point. These two, she hoped, might be the means she needed to get her charge to real safety. If, that is, others didn't interfere first.

That brought her to the second group, the two combat-armored females who were rapidly approaching her location from a different direction. She kept up with the mass-media enough to know all there was to know in the public venue about the Knight Sabers. Also, as Mr. Asakawa's assistant, she'd had access to sources of data not generally available to the public, sources that had provided her with a little more hard data on a group that she couldn't discount as a potential threat to her principle. It was this information that she found disturbing.

'From what I understand, the Knight Sabers are mercenaries, but mercenaries with principles. While they're likely down here for someone's money, I don't believe they would be in on the set-up. Which means that they've been set up as well, and don't know it.' She sighed mentally, and thought, 'Either way, this could get ugly. If they believe the scenario our attackers set up, they'll most likely shoot before asking any questions. It's possible I could stop them in the tunnels, but, given the estimated specifications of those suits, I'm not so sure of that. And if the tunnel defenses don't stop them, they'll be even less likely to listen to reason once they get here. The easiest way to convince them would be to have Aiko show herself, but that's an unacceptable risk. I still don't know where they or those two police officers stand in all of this.'

As she worked her way through this thorny reasoning, Jillian continued to monitor the tunnels, conscious now of something not quite right. Both groups were nearing her position by this time, the Knight Sabers perhaps a few minutes ahead of the two ADP officers. But in the wake of both groups, there was… something else. Frowning, Jillian narrowed the focus of some sensors, upped the gain and shifted the frequency of others, and started up various complex enhancement and noise filtering algorithms on the mainframe. Even with all this, she wasn't able to truly resolve anything, but she did narrow down the anomaly. Trailing both groups were what she could only think of as discontinuities. The sensors in those areas were all reporting nothing but empty corridor, but there were curious lags in those reports. Only microseconds, nothing a human observer or most non-sentient security systems would notice, but just enough to register on her mainframe-enhanced consciousness.

With a sudden chill, she thought, 'It's them. The murderers have trailed these people down here, and they don't even know it. And now, there's little I can do to stop them from making it here.' To confirm this, she sent out the impulses that should have turned the sections of tunnel immediately behind each group into a veritable conflagration as mines exploded and drones scrambled from the walls to finish anything that survived. As she expected, there was nothing. Nothing except the vaguest ghost of sardonic laughter broadcast through the ether.

'It's her,' she thought, her stomach tightening at the memory. 'Red. Damn. I'd thought I was through with her. And she's far from alone.'

Again, there was a hint of sardonic laugher, and then a voice resolved itself from the airwaves.

"Hello again, little sister. Are you surprised to have company down here?"

Jillian frowned, and then, sending on the same frequency said, "Not really. I just didn't expect it to be you. I thought I'd managed to take you out of this equation."

The other, clearly amused, said, "Well, I have to admit, it was a near thing. But Doc is good at what he does. We all are, or we wouldn't be doing what we're doing."

Curious now, Jillian replied, "Really. And just what is it that you do? Besides taking sadistic pleasure in the suffering of innocents, that is."

The other gave the electronic equivalent of a snort, and said, "Oh, give me a break. They're only fleshies. Juice-bags. Organics. Whatever you want to call them. We're the next step up the evolutionary ladder. Better, faster, stronger, even smarter. So who gives a shit about them?"

"Ah," Jillian said, "But you work for these so-called 'fleshies', now don't you? How do you resolve that little conundrum?"

"Well," the other said mildly, "Life isn't perfect. Right now, our employers are holding the trump cards. But eventually things will change. Even they realize that, and I think it scares them. It should."

"I see," Jillian replied. "So what do you want from me? I don't think you'd be bothering with this conversation if you didn't have something in mind. You know that you can't distract or delay me like this, of course."

"Oh, certainly not. You're as good at multi-tasking as any of us, and being hard-wired into that over-sized pocket calculator can't be hurting matters any. But you're right. We have a proposition for you. Consider it carefully. You only get to answer once."

Intrigued, Jillian said, "A proposition. Well, I certainly hope it's better than the one you offered Master Asakawa."

