Deep Black Road: The Head of the Snake

Chapter 11

A lieutenant glanced up from his virtual display screen when Ricky and Lieutenant Corran entered the Assignments Office. "What's up?" he asked Corran.

"Lieutenant General's mission," Corran replied.

The lieutenant scanned the screen again. "Okay, he's that robot. I was wondering why you were bringing me a kid. Lieutenant General's mission, hmm?" He opened another screen and examined it closely. "Ah, here it is." Selecting an entry, he opened a page full of fine print.

Ricky zoomed his vision to take a look, reversing what he saw, since he was viewing from behind the screen.

The mission entailed staking out a warehouse in Knight Park, an old industrial district in northwest Atlanta, because of an illegal arms deal that was rumoured to be coming down. The date was the next day, but with no indication of a time.

There were a lot of other details, but nothing Ricky figured he'd need to know. He stored the information for reference anyway.

"Let me print off a copy of this for you," the lieutenant said to Ricky, pointing at the display.

"I don't need one, thanks," Ricky replied. "I've got it already."

"Huh?"

"I've scanned it into my memory."

"You scanned ...? Oh right-kid robot. Well then, um, any questions, Ricky?"

"Can I have some black clothes? A place like a warehouse has got to have lots of shadowy places to hide in."

"What do you think?" the man asked Corran.

"Makes sense to me," Corran replied with a shrug.

"Okay, I'll put through the requisition; and they'll contact the boy by link when it's ready." He turned to Ricky. "You can pick it up at Stores B43557."

#

Ricky stared down from his perch high in the girder-work, where he'd been hanging between two pieces of metal framing-his hands gripping one, and his feet hooked in the other-since he'd broken in at three in the morning. It was now seven in the evening, and nothing had happened except for a couple of emaciated rats scurrying across the floor.

To pass the time, he'd been reading several of the novels and collec-tions of stories that he'd downloaded at the university along with all the technical stuff.

He was also monitoring the building's Sentinel in the back of his mind, while making sure it didn't see him; but when the rear door finally opened, the Sentinel didn't catch it.

How'd that happen? Ricky wondered, immediately alert.

Lights starting coming on; and a man said, "That's spooky-a door that you have to open yourself, and lights that don't turn on automatically."

"Like I said," said a second man, "this whole place has been rigged so Sentinel can't see us if we don't want it to."

"Amazing. I never thought I'd ever run into something like that."

"That is what we're fighting against after all. Because of those accursed links, the authorities can know where we are and what we're doing at all times."

"I know; and you Followers have a big problem with that."

This sounds like a potential insurrection alright, he thought. For sure they must be hiding something if they don't like the link.

But I got rid of mine. What's that make me?

I don't have time for that right now. I need to know what kinds of weapons they're dealing in.