The Neo-Metropol Heist

45: Jaeger

Jaeger peered out of the elevator doors, finding herself in a wide open laboratory space with rows of work-desks with dormant consoles and scientific equipment.
The lights were dimmed, like the rest of the building, one main path through the desks shown by strip-lighting.
She looked at the elevator doors next to the ones she stepped out of. They were already ajar, and Artem and the woman he was with nowhere to be seen. They were already out of the elevator, then, and moving through the research and development labs.
Jaeger checked her heads up display and followed the map that she had saved locally to the nearest maintenance shaft, which was the most logical way up to the secure loading area, and whatever they were planning to steal.
Jaeger moved through the work-desks and found an open door that led into an airlock through-way that should have been sealed, and through that she found herself in another laboratory, this one had white sheeting up the walls and for a moment Jaeger wondered if she should be wearing a biohazard suit.
Through more rows of specialist equipment, she went through another open airlock and found herself in a wide open room surrounding a huge screen on the far wall.
It was some kind of presentation area, judging by the arching lines of seats surrounding it. She entered from the back wall, finding herself directly behind Artem, who stood in the middle of the room.
She didn't hesitate.
"Stop," she said, pulling her gun from the concealed holster at her thigh, "hands on your head."
Artem didn't move, other than to raise his hands slowly, defeatedly.
"Turn around," Jaeger said, somewhere between a command and a plea.
She didn't even know what she was doing anymore.
"All right," he said, turning to meet her gaze.
Jaeger steadied the gun. He was still smiling, like there was a joke going around that she wasn't in on.
"No tricks," she told him.
"No tricks."
"Where's your buddy?" She asked.
Her question was answered before Artem could speak, as from across the room she heard a noise like a gun cocking and the crackle of electricity. She turned to find the source and wasn't pleased when she did, and was half-unbelieving besides.
Stood in front of one of the side doors a few metres away, was a tall, white-ceramic android with a raised arm. It looked like any other slightly outdated citizen assistance droid, only the arm it had raised had been modified and replaced with a modified electro-shock gun, and the robot itself didn't look particularly friendly.
Next to it, a tall, slender woman with half-shaved auburn hair pulled into a sharp ponytail and beautiful tattoos half-covered by her slim-fitting black dress and half by the dim light of the room.
"Shall I incapacitate the detective, Artem?" The robot asked, its voice calm and measured in a way that made Jaeger's blood run cold. She'd never heard of a citizen assistance droid taking part in criminal activity before.
"No," Artem said sharply, honestly, "stand down, Cad. It's fine - the detective's only doing her job."
Jaeger watched as the robot that Artem had called Cad lowered his arm and the woman next to him crossed hers across her chest. She had the posture and body-language of a Beacher, but Jaeger didn't like to presume.
"Tell your friends not to start any trouble, this doesn't have to be difficult," she said. She was telling the truth, if she could get them out there and then without Garistag getting involved, she could maybe get them into custody and keep them away from MetSec, there must be something that Lutalo could do.
"They won't," Artem said, "you got us, fair and square. You're good."
Jaeger didn't know how to take the flattery - Artem was truly the strangest prey she'd ever hunted - she wasn't going to let him talk her down though, she kept the gun raised and took a step forward.
Before she was halfway, the screen behind Artem burst into life like a bulb and Jaeger had to use one arm to cover her eyes from the new source of blue light.
"You said no tricks," she said as a there was a loud boom and the room was filled with a droning sound.
"Not my trick," Artem said, stumbling back from the screen and standing level with her. She believed him.
The screen started showing fast-flickering images under a bright red banner that said the word 'confidential'.
Blueprints for a device Jaeger didn't recognise but that made her feel dread for a reason she didn't understand, plans for something that looked like a satellite station that was designed to carry it, maybe.
Then, she saw images of the Beach, and a 3D animated render of it being levelled with no mention of where the Beachers themselves would go.
After that there came a slurry of images of thousands of all kinds of robots, from serving droids to those huge, terrifying machines they used to shift cargo, numbered in the hundreds of thousands, across the country, or the world.
Standing in a line, something about a signal that Jaeger didn't understand until the robots began to move as one in one terrifying, unbroken legion.
They were an army, all at the fingertips and command of Sergei Castells.