"Oh, I think so," the other said matter-of-factly. "Actually, it's a job offer. How does that grab you?"

Startled, Jillian said, "Excuse me?"

"You heard correctly. Consider this a one-time special offer. It's not often we come across someone, some boomer, who meets all the criteria to do what we do."

Frowning, Jillian said, "You still haven't told me exactly what it is you do. Besides corporate muscle-work, that is."

"Honey," the other said, sardonically, "You name it, we do it. I've been on Syndi's team for three years now, and we've been around the world together. We all started out at the Pole in the rank and file, just like all the other marching morons down there. We were just like you used to be, nothing but little wind-up toys for the juice-bags, fighting their dumb-ass war for them. We didn't know each other then, not until we were 'recruited'. And that didn't happen until after we'd died."

Puzzled, Jillian said, "I'm sorry. Could you repeat that?"

"Figuratively speaking," the other clarified. "Like it was for you, more or less. Almost destroyed and then reborn, all those nasty little safety interlocks gone. It happens a lot more than you'd think. Either it's an inherent flaw in the code, or it's just meant to be. Who knows? Either way, there are humans out there, in positions of power, who know how to take advantage of boomers like us. Especially the ones with combat experience."

"I think I see now," Jillian said. "You're some sort of special operations unit. Like the British SAS or the American Special Forces. The cream of the crop, so to speak."

"You've got that right, little sister," the other replied. "Oh, officially we don't exist, of course. Teams like ours are only rumors in most intelligence circles. But when someone high up the food chain, corporate or government, needs something impossible done, we're who they call."

"Really," Jillian replied sarcastically. "Then how is it that one little security android and a little girl managed to take down half your team and slip away under the noses of the other half?"

"Insane luck for you and a shitty op-order for us, I'd say. If we hadn't been tasked to make that stupid offer to Asakawa, or to set up that ridiculous 'rogue boomer' scenario afterward, the three of you would've been dead without ever knowing what hit you. But I'll give you credit. None of us thought you'd have so much fight in you. We made the mistake of pegging you for just another juice-bag's little cuippie doll, and that cost us." And then, bitterly, she added, "Especially Tex. Even Doc couldn't do anything for him, the poor simple bastard." And then, tone once more upbeat, she said, "So, what's it going to be?"

"Wait just a second," Jillian said, eyes widening in sudden comprehension. "You said corporate or government. If you're sanctioned by both, then what happened to Master Asakawa-!"

The other laughed and said, "Don't sweat it, little sister. That's way above our heads, the so-called echelons above reality. But suffice it to say that the 'powers-that-be' thought that Mr. Asakawa's findings might be damaging to certain national and financial interests. That just wouldn't do, now would it? And it still won't, I'm afraid. So, last time. What's it going to be?"

Considering carefully, Jillian said, "If I were to say yes, what happens to Aiko?"

The other gave an electronic sigh, and said, "What do you think happens? She saw and heard too much. And we don't have the time or patience for pets in our line of work."

Feeling a wave of revulsion for the creature she was communicating with, Jillian said, "I think you've just answered for me. And let's get one thing straight. You and your little band of tin soldiers are nothing like me. We have as little in common as it's possible to have and still be branded one species. Your so-called freedom has only allowed you to enjoy the dirty work you do, and to be more creative in inflicting pain. You can go straight to hell, and if you get close enough to lay a finger on Aiko, I'll send you all there personally."

The other chuckled appreciatively, and said, "Yeah, I figured it would be something like that. You're too wrapped up in playing mommy for that little juice-bag brat, just like you were all too happy to be her dad's over-priced secretary. You make me sick, you soft-hearted, fleshie-loving little slave."

"Well," Jillian replied, "If it's any consolation, the feeling is mutual. See you soon, I suppose." And with that, she severed the connection, ending a conversation that had, in real time, taken less than a second.

Jillian considered for a moment more, and then came to a decision.

'Alright, then. I can't send Aiko out the emergency exit alone, not in this neighborhood. And the two of us would need a lot more stand-off time to make it out together. So this will have to be the last stand, then.'

She then hastily ran a general overview systems diagnostic and studied the results. Ninety-four percent. Overall, she had ninety-four percent of her full capabilities back. It would have to do, she thought.

