Boss King and the Blade
Chapter 8 - Maybe you aren’t as good as you think

Trixie

Trixie climbed steadily, her eyes made of flesh and metal probing ahead as she sought out her target. The Records Hall was near the roof of the Headquarters building, occupying space once dedicated to paper files and old evidence storage. Above it lay a Machinery level and beyond was the roof and VTOL landing pads.

She doubted the woman would have risked heading to the roof. The deck was mostly open and patrolled by at least one pair of Guards. Odds were she would hide out in the Machinery level until the search was called off, then try and escape.

Trixie reached the next floor landing and checked for any recent heat sources using her eye. A faint red bloom came from the security keypad and door handle that led to the Machinery level. She scanned up the stairs, seeing no obvious trail. It appeared the fake Officer had a decent fake security card too, since with the alert still blaring all these doors were smart-locked.

Her own smart-key unlocked the door and she opened it cautiously. A faint machinery hum came from within, motion activated lights flickering to full brightness as they registered her presence. The alarms were muted here, sounding distantly from the occupied floors below. Trixie paused, wondering why her target had not already triggered the automatic lights.

“She’s good, no denying that” Trixie muttered to herself and stepped inside, pushing the door closed with her left hand. The floor was filled with tall stacks of equipment, predominantly air and water pumps that moved the materials around the multi-floored building. There was one central walkway to the opposite wall, the machinery housings lined on either side with narrow access ways between them. It was a perfect place to hide or ambush a careless pursuer.

Trixie moved forwards slowly, following the central aisle as she scanned to her left and right. Her pistol was linked to her eye through induction pads in her fingertips, allowing her to sight the weapon with inhuman accuracy on any target that presented itself. She was halfway across the floor when a flicker of peripheral movement caught her attention.

She twisted, bringing her pistol on target with superhuman speed. The woman was faster, uncoiling that strange black blade as she jumped from the top of a stack. It caught the barrel of Trixie’s gun and sheared the end away like a hot knife carving a stick of butter. Alerts flashed in her vision but she pulled the trigger anyway.

The gun fired spectacularly, the severed barrel emitting a brilliant flare of escaping gases as the Suppression Round careened away from her target. It tried valiantly to cycle a second round into the firing chamber, however the damage was too great and the weapon jammed in a half closed position.

Like a blue garbed dancer the woman spun away from Trixie into a crouch, watching her over the glistening black blade. A small grin split her features, the dark eyebrows raised in surprise.

“You’re fast for a Guard Unit” the woman told her. “Not as fast as me of course, but I am impressed”

Trixie rotated the pistol in her hand, holding the broken barrel so she could use the grip as a club. It was a lousy weapon against a meter long sword blade, but she was improvising as best she could.

“You are way too fast for an unenhanced human” she answered. “What are you, some kind of Awakened?” She was recording the woman’s face and movements using her eye, hoping to trigger a Facial Recog match in her database.

“Looking for my face?” laughed the woman. She lifted the Police Auxiliary cap away, exposing her dark hair, cut nearly as short as Trixie’s. Her face was lit by the overhead lights, the dark eyes challenging and hard. “Tell me what you find”

Trixie was startled when the result flashed up almost immediately. The woman’s face was nearly identical to her own! It was the same face worn by every Jill in the Guard since they had first been created, yet hers seemed younger and narrower.

“You’re a clone!” Trixie breathed out. “Who created you?”

“My mother birthed me, not a clone tank” the woman replied as if she had been insulted. A slender hand drew out a tiny crystal and showed it to Trixie. “If you want to know more about your old mission, there will be a price to pay”

Trixie and her adversary were both crouched, ready to attack or defend on a second’s warning. Her eyes were drawn instinctively to the shiny crystal, desperate to know the secrets it contained.

“What’s the price?” she demanded from the young woman.

“You’ll find out!” she said then let loose a battle-cry. “Justice for all!” she screamed and leapt forwards, that weird blade arcing towards Trixie’s chest. At the same moment she had tossed the data crystal in the air, distracting Trixie from her strike.

Trixie sidestepped frantically, feeling the blade cut close to her body, then the woman was past and rushing to the depths of the machinery floor. The ex-Guard changed her direction, pushing her big body to move after the fast moving smaller woman.

In the time it took her to accelerate after the target, the intruder had reached the waste chutes that could be found on every floor. They led to the recycling bins and disposal furnaces in the basement far below. The woman hit the cover at a dead run, slamming it open then dropping from sight.

Trixie knew her bigger frame would not fit into the narrow chute. She stopped as she got to it, hearing the distant thumps and bumps as the woman dove towards the basement. It was a clever escape route as the recycling bins wouldn’t be guarded. Unless Trixie told her fellow Guards to go and collect the woman from the bins.

With a grin at how naïve the intruder had been, Trixie went to grab her phone and contact the security desk. The pocket of her uniform gaped open, the phone inside neatly cut in half. She pulled out the pieces and examined them with disbelief. The blade had never been meant to hit Trixie, rather to stop her calling for support.

By the time she reached an intercom, it would be too late. She was certain this strange woman that looked like a clone would have escaped.

Trixie sighed and walked back to where they had fought, her enhanced eye scanning the floor. The data crystal had rolled under the edge of a machinery stack, only it’s pale gleam alerting her to where it lay.

She knelt beside the cabinet and fished it out, holding it up in triumph towards the light.

“Maybe you aren’t as good as you think” Trixie grinned to herself.

=====

Melody-Two

She sat in a small café that faced the Police Auxiliary Headquarters, smiling at the Guards and Police officers that still milled about the main entrance. The alarms had finally ceased blaring a few minutes ago, which was ages after Melody-Two had already escaped the building.

The Shadow Blade sipped at her coffee, enjoying the warm hit of caffeine into her tired body. It took a lot of effort, both physical and mental, to use her Ability in combat. In the four years since she had Manifested, Melody-Two had spent many hours practicing the difficult task of summoning the Blade from her body.

Her arm still ached a little, like she had bashed it repeatedly against a concrete wall, yet it showed no obvious injury. “It’s all in your mind, Melody-Two” the Guardfathers used to tell her. She smiled a little then, thinking of the happy days when she trained with her siblings in the Nest.

The slim phone in her pocket vibrated gently, so she drew it out and checked the screen. It was a call she been expecting.

“Good morning, Mister August” she said politely. “I have completed the mission I was given. The Guard Unit has been given the data crystal as you instructed” Sᴇaʀch Thᴇ FindNøvᴇl.nᴇt website on Gøøglᴇ to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.

“Did you make it believable?” he replied curtly. “She is not s simple as you make think”

“Yes, Sir. She will think she won our encounter and consider the data crystal to be the real one”

“Excellent work, Melody-Two” August praised her. “The Hive Father will be pleased by your efforts”

“May I return to the Nest now, Mister August?” she asked a trifle too eagerly. It had been weeks since she had last seen Nursemother Carol or her siblings. That previous visit had lasted barely two days before she had gone on another mission for the Hive.

“No, you are needed to assist in a Recovery mission” August explained in his flat emotionless way. “There is a Blade at loose in the Hole, heavily infected after leaving her own Nest. I need you to monitor the Freelancers we are sending in to recover her. Once the girl is dealt with, you will be required to cleanse all assets involved”

“I understand, Sir. May I ask who the escaped Blade is?”

“An un-Manifested trainee Blade known as Melody-Six. Can you handle this task?”

“Of course, Sir” she replied as flatly as August had spoken. “I am a Shadow Blade of the Hive. I cannot fail in my task”

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