The Neo-Metropol Heist

6: Artem

Artem squinted as a flash of light lit up the room around him, momentarily scorning himself for not wearing protective goggles.
He was sat on a comfortable stool next to Cad, who knelt on the reinforced stone floor of the specially adapted area of his apartment. An access panel was open on Cad's bare back, still sparking slightly from whichever access socket had short-circuited.
"Whoops," Artem said to him, "sorry buddy."
"Quite all right," Cad said calmly, "I am required to once again state that my manufacturer highly recommends against amateur modification of my casing and hardware."
Artem snorted casually.
"I'm pretty sure your warranty is already voided," he joked, "plus, I'm hardly an amateur."
Cad simply nodded.
In the background, a track played through the expensive surround sound system that ran around the apartment. It was a complex amalgamation of beats and noises that formed an almost unpleasant and heady track that only a year ago would have been considered an awful noise, but which was now 'popular'.
"Cad, next track," Artem said. Cad acknowledged the request and the track changed to a lighter, gentler song featuring a woman with a saccharin voice singing in mixed Spanish and Hindi.
Artem used a pair of high-tech tweezers to readjust two wires that were poking out of the smoking access hatch. He noticed one that was completely fried beyond repair and pulled it from the socket.
"I don't think this is important," he said with mock-indifference, dropping it to the floor and reaching into the drawer next to him containing a mess of spare parts. He picked out a wire with a similar thickness and began to replace it.
Artem spent a few minutes adjusting the new wire and snapped the access panel shut as the song came to a quiet end.
"Try that," he said, standing up from the stool and walking to the other side of the room.
He had adapted the corner of his twelfth-floor apartment a long time ago into a repair-area for Cad, which was separated from the rest of the white-plastic, open-plan apartment with a reinforced glass divider.
The rough-hewn metal floor was stained with oil and had patches of black from times where he had gotten a little overzealous in his experimentation on his synthetic friend.
Cad stood up, stretching his full six-foot frame and rotating some of his joints, testing that nothing important had been damaged, he black rubber membranes that covered the joints flexing to allow the realistic movement.
Artem moved over to a steel work-table set against the glass divider and picked up a metal sphere around the size of his torso.
The Perimeter Security Preserver Sphere, or 'Pete', as Artem had named him, was a simple property security droid with a basic electro-shock disabler and property protection protocol. He hit a button on a remote control on the worktable and dropped the sphere, which came to life as it fell and cracked open like an egg in mid-air.
In the spaces that opened between the rounded metal, a blue light came to life and Pete began to hover a few feet above the ground, the air around it becoming warm.
A single blue light set in the centre of the droid lit up as it began to analyse the environment, becoming a bright red as it spotted Cad.
Artem had already modified the electro-shock device to make it harmless, but Pete began to beep angrily like an excited guard dog, its metal plates twitching.
"Ready?" Artem asked.
Cad nodded and raised his right arm.
"Nope, like we practiced," Artem told him.
Cad looked at him and changed the animated face on his faceplate to one that mimicked severity, one yellow eyebrow raised above pixelated eyes.
He raised his right arm and widened his legs in a dramatic pose.
"You feel lucky, punk?" He said to Pete, his voice sharp and dramatic. At the same time, a hatch in his wrist popped open and a small blaster gun snapped out, a crackling green light at the muzzle, "well, do ya'?"
Artem grinned like an excited child as he hit a button on Pete's remote and the sphere shot towards Cad with an electronic screech. In a split second, Cad shot a beam of green light at the speeding droid, which struck it dead-centre.
There was a momentarily blinding flash of light as the projectile struck with force, overloading the droid's circuits with a series of loud 'pops'.
Pete dropped out of the sky, the metal plates snapping shut, and it rolled into the far wall with a dull scraping sound, smoke billowing from between the sealed metal, the red eye on its 'face' flickering for a second and dying.
Artem laughed as Cad raised the gun the his face and pretended to blow away gun-smoke, then withdrew it into his wrist and stared at Artem blankly.
"That was the best thing I've ever seen in my life," Artem beamed.
Cad smiled a digital smile as Artem patted his shoulder and picked up Pete from the floor, putting it back on the worktable.
"Might be a little over-powered, but we can work on that," Artem said, quickly checking over the charred metal sphere, "but you've got the reference down to a T. Next we need to look at A Fistful of Dollars."
Cad nodded, obviously setting a reminder in his databanks to research the title. Artem opened the sliding glass door into the apartment and walked over to the kitchen on the far side of the room.
"Artem, if I may," Cad asked politely, lowering the volume of the music to allow his smooth voice to cross the apartment, "a class-C electro-magnetic discharger was not an original necessity in my design. Do I have a use for it?"
Artem opened the fridge and took out a carton of orange juice and took the cap off of the top.
"You never know," he said, pouring the juice into a glass he found on the drainer next to the sink and taking a swig.
Cad didn't question his reply, and instead glanced down at his wrist for a moment, before looking away and following Artem into the living area.
On the wall, a larger-than-necessary TV screen played an old movie on mute. Artem dropped down onto one of the comfortable sofas set in a semi-circle around it. He gestured at the screen and the movie reset itself to the opening credits.
Artem flicked a switch on the side of the sofa and a leg rest rose up from the floor with a slow buzz.
"This is the life," he chuckled.
Cad defaulted to his basic 'clean and tidy' runtime and began to scurry around the sofa.
"Cad, buddy, will you relax for five minutes?" Artem said, gesturing to the sofa, "sit down and watch a movie."
Cad stared at the screen, his face flickering.
"I have no need, a simple search informs me that the protagonist is actually the main antagonist's brother and the film ends in his death. The film received a weighted average of 65 from critics, which indicates 'positive feedback'. Criticisms were levied against its length and heavy reliance on action set-pieces as a replacement for character progression," he said, without a hint of humour in his voice.
Artem sighed and shook his head. Sometimes he wondered whether the robot maintained the act purely to frustrate him.
Without warning, a loud ping rang out across the apartment. Artem recognised it as his home-brewed security system detecting strange activity around the building, something he'd never expected to hear.
"Artem, the building has detected suspicious activity outside," Cad said, moving over to the windows that looked out onto the street.
Artem sighed and lowered the foot-rest, following Cad to the window.
Looking down into the rushing crowds below, Cad continued to stare intently but Artem saw nothing.
"What?" Artem asked.
Immediately, Cad projected a holographic interface onto the window, enlarging the crowds below. He tapped it twice with his long, thin fingers, which zoomed even further into the enhanced image, revealing the face of an wrinkled old man in a battered trilby hat, leaning on a cane.
"The old guy?" Artem questioned, "why?"
Cad didn't speak for a moment, apparently downloading the information report from the security system.
"The system says that he has remained in the area for an hour," Cad explained, "this street is a through-way and there is little need to remain unless you are a tenant of the surrounding buildings. He has also made several queries to the building computer about your name specifically."
"My name?" Artem asked, suddenly feeling exposed, a feeling he wasn't used to.
"He has no credentials listed on his personal terminal to identify him but also nothing listing him as an officer of the city patrol or any other police organisation," Cad told him.
Artem nodded, looking at the expanded image projected from Cad's faceplate.
"No, he's a little too old and a little too dressed like crap to be a cop," Artem said. Enquiring to the building computer would get the old guy nowhere - Artem wasn't listed by his real name on the building records. He realised he was tensing and tried to relax, "let's keep an eye on him. See what he does."
Cad nodded.
"Aye-aye," he said.