Toys

Chapter 106

Lucy and I landed directly behind a parking lot, which was filled to the brim with the most expensive cars on the planet. Interesting to note, almost all of the car designs were human in origin-no one had ever understood personal transportation better, or had more passion for it. Mercedes, Daimler, BMW, Cadillac, Lexus-these were still the most desired names on hood ornaments, even for rich Elites.

“You know your way around this place, right?” Lucy asked me.

“I do. I used to work security here all the time. Let’s go.”

A loud, commanding noise interrupted. “You’re Hays Baker. I remember you. And you-you’re just some human scum.”

“Actually,” I said, “we’re both human scum. We’ve come to kill the president. You have a problem with that?”

Of course he did-since he was Devlin, the president’s bodyguard. At least I thought the speaker was Devlin. He was surrounded by eleven nearly identical clones of himself-just as large, just as formidable, just as threatening. I’m sure it was in vain, but I prayed the clones didn’t have the same deadly level of Elite fighting augmentations.

“We have a problem with that. Which means that the two of you have a big problem-with us.”

The twelve deadly Devlins started to close in.

“Plan B,” said Lucy. “Run!”

That’s exactly what we did-very fast. But the bodyguards weren’t exactly challenged in the foot-speed department. They sort of reminded me of old-fashioned tackle-football players-the kinds who took massive doses of steroids. Lucy and I gained a little ground, but not enough. That’s when the Devlins started to fire laser rounds, as if merely crushing us with their bare hands wasn’t good enough.

“We have to take these guys out if we’re ever going to get to the president!” Lucy yelled to me.

“Yeah, my thought that they’d get tuckered out from chasing us isn’t working so good,” I yelled back. “Got any other brilliant ideas for stopping a dozen commando-programmed behemoths?”

“Not a one.”

“Maybe I do,” I said, inspiration flashing as another round exploded inches from my head. “Grab a car, any car. The keys’ll be there. No person in his right mind would steal an Elite’s vehicle, much less from the president’s driveway.”

“Good thing we’re just a couple of crazy skunks!”

Lucy took an oversize Mercedes pickup truck while I leaped into a sporty BMW. Both top-of-the-line, of course.

“In this case,” I said to her through my combat headset as we started the cars, “it’s great if you get them in the head, but it’s OK to kill the bodies too.”

Lucy and I accelerated back toward the armed Devlins, who clearly didn’t think we had the nerve or the talent to do what it looked like we were about to do.

But we did-we had the nerve, the talent, the guts, the willpower. And besides, we were humans, and as a species, humans have a special bond with high-performance machines.

Half the bodyguards dropped to a knee in the middle of the drive and leveled their weapons.

My windshield exploded and I could hear Lucy sucking in breath over the communications link.

Maybe this hadn’t been the brightest idea.