Chapter 8

Raleigh, North Carolina

The black SUV pulled up, in front of the N.C. Capital Building. Detective Shroud, General Gutsman, and King Wily stepped out, eying the carnage left behind. Destroyed vehicles sat, smoking in the street, bodies were being loaded up into a large, flatbed truck, and scrawled across the wall, in big black letters, was a message. "Hail to the Wraiths" it read, same as all the other compounds they leveled or disabled.

Wily looked over at Shroud, saying nothing. The badly injured guard, that was pulled from one of the cars, was helped over to them. "What the hell happened here?" Wily asked him.

The guard coughed a few times, then responded. "When we got here, all of the men on the outside were dead, Sir. The big one, with the steel arms, decimated the reinforcements, as we arrived. Everything happened so fast, Sir. Then it was just over, like that. They were just gone."

The three stepped inside, to see a slaughterhouse. Hundreds of their men, cut into pieces, or full of holes. Guards were rounding up the civilians, keeping them to one side of the room. "Have the men reported on Maglia yet?" Wily asked.

Shroud looked around the room, before replying, "They have not, Sir. But I think you and I know that he's not among the dead, and I'm certain that he isn't here, either. They didn't pick this place out of a hat, and they didn't take the civilians with them. The machinery is trashed, but not irreparable. A classic 'smash and grab'."

Wily seethed, gritting his teeth. "Do you have any fucking idea, what he can tell them?" He said, quietly, to Shroud.

Shroud grinned, "Yes, I do."

"Is there any specific reason, that you find that funny?" Wily asked.

Shroud looked over at him, "Sir, if he tells them everything that they want to know, which he will. Then I know exactly where they will be going next." Wily began to nod, as the detective continued, "Maglia is going to lead them directly to me, thus eliminating the need for me to find them."

Chesapeake, Virginia

When Maglia came to, the world was dark. His eyes were open but he couldn't see anything. He was sitting down, and when he tried to raise his hands they were stopped, by steel cables. "Where am I?!" He demanded to know, when the bag was pulled from his head. The immediate flood of light blinded him, momentarily. When he heard a British voice.

"Eve'nin friend. How'd ya sleep?" Glitch asked.

"You're wasting your time, you piece of shit. I've got nothing for you." He spit out, angrily. His vision leveled, to see the stocky Brit, smoking a cigarette.

"Ah, but ya see, we know ya do. So 'ow about we skip the messiness, and you just spill da beans, eh?" Glitch said.

Maglia scoffed, "What are you gonna do? Smack around a little?" He chuckled, "You self-righteous hero-types are all the same. You won't stoop low enough, to get what you want, so go ahead, get your hands dirty."

Glitch giggled, as he took a drag of his cigarette, "Hero-types, huh?" He laughed again, crouching down, close to Maglia's face, "Even when da world was day-ta-day regular, we've never been the hero-type." He said, before putting his cigarette out in the man's eye.

Maglia screamed, in agony, as Glitch walked out, whistling. He continued to scream for a few minutes before the door opened, again. This time Glitch came back in, followed by Scott, the man Maglia had known as "Break" from his files. "Ya know what dis bloke does, right? Ya read his dossier, I take it?"

Maglia nodded, as Scott began to undo his restraints. He started to get nervous, "Wait, wait, what are you doing?"

Scott looked at him, "You're gonna stand up, Glitch over there is gonna ask you a question, if you refuse to answer, or lie, we go into round one."

"Are you serious? This is ridiculous. So your threatening to beat me up? I think I'll just tell you now that I'm going to refuse to answer. I've been beat up plenty by my old man. It's nothing new." He said defiantly.

Glitch laughed, "We call 'im Break, Mr. Maglia, how do ya think the rounds are gonna end."

"Hold on..." Maglia started.

"Round One, ding." Glitch interrupted.

