章 1: Ticking Away Part 1
A long silence hung in the room where the 5 of them stood around a board that was littered with information and research that they had done, they were stuck now, with no light at the end of the tunnel.
"So to recap," Mark spoke up, breaking the silence that had lingered for 5 painstakingly long minutes, "We got information from an insider, insider that assured us that there was going to be an attack on the same day that Candidate Bernard Hill was going to speak at the rally, and now we have all of this, and now what? What do we look for now?" The four others said nothing, looking at the hologram of a board.
"Hey, did we look at this?" William walked up to the board and selected one of the documents. William was a veteran on the police force, and had lead more than one action against terror groups, "We know that they haven't been active in a while, and our insiders allowed us to know that they received significant shipments of enriched fertilizer, which, if I find the old file," An old board replaced their new one, "This was from the opposite side, a group that was dismantled by the government forces, this had similar settings, but, the thing I wanted to talk about, was, this," An list of find that he had written was on the board, "Fertilizer, it was used as an ingredient of bombs that were found, I have a bad feeling about this."
"Bombings?"
"No shit you have a bad feeling."
"Do we know that they are going to make bombs?" William, Sarah, Julia and Mark turned to Helena, "We can't bust in like that, the rally is in two months, we can't get a warrant on them from a judge, they won't give it to us."
"You are right, Helena," William said, adjusting his black sport sleeve.
"You know you can take that sleeve off, Will."
"I don't like showing my arm, Sarah, especially with these guys."
"You know that you aren't the only one with that," He turned and shrugged at Helena as his eyes fell upon her metallic shoulders, "I am enhanced as well, I have a titanium rib cage and spine, I hate these guys, but I don't have to be oppressed by them."
"Even if I am natural, I ain't gonna judge you because of that, you saved my life with that," Mark said, trying to comfort William, "I thanked you already for that, but I'll thank you again."
"Yeah, thanks, it's fine, I am fine," The four of them watched William as he walked into the break room of their office.
"I can't comfort that man, don't know what's up with him," Sarah sighed, "Well, I'll be leaving, I have to go visit my mother tonight, so I'll be leaving early," She said taking her hand bag and coat and walked towards the door.
"Have a good evening!" Helena called, "See you tomorrow."
"Yeah, hope your mother is doing fine," Julia sighed and walked towards the break room, "Good luck with him," Mark added, "He has been tough recently."
"I know, we both work here, Mark, everyday," She pushed open the break room and saw William on the phone.
"Yeah, okay, are you okay? You are sure? Okay, I'll pick those up for you on my way home, yeah, bye, love you, bye," He hung up the and placed a piece of paper in his pocket, "Oh, hi Julia."
"Who were you talking to?"
"No one."
"Will, really?"
"Okay, fine, I'll just tell you, but don't tell the others, not right now."
"Okay, sure, I can do that, hopefully."
"I live with a bot."
"With a bot? Like, a real bot?"
"Yeah, with a bot, we are together."
"Oh, I would have never guessed."
"Well," He drank from a mug of coffee, "My injury changed me."
"What were the things you need to get them?"
"Fucking assholes knocked them over and it jammed their arm, so I have to get a new piece to fix it," He sighed, "Sarah left, right?"
"Yeah, to see her mother."
"Did you guys talk about anything relevant?"
"No, but I wanted to know something."
"Go ahead."
"The arm thing, Mark said you saved him, he started working here five years ago, and the Cityhall bombings were five years ago, were you both?"
"Yep, I tried to defuse the bomb, in 10 seconds, that is a tall order but I tried and with time ticking down, I shoved him to safety and the blast knocked me back and a steel reinforcement in the broken wall went through my shoulder, and it cut off all my nerves in my arm, so I was partially paralysed," He pulled off his sleeve and revealed a full, smooth metal arm, "At least, being with a bot allows me to have some amazing lessons on care for my arm."
"Upsides to everything?"
"Yeah, probably."
"Do you think there is a way to know where they are going to plant the bombs?"
"We don't even know what type of bomb they are making, we have to depend on the insiders from now on, if they can get us more, we can know."
"Well, I hope your partner fixes their arm fine," Julia said leaving the room. He worked in a team of five, five anti-terror investigators, three naturals and two enhanced. The society of Gallbatonia was made up, like many communities, of three groups, naturals, people with no robotic parts, enhanced, people with part modifications to bones, limbs or organs and then bots, people that were either completely AI or people that have just a human brain or heart, nothing else, they were the more extreme cases. His metal arm was connected to his brain with communicators that were placed in the artificial tissues that acted as his muscles. He rolled his sleeve back on and left the break room with his mug of coffee. He pulled a chair from his desk and pulled up the board once more and was joined by Mark and Helena as Julia was on the phone with an officer in charge of receiving the information from the insiders in the Nature's Children. He said nothing before taking a sip and then speaking.
"Open map of Cityhall," A three-dimensional map came up, "Overlap sewer system," Another map appeared, "Overlap transport lines."
"What are you looking for, William?"
"Save map," The map vanished and a file appeared on the board, "Let's call it a day, good job today."
"What were you looking for?"
"I don't know, it just came to me on a whim, I just think that a bomb wouldn't be in the open like that, you see what I mean."
"Well, yeah, but I think we have a lot of stuff to find still, and Julia just got off the phone."
"What's going on?"
"Let's go home and rest, tomorrow, same thing."
"Oh, wait, tomorrow I am working with the shooting instructors to do my mandatory training."
"Okay, sure thing."
"Me and Helena are doing the combat training."
"Okay Mark, that is fine with me."
"So I guess it will be me and mark here tomorrow to work," Sarah smiled as she took her coat from her desk, "See y'all later," She said as the elevator door opened and Mark and her entered the elevator.
"You okay Will?"
"Yeah, I just hate how many times I have gotten pieces because of assholes messing with Alex."
"Alex?"
"My partner."
"I am curious about them."
"Ask away, I have a little bit of time before I have to get going, to buy food and the pieces," He said looking at his watch, "Ask away, I might as well be open about it."
"Is it just 'them'?"
"Depends, but right now, it is more she."
"It depends?"
"She can replace her body parts to resemble male or female, so right now, female," He shrugged, "I am fine with her."
"Do you cook for you two?"
"No, she does, since I work longer hours, but I have to tonight, because of her arm, I have to tonight."
"How did her arm jam?"
"The elbow joint," He showed his own arm, "It's a hydraulic joint, so it got twisted, probably because of how she fell, and well, she needed to make a change to most of her leg screws as well, so I have to make sure to get the pieces for her."
"Isn't that expensive?"
"No, because the government runs the stores, so prices are stable and affordable, but their lives are more expensive, more maintenance than natural life."
"You have to maintain your arm too, right?"
"She always wants to do it for me, so I get a class on maintaining my arm."
"What is the most expensive?"
"The palting, they are custom made, so they are three to four times the price of all the joints in her knees, ankles, elbows and wrists, and those aren't that cheap."
"Can I ask how much?"
"14 thousand a pop."
"Wow, okay, that isn't that cheap."
"Nope, well, I have to get going, you coming or staying more?" He said finishing his coffee and then walking towards the break room.
"You want me to drive you to the store?"
"I don't want you to have any troubles," He said, rolling on his sleeve and pulling on a black glove, "Naturals don't always like people like me or Alex, and you, even if you are a Natural, you know."
"If you insist, well," They both walked into the elevator, "Do you think we are going to stop the Nature's Children?"
"Let's not call the game before it ends."
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