Machines by Jason M. Green (iphone ebook reader TXT) 📕

the robots’ weight causing any damage.
Looking down through the vent at the officers, he wondered what kind of weapons his pursuers were carrying this time, but his survival instincts told him to escape while he had time and opportunity, and so moving as fast as he could, Jobe slid through the ductwork for many meters until he reached a wall, which he could hear machinery moving behind. Looking through the vent, he saw that there was an elevator shaft beyond. Without hesitation, he knocked the vent outwards and stuck his head out. He saw an elevator coming up and he slid out of the hole and fell a few feet onto the roof of the elevator.
The motor moving the elevator slipped for a moment because of the added weight, but then it caught and let the elevator continue going upwards. Around a minute later, the elevator stopped on the twenty-third floor and Jobe waited until the passengers were out of it before opening the hatch on the top and dropping down inside as silently as possible. Then with a quick look around, he ran out of the elevator and down the hallway, as alarms went off all around him thanks to the people manning the security office spotting him in the elevator. Ahead and off to the right there was a door leading into a stairwell and Jobe went through it. Below him on the stairs he heard the heavy boots of GSD officers climbing towards him, and so he went upwards towards the roof.
Jobe moved as fast as he thought reasonable, as he continued running up the stairs, and he didn’t see any other signs of law-enforcement personnel until he reached the twenty-sixth floor. Then he heard a door being kicked open below him, and he increased his speed.
“Stop and we won’t hurt you!” yelled one of the officers a few flights below, as Jobe finally reached the door to the roof.
Jobe ignored the officer and kicked open the locked door. He ran across the
rooftop and tried to see if there was any way to get down, but he saw none. Then he looked around the building and finally saw some heavy poles sticking out from the west side of the building with signs bearing vapid slogans attached to them. Behind him the door was shouldered the rest of the way open by one of the GSD officers.
“You had best give up now, because the only way down is with us,” the first officer through the door said with gun raised.
Jobe looked at the officers all wearing body armor and he saw that they were armed with automatic weapons that were all aimed towards him. “You leave me with few options, officers," he commented, as he casually stepped onto the edge of the roof.
“This isn’t worth killing yourself over,” one of the officers said.
“Who said anything about killing myself?” Jobe asked before turning around and leaping off of the roof.
After falling for no more than two seconds, he grabbed the first of the heavy poles he came to and swung off of it to the next one. There was a long banner hanging off of this pole, and it stretched across the street to the next building, so he grabbed the banner with one hand and pulled on it to make sure it would be strong enough to support his weight. Then he hung from the banner with one hand while reaching for his pistol, and quickly learned that he must have lost it after jumping off the roof. So he improvised and raised one leg enough to remove a short, thin knife from a sheath on his ankle. He then used this knife to cut through the fabric between the edge of the banner and the metal rings holding it to the pole. As soon as the blade had cut most of the way through the fabric, the banner ripped loose and he swung across the expanse between the two buildings.
By luck more than anything else, he managed to land on a ledge protruding from
the building he swung towards. Once he was balanced on the ledge, he looked around
quickly to figure out his options, as he carefully returned the knife to its sheath. Below, he saw a balcony and he jumped down onto it as a bullet flew past him and struck the wall behind the ledge he was just standing on. The occupants of the room the balcony was attached to saw him landing, and one of them reached for a phone while another shouted about calling the police. Jobe tried to decide his next move, and he thought that maybe he would have to break into the apartment behind him. Then he saw a truck with a covered bed passing below him, and he jumped off of the balcony, falling nearly ten meters onto the cover. He looked up at the officers many stories above him, and then he slid across the cover and swung himself into the bed of the truck, which he quickly learned was hauling scrap metal. His hopes that he had escaped capture again were soon dashed, however, as he saw a pair of police vehicles swing around a corner and begin to follow the truck at a high speed.
Shaking his head, Jobe looked at what was in the bed of the truck with him and saw some smaller bits of scrap metal with sharp points lying around him. He grabbed a handful of these, crawled to the edge of the truck’s bed, and stood up so he could have a clear view of the police vehicles. Then with a quick toss, he threw them in the path of the closest vehicle. This caused the first car to jackknife as its tires were punctured and the second vehicle to swerve around the first and move forward in an attempt to close the distance.
