Kix looked conflicted upon hearing the news. “Although tomorrow is our day off I have important plans I can not put off. If you still plan on tackling this task, I can help you check out the crime scene right now while it is still hot.”
“Let’s do that,” said Arron.
Since the two were now off of work they were unable to use the M1 vehicles and were forced to walk to the location where the attack had taken place. Luckily it was still in Sector 12 and did not require them to take the MagLev.
The two stopped at a dark corner of a long street. On each side of the street were several hundreds of mid-tier businesses that were crammed together using every bit of space.
Even with such a large amount of businesses in the area, the street and sidewalks only had a few hundred people using them. The majority of the traffic in the area was from the flying drones that flew in and out of the buildings.
Both the humans and drones ignored Arron and Kix who were scanning the area for any physical clues.
“Nothing,” said Arron.
“We’ll just have to check the local security recordings and see what they caught,” said Kix as he walked towards a large black pillar that stood out like a sore thumb.
As he and Arron stepped closer two security bots popped out from the top of the pillar and floated down to block their paths.
[Unauthorized targets step back or receive justice!]
Kix silently held out his left hand, the one that was not cybernetic. One of the floating security bots shot a harmless light towards his hand and scanned his cloud chip.
[Identity confirmed! Enter the correct passcode or receive Justice!]
A small holographic window popped up in front of the black pillar. Kix stepped forward and started typing in the string of letters and numbers.
[Confirmed. M1 limited access granted.]
A new window appeared with several options. Kix quickly tapped on one of the options causing the security bots to fly into the air and position themselves over the street and sidewalk. With another button press, they started to project the 3-d holographic recording on the street and sidewalks.
The few humans that saw this stopped in their tracks and hurriedly turned around not wanting to get involved with whatever was going on. They definitely did not want to be stopped and questioned.
The ghostly projections of humans, hover cars, and drones all flew backward at inhuman speed as Kix rewound the recording, trying to find the exact moment that the attack had happened.
“There! That’s him!” said Arron.
Kix continued to rewind until he reached the first appearance of Synmi in the recordings and then let it play back at normal speed.
Arron watched as the ghostly form of Synmi came into view and walked towards the corner of the street with his girlfriend.
With no warning, a service bot jumped out from the dark hidden corner and launched an attack with a metal pipe targeting the couple.
Synmi pushed his girlfriend to safety while he received a heavy blow to his right arm which broke and became limp.
He tried to dodge the next attacks but was unable to and received several blows to his other limbs.
It all happened in less than a minute. The service bot escaped back around the corner as fast as it had appeared leaving Synmi groaning on the ground with both of his arms and legs broken.
The attack was quick and brutal and if the recording was anything to go by, there was a suspicious lack of any other humans around the area during the attack.
“Rewind it again,” said Arron.
The two of them watched the recording several times making sure to inspect every angle of the recording.
“Stop!” said Arron. “Look over there.”
Kix paused the recording and looked over to the hidden corner of the street where Arron had started to walk to.
Arron stopped right next to a ghostly figure that was hidden in the shadows. He tried to get a good look at the hidden person but could not make out anything from the grainy 3-d holographic image.
“Looks like there was someone after him,” said Kix.
The two of them rounded the corner and found it only led to a short dead-end alleyway.
“Where did the service bot come from and escape to? Did you find it anywhere else in the recordings?” asked Arron.
“I found nothing. I have no idea why but this short alleyway is not monitored.”
Arron walked along the walls of the alleyway and tapped on them as he used his right eye’s superior eyesight to look for even the smallest hairline fracture that might reveal a hidden door in the para-steel wall.
When he finished his inspection he shook his head disappointing Kix who had hoped that Arron could find some sort of lead.
Arron looked up at the tall walls that boxed in the small alleyway.
“It would be easy for the dark shadow to get away if they wore expensive flying suits from the higher levels, but how could such a heavy service bot escape.”
“We should check out the local service bots in the nearby businesses to see if any fit the attacker,” said Kix as he exited out of the black pillars security system.
The two security bots returned to floating next to the black pillar guarding it against anyone getting too close. They only returned to their hidey-hole when Arron and Kix walked away and started their search inside each of the local shops.
Ping!
As they were investigating the local service bots Arron’s Nerviz notified him of an incoming call.
He accepted it to find Toothbrush who was still in the main information office.
“The chief has ordered me to call you two and tell you to stop fooling around while you are off duty. The Office of Reason is still looking for any wrong step you make so that they can get back at you,” said Tooth.
“We’re not doing anything illegal,” said Arron.
