Neo Tropolis Police Department
1. Case File #5: Incident At The Country Kitchen
by Justin Swartz
Neo Tropolis Police Department: Case Files are copyright Justin Swartz 2002-2003. Any reproduction of this document for purposes of publication, data storage, archiving, or adaptation, without the expressed consent of the author, is strictly prohibited and subject to proper legal action. Yes, this means you. And by the way, all rights reserved.
Country Kitchen Restaurant
8:01pm, June 5th
Year 2012
Yuki was impressed at the sight of the combat neoroid, but wished it would have been under better circumstances. Mia and Marcus were also in attendance, and Yuki had them all check their weapons before stepping inside.
This was when he noticed that the neoroid was carrying two models of the Glock 19, a fully automatic pistol that was still in production.
“That’s pretty hefty firepower,” Marcus whistled.
“This volatile situation calls for it,” the neoroid replied. He had a clean buzz cut to his black hair, and ashen gray eyes, along with having a boyish face that would have made him in his early twenties, if neoroids actually aged.
“Mia, Marcus, you stay with our new friend,” Yuki ordered. “Melanie is with me.”
“Of course she is,” Mia mumbled under her breath as they moved into the restaurant via the broken back door. Yuki was hit with a blast of cold air, making him realize that they had stepped into a storage area of some kind. Melanie moved swiftly in front of him, taking a position against a stack of frozen buns.
Yuki nodded to Marcus, who led them out of the storage area and through another metal door, which led into the kitchen. It was an expansive affair, with a mosaic of dishes, utensils, and food parts placed randomly around burners, stoves, dishwashers, and bread mixers. Several refrigerators were lined against the far wall, and Marcus made a low dash for them, Mia following close behind.
Melanie found a spot next to a stove, and Yuki leaned against the stove’s door next to her. The neoroid stayed somewhere in the back, not really moving forward or backward.
Yuki shot him a confused look.
The neoroid crossed his arms and fired his Glocks with ear-snapping booms, bullet casings tinkling to the dirty tile floor.
All he had succeeded in doing was making two large holes in the walls.
“What are you doing?!?” Mia hissed from her position.
“We were being watched,” he said in his near-monotone, and as if on his cue, two orb-shaped devices fell from the walls and rolled into smoking heaps at his feet.
“Spider drones,” Marcus whispered. “They’re used by the military for infiltration.”
“Someone wants to see our reactions,” Melanie observed.
Yuki gave the neoroid a “Good work” nod, and then moved himself around Melanie, and then inched underneath a saloon-style set of doors.
He was behind what appeared to be a bar setup, but only without the alcohol; there were muffled voices filling his ears, along with a persistent hum-and-buzz that he knew all too well.
It was the sound of neoroid movement.
He motioned for Melanie to come forward, and they hugged the tiny corner of the bar. Mia crawled under a saloon door at the opposite end of the bar, with Marcus behind her.
Where’d that neoroid disappear to now? Yuki wondered.
“I am detecting four neoroids total,” Melanie said, tapping him on his shoulder.
“Are they armed?” Yuki asked.
“I cannot tell that by a simple heat signature scan,” she said.
Yuki muddled over that for a while, and decided on the easiest solution.
There are four of us, four of them. No problem, just distract them for a moment, pick targets, and take them out like dominos.
Yuki started transferring his instructions to Mia and Marcus via hand signals when the front doors to the dining area blew open.
The four police officers peered over the bar to see the diners on the floor, heads between their legs and arms over their heads, crying out as the combat neoroid stepped through the splinters of the doors, Glocks cocked and ready.
Swell.
“Officer Yuki, this is your distraction!” the neoroid called out, and suddenly Yuki realized that the thing had predicted his actions to the letter.
“Go!” Yuki called, and the officers leaped over the bar in unison.
There were four neoroids all right, and they all turned toward Neo Tropolis’ finest and aimed small silver pistols at them.
Melanie did a handstand in front of one guarding a group of kids and kicked it out the window with a spinning double-kick, making her land upright and making the kids cheer.
Yuki and Mia exchanged glances and traded off their targets; Yuki aimed to his right at the one aiming at Mia, and she aimed at Yuki’s. Yuki’s magnum barked twice as two bullets slammed into the optic sensor of the ‘roid, dropping it to the floor. Mia’s magnum barked twice as loud, making her target’s head snap off and land in a soup bowl.
Marcus, the least interested in finesse, ducked a swipe from the neoroid facing him, brought his pistol up into the chin area, and pulled the trigger. There was a discharge of the electrical nature, and then the ‘roid fell back onto a table, crushing it under the weight and getting a pair of barbeque steaks in the face.
