New Arizona – April 16, 2500
“You must be Larna Fox. Commander Aspel told me you were coming,” a middle-aged man who looked like something out a hospital ward said as he moved across the room pulling off a pair of white protective gloves.
Larna stepped off the transportation platform outside the laboratory slowly. Like the good mercenary professional that she was, her eyes took in the surroundings with deadly accuracy in the blink of an eye. Her training had instructed her to be watchful of the slightest little thing. Everything around her could be used to her advantage. Her skills had been honed to record everything she saw, just in case she needed to escape quickly. The glistening ice desert surrounded the laboratory. It was completely isolated. Larna instantly noted that it was similar to the SAT (Space and Time) Laboratory. A place that she had become all too familiar with. The laboratory was isolated from the main living quarters by a communications monitor. It was almost a colony all by itself.
“Yeah, I’m Larna Fox,” Larna replied as she turned her attention to the man in the white coat that had spoken to her.
“I take it you’re not a cop,” the man said looking up and down at the clothes Larna was wearing and her overall sexy appearance.
Larna stood around five feet eleven and weighed nine stone exactly. She had a fine figure of 36B-24-35 with an athletic build. She had long auburn coloured hair with a white streak, about one centimetre wide, running right down the centre. Her hair was swept back from her face and tied into a ponytail at the back, which left just a tiny fringe to go down her forehead. Her eyes were a hazel colour. On the right side of her neck, she had the Chinese lettering for ‘Eternal Devotion’ tattooed in memory of her dead husband. With the look of a young Hudson Leick, she could be classed among the most gorgeous women on the planet. Larna was wearing what she usually wore. On her legs was a pair of black fishnet stockings. They had a very close tight pattern and made her legs look even sexier than they were without them. On top of them going around her waist was a small, tight figure hugging black leather mini-skirt which, at about eight inches long, just covered her buttocks. On the top, she wore a black leather shirt over a black lace bra. This shirt was tucked into the mini-skirt. Her jacket was a black leather motorbike jacket with matching black leather motorbike boots on her feet. The boots had got a number of buckles on the side and came right up to about half way up her shinbone. Around her neck, she had a gold chain with a cross on the end. The cross hung down to lie just in-between her breasts. It was her mother’s necklace and Larna was never without it. On her right wrist, she had the wrist part of a pair of handcuffs that they use in the present day. Her father gave it to her when she was young. She used to keep it in a box. Then when she killed her foster father, she decided to start wearing it constantly to keep reminding herself that the police could arrest her. Her face had just the right amount of make-up. Her eyes were surrounded by a dark eyeshade and her lips were a bright red with a black surround. She did not really need any make-up. Her looks were the sort that would live on for ages.
“Good guess. What gave that away?” Larna asked sarcastically in reply to the man’s comments. She was used to that kind of reception.
“I’m just surprised that’s all,” the man said with a nervous smile on his face as he shook his head slowly. “I would’ve thought that they would’ve sent a police officer to deal with this,” he commented with a deep swallow.
“Really,” Larna said with a deep-throated slight-French accented voice that was extremely sexy and provocative. “Have you got something to hide then Doc?” she asked playfully.
“No, of course not,” the man replied swiftly. “And, I’m not a Doctor. I’m a Professor. I’m Professor MacIntyre,” he pointed out, the nerves still clear in his voice and by the sweat on his brow.
“Nice to meet you,” Larna said as she strolled passed him sexily swaying her hips in a playful manner. “So, what is so important that the Commissioner of Police has sent his best mercenary down to investigate?” she then enquired while her eyes scanned the buildings in front of her.
Larna could see that there was the main complex of buildings. She guessed that they housed the experiments and were also the living quarters for the employees.
“I do not know exactly,” MacIntyre admitted honestly as followed after Larna quickly. “Why do you think you’ve been sent here?” he asked cautiously.
Larna turned to look at MacIntyre with a cold, intense expression of — do not mess with me — on her face. “From what I was told, the Blue Coats have had reports of strange lights coming from this complex. I’ve been sent to find out what they are,” she explained as she went back to looking around the complex.
