Black Market Merchant

Chapter 88: Under Paid
56 and Orville were six blocks away from Zhou’s Internet Café when Orville’s scanners picked up signals from the drones looking for them. Ever since they had left the café, they had been taking the back alleys and side streets to avoid easy detection. It was still only a matter of time until they were spotted. Especially with such modern tracking technology like drones. If the satellites hadn’t been destroyed years ago, they would probably been found even sooner.

”Boss 56, enemies are closing in. Better get a move on!” Orville cheerily announced as he bobbed up and down alongside his human compatriot.

”We need to find a way out of this city.” 56 said aloud jogging at an abnormally fast pace. ”We can’t go back to our Hover Ship. They will be watching the flight docks and probably the city gate exits too. Need to think of something unconventional to throw them off our trail.”

”Running a scan of potential escape routes now.” Orville said.

”Good, but first let’s lessen the eyes on us.” 56 said looking towards the sky.

The buildings here were not very tall, but further in towards the city center the outskirt buildings would eventually turn to shinny skyscrapers. It would make it easier for him to locate the tracking drones. Those drones wouldn’t be able to hide behind the flat walls of the skyscrapers like they could here in the suburbs.

A small twinkle caught his eye from a far off near a brick apartment roof. It could have been the sun reflecting off a window or shiny metal, but the chances were slim. Definitely a drone. ”I’m speeding up. They are on to us.”

”Roger!” Orville replied.

56 rounded the corner of the next building and onto a main street before he slowly started braking out into a brisk run. Orville effortlessly floated along beside him without the slightest bit of lag. The two of them zig-zagged between pedestrians and peddlers making a great pace despite the moderate sized city crowd.

”Let’s see how they react to this change.” 56 thought to himself. Then he sped up even more.

…

”Special Officer, the target has suddenly increased its pace. He might have discovered that we are in pursuit.” One of the Blue Jay pilots called out.

”Continue tracking while maintaining the current distance.” Hawkins replied calmly. ”There is no need to worry. All we need to do is follow and tell the pursuit teams of his location. If we panic than we make mistakes.”

”Understood, Special Officer.” The Pilot replied and continued to monitor the situation on his screen.

”Corporal, get eyes onto the Hover Ship docking areas and into the main exits to the west of the city.” Hawkins said to another pilot nearby. Then turning to speak to the rest of the room he said, ”We need to find out where he’s headed and if he has accomplices in the area. If he is acting alone this will make things easier. If not, well, I hope the ground teams are up for a real challenge. Support them best you can.”

”On it, Sir.” Several soldiers replied and others hurried about doing their tasks.

The other three Special Officers were all doing similar operations in their rooms too. Once Hawkins drones located 56, the others were notified and quickly adjusted their flight patterns to slowly encircle 56’s projected travel route. Currently the drones were all tracking him in a ”V” shaped patter and had his position triangulated. No matter which way he turned some drone was still able to see him.

”He’s continuing on towards the western most gate. No established Hover Ship docks are anywhere near his current estimated path.” One of the Analysts soldiers called out to Hawkins.

”Where are you going?” Hawkins mumbled watching 56 on the main screen running at incredible speeds. It looked like he was going as fast, in not faster, than bicycles traveling along him on the road.

Then over the communication channel Special Officer Takanowa’s voice came on. ”Ground forces are in place in intercept. Any time for engagement is a go.”

”Very good. Let’s hope your men can do their job right this time.” Special Officer Foal chimed in.

”Watch yourself.” Takanowa replied sounding annoyed. ”He won’t get away a second time.”

”If you say so.” Foal replied.

”Enough, you two!” Special Officer Welling interrupted. ”Stay focused on the task at hand. If they are ready, better engage him now. Before he reaches one of the major roads up-ahead. It will be hard to take him down with so many civilians around. Not to mention the Moab Council is observing us.”

There was a moment of silence before Takanowa replied. ”Sending them now.”

…

56 could tell for sure now that he was being followed. Several more times he spotted more oddly placed reflections and one confirmed sighting of a drone. They were close to him now. He had now moved out from the alleys and onto the main streets. Luckily, the rainy day had helped keep most of the people off the sidewalks. So, he was able to keep a good pace as he ran.

”Any luck on an escape route?” 56 asked Orville. He didn’t sound the least bit tired from the run he had been doing. Thanks to his prosthetic limbs the once difficult to maintain physical movements like this were made simple.

”Nothing with a high success rate.” Orville finally replied. ”The traffic routes up ahead have been rerouted subtly and the below and above subway systems have been purposefully delayed. We can’t use them to make a quick slip away.”

”Could we use the auto taxis to mix up the chase?” 56 asked. They rounded a corner and 56 casually leapt over a trash can in his path. The two civilians walking along the sidewalk, that he was intently avoiding and sticking the curbside, let out a gasp of surprise as he flew past them.

”Not likely. Any communication with the taxi AI’s is likely monitored.” Orville replied sounding downcast, well, as best as a robot could.

”Crap, so we are basically going to have to escape ourselves then.” 56 complained.

They rounded the next corner to find that the city police had set up a roadblock. Their red and blue lights were flashing brightly and traffic beyond them was being diverted.

