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.
Back to Chasers 2075 Index - Back to Original Fiction Shoujo-Ai Fanfiction