On the other side of town I'm driving back to the station after running down a lead. It wasn't worthwhile, and it led to another dead end. I need a break, or Hetty will have my head. That was until Kensi blew up my receiver.
"Hey, D-Deeks." Kensi said her picture appearing on the view screen and then disappearing. There's distortion on her end of the call.
"Huh?" I say.
I tap the view screen in an attempt to get a clearer signal.
"Deeks!" Kensi says.
"No." I say.
My windshield has about six or seven view screen, all from Kensi. There's an echo from a time delay between her sending all these messages, and my receiving said messages. I scan the windshield, unsure of which screen to look at.
"Deeks, I need your help. It's D'Anclaude again. Please. I need you. Something happened to Dominic. We need you. Deeks, don't-"
Then my windshield went blank. I brought up the G.P.S. and located Kensi position. Once I located her, I turned the car around and made a beeline for Kensi.
M.A.M.
Hetty's office-
Hetty was in the middle of an important meeting with people from Earths' government, and it was making her head spin. Hetty was on her couch, and her visitors were sitting in the chairs across from her.
"So one of my men got a little carried away. Hmm, well-" Hetty says.
"I'm Judicial Vice Minister Jessup, and I'm visiting as a representative of the Legal Affairs Bureau. I need an accurate picture of the M.P.D.'s operations." Jessup said.
"I'm just a bit confused." Hetty said, a hand resting on her chin. "Help me understand why an inspector from Earth's government has come here, hmm?"
"Oh, don't mind me Lieutenant. I'm simply an observer for Mr. Jessup. Think of me merely as a fly on the wall." Jessup's partner said, who was a woman.
Hetty groans. "Well, since you're observing, I'm sure you've noticed the robots here on Mars don't quite reflect a feminist society." Hetty said, first looking at the woman and then to Jessup.
"Very well. You understand us, uh, Miss, uh, Lange. Let's call it a day and have lunch." Jessup said.
M.A.M.
On a cliff overlooking the city is where we erect a cross to Dominic. It's not much of a cross, though. A was a couple a pieces metal tied together in the shape of a cross, but it gets the job done. I stare at the cross for a few second, and then I hang Dom's hat on it. I turn and walk over to Kensi, who was a few feet away from and still upset about Dom's death. As cops we see death all the time, but you never quite get used to, or over the death of a child or teenager. I make my way over to her slowly, not wanting to set her off and be attacked. I can see her hair blowing in the wind. I tap Kensi gently on her shoulder, I heard her gasp and saw her flinch. By the time my hand had returned to my side Kensi had looked up at me, and I could see that she had still been crying. I could still see the tears in her eyes, a few tears were sliding down her cheek, and her face was a bit splotchy from crying.
We stared at each other for a few brief seconds before my phone started beeping. I reached into my jacket and pulled my phone out. I stared at it for a few seconds, and then looked back at Kensi. Our gazes were locked on each other for a few moments, the phones beeping was the only thing that could be heard. Kensi had the look of a child who thought they were about to be abandoned, and then turned away from me, looking back at the ground in front of her. I clamp my hand around my phone, and then run to the cliff. I wind up like I'm pitch a baseball, and hurl my phone off the cliff. I can see the sun's rays reflecting off the phone, and I can hear the beeping fade into nothingness as the phone leaves my range of hearing.
"I'm sick of the whole darn system." I say.
I turn and make my way back to Kensi. I see that Kensi attention was already on me, I guess she had watched me throw the phone over the side. At Kensi side, I kneel down next to her, resting a hand on her shoulder.
"Kensi, didn't Dominic say that his memory was backup and stored somewhere?" I ask.
"The backup?" Kensi asked. It just dawned on her what I was getting at.
"That's right. If we can somehow access his data, we could still bring him back. Get it?" I ask, as I pick Kensi up, placing her on her feet. "His body's gone, but his mind is still alive."
