Machinations (Olly versus the Mechanoids Book 2) Read online

Olly looked around the corner and saw three figures hunched over the machine in the dark. No headlamps, no flashlights, yet they seemed to see fine. Maybe they were elves. According to Nana, elves had phenomenal night vision. He thumbed his blaster to heavy stun and stepped out into the open. "Computer, lights!"

  The room lights went instantly to full power.

  "OK, kids, how about y'all step away from the game and raise your hands.

  The three stood up and faced him, their right hands pointing at him, each with a weapon. The three burglars were encased in armor, their blue optical sensors staring at him.

  They were strykers.

  "Trico, I told you to monitor sensors for life signs. He has life signs, and he got the drop on us, you moron."

  "I say we shoot him," the middle one said with Connie's voice.

  "I agree," Trico said.

  "You first, moron," Olly said as he thumbed his blaster to full power and shot him, throwing him into a Poltergeist Rescue game. Olly leapt behind a Global Thermonuclear War console as Connie let loose with several rounds from her arm-mounted rail gun, shredding the game and the two to either side of it while Olly dove behind a bank of vending machines--players run on energy drinks. He looked up at a ceiling-mounted security mirror and watched as the two remaining strykers tried to flank him.

  "Give up, smart boy, and we might let you live," the boss said.

  Olly looked around and saw Connie walking underneath one of the 1,000 lbs score boards used to keep track of the Stryker Team game. Waiting until she was directly underneath, he fired at the large hook the board was hanging from, destroying it and dropping the unit right on top of Connie. That left the boss.

  "Hey, Boss, there's only me and you left," Olly said. He looked up and didn't see the third stryker in any of the security mirrors. Suddenly, one mirror, then the one next to it exploded in a cloud of fused plastic.

  "Did you actually think I wouldn't catch on?" the leader said. Olly stopped when he realized the voice had come from behind him He turned and found himself staring down the barrel of a rail gun. "Any last words?"

  "Yeah, fool. Watch your six," Nana said as she unleashed a combination of rail gun projectiles and beams from her tail-mounted laser weapon. The leader crumpled to the ground in a smoldering heap while she ran over in full stryker-mode, but still wearing her nightie.

  "Are you hurt?" she asked while passing a hand scanner over his body.

  "Nope, thanks to you. Sorry we woke..."

  "You moron! Wake me the next time we have a robbery in progress!" she scolded him while returning to organic form.

  "Yes, ma'am," he said before kissing her. They were interrupted by police running in with weapons drawn and demanding the two of them raise their hands. Shrugging, they did as they were told.

  ###

  Margaux arrived just as the medical examiner van left with two bodies inside. After a round of flashing ID and growling, she was led to where Nana—now wearing a Marine-issue jump suit--and Olly were examining the wreckage of the Stryker Team game. "I take a night off and look what happens." She looked at her friend. "So, Olly, what happened?"

  He explained. "The one named Trico used the commotion to get the hell out of the building. The airfield recorded a small shuttle launching, then going into hyperspace shortly after leaving the atmosphere."

  "Hyperspace, not other-space?"

  "I know what you’re thinking. Could this have something to do with Iona since mechanoids travel through hyperspace, not other-space? EarthSec is analyzing the sensor data the airfield sensors recorded. Meanwhile, we're trying to figure out what, if anything, is missing from Stryker Team." He handed her a datapad. "This is the current parts catalog according to a poll of all the RFID tags in the machine."

  Margaux took the pad and scrolled through it. "Hmmmm. That's odd."

  "What's odd?"

  "I found the missing part. It's a microFTL enhanced quantum computer module." She turned the pad so that her companions could see it. "It's from Iona's guidance system. All protector mechanoids have one. But what the hell is it doing in a virtual reality game?"

  Frowning, Olly pulled out his comm unit and made a call. "Hi, this is Oliver Wilson calling for Zontag. Yes, I'll hold... Zontag, it's Olly. Hey, how did a microFTL enhanced quantum computer module from a protector mechanoid get into my Stryker Team game? Uh-huh... Uh-huh... Well, because somebody just stole it... I see... Sure... I'll tell them... Bye." He broke the connection.

  "What did he say?" Nana asked.

