Stephanie Steele

The cross town flight to Freddie ‘The Chip’s’ place took longer than expected. The smog was causing a tailback on the flyway and cruisers had come to a virtual standstill. Steele thought about turning on her siren and top lights but then remembered she was suspended from duty. How long, chief Edwards hadn’t specified, but she could bet it was the maximum two months.

Instead she flicked on the automatic sat nav drive and let the cruiser’s computer do all the hard work. It was probably better that way anyway. Her mind was distracted. She was likely to cause an accident the mood she was in and being suspended meant your cruiser insurance wasn’t valid for police use, so she was stuck on the flyway like every other normal person just trying to get where they were going. Steele liked to fly manually rather than let the computer do all the work. It kept her sharp. But flying manually meant the accident prevention software installed in every cruiser would be offline. Another reason to put it on autopilot. Damn you Edwards!

Steele also turned the windows to black out mode. Those Face vid ads drove her nuts. They were a constant bombardment on your mind. Distracting you. Sometimes she found it difficult to process info. A constant chatter in her audio sensory. She couldn’t understand how human beings could put up with it twenty four/seven. If her computer mind was pissed off with them then how did people put up with it? She supposed it was because they’d always known it like that. It had been that way for generations. They’d grown up with it as a normal occurrence, like breathing, eating and having sex with a non-human. It was the world today.

She tried to forget about chief Edwards, her suspension, Leon and Mia for one minute but that was impossible due to one of her many upgrades. In her quest to be more human-like she’d got various illegal upgrades. Upgrades she kept secret from Edwards. Upgrades which made her more fully understand the human way of thinking. It had been what had helped get her so close to catching Leon. Human hunches and logic were not the same as a computer’s way of processing information. Of course she had that also, but it was her human qualities which had helped her on many cases. Qualities like human emotion; pain, love, the desire for companionship and sex, rule breaking, cheating, disobedience and a desire, drive and most importantly, revenge.

And it was those human qualities which had got her into so much trouble with Edwards, like today for example, avoiding procedure, doing things without permission, going off on a hunch and a tip off. But without those human qualities she’d never have saved Mia. She’d have found Mia for sure but she’d have been discarded in some back alley like a broken doll, abused, beaten and most definitely dead.

She could of course turn off her upgrades and that would solve that little problem, but then what would be the point of having them? Humans, after all, couldn’t turn parts of themselves off when life became difficult and as she had made many efforts to become as human as it was possible for a machine to be she wasn’t going to cop out now.

Freddy ‘The Chip’ was Steele’s go to computer nerd and patch up guy. What he didn’t know about computers, tech and androids just wasn’t worth knowing. Freddy could get you any upgrade you wanted and some you didn’t even know existed. Illegal stuff. But Steele turned a blind eye to his illegal activities in exchange for help. There’d been many times when Freddy had given her information on criminal elements he came into contact with on a daily basis. He was a computer nerd and he dealt in information exchange. That was what he did. But today he was going to patch up her bullet wounds.

Freddy lived down town in the less reputable area of the city, if there was one. After all, this was where most of his clients operated. His apartment was security tight. Nothing and no one was going to get in without his say so. Cameras overlooked the one entrance which was a two inch thick titanium door with deadlocks. An alarm would tell him if anyone came within six feet of his front door.

Steele glided her cruiser in for a landing on a designated PD barking bay and put her PD parking permit on display in the window in case some jumped up traffic consultant decided to give her a ticket. Officially she shouldn’t be using the bay as she was suspended, but what the hell. The traffic consultants weren’t aware of her suspension so what did it matter? She approached Freddy’s apartment and waited. There was no point in calling the vid phone. The alarm would have sounded up in Freddy’s apartment and he’d know she was there. Right now he’d be staring at her on one of the many monitors he had. And as if on cue she saw his mug as the vid phone sprang to life.

“Steele, you’re late. We said five thirty, and it’s five forty five.” Freddy teased.

“Tailback on the flyway.”

“Why didn’t you stick on your siren like you cops do?”

“Edwards suspended me.”

He chuckled knowingly.

“Again? This should be interesting. Come right up.” Freddy said excited. Too excited for Steele’s liking.

The door to Freddy’s apartment was already unlocked when she arrived at the upper level and entered without knocking. They’d known each other for so long there was no need for those formalities.

The apartment was also Freddy’s work space and it looked it. Banks of computers and monitors lined many shelves with a multitude of programmes running. Shelving units were cluttered with tech gadgets and components, spare parts for computers, androids and every other tech invention you could think of. Anyone coming here for the first time could be forgiven for thinking many people worked here, when in fact it was just Freddy.

“Freddy?” Steele called out into the Aladdin’s cave of tech whizz. When no answer came Steele entered further into the labyrinth of shelves. It was an old converted storage facility so the place was huge. She could hear a clattering coming from somewhere behind a shelf. Her audio senses targeted the sound and drew her right to it. She froze when a booming voice came at her, it seemed, from all sides.

“Lay down your weapons, put your hands in the air, take off your clothes and bend over for inspection.” The voice boomed.

