Dopplegänger
VII.
Mustachio hid his face behind a copy of the New York Times opened to the international section. He periodically glanced around looking for suspects. Out of the corner of his eye he thought he saw Astro entering the station's main plaza, but then realized that he was seeing his ghostly double. "Tobio?" he gasped silently to himself.
Tojo entered the station wearing a pair of aviator style mirrored sunglasses. He ignored the no smoking signs and took a few puffs on a cigarette before dropping the fag to the ground to extinguish it under his shoe. The Asian boy didn't have very long to wait as Astro entered the plaza via the passageway from the Lexington Avenue subway line. Tojo recognized the boy robot immediately by his dark pointy cowlicks that were a remarkable copy of his own auburn locks. "We finally meet." he muttered to himself as he took a long route towards Astro to sneak up on him from behind.
"Don't turn around!" Tojo said holding a blunt object against Astro's back. "I wouldn't want to have to injure you."
Astro didn't turn his head, he'd already spotted Mustachio standing in the crowd between a newsstand and a ticket booth. "Ochanomizu Hakase had better not be harmed or you'll be the one injured!" Astro replied.
"Listen, Astro." Tojo said, "I've got an EMP pistol held against you so don't try any heroics or I'll drop you right here! Your Professor is quite fine, in fact at this moment he should be enjoying a nice snack courtesy of Mr. Sankaku. Now please just turn about and head back toward the IRT subway entrance. I'll be right behind you with this little robot taser on a hair trigger, so don't make any sudden moves."
Astro nodded his head and slowly turned to head back the way he had come. Higeoyaji rolled up his newspaper and stuffed it into his jacket pocket and followed the two boys, being careful to keep just far enough back to remain unnoticed.
The platform of the 42 Street-Grand Central station of the IRT Lexington Avenue line was crowded, despite the 90 second headway between arriving express trains. Astro stood just behind the movable metal platform extensions, as the PA speakers continuously warned passengers to stand clear of the moving platforms. The headlamps of an arriving uptown express train illuminated the rails which reflected the light upwards into Astro's eyes. He felt Tojo jab him in the back with the EMT gun as a reminder, just as the train started to brake. The two boys found themselves standing exactly in front of a set of doors as the eleven car train squealed to a halt. The metal grates of the platform extension moved a foot and a half forward to close the gap between the subway train an the curved platform, just a split second before the doors opened. In typical New York style, most of the passengers waiting for the arriving train didn't wait for those on board to get off before trying to barge their way in. Astro was more courteous and waited for the out going crowd to thin out before making his way into the train, followed by his dopplegänger. Mustachio waited to see which car the two boys got onto before boarding the one behind them. He made his way to the 'storm door' between the two cars and monitored them though the window from the southern car.
Astro was too short to reach the strap hanger attached to the ceiling of the car, so he held onto one of the upright poles. Tojo braced himself against the trains lurching by spreading his legs for a wider stance. The express train quickly picked up speed, flying past several local stations before entering the 59th street station. Tojo pulled Astro toward the doors and took a half step out of the train. Mustachio quickly made a move to exit his car, but didn't see the boys on the platform. Too late, he realized he'd been faked out. Tojo pulled Astro back into the train just as the doors closed. Mustachio tried to put his arm between the closing panels of the door to get back into the train, but didn't have the strength. Rather than risk being smeared against the walls of the tunnel, he gave up on the idea of hanging onto the outside of the train. As the next to last car started to pass by him, he noticed that the buffer gates between the last two cars were damaged, leaving a sizable gap. The agile Tokyoite detective took a flying leap, and manged to wedge himself between the cars. Holding on to the edges of the car, he got a foothold onto the small platform just outside the storm door of the next to last car. He grabbed the handle to open the door, and entered the train with a great sigh of relief.
Higeoyaji was now four cars behind his subjects, and he ran quickly though the crowded train to reach the car where the two boys were riding. "Sumimasen" he repeated each time he bumped into someone in his haste to reach the middle of the train before the next station. The train was now slowing down as it approached the 86th street station. Once again Tojo pulled Astro towards the door, only this time the two of them ran though the turnstiles and headed toward the street. Mustachio followed them panting heavily, trying to catch his breath.
Tojo led Astro into an office building on 86th street, about a half a block west of Lexington Avenue. They took an elevator up to the top floor of the building and entered an office suite. The complex was barren, with few desks or any of the usual office furniture one might expect in such a place. There were quite a few computers however, several dozen high powered rack mounted IBM blade servers, and a number of 17" screen laptops.
"You any good at hacking?" the boy asked Astro.
"I've got a computer brain you know." the boy robot answered.
"Well DUH!" Tojo sneered. "but are you any good at code breaking?"
"Never tried." Astro replied.
"Doesn't matter." Tojo answered, "I'm good enough. You're only the brawn of this project anyway."
