Date Point 3y 8m 2w 4d AV
“Suspect’s a white male, late thirties to early forties, brown hair and full beard, wearing a charcoal suit and red tie.”
Gabriel gritted his teeth as Jimmy Rowan took a chance turning right at an intersection without properly stopping to check it. It earned a few honks, but it gained a few seconds, and didn’t need him to hit the siren. The closer they could get without making that noise, the better their hopes that “Johnson” would still be in place when they arrived.
The Special Tactics team was well ahead of him. Copy that. We’re going in plain clothes, tag him, tranq him, side room and search. Do it right and nobody needs to know.”
Gabriel keyed his radio again as a red light mercifully turned green just in time.
“Be warned, he’s suspect in a bombing on the East Coast, could be wearing a vest.” he advised.
“We’ve got bomb squad.” the SWAT captain reassured him. “ETA one minute“
Dispatch’s voice cut into the conversation again. “Responding units, be advised we have report on a possible second shooter, loitering in the car park. Caller says she saw him get a rifle out of the trunk.”
The SWAT captain’s reply was terse. “Copy, Dispatch.”
There was nothing for it but to let Jimmy drive, and to pray.
Please God let my son be safe…
He tapped the voice recognition on his phone, and shouted at it over the sound of his howling engine. “Call Agent Hamilton!” he instructed.
Date Point 3y 8m 2w 4d AV
Six’s escape had been planned down to the finest detail on the assumption that nobody could spot him if he was part of a mob of panicked civilians fleeing a massacre.
He wasn’t prepared to just… leave, to abort the mission. That wasn’t a scenario that had been deemed possible.
+<Anxiety; stress> HOW?! Can they predict the future or something?+ he demanded over the thought-link.
+<reassuring; tense> Don’t be ridiculous.+
+<Gnawing fear> But they have a word for it! “Clairvoyance”! Why would they have a word for something like that if they couldn’t do it?+
+<Firm command> You are panicking. Just get out of there and we will determine how this is possible once you are safe.+
People were bustling this way and that: he flinched nervously away from them, kept his face bowed, tried to escape unseen. He brushed past a muscular male in a jacket and hat, ignoring off the man’s “watch it, buddy” as he turned his face away and walked as fast as he dared towards the exit.
Nobody challenged him as he stepped outside and breathed a sigh of relief. Out on the street, the anonymity of his biodrone body would protect him.
Something dense, hard, and fleshy hit him from the side—he didn’t hear it coming, there was no flash of movement in his peripheral vision. There was just the pain of his face against the asphalt, the discomfort of his limbs being restrained, a piercing pain as something violated his assumed skin, and then the world melted away into dreams and timeless nonsense.
In the dark, the component modules of his personality were left to scream and rage within the separate prisons of the implants that sustained them.
Date Point 3y 8m 2w 4d AV
The situation was changing faster than Seventy-Two could cope. There was too much to juggle, too many unknown factors. Six’s line had gone dark, threats were everywhere, none of them properly identified.
The biodrone’s orders were to retreat, and so it retreated along the preplanned route. It did not mind the conflicting orders, it simply obeyed the most recent one.
There were two armed threats in the way. Its orders included self-preservation and evading capture. It opened fire.
Return fire cut it down.
For only the second time in his life, Seventy-Two swore.
Date Point 3y 8m 2w 4d AV
“Adam!”
“Dad!”
Gabriel Arés barrelled into his son at speed and drew him into a bear-hug.
“What’s going on?” Adam asked.
“SWAT’s inside, they’re going for a low-profile capture.” Gabriel replied. “But there’s a second gunman about the place we need to get-”
There was a thumping sound, and something hot and wet splattered Adam’s face.
Gabriel frowned at him. “Your face…?”
There were gunshots. Ava started screaming.
Jimmy lowered his gun. “Holy fuck did you see-” he began, then his expression changed as Gabriel fell to the ground.
“Shit! Dispatch, need an ambulance west side of Skateworld ASAP! Officer down, officer down!”