  "Orders from higher up the food chain. I've got a bad feeling about this," he said as he took the pad back and scrolled through the list.

  CHAPTER FOUR

  Two months later...

  "So, why are we here again?" Margaux asked as they got off the shuttle at New York LaGuardia Airport.

  "The higher-ups at Elven Industries want to talk to us about Stryker Team. For reasons beyond me, they want a face-to-face instead of a teleconference or a simple written report. They're paying for it, so who am I to turn down a trip to the old home town?"

  "That's right, you used to live here."

  "I hear it's changed some in the two centuries since I was last here."

  Once through the arrival gate, they found a corporate limo waiting for them. Inside sat a Canuran woman in a stylish pencil skirt and blouse. She stood up and shook hands with them. "Ms. Margaux and Mister Wilson. I'm glad for the opportunity to meet the both of you. My name is Athena DesCourse."

  Margaux sat down while Olly stared at the diminutive woman. "Yoh! Olly! Sit!" she said.

  "Is there a problem, Mr. Wilson?"

  "I employ several Canurans and have a dozen or so Canuran customers and all of them talk in run-on sentences. No offense, but I thought that was a cultural norm for your people?"

  Margaux hung her head in defeat. "At least he knows how to use a fork and knife," she muttered.

  "None taken, Mr. Wilson. You are correct. My people tend toward being nervous. It has been found that relations with other species are improved if we curb some of those tendencies."

  Olly looked at Margaux.

  "She's had schooling, something you definitely lack, young man."

  "Cool," he said with a smile. "So, Ms. DesCourse, where do you fall in the Elven Industries hierarchy?"

  "I'm the new CEO, having taken over the job from Dr. Aymar-Taggart. She felt it was time to hand the reins over to someone else, so she could devote more time to research. Now, I bet you're wondering why you're really here?"

  "The report isn't why we're here?" Olly asked.

  "No. We've received your normal written report, and my engineering team is turning handsprings over your solution to the microFTL enhanced quantum computer module problem. They were not aware of any substitutes being available," she said as the limo got underway.

  "Neither were we until we talked to a few of our gamers. It seems that one of them had a hacker ball laying around, so they hacked it into a system to replace a non-FTL quantum computer in one of their smaller systems. Margaux was able to connect an HB to the Stryker Team Game and get it to work."

  "A brilliant solution. Using your instructions, my team installed several different HBs in Stryker Team and tested them using our cadre of testers. The tests went off without a hitch. Not only do they work fine, we have a storehouse full of them at our disposal, so supply is not a problem."

  Margaux raised her hand.

  "Yes, Margaux?"

  "How did a part of my cousin end up in a video game?"

  Now it was Olly's turn to face-palm. "Subtle, old friend. Good job sneaking up on that one."

  "Sorry. Let me rephrase that last question. How the hell did part of a mechanoid protector end up in a video game and what made you think that using that part could be sustainable since there was, excuse me, is only one of them in this part of the galaxy."

  "Much better," Olly said sarcastically.

  "No, she's right Mr. Wilson, and I apologize from the bottom of my h
earts for the trouble and consternation you've experienced. You have my word that none of the executive staff including me and Gloria knew anything about it. An internal investigation revealed that a member of the team responsible for studying Iona's remains took it upon himself to supply parts to engineers on several other products, including Stryker Team, as part of a quid pro quo basis. The other engineers used the parts even though they were of a one-of-a-kind nature. It seems that Iona's parts solved certain problems in an expedient, though inappropriate, fashion."

  "Well, if you put it that way..." He stopped when Margaux gave him a gentle swat.

  "Quiet!"

  "Ow!"

  "Wuss!" she said, as they exited the vehicle and took an elevator to Athena's office.

  Once seated, Olly asked, "I realize that you may not be able to answer this question, but what happened to the engineer who supplied the parts? If he's still around, we'd like to talk to him."

  "Yeah, we'd like to know how a team of Dr. Muntz's Strykers knew the device was in our Stryker Team unit," Margaux added.

  "A team of strykers stole the computer unit?" Athena said in shock. "I was told only that your facility and the Stryker Team unit were burglarized by persons unknown. The perps are currently in EarthSec custody due to your facility's proximity to Area 51."