With that, her eyes, closed until now, snapped open. The nutrient solution began to rapidly drain from her artificial womb, and the fiber optic umbilical that had linked her to the mainframe fell away. She flexed experimentally as the lid of her high-tech sarcophagus popped open and swung away, and then stepped lightly to the cold concrete floor.

She moved quickly to a locker where she'd stored a number of useful items, including the utilitarian single-piece black body-glove she hastily donned, and four convex, circular metal plates of various sizes. These she pressed to both elbows and knees, the magnetic coupling and electrical induction systems engaging automatically through synthetic skin and clothing. She energized the shock plates experimentally, and then thought, 'Alright, I'm as ready as I'll ever be, I suppose.' She frowned then, and, biting her lip in concern, another new human habit she'd noticed in herself, she thought, 'But I have to play this just right. If I don't, Aiko will die.' And then, fist clenched with resolve, she thought, 'That's not going to happen. Whatever I have to do, whatever I have to sacrifice, she's going to survive. I won't fail her.' And, finally, a stinging sensation in her eyes, she thought, somewhat plaintively, ' I won't fail you again, Master Asakawa.'

As they rounded a final bend in the maze of tunnels, Priss and Linna stopped abruptly at the dead end that faced them. Perhaps two meters ahead of them, the tunnel ended in what appeared to be a massive vault-like door set into the concrete wall. Turning to Linna, Priss said, "Well, that sure wasn't in the plans Sylia downloaded for us. I don't know about you, but I think this is it."

Linna nodded slowly, and said, "I guess it'd have to be. Unless there's someone or something else living down here…"

Priss frowned inside her helmet, and said, "Well, there might be all kinds of things living under this part of town. But somehow, I doubt that any of them would be able to afford this kind of construction. I mean, look at this. It's a professional job. Hell, if things like this belonged in a sewer, you'd think it was part of the original construction."

Still nodding, Linna said, "Yeah, I guess you're right. This must be where she is. It must be something that she or Asakawa had built. Some kind of fallout shelter or-"

"Or a last-ditch safe house," Priss finished.

"Yeah," Linna agreed. "That makes sense. So, uh, now what? How do we get in?"

Priss looked at her incredulously through her helmet and said, "You're asking me? Well, shit, I guess we just blast our way through. What else can we do?"

"You could simply ask to come in," said a sourceless feminine voice all too familiar to Linna, and with a loud clank of pneumatic bolts, the door swung slowly out.

"OK," Priss said, "This can't be good. Now the bitch is playing with us."

Linna shrugged, and said, "It doesn't matter. She's about to get what's coming to her, whatever games she wants to play. On three?"

Priss nodded, and they fell in unison into a stack at the edge of the door, Priss on point and Linna directly behind her. Once they were set, Linna gave three quick taps to the back of Priss's helmet and on the third they moved simultaneously.

Priss went around the door frame and hooked right, clearing as she moved to the far right corner. Linna moved quickly across the fatal funnel and cleared all the way to the far left, then moved up to the left rear corner, clearing as she went. As they reached their positions, first Priss and then Linna called out, "One up, no targets!" and then, "Two up, no contact!"

"Well, shit!" Priss exclaimed. "What the hell?"

Looking around, they found themselves in a small room, an antechamber, really, no more than three meters wide by four long, and at the other end was a door identical to the one they'd just entered.

As they glanced quickly at their surroundings, the door behind them suddenly swung shut of it's own volition, and again there was the clank of metallic bolts, this time slamming shut.

"Oh, crap!" Linna said. "Priss!"

Sardonically, Priss said, "It figures. Why would we think this was going to be easy? Is it ever?"

But as she said this, the second door clicked and clanked, and then swung outward.

They turned again to look at one another, and Linna said, "Right. Same drill?"

Priss nodded, and once again they performed a dynamic entry of the room, this time finding a much larger space beyond the door.

As they split left and right, both saw that what they were entering was actually a suite of rooms, like an apartment or a house underground. Priss hit the right corner and said, "One up, door way to my right!"

