Emergency Meeting

LAIR 6:30 AM

The emergency meeting sparks a tense atmosphere as everyone is anxious and wondering why they were summoned urgently at six in the morning, especially as it is the first. Some sat whiles others are pacing back and forth looking in the direction of the elevator every now and then as though expecting someone. Gideon's phone slips from his hand and drops, sending an echo through the silent room bringing everyone's attention to him.

"It's… just…" he pauses as the elevator door slides open and Shiro steps off.

"Sorry I'm late; I had a few things to take care of" he mentions, barely concluding when Zarx begins to speak in a hurriedly manner.

"Alright Ace, everyone is here as requested. What have you got for us?" he questions.

"I don't know if you have heard, but there was an accident yesterday…" Ace begins.

"What? An accident? I watched the news the entire evening but there was nothing on any kind of accident" Gavin cuts in.

"I bet there wasn't. Not so surprising after all. Probably because there was nothing to report. To be clear, it wasn't exactly an accident…" he pauses and lifts his head. "It was more of an attempted murder" he drops the bomb.

All eyes in the room began to glare at him, then glance at each other.

"Zarx, remember when I left here last night?"

"Yeah I do, what about it?"

"Well, we were attacked on our way to uncle Liam's. My dad and I, I mean"

"What? By whom?" Gavin comes in again.

"Gavin can you please stop cutting in and allow him to finish?" Melanie snaps.

"Whatever" he says and retires to a seat allowing Ace the chance to continue.

"I don't know who they are but it turns out this incident is somehow connected to a project my dad and I worked on when I was a kid. My uncle informed me after we arrived at his place that they tried to kill my dad twice already after he abandoned the project."

"Are you talking about the project that left your arms the way they are now?" Gavin interrupts. Melanie glares at him making him look away almost immediately.

"Yeah, that one." Ace replies.

"So about last night" Zarx brings him back on track.

"Yeah, so last night, we noticed we were being followed after we departed from home and decided to evade but they rammed our car into a road rail guard. I managed to throw an EMP at their car thinking that was it, but alas, it wasn't."

"Their car did stall, which gave me a sense of relief, but only for a few seconds then came after us again. They rammed us again and our car flipped and struck a nearby pole before sliding gradually to a stop. We managed to make it out of the car but they weren't letting us off that easily"

"They got out of their car as well and came after us. There was two of them. My dad was pretty injured and we couldn't possibly escape on foot. So I decided to take them on lest we be caught but it turned out to be the worst decision I ever made."

"Those things, they were like humans, but weren't human at all. They were androids, skilled and cornered me in an instant. My hands were severely injured by the end of that fight. We were actually lucky to have escaped alive. Funny thing is, I later went back to the scene to take some picture so we can get more information and lo, there were no cars nor broken rails; there was no accident" he concludes.

"Wait, I don't get it. What do you mean by there were no cars? As in the police towed it away or what?" Shiro asks.

"As in the cars disappeared. So did the androids. There were no traces whatsoever indicating that an incident occurred at that place. The bent pole was straight and upright, so was the bent and broken road guards, everything was as perfect as it used to be. It was like nothing happened there at all"

"What time did this happen" Zarx inquires.

"Sometime between 9 and 10 I think. I'm not so sure"

"And what time did you return to the scene?"

"It was around 12:30 am"

"That adds up"

"What do you mean it adds up"

"You had an 'accident' between 9 and 10, there was a calculated city wide black out around 10:15 to about 10:25, and the police report says, the cars involved in the said accident disappeared around the same time the black out occurred. Coincidence? I don't think so"

"What police report, and how is the blackout related?" Melanie comes in

"When Ace was speaking, I asked Alex to search the police database to see if she could find anything related to the incident. Turns out the police officers who arrived first at the scene of the accident got attacked after the blackout and when they woke up, it was as Ace said. It was like the incident never happened."

"Also I was working on something last night when the blackout occurred. Alex found traces that indicated there was a cyber-intrusion. She also noticed that malware was injected into the system which cut the power supply to the city" he concludes

"What about the androids? You guys seem to be skipping that part" says Gideon.

"Yeah about that, yesterday Zarx and I went to the army headquarters, after I was called by General Lee. He was a friend. Zarx found a memory card under a tile in his office. After you guys left in a hurry yesterday, we decided to check its content and from what we saw, turns out the general Lee we went to meet wasn't the real one. The real one had been murdered and replaced by an android who is now posing as him." Melanie explains

"So from the look of things, I think these are all somehow connected. I think whoever is after Ace and his dad, is the same person responsible for the murder of General Lee and the capturing of Melanie's dad, whom we went to rescue at base x. I first noticed something about the general was off after Alex scanned him, but everything became clear after watching the video. We sent Melanie's dad the video and he would be here any moment from now" Zarx informs

"As of now aside from what Ace has told us, we don't know much about the androids. Only that the metal or mineral they are made of is really tough. You should have seen Ace's hands early this morning. It was like someone smashed his hands with a hammer"

"This thing is really becoming creepier. I wouldn't be surprised if the same person is behind the setting up of all those warehouses and drug dens" Gideon says.

"Spoiler alert, I think it's the same person" Zarx replies.

"Shouldn't have even made that comment".

"Speaking of warehouses, I had a weird experience on my mission yesterday" Shiro begins. "Hotdog told me certain things I didn't expect and didn't know why he did but before he could finish, he was poisoned to death. He said I was good but if I really wanted to stop him I have to do better"

"Who is the he, he mentioned?"

"He couldn't say before he got poisoned, but he did give a hint before his death"

"Well, what was it?"

"I think he said something like Silver Coated Bridge"

"Silver coated bridge?" Gideon says in alarm.

"Wait, you know what it is?" Zarx turns to him

"I don't know much about it. It's actually a banned book. I came across it on the dark web when I was younger. It didn't interest me so I never read. Until a friend recommended it to me but when I went back, it was gone. Searched for it for at least two years but the book was nowhere on the internet"

"What about your friend? He could tell us something about it"

"Actually, he passed a month after he told me to go read it. It was cancer. All he said was I would become aware of what went on this city some years back."

"Sorry about your friend"

"It's okay"

"But do you remember which section it was?" Shiro asks.

"Yeah, I think it was the conspiracy section"

"Conspiracy?" Zarx says.