Then the video ended and the room went dim again. Jaeger looked up and saw Artem, looking as confounded as she must have done. In the corner, the Beacher girl was horrified but Cad, the robot, stood still.
"What was that?" Jaeger asked, not even bothering to lift her firearm again, "what the fuck did I just see?"
"I don't know, I don't..." Artem said, "some kind of confidential internal strategy plan, Cad, was that you?"
The robot shook its head with as honest a face as it could obviously manage.
"The things..." Jaeger choked, "the things he's planning to do, Castells..."
Artem nodded.
"I saw," he said.
"Jesus," Jaeger said, rubbing the back of her head.
She didn't know what to do now. If she didn't feel totally hopeless before, she did now. Castells was a monster, and he was a monster with power. She couldn't be his pawn.
"What the hell do I do now?" Jaeger asked, all pretense lost.
In a room with the thief she'd been changing for the past couple of hours, he was the only person she had to share her existential crisis with.
Artem looked into her eyes and then back at Cad and the Beacher girls.
"You could, let us go, I guess," he said.
She had to laugh at the absurdity of it.
"Let you go?" She parroted, "my life is a fucking circus and I don't have a ticket."
Artem smiled and Jaeger almost smiled too.
"I can't just let you go," she said.
"You saw what I just saw, right?" He said, "your boss is insane."
"He's not my boss," Jaeger said firmly.
"Everybody knows Castells has the NMPF in his pocket," Artem said, obviously trying to keep his voice as non-inflammatory as he could.
"Not me," she said.
"Your boss's boss then," Artem asserted.
Jaeger thought about Aguilar, she most definitely was in Castells' pocket. So, boss by proxy, then?
"So I let you go and what?" Jaeger asked, "I don't see how you stealing his jewels helps."
Artem shrugged.
"You'd be surprised," he said, stepping away from her slightly, "half his power lies in people thinking he's untouchable. Then some dastardly thief swoops in and takes one of his prizes. Imagine what that does to a man whose heart is in his reputation. Being undermined is a damaging thing for powerful men."
He was speaking sense, somebody taking something as important as the Centenary Collections from under Sergei Castells' nose wouldn't just embarrass him, it would cause him no end of trouble.
A large majority of CastellsTech turnover came from sales and installations of security systems - if he couldn't even protect his own property, why should anybody else trust him to protect theirs?
She couldn't do it, though. Whether it was duty or something else, she couldn't bring herself to turn and leave them to it.
Jaeger thought of her father, the way he'd looked in his uniform, so gallant and brave, and on his deathbed - sickly and cold. What would he say?
Then she realised - it didn't matter - because he didn't have a mouth to say it.
"I can't just let you go," she said, wondering why she felt like she should apologise.
Artem nodded and stood back, the tension in the room ramping up. Would he take his chance there and then? Was the charisma just an act? Was he really just a common thug hidden behind a tux and a smile?
"The thing is, though," Jaeger said, "I'm supposed to report all changes in the parameters of the mission to my partner as they happen. You know, protocol."
Artem took a moment to realise what she was saying.
"Who knows how long that could take?" She said.
Without another word, she turned away, biting her lip and forcing herself to look away when every instinct she had was screaming at her to do her job.
She pressed her fingers to her ear and counted to five, calling Stewart before she looked back. When she did, Artem and his two friends, the Beacher girl and the strange robot, were gone.
"Boss," Stewart said, Jaeger was pleased to hear his voice, "I thought something had happened."
"That sort of depends on what you think is 'something'," she replied.
"Boss, I don't know what's happening up there but the mercs are getting jumpy, something tipped them off and now they're on the move."
Jaeger's heart sank. She'd let them go, and now Garistag was going to get them instead. She should have known that there was no other way out.
"Fuck," she said, "Stewart, I don't want to have to ask you to do this, but..."
"Keep them busy?" He asked before she could finish, and Jaeger loved him for it, "already on it, but I don't think I'll be able to keep them for long."
"Whatever you can do, rookie," then, she corrected herself, "partner. Do what you can without getting yourself in the shit. I'll update you when I can."
"Whatever you're doing up there, boss, good luck. Don't die."
"Haven't yet," she replied, clicking off the commlink.