The Bureau´s ambush

“Is the target there?”

“Yes, according to the tracker.”

“That idiot didn’t even notice that we bugged him.”

The three figures nodded at each other. Taking invisible steps, they reached the entrance of an inconspicuous fabric in the middle of the industrial district. The door was no match for their vibrating swords, and they soon made their way into the lab.

The three inspectors stared in awe at all the illegal machinery inside the building. It was a top-of-the-line genetic research facility—the kind their Bureau seldom permits to operate on Earth.

“I told you the good doctor had a secret lab stashed away somewhere.”

“We can burn it later. Where is he now?”

“Upstairs.”

The three intruders reached the second floor. The telltale sound of splashing water echoed in the hallway.

“Is that idiot taking a shower?”

“Huh, the only way he would make this easier is if he was sleeping.”

“Let’s not look a gift horse in the mouth.”

The intruders crept towards the bathroom. The lights were on, water seeping into the floor from the shower. They could see the silhouette of someone behind the shower curtain.

The inspectors raised their swords, opened the curtain, and- “Eek!” an exaggerated shriek rang across the lab. Inside the shower was a woman sporting glowing blue eyes and a smile. “Did I sound convinci-”

The inspector cleaved the woman’s head in twain. A fountain of oil splattered from the neck stump all over the three inspectors. "Huh, a decoy.”

“Eww. Robots usually don’t leak that much.”

“Regardless, the target is not here, fan out and… crap.”

The robot head chuckled from the ground. “It’s your time to fall into our trap, inspectors.”

A battalion of glowing blue eyes shined in the hallway outside the bathroom. The hallway was packed with women identical to the ones the inspectors “killed”, all armed with whatever sharp utensil they could find.

“Huh, and you said this would be boring, Red.”

“Glad to be proven wrong.”

The legion of robotic helpers started attacking all at once, trying to pry open the inspector's suit with knives, a broom, and, in one case, a broken bottle. None of these weapons could penetrate the advanced armor.

The inspectors vibrating swords, on the other hand, were more than capable of slicing and dicing the robotic puppets. As their swords slashed the automatons, their oil stained everything in the hallway. The robotic legion was slowly dissembled one by one.

Back in the main lab, Kensu was hiding underneath a desk. AIDA was putting the machines of the fake factory to real use. Automatic conveyor belts moved raw materials to robotic arms that hurriedly assembled the AI’s plan.

“Heh. Did you think that ambush was going to stop us, doc?”

Kensu was startled by a disembodied head rolling in front of him. The inspectors were just behind it, having deactivated their invisible cloak. There was no point in hiding the few parts of their armor not covered in oil.

“Convincing an AI to attack humans? You sure are the most dangerous man alive, but not for long...”

Kensu stared at the conveyor belt above. It still wasn’t ready. He had to try diplomacy one last time, to stall if nothing else. He got up and raised his hands in the air.

“Wait. We don’t have to fight. I know about the professor’s monstrous mind-transferring machine. I can personally help you destroy it to-”

“You hear that, guys? The Doctor wants to help us destroy his own “monstrous” technology.”

“I’m not Dr Hiroto! He never managed to make the switch with me! I’m actually Kensu!”

“Nice try, but if you were, you wouldn’t know the Doctor’s real name,” the lead inspector raised his sword, prompting Kensu to take a nervous step back. “Besides. It’s not that we are against the technology, but against sharing.”

“Wait, are you all…?”

“A little slow on the uptake, eh doc?”

“Enough! We have a score to settle. An eye for an eye, and a skull for a skull, remember? Die!”

The inspector at the left pushed his leader aside and jumped towards Kensu with his sword high. Kensu managed to dodge the blade but found himself jumping back as the second inspector attempted to slash his head off. By the time he finished backpedaling, the third inspector was coming from the right, but the startled scientist managed to kick the table at him with enough force to stagger his assailant back.

