Dopplegänger

IX.

"Burning the midnight oil, Inspector?" FBI agent Erskine asked, as he entered the room.

"You could call it that." McClane grumbled. "Thanks to Mr. Hiegoyaji here I think I now know the nature of the threat we are facing. In fact, I'm worried that something may be afoot at this very moment."

"The transfer won't take place until high noon tomorrow when the representatives from the foreign power come to officially take possession of their gold," Erskine said. "Between the two of us we've got the route covered."

"Somehow I doubt that the plans of our Mr. Sankaku involve hijacking the shipment in route." McClane said. "I think when you guys open the vault tomorrow, you're going to find that the cookie jar has been picked clean."

"That's impossible." Erskine laughed. "Didn't your read the full spec's on that vault?"

"Yeah I did." McClane said, turning his laptop around so it faced Mustachio. "Hiegoyaji-san. Can you access the information that you told me about?"

"Yes I think I remember the passwords." Mustachio said, quickly typing on the keyboard. The Institute of Science's internal web server opened and Hiegoyaji managed to find the secret documents that contained Astro's blueprints. "Got it!" he said. "But I'm going to have to wipe the browsers cache when we're done."

"I totally understand." McClane nodded. "Here, Agent Erskine, please read this!"

Lewis Erskine scanned the document. He whistled as he read some of the details. "What the hell is this thing!" he cried out.

"That 'thing', as you call it, happens to be one of my best students!" Mustachio said with his arms crossed. "He is an advanced android developed some years ago by the former head of the Japanese Ministry of Science to replace his 'dead' son. That robot was built with enough power and weapons to make him a superhero, a job that he has selflessly performed many times."

"The thing is, Agent Erskine, this robot, whose name happens to be Astro, is being forced against his will to break into that vault. And if you've read those blueprints, you know that he is totally capable of doing that." McClane said. "Now it also appears that Dr. Tenma's 'dead' son Tobio, who Astro was built to replace, is actually quite alive and well and living in this city with his mother who is also not as dead as we first thought. The two of them are working for this Kin Sankaku, possibly against their will, perhaps he has some financial hold over her."

"What I can't understand is why Astro hasn't figured out a way to somehow let us know what is going on." Mustachio said. "He's usually quite resourceful, and would have figured out some way to contact the authorities."

"He's under duress because Sankaku is holding Professor Ochanomizu hostage." McClane explained.

"He'd still find a way!" Mustachio insisted.

At that moment Erskine's cell phone started making a very loud warning sound. The FBI agent pulled the phone from his pocket and quickly tapped on the screen. "It seems you are both right," he said. "A motion sensor alarm was just triggered in the vault!"

Professor Ochanomizu was sitting in a large padded chair in a well decorated room. There were plenty of expensive paintings hanging on the walls, and quite a few marble and bronze statues on pedestals throughout the room. A tall Asian female wearing a dark lace veil over her face sat in another chair on the other side of the room. She wore thin cotton gloves on her hands, and nervously held a cigarette in a long thin holder in one hand, and a small caliber pistol in the other.

"You're not going to shoot me, are you?" Ochanomizu asked. "Why don't you put that gun away, before it goes off by accident. You're shaking like a leaf!"

"Just be quiet, Hakase," She said, looking at her cellphone. "Don't make this any harder than it already is."

"Oh come on," the professor replied. "I've already figured out who you are. That disguise is paper thin, and I recognize the voice."

"Damn you Elefun!" she yelled out, and then clamped a hand over her mouth as if to try and take back her last outburst.

"That only confirms it, Hoshie," he said. "Only my godson and his mother ever called me by that nickname!"

Hoshie dropped the cigarette to the floor and stuffed the gun into her cleavage. She put her hands over her face under the veil and started to sob. "You have no idea what I've been going though!" she said. "Do you know how difficult it was to stand by and watch Umataro mistreat my son? His lawyers and a bought judge handed down an iron clad divorce settlement that left me out in the cold with no visitation rights. I had to stand by while his fame grew. I only heard second hand how smart my son was, and how well he was doing in school. After he went insane and was committed to that mental hospital I was able to reverse that divorce agreement and take over his estate.

But I'd nearly lost it when Tobio had that fatal accident, and I found out how Umataro had cold heartedly pushed him aside and built that, that robot to replace him, only to abandon that too! I tried to commit suicide, which ironically may have been the best thing I'd ever done. Kuro Hazama Sensai saved my life, and he also confided in me that Tobio was still alive. That bastard Umataro had donated my son's comatose body to science, and Dr. Black Jack had found him and revived him. Kuro faked my death by forging the required documents and helped me sneak out of the country with Tobio. But things haven't gone that well for us here."

Ochanomizu carefully got up out of the chair and approached Hoshie. She saw him move and quickly retrieved the weapon from between her breasts. "No, Hakase! Stay away from me!" she said. "If Kin Sankaku calls me, I'll have to kill you and show him a picture of your dead body, or he'll kill Tobio! He's got me over a barrel, I'm deeply in dept to him for over ¥10,000,000."

FBI Agent Erskine stared at his phone. "Only one of the passive motion detectors went off. None of the active ones did. That doesn't make much sense."

"Astro can see in the IR spectrum." Mustachio said, "He could have avoided the active sensors if he wanted to, and he wouldn't be effected by the passive ones, his body doesn't have a heat signature like a living being."

"That makes sense." McClane laughed. "Erskine, your security system has been hacked. Tojo must have deactivated the active system but left the passive one active to fool you. With only part of the system disabled, the part that actually mattered, he made it look like the vault was still secure. I bet Astro figured out how to trigger the passive alarm to let us know that the break in is going down."

