The light changed and Eric stomped into gear. The bank was not far from where he was, only two blocks away. Picking around the lunch hour rush, Eric worked through the city streets in a jerky pattern of accelerations and decelerations.

The traffic abruptly began to thicken. Eric slowed and rose off his saddle slightly to peer down to the end of the street. Flashing blue lights swirled atop three cars that were blocking off the road. Hauling his bike onto the sidewalk, he rolled slowly to the end of the block, ignoring the shouts of pedestrians as he sounded his horn for them to move out of his way.

He came to a stop as he reached the police barricade. Several officers were standing

beside their cars; their backs turned towards him. Eric throttled his bike loudly in neutral to get their attention.

One of them abruptly turned at the noise. With a scowling face he strode towards Eric.

“You can’t get through here, go around!”

The Major flicked open his visor and raised the back of his hand to the cop. “CD1, let me through.”

“What?” he walked closer.

“I’m with Civil Defense!” Eric shouted over the idle of his engine. “Let me through.”

The policeman studied the back of Eric’s fist for a moment, and then nodded. “Hold on l’ll move the car.”

“No need.”

With a slip of the clutch, Eric rolled the bike smoothly through the small gap between the cars. He spotted an Armored Personnel Carrier, dressed in urban camouflage and painted with the letters C-D-I on its side. Eric cruised towards it and cut the engine before rolling to a stop just in front of the vehicle.

He dismounted and saw a woman dressed in light body armor step out from behind the APC. She was Asian; in her mid twenties, with short cut black hair and wide curious brown eyes. She smiled as she caught sight of him.

“Major Corbin,” she saluted.

“Hey Ahn,” Eric returned the salute. “Where’s Lance?”

Locking his helmet to the side of his bike, he unzipped his jacket a bit and headed towards the young Lieutenant.

“He’s talking with the police,” she pointed in a general direction. “Just follow me,

Sir.”

She led the way, walking back behind the APC. Shade followed her, looking about for the bank. As he rounded the vehicle, a group of soldiers dressed in camouflage suddenly scrambled to attention, and saluted him.

“Major,” they all chimed at different times.

“As you were,” he told them with a brief salute.

They were a young squad. Eric didn’t know many of them, but by the way they reacted to his arrival, he could tell that they were still pretty green. It figured this would be the squad left over after Doris got her pick of the muscle.

Ahead, he saw a police van with its side door open. A group of three policemen dressed in civilian clothing were gathered around a set of monitors protruding through the side of the van. Eric spotted Lance conversing with one of them.

“Who is in charge, Ahn?”

“A captain Hollis,” she said. Ahn then leaned over to him. “He’s the black guy with

the mustache.”

“Seen,” Eric nodded.

“Captain Hollis,” Ahn announced their arrival aloud. “Major Corbin is here.”

Hollis turned his attention away from the monitors. He was a middle-aged man with a deep receding hairline, wearing a cheap looking brown suit, covered by a light armored vest. He turned fully and held his hand outward.

“Nice to meet you, Major.”

“Same,” Eric shook his hand. “What’s the situation now?”

“Come have a look,” Hollis gestured towards the monitors.

Eric saw what looked to be the interior of the bank.

“We got a feed from the security cameras inside. These are the assailants here.” Hollis pointed out three men dressed in black body armor, wielding assault rifles.

“We’ve called them once and they said they wanted a helicopter and a pilot within an hour, or they’ll start executing the hostages.”

“Typical, huh?” Lance joined the conversation. “These guys watch too much TV.”

Eric glanced over at Lance and frowned. “Is that all they’ve asked for?”

“So far,” Hollis shrugged.

“Have they hurt anyone?”

“No one yet,” said Hollis. “They haven’t even fired a shot.”

Eric studied the monitors. At least the perpetrators weren’t smart enough to knock out the cameras. He could see they had forced the hostages to lay on the ground, and were pacing circles around them. Real terrorists would have rounded everyone up and placed them in a central location by now. They looked panicky and unsure of themselves, talking amongst themselves frequently.

“Well these guys definitely aren’t terrorists.” Eric stepped away from the monitors.

“Just a bunch of robbers with their backs against the wall. I doubt they Want to kill anyone, but we can’t underestimate how they will react if they get desperate. Where is the bank entrance?”

One of the other officers pointed over the hood of the van. “Right there.”

Eric looked and saw it was located at the base of a tall office building. There were no windows, and the entrance was a set of glass double doors.

“Tight fit,” he scratched his jaw. “So what do you have planned, Captain?”

Hollis looked a little surprised. “Me? Well I thought about trying to wear them down and maybe get some men in from the floor above. But I thought you would be handling that sort of thing.”

Eric nodded. “Never hurts to get ideas.”

