“It’s miraculous. Mein Gott.”
“Fucker’s holding out on us, huh?” Toby added.
“I was attempting to inform Mr. Jaeger that the ports that connect me to basic Automatic devices are located on my torso and neck, but I think this has been too overwhelming an experience for him. If you could, Detective, please insert the plug into the port.”
“Not the most comfortable sentence to hear …” I took the cords from the floor and scanned Allen’s neck, finding a node about the size of the plugs where its lower neck vertebrae would be. I jacked the cord in, saw Allen stiffen up, and gave it time to run through the immense volume of data coming from Rudi.
Seconds later, Allen removed the cord itself, closing its head, then stood and approached the desk with the terminal. “A map, if you don’t mind, Mr. Jaeger.”
Jaeger nodded. He removed a rudimentary map of the Lower City from the wall and flattened it out on the table. Allen retrieved a marker from nearby and ran the black ink over dozens of points on the map, tracing and crossing out each small segment and landmark in the blink of an eye. And then, almost as soon as it had begun, its movements ceased. It reviewed its handiwork and looked up at me in confirmation.
“It … Rudi … was indeed at the pickup point you mentioned to meet with whatever suppliers you deal with, Mr. Jaeger. However, afterward, it was abducted and brought to this location here” — Allen circled an area near the 5th Precinct building — “before being brought quite far north, where its signal was left for about thirty hours.” Interesting, I thought.
“Doesn’t explain why it came back from the dead to kill me,” I said, “or all those other bots coming back, either.”
“Yeah,” Toby piped in. He had to be part of every conversation. “At least twenty of those bots were skulking around, trying to drag him to hell. It was freaky … and I’m saying that.”
“We’re missing something,” I said. “Someone abducted the damn thing, removed its Neural-Interface, gave it a gun, and told it to shoot up the speakeasy. Then, after the deed was done, they tossed it up north in some dumping ground. But why not just shoot up the place themselves and toss Rudi’s shell in there to implicate Jaeger? Red-eying Rudi would take too long, and removing a Neural-Interface …”
“Could take longer,” Jaeger confirmed. “If they were being careful, that is. And God only knows how its moving without a Neural-Interface.”
I grumbled for a moment, rubbing the bridge of my nose, the frustration giving me a headache. “Allen, we’re heading to GE.”
“Do you have any idea who we might speak to?” Allen asked.
“Head programmer for GE — Vannevar Bush — is a big name in the company. Maybe he has his office hours open. Lord knows he should if he wants this mess dealt with.”
“And me?” Toby said.
“No, just me … they weren’t too interested in you, actually. Something to bring up later.”
“No, I mean, where do I go after this?”
“Oh, sorry. Stay with Karl, make sure no one comes looking for Rudi. Turn that Cortex off for a while, too. We don’t want any surprises.”
Jaeger nodded and did as I said. Allen and I went out the front door to the Talbot. As we slumped back into the car, the machine looked down at my trousers: “Detective, are you sure you want to go to such a reputable place in your current … state?”
It was attempting to be subtle. I’d give it points for that.
“I’m sure. After all, there’s no fun in going up there if we can’t fuck with them on the way.”
The site where Rudi had been taken that fateful night was empty, as I’d expected. Not even a building they could have dragged the metal man into — just trash, back alleys, and a few apartment buildings filled to the brim with human garbage. I made sure to check every single door. Those who opened up for me were happy to say they hadn’t seen any cops or G-men there. Those who didn’t answer either swore at me to go away or cocked some sort of weapon as a warning from behind their door. After about an hour or so trying to find possible witnesses, I concluded my search and moved on to the more pressing objective.
Being in the neighbourhood near the 5th gave me a chance to head to the precinct and grab a Police Parking Tag, which allowed me to park my car anywhere I wanted to. Robins was happy to hand it out, since it required the least amount of paperwork to grant and made him look good in front of the agents in his office. An officer requesting something and following the proper channels to receive it? We must have looked like the picture-perfect face of law enforcement in their eyes.
Having the parking tag made me feel so much better about driving my car onto GE’s precious lawn. I hit the emergency brake, and the car skidded across the grass, leaving tire streaks across the green expanse and no doubt ruining someone’s day. The armoured security guard was powerless to move the car or argue, what with the big New York Police Department badge displayed prominently on the windshield.
Allen, of course, raised concerns about my parking, but I ignored them as usual.
Walking into the futuristic foyer immediately caused a ruckus when the secretary recognized me and reached for the phone. “Shit, he’s back …”
“Sorry, sweetheart. You can’t get rid of me today.” I lifted my hand to show off the card, prompting her to place the receiver back on the base.
As we walked to the executive elevators, we were once again harassed by the same security guards who had given me a few noticeable bruises on my face. They moved to grab their pieces, but a flash