  Margaux and Olly looked at each other. "Athena, could you turn on the do not disturb sign?"

  "Sure, but why?"

  "So, you have plausible deniability," Olly said. "Do your magic, Margaux."

  Margaux held her right hand up with the palm upward. "First stop is the EarthSec official database..." Athena watched in fascination as a holographic police report appeared above it. "Well that looks like a fine piece of fiction," Margaux noted.

  "Didn't I drop half-a-ton of display on top of one of them thar burglars?" Olly asked.

  "Yep, right before your beautiful wife filled their leader full of holes," Margaux added.

  "Wait a minute! You and Nana killed two of the perps?"

  "Yep. Seems they didn't take to kindly to me getting the drop on them."

  "Do I want to hear any more," she asked.

  "Probably not. You can leave, you know," Olly said.

  She shook her head, then pulled a bottle of brown liquid and a glass from her drawer and poured herself a stiff drink which she downed while waving them on.

  Shrugging, Margaux made the first image disappear and replaced it with another. "And this is the report from the EarthSec top secret files."

  Athena walked over and read the real report while pouring another drink and downing it. "Two confirmed dead, both born over twenty years ago. Both ex-mercenaries." She slapped a button on her desk.

  "Security. This is Maurice..."

  "This is Athena. Get your ass in here. Now!" She tapped the button to close the connection. "I terminated the engineer, a Dr. Woolgast, for cause and had security escort him off the premises."

  "No investigation?"

  "None needed. He had a list of all the projects he supplied the parts to. Since nothing was deemed dangerous, we talked to the project leaders and instructed them to swap out the parts during the regular maintenance cycle once a substitute had been found."

  There was knock at the door. Athena shut off the do-not-disturb field long enough for their visitor to enter. He was human, about Olly's age. "What's the problem, Athena?"

  She waved him over to read the document hovering over Margaux's hand while she made introductions.

  He waved at the two visitors while reading the report. When he finished, he took out his comm unit and typed in a code. "This is Maurice, I want Dr. Woolgast's lab, office, locker, and computers locked down, then I want an investigation team sent in to find out what that moron was doing. Call me on my comm if you hear anything. Maurice out." He looked at Margaux. “Can you get me a copy of that?"

  "You got a flash drive?"

  He reached into a pocket and pulled out one that looked like a cartoon character. She pulled off the character's head to reveal a standard flash drive plug which she inserted into a socket in her wrist. Moments later, she returned it to him. "That's classified, so you didn't get it from me."

  "Roger that and thanks."

  "Not a problem." Margaux said. "Now, can you answer an easy question?"

  "Sure. Have at it."

  "Have any of the parts been returned, and if so, where are they being stored. I assume they've been stored since Iona's body has gone missing."

  "Yes, she went missing about the time Dr. Muntz took a powder... Wait a minute, those perps were Muntz strykers. You don't think..."

  "Actually, we saw security feeds of her and Iona stealing her body..." Margaux stopped when she saw the look on Athena and Maurice's faces. "Security didn't tell you?"

  "Maurice?!"

  "No, ma'am. This is completely new to me. All we knew was Iona's body had disappeared. Are you two sure it was Iona and Zoe?"

  "Yep, watched the feed with my own eyes," Olly replied. "We had a visit by Commissioner Adon who briefed us about the theft. We did some checking and found a video recording which we gave to her. I'm surprised they haven't said anything to you..." Alarms sounded as both Athena's and Maurice's phones sounded alarms. Maurice grabbed his first.

  "Maurice... Right, we're on our way."

  "Squirrel in the chimney?" Olly asked.

  "Armed individuals have broken into Lab 43," he said

  "What's in Lab 43?"

  "Lab 43 is where we're storing the Iona parts we've collected," Athena said as she pulled a weapon from her desk and activated it. "Computer! Security lockdown, all floors. Notify authorities we have a break-in."

  "Yes, ma'am."

  "You two stay here," she said as she and Maurice ran out of the room, locking it behind them.

  CHAPTER FIVE

  Olly and Margaux looked at each other as their hosts left before locking the two of them inside the office.

  "Like a locked door is going to stop us," Olly said. "Computer, did the perps come in from the ground floor or the roof?"