”Well, we can’t go this way.” 56 shouted at Orville. ”Didn’t your scans pick them up?”

”Rechecking.” Orville replied. A few seconds later he replied. ”It seems information to the City’s system is being purposefully delayed. They must know of my skills.”

”Well, that’s not good.” 56 said turning to go back the way they came.

Just then two big black Humvee like trucks appeared at the intersection ahead. They stopped to screeching halt and immediately the doors swung open. 56 stopped running and ducked behind a doorway just as several black uniformed men stuck their guns out from the truck doors to open fire at him. Bullets ricocheted all across the sidewalk and brick entryway that 56 was in.

”At least now there doing better. Amateurs would have gotten out of the vehicles to shoot first, makes for easy pickings.” 56 commented to Orville as bullets continued to ricochet around them. A couple of windows shattered as a result. The fair cries of the people inside could be heard, but no one was likely injured.

”Let’s see, what to do next?” 56 said tapping his chin.

”Boss, I am picking up something odd in the City communication channels.” Orville said interrupting 56’s train of thought. ”It seems that they have activated the city security plasma walls. Something more dangerous than us must be coming.”

”Can you find out what?” 56 asked peeking towards the black uniformed soldiers shooting. A bullet pinged off the bricks above his head and he ducked back quickly. ”Those guys aren’t going to wait for us much longer.”

”I got it.” Orville replied. ”Oh, you are not going to like this. A Twisted Hoard is approaching the city!”

”A Hoard?!” 56 said with surprise. ”That wasn’t on the radar before we arrived. Was our intelligence bad?”

Before he could think of any reasons, from another smaller road across the street from them, the sound of cars driving quickly drew his attention. Looking that way, he saw two more black Humvee trucks headed their way.

”We can’t stay here anymore.” 56 said to Orville. He then stood up and kicked off his shoes, revealing that he had no socks underneath. ”Let’s take this chase to the skies.”

”Alright! My territory!” Orville cheered.

”Activate Aerial Armament: Stage 1.” 56 murmured to himself.

There came a robotic whirring noise from his legs. They were transforming! His feet split open down the middle and slid up along his shins. The shins then split halfway up into four parts and spread out like a budding flower. In between the split areas on each leg was revealed to be two small jet like engines.

Then just as the two newly approaching truck’s arrived and their doors swung open, 56 activated the engines. His body effortlessly lifted up off the ground and zoomed upward into the sky. As soon as he did, he was forced to zig zag through the air as he was met with a hail of bullets coming from both sets of trucks. He did a quick barrel roll and took cover over the roof tops. His leg engines remained on and he stopped to hover centimeters above the ground.

”Let’s keep heading for the west wall. If a Twisted Hoard really is coming than I have an idea about who we can get transport from.” 56 said to Orville who was flying alongside of him.

…

”I’m so bored!” Tammy complained while giving a yawn.

”Relax, we won’t have to wait much longer. The Hunters Clan said we would have a shot at a big job here. Just wait for Dixon to comeback.” Sam replied.

The two young adults were waiting outside of a big fancy gray building, which was labeled Hunters Clan Lodge 117, along with three large Hover Bikes and a midsized flatbed Transport Hover Ship attached to one of the hover bikes. The four machines had no tires on them anywhere and were hovering silently, just a mere meter above the ground.

The bikes were a mismatch of different colored panels and rust, but still maintained perfectly good functions. The bikes were also covered in an assortment of large heavy caliber guns, explosives, bags, and some sharp looking handheld weapons. All these weapons made it possible for them to do their job. To hunt Twisted creatures of all types.

Tammy slouched in her bikes long banana shaped seat and punched at the air above her. ”I wish he’d hurry up. I wanna shoot something!”

”Awe knock it off.” Sam said with an annoyed sigh. ”You’d be a lot cuter if you acted more professional. We would probably have more money too if you wouldn’t act like a child.”

”Uh? What did you say?” Tammy replied giving him an angry look. Tossing a black braid over her dark skin she scoffed at him, ”I am as cute as I can be. You can’t improve perfection!”

”Whatever!” Sam huffed and pulled his green hoody over his face to block his view of her.

”Hey don’t ignore me!” Tammy said sitting back up. ”I going to come over there and…”

But she was suddenly cut short when a boom sounded from the main doors of the Hunters Clan Lodge. Dixon appeared with a smile plastered onto his huge, bearded frame.

”Load up and strap down! We got a big job coming our way!” Dixon said coming down the steps with hurried stomps. “It’s the biggest one ever!”

”Alright!” Tammy shouted happily and ignored Sam’s attitude.

”Finally, where we are going now?” Sam replied turning on his Hover Bike. Its electric engine hummed to life and he could feel its power rise.

Just then the sound of a siren whaling in the distance sounded. Then a light blue glow started to spread coming from over the buildings to the west.

”Not far at all.” Dixon said hopping on his bike, which was hooked up to the flat bed Ship. ”In fact, the Twisted are coming right towards us. All we got to do is fight them at the city walls and collect our bounties!”

”Oh, easy money! Finally.” Tammy cheered clapping her hands together giddily.

They were about to take off when a male voice suddenly called towards them. ”Hey, got room for one more?”

The three of them turned around to see 56 and Orville coming towards them.