Kensi gasps, and then runs over to Dom's cross. She didn't do anything at first just stared out over the city. "Funny, I didn't think I would miss him so much. Maybe his information will help us and avenge his death as well. Dominic said he was going to meet the real D'Anclaude. Maybe he was telling us we could do the same."
Halfway through her speech I see Kensi touch the cross with her hand, and run it across the crossbar to the edge. Her hand is still resting on the cross as I make my way over to her. I walk up behind Kensi, wrapping a comforting arm around her shoulder, as I rest my hand on her shoulder.
"Deeks?" Kensi says, removing her hand from the cross and resting it on my hand as she looked up at me.
"Shenora, right?" I ask.
"Will you come with me?" Kensi asks.
I give Kensi a slight smile, and then we leave the site. Kensi gives Dom one last good-bye, and then we leave. We make a stop to pick up some gear before making the assault on the hospital.
M.A.M.
The station house-
A few hours later Eric and Eddie were at a computer station in a darkened bullpen in a secluded part of the station. There was an alert that had been issued, and Eric was looking into it. The alert got Eddie's attention.
"What's up?" Eddie asked, leaning down to get a better look at the screen.
"The internal troops are active." Eric said.
"Are we at war?" Eddie asked.
"No. They're guarding." Eric said.
"What, the president?" Eddie asked.
"No, Shenora Hospital." Eric said.
"Shenora?" Eddie asked incredulously.
Eric accessed the live feed. At first they saw Shenora Hospital on a camera from about ten blocks away. Then Eric scrolled through all the cameras tied to the main system until he found one that had a bird's eye view of the entrance to the hospital. Eric zoomed the camera in as far as it could go. Out in front of the hospital there were about four tanks, and six cruisers.
"What the? Will you look at that arsenal? What the heck are they doing there?" Eddie exclaimed.
The audio functional picked up a new sound. "Hold on a minute. I'm picking something up." Eric said.
Eric changed the screen to a topographical map of that section of the city. They saw a beeping on the map heading towards the hospital.
"What is it? Ah, it's just a car." Eddie said. There was a moment of silence before either one of them spoke. "Huh?" Eddie said, and then he gasped when he saw the building labeled Shenora glowed a bright red. On the live feed they saw that the car had collided with one of the tanks causing a massive explosion. Not only was the tank destroy, but some of the munitions that were in the area were set off, causing a massive fireball to rise up in front of the hospital.
"Holy crap." Eddie said dryly.
The troops looked in the direction that car had come from, and they could see the silhouette of two people. One that was tall, muscular, and you could see he blue eyes piercing the darkness. He had a grenade launcher resting on his right shoulder. The other was slightly shorter, slender female, and she was wearing a visor.
"They've lost it." Eddie said in object horror at the scene they had just watched. Eric was too stunned to comment.
M.A.M.
Shenora Hospital-
"Fire!" one of the troops shouted.
The closes tank fired off a round that exploded mere inches from Kensi and I, and all she did was smile. The driver watched the smoked clear to see Kensi, unharmed, charge the line of troops. Kensi shoulder checked the tank that fired at us, knocking it onto its side, and then jumped up onto the tank. Kensi sat there on the tank, not doing anything, as if the bullets being shot from the automatic rifles had no effect on her. She dodge a couple bullets, one even shatter her visor, but she wasn't even phased by it. When the bullet shattered her visor, Kensi cracked a smile, and drew back her fist. Kensi had grabbed an attachment to allow to punch through metal, but still gave her hand full mobility. When Kensi punched into the panel of the tank it exploded.
Kensi jumped off the tank with little effort, and her clothes weren't even burned by the explosion. She landed on a cruiser several yards away from the now destroyed tank, while the rest of the troops were distracted by the wreckage of the tank. Just as Kensi renewed her attack, the nearest trooper had turned and looked at her. She attacked it, and saw that it was a robot. The internal troops were a mix of robot and human troops. And the next one she attacked was a robot. Just as the rest of the troops had trained their guns on her and were ready to fire, I fired a round from my launcher and blow the head off one of the robot troops. I fire two, or three more rounds, wiping the rest of the rest of the troops.