McClane took the laptop and quickly brought up the schematics he'd been looking at earlier. "Look, do you see how these abandoned subway tunnels intersect with the bank?"

Erskine nodded. "Yes, but you've got a few hundred yards of solid bedrock you'd have to drill though to reach the vault, and almost a foot of hard steel after that."

"Which would be like pushing a hot knife though butter for Astro!" Mustachio yelled at him.

Erskine let that sink in for a moment and then face palmed. The FBI agent then dialed his phone and started barking orders. "This is special agent Erskine! We have a code red alert here. Get our forces in place by the river near the abandoned subway tunnel! Also send a squad over to the bullion depositary. We're under attack and we've been breached!"

The pile of gold bars was now several feet above the sides of the truck bed, and the reworked suspension was almost bottomed out. "I don't think your truck is going to carry any more gold." Astro told Kin Sankaku.

"Let me see." Sankaku spoke into the iPad's microphone. Astro gazed at the truck and shared the image with the criminal. "That will do." Sankaku said. "Let's head out of here."

Tojo and Sankaku walked back to the truck and got into the cab, Astro sat on the rear bumper. Kim started the engine and put the vehicle into gear. The truck tried move under the tremendous weight sitting in its bed, the transmission moaned and the gears ground. Finally after carefully babying the clutch he managed to get it moving. The floor of the tunnel was unpaved with lots of loose gravel, dirt, and damp muck. It provided poor traction, and the overloaded tires kept sinking into the soft surface.

"Get out and push!" Sankaku ordered Astro.

The effort was even too much for Astro. His feet kept slipping on the ground as he couldn't get enough grip. "Do something Baka!" Sankaku yelled "If we don't get out of this tunnel with our cargo your Hakase is as good as dead!"

Astro tried again to push the truck, but could get no traction. Finally in desperation he grabbed onto the bumper and fired up his leg jets. That did it! Astro had to carefully regulate his power, he didn't want to go too fast with this kind of load.

"Excellent!" Sankaku yelled back. "Keep us going slow and steady." He put the truck into neutral and let Astro provide all of the motive power.

Inspector McClane flipped a mental coin and joined the contingent of G-men surrounding the area at the west end of the abandoned subway tunnel. There were several places where the tunnel could be accessed from the street, but the one that he was banking on was the one closest to the Hudson river. The FBI placed their agents at each of the possible access places to hedge their bets.

Special Agent Erskine took a few of the cops from McClane's precinct with him, along with the remaining FBI agents and they converged on the bank. Sure enough, just as McClane had predicted most of the gold bullion had been removed from the vault. Erskine quickly doubled back across town to meet up with McClane at the mouth of the tunnel. He arrived to find that he wasn't too late.

"What's the word?" he asked.

"Our men stationed at the eastern access points report they've heard movement in the tunnel heading this way." McClane told him. "Just as I predicted, they're heading for the river. I'm going to set up a road block just past the mouth of the tunnel. We'll have them surrounded as soon as they exit."

"Sounds like a good plan." Erskine agreed. "Order your men stationed to the east to hurry back here."

"Already done that." McClane replied. "We got them."

The truck loaded with the gold bullion rolled along, its suspension creaking under the weight of its cargo. "We're almost at the river now." Tojo said, looking at the map on his iPad. "We've passed the other access points already."

"Good." Kim said. He felt in his pocket for the gun. He didn't know if he'd been double crossed, but he had a few aces up his sleeve just in case.

The truck emerged from the tunnel into darkness. Suddenly the headlights of a dozen police and unmarked federal cars blazed into their eyes. A half dozen more were behind them.

"Give it up, Sankaku!" McClane bellowed from a bullhorn. "We've got you surrounded!"

Kin Sankaku pulled the gun from his pocket and pointed it at Tojo's head.

"Clear a path for me or the boy gets it!" He yelled out the driver's side window. He then spoke to Tojo. "If you value your life, you tell Astro to fly us out of this trap!"

Tojo gritted his teeth and started typing on his iPad to send a message to Astro that he'd already prepared.

Astro saw the police ambush as soon as they emerged from the tunnel. For a moment he was pleased that his plan had worked, then he burned with anger at Sankaku when he heard the man's threat. Suddenly Astro's heads up display activated as Tojo sent him a text message with Kin's demands, and the boy's own plans. It would be dangerous, and the timing critical, but if Tojo wasn't afraid to even suggest it, Astro was willing to go along.

Astro let go of his grip on the truck's bumper and quickly dug a short tunnel into the ground beneath it. He popped up under the vehicle and grabbed onto its frame. He then fired up his leg jets again and lifted the truck into the air, flying it above the road block. Astro headed for the Hudson river where Sankaku had a barge waiting for him.

The cops and the G-men dropped their jaws in astonishment as the truck blasted off the ground and zoomed over their heads. McClane babbled "I'll be a monkey's uncle!", while agent Erskine looked at Mustachio and demanded "What is that damn robot doing now!"

Sankaku lowered his gun the moment the truck became airborne. He seemed pleased with himself that he was getting away with the crime of the century. He didn't notice the slight turn that Astro had just executed, and the fact that the truck was loosing altitude. Tojo pushed the window panel behind him open. He braced himself by grabbing hold of his seat belt, he noticed with satisfaction that Sankaku had failed to belt himself in. He then typed one word on the iPad. "Hai!"

Astro got the message. He turned the truck on its side and started to gain altitude. He reached over and opened the driver's side door of the truck. Gold bars spilled out of the truck's bed and fell into the river. Not restrained by a seat belt, Kin Sankaku fell out of the truck and made a splash landing into the Hudson. With the bed of the trunk now empty Tojo climbed though the open rear window onto the bed of the truck and jumped. Astro caught him after letting go of the truck, which smashed into the river and quickly sank.