He eyed the monitors for a few more minutes then finally. “Can you call them again?”

“Sure.” Hollis then turned to one of the officers. “Rick, set it up.”

The young policeman punched a few numbers into a phone, and then handed Eric the receiver.

The Major took it, and placed it to his ear. He watched as the robbers reacted to the ringing phone. They seemed to squabble for a bit, and then finally, one of them answered.

“Yeah what?” a harsh voice said.

“Who am I talking to?” Eric demanded.

“I ain’t giving my name.”

“Alright, just tell me what I should refer to you as then.”

“Um. . .” the man then paused. “Just call me Jack.”

“Alright, Jack we-”

“Where’s my fucking chopper man? I’m gonna start shooting up these people soon you know?”

“Hey calm down,” Eric told him.

“Calm down?” the man shouted. “You get me my fucking shit cop, or all these mother fuckers are dead. You hear me? Dead!”

Eric heard the phone slam in his ear.

“What the?” Anger boiled within his blood. Shade grit his teeth. “Get him back on the phone.”

The policeman quickly redialed the number and then nodded. Eric saw they were a bit quicker to respond as the same man answered the phone again.

“What the hell is it now?”

“Shut up!” Eric commanded. “Now you listen to me you little fuck!"

The people standing around him went suddenly quiet, as did the man on the phone.

“I’m not a cop, and I’m not here to listen to your shitty demands,” he stated firmly.

“I’m here to offer you a chance to live.”

“Oh yeah?” the man shouted back indignantly. “Just who the fuck are you?”

“Major Eric Corbin with the department of civil defense.” Shade looked down at his watch. “In five minutes I’m going to declare a state of temporary marshal law. Do you understand what that means?”

There was only a pause filled with deep breathing.

“Do you?”

“No!”

“Well, motherfucker. It means that in five minutes, I’m going to come in there to arrest you. And if you resist, you will be executed. Hear me? No chase, no trial, simply executed. Got it?”

“Fuck you,” the gunman rebelled. “You can’t do that shit. If you come in here I’ll roast all these bitches and you!”

“You got exactly five minutes,” Eric repeated himself. “Three hundred seconds starting now!” Shade handed the receiver back to the officer.

Captain Hollis looked in shock. “That’s how you deal with a hostage situation? You’re going to get those people killed in there.”

“Take it easy, Hollis.” Eric then looked past him to Lieutenant Ahn. “You got standard riot gear in the APC right?”

“Yes sir,” she nodded.

“Alright go get your squad and bring ‘em over here,” he directed her. “And bring back a grenade launcher with some B type chemical rounds.”

“Chemicals?” Hollis protested. “You’re going to use chemical weapons?”

“Relax,” Lance rested a hand on the Captain’s chest. “B type rounds only contain gaseous sedatives. Harmless.”

“Are you sure they are safe?” Hollis was still concerned. “What if someone has an allergic reaction or a heart condition? I mean, someone could die for Christ’s sake!”

“There is only a two percent chance of the drug causing death due to anaphylactic shock,” Lance assured him. “There is more chance of them dying from asphyxiation while unconscious than from that. And even in that case we’ll be quick enough to prevent it from happening.”

“And you’re still willing to take those kinds of risks?”

“Well, we could use D Type chemical rounds I guess,” Lance shrugged. “There’s a ninety-nine percent chance of both asphyxia and anaphylactic shock using them.”

Hollis was stupefied by his response. Without another word, Lance turned his back to the police captain and approached the Major.

“So, what’s your idea, Sir?”

“Still working on it,” Eric carefully studied the bank layout. “They don’t have anyone near the door, so we can assume they can’t see us. These are all the security camera feeds, right?”

Captain Hollis nodded.

“Good.” Eric wiped a bit of sweat from his brow. “So if there’s no camera outside. We can get fairly close then.”

“And then what?” Hollis rested his hands on his waist.

“Pop in the B type rounds, wait twenty seconds and then go clean ‘em up.” Eric looked

towards Lance. “Sound good to you?”

The lieutenant rubbed his chin. “What if they have respiratory filters?”

“Good point,” Shade agreed. “But I doubt it by the way these guys look and act. If they had money to spend on cyberware, it’d probably be on weapons. Still, we’ll just have to keep our reaction time fast. The blast from the rounds should stun them at least anyway.”

“Blast? Stun?” Hollis was in disbelief. “I can’t allow this. Are you forgetting there are

civilians in there?”

“Hey you’re the one who called CDI!” Shade pointed at the Captain’s chest. “If you don’t like how we’re handling the situation then tough. I’m in charge now and I’m treating this as I would any low-level terrorist threat.”

The Captain grimaced but said nothing.