Quickly, Jobe grabbed a length of metal with a jagged end and threw it towards the other vehicle’s hood. He struck where he aimed, as it went through the hood and pierced the battery pack beneath. The second car swerved uncontrollably and slammed into a lamppost, as its electrical system shut down from having the battery speared. Jobe ducked back down beneath the tarp, as the truck pulled onto the road that would take it out of the city, and the truck’s android driver remained totally oblivious to what had just occurred behind the truck it was driving.

About an hour after his escape from the upscale part of the city, Jobe leapt out of
the bed of the truck, as it stopped before making a turn towards one of the many junkyards scattered throughout that part of the city. Beneath the cover of darkness, he rushed down to the end of the street to mingle with a crowd of nervous people leaving a crumbling theater. This crowd he followed for a few minutes, until he heard the sounds of police officers on their nightly patrol. Noticing that there was nowhere else to hide, he stayed with the crowd for nearly a block before breaking off from the group and going down a dark alleyway to the left.
Halfway down the alley, Jobe heard footsteps behind him and glanced over his shoulder to see a uniformed police officer standing behind him with gun drawn. Slowly, he turned and looked at the officer raising the gun to shoulder height. For a moment, Jobe wished that he had not lost his pistol when he jumped off the roof of the law offices belonging to Wesley, Windham, and Pryce. Then he quickly cast the thought aside, since
he knew that even reaching for a gun when a police officer was taking aim would likely
end very badly, and that going for his knife wasn't even an option at the moment.
“I’m taking you in.,” the police officer said sternly. “Drop any weapons you might have and come with me peacefully.” He pulled back the hammer and added, “Or I will have to shoot you and drag you down to the station.”
Calmly, Jobe asked, “Why are you going to take me in?” He looked at the pistol in the officer’s hands and identified it as a police-issue ZERO-2, mostly likely loaded with a clip of fifteen of the standard-issue 9mm bullets. Judging by the position of the toggle switch on the side of the gun, Jobe knew that it was armed and ready to fire, so he decided to stay as still as possible so the officer wouldn't be inclined to shoot him.
The officer took a few steps towards Jobe and held up a piece of paper with a blurry picture on it. “I was given this by a pair of GSD agents earlier today. They told me that the man in the picture is supposed to be arrested and locked up until they can come for him. The person in the picture has shorter hair, but I knew it was you the moment I saw you break off from that crowd of degenerates leaving the old theater.”
“This alley is very dark, and that picture is not very clear. How can you be sure
I am really the person in the picture?” Jobe asked calmly.
Being questioned seemed to annoy the officer, and he yelled, “I just know it’s you! Now drop your weapons on the ground!”
“What makes you think I am armed, officer?”
“I was told that you’re armed and dangerous, and I have no reason to think otherwise,“ the officer replied, as his finger touched the trigger. “Now put your hands up and drop your weapons.”
Jobe raised his hands. “What will you do if I refuse to do what you ask? Will you shoot me just to prove your point, and then find out that I might be unarmed? Are you willing to take that risk? You could lose your job and even go to prison for shooting
an unarmed man. Do you know what happens to police officers in prison? Imagine what
you have seen an angry mob do to an officer, and then multiply that by about eight to ten times. That will give you a hint of what will happen to you nearly every single day and night if you go to prison.”
With his gun shaking slightly, the officer said, “I’m not going to ask you again.”
“Do what you must, officer.” With amazing speed, Jobe swung his left leg up and kicked the gun out of the officer’s hands. Then he slammed the heel of his right hand into the officer’s chest with enough force to put him onto his back gasping for breath.
“You’ll pay for this,” the officer gasped, as he hit the ground.
“Only time shall tell," Jobe said, as the officer’s gun fell into his outstretched hand. He flipped the toggle switch to the safety setting and shoved the pistol into the back of his pants, just as a second officer stepped into the alley with his pistol already out.
“Freeze!” shouted this officer, as he started pulling back on the trigger while moving towards Jobe.
Despite the officer’s shouting, Jobe clearly heard the clicking of the springs inside the gun, as the trigger was gently compressed, and he turned towards the wall five meters behind him and began running towards it, as the trigger was pulled back the rest of the way. He heard a bullet leave the barrel as another one was chambered and fired, but he paid them no mind as he increased his speed. The hot bullets hissed as they cut through the cool air, and the first bullet impacted the wall just as Jobe began to run up it. As the second bullet struck the wall and caused an explosion of brick and mortar, Jobe