Yuki let out the breath he didn’t know he had been holding in, and nodded to Mia, leaving her to arrange the hostages together and assure them they were safe. He strode over to the neoroid, who was still holding his Glocks in a combat position.
“Thanks for the distraction,” he said.
“It is my duty,” the machine man replied.
“You could have told me about it first,” Yuki said, still trying to figure out how best to approach the subject.
“There was little time.”
“Not enough time to say ‘I have an idea, trust me and wait?’”
“Is that what you would like me to say from now on, Officer Yuki?” the neoroid asked.
“Yeah, that’d be great,” Yuki said with a hint of uncertainty. What did they program him with, nuts and chips?
Melanie walked over and handed David a clear computer board with several frayed wires.
“Yuki, this came out of the neoroid I dispensed,” she said. “It looks like an illegal control card.”
Yuki told her to bag it for evidence, and felt his stomach starting to settle and his spirits returning. Despite almost blowing the whole thing because of my new recruit, we at least have some evidence to work with now. There’s still the “who” and the “why,” but now we have the “what.”
As the diners were led outside to get some air, Yuki remembered the spider drones that the neoroid had shot out of the walls. He slid across the bar, pushed open the saloon doors, and stared at the floor.
The drones were gone.
N.T.P.D. Precinct
9:30pm, June 5th
Year 2012
Melanie held the controller card between her slender hands and looked at Yuki between her strands of blonde hair.
“This device is mainly used on the black market,” she explained. “It is cheap, easy to produce, and enables wireless access to the neoroid’s program.”
“Somebody’s reprogramming them to do specific tasks, then,” Yuki said.
“That seems very likely.”
“That same person could make them turn violent with this, couldn’t they?”
Melanie nodded.
“No way to tell who was controlling it, though?”
She shook her head. “Regular control cards have traceable serial numbers. Illegal ones do not. The signal itself is only traceable when it is attached to the device it’s controlling.”
Yuki put his face in his hands. Right when I thought we were getting somewhere. They can’t be traced in any way, shape, or form.
Call it divine intervention; Yuki later referred to it as a “light bulb moment.” Whatever it was, his thoughts had flipped a switch in the power station of his brain, and the Sherlock Holmes section of it had an idea.
“Did you dust it for fingerprints?” he asked.
Melanie frowned. “Why do something so outdated?”
“Just an idea I had,” Yuki said. “Go with it.”
She nodded, putting the card back into its small, clear evidence container.
“How did I perform tonight?” Melanie inquired.
Yuki smiled. “You did great, Melanie. The kids sure liked you.”
She smiled a bit. “Children are innocent treasures that we cannot ignore.”
Funny, Yuki thought. I could swear I’ve heard that somewhere before. He dismissed the thought and sent Melanie on her way to the crime lab.
The neoroid appeared in front of his desk moment after Melanie had left. If someone asked Yuki whom he preferred, it would have been Melanie.
“The district attorney, Gregg Elicker, would like a report on my performance each week, Officer Yuki,” he snapped off. “He said to be brief, to the point, but not dry and sarcastic like David’s reports.”
“Dry and sarcastic?” Yuki said back.
“I am only the messenger,” the neoroid said in a defensive tone.
“Right, right,” Yuki mumbled. “Hey, do you have a name? I don’t think I ever caught it.”
“I never threw it,” the ‘roid responded without any sign of humor in his voice.
Got me there.
“But do you have a name?” Yuki asked.
“I believe that I was given the name Ebert.”
Yuki was reaching for his Coke, and froze in mid-motion.
“They named you after the old movie critic?”
“I cannot say.”
“Talk about a bunch of geeks,” Yuki said. “Do you like your name?”
“It is not for me to like or dislike.”
Let’s give those geeks something to sweat about, he thought with a grin.
“How about this? If I can’t think up a better name for you by the time we wrap up this neoroid case, then your name stays Ebert. Deal?”
Ebert nodded and left; Yuki wondered if he would have clicked his heels and said “Hiel Hitler!” as well.
Yuki reached for his Coke again, but his phone rang.
He picked it up. “Yuki speaking.”
“Yuki, it’s Melanie,” the android said in her soft voice. “We ran a fingerprint test on the controller card like you asked.”
“What did you find?”
“The print matches one found in the Neo Tropolis census database,” she replied. “It belongs to a Daniel McNeil.”
“Daniel McNeil…” Yuki repeated. “Wait, I know him! He’s the pastor that hosts the local radio show called Bible Talk!”
“Correct,” Melanie affirmed.
Yuki held the phone loosely in his hand and stared at his desk.
What on earth would a popular local pastor want with an illegal neoroid controller card?
Guess I’m going to find out, whether I want to or not.