“Well, I can answer that question for you right away,” MacIntyre stated confidently. “Those lights would be from the experiment we’re running,” he said with a broad smile on his face
“You’re only running the one experiment?” Larna asked finding that a little hard to believe for such a large place.
“Yes, but it is a top level, PC1 (Prior Clearance) rating experiment that can only be discussed on a need to know basis,” MacIntyre expressed immediately.
“What’s the experiment?” Larna asked as she stopped dead in her tracks.
“I told you—” MacIntyre started swiftly.
“I’ve got a PC1 rating,” Larna replied to cut him off in mid-sentence. “In addition, I work for someone who has,” she added before she turned sharply to stand toe-to-toe with the Professor. “You do not have a choice in the matter. What is the experiment?” she snarled through gritted teeth.
“This cannot go any further than this island,” MacIntyre said now a complete bundle of nerves. The way that Larna was dominating him made him feel even worse.
“Just fucking tell me and cut the crap,” Larna snapped as she moved closer to the Professor to intimidate him even more.
“The information I’m about to tell you is so secret that only I and two others know what is happening here,” MacIntyre started trying to emphasise the ‘top secret’ characteristic of the experiment even more.
Larna followed MacIntyre into the main experimental block. In front of her in the first room they entered, was a force field. Larna stopped just short of it. She had a sixth sense for picking out security systems. After breaking into so many homes and buildings in her past, the familiar buzzing noise of the force field warned her when she got close to it. Larna could not see anything special beyond the protective field. A man was lying flat on his back on an operating table. Larna turned to MacIntyre with a look of — so where is it — on her face.
“That’s the experiment,” Mac said as he pointed to the person Larna had seen.
“A man?” Larna asked in confusion. “Just what are you doing to the poor bastard?” she inquired slowly. “I know that most of you are dumb animals, but that is no reason to start experimenting on yourselves,” she commented with her sexy cheeky playful smile on her face.
“That is not funny,” Mac replied instantly. “That is not a man. That is Liam,” he then explained briefly.
“Liam?” Larna enquired immediately.
“Liam stands for Lethal Instant Assassination Mandroid,” Mac continued to explain slowly.
“Assassination Mandroid? What do we need one of those for?” Larna asked with a very worried tone coming to her voice. The police did not know about this. Unless the General Council were planning things and keeping it to themselves, which Larna did not think was the case then this project was something different.
“Do you even know what one is Miss Fox?” Mac asked in a rather pompous, arrogant — I am smarter than you — tone. He quickly lost that arrogant confidence when he saw the bitter snarl appearing on Larna’s stunning face. “Let me explain,” he added quickly to calm the situation. “We have constructed a cyber-exoskeleton. Underneath the flesh and blood that you see lying on that table, is a powerful and nearly invincible metal machine. His central processing brain controls all of his functions. He has the strength of ten men. Unfortunately, we are having a few problems with maintaining his power source for more than a short period of time.
“Why the hell have you built him in the first place?” Larna asked in shock. “Trust me, there is hardly anyone worth assassinating in New Arizona anymore,” she added assuredly.
“I do not get paid to ask questions. I get paid for producing results. I was given instructions to create a mandroid that was to be programmed to kill every evil person that exists. That is his primary function. Of course, he has other moral directives fed into his system, like respecting the female gender and figures in authority. But, his first directive is to destroy evil,” Mac defended sharply. “The lights that have been seen are caused by the generators. We can only run them for a short period at a certain time of the day. Any other time and the generators will not give out energy to the laboratory, but pull it in from the atmosphere. The lights are the rays that come from the generator,” he expressed honestly.
Larna just stared at the ‘machine’ lying on its back on the table. She felt like she had just walked into the middle a practical joke. There was something sinister about the fact that someone was creating an invincible machine to take out people. She was about to ask another question when a large alert buzzer sounded. MacIntyre glanced at the control panel that had suddenly lit up like a Christmas tree. The coloured drained from him as he quickly dashed across to it. Larna got the distinct impression that it was not good news.
“What’s the matter?” she asked as she joined Mac at the control panel.