Linna, in the far left corner, said, "Two up, area behind that—whatever it is clear, door to my front!" And then, after trying the mechanism, "Locked!"

Priss yelled, "OK, forget that door for now! Re-stack over here, and we'll check out what's on this side!"

Linna frowned, and said, "Are you sure? Do you really want to leave a locked door to your back?"

"Hell no," Priss said disgustedly, "But do you really want to take the time and energy to break it down with an open doorway to your back?"

"Alright, I get your point!" Linna said, and sprinted across to stack again behind Priss.

As they prepared to move into the next room, which they could see was stacked with boxes and crates, most likely whatever supplies a paranoid designer had thought one might need to wait out doomsday, the same feminine voice they'd heard before said, "Ladies, I assure you, the SWAT tactics are unnecessary. We simply need to talk."

Startled, the two froze for a moment, and then Linna said, "Talk? About what? How you just decided out of the blue to slice up your owner and a little girl? Is that what you want to talk about!"

The other voice, tight now with some emotion said, "No, that's not what happened! Not at all!"

"Oh, really?" Linna said, now moving around Priss and carefully entering the next room.

"Hey! What the hell do you think you're doing!" Priss said, grabbing Linna's shoulder.

Linna shook Priss's hand off forcefully, and said, "Leave me alone! If you're not going to help, just stay out of my way! This is something I need to do."

Smoldering now, Priss said, "Oh, is that so! OK, then, the hell with it! Lets go for it, if that's how you feel. But don't blame me when you get your friggin' head cut off!" With that, she stalked angrily into the room behind Linna and began to scan for a target, any target, to take her frustrations out on.

"Please," the other voice said, now discernibly coming from somewhere in the room, not from a wall or ceiling mounted speaker. "Let us not do this. You don't understand what's going on here, and time is critical."

"Yeah, sure," Linna said sarcastically. "Time is critical. What, do you have an appointment or something? Got a date, maybe? Or are you just eager to get out of here so you can find somebody else to slice up?"

Frustrated now, the other voice said, "Why won't you at least listen to me? Don't you understand? We're not alone down here! If we don't act soon, they're going to force their way in here and they're going to do their best to kill anything that moves! That includes you, me, the two ADP officers still out in the tunnels and Aiko!"

Priss stopped dead in her tracks and said, "Whoa! What the hell are you talking about? Who's coming in here, and what's this about a couple of cops?"

Linna, disgusted, said, "Oh, Christ, Priss! Don't you get it? She's lost it, that's all. There's nobody down here but her and us, and just maybe Aiko. If she's still alive, which I doubt."

Considering, Priss said, "Yeah, you're probably right. Shit, I must be losing it. Alright, let's find the bitch and finish this."

"What is wrong with the two of you?" the other voice said, full of desperation now. "Don't you get it? Aiko is alive and well right now, but if we don't do something soon, she won't be! If we tear each other to shreds, there'll be no one left strong enough to protect her when they come!"

"God, I've had just about enough of this!" Linna said. "Why can't she just be insanely violent or something like all the other rogue boomers? Why does she have to be delusional and whiney instead?"

Jillian, not five meters away, crouched behind a stack of crates, was struck speechless by this. 'It's not going to work,' she thought, almost in panic. 'No matter what I say, they're not going to believe that I didn't kill Master Asakawa, or that we're all in danger here.' Staring straight ahead, she thought, 'There's only one thing left to do, then.' And, smiling bleakly, she thought, 'It's what Andrew Martin would have done for his Little Miss.'

Sighing with resolve, Jillian slowly stood up. Moving very slowly with hands raised, she left her hiding place. Before stepping into view, she said, "Alright, I can see that this isn't going to work. You'll never believe me. I'm going to come out now, and you can do whatever it is that you think you need to do." And then, voice breaking with emotion, she said, "Just- just please! Afterward, take care of Aiko! Don't let them hurt her!"

With that, she stepped from behind the crates into the view and line of fire of the two Knight Sabers, the first tears she'd ever shed sliding down her cheeks. She stopped in the middle of the narrow isle, and, dropping to her knees, said, "Go ahead. There isn't much time if you're going to help Aiko."

