Cyborg Claude
Episode 2
In the previous episode, Claude handed off important information to Salindra, but the Space Association had tracked his movements to the building where she hid out. Salindra does not have a warning. What will Claude do, knowing they search the building?
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Salindra sat bolt upright and listened. Heavy boot steps approached in the hall and then they stopped. They did not sound like Claude’s boots. He had never returned for days after a drop off, though she knew he had spent some time elsewhere in the building.
The portable computer auto saved and shut off when she closed it. She shoved the clutter of papers into a case any which way, followed by the computer. Flicking the desk light off sent her into complete darkness in the windowless room. She quietly closed the case after tossing the light in.
She pulled the night vision goggles perched on her head over her eyes. Months of life in this place had convinced her to know it blind, but with the unstable power, these proved lifesaving. She shuddered at the memory of a near fall down a shaft. Somehow, power reached these buildings, but wouldn’t it be easier to keep people out if they turned the power off entirely?
Thumping sounds came through the wall. The search had reached the room next to her. No time to contemplate why the power still worked at all here.
She knelt and shoved the case under the rickety desk. Deft fingers opened the grate to an air duct hidden behind the desk. She shimmied through with her fingers coiled tightly around the handle of the case. Her free hand pulled the swinging grate closed without a sound. She made it ten feet down the duct when the distinctive sound of the door opening reached her. She wiggled the five feet to the turn in the pipe. Lying still around the corner, she listened for pursuit.
Someone grunted and stomped out of the room.
She let her breath out with relief, but she had to get out of here. Their sensors rarely worked here with all the old style metal framing and ductwork, but they had the possibility of working.
The area remained quiet, other than the usual sounds of rats, the derelict building’s power, and dripping water. A slither through the ducts might be safer than creeping through the hallways. She strained to hear more while doing her best to remain quiet in her movements.
She pushed the goggles up once in an area with several grates that let dim light in. She stopped at a grate that opened to a view below her.
The Space Service Association had entered the building and at least two milled about in the entrance foyer far below.
She gulped. Had they trailed Claude? She did not know Claude’s place in all of this, but she had seen a lot of him lately. He never said a word to her, even if today made it about fifty meetings. He would deliver or pick things up for her as if he was her personal gopher. She knew better. No one sent to Goeken came without full training.
Today marked the first day she had seen him tired and sweating. She had smelled the difference when she stood close while he pulled up the blueprint for her. She shivered.
If they capture me …
She pushed herself further down the duct. They would not find her. Not here. Not with any incriminating evidence. Never like this.
The troopers would rely on room by room searching; a tedious job in this jumbled labyrinth of junk filled rooms. This entire building stood as a monument to the garbage humans had created. Every room held an array of things not seen for decades. She loved this dank, mildewed building and now it contained vermin she could not live with.
Conrad’s foot tapped on the pitted and dulled marble of the lobby floor. He looked up at the ducts that crossed the ceiling four stories up. This building had unique features to it from a bygone age that he could not date. The more he looked at it, the more intrigued he became. The building stood as a testament to old architecture.
He grimaced at the smell that hit him. He wanted this to end so he could go back to the pristine life where real people lived. Only the wretched would dare come here. Because of one shadow of a man whom had single-handedly stolen several top-secret documents from the Space Service Association, he now stood in this rank, old place. No one got away with that. No one.
Leather gloves creaked when he balled his hands into fists. He stalked out onto the littered street. At least the quarantine shield kept the rain away.
Conrad climbed into the transport. He tuned out the jabber on the radio. He adjusted the powerful scanners housed in the vehicle, but they continued to bounce off the steel. Why did the foolish things not work through the steel common to the old city remains? It annoyed him that with all the sophistication of technology in the past century, the latest equipment could not penetrate steel. Technology had led to superior materials strong enough for building and did not corrode like old steel.
A thump against the side of the transport jerked him out of his thoughts. He glanced in the side mirror to see a figure in a dark trench coat slipping behind the transport. Definitely not a trooper or other agent he knew of, so he threw the running transport into reverse. No yell. No satisfying bump of a body going under the wheels. Nothing seen via the mirrors. He was already back far enough that the person should be in front of him. Where was he?
Noises came from the back of the transport. He slammed on the brakes. A loud thud came from the back. He rose out of the driver’s seat and drew his pistol. He yanked the door open to the back with the gun readied.
“Freeze!”
A fist connected with his nose. His vision swam. His gun went off, but he had no clue if he hit anything. He smashed into the front window hard and slipped to the floor cursing his luck.
Claude shook his head in disgust at the man on the floor of the transport. He picked up the dropped gun and stuffed it in a coat pocket. He grunted. The shot had grazed his side. That could wait. He doubted it would kill him.
With the front doors locked, he grabbed the dazed man on the floor and dragged him into the back of the large transport. Once he had the doors in the back secured, he turned to the stunned man, who wavered on his hands and knees. A swift kick to the head solved that problem.