“The generator has got a malfunction,” Mac stated flatly. “It has switched itself on and the shutdown sequence is not responding,” he reported as his hands frantically hit every button he could find.
“I take it that’s a bad thing,” Larna offered reading between the lines of his frantic movements and the alert siren.
“It could be a disaster,” Mac stated blunted. “If I don’t get this off now the generator will generate so much power that this whole place is likely to go sky high,” MacIntyre paused for a moment and turned to his assistant who had just entered the room. “Janet, disconnect the supply to Liam now.”
Janet walked across to the power supply point and tried to disconnect it. She grabbed the plug and started to pull it out. Suddenly a large bolt of electricity went through the plug. It went right into Janet and threw her right across the room. As she landed the plug started to spit out sparks. Larna ran across to Janet. She was dead. Larna glanced at the plug, but the sparks were still flying. MacIntyre looked more than worried.
“There is nothing I can do to stop it,” he said with a deep shrug of his shoulders.
“What turned it on?” Larna asked as she dashed back to the control panel.
“The only thing that could switch it on is the computer system,” MacIntyre said as he looked inside the room at Liam. “Something or someone has changed the access codes to the system,” he continued before he turned to look out of the window.
The sky was starting to cloud over. Suddenly there was a bolt of lightning in the distance.
“Talk to me Professor. What’s happening?” Larna asked as the deep sense of trouble feeling continued to grow in the pit of her stomach.
“The generator has started an electricity storm. There is nothing I can do except hope that the lightning doesn’t hit the generator,” Mac explained briefly.
Just as MacIntyre said it, it happened. A bolt of lightning hit the generator with a perfect bull’s-eye. The lightning travelled through the electricity system and blew out circuits all over the building. Large explosions started ripping the laboratory building apart. The largest blast hit the main laboratory. Larna and MacIntyre were thrown away from the force field. They were covered by part of the outside wall that had been blown away. In the laboratory, there was a change starting to happen.
The large burst of electricity went through the supply and entered Liam’s body. He started to jerk around on the table. The electricity kept feeding into him, giving him more and more energy. Just as suddenly as the storm had started, it stopped. The lightning completely disappeared. All was quite. Suddenly Liam sat bolt upright on the table. He moved his legs around until his feet hit the floor. He slowly got to his feet and looked around. He walked towards the wall. A powerful rising kick later and it had been completely knocked down. Liam walked out into the sunlight and looked around. He had a radar function built into his eyes. His vision was split up like the screen of a video game. It was in three sections. Front and rear views and area scanner. His area scanner was good enough to cover an area of around thirty miles. Liam quickly lifted his arm up and looked down at the keypad built into his arm. He typed in a number on the keypad and disappeared. The laboratory had fitted him with a TTU (Time Transportation Unit). Liam was also programmed with every single possible STC (Space Time Co-Ordinate) there was and could access them easily.
Liam had been gone ten minutes before anyone moved in the main laboratory. Larna was the first to move. She slowly pushed the rubble off her. The building was a mass of crumbling walls, fires, smoke and dust. It looked like a disaster area. Larna slowly rose to her feet and dusted herself down. She then saw Professor MacIntyre’s feet poking out from under another pile of rubble. She quickly rushed across. As fast she could, she threw the pieces of the wall off him and pulled him clear of the machine that lay across his upper legs.
“Would you kindly tell me what just happened Professor?” Larna asked as she coughed the through the settling dust.
“There was so much power going through the electricity circuits that the whole system blew. Those were just initial explosions. The whole building could go up at any second,” Mac explained as he struggled to stop coughing.
Larna glanced at the table and said.
“I think that’s the least of your worries at the moment,” Larna said as she glanced towards the table where the ‘mandroid’ had been positioned.
MacIntyre immediately looked around to the table. Although his face was covered with dust, he still went a whiter colour. “You’ve got to help me find him,” Mac exclaimed urgently. “There is no telling what that amount of electricity did to his circuits.”
“What?” Larna asked flatly.