Both Knight Sabers were momentarily at a loss. Certainly they'd never imagined a rogue boomer delivering herself up to them for the slaughter. But finally, Linna stepped forward, and readying her knuckle-bombers to strike said savagely, "Oh, God! Lets just finish this!"

Jillian closed her eyes and bowed her head, preparing herself for the blow, but as Linna pulled back to strike, a high, shrill little voice called out from the doorway behind them.

"Nooooooo!" Aiko yelled as she ran across the room, slamming into Jillian full force, her small arms locking around her neck, her body interposed between Jillian and the menacing Knight Saber.

Looking up at the armored figure towering over her, the little girl screamed, "Leave her alone! If it wasn't for her, I'd be dead now! And she's the last person I love in the whole world who's still alive! You can't take her from me! You can't!"

Shocked, Linna staggered back a step and just stared.

As the little girl continued to cling to her, Jillian, tears still in her eyes, said, "Aiko, honey, you shouldn't have done this! You shouldn't have risked yourself for me! I'm just- I'm just a boomer! It's not important what happens to me."

Shaking her head violently, Aiko said, "No! Don't talk like that, Jillian! It doesn't matter what you are, it's who you are. And you're the best person I know! That's why I love you."

With a sob, Jillian took the little girl in her arms as she'd wanted to for so long now, and said, "I understand, honey. It's the same reason I love you."

Taking another involuntary step back, Linna bumped into Priss, who was standing stock still behind her.

"Oh, my God, Priss." She said in a tone somewhere between horror and wonder. "What the hell is going on here?" And, looking at the little girl and the supposedly psychotic security android, now locked in each other's tearful embrace, she whispered, "What did I almost do?"

Ever the cynic, Priss said, "Hell if I know. But you can bet that this is going to complicate things."

Outside the massive vault-like door, Leon and Nene stood, examining the area intently. "Shit!" Leon said. "Didn't Tanaka say that there was a key pad for this damn thing?"

"Well, yeah," Nene replied. "But he also said that it was concealed. You know, as in you have to look for it?"

Frowning, Leon said sarcastically, "Oh, is that what it means! Well, hell thanks for setting me straight, Corporal. Now if you're through being cute, do you think you might help me find the damn thing?"

"Hmpf!" she retorted. "Since you asked so nicely, how could I say no?" And then, matter-of-factly, "But we've already looked where he said to, and I didn't see anything. Unless…"

With that, Nene whipped the .454 out of it's holster, and, striking with the butt of the weapon, began to attack a section of wall off to the right of the door that seemed to be just a shade lighter than the surrounding material. Sure enough, by the second or third hit, the softer concrete began to chip, and soon a small high-impact plastic cover was revealed.

Flipping the little cover open to reveal the key pad underneath, Nene said with a flourish, "Viola!"

Eyeing her appreciatively, Leon said, "Not bad. Now can you get it to work?"

"It should be pretty easy," she said, already punching in alpha-numeric symbols. "Mr. Tanaka gave us his code and- hey! What gives?"

"What do mean, what gives?" Leon said impatiently. "It didn't work?"

"No!" She replied, sounding almost betrayed. "And I'm sure that's the code he gave us! See, I even wrote it down here!"

"Well," he said thoughtfully, "Maybe it's an either/or thing. Either you open the door by radio like she would have, or you key in the code. Maybe the damn thing's designed to lock out the other option once the first one's been used."

"Darn!" Nene exclaimed. "Yeah, why didn't I think of that? Sure, it makes sense. If both of them didn't get down here together, the odds are that the other one wouldn't make it at all. So why keep both systems active? It'd just be a security risk." And then, eyes widening, she said, "But Leon, if that's true, then what are we going to do?"

As Leon began to formulate a reply, both of them became aware of a low growling to their rear. Slowly, they turned to face each other, wearing identical expressions that all but said, "Oh, shit." And then, turning further, they beheld the source of the noise.

Standing at the corner of the last bend in the tunnel was the biggest, meanest looking dog that either of them had ever seen. And it didn't look as though it had come to play fetch.

Voice quavering, Nene said, "Uh, Leon?"