He ran a hand back over his hair while he looked about for a way to confine the man. He spied a set of handcuffs in one of the open lockers. Pain shot up his side when he straightened from putting the cuffs on. He threw out his hand for support. The wound required immediate attention.
He sat on the narrow bench below the lockers. Blood oozed from the wound. He clapped a hand over it and leaned back, cursing his luck. Then again, why had he gotten into this transport? He had easily avoided the troopers thus far and could have distracted them away from Salindra another way. A sigh escaped him.
He frowned at the unconscious man on the floor. Recognition flared. Of all his luck. He had just knocked out the same trooper who had shot him in cold blood at close range five years ago. He should be dead because of that encounter. Everyone else was. He could easily return the favor, but what good would that do? It wouldn’t make him feel better about it.
The back door handle rattled, followed by banging and muffled curses. Let them bang on it for a bit. He would not move until he was good and ready to. Then keys rattled in the lock. He lunged to his feet. He frowned at his blood-soaked hand. The engine hummed in idle. He ignored the trooper looking in the side window and slammed his foot on the gas pedal. Then remembered he had to shift the thing. Gears ground noisily and the truck lurched backwards. A couple of thumps and yells occurred. The view turned into one man down, but working to stand. The others foolishly fired at him despite the protective windshield. He backed down the street and backed into the alley he had snuck out of only minutes ago.
He had to hide. Fast.
Debris stopped the vehicle from going any further. He threw the door open. He slid out with a wince, grabbing the door to stay on his feet. A growl erupted from him. He slammed the lock down on the door and closed it. A side door into the alley let him back into the building where he had met Salindra only a short time before. Wonderful.
He slipped into the hallway near to the foyer and headed for a side stairwell down a hall. Two stories up, he sagged to the steps. One hand clung to the banister. He failed to stand when he heard footsteps echoing in the stairwell. He resigned himself to being found.
The goek in the transport would have his day with him. No fly in retrieval would happen this time, not that Claude considered the last one a save. Those dead men had been his close comrades.
Salindra skidded to a halt on the landing so she did not trip over Claude’s prone form. She grabbed him by the collar to drag him through the door into the hallway. She twisted away from his fist. His movement helped her get him closer to the door.
“Come on, you. We don’t have to go far, but we have to go now.”
She pulled him along when he stopped fighting against her. Commands came from the foyer into the hallway. She glanced that way, but only saw an empty balcony. Toward the back of the building, darkness shrouded everything. Claude leaned heavily on her. Could she get him hidden before the troopers made another tour of the place? She could not make Claude crawl through the ducts to her preferred hiding places.
They went through a maze of rooms until they reached one lined with cabinets with a table in the middle of it. She let go of Claude, hoping he would not fall to the floor. She slid her night vision goggles on top of her head and then flipped the light switch. The bright light caused her to blink while she dug into a cabinet behind some damp, old boxes. A roll of gauze and some bandage pads spilled from her hands onto the table. She glared at Claude, who sat there calmly trying to pull his bloody shirt up.
“You could have helped more in getting here if you can sit there that well.”
To her derision, he only shrugged. She had to catch him when he pitched forward. She quickly worked to bandage the wound. It still oozed around how the laser had cut through, leaving entrance and exit wounds. On closer examination, the laser had entered the front and went on out the back at close range. It had cut through skin and muscle, but nothing else. Any closer and Claude would have died by now.
“You are one lucky fellow with how this hit.” She wrapped the gauze around his torso to hold the bandage pads in place and pulled it tight. His soft grunt was his only reaction. “You think you can do more traveling so we can get out of here?”
He nodded with a smirk. How could he manage that when he looked like he would keel over again at any minute? She shook the question out of her head and snatched up the case she had everything stuffed in. Another roll of gauze and more bandage pads went into a pocket of her jacket. She reached for the door handle.
He turned the light out and followed her into the dark.
She made him crawl into a small cubicle two rooms later and squeezed in as well. She pulled the panel shut. Some quick shifting proved this space would not hold both comfortably. She squeaked in shock when he grabbed her and hauled her into his lap, her back against him. He gently massaged her shoulders. What did he think he was doing? She stiffened, causing him to stop. It had felt good.
His hands moved away completely, and his form relaxed underneath her. She sat there listening for any sound beyond his breathing, which had an obvious hitch to it. She bit her lip. Hopefully, his body would not go into shock from blood loss. Now enclosed in the tight cubicle, she could smell the blood and sweat of him. He grunted when she shifted in his lap. She wanted to flee the small place.
Where were the goeks? How long had it been already? Time dragged. Claude’s breathing had become slower and easier sounding. Had he fallen asleep? Worried about him going into shock, she gave him a nudge on his unwounded side with an elbow. He grunted loudly, and a boot thudded against the wall. She hissed in warning to be quiet. He shifted beneath her to prop himself in a corner of their hiding spot.
Someone talking and footsteps in the room startled her. She held her breath. Claude’s body went completely still. She could sense the anticipation in him, or was that her own body shivering? She rubbed sweaty palms on her pants.
Don’t find the access panel?
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