Living Metal

Chapter 1: Between a rock and a hard place-4

Her back was metaphorically against a wall and she almost gave in to her anger when her ear-bud began to buzz.

Anna’s communication device was finally working. This made her stop before she could act. Anna checked it to see if it was Sergeant Simms.

“Anna, this is Lieutenant Mitchell. Please stop! Do not take them on!”

“Stacy, get the Serge on,” said Anna as quietly as possible.

“Okay, but just…” Stacy was interrupted by Anna saying, “Don’t worry, I can handle this.”

“Anna this is…” Sergeant Simms was also interrupted by Anna. “Serge, what the hell is the ESF doing here?”

“Shhhhh!”

Damn it, not again, thought Anna.

Anna’s long ears twitched a bit as she could hear some of them talking about her. The troopers had recognized her from the underground fights that she regularly visited. There had been rumors of a female cop taking on multiple fighters and winning without a scratch.

“No way, that is her.”

“Man, I saw her fight the other day. She is the one who took down the Butcher of Dicon with one shot. If we don’t hit her first, we're as good as dead.”

“s**t, I don’t think I want to do this. She is a cop after all.”

“Doesn’t matter, we have our orders.”

Anna could hear the fear in their voices and tensions were now wearing thin.

“Anna, do you read me?” said Simms as the communication device in her ear reconnected. “Anna, stand down!”

“But Serge, they killed the perpetrators that I just arrested,” said Anna.

“I know, Anna,” said Simms, “Since we lost contact with you the first time, our people have been trying to reach you. We have been monitoring your situation by piggybacking onto an Earth security force’s satellite. Again, Anna, do not proceed or take any action. Those guys are from the Earth’s government security force. They do have jurisdiction there. If you do attack them, this could give them enough reason to shut us down. For now, cooperate with them.”

Knowing that she could take them on with no problem, Anna decided not to take any action that could harm her fellow cops. “Okay, boss, I won’t. Besides, they were no match anyway.”

“Sorry that we couldn’t give you any backup,” said Simms.

“Yeah, yeah, whatever,” said Anna as she closed her eyes to calm down. Her body reverted from metal to flesh. Reluctantly, Anna raised her hands and surrendered. The security forces were apprehensive knowing who she was and they were not too sure if this was a trick.

Without an incident, Anna allowed them to handcuff her, smiling as they placed her into the holding truck. As soon as they shut the door, Anna quickly unlocked her hands and threw the cuffs out the barred window. She tagged one of the ESF troopers on the back of his helmet. Angry at Anna’s actions, he started to turn back around, when his fellow troopers held him back. He wasn’t going to win this one and the others knew that.

Her momentary enjoyment fleeted away as Anna sat down with her arms crossed. All she could do now was to wait for the long ride to the Earth’s government holding cells. This was not a good day for her.

Out of the opposite window of the holding truck, Anna noticed someone at a distance looking down at the scene. She got up and leaned over to see if she could make out who was running this operation. As Anna focused her eyes on them, she could see two men standing on top of a hill. Like her body, her eyes were augmented to see further than human capability.

One of the men was watching her using binoculars. He had a goatee with slick black hair and was dressed in a long silver-gray trench coat. On the right side of his coat was an emblem of the Earth’s Security Force. His name was Lance Storm, the newly promoted Earth’s chief of security for Mars.

Standing right beside the car dressed in a deep blue suit was a smaller man with a parted haircut, the representative and head scientist of the CTC (Cyber-genetic Technology Corporation), Dr. John Lorick. Both of them were over an operation to explore a once-secret abandoned laboratory used during the war between Earth and Mars.

Lance asked, “Who is this woman?”

“I think she is from the New Dicon police,” John replied.

“But she didn’t know that this place was a secured zone and off limits to everyone?”

“Maybe she was the cause of that explosion.”

“Hmmm…maybe.”

Lance thought Anna was cute. He slightly blushed as he realized that Anna could see him from that distance. Lance continued to watch and noticed that Anna was flicking him off.

At that time, John opened the door and got inside. He looked at his watch. It was around six pm Earth’s time.

John smiled as he knew the real reason for the explosion. His men from CTC were ordered to use the distraction to take any info and technology that belonged to them during the war.

A perfect plan, he thought as the car phone rang. It was from the retrieval team inside an abandoned lab. He picked up the phone. “Hello.”

“Sir, we are here and on our way to the bottom of the lab.”

John looked up to see if Lance was listening in. He wasn’t. John softly said, “Good, once you get the main package, destroy all other evidence that cannot be retrieved.”

“Will do, but what about the scientists in the upper levels?”

“Well, you can’t make an omelet without breaking some eggs.”

“Ahh, sir?”

“We cannot have any witnesses. Do you copy?”

“I copy that, sir.”

As John hung up the phone, Lance surprised him by opening the vehicle door.

“I guess we can head back now, Dr. Lorick.”

“Yeah sure, but before we head back, I would like to talk with this woman. Can we go down there first?”

“That is fine, but not for long. I want this interrogation to be over as soon as possible.”

John smiled cockily and looked at his watch. Other than the Red Skulls improvising by trying to kill this cop with the bomb that he gave them, this was going almost exactly as planned. No one in the Earth’s Government was the wiser that this was his doing.