Before he could protest, Scott grabbed him by the back of his head, flipping him to the floor. He wrenched Maglia's right elbow under his arm, and casually snapped his pinky finger backward. The Secretary of State screamed, again. "There are two-hundred and six bones in the human body, Mr. Maglia. That's one." Scott said.

"Terminator?" Glitch asked from behind him.

Scott looked back and chuckled, "Terminator Two, to be exact." He said, "Actually seems kinda fitting, now that I think about it."

"Ask your fucking question!" Maglia shouted, from the floor.

"Well dat changed, on a dime." Glitch said, "When Wily ran for VP, you were his number one fundin' source, yet ya only knew the twat for a month or so. You were also granted a large donation, as soon as he took office. Now, dats an obvious display of dirty politics, but what we wanna know is, how does one man overthrow an entire nation?"

"He has a disgusting amount of robots and death machines." Maglia said, "You broke my finger for that? Everybody knows that!"

Glitch nodded to Scott, who pulled him back to his feet. "Wait, I answered your question!"

"There's more to it than that, an ya fuckin' know it. I was hopin' y'd be smart enough ta tell me what I don't know." Glitch said, "Round Two."

Maglia threw a sloppy left hook at Scott, who avoided it easily, sweeping the man's leg, and twisting his foot around. He yelled out again, as Glitch cringed, "Jesus, mate." He said to Scott.

The door flew open, and to his surprise, in walked Detective Shroud. "Maglia, they have us cornered! Tell them everything." He demanded.

"You're not Shroud." Maglia said, through his groaning.

Glitch looked over at Shroud and said quietly, "Ya fuckin' serious, right now, mate?"

Shroud shrugged, changing back into the masked Helix, "Worth a shot, man." He said, walking out.

Glitch shook his head, as the door closed, "Tell us what da missin' piece is, Maglia. How does he fit inta all dis?" He asked nodding toward the closed door.

Maglia shook his head, "I don't know. He's one of your guys." He said.

"Not Helix, ya bloody twat, Shroud. He's a main factor, but how?" He asked.

Maglia nodded, "Okay. Fine." He said, climbing back into the chair. "I had a deal with Wily, to get him into office, and overturn the A.I. Ban. Detective Dobbs accepted a large some of money, to sabotage Vice President Carrol's limousine, make his death look like an accident. Once that was done, I pulled some strings to get Wily elected. I had no idea that he was going to go psychotic like he did, though."

Scott looked at him, "And what did you get out of all this?"

"Twenty percent of all of Wily Industries' profits." He scoffed, "That money is useless now, but when this all went down, this takeover, he put me up in the Capital Building and promised me three states."

"So what about Dobbs, why'd he fake 'is death, if he was in on the whole thing?" Glitch asked.

"The answer to that also answers your first question. Dobbs didn't fake his death, he is dead." Maglia said.

"That doesn't make any sense, Maglia. Let's make it so it does." Scott requested.

Maglia chuckled, "Dobbs was killed, by Shroud. The detective walking around with his face, is an android, an artificial life form."

The two were stunned, "Bullshit! Round Three!" Glitch said.

Scott began to pull him back up, when Maglia started panicking, "It's not bullshit, I swear! That's how Wily was able to overthrow the country! He had dozens of them already here, living amongst you! Shroud is the one who coordinated all of them, when Wily gave the signal!"

Scott stopped, "So you're telling me, that there are people that are walking around, that are actually androids?" He chuckled, "Where do we find their headquarters, Cyberdyne?"

"Two Terminator references?" Glitch asked.

"Sorry, it's just so easy, these days." Scott replied.

Maglia interrupted them, "Look, Shroud's personal headquarters is in Tennessee, it's a place called The Hermitage. He's never there, because he's always looking for you, frankly. But if you can get to his main hub, you'll get all the information you need on the androids."

The two men looked at one another. "Get dis bloke ta Red, bandage 'im up. I'll get a team together." Glitch said, before walking out.