Lieutenant Ahn returned with her squad following behind her. Eric waited for them to gather around the van before he spoke.

“Alright listen up,” he stood in the center of them. “We have three armed perpetrators within the bank.”

He then paused to take a deep breath. “By the powers vested in me by the Federal Government, I, Major Eric Corbin, hereby exercise my right, under section three, subsection C, paragraph four of the Civil Defense Act, that as of 1248 hours today, Marshal law shall now commence within an area of one kilometer radii.”

“Time marked.” Lance keyed something into his watch.

“The perpetrators have full knowledge of this,” Eric continued. “Our objective is to neutralize the perpetrators through any means necessary, with minimal loss of civilian life. We’ll be using B type chemical grenades to launch our assault. Ahn split the group.

We’ll use five-man squad tactics. Alpha Squad will initialize the attack and Bravo squad will move in fifteen seconds after squad Alpha blow open the doors. Lieutenant Ahn, I’ll leave the detailed organization up to you. We roll in two minutes.”

“Yes sir!” Ahn shouted. “All right you heard the Major. Form into small squads.

Tucker and Brent man the launchers.”

The young soldiers moved quickly to their commander’s orders. Ahn shouted out more detailed commands to prepare them for the action. They fitted their gas masks and loaded their rifles. Eric could feel the excitement coming from them.

“Oh I forgot to tell you,” Lance taped Eric on the shoulder. “I found some interesting information about that cyberoid we saw at that crash site.”

“Yeah?”

“We’re ready to go, Major,” Ahn announced.

“Save it, Lance.” Eric raised the back of his hand to him. “Okay, move ‘em out Ahn!”

“All right people!” she shouted to her squad. “Alpha move out!”

Half the soldiers ran dashing towards the bank. In less than a minute, they’d reached the wall and lined up flat against it. Ahn waited for the squad leader to give an okay signal.

“Alright Bravo let’s go!” Ahn began running towards the bank, fitting her mask about her mouth.

Eric watched her advance to the wall on the other side of the bank door. Her squad made it across safely, and grouped themselves into formation. Slight hand signals were given between the two squads. Ahn handled the movements expertly. Alpha squad advanced to just in front of the door. Bravo slipped in a few seconds after them. Ahn gave a final signal and the soldiers, Tucker and Brent, ran out and positioned themselves directly in front of the glass doors. Dropping to one knee they took aim and fired.

Two cannon like bangs shattered the silence with a burst of exploding glass and debris. The front doors instantly became a twisted heap of wreckage, as one of the well- placed rounds tore right into the frame. Tucker and Brent fired again.

From the monitor, Eric saw the chemical laden munitions explode into a noxious white cloud. Moving quickly, Alpha rammed through the remnants of the front door. Clouded by the gas, Eric could see nothing on the monitors. A short clap of rifle fire was heard from inside the bank and Ahn gave the order for her squad to move in.

“Let’s go, Lance,” Shade commanded.

Snapping his pistol from his shoulder holster, Eric began his advance towards the entrance of the bank. Drawing his own handgun, Lance followed after him. They ran at full pace towards the bank entrance; keeping their weapons pointed towards the street as they traversed the open area.

Shade heard a few more shots being fired from inside. Reaching the outside of the bank, he slammed his back against the outside wall and raised his pistol level with his head. Seconds later Lance arrived on the opposite side.

“Hold your fire!” he heard Ahn’s voice.

“That’s right! No one fucking move or I fucking kill this bitch!”

“Shit.” Shade said softly. Poking his head into the now shattered doorway, he could see the back of one of the gunmen. He was dragging a female hostage with him, apparently unconscious. In his right hand he held an assault rifle cocked awkwardly against the woman’s neck.

“Don’t fucking move!” the gunman screamed, backing up slowly towards the door.

“Drop your shit!”

Lance looked over at him imploringly.

Shade shook his head for him not to do anything.

Slowly the perpetrator shuffled his way backwards. In front of him, Shade saw Lieutenant Ahn, poised with her rifle trained directly on the assailant. He was close, very close, just a meter or two away from the doorway.

“I said drop that shit!” the gunman screamed again. “You dumb fucks!”

Exhaling sharply, Shade made his move.

He strode through the entranceway, covering the distance quickly with three soundless steps. He positioned himself directly behind the gunman and then spoke in a calm whisper.

“Hey.”

Reacting instinctively, the startled robber turned back towards him.

Shade took quick advantage, grasping the muzzle of the rifle and pulling it away from the woman’s throat. Then in a brilliant arc of speed and strength, he whipped his free arm forward, slamming the butt of his pistol directly into the gunman’s head. Blood gushed forth with a massive crack, splashing onto the floor like a fountain as it spewed heavily from the deep wound.