“Listen to me Miss Fox. That surge of electricity could easily have scrambled Liam’s circuits. He could be all messed up. Instead of killing just bad people, he could now be programmed to kill everyone he sees. It could have wiped out his core directives to leave just the basic killer programming. There is no telling what he could do. He could see everyone as a threat to his existence. As the name suggests, he is lethally instant and will do whatever is necessary to hurt, kill or destroy the things that stand in his way,” Mac exclaimed now showing a high degree of anxiety. “Christ, all you have to do is just look what he has done to that wall,” he expressed as he pointed to the exterior wall that Liam had kicked down.
Larna was about to ask something when she got a call on her communicator. She pulled out a device, similar to a woman’s makeup mirror, from her pocket and flipped the top up. Tom Aspel, the Commander of Police, appeared on the screen.
“Larna thank god you’re still alive,” Tom said with a visible sigh running through him. “What happened out there? I sent you to investigate the place, not blow it up,” he stated bluntly.
“We’ve got trouble Commander,” Larna said firmly. “This place was working on a top secret fucked up project to create an unstoppable killing machine. Well, they really fucked up and were using an atmospheric generator to provide the power to the buildings. An electricity storm hit us. It overloaded the power systems of the complex. While blowing up the buildings, it also fed this killing machine and probably fucked up its programming,” she reported quickly. “I think we have got a fucking homicidal metal Mickey running around New Arizona,” Larna finished with a firm shake of the head.
“That might explain the reports we have just been getting,” Tom said with an enlightened expression on his face. “A weapons store has just been broken into and some weapons have been taken. I think you need to get down there immediately,” he expressed firmly. “Reports are that a very tall guy with solid red eyes smashed his way through a wall as if it was paper,” Tom continued sternly.
When MacIntyre heard the description, he walked across and snatched the communicator out of Larna’s hand.
“Have you been able to track this man, Commander? Where is he?” MacIntye screamed into the screen.
“Who the hell are you?” Tom yelled back fiercely.
Larna quickly snatched the communicator back sharply and flashed a stern and menacing growl in MacIntyre’s direction. She then lifted the communicator back up to her face.
“Sorry about that, that was Professor MacIntyre. He was the guy that was running this place. Tom, he is right, though. Have you been tracking this guy? Do you know where he is?” Larna asked urgently.
Tom turned away for a second to look at a computer screen on his desk. “He has gone into a bank. The place is surrounded. We’ve got him trapped in there,” he reported confidently.
‘I doubt that,’ Larna thought to herself knowing the full details of what it was they were dealing with. “Listen, Commander, is there anyone else inside?” she asked fearing the worst.
“The life scans have not shown any life, but the radar scans bodies,” Tom reported in a solemn tone.
“Professor MacIntyre and I will get over there right away,” Larna expressed firmly then closed the communicator and turned sharply to the Professor. “No arguments,” she said as she stormed across to the wall. “You’re coming with me,” she snapped bluntly.
They walked to the transportation platform and stepped onto the plates. The operator typed in the SC (Space Co-Ordinate) number for the only bank in New Arizona. MacIntyre and Larna disappeared and re-appeared in the middle of a hostage situation. There were tens of policemen all around the bank. Larna walked straight across to Tom. MacIntyre followed her closely. He did not want to lose the best chance he had got to save his own ass.
“What’s the situation?” Larna asked the moment she got to beside Tom. She glanced at the building trying to work out what was happening herself.
“There has been some shooting. The life scan says that there is still one person alive. Female we think. All the rest are dead,” Tom said in a flat and calm voice. He was not a man to get flustered no matter what the situation.
“How many?” Larna asked as she looked at the building with a sad look on her face.
“The radar has scanned fifteen at first count, but we cannot be sure,” Tom reported solemnly.
Larna shook her head as she glanced over her right shoulder to MacIntyre standing behind them. He looked like he could just curl up and die on the spot. Larna could tell that the man was feeling extremely guilty for what he had created.
“Where is he?” Larna asked quickly turning her attention back on to the moment.
“We have him figured to be in the vault. The other person is with him,” one of the officers standing on the other side of Tom reported without being prompted by his senior officer.
