Posted by TT on 12/5/2007, 1:29 pm
86.135.46.154
Chief Inspector Charles Greyson was in a bad mood, and not just any bad mood, this was the mother of all bad moods. He had a headache that would not seem to shift, his son had decided to announce his burning ambition to leave school and become a rock star last night over dinner, and Greyson had so many people on his back over his latest case he was surprised there was anyone left to shout at him.
It was also dawning on him that, without their droids to help them, his fine police officers were fast becoming worse than useless. He snarled as two constables, trying to put up the police barrier around the area, struggled to stop the machine reel spewing tape over the ground. He was pretty sure the morning couldn’t get any worse. He was wrong.
Several hovering traffic policemen forced Holmes and Lestrade to land just outside of a compound on the edge of a busy industrial district. Lestrade near crashed the car in the already over crowded car park before being stopped by another yet policeman as she went to cross the perimeter fence.
“No electronic items with A.I. over this point Miss.” Lestrade was tempted to smack him over the head but somehow managed to wrestle her temper back down. Instead she shoved her badge in his face.
“See this badge. It states that I have the license to injure, maim and kill and if you don’t hurry up and let me passed I just might use all three in one go.” The man swallowed hard.
“Greyson’s orders Miss, you can either leave your kit with me or in your car but nothing electronic and intelligent gets passed this point.”
“You want me to leave my gun and personal computer in my car? That’s insane.”
“Take it up with Greyson if you want Miss, but I hear he’s in a foul mood.”
“Same old Greyson then.” Quipped Holmes as Lestrade, grumbling under her breath, un-strapped her gun and unloaded the pockets full of electronic kit she carried into the boot of her car, even her watch had to go before she was finally allowed to set foot on site. Holmes meanwhile, preferring much of his Victorian possessions to their modern day equivalent, surrendered just a palm phone and a small personal notepad before the guard let him passed.
“I wonder what all this babble is about.” muttered Lestrade as they began to hike over the concrete towards the main building.
They found out soon enough. It was unlikely that the building inside the compound had won any awards for it’s outstanding beauty before the last twenty-four hours but now…there were holes in the pre-fab walls and much of the sheeting on the outside had been peeled back like the skin of a giant metal banana. A large arc welder, normally used for putting car parts together, stuck out of one of the holes in the wall, from the look of the melted metal and blackened concrete the laser had been deactivated just as the machine was in the process of cutting through the wall. That was not the worst of it though.
As they ventured inside the large doors of a loading bay and into the building they discover the droids. They had all be deactivated doing weird, fantastical and sometimes just downright stupid things and now stood like the statues in some kind of bizarre modern art exhibition. About halfway up one of the walls a droid with a laser pack on it’s back had welded it’s own feet to the side of the building, another looked as if it had climbed into the compacter used to crush waste metal and hit the switch, two (one giant and the other child sized) had been frozen as they danced together to unheard music. Car’s had been piled on top of the other and then toppled like a gigantic game of Jenga by the two huge cushioned magnets.
“About time Lestrade.” Greyson thundered over from where he had been berating two policemen trying to reel in a twisted pile of yellow police tape. “What kept you?”
“Sir?”
“It doesn’t matter. This taxi firm is one of the biggest in the city and everything’s gone mad. Some kind of new virus the boys and girls in the Tec Lab think. Took a static pulse grenade the size of a football to shut the electrics down before we could get near this place. We’ve got twenty factory droids and over fifty different types of mechanised tools shut down while we try to sort this mess out, which means I’ve got seven different types of big shot owners and investors breathing down my neck to clear off and let them reopen, so let me say this only once. We have an hour to find the cause of this mayhem while the Tecs rid the system of the virus and then we’re out of here.” He paused and pointed to the back of the building. “You two have had the course on interview techniques. Go find than miserable incompetent excuse for an officer Friday and take over the interviewing, he should be somewhere in the offices at the back.” He glared at Holmes as if he was personally responsible for the mess around him; Holmes stared back with a nonchalant smile on his lips refusing to be intimidated.
“And try and keep our resident dead detective from ruining what’s left of my day.”
“I wonder what’s eating him?” said Lestrade when she was sure they were out of earshot.
“Eating?”
“Bothering Holmes, I wonder what’s bothering him.” Holmes raised and eyebrow and gave a small shake of his head.
“I will never get used to this infernal slang talk, not as long as I live. And as to the question probably several things starting with the headache that’s causing him to rub his temples every few minutes.”
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