"What do you want from me, and more important, where is Ochanomizu Hakase?" Astro demanded.
"If you thought I was going to bring you to where we've got the professor sacked you're dumber than I thought." Tojo told Astro. He walked over to one of the laptops and quickly moved the mouse and typed some commands onto the keyboard. A Skype like connection opened up, and Professor Ochanomizu's face appeared on the screen. Astro moved in front of the laptop.
"Astro, where are you?" the professor asked. "Are you OK?"
Astro could see from the professor's face in the web cam view that he was unharmed. "I'm OK, Hakase. I thought I was being taken to see you, but not directly I guess."
Tojo pushed Astro away from the computer, and looked into the web cam. "Both of you will be fine, at least if Astro cooperates with us." the boy told the professor. He shut down the video link. "Mr. Sankaku will be here soon and he'll explain exactly what we want you to do. In the meanwhile, you need to study these blueprints."
Tojo opened up a PDF file he and Kin Sankaku had assembled from documents stolen from the federal computer networks. "Memorize these maps and plans." Tojo told Astro. "You'll need to know the layouts of the underground passageways when the time comes." He pushed Astro into a chair in front of the computer. "I'll be back soon. Don't even think of trying anything, this room is monitored and I'll know if you move from this spot. So will Sankaku-San, and that won't be good for your Hakase!"
Astro pushed the computer mouse around as he scrolled though the documents. The blueprints covered several different layers of a vast underground network of railroad tunnels, passageways, water viaducts, steam pipes, and wiring conduits. It was a civil engineer's nightmare, New York City's secret underground infrastructure. It didn't take Astro very long to discover what Tojo and his boss were interested in. The network of tunnels that comprised existing tracks of the subway system, and unused tunnels never put into service, one of which linked up with the river and the sub-sub-sub basement of a bank vault somewhere in the midtown area. It didn't take a genius to figure out what these clowns had in mind. Astro memorized every detail of the plans. He wanted to get on line and try and dig up more details of the area outside of the scope of the blueprints, but he didn't dare get caught doing so. Ochanomizu's life could be in jeopardy if was caught.
Higeoyaji ran up the stairs from the subway and emerged into the squalid sunlight that filtered down between the tall buildings on either side of Lexington Avenue. He looked up and down the street but didn't immediately spot which way the two boys had run. He ran towards 86th Street and quickly looked east and west along the two way thoroughfare. Out of the corner of his eye he thought he saw Astro's cowlicks on the back of the head of a figure entering a building about halfway up the block to his west. He ran towards the building but by the time he got there the boys had already taken an elevator upstairs. He had now clue as to what floor, the elevator made several stops on the way up, they could have gotten off anywhere. As much as he didn't like the idea, he realized it was time to contact the police.
Inspector McClane was sitting in the back of the squad car being driven downtown from a meeting up in The Bronx. He wasn't used to not driving his own unmarked car, being chauffeured around in a common squad vehicle seemed degrading to him, but the captain had insisted. The FBI had set up the meeting way uptown to avoid suspicion, now he was heading back to his own precinct to finalize the arrangements for guarding the gold transfer tomorrow.
Mustachio walked down 86th street heading back to the subway when he spotted the police car heading south on Lexington Avenue. He ran into the street in the path of on coming traffic to wave down the squad car like a taxi cab. The policeman driving the vehicle slammed on his brakes to avoid hitting the Tokyoite. McClane rolled down his window and stuck his head and shoulders though it. "Hey old man, are you nuts?" he yelled.
"I need police help!" Mustachio said between breaths. "A good friend of mine visiting this city was kidnapped a few hours ago. I've been trailing the suspect, but lost him in a building just west of here on 86th street."
"Not a good idea trying to intervene yourself in such matters." McClane told Mustachio.
"Well I'll have you know that I'm a rather good detective myself, back in Tokyo," Higeoyaji barked back, "and Professor Ochanomizu is a very good friend of mine, so I had to do something."
McClane's jaw dropped for a moment. "Did you say Ochanomizu? Now what has that guy got himself into now?" he muttered out loud.
"You know the professor?" Mustachio asked.
"He was a person of interest in a recent museum heist." McClane said. "Seems a robot kid he brought with him is a dead ringer for the prime suspect."
Now it was Mustachio's turn to be shocked. "I was just trailing Astro and Tobio here!" he exclaimed.
McClane quickly put the facts together and got a sinking feeling in his gut. "Get in the car!" he ordered, kicking the door open. Mustachio climbed in next to the inspector. "Head west on 86th street!" McClane told his driver, NOW!"
The squad car made a bat turn and headed the half block north going the wrong way against traffic and made a turn onto 86th. "That's the building!" Mustachio said, pointing upward.
McClane yanked out his cellphone and called into the precinct. "I need you to look up an address and see if there is any connection with a Kim Sankaku," the inspector barked. He then turned to his driver. "Take us back to the precinct."