Larna glanced around the whole building then fixed her gaze on the roof. “Give me ten minutes then open fire on the building with everything that you have got,” she stated flatly.
“Christ Fox there’s a hostage in there, if we start shooting we may hit her,” Tom pointed out bluntly.
Larna just fixed a firm glare on to Tom warning him not to argue with her on this one. MacIntyre quickly stepped in-between their eye-line.
“Miss Fox, you don’t think you’ll honestly be able to destroy or stop him like that do you. Chances are you’ll kill both the hostage and yourself with this action,” Mac stated forcefully.
The infamous Professor MacIntyre,” Tom expressed with a deep tone of resentment to his voice. “That’s a nice machine in there that you’ve built. It kills innocent people and holds another hostage,” he stated bluntly.
“Liam was not supposed to be nice, Commander,” Mac defended firmly.
“Listen, Mac,” Larna said to calm the anger growing between Tom and the Professor. “If you have got any better ideas, I think Tom would love to hear them. In the meantime, there is a hostage inside that building who needs to be saved,” she finished before she ran away from the police line and into an alley beside the bank.
Larna went straight across to the fire exit and pulled the ladder down. She quickly climbed up, weaving her way around the stairs on her way up to the top of the building. Once at the top, she jumped over onto the flat roof then quickly walked across to a skylight. She slowly peered through the glass. There were bodies lying all over the floor. Blood was all over the place. She glanced over the bodies briefly. Some had had their heads snapped right off their bodies. Some were shot in the head at close range. Larna rolled over onto her back and looked up at the sky. The scene was the worst that she had seen. Any normal person might have been physically sick at the scene inside that building, but Larna was made of stronger and sterner stuff. She quickly looked back through the opening after only a short break. This time she saw Liam. He was pouring liquid all over the floor. Larna saw him strike something then drop it onto the floor. The whole floor burst into flames instantly. He disappeared almost at the same time. Larna quickly jumped up to her feet. She turned to face the skylight fully and activated the Thala’s operations function.
‘I need to know if there are any life signs inside this building,’ she thought the moment the Thala’s initialisation beep had sounded in her subconscious.
Her eyes fixed onto the flames as they started to grow larger. They started to crawl the walls. They were getting closer to her.
*** There are no life signs present inside this building, *** the Thala replied after several repeating ‘searching’ responses.
Larna took one last look down at all of the bodies on the floor. There was nothing she could do here. She shook her head and looked around the roof. She quickly ran across the roof and jumped over the gap onto the building next to the bank. She had just left the roof of the bank when it was blown apart by a large explosion from inside. Larna did a forward roll. She used it to jump back up to her feet. Larna slowly looked over her right shoulder at the flames reaching for the sky. She quickly walked to the exit for the stairs.
Moments later, Larna walked out onto the street. MacIntyre and Tom were waiting for her the moment she came out of the door.
“What happened to Liam?” Mac asked right away without giving Larna the chance to say a word.
“I’m fine thank you,” Larna said sarcastically with her sexy grin on her face. “He disappeared just after he set the place on fire,” she finished when she saw the stern look on Tom’s face.
“What did you see down in there?” Tom asked slightly fearing the response that she was going to get.
“It was not a pretty sight Commander,” Larna said as her eyes fixed on to MacIntyre’s reaction. “The bodies were all twisted together somehow. None of them stood a chance. It looked like that they had all shot at close range. Some even had their heads pulled off their bodies. That machine is going crazy,” she reported as she shook her head.
MacIntyre looked at the bank and then at Larna briefly. He nodded his head and walked off quickly without saying a word.
Larna returned to her little apartment. There was nothing else she could do at the bank. She said lights the moment she walked through the door. The lights came on in the apartment and she walked straight to the sofa in the living room area of the apartment. As soon as her head hit the cushion at the back she was asleep. During that night, Larna had a dream. It was a vision of her future. Larna often got these future visions when she was asleep. She had had a nightmare about Jade, then about Shadow and now Liam. She saw a crowd. She was standing at the side of a platform. A man was speaking on the platform. She did not know where it was, or who the man was. Suddenly Liam appeared in the crowd. Larna saw herself running towards the man and pushing him out of the way. She heard gunfire and the gunshot woke her up. She shook her head and suddenly realised that her vid-phone was ringing. Larna reached across while shaking her head from one side to the other trying to get the sleep from her neck. She flipped the top of the vid-phone up quickly.
