Chapter 22: The Droid
President Westwood entered a conference room at Fort Wood army base with an entourage that included the Secretary for Defence, Edson Atwood and, four members of the Secret Service and his most trusted adviser Cedric Furwell. In front of him, was General Patkin and several of his subordinates. The room had wooden walls, a large table in its centre and was about forty feet long and fifteen feet wide. All of the men were standing.
“Nice to see you Mr President,” the General greeted him, offering his hand.
“Likewise,” President Westwood replied. “I’m very excited about what you’re about to show me. I hope it lives up to expectations.”
“I hope so, too.” The General replied. “The Kanglomera Corporation has been working on this project for years. It cost a hundred billion dollars but I’m sure you will be happy with the results. Please take a seat.”
Calmly and slowly the President picked a chair in the centre of the table. In front of him a large wooden panel started to part, revealing a large window. Through this window the president could see a robot, about six feet high, with arms and legs. It appeared to be well armoured and carried a gun. In front of it was a shooting target. The droid then started shooting at the target with pinpoint accuracy. Following this the robot moved to the side and an army officer with a powerful machine gun started shooting at it. The shots rebounded off its armour and made no impact of the robot’s ability to function. Following this, the droid showed its mobility skills. The General informed the audience that the droid could move at fifty miles an hour. It could also jump ten feet in the air and land on ground from a twenty feet high wall.
“Yes General,” the President replied when the demonstration was over, “but can it cook my dinner?”
The whole room started laughing nervously.
“How many units are operational?” the President asked.
“Forty,” the General replied, “but for another twenty Billion we could have five hundred more. It’s a question of whether it meets your approval Mr President.”
“It does. It does. There is the small matter of Drug overlord named Ramirez in Hadden. I want him eliminated. It would be a good test for these droids.”
“Is he to be eliminated, Mr President or arrested? This machine can handle both options.”
“As you know very well General I don’t care very much for procedure,” the President said dismissively as he smoked a cigarette.
The Army General wanted more detailed instructions but was wary that the politician could be both temperamental and impatient. “Is it just Ramirez that you want to have eliminated or do you want to eliminate any of his associates?”
“I don’t care,” the President declared in an irritable manner.
“Would there be a backlash over something like this, if we eliminate bystanders as well?” the high ranking officer suggested after giving the matter careful consideration.
During most of the conversation the other occupants of the room looked on. Most of them were afraid to speak up. They valued their lives and their paycheques too much.
“We live in dangerous times General. Changelings are a threat to society as we know it. If we eliminate the wrong people we just have to explain that they were a threat to society. It’s not rocket science. Casualties are inevitable.”
“Very well Mr President the droids will be ready. You have my word,” the General said while extending his hand in settlement of their agreement.
The President shook hands half heartedly and turned to leave the room. The meeting ended and President Westwood and his entourage departed as swiftly as they had entered.
Enrico Ramirez took one last puff from his cigar and pressed it into the forehead of the man being restrained in front of him. The man, a drug dealer named Alexander Revic, screamed in pain.
“You’ve been stealing from me,” the drug overlord claimed.
“I haven’t. I haven’t. I swear,” the drug dealer replied.
“This here, is my accountant,” the criminal replied as he lit another cigar. “Mr Chesney, here says that you were given twenty and a half Kilos of cocaine in the past two months but in that time you have only given me the money relating to seventeen kilos. Something has to give Mr Revic. Are you going to be honest with me or do I have to beat it out of you? Three and a half kilos at today’s prices, I reckon is about eight thousand. Are you going to pay me my eight thousand?”
“I didn’t take anything Mr Ramirez,” the frightened young man responded with a slight shake of the head and a terrified facial expression.
“I was hoping I wouldn’t have to beat it out of you. I just got my hands manicured today,” he said before pausing to put down his cigar. “Very well then,” he continued as his two bouncers held the small time drug dealer back.
The druglord proceeded to punch Mr Revic in the stomach three times with great force.
“Are you going to change your tune?” he asked. “Are you going to pay me my nine grand.”
“I thought it was eight,” Mr Revic groaned in pain.
“Eight today, nine tomorrow. The prices sky-rocket these days.