  "Ground floor, North side."

  Olly hurried to the office's North window and looked down into the lot. Idling at the back was a darkened vehicle. "2020 Mephisto Supreme with V10 engine and 8-speed transmission. She's the stretch version, so she'll hold twelve easily."

  Margaux glanced out the window. "Here come the cops," she said as a dozen police cars led by one jazzed ride pulled up and disgorged a large number of officers. Behind them came a SWAT truck complete with roof-mounted Gat-blaster cannon. When it came to a stop, eight more heavily-armed officers emerged from the truck's rear and entered the building in combat formation.

  Olly looked around and spotted someone watching the building with binoculars from behind a large tree. "Got a lookout," he said. "Margaux, can you check the Mephisto for occupants?"

  "Sure," she said. Switching over to infrared sight, she gave the car a once-over. "Engine is hot, but the interior is clear of warm bodies."

  "I bet the lookout is the driver. Damn, I'd like to compare notes with him. I'm particularly interested in why someone one is using a two-hundred-plus-year-old vehicle as a getaway car."

  "As am I. Computer, are the East elevators clear of people?"

  "Yes, sir, but..."

  "No buts," Olly said. "Clear one and bring it to this floor."

  "Yes, sir."

  "How the hell do you do that?"

  "I have a thing with computer-controlled things." He aimed his pistol at the door and fired, blowing the lock-set clean off. "My bad," he said while the two of them headed out into the corridor.

  Once on ground level, the two exited out the East side and made their way to the East end of the North parking lot. Keeping to the shadows, they crept up to the lookout who seemed oblivious to everything around him except for the North entrance to the building. Olly thumbed his blaster to full power and pressed it against the perp's skull while Margaux stepped in front of him and relieved him of his glasses
. Olly searched the gentleman and found two blasters, a military-style knife, and an earcomm which Olly gently removed and placed in his ear. Finally, after muting the comm, Olly asked in a nice voice, "And you are?"

  "Nebish. I'm the driver. Who the hell are you?"

  "I'm Olly and this is Margaux. Where are you taking your clients when they finish robbing this place."

  "I don't know. They said they’d tell me in route."

  "Ah, I remember my days as a driver. Only a few more question: Is your driver compartment sealed from the passengers?"

  "Yes."

  "Anyone driving shotgun?"

  "No. Only I'm allowed up front."

  "Do they know what you look like?"

  "Of course not. I'm like the..." his last word was lost when Olly stunned him.

  "Please tell me you're not going to do something stupid."

  "Of course not. I'm just going to take his place and drive them to the drop point while you and the cops monitor my position. Got a tracker in your bag of tricks?"

  A small door opened in Margaux's torso and expelled a ring. "Try this," she said.

  "I am a married man, you know," Olly said as he put on the ring. "How stylish."

  A commotion at the entrance caught their attention. "I'm going to take sleeping beauty over to the SWAT van and explain your plan to our law enforcement people. Please, be careful. You wife is a weapon with a temper."

  "Roger that. See you in a few," Olly said as they parted ways. Olly heading to the Mephisto while Margaux and her guest made their ray to the van.

  ###

  Once sealed in the Mephisto's cockpit, Olly brought up systems and ran checks while keeping an eye out for his guests. He wasn't disappointed when he saw six strykers heading his way. He opened the vehicle’s doors, but kept the interior and exterior lights off so as not to draw attention. He tapped his earcomm while his passengers loaded into the rear compartment. "Margaux, do you copy?"

  "I copy. The SWAT team commander is livid."

  "I truly feel bad."

  Olly felt the left door close. "Docks, warehouse 238," someone instructed over the intercom. Shifting into first gear, Olly released the clutch and shot out of the parking lot like a proverbial bat out of hell. He looked at the rearview monitor and saw at least a dozen police units on his six. "Buckle up, back there. This baby don't handle too well around town," he said as he pressed the intercom button. Ahead, two police units blocked his way with a small gap between their noses. With a deft flip of the steering wheel, Olly took the Mephisto into a 75-degree roll so that it was now driving on only two tires. The waiting officers watched in shock and awe as the vehicle passed through the gap before returning to four tires on the pavement.