Deep Black Road: The Head of the Snake

Chapter 33

Once repairs were complete, Ricky stuck his head out of the hole, and faced a swarm of soldiers with weapons trained on him.

Ducking back inside, he said, "We're surrounded," and laid his glowing hand on Suzanne's arm. "You'll need the black skin to protect you against any bullets."

She experienced a moment of Ricky's time in space, and was relieved when her skin changed. Then she said, "Wait. I need to lose these stupid clothes."

As she stripped, Ricky glanced outside again and heard someone call, "Get that gun over here, now!"

Gun? he thought. Then, guessing the worst, he snatched up Orkan's reactor and turned to Suzanne. "Plasma gun! We've got to get out of here!"

A moment later, they blasted out of the top of the dumpster at full power. An instant after that, the dumpster lit up, melting away to a pile of slag.

#

"I've lost them!" exclaimed the corporal over the link.

"What do you mean, 'lost them'?" responded the commander, angry over their lost opportunity.

"The girl robot's link—it's gone!"

"How can you lose a link signal?"

"I don't know! But I had it; and then I didn't!"

"That could be a problem!" The commander said, and shifted to another screen. "Sergeant Tindale," he almost shouted. "Do you still have a visual on those robots?"

"No, sir," came the answer. "We thought you were tracking them."

"Did you see which way they went?"

"Northeast, flying low."

"Close enough." He returned to the corporal's screen and said, "Quick! Make sure it wasn't equipment failure." Switching to another channel as the corporal began to run diagnostic programs, he said, "Major Visier! Get your units airborne and over to these co-ordinates immediately! Those robots aren't as damaged as we were led to believe." He sent the information that he had.

#

Ricky and Suzanne were getting close to the outskirts of the city, blading rapidly through a labyrinth of alleys and streets in an effort to leave town undetected by the sensors network.

"Let's stop here for a moment," Ricky said as they entered another alley.

"What's up?" Suzanne said.

"There's something weird going on; or there was."

"Like what?"

He transmitted a request to her link. "I was right. Your link's not working anymore. I hadn't thought anything of it before because there's always so much radio noise around, but your link was transmitting a bunch before we went into that dumpster."

"So?"

"So it means the CDA was tracking us with it. That's how they knew where we were."

She looked at her wrist. "Any idea what happened to it? I've never heard of them breaking down."

"Me neither. I think you ate it."

"I did not!"

"You don't understand. When you were absorbing all that other electronics, you must have absorbed it too."

"Oh. Well. Now what?"

"Back to getting out of here while we've got the chance."

"Okay!"