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005 “ “Who’s Gonna Clean Up This Mess?”


“Boss, you alright?”

Gavin had found Tank just a few meters from the flaming train wreckage. He of course wouldn’t have admitted it openly but he was greatly relieved when he found the imposing man apparently healthy and walking around, alas a bit confused it appeared.

“Have you seen my damn arm?”

And only then did Gavin realize that it was gone. His tight black shirt was ripped, exposing much of his muscular torso and his pants looked badly burned. But it was the glaring absence of the large limb which was most dazzling. There was no sign of blood and Tank showed not the slightest indication of the pain usually associated with such a severe injury.

It took Gavin a few moments to overcome the shock of seeing his partner sans right arm. Once he had, he hastily turned to scan his surrounding which were covered in debris. “Uh, no.”

“It has to be here somewhere,” he muttered and effortlessly turned around a large piece of smoldering metal with his only remaining hand. He found nothing underneath. “Any casualties?”

The young operative looked back towards were the train had come to a stop no three hundred meters down the track. “The train’s automatic safety systems triggered an emergency stop after it had detected the explosions. A few passengers were banged up but I don’t think it’s anything serious.”

“Good,” Tank replied without ever interrupting his search for the missing limb. “The last thing we need now are casualties.”

“Right,” Gavin muttered.

Not a moment later a procession of emergency shuttles and hovers arrived at the scene. The emergency response units mostly consisted out of the San Francisco County and San Mateo County Rescue Departments. But Gavin also noticed three mostly white shuttles which carried the distinctive Starfleet delta on their hulls. He knew it would spell trouble.

“What happened here?”

Gavin had not noticed the man approach them from the other direction. To his credit Tessho Masamune was not a person who stood out much. The short man with a thinning head of white hair and somewhere between middle and advanced age simply did not strike an imposing figure. However he possessed a sharp and analytical mind which age had been unable to deteriorate. In fact the opposite appeared to be true. He was clad in a long brown coat and relied on a simple black cane to steady his steps as he approached the two operatives. If he had any concerns about the flames nearby he didn’t show them.

“And where is your arm?”

Tank shot the older man an upset glance before returning to search the debris.

“It was Black, Chief,” Gavin explained. “He left us a little present. Fortunately we were able to evacuate all the passengers in time.”

Masamune placed both his hands on top of his cane as he surveyed the scene of destruction before him. Firefighters had already begun to combat the flames with increasing success. “And from your sour expressions I take it that Mister Black eluded you.”

The silence was answer enough.

“I look forward to reading your after-action report,” he stated dryly and then began to walk off towards the recently arrived shuttles. A number of Starfleet officers had emerged and Masamune had quickly identified the person in charge. A blue skinned Andorian man with two short antennae emerging from his white haired head.

Gavin looked after him. “He didn’t look too upset about it.”

Tank stopped and shot his partner an impatient glare. “Will you stop just standing around and help me find my goddamn arm.”

Masamune moved towards the Starfleet officer with determined stride. “Captain …”

“Whren. Captain Whren,” the Andorian said when he noticed Masamune approach him. “Starfleet Security. And you must be Mister Masamune from MSD.

“You are well informed, Captain,” the shorter man replied.

The Starfleet officer put on a self-important smile as he glanced upon the fiery wreck that had just a few minutes earlier been a high-speed commuter train. “Quite a bit of destruction your men caused here today,” he said and then looked at the short official. “But we’ll be more than happy to assist you in any way we can.”

“Excellent,” Masamune replied with a smile of his own. “You’d assist us the most if you get back into your shuttles and leave.”

“I beg your pardon?” the Starfleet officers’ smile dropped off his face.

“I believe you heard me. This is an official Municipal Safety investigation and at this point I’m neither asking nor tolerating Starfleet interference,” he said. Then he quickly turned towards two young Starfleet officers wearing thick protective gloves who were carefully lifting a smoldering piece of wreckage. “You drop that, that’s evidence in a crime scene.”

The two officers froze and looked at the short man with puzzled expressions.

“Yes, I’m talking to you two. Leave that where you found it.”

They complied hesitantly.

“Mister Masamune, we are here on direct orders from Admiral Tessier,” said Whren who didn’t fail to spot the frown on Masamune’s face when he mentioned his superior. “We are to assist in rescue operations and in determining the responsible parties for this … disaster,” he declared stone-faced. “I intend to follow those orders.”

“Well captain the way I see it you have two options.”

“And what would those be?”

“You can either follow my friendly suggestion and leave now.”

“Or?”

Masamune turned around and walked away slowly. “I’m placing you and all your men under arrest for willful interference with an official investigation. I’m sure Admiral Tessier would be delighted to pick you up from the city’s detention center. You have two minutes to make up your mind.”

“You’re bluffing,” the Andorian called after him.

A white hover with blaring sirens pulled up close to Masamune. Jackson Slade quickly jumped out of the vehicle. His eyes were focused with utter disbelief on the scattered debris and the firefighters suppressing the last few remaining flames. “Tank,” he whispered in an angry tone.

“Slade, call in additional units and inform them that we are taking roughly thirty individuals into custody,” the chief told him loud enough for everyone in the vicinity to overhear.

