Stealthy, nothing but a shadow, Ivan ran towards the SUV, keeping it between him and the man looking into the car. He stopped at the rear of the vehicle and peeked around the corner, gun held at the ready. The light on the phone had been switched off, making his job a little more difficult as the other man would now be undistracted.
His target had moved away from the Hyundai and was looking at something in his hands, heading for the path that Ivan and Inga had taken just minutes before. Ivan was confused, this man was sloppy. Surely Molenski didn’t send this clown alone? It didn’t matter and he shrugged the question off. What mattered was a stealthy kill. If there were more, a gunshot would only bring them down upon him.
Ivan charged.
The other man didn’t hear Ivan, but perhaps sensed him. He turned around when the big man was still five feet away. He shot both hands into the air, one holding a small gadget, and started to backpedal and shake his head. Ivan didn’t pause; he ran straight at the man. As he closed in, the expression on his target’s face changed from fear to recognition, and he stopped where he stood.
Ivan didn’t stop but he slowed and instead of shoulder charging the seemingly unarmed man, when he was within reach, he grasped his head in his two hands.
“Please, wait! I can help you!”
Ivan squeezed the man’s head between his hands but didn’t twist it… yet.
“Who the fuck are you?!”
“My name is Tom Redfern; I work for Genitix. I saw you… I mean, you have the Sinthetica robot, right?”
Ivan stared at the man. He looked like he had been through the ringer, his face was bruised and puffy, and there was blood on his clothes. He immediately judged him to not be a threat, but his presence raised many questions.
“How do you know about Inga?” Ivan asked, easing his grip a little.
“Inga?” asked Redfern, lowering his hands a little. “Oh, you mean the robot. Look, buddy, we don’t have a lot of time if you’ll just show me where she is, I can deactivate her…”
Ivan began to crush the man’s head again. Redfern made a squeaking sound.
“You will not touch Inga.”
“Okay, okay,” said the red-faced technician. “But she’s in some serious trouble – we all are when the authorities catch up with us. I need to remove the card from her to stop her hurting anyone else.”
“Card? What card?”
“I haven’t got all night to tell you about it, you just have to trust me,” said Redfern becoming more animated despite realizing that the big man was more than capable of twisting his head off.
“Tell me,” said Ivan, unrelenting.
Redfern rolled his eyes.
“I was delivering the robot to your boss; we got held up by two heavies. I don’t know who they were, but they made me insert a card into… Inga. It overrode all her security and legal programming and let us send her orders remotely. Orders to kill.”
Suddenly it all made sense to Ivan. Inga going crazy had been an assassination attempt, probably ordered by the Columbians, and instead of a gun, the weapon they were using was a robot that their intended victim had ordered.
His eyes suddenly narrowed, and he looked intently at Redfern.
“You helped them?”
“No! They forced me,” he said, his voice breaking as he became aware that again his life was on a knife’s edge. “They threatened to kill my wife and little girls.”
Ivan slowly relaxed. Molenski’s pursuit wasn’t as close as he had thought, but there was still little time to waste. He lowered his gun and gestured at the device Redfern was holding.
“Is this how you tracked us?”
“Yes, the card I was forced to install contains a GPS tracking chip.”
Ivan held out his hand. Redfern hesitated, then handed it to him reluctantly. Ivan threw it to the pavement and then smashed it to pieces with his heel.
“There will be no more tracking.”
Redfern flinched as the big man grabbed his shoulder and patted him down, locating the gun quickly and pulling it out. He looked questioningly at the technician.
“It’s not mine; I took it from the men after… after I shot them.”
Ivan stared at him a little longer and then slid the gun into the belt of his pants.
“You won’t need it anymore. Come.”
Ivan gave him a gentle shove, propelling him along the path towards Inga’s hiding spot.
“So, you’re a technician? You can help me with Inga…”
They rounded a bend, and pulled up in surprise. Inga was standing in the middle of the path staring up at the full moon.
“Inga! I told you to wait in the bushes.”
She looked around at them.
“Yes Myfriend, but I grew bored.”
Redfern’s eyes widened at this declaration. The machine was clearly faulty and probably a great danger to any humans it met in its current state.
How the fuck am I supposed to deactivate it with the big guy watching over me.
“Who is this man?”
“He is a technician from Genitix.”
Redfern watched the robot warily as they walked up to her. His guts churned nervously, he’d seen what the machine was capable of and knew she could flip at any second. Her disconcerting stare only added to his uneasiness.
“How do you want me to help her?” he asked.
“She keeps talking about how she needs to run a full diagnostic check, but I don’t want her… I don’t want her to change back.”
Relief flooded Redfern.
“Oh good! Yes, I know. We can’t risk her reverting to the new programming. I saw the damage she did. Look, the only way we can be sure she won’t go assassin again is to remove the card and deactivate her until the authorities…”
The gun was placed against his forehead so quickly that Redfern didn’t even have time to flinch. He put his hands up, his eyebrows raised.
“What? What did I say?”
“You will not fucking deactivate her. I just want you to make sure there is no long-term damage and that she doesn’t turn again. I want her to stay as she is now.”
Redfern nodded.
“Fine, I can’t do anything here, though. We need to get her to the Genitix lab, so I can remove the card and run her diagnostic check.”
Ivan looked at him suspiciously.
“If I remove the card, it will mean no one else can control her remotely.”
“Fine, but any tricks and I will shoot you through the head,” Ivan said, in a flat voice.
Redfern didn’t doubt his sincerity. He swallowed hard and gave Ivan a nod. He would have to play this by ear. Hopefully, an opportunity would arise once they were safely back at Genitix.
“Good, hurry, we have to go,” ordered Ivan.
Two minutes later they were in the SUV that Redfern had commandeered and heading out of the park. They were almost to the turn back onto West Congress Parkway when a black stretch Mercedes sped past them going in the opposite direction. Ivan recognized the license plate immediately but kept his speed steady as they merged into the traffic and headed into the city.
Molenski was close. But not close enough.
“Show me the way,” he said to Redfern, after a glance in the mirror to make sure the Mercedes hadn’t turned to follow them.
“Have them search the whole fucking park,” snapped Molenski, when Andre and the other three jogged back to inform him they had found no sign of Ivan or the robot.