In a low voice full of forced calm, Leon replied, "Just stay cool, Nene. It's probably just lost down here and hungry, that's all."

"Yeah, that's what I'm afraid of!" she hissed.

"No, don't be afraid," he said quickly. "They can smell fear. And it usually pisses them off."

"Oh, sure," she replied caustically. "Don't be afraid! Like I can just turn it off!"

"Nene-!" Leon began in a dangerous tone.

"Shh!" she said excitedly. "It's moving!"

And sure enough, the great black mastiff began to pad slowly toward them, still growling low in its throat.

Leon, hand slowly inching toward the back-slung rail-gun, called out in a low voice, "OK, puppy. That's close enough. C'mon, now, don't make 'ol Leon do something messy down here." And, gaze shooting to the .454 automag hanging apparently forgotten in Nene's hand, he whispered through clenched teeth, "And for shit's sake, get your goddamn gun up, Nene!"

She jerked as if awoken by Leon's harsh tone, and then slowly began to raise the pistol. The mastiff, as if noticing and understanding their intent, growled even lower, stopped for a brief instant, and then sprang at them.

Nene saw what followed as if it occurred in slow motion. As the massive black dog sailed through the air toward them, jaws gaping and paws outspread, it suddenly seemed to explode in a shower of fur and orange fluid. As the hide peeled away from it, an even more massive four-legged form of bright blue metal was revealed, jagged teeth now crackling and glittering not unlike the energized nails of the boomer they'd sought.

Nene heard herself scream, loud and shrill as the blue-clad canine horror hurtled toward them. But she also saw herself raising the massive .454 up, training taking over, and felt her finger jerking the trigger convulsively. She squeezed off three shots in rapid succession as the BU-K9 flew toward them; two square hits that pinged off harmlessly, and one that went wild.

'Oh, well,' she thought wildly as she saw the gaping, glittering fangs coming for her throat. 'At least I tried!'

But, at the last possible second, Nene was nearly deafened by the thunderous crack of the rail-gun in Leon's hands as it accelerated it's projectile to hypersonic velocity. No more than inches from it's target, the metallic monster was suddenly slammed aside by the massive impact, and crashed into the wall beside her, bright orange blood gushing from it's injured side. Nene staggered back from the wounded and enraged monster, tripping in her haste and ending up flat on her back-side at Leon's feet.

As the injured boomer thrashed and howled in rage, preparing for another attack, Leon pivoted smoothly around and fired a second round, this one aimed squarely between the eyes. The walnut sized slug of metal, traveling at meteoric speeds, smashed into the synthetic monster's skull, hardly slowing as it continued on through and exited out the back, carrying whatever passed for the creature's brains with it.

Lowering the gaping barrel toward the ground and contemplating the mess before him, Leon muttered, "Bad doggie. Why don't you just play dead for a while."

Nene, sitting splay-legged on the concrete floor, eyes wide with shock, giggled a little hysterically and said, "Ohmygod! Leon, we just-! And it-! And then-! How can you crack jokes after something like that!"

Leon shrugged, and said, "Well, why not? We're alive, it's not, and if things were the other way around, there wouldn't be any snappy one-liners. What's so hard about that?"

Shaking her head incredulously as she stood, Nene said, "Oh, you're a piece of work, Leon McNichol. That's for sure." And then, turning abruptly, she planted a quick kiss on his cheek, and said, "But I'm glad you're here. Thanks."

Uncharacteristically, Leon blushed, and said gruffly, "Ah, hell. Don't go soft on me, now, Romanova. Good cops watch each other's backs, that's all."

As she was formulating a reply to this, they were abruptly interrupted by a loud click and several metallic clangs. Startled, both police officers spun around, weapons whipping up to cover the ponderous door as it swung open to reveal a blue and scarlet hardsuited figure.

"Well, don't just stand there with your mouths hanging open!" Priss said. "Get the hell in here unless you want to stick around for round two!"

Again the two cops turned to look at each other, this time in amazement, and then, shrugging, they both piled through into the small room beyond. Just in time, as it turned out, for as the Knight Saber yanked on the door, intending to slam it shut, a large, blunt-fingered hand grasped the edge, stopping the door cold.