“I’m just passing along the message, also it’s going to be some time before Kat has any info for you.”
With that said the call ended.
Their inspection of the local shops came up empty and their attempts to gather information from locals came up short as no one wanted to talk to them. The few that did talk only said they saw nothing, so Arron and Kix decided to do the next best thing.
Talk to the victim.
***
“…and that is how I ended up like this,” said Synmi, who was now laying in a white bed with his arms and legs all in temporary casts. Several medical tubes were attached to his body and an expensive medical serum slowly entered his body as it worked on repairing his wounds and quickening his bones healing.
Synmi had spent a large chunk of credits to be able to stay in one of the hospital’s few recovery rooms.
In Arron’s opinion, the price Synmi had paid for such a small room that only had a holo-tv, bed, and a cheap desk with two hover chairs, was a complete ripoff.
It did have one thing going for it. A cheap artificial flower in a vase was placed on top of the desk to try and liven up the drab room…
“It was horrible! How could someone keep attacking us like this? I am afraid I will be next!” said Shysha. She was sitting on the hover-chair next to Synmi and had been trying to comfort him.
“Don’t worry Ma’am, I’ll be making sure that does not happen!” said Arron.
“What? Are you guys really going to help me? What about the cost?” asked Synmi.
“Don’t worry about it, I have the day off tomorrow. During that time I can protect you while I try to get the chief to assign us to this case,” said Arron.
“I can’t help tomorrow as I have other plans, but after that, I will be here to help. I’ll ask some of the other ERF members that are off work tomorrow to help,” said Kix.
“Thank you!” said a blubbering Synmi. He broke down crying as a wave of relief washed over him.
“I’ll start calling the others and see who is free,” said Kix.
***
“Why am I the only other person that you invited?” asked Tooth after he arrived at the small recovery room. He was forced to sit on the hard parasteel desk since Arron and Synmi’s girlfriend had already taken over the only hover chairs.
“Everyone else was busy tonight and tomorrow,” said Arron. “This is Toothbrush, he will be helping me with your problem.”
“I would shake your hand but…” said Synmi who was still laying on the bed with his four limbs all in casts while being supported by small hovering bots.
“I really do want to stay here until you are fully healed, but you know that if I don’t return and take care of the business, things will start going wrong and the workers will start to slack off,” said Shysha.
“Is it wise to leave while there is still an attacker out on the loose?” asked Arron.
“It’s fine, our house is built like a fort. No attacking bot can harm her if she stays there, she will be far safer there than here. I have already called an armored taxi to take her back,” said Synmi.
“Still… I think it would be best if I escorted her there,” said Arron.
“What about me?” asked Toothbrush.
“You stay here and protect him,” said Arron pointing to Synmi.
“But I am not a field agent! I only work in the office, what can I do?”
“You brought what I told you to right?”
“Yeah. But still…”
“If this type of service bot or any other suspicious bots enters the room, shoot them…,” said Arron as he transferred several images all at different angles showing off the type of service bot that had attacked Synmi.
Tooth looked at Arron with a gaze full of doubt wondering what he got himself into.
“You had the same training as me, so you should be able to handle babysitting him.”
“That was a long time ago!”
“Don’t let the chief hear you say that or you’ll be sent back to basic training. Miss Shysha, let’s go and meet your taxi.”
Arron led Shysha to the large multi-floor flat garage that had many parking spots for flying cars.
It was not the normal towering storage system as that was too low class for the patients that paid for a recovery room.
This hospital was far different from the one he was taken to, it was the only one that had a few thousand expensive recovery rooms on the first level. With such a high cost to rent one of the rooms, the hospital was able to actually hire humans to take charge of monitoring the patients as well as a large force of human guards to protect the floors that were full of patients recovering.
The hospital’s garage had a small curving road that led from the hospital’s doors to the exit to allow flying cars to pick up and drop off patients quickly and easily.
This was where Arron found a thick red armored flying taxi that was already waiting for Shysha.
As the taxi departed the hospital Arron began to type up the paperwork needed to ask the chief to be officially transferred to this case.
Shysha was quiet the entire time and did not say one word to Arron.
Arron was the first to exit the armored taxi when it stopped outside a large black parasteel building that was indeed built like a fort.
He quickly scanned the area before escorting Shysha to the front door of the large building, only to have the door slammed in his face without a word of thanks.
When he returned to the waiting armored taxi Arron was forced to pay for the return trip which pained him as he looked at the receipt for the one-way ride.
It was at least 3x more expensive than a normal two-way ride from a regular taxi which was not cheap in the first place!
