“Of course, Detective.… I did have one last question about that case. When Masters was supposedly broadcasting that signal to control those Automatic shells, how did he specifically target those Automatics and not all others in the vicinity?”
“No clue, Allen. At this point, the machine is busted, so I can confidently say that it doesn’t matter in the slightest.”
Allen nodded, not completely satisfied with the answer. “What is our plan now?”
“Head home, wait for a decent Night Call, then do our jobs. And by Night Call, I mean one that isn’t from some dame with a missing puppy. It is pretty late, though. Dinner?”
“There is a restaurant on the border of SoHo and Manhattan’s Anchor that serves fine Italian dishes, and it is quite good in my opinion.”
“Then let’s get dinner. I’ll treat. After all, I just got one hell of a paycheck.”
The Eye was ever so good with timing, and an additional five figures in the bank was the perfect excuse to celebrate.
“And after we eat, should we get back to work?”
“Of course, Allen. Back to being the saviours of this city. It never changes, and neither should we.”
EPILOGUE
THIS PLACE WAS SYNONYMOUS with death. It oozed death from every recess. It had sat vacant for years, with no one daring to enter. I’d had to come back, though.
Most of the roof had collapsed, allowing the lights from the top of the Plate to seep in to illuminate the normally pitch-black corners. The corpses had long ago been devoured by rats. Now clothes hung loosely on bone. It didn’t even smell of rot anymore, just the earthiness of dust and ashes.
In the centre of the room lay the rusted remains of a single Automatic, riddled with enough bullets to cleave it nearly in half across its midsection. His eyes were cracked and broken, with evidence that another clean round had passed through the head. It was here that I decided to sit, dragging over an old rotting barrel for a seat.
“Hey, James, it’s been a while … too long. I had a feeling you might still be here.”
I pulled out my pack of darts and offered it to the old corpse. I nodded after a second and withdrew them. “I’m still trying to quit.… So is Paddy — Patrick, sorry. You don’t like it when I call him Paddy. I only smoke when I’m nervous now … which is more often than you’d think these days.”
He wasn’t much of a talker anymore. Not a problem. He was a good listener.
“I got a new partner. Allen, I call him — 41-EN is his serial number. Its. Its serial number, sorry.” I pulled out a cigarette and lit it. “Had a case where a G-man was pulling the strings on a racketeering group trying to go up against the Iron Hands. He … well, he didn’t make it. This wasn’t just another victim, though. This one got in my head, made me think about what I’ve been doing. He was trying to take them down and crossed paths with me. You think I’ve gone off the deep end? You think Robins is the formality preventing me from going all the way down the rabbit hole?”
No response.
I got off the barrel and knelt beside him, putting my hand on his metal back. “I went to the Plate … first time in ages. Saw a diagram made by the guy who’s head of GE. See … the FBI guy was controlling machines using their Cortexes, some little bit of tech near where your shoulder blades would meet. Controls how you move and whatever. Turns out the Neural-Interface doesn’t do much without it.”
I pulled some of the metal off his carapace, lifted a section of his metal exterior, and searched the circuitry. I found the small device that I thought was the Cortex — octagonal, sleek, and shimmering gold in colour. It was rusted and had pockmarks all over, seeing as it had been sitting here for almost five years. I ripped it from the wires and dropped it on the ground, then ground it down with my heel. He didn’t seem to mind.
“There … now I know you’re really dead.”
I dropped my dart and crushed it along with the remains of James’s Cortex, mixing the ashes with the bits of silicon and steel. “I’ll see you later, James. Maybe … I don’t know. Hold down the fort for me, will ya?”
I walked to the open door of the factory, turned back for one final glimpse of his shell, then pulled the door shut behind me.