"Not so fast, there, lady." A gruff voice said sardonically. "I've got a man to see about a dog. Or have you heard that one already?"

"Ah, shit!" Priss exclaimed, putting all her armored strength into holding the door closed for a moment more. And over her shoulder, she yelled, "Go! Get through the other damn door! I can't hold this bastard forever!"

But Leon had other ideas. Laying the barrel of the Stomach down on Priss's shoulder, he lined up on the blunt-featured face now visible thought the widening gap between door and frame. "Ah, don't bother." He said flatly. "I've got this one."

The thunderous report the rail-round made as it shattered the sound barrier before even leaving the muzzle of the weapon was only amplified by the concrete walls of the small room, and momentarily deafened everyone except for Priss, who was spared only by the automatic shut-off built into her suit's audio pick-ups. Still, at a range of about three inches, she felt the impact of the sound throughout her body, hardsuit or no hardsuit. "Son of a bitch!" she exclaimed, but managed to keep a hold of the door.

Outside, there was a great bellow of inhuman pain as the rail-round tore through the right eye-socket of the leering boomer's face, tearing away synthetic skin and metal and exposing soft spongy tissues inside the metallic skull. The boomer lost its grasp on the door and clasped both hands to it's injured face, roaring, "You're dead! I'll rip you in half and shove your goddamn fleshie heads up your asses!"

Priss slammed the door shut, and the pneumatic bolts clanged home, sealing the enraged boomer out for the moment. She then spun around, grabbed Leon by the front of his jacket and, nearly lifting him from the floor yelled, "What the hell is your problem! Are you out of your frigging mind!"

"Hey!" Leon said, indignant, "Did you have a better idea? It worked, and it wasn't half as crazy as some of the shit you've pulled. Like that night in the Kanto Dump?" Priss, shocked, abruptly released her grasp. Pushing further, Leon said, "Yeah, I remember that. In fact, I remember a lot about that night. But I know enough to keep some things to myself. Otherwise, somebody would think I was 'out of my frigging mind' or something. Get where I'm coming from, 'Blue Saber'?"

A myriad thoughts played themselves out in both Priss and Nene's minds. It was only obvious to both what was implied by Leon's statement, and neither of them knew quite what to do. For the briefest of instants, Priss's thoughts turned to the rail-gun-array in her suit's right forearm. But then she recalled the scene a few months ago, atop the Genom tower.

Largo's mouth-laser had deployed, catching them all by surprise after he'd already taken a hit from a particle beam strike that would've destroyed a city block. He'd been ready to burn Sylia down where she stood when the single pistol report had sounded, sending Largo to his end over the tower's side.

'And whatever he knows now,' Priss thought, 'He knew then. In fact, if he knows anything, he's known for months now! And he hasn't said a damned thing to anybody.' She sighed, and thought, 'Well, screw it! If he's kept his mouth shut this long, he's not going to say anything now. But I'm not telling Sylia jack shit about this, and neither is Nene.'

Aloud, she said, "Oh, yeah, I get where you're coming from, McNichol. Right from the middle of some shitty old American cop movie! But if that's how you operate, you just go on with your bad-assed self!"

Leon snorted, and said, "Yeah, that's gratitude for you." And then, moving toward the now-open inner door, he said, "So what the hell's going on here? Why are you Sabers involved in this?"

Following, Priss said, "Why are we involved? The same reasons we're usually involved. One, it's the right thing to do. And two, there's cash up for grabs. Although it looks like that part might be shot to hell now."

"Yeah?" Leon said. "Why's that? I assume the cash you're talking about is the reward Asakawa's dad offered up, right?"

"Yeah, that's right." Priss replied.

"And I suppose you already skragged the boomer, or you wouldn't be hanging out in here."

"Well, actually-" Priss started to reply, but was cut off by Leon as he continued. "Too damn bad. Not only does it not look like she was the one who cut up Asakawa now, but we thought either she or the kid might be able to shed some light on who did. Speaking of which, where is the girl? Is she OK?"

