Thirty minutes later
they had everything they could carry and were heading back across to the alley
when a HERO Interceptor swept in and two HEROs jumped out, one saying, “Stand and be identified.”Sharon froze as a HERO approached her with an Ident scanner, but Joe reached out with his free hand and spun her to the left yelling, “Run!”
Then he shoved her toward an abandoned building and she took off running, looking back over her shoulder, as Joe gave the closest HERO a sharp punch to the nose. Blood showered all over the HERO’s uniform jacket and poured from his nose.
The second HERO stopped to help the injured HERO, but Sharon knew it wouldn’t be long before more HEROs arrived.
She felt uneasy and out of her zone. Things weren’t done this way, people didn’t resist the HEROs and definitely did not injure them. That was a very serious offense in their society.
She let Joe guide her down the street and to the left into an alley where he moved her toward a door in an old dilapidated building. Just as they reached the door a surbot zipped out of the dark and stopped in front of them. She froze, but Joe didn’t even slow down, he kicked the surbot with his right foot and knocked it on its side. Before the surbot could right itself with its side thrusters she saw Joe reach into the front pocket of his environmental control suit, pull something small out, and shove it into a port on surbot’s side. There was a crackling sound, then a loud squall as sparks shot out of the port and the surbot died.
Joe spoke to the dead surbot, not to her, “I warned you to leave me alone Q 3017.”
Then to her he said, “In here,” as he guided her by her left arm and continued, “can’t use the manhole we came out of, they are too close to the alley and there will be more HEROs here in minutes.”
They went down into the basement and switched on their lamps. Over in a far corner she saw a hole in the floor about four feet square.
Unceremoniously dropping his bundles into the hole, Joe said, “Okay I’ll go first and when I say the word, you drop your stuff down. Now this is a drain to the sewer line under the street, but it isn’t big enough to stand up in so we’ll have to crawl and push our stuff ahead of us. It isn’t far to the street, but it is narrow and probably wet. Once we get to the end I’ll climb into the main line and help you down, it’s a six-foot drop.”
She said, “Okay, but whatever you do keep that router dry or it won’t be doing us any good.”
“Right.”
Sharon didn’t like this at all, it was bad enough to have to walk in these sewers, but crawling wasn’t appealing at all. Still, it didn’t seem to bother Joe and she decided that if he could do it she could, too.
It turned out not to be as bad as she had anticipated and they were soon on the floor of the main sewer line, wet and grimy feeling, but there. She still followed close behind him because of his earlier warning about openings in the tunnel floors although not so close as to step on his heels anymore.
As they walked, he explained, “I made some of these holes and know where they are but a lot were made by government reclaimers and others from deterioration. We can’t get back to where we came without going well out of our way, because part of the sewer floor collapsed years ago. We’re in for a long walk.”
“You struck that HERO in the face and made him bleed,” she said as they walked.
“Yes.”
“But they told us to stand and be identified.”
“And you stood,” he said.
“Yes, we are supposed to.”
“And if we had we would be on our way to the detention unit right now and probably retrained by next week, if not sooner.”
“That surbot. What did you do to him?”
“Stuck a compact, high-voltage trimithium battery in his RMD port and cooked his silicone chips. I’ve run into that surbot before, he had a mean streak. I gave him fair warning what I would do. Besides, he would have recorded where we ran to and they’d have caught us before we got into the main sewer line. If they had fired an immobilizer down that drain they couldn’t have missed us. So, yeah, I hit a HERO and killed a surbot, but we are still free. I did what I had to do. Sometimes you have to resist.”
Then he shoved her toward an abandoned building and she took off running, looking back over her shoulder, as Joe gave the closest HERO a sharp punch to the nose. Blood showered all over the HERO’s uniform jacket and poured from his nose.
The second HERO stopped to help the injured HERO, but Sharon knew it wouldn’t be long before more HEROs arrived.
She felt uneasy and out of her zone. Things weren’t done this way, people didn’t resist the HEROs and definitely did not injure them. That was a very serious offense in their society.
She let Joe guide her down the street and to the left into an alley where he moved her toward a door in an old dilapidated building. Just as they reached the door a surbot zipped out of the dark and stopped in front of them. She froze, but Joe didn’t even slow down, he kicked the surbot with his right foot and knocked it on its side. Before the surbot could right itself with its side thrusters she saw Joe reach into the front pocket of his environmental control suit, pull something small out, and shove it into a port on surbot’s side. There was a crackling sound, then a loud squall as sparks shot out of the port and the surbot died.
Joe spoke to the dead surbot, not to her, “I warned you to leave me alone Q 3017.”
Then to her he said, “In here,” as he guided her by her left arm and continued, “can’t use the manhole we came out of, they are too close to the alley and there will be more HEROs here in minutes.”
They went down into the basement and switched on their lamps. Over in a far corner she saw a hole in the floor about four feet square.
Unceremoniously dropping his bundles into the hole, Joe said, “Okay I’ll go first and when I say the word, you drop your stuff down. Now this is a drain to the sewer line under the street, but it isn’t big enough to stand up in so we’ll have to crawl and push our stuff ahead of us. It isn’t far to the street, but it is narrow and probably wet. Once we get to the end I’ll climb into the main line and help you down, it’s a six-foot drop.”
She said, “Okay, but whatever you do keep that router dry or it won’t be doing us any good.”
“Right.”
Sharon didn’t like this at all, it was bad enough to have to walk in these sewers, but crawling wasn’t appealing at all. Still, it didn’t seem to bother Joe and she decided that if he could do it she could, too.
It turned out not to be as bad as she had anticipated and they were soon on the floor of the main sewer line, wet and grimy feeling, but there. She still followed close behind him because of his earlier warning about openings in the tunnel floors although not so close as to step on his heels anymore.
As they walked, he explained, “I made some of these holes and know where they are but a lot were made by government reclaimers and others from deterioration. We can’t get back to where we came without going well out of our way, because part of the sewer floor collapsed years ago. We’re in for a long walk.”
“You struck that HERO in the face and made him bleed,” she said as they walked.
“Yes.”
“But they told us to stand and be identified.”
“And you stood,” he said.
“Yes, we are supposed to.”
“And if we had we would be on our way to the detention unit right now and probably retrained by next week, if not sooner.”
“That surbot. What did you do to him?”
“Stuck a compact, high-voltage trimithium battery in his RMD port and cooked his silicone chips. I’ve run into that surbot before, he had a mean streak. I gave him fair warning what I would do. Besides, he would have recorded where we ran to and they’d have caught us before we got into the main sewer line. If they had fired an immobilizer down that drain they couldn’t have missed us. So, yeah, I hit a HERO and killed a surbot, but we are still free. I did what I had to do. Sometimes you have to resist.”