The man fell to the floor unconscious.

Eric paused, shocked at how much damage he had done.

Ahn and her men stood frozen at the sight as well.

Lance dashed through the entranceway and stooped down to both the gunman and the hostage. Pushing the woman aside, he examined the man’s head that was still bleeding steadily. Ahn approached slowly, as Lance began pumping drugs into the man’s neck.

“God what a mess,” she stooped down next to him. “Can you save him, Lance?”

“Not like this. Better call a medivac right away.” Lance began ripping open bandages. “If not, just call a meat wagon Whenever you feel like it.”

“Ahn go call.” Eric holstered his weapon.

She nodded and turned toward the young soldier to her left. “Take care of it, James.”

“Yes, Ma’am,” he replied then ran out the door towards the APC.

Eric was still a bit shaken by the sight before him. It had been a long time since he had hurt someone that badly. It brought back a flood of memories, painful memories of war and savagery that he was all too much a part of. He shook his head.

“Any civilian casualties, Ahn?” he snapped himself out of it.

“No, none sir,” she sat the woman against the wall. “The other two dropped like flies from the gas. I don’t know how this one stayed up. He fired a few shots but didn’t hit anyone.”

“That’s good.” Eric looked around the interior of the bank. “Okay, let’s start reviving these people. Lance mark the time. I hereby declare the cessation of all activities under Marshall Law.”

“Right sir.” Ahn removed a small case from her thigh pocket. “Let’s go people.”

The young Lieutenant began passing out sticks of ammonium concentrate. One by one, they revived the hostages with the strong odor of the chemical. Lance remained stooping over the fallen criminal, pressing gauze patches against his head.

“Stop worrying, Shade.” Lance tossed a bloody bandage aside and replaced it with a fresh one. “It’s not your fault you can hit this hard.”

“No,” Eric disagreed, wiping his face with his hand. “I should have used more control. I let adrenaline get the best of me.”

“Hey we’re not used to dealing with adversaries like him.” Lance stood up. “What we’re usually up against, a hit like that would have merely caused a headache.”

“Yeah but still-”

“I didn’t finish telling you,” Lance interrupted him. “About that cyberoid.”

“Oh right.” Eric actually welcomed the change in subject. “What did you find out?”

“I analyzed the video captured in my suit helmet, and got a good bit of visual detail. I handed it over to Captain Lita to see what she could find. It turns out she is a Commander Barro Suta of USSD. Brilliant service record, three silver stars, over one thousand career mission. Flew over six hundred mission during the Chinese conflict alone.”

“And she’s still alive?”

Lance cracked a grin. “Her last orders were to be put on a project called Geo Star . Ever heard of it?”

“Geo Star ?” Eric shook his head. “Doesn’t ring a bell.”

“I asked Lita to check into it further, but she said she ran into too much security.”

“Top secret?” Shade looked to Lance questioningly.

His subordinate nodded. “Might have something to do with that thing she was carrying on her back that night.”

“Maybe,” Eric shrugged.

“Oh and remember that guy who showed up?” Lance began to pat the gunman’s body down. “That doctor, Webber?”

Eric nodded in response.

“I looked him up too.” Lance found a small knife in the gunman’s boot and handed it to Eric. “Genesis engineer subcontracted by USSD, working on that same Geo Star project. And get this, he’s Suta’s designer.”

Eric raised an eyebrow. “That’s weird. Coincidence?”

“Unlikely,” Lance said. “Anyway, just thought you’d like to know. Want to look into it any further? The leads on that terrorist ring we were after are pretty much dead right now.”

“I don’t know,” Eric said a bit distracted. “Maybe.”

Eric stepped outside as he heard the whine of an aerodyne arriving. He looked upwards and saw the red and white emergency markings of an ambulance. He stayed outside to guide them to the fallen victim. Lance soon joined him, gazing up at the slowly lowering behemoth.

“This shit is killing me, Lance.” Eric rubbed his face with both hands this time. “The stress, the hours. It’s putting a big toll on Vanessa and I too.”

Lance nodded but remained silent.

“Sometimes the shit that I do shocks even me.” He glanced at the body of the gunman behind them. “It’s eating me alive. I feel like I get less and less human every day.”

Lance chuckled and smiled.

“Don’t worry, you’re not getting any less human, Sir.” Lance patted him on the back consolingly. “You’ve just been hanging around me too much.”

Eric paused and smiled. “Sometimes I forget you’re not one of us.”

“Oh really?” Lance grinned. “Maybe I’m the one that’s been hanging around you too much then.”

Eric looked at the bionid and laughed. “You’ve got one messed up sense of humor, Lieutenant.”

Lance nodded in agreement and then laughed as well.