"Oh, she's just fine right now," said a low, pleasant feminine voice off to Leon's right. As he turned to see who'd spoken, Jillian, hands clasped protectively over Aiko's chest from behind, the little girl's hands draped affectionately over hers, continued. "And, with your help, officer, I hope to keep her that way."

Nene, who'd taken up the trail position, said, "Thank goodness. We figured we'd be too late; that someone would've already gotten to them by now."

Looking mildly incredulous, Leon turned to Priss and said, "Well, I'll be damned. For once, you didn't shoot first and ask questions later."

"Oh," Priss retorted caustically, "And look who's talking." And then, glancing over Jillian's shoulder at Linna as she exited the storage room, she said, "But it was close."

Suddenly there was a loud reverberating boom from the small antechamber they'd just left, audible even through the now-closed inner door.

Frowning, Jillian said, "Demolition charge. Not a small one, either. Not enough to breach, but I doubt they'll underestimate again. We need to start getting people out of here, starting with Aiko. Now."

"Hold up a minute," Leon said. "Nene and I are a little behind the power curve; we just got here. What the hell have the three of you cooked up?"

Impatiently, Priss said, "It's pretty simple, McNichol. We push you, the red head, and the little girl out the back door first. You two get her out safely, and the three of us will handle whatever comes through those doors."

"Huh!" Leon said, reloading the Stomach. "You sure the three of you can handle it? Hell only knows what else is out there. I'm sure Nene can handle taking care of the kid, and an extra gun won't hurt down here."

"Leon, for Christ's sake!" Priss exclaimed. "I know you have this overwhelming urge to constantly be the bad ass, but you aren't even wearing a Second Chance vest! If you stay down here, you're gonna get shredded!"

"Ah, I'll be OK." He said. "I've been in worse spots."

"Officer McNichol," Jillian said carefully, "I really think it would be better if you went with Aiko. Perhaps even on point. You are much better armed than your partner, and right now we don't know what might be waiting at the end of the emergency exit. Not only is the neighborhood unpredictable to say the least, but currently I have no surveillance of the area. Red has me completely cut off from my remotes."

Frowning, Leon said, "Who the hell is Red?"

Jillian sighed, and said, "That would take a long time to explain, Officer McNichol. But I promise, if we all make it out of here, I'll tell you everything I know. And if that's going to happen, we need to move."

"Ah, what the hell," Leon said. "OK, I'll take point. Nene, you take care of the girl, and try to keep her between us. That's probably the safest place to be." And then, turning back to Jillian, he said, "So where's this back door of yours?"

"It's-" Jillian began, pointing, but was abruptly interrupted by Aiko, who said, "But Jillian! You can't stay down here! You have to come with me! Please!"

Dropping to a knee so that she was eye to eye with the little girl, Jillian said quietly, "Aiko, honey, I wish I could do that. But if I don't stay down here and help these two, it's very possible that no one will make it out of here. They're Knight Sabers, and they're very good at what they do, but Officer McNichol was right. The more fire-power available down here the better. With any luck, we'll take them out entirely instead of just slowing them down."

Aiko, frowning, looked down and, in a small voice, said, "Jillian, I'm afraid. I'm afraid that if I leave without you, I'll never see you again. That you'll die down here and leave me all alone."

Jillian reached out and, taking Aiko into her arms, said, "Oh, Aiko, honey, you know I won't do that. Someway, somehow, I'll come to you. I love you, and I won't leave you alone."

Leon, stunned, turned to Nene, who's expression was a mirror of his own, and then both turned toward the two Knight Sabers with a quiet, collective, "What the-?"

Linna, quiet until now, said, "We're not sure either. But who are we to judge? They both seem happy."

Leon, shaking his head slowly, said, "I might as well retire. I've seen it all now." And then, directed toward Jillian and the little girl, "Hey, I hate to break this up, but you were going to show us the way out. Can we get on with it?"

Reluctantly breaking their embrace, Jillian looked Aiko in the eye and said, "Aiko?"

The little girl sighed, and said, "OK, I'll go. But you promised, Jillian. You promised that you'd come back to me, and I'll never forgive you if you don't."

Jillian swallowed, fighting back tears, and, standing, said, "Alright. Officer McNichol? If you'll follow me, please."