The red and blue lights flickered through the dark streets. Police were scattered everywhere throughout the factory's parking lot of OniTech.
A black sedan drove through the blockade where the police had sealed off with a holo-barrier. The vehicle was scanned to insure the other officers that it was indeed someone in their force.
Two black-suited detectives exited the vehicle. A man in his early forties tapped out a cigarette from his pack and lit it while his partner a woman in her mid-thirties went ahead to the crime scene.
"What's going on?" The black-suited woman walked to the officers who were casing the area.
"Detective Brice," One of the officers was holding a bag of evidence, "This one is really out of the ordinary."
"Looks like a basic murder to me," Detective Brice said, "Any suspects?"
"That's the thing," The officer scratched his head, "We have only one."
"Where is he?"
The police officers led to the two detectives into a storage facility where the maintenance drones charged their batteries for the night. One of the drones was oddly fixed in its bay, which didn't give it a chance to charge.
"The suspect is right in there." The police officer left back to the murder scene while the detectives investigated the area.
"What do you think about the whole scenario, Mark? She shined her phone through the shadows of the room.
"Well, that drone says it all, don't it?" The detective noticed the arms of the robot caked in what looked like blood.
"How is that possible?" Detective Brice turned to her partner, "Doesn't the law of robotics still apply?"
"Exactly," He said, "An accident would've been prevented due to its programming."
"So someone altered the programming?"
"We need a tech expert to check out this drone!" Her partner shouted to one of the officers.
She never doubted his intuition and with the types of cases they get-she was amazed by his cool demeanor. Maybe it was the amount of time he spent doing cases like these.
"Detective Ingram," One of the officers went up to Mark, "Someone will be coming in shortly."
The detectives continued going through the evidence hopefully to find some kind of clue that would lead to the culprit. Unfortunately, nothing gave them any leads. Whoever hacked into the drones knew how to cover their tracks. Hopefully, if their tech expert can crack the problem before another drone can be used.
A younger man showed up with a tablet under his arm. His jacket had police stamped across the back to signify to the other officers that he was okay.
"Detective Brice and Detective Ingram," An officer escorted the tech expert, "This is the techie."
"Can you check out the drone and see who had last access to it?" Detective Brice asked.
"Not a problem," The tech expert replied, "I'll have the results soon."
"Holly," Mark turned to Detective Brice, "Remember the McPherson Bank murder?"
"The one where they lost almost twenty million overnight?"
"Yeah," Mark exhaled, "I feel it's the same bastard."
"Two murders in one month," Holly sighed, "Pretty ballsy."
"I remember the days when you can wipe your own ass and not be afraid of your shower head coming to strangle you while you were distracted." Mark flicked his cigarette. They walked to the entrance of the building where the corpse laid. The blood covered the pavement like a crushed watermelon.
Holly scanned the windows to see how the murder may have happened. One of the windows was broken, but the body looked excessively mutilated for it to be just a fall.
"Who's the victim?" Mark looked at the body without a sense of aversion.
"Charles Windsor," Holly peeked at the name tag, "He's one of the supervisors in the building."
"So it can be an employee who was pissed off," Mark scratched his chin, "Although, I can't shake the first theory."
"I guess we're going to have to wait for the results."
"I agree," Mark lit another cigarette, "Can't be chasing our tails."
The pair waited for the coroner to pick up Charles' body to perform the necessary autopsies. The night felt slow as the minute dragged on to the point things felt pointless.
The tech expert finally finished his search with some number shown on his tablet.
"I got good news and some bad news."
"Hit us with the bad news first, kid." Mark inhaled his cigarette.
"Whoever hacked into the drone is beyond genius and used different encryptions to hide his IP address." The tech scrolled through his tablet.
"The good?" Holly looked at the tablet as well.
"We may have discovered the source address." The tech expert smiled.
"Meaning?" Mark didn't want to waste any time trying to decipher his words.
"If we have his IP address," His partner simplified it, "We have the killer."
"What are we waiting for?" Mark walked to the car. "Let's get this sonofabitch."
"Good work officer." Holly patted the young tech whiz on the back.
The duo jumped into the car then activated the sirens. The long wait paid off with a nice, big lead that can get them the arrest. The younger detective loaded up the IP address to a GPS system to track the computer.
"That's weird," Holly zoomed into the 3D map, "The computer seems to be moving."
"What's the direction?" Mark sped through the traffic lights.
"It's above us, but it's moving pretty quick."
"The train-way."
A subway in the sky was the nickname of the train-way. This mode of transportation traveled in the air above the buildings, but was large enough to carry a respectable amount of passengers. The only to get to the train-way cars was in the many stops or using some kind of air transportation. Their budget only allowed them to do the former.
The map showed them the various stops and they expected the one close to the Bio-Med Hospital, where the next stop was scheduled.
The pair ran up the steps to the platform and waited for the train-way to make its arranged stop.
"Don't get your gun out," Mark said calmly, "We don't want to spook the bastard."
"Who is this cold-hearted monster?" Holly breathed deep within diaphragm.
With any luck, this arrest would prevent another murder, but who is waiting for them among the crowd of commuters?
No comments:
Post a Comment