Chimera Effect by Milo James Fowler

Author:Milo James Fowler
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: science fiction, mystery, detective, private eye, future noir
Publisher: Future City Press
Published: 2017-10-17T00:00:00+00:00

12

No sooner had we broken through that door—feeling rather proud of our own brute strength after Sanitoro's laser made butter of its hinges—than we were met with another obstacle designed to freeze us in our tracks: sentry bots. Not just one or two. A dozen of them standing in the hallway on the other side of that door. Waiting for us.

No anthropomorphic arms or legs or creepy robotic faces, no glowing red eyes; nothing like mandroids. Each one was little more than a boxy arsenal on treads, rolling about eagerly as they targeted their prey.

The first barrage launched without pause, miniature rockets whizzing through the air. The darts missed us by a centimeter or two as we lunged out of the way, diving headlong in opposite directions and hitting the unforgiving gravel outside. The bots whirred and bleeped as the front line advanced for a second try.

"Robots." Sanitoro leaned back against the building as he reactivated the laser cutter. "How annoying."

"Not so much." I set the EMP gun to burst mode. That's what I called it, anyway. I'm sure Agent Adams' gadget geeks had a more scientific name for it.

Diving in through the open doorway, I fired without bothering to aim. A blast of blue light engulfed the corridor, bleaching the concrete floor, metallic steel walls, and white ceiling tiles, sweeping through the bots and bowling them over like inanimate ten-pins. The electromagnetic burst continued onward unimpeded, gliding toward the end of the hallway and beyond. I had no idea how long it would take to fizzle out, nor what havoc it would wreak along the way—deactivating everything in its path, more than likely.

"Impressive," Sanitoro said as we passed the motionless sentries. He had his Magnum in both hands, elbows locked. For now, the laser was off. "I would very much like to reverse-engineer that weapon of yours."

"I'm sure you would." There were no other doors lining the hallway. The camera mounted over the mangled door behind us was dead, by all appearances. A vacant mechanical eye left staring. "But it's classified."

"The best tech often is. What can it do to flesh and bone?"

"Haven't tried." But seeing how most of a human's neural impulses involve a whole lot of electricity, I had a feeling the results would be similar to the effect on those bots. Would the next level of defense in this place be sentries of the human variety?

Ready or not, we reached the end of the hallway. It turned to the left and only to the left. Silent. Vacant. Unlike the entryway, windowless security doors lined this stretch. The keypad beside each one glowed with a green pinpoint of light. Unlocked.

"Anybody home?" I reached for the first door and glanced over my shoulder at Sanitoro. He covered me from a couple meters back, his shades glinting in the stark fluorescent light.

I turned the handle and gave the door a nudge. It swung open, heavy on well-oiled hinges. The room inside was dark. A cot made up in military fashion, a sink, an exposed toilet.

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