“I don’t have nine grand,” the captive said, appealing to the drug baron’s non existent good nature.
“How much do you have, Revic?”
“Maybe four and a half, maybe five,” the small time drug-dealer said after trying to come to a figure in his own mind that was in some way attainable but not too low for the drug baron’s liking.
“Tomorrow you pay me five. At the end of the month, you pay me another five,” the crime lord declared before hitting the victim twice more in the face.
Revic, thought that his nose was broken and perhaps a cheekbone, but that was the least of his worries. Alexander Revic didn’t have a clue where he was going to get ten thousand. He could get his hands on four and maybe the odd loan here or there, but a further five thousand by the end of the month seemed impossible. His only option was to run away but running away from a crimelord like Ramirez was never easy.
Alexander Revic left the crime boss quarters, walking past multiple armed bodyguards and into the courtyard. A massive fifteen foot wall surrounded the compound. The small time drug dealer was let through the main gate out onto the street when he noticed two trucks racing towards him. He rushed out of the way. The two trucks did not stop. Instead, they rammed the main gate. The gate was significantly damaged and the trucks did not break fully through. I’m getting out of here, Alexander thought to himself and ran down a side street. As he did so, the gunfire started on both sides. When he was thirty yards away, the petty criminal, stopped and turned around. He could see that the assailants were heavily armed robots armed with guns. They barged their way in past the gate and everything that the bodyguards threw at them seemed to be bouncing off their armour. Within a matter of minutes, all Ramirez thirty bodyguards appeared to have been wiped out. Shortly afterwards a large Mercedes car and an army truck stopped outside the gates. Alexander was curious to see who was in the black Mercedes car but his curiosity was not great enough for him to hang around and draw unwanted attention upon himself.
General Patkin climbed out of his chauffeur driven Merc and accompanied by several of his subordinates surveyed the damage done to the crime lord’s compound. He stepped over numerous dead bodies and made his way to the lair where Ramirez was held captive by two of his robots.
When he saw Ramirez, the crime boss was sweating profusely and sobbing. He was clearly terrified. He had nothing to protect him now. He was at the General’s mercy.
“Where do you hide your money?” the General asked, without any delay.
“There is a safe, in the room next door. I don’t know how much is there. I don’t even count it. It could be tens of millions.”
The General remained calm. “And the rest?”
“There isn’t anything else other than what is laundered.”
The General made a gesture with his hand and the robots moved the drug lords arms into a more uncomfortable position.
“I’m telling you the truth.”
The robots continued until Ramirez was in an excruciating position.
“Ok. I also have a property in Santa Barbara. In the basement there is another safe. It holds another sixty million in cash. Everything else is small fry, a few million in other properties that I own here and there.”
“And the combinations?” the General asked.
“If you let me go, I will write them down for you,” the Drug Baron pleaded, with sweat dripping down his face.
“You are in no position to bargain with me. Mr Ramirez,” the General declared calmly.
“I don’t trust you,” the crimelord protested.
“Very well,” The General responded as he reached for his revolver and pointed it at Ramirez forehead.
“The police are going to be here any second. Without me you won’t have enough time,” the criminal declared as if he was playing poker for high stakes with a weak hand.
The General pulled the trigger and Ramirez head pressed down into his chest. He was dead in an instant.
The general moved into the safe room. Already, two of his subordinates were there. First they froze the lock with the help of liquid nitrogen. This process took thirty seconds. After they did this one of the robots approached the safe and destroyed the lock. The robot was then able to open the safe. The subordinates aided by the robots started to unload the cash from the safe and place it on to the rear of a third truck that had arrived on the scene.
The General eyes lit up upon seeing the stash of money before his very eyes. He was confident that they would have sufficient time before the authorities arrived on the scene. The high ranking army officer believed that the authorities would be reluctant and fearful of arriving at the scene of a shootout between rival gangs. He anticipated that the police and ambulance services would delay their reaction time so as not to get caught in a crossfire. Some of the robots also set about destroying the crimelord’s surveillance system. Within a matter of minutes the three trucks were loaded and the General returned to his heavily armoured car. They had just enough time to make a clean getaway.