Original Stories Fan Fiction ❯ Chasers: 2075 ❯ Chapter 31

Chasers 2075: Part thirty

Beth was cursing softly, the redheaded young woman working frantically on her keyboard. "What's going on?" Gwen asked, the elegant Asian officer looking down at her with a frown, "I thought you just sent the emergency crews to Nutech?"

"I did." After that Beth ignored her a few moments, studying the scrolling data on various screens as she typed away on two terminals. "The security in Nutech just booted me out," she scowled, "and a series of firewalls have gone on-line."

"Jen and Kate?" Gwen asked crisply.

"I've lost contact with them," Beth answered her grimly. She groaned as alerts came up on one of the screens, "Shit."

"I hate it when you do that," Gwen said mildly, "without explaining."

"That damn thing Trojan-horsed me," Beth said bleakly, "I've got multiple viruses invading our system, and I've got to clear them before I can do anything else." She hauled a spare keyboard out and set it in front of a terminal, "Give me a hand."

"I'm a little rusty at this," Gwen warned her as she sat down, looking at Beth's screen to see what she was doing before beginning to type herself.

"Considering that you were the one who caught me during my hacker days," Beth bent forward, scanning her view screen while typing away with remarkable speed, "I doubt that you'd let yourself lose any of the skills."

"I hope you're right," Gwen answered, her own pace of typing increasing. 'And I hope Kate and Jen can manage until we get back into the system,' she thought grimly.

************

Several floors underground in the Nutech facility Kate and Jen moved up the hallway cautiously. "Don't worry," Kate said softly as she peered ahead into the dimly lit hall, "I'm sure Beth is doing everything she can to contact us."

Jen nodded slightly, the blonde haired beauty's badge gleaming where she had clipped it to her coat. Up ahead of them she could hear fearful conversation, several young women she thought. "What do we do about the hostages?" she asked.

Kate shrugged, "Assuming the android doesn't surrender?" The sandy haired woman smiled wryly, "If I can get it's attention you get to lead them out."

"Why me?" Jen demanded, keeping her voice down.

"Because I've got more experience in the Chasers," Kate answered mildly, "and more importantly I've got seniority over you."

The two women came to a stop just outside a closed door, hearing the voices inside. "That's playing dirty," Jen muttered.

"That's the only way to play," Kate answered, reaching out cautiously for the door handle. She gave Jen a look, "On three?"

"Right," Jen whispered back.

"one... two... THREE!" They moved together as one, whipping the door open and taking up positions, Jen crouching to cover the bottom while Kate stood, gun leveled and ready.

A group of young woman were crouched down apart in a corner, their clothes smeared by dirt and bruises on some of their faces. Standing in the middle of the room a tall blue haired woman turned to watch them enter, her expression thoughtful.

"Stand down," Kate ordered crisply, her badge glowing in the dim light.

She studied them intently, the simple bodysuit she wore crisp and neat. Her voice had a odd tone, "Police officers... what are you doing here?"

"Let the people go," Jen asked softly, her fingers tightening on her gun.

The blue haired android tipped her head to the side, a remarkably human gesture. "I'm holding them for interrogation," she explained, "I'm afraid I can't do that."

"Stand down," Kate kept her voice even but firm as she continued, "or I can't be held responsible for the consequences."

"No," the android moved like a shot, charging them with speed clearly inhuman.

"Damn it," Jen dove, trying to get a shot but it was by her in a second, going right for Kate.

Kate fired, gun loud in the silence but it dodged, bullets splatting up against the upper body. "Crap," she cursed and leapt backwards into the hallway as the android went after her, clearly focused on getting Kate for some reason.

Jen clearly wanted to go help her partner, then she shook her head. 'Remember the plan,' she reminded herself firmly as she turned to the frightened captives. "Come on," she said as reassuringly as possible, "I'm getting you out of here."

"Oh, thank you!" one girl exclaimed, tears trickling down her cheek as they followed Jen down the hallway towards the stairs.

