He tries his hand at talking to distract it. “Was I that obvious?”
Prototype seems to pause for a moment. “I heard you talking to the woman at the bar,” it says and even with the rain coming down, its metallic voice cuts through the noise.
Now Rennin feels like an absolute fool. He should have known the android would be able to filter out the music. He had to shout so loud for Eleanor to hear him, he might as well have painted a sign on his face. He can see how ridiculous he must have looked.
This can’t be it for me. “Any tips for next time I do this?”
The prototype’s expression remains the same. “Don’t get your picture put in the news if you’re planning to be inconspicuous.”
I am such a dickhead. “Sound advice. So we shake hands and part ways as mates, right?”
“I am unable to comply with that,” it says, still brandishing a soft smile.
“Look, don’t be like that. Just talk to me. I served under your kind in the war. We were on the same side once. What’s all this about?” asks Rennin still attempting to draw a full breath.
Prototype nods, “I am aware of that. It’s why I didn’t kill you straight away.”
“I don’t understand.”
“Humans require closure. It is not my intention to cause you any pain. I assure you, it will be quick.”
“You don’t need to do this,” says Rennin feeling his voice crack.
“It isn’t to do with necessity, it’s about practicality. There is a sickness here, in this city. It will end human kind as you know it. You work for the creatures responsible,” it says with a subtle change in expression only visible around the eyes.
“What sickness?”
“Decades ago a ship went missing. It was the first ship to test the Leap Drive, a form of zero mass transmission. Only one survived.”
The Montrialis. Rennin knows the story from school. One of the very first androids was on that ship. He can vaguely remember the android on board went completely berserk and killed the crew. “What does that have to do with a sickness?”
“The survivor came back in a pod. That ship landed somewhere. The crew of the ship had found something, and he kept it with him when he returned to Earth. And now it’s loose here,” it says turning to face the broad cityscape.
“You think Caufmann did it? Is that why you keep trying to get into the lab?”
It nods solemnly, “I thought it would ease your mind if you knew that I plan on preventing this from happening, before I kill you.”
Shit. Shit. Shit. “Yeah, thanks.” Rennin huffs, feeling another spark of pain in his ribs.
“Try to relax. It will hurt if you’re tense.”
“I bet you say that to all the girls,” he says forcing himself to pull in more air.
It starts making its way down towards him in a manner Rennin knows well. His superior during the war was a CryoZaiyon lieutenant of terrible power. He was a force of industry; not nature.
Thinking quickly, Rennin leans back. Reaching into his jacket, he grabs his gun. Without taking it from the holster he fires, trying to lean on a rough angle that might result in a hit. The glowing yellow shot tears a hole through his coat missing the android by a country mile before sailing off into the distance.
Prototype smiles again before reaching down for him. At the same moment Rennin pulls the gun out of his coat aiming it right at Prototype’s head. With the back of its hand, the android taps the gun off angle and another shot flies off course, this time into the roofing.
Prototype grips his wrist, ensuring the gun is dangling uselessly, and hoists Rennin off the ground with an ease that chips another wedge out of his ego. The android clamps its fist closed. Rennin screams at the crushing of his wrist bones, dropping the gun before he’s thrown back onto the roof, near one of his previous wide shots.
Rennin does his absolute best to ignore the burning pain in his shattered right arm as Prototype seems to gloat over him. He realises that the android isn’t looking at him but the bullet hole. Rennin glances over to see that the hole is rapidly expanding. The metal is being dissolved before his eyes.
He looks back to the android and for the first time sees a look of doubt on its face. Most likely due to it being unwilling to risk a wound by one of these bullets.
The android grips Rennin by the collar and lifts him up to land a blow to his head that sends a flash over his vision before he’s dropped again. The hood absorbed most of the shock but he’s still in so much of a daze that he finds his mind swimming.
He can’t gather his thoughts and the ones that enter his mind are scattered. He finds himself wondering if he turned off the coffee machine before leaving work this evening. The scent of the kitchen in the house where he grew up is also present.
Rennin regains focus in only his right eye. He blinks as if that will click his left eye on. It doesn’t. The entire left side of his face is numb. A light body check from this android broke his ribs and a calculated strike has cracked his skull. If it weren’t for the hood absorbing the shock, he’d surely be dead.
His wits come back to him to see Prototype’s face only inches from his own. At first he thinks it strange until he feels a hand beginning to clamp across his throat. The grip is cold and feels like cast iron. The stars he was seeing after being hit in the head are already back as his air is cut off.
Rennin tries bracing a leg against the android’s chest, but the machine is too heavy to lever off. His right hand is useless and numbed from shock. He is weakening quickly, unable to see at all now so decides to do something drastic.
He uses his good hand to draw the second gun. Prototype is taken off guard but Rennin knows it won’t last. He crooks his arm at an awkward angle, and fires off one of the high calibre rounds. His elbow dislocates painfully, as his arm snaps back from the recoil.
The bullet itself goes through his folded leg at the thigh making two entry wounds and two exit wounds above and below the knee before travelling into the android’s abdomen.
The pressure on his throat is released instantly but Rennin’s body is a twisted ruin. He doesn’t know or care where the android is anymore. He is going into shock. As he loses consciousness, images of Caufmann wrestling Prototype at the lab entrance flash through his mind.
Fuck it. Rennin gives in to the blackness.
The crowd is getting rowdy, Pharaoh Drake thinks, as be bludgeons his way through. His six-man squad was forced to split up to look for the progenitor-class after its reading was lost a short while ago.
Drake checks his heads up display. Before dispatch, Caufmann equipped Drake with a tracker for Rennin’s glasses, in case of the Prototype’s reading being lost. They have been secretly tasked as his backup in case he actually found the thing.
Constant requests for details regarding their mission fell on deaf ears. Caufmann refused to share anything with the Beta HolinMech team. Drake only knows that Rennin Farrow has been taken into the Godyssey Head of Research’s confidence.
Initially, Drake’s unit stood guard around the club Starsprite. It was the last place Rennin was seen, and coincidentally the same general direction as the android’s now faded signal.
A shot rings out. Familiarity prompts Drake’s military training to kick in automatically. The unusual mix of fog and rain defuse the sound, making the location difficult to determine. The bustling masses don’t seem to notice. They probably think it is fireworks. But that was definitely a high calibre round.
A second shot sounds, which starts Drake jogging towards Starsprite. The bouncers make a move to intercept, but Drake’s readied assault rifle, and a hand gesture towards the HolinMech emblem on the shoulder of his fatigues allow him to pass without incident.