Stephanie Steele
Chapter 23

It was raining by the time they reached their destination. Heavy droplets pitter-pattered off the cruiser’s windows as it descended into an empty street. It wasn’t the best part of town. The street lights were broken and trash bags lined the kerbside ready for collection, but it looked like nobody had come round to collect it in a while. A rat scurried away under the one street light which was working, frightened by the noise of the cruiser as it approached. It scuttled under a pile of bags, no doubt where it was warm and dry.

The cruiser slowed and drew up to the graffiti daubed door of an old warehouse. It hovered while the automatic door rose in front of it. As it drew up a darkness beckoned inside. The cruiser crept forward and disappeared into the pitch black of the warehouse, the door closing behind it.

Freddy got out of the cruiser and went to replace the light switch. Steele’s eyes adjusted to the sudden bright light and she too got out of the cruiser, wincing a little. Freddy ran to help her but she pushed him away.

“What is this place?” She said, looking around at the empty space. There was nothing there but empty packing crates, a stack of pallets and a broken dining chair.

Freddy didn’t reply. Instead he went to a metal door, scanned his hand in front of a holo recognition plate, entered a code and uttered a password under his breath so Steele couldn’t hear. She could. The password was Stephanie Steele. That figured, she thought and moved towards him as he pulled the heavy door open. It led to a staircase going down to a corridor.

The door shut automatically behind them. Lights came on as they descended, triggered by their presence. At the end of the short corridor another metal door. Freddy went through the same process as with the other door, only this time the password was Fredrick Bartholomew Winkleman. She stifled the urge to giggle. She hadn’t known his full name before and him saying it out loud was kind of funny. He looked at her sideways but said nothing.

The second door led to an underground version of Freddy’s apartment. Computers lined shelves, parts stored on racking, lights and screens doing their thing.

“You’ve been holding out on me.”

“You didn’t think I kept all my shit in one place did you?” He said proudly. “You’re a cop and no matter what kind of relationship we have going, you’re still a cop.”

Fair point she thought and staggered. She had to lean on a wall for support.

“Let’s get you looked at.” He said, bringing her by the arm to an examination table. He lay her down on it and lifted her top to look at the wound. Freddy had a good look at the sizeable wound in her stomach just above her hip, poking his fingers inside. “Doesn’t appear to be any internal damage. Turn on your side.” She turned on her side so he could also see the exit wound in her back. “Couple of shorted wires. Won’t take long.”

Freddy gathered his tools and set to work. Steele lay still as always. This was becoming a habit lately. She made a mental note to be more careful in future then dismissed it. Careful doesn’t get the job done. He had likened her to a bull in a china shop on a number of occasions. He was right, she always went charging in with the heavy handed approach. She found it worked best most of the time. So what if she got a little banged up for her troubles. As far as she was concerned it came with the job description. You weren’t a proper cop until you’d been shot a half dozen times. She’d passed that marker a long time ago.

“So how come she got you? You should have been able to beat her easily with the combat upgrade I gave you.” Freddy asked, as he connected wires together with a jointer.

She remembered the eyes. “She caught me by surprise. She had the same tattoo as Nixon.”

“Nixon really got to you then? If you want I can make her again. At a price of course.” He stuffed the reconnected wires inside Steele’s wound.

“Like I said before . . .”

“You didn’t let me finish before. Turn over.” Steele turned onto her stomach where he pulled out more severed wiring from her rear wound. “When you brought her to me I cloned her drive. If you’re worried she won’t be the same then don’t. I can make her exactly the same.”

Steele looked at him questioningly.

“I was thinking of making a copy of her.” He said unashamedly. “She was kinda sexy. So sue me.” He reconnected another wire.

“I once saw a tech guy rig up a hard drive so he could speak to the droid it came from. Can you do that?”

Freddy looked offended she even doubted he could. “Can I do that?”