"What about the security systems?" an older woman with black hair asked Jen, looking around the hall nervously.

"Still on-line," Jen answered, "but we've cleared the stairs, I think."

"Then we'd better be careful," a tall redhead coolly noted, two of the other girls following along right behind her.

'I'm glad they're not panicking,' Jen mused as she pushed open the stair door. "We'd better get going," she said, waving the woman inside then following them upstairs.

The five girls ran up the stairs, Jen following them up with her gun held at the ready just in case any of the security lasers were still active. They reached the first floor and gathered out in the hallway, the girl's looking around them nervously. One noticed how badly out of breath Jen was and gently asked, "Are you all right?"

"I'll be fine," Jen met the girl's gaze and gave a reassuring wave. She smiled wryly, "Your company must have a great physical fitness program."

The black haired woman smiled wryly, "You could say that."

"I'm sorry," came from behind Jen.

"What?" Jen started to say before she was struck on the back of the head. She dropped, the world shifting to black as she swiftly lost consciousness.

Several levels below there Kate ran down the hallway away from the stairways, going deeper into the facility. She tossed a glance over her shoulder and saw that the android was still coming on strong, moving smoothly despite it's injuries.

'For an advanced recon model,' Kate thought to herself wryly, 'it isn't that much faster, thankfully.' She noticed a door labeled 'recreation room' and hit the opening switch, ducking inside and locking the door as she scanned the room cautiously. She froze, blinking in surprise as her brain tried to process exactly what she was seeing in there.

Five young women of various ages lay in chairs or on the carpeted floor, a faint scent hanging in the air that Kate quickly recognized as some kind of sedative. She compared them to the fleeting impression that she had gotten of the hostages and felt her stomach drop. They looked almost exactly the same, except for the clothes.

"Shit," Kate cured as she brought her comm on line, "Jen? Jen, the hostages aren't what they appear to be! Get clear!" Just static was her only answer.

Thoom! Something rammed into the door, then again, the alloy bending inward. Kate turned to the door and held her gun ready, waiting for it. Another powerful blow took the door off, the android standing there off balance for a few seconds.

Kate took advantage of that moment, first putting a bullet into that finely formed face. Blinded it staggered and Kate shifted her aim almost leisurely to punch the rest of her clip through the middle of the android's body, destroying the secondary central processing unit and driving it backward. It swayed a moment, then dropped with a thump.

Part of Kate wanted to rush back to the stairs to check on Jen but she forced herself to walk over to the young women. Pulses seemed fine and she puffed out a sigh, knowing how Gwen was going to react to all this. They had just fucked up big time.

************

"We're back in the system," Beth pushed sweaty red hair out of her eyes tiredly, "too bad it's too late to do any good."

Gwen nodded as she listened to the comm, taking in the reports she was getting from Kate and Jen. Quietly she said to them, "It wasn't your fault, you did everything by the book. Get Jen's head looked at and then get back here."

"According to the medical team the five got into two ambulances," Beth shook her head, "the drivers were found a few blocks away."

"So they've got temporary transportation," Gwen mused as she put the comm away, "and once they sell them and the equipment inside on the black market they'll have funds, too."

"So what do we do now?" Beth asked softly.

"Download every piece of data on the recon androids from their systems," Gwen ordered crisply, "I want to know everything about them."

Beth went to work, typing quickly as she said, "They won't be happy about that, you know." She paused, "Not to mention technically illegal, too."

"I'm not sure I care," Gwen said crisply, "we've got five of these recon models loose in the city and we need anything we can get to stop them."

"Got it," Beth agreed. She hesitated, dividing her attention between the screen and Gwen as she asked, "So what are you doing after work?"

"What?" Gwen actually looked surprised.

Beth shrugged, a bit of a flush to her cheeks as she kept her face turned to her screen. "It's not like I'm going to find a better chance," she said casually.

"You have something in mind?" Gwen asked.

Beth just grinned.

To be continued....