Steele rolled her eyes and reached into a space between shelving units, yanking out a thirty two year old Freddy with a goofy grin, large spectacles and tousle of red hair which defied gravity. He was wearing a superhero t-shirt, Marvel Girl, with a waistcoat, khaki cargo pants and jogging shoes, his idea of cool. His confidence and boyish charm making up for his geekiness. In his hand was a gadget which he had obviously used to make the booming voice.

“Hey, don’t be so rough. Can’t you take a joke?” He yelled.

“I’ll just take the patch up if you don’t mind.”

He spoke into the gadget, his voice booming out again. “Oh, very funny. I must remember that one.” He discarded the gadget and pulled his clothes back into shape after Steele’s manhandling.

He began assembling the equipment he’d need for such a job. “So what did you do to piss off the chief this time, if I’m permitted to ask?”

“You’re permitted. Just don’t expect an answer.”

“Come on Steele. I live for these moments when you fuck up. Don’t forget, you rely on me for intel. How did the raid go anyway?” From Steele’s look he guessed not so well. “Oh you’re blaming me for it going tits up? Couldn’t be the fact that you went behind the chief’s back could it, by any chance? I mean, Stephanie Steele wouldn’t be Stephanie Steele if she didn’t fuck up at least once a week. That intel was sound. If the guy you were after wasn’t there then I can’t be blamed for that.”

“He was there.” She said, removing her coat.

“And?” Freddy said expectantly, indicating for her to sit on a medical bed.

“You know I can’t divulge police business Freddy. Now are we gonna do this or what?” Steele sighed, tired of Freddy’s probing.

“How many did you kill?” He asked, his curiosity still unsatisfied.

“Seven, and three seriously injured. But my hand was forced.” She revealed reluctantly.

He whistled and shook his head. Even for Steele this was a high body count.

“Wish I’d been there. One of these days you’ll take me out in the field with you. I could be handy out there in the field. You never know when you’ll need back up.” He said hopefully.

“Not happening. Now are you gonna do this or stand around yapping all day?”

“I’m ready. Take your top off.” He said rather too keenly.

Steele raised a contemptuous eyebrow. “Don’t make it sound so sleazy Freddy. I’m just here for repairs.” Freddy was another of her admirers. Just another cretin who longed to get in her underwear.

“A guy can dream, can’t he?” He stared at her as she turned her back to him to undress. When she turned back just wearing her bra he had a massive schoolboy grin. “Lie on the bed and I’ll take a look at them . . . er, your wounds. And I’ll get my tool out . . . tools out.”

She ignored his childish attempt at flirting and lay face down on the medical bed he had for treating androids. He laid his bag of tools on the table next to her and began examining the bullet wounds.

“You should learn to dodge a few bullets from time to time. Not that I mind. You’re my best customer. Keeps me in pocket money. Speaking of which. It’ll be cash right?”

“As always.”

He prodded and poked her shoulder wound, making sounds like a used cruiser salesman makes when there’s a problem.

“Okay, nothing serious. A little bit of rewiring and some skin patches will do the trick. Take me about an hour.” He told her.

He set to work, first sorting out the rewiring. “I’ve this new upgrade for infra red vision. Great for those night time chases you’re so fond of.” He was ever the salesman.

“May I remind you that I’m a cop and that upgrades have to be approved by local government.” A little irked by his sales pitch.

“I don’t remember you being so concerned about that the last time I upgraded you.”

Steele raised herself on one arm to look him in the eye, interrupting his work. “Don’t think you have anything on me Freddy. I could shut you down tonight the amount of illegal implants you’ve done over the years. And I bet if I checked through your inventory I’d find some interesting things. I turn a blind eye because you actually do some good.” She moaned then winced, the pain in her shoulder stinging.

“You’re not forgetting the scrapes I’ve helped you out with in the past?” He pushed her back down on the table to continue fixing her. “We’d make a great partnership me and you. Stephanie Steele and Freddy ‘The Chip’ take down Paradise City scumboids. We’d be like two super heroes.” He enthused.

“I always work alone.” She said, putting a damper on his enthusiasm.

“Why is that? People can’t stand your fun personality and witty charm I presume?” He joked.

“People tend to get hurt when I’m around.”

“You tend to get hurt when you’re around.”

He got that right, she thought. “Anyway . . .” She began, changing the subject. “Something I’ve been meaning to ask you. You could have been a top government scientist, but instead you chose to put your talents to other uses. Why was that?”

“Turn down the chance to work with crims and suicidal cops? What’s not to like? Besides, I never would have met you. Who would you go to, to get patched up every other week? See, you do need someone.”

“The difference is, I don’t care about you.” She lied. A defence strategy. Don’t get too close to no one and you and they can’t get hurt.

“Harsh Steele, harsh.”

An hour later Steele was on her way after paying Freddy and thanking him for a great patch up job. He was the best in the business. Examining her wounds in the mirror she just couldn’t tell there’d been any damage at all. He was right, she couldn’t do without him. But she’d never let him know that.

“You have to leave so soon?” There was a twinkle in Freddy’s eye as he said it.

She ignored his obvious attempt at trying to persuade her into intimacy. It had been a long time since she’d been intimate with anyone and it would be a long time before it happened again. If ever.

“I’ve got an appointment with a bar and a bottle.” She said shrugging on her leather coat.