Keira held the map up to the huge metal door. It was one of two leading into the warehouse. Rayn's headquarters stretched up behind it. It was of average height, illuminated but not too flashy, and it advertised an adjacent building's collection of stores, known to sell mediocre products.
"Hmm. North is that way." Keira flipped the map upside-down. "Warehouse, warehouse." She glanced around, identified the loading bay, and oriented herself. "Looks like a straight line to the garage."
Holding the courier card between her first finger and thumb, she swiped it through a groove. Three tiny green lights came on and the door shuddered open. Keira ducked under, tucked the card into her pocket, and pulled her hood back.
The warehouse was huge and lit with bare, dust-choked ceiling bulbs. There was the familiar smell of burned rubber and grease. Vehicle parts lined the cracked cement floor perimeter by size; stackable, cheap frames towered to her right, followed by piles of old tires, boxes of assorted parts, and so on, down to a few bunches of antennae wound together with twine. The middle of the floor seemed to disappear at odd angles. Keira walked toward it, glancing at the doors every so often.
"Oh. An on-ramp." Keira squatted and peered down as far as she could. A below-city roadway had been constructed with an offshoot up into the warehouse. A couple of one-way lanes were outlined in faint yellow paint. Skid marks tracked across the floor and down-ramp again. "Hmm. I wonder if the exit lane leads to the garage."
She stood and regarded all the parts. "I also wonder if there's anything good here." With a smile, she rifled through the boxes and piles. "Ooh! Look at these!" She squeaked like a kangarat in an unguarded barley cellar and stripped an engine of its Precursor metal O-rings. "These are expensive!" Keira covered her fingers in oily rings and admired them in the light. "Gorgeous!"
Keira chuckled when she found a stash of assorted eco-conducting wires. "Yoink!" She unwound the spools, rewound the wire around her thighs, and smoothed her pant legs down. "Can't even tell."
"Oh, wow, look at this." She stepped over a pile of delicately inlaid golden swoop panels. "Eco-infused lenses!" Keira held a piece of glass up to the light. It glowed green. "Must be infused with blue eco. Mixes with the yellow light to make green. Neat." She filled her pockets with discs of assorted colors and hopped over to the next box.
"Aww, look at these cute little coils." Keira linked them together and looped them around her long ears. "I'm going to run out of room pretty soon! Oh, well, I guess I should find the garage, anyway." She walked carefully, trying not to clink her new findings together.
She paused at the top of the ramp, but didn't hear anything coming. She looked at the map. "I think this is the right way…." Keira shrugged and followed the down-ramp for a short distance, keeping close to the metal wall. Every so often she stepped over dark red stains smeared into the riveted floor. Visions of vehicles racing down the roadway and flattening her quickened her pace. The next up-ramp was steep and almost hidden by the curve of the road. Keira would have missed it if she hadn't noticed the spray painted, faded yellow "G". She leaned forward to keep her balance on the slippery incline.
"Ugh!" She grabbed a railing and pulled herself up. The glass in her pockets jostled. An image of Ashelin shaking her head appeared in her mind's eye, and Keira ducked. She pulled the haz-mat cloak around her and crawled up into the garage.
It was smaller but better-lit than the warehouse. Keira straightened and pushed the hood back. "Wow. State-of-the-art." A few vehicles were on lifts, engine parts trailing down to the ground. The furnaces chugged away on the periphery. Drawers lined the walls. Eco containers of various strengths were piled neatly in the corner. A power cell converter had been taken from one of the vehicles and was hooked up to testing equipment. Keira smelled the dark eco powering the blasting furnace. She headed for it.
"These things," she said, inspecting the door carefully, "are always on. It takes forever to get them up to the right temperature, and it actually saves energy to keep them going all the time. So, where are you, off button?" Keira located a panel of buttons and levers. She input a sequence and patted the furnace door as it powered down.
Keira shut off all the furnaces and rerouted the cooling vents. "That does it for you guys," she said. "I wonder what's in all those drawers?" She tore through towers of metal chests. "Ah! Tools!" Keira tucked packs of small, jeweler's tools, for intricate work, into her boots. "Perfect for Tess!" She selected one of each tool for herself and tossed the rest into the back of the hottest furnace. Keira wrapped them in bunches and shoved them under her suspender straps where they crossed at her back. She shifted a bit, adjusting the weight.
"Phew." Keira wiped sweat off her forehead, leaving a greasy streak. She turned and eyed the lifted vehicles.
Keira drained all the fluids from the cars, sloppily mixed them together, and piped the bubbling solution back into the engines. "I've always wanted to do that!" She cut every wire she could reach, stabbed the tires with a power drill, and peeled back the brakes.
"Actually, why think so small?" Keira jammed the pneumatic lift valve with a tire iron. "Good luck getting your vehicles down, guys!"
Satisfied, she took another walk around the garage. "Oh, nice." Keira picked up a set of gloves. They were thick, designed to protect the skin from the hot furnaces, and the inside was lined with green eco wire. "These would be aweso-"
Tires squealed. Lights flashed across the ceiling. Keira startled and jammed the gloves into her shirt without thinking. A vehicle raced up the ramp and skidded to a stop. Keira ducked down, wincing as wires dug into her skin.
The vehicle door decompressed and opened.
Keira held her breath. She fanned her fingers on the floor, balancing on the balls of her feet.
"Rrrzzzerwhirrr?"
She squinted.
The headlights died, and she made out a figure rising from the red car. It was huge and oddly proportioned.
It whirred and turned mechanically.
"Whhh…zzr?"
UR-86 took in the haphazardly opened drawers, the cooling furnaces, and the oil slicks on the floor. Keira bit her lower lip. The robot turned in a circle again, scanning the room slowly.
It centered on her.
Keira's hands shook. She grabbed for her weapon. Not the gun; she had forgotten the gun.
"Target acquired." UR-86 thundered towards her, its heavy feet pounding the garage floor.
Keira pulled out her longest screwdriver and screamed.