While he was strong, Kensu wasn’t sure he was strong enough to handle the three inspectors at once. Thankfully, he didn’t have to.

A legion of freshly made drones descended from the conveyors above.

Their design was crude and imitated their name-sake insects in more ways than one. A couple of propeller wings buzzed as they moved, and a giant “drill” served as the sting. The drones began dive-bombing the inspectors, who struggled to parry the onslaught with their swords.

A couple of drones managed to get past their defenses and drill at the side of one of the inspectors. The man howled in pain and grabbed his wounded side, his two companions rushing to cover him.

“Surrender, please. This is not a fight you can win!”

“Don’t get cocky,” the injured inspector purposely deflected one of the drones back at Kensu. The young scientist was taken by surprise and could not move fast enough to remove his leg from the drill’s path.

Kensu screamed and fell to the ground as the drone left a large gash in his thigh.

“I believe I said I was going to start with your left eye, remember?”

The inspector moved in for the kill. Kensu tried to flee, but moving his leg proved impossible. The pain was too much. His head began throbbing as he helplessly watched his incoming doom. The edge of his vision became blurry as if covered in a dark shadow.

No, wait. It was THE shadow. It was back, and it was going for the inspector. The thing got inside the inspector’s suit, and he suddenly stopped. The man dropped his sword and fell to his knees, taking the helmet off his bald head as he coughed his lungs out. Then, he stopped moving altogether.

“On no, Red died?!” the other inspector said.

“Third time this week. Never going to let him live that down.”

“Looks like the Doctor still controls the Pathogen. Good thing we are insolated,” one of the inspectors told the other, tapping his metal helmet.

“Is that so?” AIDA directed one of her drones to inspect the fallen man’s body, prodding for something around his neck. “There it is. Kensu, throw the sword back!”

With a pained effort, Kensu dragged himself across the ground, picked up the sword, and threw it at the other inspectors, who easily deflected the weapon down into the ground.

“Hah, what was that supposed to-“

“Activating self-destruct.”

“Oh crap.”

The sword exploded right at the inspector’s feet. It wasn’t enough to kill them, but the explosion did manage to put a couple of small holes in their suits. It was all the Shadow needed. The dark cloud left the dead’s man body and split in twain, entering the exoskeletons of the remaining inspectors.

Like their comrade, they too fell dead just moments after. The Shadow exited their armor, but it wasn’t going away. It seemed to watch Kensu and slowly creep towards him. The man’s headache got worse. He began tasting blood in his mouth.

“AIDA, can your drones do something about the shadow?” Kensu asked between pained breaths.

“What shadow? I’m afraid my cameras can’t see anyone else in the room.”

“The shadow is how the professor described the psychophysical manifestation of the Pathogen chasing after him,” the lab assistant chimed in. “If you can see it, Doctor, then I’m afraid you are about to die.”

“Wait, no!” AIDA said. “That Shadow… according to Ken-the Doctor, it went away last time after it killed the professor. Can we make it disappear again?”

“The Pathogen can be tricked for a time if given a sacrifice of someone with the same DNA as the Doctor or Miss Aida Sato.”

“And what if we don’t have that?”

“The professor theorized that the Shadow can be temporarily confused by slightly modifying the body’s DNA, although he took the gene-modification pod to his other lab.”

Kensu coughed, and a few drops of blood fell onto his shirt. “So… I guess… this…is…it…”

“There is one final alternative we can try. An antibiotic inhaler that will slow the Pathogen’s infection for a couple of hours. There is one on the bottom drawer of the desk.”

AIDA’s drones moved as fast as their rotors allowed. They drilled open the desk and pushed the inhaler towards Kensu. With the last of his strength, the dying scientist raised it towards his face and took deep breaths. Slowly, his headache subsided. The shadow dissipated.

“Congratulations Doctor, you now have 4 hours and 42 minutes left to live. I recommend you find a replacement body posthaste.”

A blood-soaked Kensu sat up, his eyes distant. “No... damn it!”