The Suit-Maker 32 A Wake-Up Call

"Jaya, this better be good."

If my personal broker noticed my bitter tone, he promptly ignore it. 'Hey, fatman! Are you watching the international news portal?"

"It's five in the morning. Of course I'm not watching the news!"

"Forget it, I'm sending you the vid. Take a look. You want to see it right now!"

I groaned as the file was sent before I could object. It was probably because I was still half-asleep and still a little groggy but I turned on the video the moment I received the file. My cybernetic eye patched the video to the holographic television in my bedroom and the show began.

The screen show a dark alley and the person holding the camera was walking towards the end of it. There was no sound and the quality of the video was poor. For a moment I thought this was some bootleg recording, but the person stopped walking and turned around. A battlesuit came into view and it took me a moment before realizing that it was a Trackbot-P. I was instantly awake.

"What am I am looking at?" I asked Jaya over the line. He just snicker and told me to keep watching till the end. I am not a morning person and being woken up by a call had put me in a bad mood. Usually I would give Jaya a piece of my mind but for now, I decide to hold my peace. The person had turned and began walking again.

I realized the video is coming from a camera attached to the person and this person was most probably also in a battlesuit. The camera showed the Trackbot-P at eye level so I suspected that this camera was attached to another Trackbot-P. The camera stopped moving near the end of the alley and my suspicion proved correct.

The camera moved lower and the person looked down. I saw the Rolling Clocktrack and realized that the operator had activated the Trackbot to it's rolling mode. The name came from Jaya who marketed the Trackbot's two movement mode as it's jumping and rolling modes. He claimed that this would increase interest in both version of the Trackbot. I personally think it's nothing but hot air but what do I know. I'm the designer, not the marketer.

The camera also showed me that the operator was in a Trackbot-P. Both the IK Battle-axe and Minoru Minigun were showed and it seems that the operator was doing a weapon check. I was wondering why there was no sound when the camera looked up. I don't know why but the atmosphere suddenly became tense as the operator ceased all movement.

A vehicle drove pa.s.s the alley at speed and the operator took off. The operator made a sharp turn at the end of the alley and chased after the vehicle that had just pa.s.sed. I don't understand a word of Arabic but a bank truck is a bank truck. I had a bad feeling, and the bad feeling only grew when the bank truck speed up. The two Trackbot-P sped up to keep pace with the bank truck and I seem enough movies to know what was happening. This was a heist. Someone was using my Trackbot-P in a real-life bank heist!

"Oh s.h.i.t!" I was in so much trouble.

A big trailer suddenly dropped down from the air. It appeared right in front of the bank truck and it had to come to a dead stop. I was slightly amazed the driver managed to avoid hitting the trailer. The driver of the bank truck was well trained, immediately activating the hover engines and the bank truck began to lift off the ground. Between missiles, EMPs, drones, and half a dozen other things, vehicles were far more vulnerable in the air than on the ground so most security services transport important and valuable items on the ground. That doesn't mean the air wasn't an option as this bank truck proves.

However the robbers were ready for it. Two robbers wearing ski masks jumped out of the trailer and one of them was carrying a bazooka. The robber took aim and an electronic blast shot out of the bazooka. I guess the blast was some sort of electronic EMP blast because the bank truck shook after getting hit and slam back onto the ground. The Trackbot-P moved in.

The operator of the Trackbot-P moved to the driver's window and slashed the window with his IK Battle-axe. The compound window was designed to withstand high-powered lasers and bullets but the Trackbot-P was a strong design and when the axe was removed, I could see a clear small crack in the window. The operator then used the Minoru Minigun to smash through it. The compound window held and only the muzzle of Minigun managed to crash through the window. It was enough.

The operator of the Trackbot-P unloaded on the driver and pa.s.senger. For a moment, I shouldn't see anything but flashes of the bullets ricocheting into the driver cabin. The operator finally stopped and pull back the Minigun. The sight that greeted me was sickening. The camera held still, the operator was either admiring his handiwork or shocked at the grisly state of the two guards he had just killed. I preferred to think that it was the latter.

The Trackbot-P moved to the back of the bank truck and I saw that his accomplices were already there. They had somehow managed to break open the door and the two robbers in ski masks were inside the truck. The operator put the arms of the Trackbot-P together and his two accomplices threw bags of money chips on them. Although it took some doing, governments and megcorporations had managed to phase out paper money decades ago. Nowadays everything is in cryptocurrency and these were mostly stored in data chips. Most people called these money chips and this crew was taking an awful big chance. Money chips are all encrypted and are notoriously hard to crack.

After taking a couple of bags, the operator rolled to the trailer and threw the money bags into the back. The Trackbot-P made three more trips and I couldn't help but be impressed. This was quite a successful score for a four man crew; five if you include the driver of the trailer. I spoke too soon.

Suddenly the two robbers in ski masks jumped out of the truck and ran for the trailer. The Trackbot-P didn't follow them. Instead it looked up in the sky where another battlesuit flew into view. It had an overall blue design that was intersected by red lightning bolts, I knew it by sight. The police had arrived.