We entered the hospital, and started running. Kensi must have already accessed the hospital mainframe, and found D'Anclaude's room. It was nowhere near the front door. Halfway through I run, I heard troops come up behind us. In mid run, I grunted as I threw a grenade that took out the squad of troops that were following us. Kensi stops short and tells me to blow out a section of the wall in front of us. After the smoke and dust clears, Kensi jumps through the hole and approaches the door that's protected by a security badge and a password.
"Here." Kensi says.
The doors slide open, and Kensi gasps in surprise to a man tied down to a bed, with his body hooked up to a machine, and an I.V. in his arm. I gasp, trying to catch my breath after running from the front doors, as I turn to look at our target.
"It's him. Finally, the real D'Anclaude. Or should I say Dr. Rene D'Anclaude?" I say, more a statement than a question.
I remain by the door, standing guard as Kensi approaches the bed. Kensi rest a hand on the side of the bed and stares at D'Anclaude's face. She stands there locked in a trance with the comatose man. That was until she heard a moan escape D'Anclaude's lips.
"You must be… Granger's daughter, the failure." D'Anclaude said.
Kensi glared angrily at D'Anclaude, and then climbed up on to his bed. Kensi started to unhook D'Anclaude from the machine, ripping the cords off of D'Anclaude's head and body, grunting as she pulled every cord. With every cord that was removed from his body, D'Anclaude moaned as if in pain.
"We gotta hurry. Come on." I say, still standing by the door. "Let's go while we still can."
Kensi steps off the bed with D'Anclaude's body draped over her shoulders, dropping to one knee. D'Anclaude weighs a considerable amount more than Kensi, so she had to get him situated before moving again. Kensi inhales sharply when she heard a squeaking sound in the distance.
"What's the matter?" I ask.
The squeaking continues some more.
"Deeks." Kensi said a look of sheer panic etch into her face.
I finally hear the squeaking noise too, and I start to sweep the room with my grenade launcher looking for the source of the squeaking.
"Something's coming." Kensi says.
"What is it?" I ask.
The words aren't even out of my mouth five seconds, and we hear glass shatter behind us. Through the hole in the glass we saw this gigantic cybernetic hand reach though, and clear out the rest of the glass. The next thing we see is a leg, followed by a very familiar sound: D'Anclaude's cackling. We staring in horror at the remodeling that was done to his body.
He was already a cyborg, but now he's something else. I thought.
The only part of his body that resemble any closing to being normal was his head and torso, everything else was robotic.
He went from a normal cyborg to a hulking goliath. I thought.
His hands and arms and four legs are about three times the size of his torso, and instead of feet he replaced them with wheels. D'Anclaude destroyed the wall so his whole body could enter the room. There are parts of his body that are missing skin: two spots on his forehead in the center and to the right of center. Parts of the right side of his face is missing, the right eye has no lids.
There are a lot of spots where the skin wasn't grafted on. I thought.
"Not again." I say.
"D'Anclaude. There's no way." Kensi says.
D'Anclaude continues cackling. "Hey, let's rumba."
D'Anclaude points one of his hands at us, and in the palm is a huge gun. We both get out of the line of fire, Kensi to the right and I make my way to the left. Kensi makes her way behind D'Anclaude while Dr. D'Anclaude is still hanging unconscious on her shoulders. There's a side exit that Kensi is making her way towards. D'Anclaude was turning to face Kensi, turning his back to me.
"Over here!" I shout, firing a grenade into D'Anclaude's back.
Without turning around D'Anclaude points his arm in my direction and fires at me. As I'm diving out of the way I lose my grenade launcher, and I scramble my way over to the door.
Kensi looks back to see if was following her. "This way! Hurry!"
