The Time Traveller's Ball (The Erik Midgard Case Files Volume 1)

Chapter 10

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We took the stairs four at a time; running, but not talking; each of us wound up in our own minds.

            It seemed like the entire bank, the very building, the Ball and the nefarious schemes of everyone in it were conspiring against us. Time travel had established long ago that there was no such thing as destiny or fate, and there were no gods writing the script of life (CGAs like me were the exceptions that proved the rule) and even now it did not feel like that. This was no longer a case; it was very nearly chaos. An overlapping mess of unconnected plans and plots, motives and agendas, all crammed into the unique junction of opportunities provided by the Ball, which, by no one’s design, managed to hinder us at every step. If I wanted to find the murderer, I should probably look for the person with the expression of amazed relief at this run of luck plastered all over their face. But a bank robbery had to come first.

            “Officer Midgard! Come in, Officer Midgard!”

            We both started at the sound of James Metatron’s voice; coming out of my helmet. I quickly stabbed the button on my wristcom for vocal only. If I pulled down my visor, I would not see where I was going.

            “Receiving?”

            “Ah, Good,” the Butler’s voice said. “It took me a moment to find your frequency. I’ve just found something else. It is not just the life sign scanner. The robotics system scanner has also been tampered with.”

            “Meaning what?” said Mirabi, as we pounded around another corner.

            “It’s the same as the LSS; it’s been masking the true readings. We’re missing one of the waiter androids and there is an extra robot – definitely not one of the Bank’s – in the corridor outside the vault.”

            “What kind?” I said.

            “I can’t tell from here. No security eye coverage,” said Metatron. “But it seems to be… bigger.”

            “…Doesn’t make any sense!!” came Brian Mammon’s voice in the background. “How can the robot be outside the vault when the lifesigns are inside it?!”

            “Teleport?” said someone else.

            “No, no, no. The vault is the most heavily shielded part of the bank!”

            “It might be on guard,” I said, as we reached the right floor.

            Mirabi and I burst through into the vault corridor with our Unigun’s out and ready. Initially, it seemed empty. It was made of the endless red marble like every other corridor in the bank, just with straight rather than sloping walls and it was also wider and taller; probably to easily move the tonnes of gold bullion Mammon had mentioned.