“The time is twelve fifty pm, ventilation reset begins in ten minutes.” A robotic voice called out from the lobby pa system. “Hey, you mind setting your watch for me?” Calco asked Hughes as he holstered his revolver. “Why don’t you do it?”
“I left my watch at home.” Calco admitted with a shrug. Hughes groaned as he slid his pistol into his holster and looked down at his watch. “The vents’ll purge at one pm on the dot, that means we get nine minutes and thirty-two seconds starting now.” With a quiet beep a secondary timer appeared on Hughes’ watch face and began counting down.
The two men both got up out of the car at the same time before Calco retrieved a bulky case from the trunk. “Remember to keep a cool head.” Hughes warned as he led the way. “Do you ever wonder what gets shot out during a vent purge?” Calco asked. “Mostly waste gasses that get built up in the air systems of these places.”
“Yeah, I guess that makes sense.”
“Apparently if the gasses in there mix just right they become hallucinogenic, some people even stay out in the halls to huff them and get high.”
“Weird.”
“Weird indeed.”
Nearing the front desk, the sounds of the pop-up market just beyond the lobby drowned out the calming music playing over the speakers, creating a noisy and confusing soundscape. “Excuse me sirs.” A timid voice called out as Calco and Hughes passed by the front desk. “You need to sign in before you enter, and I’m afraid you must relinquish your weapons as well.” The desk man said as he took a seat behind the metal facade. “What makes you say that?” Hughes asked, walking over to the front desk. “Building policy, no weapons are allowed past the front gate.”
“I’m sure you would be willing to make an exception.” Hughes said as he placed down his badge on the desk. “No officer, I’m afraid the rules apply to you as well.”
“Look at this guy.” Hughes said, looking back to Calco and gesturing to the desk man. “Can’t you tell we’re here on official business? Would you really deprive two officers of their only protection; what if something goes wrong and we can’t defend ourselves, let alone the innocent people?” The desk man hesitated at Hughes’ question before speaking. “I’m sorry officer, but policy states that I cannot let you pass with a loaded gun.”
A smile grew across Hughes’ face as he heard this before he suddenly smacked down his gun on the desk, pulling it up to reveal the magazine standing upright. “Loaded you say, well how about unloaded?” He asked, racking the slide to eject the bullet he had chambered. “W-well I suppose that wouldn’t be too unreasonable.”
“Just what I was thinking.” Hughes beamed as he holstered his now empty pistol. Without speaking Calco stepped forward and broke open his revolver, catching the bullets as they were ejected out and gently laying them on the desk. “V-very well then, you may now enter.” The desk man said with a shaky voice as he collected the bullets and magazine and placed them in a box under the desk.
“What a punk.” Hughes said as he stepped out into the market, followed close behind by Calco. “He’s only doing his job.”
“So are we, seriously who does he think he is, trying to take away a cop’s gun?” Hughes nearly shouted as he passed a taco vendor. “We’re in plain clothes, he probably thought we weren’t cops.” Calco said, spying a chubby man selling wrenches across the market. “If we’re not cops, then what are we?” Hughes asked, coming up to a wall of elevator doors. “Gangsters maybe.”
“I’ve never been more offended in my entire life.” Hughes said as the heavy metal doors in front of him shuttered open.
Inside the elevator the two cops sat down on the benches either side of the elevator. “Well on the bright side, he didn’t ask if we had any extra ammo.” Hughes said, slamming a fresh magazine into his gun before looking up to see Calco loading his revolver one bullet at a time. “Don’t forget, you’re on scanner duty.” He reminded Calco, flicking the gun into his holster. “I didn’t.” Calco replied as he holstered his revolver and opened the case. Inside the case was a bulky headset which he strapped to his head before turning on. The device chimed as it activated and Calco stood up from his seat to look out the elevator window as he calibrated the settings. “You should have calibrated it before we left.” Hughes groaned as Calco fiddled with the knobs on the side of the headset. “I need a certain kind of view in order to calibrate it, I can’t just do it from home.” Calco said, watching as the scanner attempted to highlight and mark every little object from across the central space of the mega building. With a turn of the three dials on the side of the headset, markers began to disappear from Calco’s periphery, only highlighting larger objects in the center of his vision.
Turning away from the window, Calco stood looking over Hughes who sat staring back at him. “Hey, what do you think you’re doing!?” Hughes suddenly snapped. “Your car just got a parking ticket.” Calco replied, seemingly unfazed by Hughes’ shouting. “I’m not the one you’re supposed to be scanning you dunce!” Hughes snapped once more. “Would you rather have the headset on?”
“Nah, I’m not modded for it.”
“Didn’t think so.” Calco said before the elevator slowed to a stop.
Hughes and Calco both drew their guns as the elevator doors shuttered open, welcoming them onto a sparsely populated terrace. “Where are we heading?” Hughes asked as he led the way out of the elevator. “Residencial bloc C127.” Calco said, pointing out an entrance way with the letter C hung over it. As the two marched into the bloc an older man of slight build turned the corner and was swiftly taken down by Hughes. “Well what do we have here, is this one of our guys?” He asked, holding the man down. “Well would you look at that, you just took down the nice old guy from two halls down.” Calco remarked sarcastically as the old man struggled against Hughes. “No need to be a punk about it.” Hughes said as he got up off the man, kicking him before he ran away. “Well where’s the apartment?” He asked, frustrated. Calco looked down at his left hand, causing a display to appear around it in the headset’s vision. With a twitch of his middle and pinky fingers he brought up a map showing a top down view of the apartment bloc he stood in. With a twitch of his pointer finger and two of his ring finger Calco highlighted his own position and the door of the apartment they were searching for. “Next right, fourth door on the left.” He said, pointing down the hall.