Kensi starts running just as I was diving out of the room, hitting the wall. It takes me a few moments to get back to my feet, but I get up fast enough. Just as I get back to my feet and take off running I cover my ears, covering them just as the grenade that I tossed before I dove out of the room exploded. Smoke and dust can be seen in the hallway, or least I think it can be seen. Once I started running I didn't bother to look behind me.
"Wait! Don't run off! I want to play with you!" D'Anclaude exclaims, chuckling.
We're not even twenty yards down the hall from Dr. D'Anclaude's room before D'Anclaude comes barreling down the hall after us. I look over my shoulder in time to see a grinder of some sorts extend from D'Anclaude's pelvic region, and become active. I hear D'Anclaude start cackling some more.
"Come on. Wait." D'Anclaude says, which was followed by more cackling.
Kensi and Dr. D'Anclaude are having a conversation, which I did not catch because I was too busy concentrating on the task in front of me.
"There's no way that darn gargoyle's a Third type." Kensi says.
"Hmm? My, looks who talk? Don't tell me you have no clue who your brother was. You have more in common with that prototype gargoyle than you might realize. Did you truly believe you were a Third?" Dr. D'Anclaude asked.
"Liar." Kensi said.
"You could always ask Granger, but he's tucked away safely in a dome on Dunwich Hill." Dr. D'Anclaude said, with a devious look on his face.
I look over my shoulder and saw that we lost D'Anclaude, but when I turn around I see Kensi was stopping. She too was panting like me.
Ah crap! Not again! I think.
"Kensi. Don't stop." I say.
"No!" Kensi says.
"Oh, no. I can always tell when you're going to do something crazy." I say.
Kensi squares up, preparing to charge D'Anclaude when she gets an opening. D'Anclaude comes barreling around the corner and screeches to a halt when he's that we've stopped. I see smoke coming off of all four of D'Anclaude's wheels. There was a moment of silence before either of them spoke.
Just like the O.K. corral. I think.
"Hi, kids. Oh, does she want a showdown? We'll both go down fighting. That make everyone happy, 'cause you know, nobody on Mars wants us here." D'Anclaude says, and then starts cackling.
Kensi is gritting her teeth during his speech, and then loses it. "Wrong! You're the one who's through."
I can see electricity emanating from Kensi hand, and she glows white for a split second before charging D'Anclaude.
"No!" I exclaim.
I can hear Kensi grunting as she is running towards D'Anclaude. Kensi wasn't ten feet from both me and Dr. D'Anclaude when she leaps into the air, soaring towards D'Anclaude. I can hear the wheels groan as D'Anclaude backs away to put and hand between him and Kensi, which was useless. I can still hear D'Anclaude cackling until I hear Kensi shouting drowns it out. Kensi had punched her left fist into D'Anclaude's body causing a small explosion that I did not blow me off my feet, but I did have to cover my face because of the flying tiny parts that flew off of D'Anclaude's body.
"NO!" I shouted.
I couldn't see anything, but Kensi' arm was buried in D'Anclaude's chest up to her elbow and a scream was coming from D'Anclaude. It wasn't a normal scream, I could hear the circuits being fried. I had no idea what Kensi was trying to do, but I couldn't see her body moving at all. Kensi was trying to access D'Anclaude's memory core, and stop him from transferring his consciousness into another body. The heat of the forced entry was so extreme that it not only melted the shirt and sleeve off of Kensi body, but it also melted some of skin off too. Then there was a huge explosion when D'Anclaude's body was destroyed, allowing Kensi to penetrate his consciousness.
"Human suffering is such a unique privilege, isn't?" D'Anclaude asks.
Kensi' had one job, and it was made simpler when she found out the truth about D'Anclaude.
"He's pure data! Cease function!" Kensi said erasing the program.
Kensi could hear D'Anclaude screaming as his consciousness was bring destroyed. It took Kensi a few moments to come back to her senses, but when she did Kensi realized that we were in a car driving for a safe place that was as far away from Shenora Hospital as possible.