Lockdown

Chapter 10: I am Lockdown

Thom was silently sitting on a couch in a special room.

Issy was there, wearing a plain grey t-shirt and covering it with a black business jacket that Thom had given her for her birthday. She smiled as she put a wet cloth against his face.

It was the morning after the entire incident that resulted in Boldwin’s death. He was at the conference center because he needed to talk about what happened last night. Because it did not go unnoticed.

And all morning Thom was remembering the fact that his former best friend was now dead. Which was both a good and sad thought. Good because in a way he finally avenged Harada, finally found and took down the person responsible for starting all of this.

And sad because all of a sudden, those memories of childhood meant nothing anymore.

‘It shouldn’t have been like this’ he said to Issy.

She nodded ‘no it shouldn’t be but it is’ she said.

Hendrik was currently busy in the conference room trying to calm down the blazing hot reporters who desperately wanted to get a story about the explosion near the power station and the mysterious metal people that had appeared.

Agent Novak came into the room holding a few papers. He was not critically injured at all and he looked quite okay.

‘Mr. Mandark here is your alibi’ he said as he handed Thom the papers.

As the cloth still went across his face, Thom looked through the papers, remembering what he was supposed to say.

‘The suit is just a metal robot that my AI controls?’ he asked.

Novak nodded.

‘But there is nothing in here about Jeffrey’ Thom told.

‘We are in the process of handling that. Just read what you are told. We shall meet again’ and then he left for the door.

But Issy stopped him momentarily.

‘Thank you for your help agent Novak, you and the Ultimate Law…’ she stopped when she forgot the long name of his organization.

‘Please just call us ULTRA and no problem.’

He left through the door and Thom buttoned up his suit. The entire event that had happened was already stress enough about the consequences of Boldwin’s actions.

Both he and Hollaider were gone, but it would take a long time to get all the weapons away from wherever Boldwin had send them to.

Issy helped him by straightening his jacket.

‘We need to talk Issy about last night and…’ Thom tried to say but Issy silenced him by placing a finger to his lips.

‘We will do that later’ she said smiling.

A few minutes later Thom was standing on his place at the speaking boot with Hendrik right next to him.

‘Let’s just go to the questions’ he said.

One of the reporters raised there hand and asked ‘is is true that one of the metal man was controlled by the artificial intelligence that you designed?’

‘That is indeed correct’ Thom replied.

‘And who did create the metal man. Was that you?’ another reporter asked.

Thom himself was unsure now over what he had to say. Last time he was at a conference he told everyone what had happened to him while in Hollaider’s captivity. So maybe it was time to tell the truth once more.

‘Actually to come back on the other question. The metal man was not controlled by my AI, it was controlled by me’ he told.

Everyone in the room, including a stunner Hendrik gasped.

‘It is an armored suit that I had designed. I used it to try and stop the terrorists who captured me from using the weapons that they had against innocent people. Turned out that the person who had supplied had made his own suit as well.’

Immediately the people asked if he was going to use the suit to find crime as some kind of vigilante.

‘I am not obligated to tell you that. But what I can and will tell you that I am someone new, someone different. I am Lockdown.’