“Fox, I need you down at the station as soon as you can,” Commander Tom demanded firmly without even saying hello.
“What’s the matter?” Larna asked sleepily.
“I’ll tell you when you get down here,” Tom stated flatly before deactivating the call.
Larna closed the lid slowly. She had never heard Tom sound so agitated. As a deadly machine was on the loose in his city, she knew that he had good reason to be agitated, but she could not see what she could do to help. She slowly got to her feet. She asked the Thala on her left wrist for an STC number for just beside Tom Aspel’s location for the same time. An STC number was a combination of the year, month, day, hour, minute, second that a person wanted as well as the longitude and latitude numbers of the location required. The Thala was Larna’s only aid during her time travelling adventures. It accessed the information contained within the FHI Implants that had been surgically attached to the inside of her skull. The Factual Historical Information Implants contained every piece of information that Larna could possibly want. A file on an individual, to city plans, to the exact STC number for a certain location was all contained in these implants. To get the information Larna just thought a question and the answer would be given, either telepathically from the Implants, or if it was a map, on a screen that was projected from the Thala on her wrist. The wrist machine was half devoted to projecting the map information, as well as displaying the present time, date and place that Larna was in. The front was divided into two screens. The date and place at the top and the STC (Space and Time Co-Ordinates) at the bottom. The transportation process was activated by a quick thought. Once activated it sent out an invisible light field. The light surrounds her, breaks her body down into molecule patterns then pierces a hole through the time continuum.
The STC number was entered into the display seconds later. Larna activated the transportation process the moment the number had been entered. She disappeared from her apartment and appeared instantly in the police station. Tom jumped up from his seat with the surprise of suddenly having Larna standing before him.
“Jesus Christ Fox, I wish you wouldn’t do that,” he exclaimed in an attempt to stop his heart from exploding out of his chest.
“Sorry, but it sounded like this was an urgent matter,” Larna said calmly. “If you like I can go out of your office, knock on the door and then come in,” she said with a cheeky playful grin to match the tone of her voice.
“Very funny,” Tom said as he returned calmly to his seat. “You are right. This is an urgent matter. That stupid Professor raided the SAT Laboratory last night. He had the help of a female assistant. They stole two new Time Travelling Devices and disappeared through time. Before he left, MacIntyre told the scientists that he had found Liam and was going after him,” he reported softly. “But, there is something else,” he then added as he dropped a computer handheld notepad onto the top of the desk. “I think that you had better look at this newspaper article,” Tom stated flatly.
Larna picked up the computer pad and looked at the photo and report displayed on the screen. Her eyes returned to Commander Aspel.
“Yes, it’s MacIntyre. It looks like Liam is trying to change history. MacIntyre went after him and screwed things up. His female assistant was kidnapped and Liam is using her to help him. He is taking her to all different places in time. I need you to go back through time to this place, China and help MacIntyre stop Liam,” Commander Aspel ordered firmly.
“Listen, Tom, I don’t know about this, I’ve got a funny feeling that I’m not coming back from this one this time if I go,” Larna said honestly recalling the last dream that had woken her up.
“Sorry Fox, but you’ve got no choice. It states quite clearly in your contract that if anyone goes back and tries to change the past, you’ve got to go through time and stop them. I am ordering you to go and help MacIntyre destroy Liam,” Tom insisted strongly. He was feeling slightly torn inside. He did not like having to order Larna like that, especially after she had saved his life.
Larna asked the Thala for the STC number for China in April 1994 as she looked sadly right at Tom. Once the number had been entered into the display, Larna reluctantly transported herself through time. Tom sighed deeply.
The Lethally Instant Assassination Mandroid is a newly developed invincible cyborg. Designed to chase and kill its prey and programmed not to harm the female sex. It is lifeless when Larna goes to check it out. It does not stay like that for long.