Slade looked at him and then at the infuriated Starfleet officer. His skin had now taken on a much darker shade of blue. “You’re treading on dangerous ground here, Mister Masamune.”

The chief took his time to turn and face the Starfleet officer. “You have made your choice then?”

Whren barred his teeth momentarily but then quickly returned to his shuttle. “We’re moving out!” he announced to his men.

Slade watched the Starfleet officers depart with curiosity. “What was that all about?”

“Saber-rattling,” Masamune answered.

Slade nodded but was quickly distracted when he noticed Tank and Gavin approach. The enormously broad-chested man had been unsuccessful in locating the missing arm. Slade barely even took notice. “Damnit Tank, you were supposed to shadow Black not blow him to high heavens.”

“We didn’t blow up the train. He placed a device ““

But Slade had no intention on listening to Gavin’s explanations. “Your mission was to keep an eye on Black and see if he would eventually lead us to Grayson. How the hell are we going to explain this?” he asked angrily, pointing at the field of debris. “You better pray nobody was killed in this inferno.”

“Yeah that was a bang-up plan,” Tank replied through gritted teeth and with rising anger. “Have you been awake for the last few months? This guy has been able to give us the slip every single time. We are supposed to be a proactive law enforcement unit which takes actions instead of sitting on their butts all day. We tried to bring the guy in and answer some ““

“Bring him in?” Slade couldn’t believe his ears. He shot a quick glance at Masamune but didn’t find much support there. “Have you lost your mind completely? Your mission parameters were to--”

“Screw the mission parameters!” Tank shot back.

Slade’s words got stuck in his throat.

“Listen,” Gavin began much more calmly. “We had very little on this Black character to begin with. We know he is instrumental in the stims trade in the city and we have strong suspicions that he might work for Grayson but that’s it. At least now we have some real charges with which we can go after him.”

Slade laughed sarcastically. “Yeah if he ever decides to show his face again after this. Trying to pin charges on Black does not justify the mess you made here today.”

“We made? Right,” Tank looked past Slade. “Are you listening to this, old man?”

Masamune just rolled his eyes.

“How about you stop trying to blame us for everything that goes screwy around here and try to be helpful for once. A lot real strange things happened on this train.”

Slade decided to look at the more tranquil Gavin for answers. “What does he mean by that?”

“Well, some of the passengers attacked us.”

“Attacked?”

“Yeah,” Gavin explained, sounding as if he hadn’t convinced himself yet. “When we tried to apprehend Black some of the passengers turned against us.”

“That’s amazing,” another voice interrupted.

All heads turned to find a slight young woman standing next to Slade’s hover. She seemed to be bursting with excitement. “Did you say they turned against you once your suspect tried to get away?”

Gavin exchanged a questioning glance with Slade. “Yeah?”

“And this suspect of yours, this Mister …”

“Black,” Gavin helped out.

“This Mister Black did he appear to be cybernized?” she asked.

“I’d say.”

“What are you getting at?” asked Slade.

She took a dramatic breath. “Well I guess we would need to thoroughly analyze and interview the passengers but from what I’ve heard so far I think these people have been hacked.”

“That’s ridiculous,” Tank replied immediately. “It was at least ten or fifteen of them and besides Black didn’t even have a dataport. And who are you anyway?”

“Case. Bobbie Case,” she said with a wide smile and quickly pumped Tank’s remaining arm, only now realizing that the other one was missing. It didn’t seem to disturb her much. “I’m your new cybernetics expert and it’s a pleasure to meet you. All of you,” she said, her words pouring out of her mouth. She quickly moved around to shake everyone’s hand when she stumbled over something on the ground. “What’s this?” she asked as she picked up what looked like a long piece of metal. It was badly scorched and so heavy she needed both hands to lift it.

Tank’s eyes opened wider.

Case quickly recognized it. “I’d be damned. That’s a Poseidon X-550 Cy-Member. What’s that doing here?”

Tank easily snatched the large piece out of her hands. “That’s mine, thank you very much,” he said as he inspected it. The artificial skin had almost completely burned off and the metal was ruptured in many places, baring the circuitry underneath. “Great, it’s ruined.”

“You know I can fit you with an X-600 if you like. It’s much more resilient,” she said.

“ Bobbie,” began Gavin, trying to regain her attention. “Do you think that somebody could hack into other people enhancers without the use of a dataport?”

The blonde woman shrugged her shoulders. “It’s theoretically possible. If his enhancers are powerful enough and he has the required skills “ and I’m talking about crazy good skills here “ then sure why not? He could override the firewalls and hijack somebody who is fitted with brain enhancers and low class firewalls. It probably would have to be very rudimentary commands if a lot of receivers were involved.”

“Dear God,” Gavin said. “If this is true this guy is a whole lot more dangerous than we ever thought.”

Slade turned to his boss who had remained suspiciously quiet. “What do you think, Chief?”

Masamune looked at his team for a moment, apparently deep in though. Then he glanced over the debris. The fires had been put out which meant the hard work was only just about to begin. “I think that we might need some help on this one.”


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