Quickly the two cops moved down the halls until coming to the apartment door labeled C127. “Well, what do you see on the other side?” Hughes asked, his gun raised. “This thing can’t see through walls, you know.”
“What is that thing even good for?” Hughes asked as he took a step back from the door. Calco said nothing as Hughes suddenly ran forward, smashing through the door with his foot, startling the people inside. “HANDS UP HANDS UP!” He shouted as the three gangsters sitting on the couch scrambled around in confusion. “GET YOUR HANDS UP!” He shouted again, aiming at the two gangsters rushing to show their hands. Before Hughes could shout once again the third gangster dove for the gun laid out on the table, fumbling over onto the floor as they took aim. But before they could shoot, Calco fired an electrified stun round into their shoulder causing them to spasm and begin randomly firing off rounds. The other two gangsters jumped away as Hughes flinched from the gunfire. With trained precision and determination Hughes stepped forward to pursue the thug that had jumped left, managing to shoot them in the leg before bullets whizzed over his head. Hughes dove out of the way as Calco turned the corner to see the gangster on his right preparing to shoot another burst from an smg they had picked up off the floor. Stunned, Calco tripped over the now catatonic body in front of him, tumbling over onto the floor as two shots flew through his shoulder before he fired two stun rounds into the chest of the gangster. On the other side of the room Hughes rose to his feet before firing several rounds into the second gangster’s back, angrily swearing as he did so.
Rolling over onto his back, Calco breathed heavily as he fished a tube filled with tiny sponges, ripping off the cap with his teeth and jamming it into his wounds, pressing down the plunger to inject the sponges. “Stunners, really?” Hughes asked as he helped Calco to his feet. “They work, don’t they?”
“Yeah, but it also ended with you getting the spicy shoulder.” Hughes chided. “Alright, where’s our guy supposed to be?”
“My guess is they were keeping him in the bathroom.” Calco said, scanning the living room. “That’s the door to the right, right?” Hughes asked, Calco nodding as he looked over the coffee table.
“WOAH!” Hughes shouted after casually strolling into the bathroom. “What is it?” Calco asked from the living room. “I don’t know, just look at it!” Calco sighed and went over to the bathroom not knowing what to expect. Even with all his training and experience as a scanner, there was nothing that could have prepared Calco for what sat, waiting for him in the bathtub. Turning the corner, Calco found himself staring at what looked like a person melded into a horrifically malformed computer as his head set struggled to make sense of what it was scanning. “I think we’ve moved past a normal drug bust.” Hughes said in quiet awe. “I think this is supposed to be our target.” Calco said as he scanned whatever was left of the face, sitting at what must have been the top of the machine. “You’re telling me that’s a city council member?”
“Or at least what’s left of him.”
“I’ve gotta get some of what he’s smoking.”
“Could you focus on finding a way to explain how a politician gets folded into a computer?”
Before Hughes could ask what to do with it, the entire machine suddenly shuddered, seeming to sprout a mostly mechanical arm which pointed to something written on the wall. “Hey what’s that?” Hughes asked, looking at the writing. Calco looked up from the machine to the writing on the wall but just as he saw it, the headset suddenly placed a black censor bar over it, preventing him from reading it. “What the?” Calco stammered as he fiddled with the knobs on the side of the headset. “Well, what is it?”
“Well, right now it’s censored, can’t get the scanner to let it through. Can you figure out what it says?”
“Maybe, I feel like I’ve seen it before.” Hughes said, leaning over the tub as the machine man quietly shuddered beneath him. After a short time of Hughes quietly studying the writing he suddenly said. “Alright I’m pretty sure it says MACHINE-”
Without warning, machine parts suddenly exploded out from Hughes’ mouth, causing him to tumble forward onto the machine man as he let out a strange mechanical scream. As Calco tumbled backward from shock and the headset screamed static into his ears he glimpsed the machine man interfacing with Hughes’ new mechanical jaw. “MACHINE!” The machine man forced Hughes to shout as more of his body was converted to metal. “MACHINE!” The thing itself cried as it shakily rose to its feet, dumping Hughes’ mangled flesh off to the side. Taking aim, Calco fired three stun shots at the thing, causing it to stumble back, its head smashing against the toilet as it fell. “MACHINE!” The abomination roared, reinvigorating itself as it rose to tower over Calco in the tight space. Hastily Calco began loading his gun with solid slug rounds, only managing to cram two in as the abomination bore down on him.
After two empty clicks from his gun, Calco fired a lucky shot through the thing’s head, spattering blood on the walls and ceiling behind it, and causing it to trip sideways, sending it tumbling through the wall. A large metal fist shot forward, cracking several of Calco’s ribs as he was flung backward into the living room, landing with his back against the couch as the half machine creature slumped over, dead. Staggering up, Calco felt pain ripple through his arms and chest as he fired another round through the head of the thing, making absolutely sure it would not rise again.
Staggering out into the hall, Calco clutched his chest, feeling his broken ribs as the scanner highlighted his blood leaking onto the floor as he desperately made his way to the elevator. As he passed through the empty halls he looked forward to the elevator, his eyes losing focus as he stumbled forward, and as he walked, he witnessed the elevator door creek open, revealing a lone being in a black suit. As an odd pulse ran through his body he lifted his revolver to fire, a second too late as he pulled the trigger of an empty gun.